Dear Mia Parker (Grieg Sea Foods)
On October 7 a truck boarded the Tsawwassen ferry bound for Vancouver Island. On board were bags of medicated feed. Attached are pictures of the bags taken through the plastic wrap on them.
We can read that these bags are the property of Grieg Seafood’s. The vet’s name is also visible, Dr. Barry Milligan. The destination of the shipment appears to be “Steamer”. Grieg has a farm in Esperanza Inlet at Steamer Point.
The feeding rate on the bag appears to say 0.50 something per fish body weight per day. The warning seems to advise that the fish must not be used for human consumption 60 days after the last day of treatment.
The people who sent these images to me would like to know what kind of drug is in the bag, as they are fishermen? They also want to know what disease do you have in your fish at Steamer Point?
Alexandra Morton
Pictures emailed to me
Comments
31 responses to “MEDICATED FISH FOOD HEADED FOR ESPERANZA INLET”
Is this the material ?
” Under veterinary prescription SLICE® is added to the feed of farmed fish at a dose of 50μg/kg of body weight each day for 7 days. Salmon eat the medicated feed and the treatment reaches lice feeding on the salmon by way of the skin and mucous of the salmon.”
Source: BC British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, 08/2009
It appears that BC continues to regulate the fish farm industry. Perhaps the Greig veterinarian can confirm the medicated feed.
Yes, this is the material, but I don’t know what it is. I am hoping the company will let us know as the people who sent these pictures are very concerned, about the potential disease and this drug that needs a considerable withdrawal time being used in the ocean.
This is truly getting scarrrrrrrrey!! The federal courts have ruled that DFO is in charge!! VOILATION of Canadian LAW!! Even scarrrrier is that just like humans the metabolism of every fish in the pen being treated is proably not the same! How do I know that the piece of fish I buy at the fish counter has actually secreated all of the SLICE it injested??? There has just got to be a better way to do business!!! Anyone have answers??????????????
I would like to show that MH have released this in regard to the fry bycatch on October 1st 2009.
http://www.marineharvestcanada.com/documents/Marine_Harvest_Canada_Herring_Capture_Oct_14_2009.pdf
Seems to me MH is working hard to avoid this happening again. Good to see.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must however now update my position. Since my previous disclosure/comments, I have been doing much research and I came to the conclusion that without physically having followed these fish, it is impossible to know what caused their significant non-return this year.
Annie Paddle, myself, and no doubt all others who have taken the time to comment, are also very concerned if Aquaculture is a threat to native wild species don’t get me wrong.
I would say though, that if that wild species is being hunted by ANYTHING else however, there is first a big hurdle to make about outlawing that practice first! Ensuring that “farming” is done with the minimal impact on the host region and the quality of the resultinig food should be a given.
I would second any spotlighting possible of malpractice in any place where human food is produced of course, and when a PUBLIC body has given a specific permission to take/harvest/catch/grow/mine ANYTHING on public land, then the actions performed there should be fully open to public scrutiny.
Surely it is possible and infact beneficial to all parties, to mount webcams etc. in vital areas and show what is being done on a daily basis. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see the salmon grow and someone may even spot a problem before it even becomes one!
There is NOTHING a corporation involved in harvesting earth rescourses should be afraid to hide. Period. I am in Switzerland, but I am talking generally here. It would probably be a good idea to mount them in Goldman Sachs and see what they do too now I think about it!
About my disclosure. I decided that MH are doing their utmost to ensure prosperity for all concerned in BC and other wild places they are involved in. If we are going to have fish to eat in the future (and I mean in even only the next 5 years) it needs companies like MH to invest and fine-tune the fish farming business and make it as sustainable as possible going forwards.
Here is their 2008 sustainability report.
http://www.marineharvest.com/Documents/Marine%20Harvest%20-%20Sustainability%20Report%20-%202008.pdf
So yes, I think they are trying hard enough (and will try harder), and the risk of an imminent global food shortage is high enough, that MH seems a good investment in the future, both for the salmon on my table and for my investment portfolio. Lets hope they are also keen on investing in the upkeep of the wild areas they oversee for us.
