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Fisheries scientists try to stay neutral
By Grant Warkentin
Clarity.
That’s what federal scientists hope to bring to the raging debate over the impact fish farms have on wild salmon stocks in B.C.
“We don’t see our role as to add to the confusion,” said Dr. Brian Riddell, the federal fisheries ministry’s (DFO’s) Pacific division manager for salmon and freshwater ecosystems. “Unless we present resolutions that clarify things, our position is much more that we need to understand if they’re saying one thing and our data is saying something else, why does that occur? What is going on that we’re not really fully understanding yet that would add to our ability to explain the difference?”
Riddell said looking at all participants in the debate, from fish farmers to environmentalists to independent researchers to industry-sponsored researchers, will help bring clarity to the debate, and hopefully answers.
“That’s frequently the sort of thing that leads scientists to seeing what the solutions really are,” he said.
Riddell and Mark Burgham, DFO’s deputy executive director of the office of sustainable aquaculture, spoke with the Mirror Tuesday afternoon on a teleconference. They had been planning to visit Campbell River but were prevented by icy road conditions. Their goal was to bring a calm, unbiased perspective to the ongoing debate over the friction between aquaculture and wild salmon stocks and get closer to answering the question: are sea lice from fish farms killing wild salmon?
There’s no definitive answer yet, they said, but they’re confident they’ll be able to help, not hinder the debate. And although they’re part of a ministry that is committed to supporting sustainable aquaculture and also protecting wild salmon stocks – Burgham fitting into the former part and Riddell into the latter part of the ministry – they don’t believe their interests are in conflict.
“The decisions we have to make are based on science, not emotion,” said Burgham.
Riddell agreed, pointing out it’s important for policy-makers to have scientists close at hand so they can make good decisions.
“The notion that we are conflicted in some way is really not reasonable,” he said.
The federal fisheries ministry will continue to manage wild and commercial fisheries. However, people need to realize that the government has to play some role in managing aquaculture because the industry is only going to get bigger, Burgham said, pointing out that United Nations data shows the world currently gets 43 per cent of its fish and seafood from farms.
“They expect that will soon be the majority,” he said. “The commercial side will obviously still be an important component but it’s only going to continue to grow from the farm side.”
But that doesn’t mean DFO is going to spend more time on fish farms and less on wild salmon stocks. Riddell said the ministry is committed to long-term research on the coast to see what impact fish farms are having on wild salmon. The ministry also has decades of research and experience to draw on and will continue to protect wild fish stocks.
DFO is also still working to develop a better understanding of things affecting wild and farmed fish, such as concerns raised in recent years over the level of contaminants in fish. Burgham said new research is about to be released showing there’s nothing to worry about.
“They have found that in both farmed and wild the level of contaminants is very, very low, well within Health Canada guidelines,” he said.
In all the work they do, Riddell and Burgham said they want to avoid polarized debate.
“What we’ve really been trying to do is take a reasoned approach to this,” Riddell said.
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