Thank you for inviting me here today.
We're excited that you are studying the subject of wild Atlantic salmon. The Ecology Action Centre was founded in 1971, and is Atlantic Canada's oldest and largest community environmental organization. Our marine program began in 1995, and we continue to work towards the conservation of fish stocks with annual fisheries, and protection of fish habitat, largely in a marine environment.
As you are all well aware, Atlantic salmon are considered endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, with the inner Bay of Fundy population listed under the Species at Risk Act.
The work of the Ecology Action Centre on Atlantic salmon is very closely tied to our work on the impacts of open net-pen farmed salmon and trout, as well as our concerns regarding the approval of the production of genetically modified salmon, the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption in the world. We are also concerned about the number of tidal barriers in Atlantic Canada that have further reduced available habitat for Atlantic salmon, particularly during spawning. Finally, we do not feel that the impacts of climate change have been adequately considered in terms of recovery of Atlantic salmon.
I will speak to the relative value of Atlantic salmon in Atlantic Canada, the threats to its protection/recovery, potential conflicts within the Canadian government, in hopes that this will lead you to take a leadership role in addressing the impediments to the recovery of wild salmon.
Economically, the recreational fishery in Atlantic Canada, which largely comprises salmon fishing in our rivers, is extremely important to our rural communities, as you will have heard from our colleagues from Miramichi. Using data available as of 2012—and we do intend to produce updated information in the coming months—it is clear that the recreational fishery for Atlantic Salmon is of significant economic value for Atlantic Canada. Data from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick indicate that the number of jobs per $1 million of revenue is the second highest for angling-related industries, just after jobs for shellfish harvesting. I've provided a table in my speaking notes, which you're all welcome to have a look at.
The economic spinoffs are important to consider as well, as not only are there direct jobs, but spending in rural communities, through accommodations and meals, is also important, particularly in areas like the Margaree River in Cape Breton and the Miramichi in New Brunswick. The jobs per $1 million, as of 2012, for the open net-pen salmon industry, by comparison, were about 5.6 per $1 million, which is one order of magnitude less than those in the recreational fishery, which was about 30 jobs per $1 million of revenue created out of the recreational fishery.
There were over 900,000 anglers in Atlantic Canada with direct expenditures in 2014 of almost $600 million, as per DFO's statistics. As such, Atlantic salmon stocks are significant to our regional economy, despite the fact that there is no commercial fishery. Failure to work proactively to achieve recovery of wild salmon jeopardizes this important contribution to Atlantic Canada's economy.
It is interesting to note that the open net-pen salmon farming industry was, at the outset, seen as a way to reduce pressure on the wild salmon populations. However, it is now understood that open net-pen salmon farming significantly reduces the health and population levels of wild Atlantic salmon through a variety of mechanisms, including disease transfer, sea lice, and competition with escapees as a few examples.
A very recent assessment of open net-pen farmed salmon in Atlantic Canada by the well-respected and widely referenced Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program resulted in Atlantic Canadian farmed salmon being ranked “red” or “avoid”, largely because of their ecological impacts, as well as their management. The reason for the “red” ranking is largely due to the level of escapees: almost 70% of Atlantic salmon in the Magaguadavic River in New Brunswick are escapees, while in State of Maine, which has much stricter regulations through its containment management protocol, only 0.2% of its river salmon originate from those farms. Escapees pose ecological and genetic threats to the historically low wild Atlantic salmon populations, which are listed as endangered in Canada and the United States. This same review found that Atlantic Canadian farms use 204 times and 241 times, respectively, more antibiotics than comparable farms in Norway and Scotland, and six times more than in farms in B.C. Finally, the rates of infectious salmon anemia are still present in the Canadian Atlantic salmon, and pose threats to wild salmon, and sea lice loads are higher than industry-authorized limits.
From a policy perspective, it's clear that the Government of Canada is often in conflict with itself. Efforts to protect and recover wild Atlantic salmon, including through recovery strategies and action plans developed under the Species at Risk Act and through wild Atlantic salmon policies, are often in conflict with government regulations and efforts to grow the open net-pen salmon farming industry, which, as stated above, has direct and detrimental impacts on wild salmon. There need to be much stricter regulations and mitigation of threats to wild salmon, and the Canadian government should address this conflict of the same department being responsible for the protection of Atlantic salmon and the promotion of one of the greatest threats to wild salmon. Here, I'll also note that countries such as Norway and Scotland have also wild Atlantic salmon populations in fisheries, and their open net-pen salmon farming industries are much better regulated.
An example of this conflict would be the illegal use of pesticides by salmon farms in Atlantic Canada in 2013, which resulted in a $500,000 fine. Under significant lobbying pressure from the aquaculture industry in 2015, the government promulgated the aquaculture activity regulations, which exempt the aquaculture industry from Fisheries Act provisions that prohibit the release of deleterious substances into water frequented by fish, even though that step was opposed by scientists, fishermen, and conservation groups. They did this by removing the responsibility to enforce section 36 of the Fisheries Act from Environment Canada, and handing it to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which also promotes open net-pen fish farming.
From an economic perspective, there's a critical need to review all subsidies to the open net-pen farming industry, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency bailout as a result of ISA and other disease infections. Bailouts to the industry in the form of so-called compensation cost Canadian taxpayers $138 million as of March 2014. What if this funding had been provided instead to restoring Atlantic salmon population? This would give some sense of the scale of the subsidy.
There is also a need to conduct a national review of leasing costs. Currently in Nova Scotia, the area on which I have most knowledge, the leasing cost per hectare is $12.18. I can assure you that this is an excellent deal and includes waste removal by the ocean, oxygen provision, and space for salmon cages. There's no terrestrial farming equivalent that gets such a good deal from the natural environment. Given the impacts of this industry, there should at least be improved economic benefits for Canadians, as the companies are using a public resource to subsidize significant private profit. If there were higher costs for leasing, that money could be put back into wild salmon conservation.
I would also like to speak briefly to the approval of genetically modified salmon in Atlantic Canada, to salmon egg production in Prince Edward Island, and to the government's decision to waive data submission on this risk to wild Atlantic salmon from genetically modified salmon. There was no public consultation associated with this decision and no engagement with aboriginal communities. While this decision was taken by a previous government, there is a need to review the decision, the science used to make the decision, and the public engagement in this globally significant decision. Scientists have raised concerns about genetic disruption, where escaped GM salmon could mate with spawning salmon. While the risks may be low, we do not know that, because the data was not made public. Even if mating is unsuccessful, in the small runs with few returning fish, it can endanger the survival of the entire population by removing a chance for successful mating of a wild pair.
My organization, together with others, is in the process of a legal challenge under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act regarding this approval.
Finally, I want to stress the importance of ensuring that provinces are fully engaged in the protection of wild salmon—particularly as they are responsible for the permitting and regulation of aquaculture outside of British Columbia—that they fully understand the economic impact of wild Atlantic salmon, and that the impacts of climate change are considered in all recovery efforts. We know that Atlantic salmon can be restored to our rivers and that the State of Maine has achieved recovery of severely depleted populations as an example. It will require reducing known threats, protecting habitat, and a dedicated plan involving all stakeholders to reduce risks to wild salmon and improve their survivability.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak, and we appreciate the standing committee's interest in this important issue.