I think Alexandra is doing a good job highlighting potential areas for disaster, but I still reiterate my earlier post of there being also a multitude of other factors at play here to consider, not just hyperboling(?) about this industry that seems to be trying hard.
If the Fraser River is commercialised at all, that is a reason enough a WILD animal may choose to go elsewhere.
Still no reason not to have cams in place though!
Sutski
That is excellent you have done some research on this. Just a few things to keep in mind. Salmon are a carnivore so Marine Harvest is using fish from the south Pacific mixed with a lot of other food, transporting these fish the length of the globe and throwing them back in the water to take out less fish…so they will never feed the world, unless they switch to a fish that eats plants. These they could farm in fresh water tanks and solve all the issues, but when I have spoken to their executives they laugh and say no they are a salmon farmers only.
I have lived right beside the farms for 20 years, done research specifically on them for 10 years and met with their executives, scientists and shareholders in Norway. Our level of experience with the industry is very different, so to suggest I am exaggerating is a wild guess.
I don’t know how to resolve this and have to realize these enormous corporate enterprises with their professional websites, PR teams, and government lobbies probably will win. It is a devastating thought, but reading you comments I realize there really is no way to reveal the truth in a convincing manner. The next decade will be a true test of our species. If people refuse to believe the eye-witnesses, they can only believe the PR firms and I hope for the children, that the people churning out the PR remember their children are on this planet too. These are very crucial times.
Sutski
This discussion is all very well.
But the global fish farm industries are managed as a food distribution chain. They are not managed with ecosystem management as a prime objective. (And I will say that they are very successful at cost management).
What we are asking is whether they are successful at ecosystem management in BC.
The jury is still out on that one.
I am very familiar with the habits of renewable and non–renewable resource industries who write beautiful, melifluent phrases on corporate sustainability yet the sustainability objectives are not always rigorously monitored or observed, and the oversight regulators are often dazzled by the flowing prose without ever having sufficient independent monitoring.
The issue I raise is this.
If the salmon fish farms in BC truly adhere to the corporate sustainability policies they advance in their corporate disclosure documents, then why not ease public concerns by promoting independent, transparent, evidence collection. Some of us (myself in particular), familiar with corporate battles in other resource areas are of the view that the oversight regulators are often the source of the lack of public trust, not the corporations themselves who are in the business of corporate survival, not the business of making regulators feel important.
Government regulators are not (or should not be) in the business of being loved. But if they want to recover public trust, they have to be more transparent and accountable. It is that lack or seeming lack of regulatory accountability, that flows back on the farm fish industry, not the political sophistication of the fish farm industry.
Views?
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Thank you Sutski123 for at least being open minded enough to accept there are other plausible factors at play here. ms Morton surrounds herself with players such as native food fishermen ( Musqueam/Stollo) sports fishing groups and the area E gillnetters association. These are the people allowed to take stocks from the Fraser River after salmon returning to spawn have entered the river system. The native food fishery on the Fraser this year was a reported 55,000 pieces even though stocks were not returning in expected numbers. You can be sure they took more than that.It is supposedly food fish but they are permitted to sell it. One has to consider if these groups are continually allowed to fish stocks returning at below average levels then they are a LARGE part of the problem. Helmsman you are sounding very American with your constant references to government regulators. It was MS Morton herself in her infinite wisdom who thought she was so clever when she took the Canadian government to court in her effort to force the federal government to manage Aquaculture. Now all she does is cry for judicial enquiries into their management of fish farms. She wasn’t happy with the provincial government’s long list of regulations regarding aquaculture. Now apparently she isn’t happy with the outcome of her court case either.
Ms Morton also needs to realize that numerous countries produce fish meal for a variety of purposes and it’s exportation is vital to their economies.
MS Morton be reminded the people working in the aquaculture industry are also eye witnesses and they do not seem to see what you do. Nor do the DFO seem to agree with you. if the people you are so fond of quoting to that you are published in science journal would take the trouble to investigate science journal on the internet on their own, they would find that there are also papers published in science that refute all of your papers.
