Watershed Watch expresses concern over Government’s decision to expand aquaculture – betraying concerns raised in Cohen Inquiry
The Vancouver Sun article Ottawa opens door to fish farm expansion, and applications flood in provides details on the federal government’s plan to open “the door to a major expansion of B.C.’s controversial fish farm sector despite warnings by the 2012 Cohen Commission about the effects of net-based farms on wild salmon.”
Watershed Watch Executive Director, Craig Orr, expressed his concern stating “The decision to expand destructive aquaculture practices anywhere along B.C.’s coast is a huge betrayal of the concerns raised in the Cohen inquiry.”
He went on to note “that coho and especially young pinks and chums are far less mature than the Fraser River sockeye when they pass by the area’s fish farms. He said the pinks and chums weigh on average “barely a gram” when they exit rivers to pass by fish farms and are a tenth the size of young Fraser sockeye facing the same challenges in the Discovery Islands area.”
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