Fisheries committee  Thank you for allowing me to participate. While Fisheries and Oceans Canada characterizes its regulation of salmon farms as rigorous and tells Canadians that these regulations support the health of wild fish, this is not entirely accurate, on three substantive issues: bycatch in

Fisheries committee  I really don't have any information on the illegal fishery, other than the current herring fishery that is going on in the salmon farming industry, which I see as an illegal fishery. I don't know anything about commercial fishermen fishing illegally.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I think it's very important. I think the problem that I described is due to the divided loyalty. People within DFO don't know whether they're promoting the industry or regulating it. The industry, of course, is very forceful in how it approaches government. Of course, it's a

Fisheries committee  Yes. The minister's announcement, frankly, was quite confusing, because it sounded as though there would be a two-month interim testing period and that he would test only for two strains of piscine reovirus, which suggests that we have a local endemic British Columbia strain. How

Fisheries committee  I think it has to be in the order of millions, frankly. It has to be a deterrent that they would weigh against the profitability of each grow-out and decide whether or not they want to take the risk. The problem is that they cannot stop the herring from going into the pens, the

Fisheries committee  The chemical you're referring to is lufenuron, which has not been approved in Norway. In fact, the company withdrew its application to have it approved in Norway, so we are experimenting with it here. The fish are dangerous for human consumption for 350 days. That suggests that t

Fisheries committee  I'm speaking to you from 'Namgis territory, here on the Fraser sockeye migration route, and I want to start by saying that I'm grateful for the Government of Canada's response to COVID-19. There is no other country I would rather be in right now. For the moment, policy is keepi

Fisheries committee  It's because of the high sea lice infection rate this year, which is such a visible impact. DFO was not out on the water this year because of COVID, but my research team was. I preserved all the fish that I counted sea lice on, so if there's any question about what I recorded, th

Fisheries committee  There are other factors. As I noted with the PRV science, honestly it has become so confusing within DFO. There are two DFO labs with completely opposite assessments. Just put that aside for a moment and look at the sea lice. The minister cannot look at what happened to the Fras

Fisheries committee  Yes, I believe it is.

Fisheries committee  I think, first and foremost, an aquaculture act has to move the industry onto land. Then they're free to grow. They won't have sea lice problems. They won't have low oxygen problems. They won't have the algal bloom problems. Norway is pushing very hard for the industry to go ont

Fisheries committee  I'm not invited by the industry, but I am increasingly invited by first nations to help them navigate this situation. I spend a lot of time doing ATIPs, so I read the emails between government and industry. This has given me a background on what is going on and how to help the na

Fisheries committee  No. In the Broughton Archipelago, the first nations never engaged in a financial arrangement, and they now have the authority to remove the farms. They are doing that. We are going to get a chance to see what happens when you remove these farms—first place anywhere in the world.

Fisheries committee  They are the biggest herring fishery on this coast with no quota and no licence. During the 2017-18 first nations' occupation of the salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago, GoPro cameras were put down in every farm, and also in Campbell River and on the west coast. There are

Fisheries committee  Yes, people are losing faith in the Canadian federal government on this issue because Trudeau clearly understands there's a problem with salmon farming. He understands people don't want it, so he made the election promise that this industry would be out of our waters by 2025. The