Hi Annie: Can you give me your take on feeding the farmed salmon SLICE. Do they sample EACH fish before it is shipped to market? How can I be sure the fish I want has excreated ALL of the drug?
Ah nomlas : You have fallen prey to one of ms. Morton’s oldest tricks. She loves to scare people even as she proclaims herself to be such a clever biologist. The reason it requires a 60 day withdrawal period is to ensure it is all gone from the fish’s system prior to slaughter. The same rule applies to any agricultural feedlot for beef, pork, lamb etc. You eat meat no doubt ? Ms Morton on one site claps herself on the back for campaigning several years ago to get the farms to find something to treat lice. When they did she immediately broadcasts on other sites that it is poison and not even approved for use in Canada or the US. That was a lie. it is used in Aquaculture in the US as well as ORGANIC gardening. And is approved for use by a vet in Canada for aquaculture purposes. No doubt like most Canadians your vegetables come from the US ? Now she wants to take credit for the good returns of pink salmon because she forced the farms to use slice on yet another site. Do your research . Look up the Canadian agricultural website and find out for yourself. Your not questioning the use of growth hormones and antibiotics in the meat you eat why is this so scary to you? I have NO problem with it because there is a safe withdrawal period. perhaps you are not aware that farm fish are also starved for a certain period of time before they are slaughtered?
ANNIE OH CONTRARE young lady: I have been concerned about what I eat LONNNNNNNNNG before this Blog existed in fact: ever since I left the farm! I knew what was on my supper plate because 100% of the time myself or my family put it there!! Now: I buy only locally grown certified organic vegatables and meat. I buy only from local producers because I can walk onto their farms any time I want and see what they are doing. I grow most of my own root vegstables. Does it cost more?? YOU BET!! I went to the farmers market today: carrots,turnip, potatoes, greens,free range chicken, eggs and rainbow trout, enough for a week $63.00. I could have gotten the same thing at Loblaws for $30.00, but I know my food is safe!!
You didn’t answer my question? HOW DO I KNOW THE SALMON IS SAFE? Is each one tested?
I looked up application/use of Emamectin Benzoate known as SLICE: FROM THE MANUFACTURE’S DATA SHEET:::When applying put on protective wears, avoide inhalation or contact with skin or eyes, avoide pollution sources of water or ponds ect, toxic to bees & not allowed application at flowering stage, store in a cold dry place!! Annie: this doesn’t bother you?
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nomlas : You have never taken a trip up the heavily industrialized Fraser River. Can you guarantee me that the wild fish caught in the Fraser River and sold for human consumption are individually tested and rated safe to eat? I would eat a farmed salmon over any fish that has entered the polluted Fraser River.
Annie
it is clear where you are coming from. So I am curious whether you feel the public has the right to know what drugs Grieg is shipping to their net pen farm in Esperanza Inlet and what condition they are treating and if not why?
Ms. Morton : You have not established they are treating for ANY condition in particular or if they are even treating at all. Is the public entitled to know what is in every shipment on every truck in BC and what it is to be used for ? Further to that you are openly accusing Greig seafoods of something with nothing more than a sorry blurry cell phone picture that could have been taken anywhere at anytime. We have only your word that it was even taken by friends on the ferry and is not simply a photo of a discarded label . I would be careful what accusations you are trying to put out without a grain of evidence to support them.
Ms Paddle
You have answered my question with a threat.
thank you for being so clear
No Ms Morton, I have not threatened you in any way. Just made the statement that your accusations are unproven and that you don’t have any real evidence to back them. You favour posting unproven accusations against salmon farms with no actual evidence other than your word and no one elses.
As for you nomlas I don’t understand why you even question about farm fish. You obviously are biased against it for reasons of your own and all I can state is simply if you personally don’t feel you want to eat it then quite simply don’t. But don’t slag an industry that others support and believe in. Last time I checked we still lived in a democracy where we have freedom of choice. My democratic choice is to support the industry and I have NO problem eating it’s product. I have been doing so for years eating both farmed and wild ocean caught and I have suffered no ill effects from either.
