NAFTA urges Regulation of Canadian fish farms – Fishfarmer Magazine

NAFTA urges Regulation of Canadian fish farms 26 May, 2014 –

THE formal investigation of Canada’s fish farming industry has been recommended by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation after its failure to protect wild salmon from disease.

The body – established under NAFTA, was responding to a petition submitted in 2012 by the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society, Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation in Canada, the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assocations.

The petition urged NAFTA to investigate the reasons why Canada had failed to enforce the Fisheries Act to prevent viruses, parasites and harmful pollutants from the waters used by wild salmon, as well as the damage being done by the ‘aggressive Norwegian salmon farming industry.’

‘The fate of our wild salmon runs is an environmental, economic, social and trade issue of international concern’, said biologist Alexandra Morton of the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation has identified a number of ‘central questions’, primarily whether or not Canada is enforcing section 36 of its Fisheries Act, which relate to salmon farming in British Columbia and ‘deleterious substances’  in waters used by wild fish.

‘Canada’s own Cohen Commission recommended moving finfish farming off wild salmon migration routes, said Jeff Miller at the Center of Biological Diversity, ‘but that still hasn’t happened.

‘An investigation by NAFTA would shine a spotlight on Canada’s refusal to protect wild salmon habitat as required by its own Fisheries Act.’