October 17, 2011 by Anonymous

Speaking at a press conference today at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Alexandra Morton said: "Loosing a virus as lethal and contagious as ISA into the North Pacific is a cataclysmic biological threat to life.  The European strain of ISA virus can only have come from the Atlantic salmon farms. European strain ISA infected Chile via Atlantic salmon eggs in 2007.”

Professor Rick Routledge of Simon Fraser University, whose laboratory led to the discovery of ISA in B.C. salmon smolts, said: "ISA is a deadly exotic disease which could have devastating impacts on wild salmon and the many species that depend on them throughout much of British Columbia and beyond.  The combined impacts of this influenza-like virus and the recently identified parvovirus that can suppress the immune system could be particularly deadly."

Alexandra Morton called for the Atlantic salmon farms to be removed from British Columbia: "The Cohen Inquiry revealed ISA symptoms have been reported in farm salmon in B.C. since 2006. The Fisheries Ministers have written me repeatedly that B.C. is safe from ISA. Clearly they are not in control of the situation. If there is any hope, we have to turn off the source: Atlantic salmon have to be immediately removed.”
 

Chief Bob Chamberlin, vice-president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, told AFP: "It's time to get the (fish farm) industry out of our waters".  
 

Metro News reported: "While researchers could only speculate about the definitive effects of the virus, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is calling for an end to the “unholy marriage between the salmon farming industry and the department of fisheries and oceans,” which it says threatens the survival of salmon."
 

Fin Donnelly MP, NDP Fisheries and Oceans critic, said: "The Department of Fisheries and Oceans must take immediate steps to identify the source of the virus and ensure that it does not spread.  While the Minister is looking to cut $57 million from the budget, he is dropping the ball on the health of our wild salmon.”
 
Donnelly wrote to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in July, asking what measures were in place to determine and detect if ISAV, salmon leukemia, marine anemia or any other disease harmful to Canada’s wild salmon are present on the Pacific coast or at any stage of the industrial process. The Minister responded in September with a letter outlining an overview of aquaculture management and a factsheet that claims that “no cases of ISAV have been identified in British Columbia” and that “no salmon in British Columbia have tested positive for this virus.”


 
“Scientists have been raising concerns that this disease may exist in the Pacific,” said Donnelly. “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a mandate to protect our wild salmon. In all other jurisdictions where ISAV has been found it has proven to have deadly consequences.”

Read Fin Donnelly's correspondence with the Minister of Fisheries online here

Meanwhile, the BC Salmon Farmers Association issued a press release on the "Suspect findings of ISA of concern to BC's salmon farmers". 

"Farm-raised Atlantic salmon, unlike their Pacific cousins, are susceptible to ISA, so this is a concern for our operations, but much less likely to be an issue for the different Pacific species," said Stewart Hawthorn, Managing Director for Grieg Seafood. "If these results are valid, this could be a threat to our business and the communities that rely on our productive industry."

"Samples from BC's salmon farms are tested regularly for ISA by our regulator's fish health departments and have never found a positive case on a farm. Over 4,700 individual fish samples have been assessed and proven to be negative. These unconfirmed findings certainly are unexpected, unusual and warrant further investigation," said Clare Backman, Sustainability Director for Marine Harvest Canada.

Writing in her blog, Alexandra Morton said: "If wild salmon mean anything to the people on the west coast of this continent, a volunteer international epidemiological team has to be formed immediately. The findings cannot be secret this virus can be tracked. ISAV can be tracked to the source hatchery.



Because this ISAV is the European strain, the only reasonable source is the tens of millions of Atlantic eggs brought into BC. Since the federal and provincial governments and the industry don't seem to know anything about this and the infected sockeye were 100 km from the nearest salmon farm, the infection could have come from any salmon farm on this coast."