Annie: Why the hostility?? I simply, for my own information, asked a question? You are the first pro aquaculture I have engaged who would answer
a question:-)!!!! Things are happening in The Bay of Fundy that never happened before. I came from a farming /fishing (purse seiner) background. Everytime I ask DFO I get the quote ” if you want to know anything about the Aquaculture Industry you will have to file an Access to Information Request” WHY?? I can ask anything about herring, makeral, lobster, cod, harbour safety or Bay/ship safety resources and get a response!! Aquaculture at the Provincial/Federal level NOPE!! Go Away we won’t talk to you!!! I pay taxes. If I ask someone who is a PUBLIC SERVANT a question NICELY, ANNIE don’t you think I deserve an answer????????????????? I would expect no less for you if you were asking them!!!!
Annie: about slagging the industry. If we were dairy farmers and next door neighbors: how would you feel if I brought an animal onto my property that had an infectious disease, say hoof & mouth disease. Your livelyhood and mine depends on the health of our heards. Your animals start to show signs of the disease which is carried on the air from my farm to yours. I refuse to let outside people on my property to inspect my animals and keep denying any accociation with YOUR problem.
Annie: how would YOU feel?????????
Dear Annie Paddle
i have read your posts and to me it is appears clear that you are a strong advocate for salmon farming and have a general dislike for Alexandra Morton. If you knew her and saw how devoted she is to the environment where she lives you would not question her integrity and motives. I would bet you are employed by the aquaculture industry and I even suspect your persistent postings here might be part of your actual job. I have met so many people who are standing up for wild salmon because they want NO harm to come to wild salmon from aquaculture… (dispersing pollution in currents doesn’t make it go away) If you were at the Vancouver Rally on October 3rd you would have seen people with integrity and hope for the future…. educated people who want to ensure there are salmon for the next generation….people who get the big picture and are not just on a bandwagon. We are not naive. We are salmon people. They have built this coast and they are in our bodies… they have shaped our families. We will strive to protect them with huge hearts…
Ms. Piddle:
In a previous post, you assert that I sounded very American in my comments. No, you are wrong, I am a very proud Canadian. Are you and the people you work for the same proud Canadians?
Before you use the nationality card to dimininish our comment or our honestly held views, you should remember the famous quotation from 1775, ” patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”
helmsdale, Don’t insult my family name. When I referred to you as sounding American I was referring to your constant use of the term government regulator. It is not a term used in Canada but one that is associated with government officials in the US. I DO NOT work for anyone. As I stated we live in a democracy and I have the right to fight for what I believe in the same as you do. I was born on the west Coast of BC and I can insure you there is no country on this earth I would prefer to pledge my life to. Why is it that you people who are against aquaculture think your voice is the only one that has a right to be heard ? I have sat by and watched Ms. Morton and her accusations silently for many years. I have just now chosen to speak. She has made statements in the past that have this year been proven to be false. And now she wants to pretend she is responsible for the huge pink runs returning to the Broughton. The DFO have studied those runs for decades and they have always returned in huge numbers or barely at all on opposite years. it is a historical fact. What happened this year in the Broughton is strictly history repeating itself.Pink salmon runs have also returned in other areas where she has done no “studies”. I suppose we should credit her for those too ?? As for you siting me for using the nationality card as you put it what are you doing when you keep referring to Norwegians ? The farms are a subsiduary of a global company. Same as exxon or Shell or Coca cola. As for you Anissa Reed don’t assume that I don’t care about wild salmon. I do very much and if you knew me you would know that. You choose to believe just because I too stand up for what I believe in you immediately make the assumption I am employed by the fish farms. I am NOT. As for your salmon circle rally I can assure you many of those people there together were miles apart when the Fraser River native bands were given the right to fish without a license and sell their fish to the public. it did immense damage to the Commercial fishery and most of those groups speaking at your rally were actually at each others throats about 12 or 15 years ago. Unfortunately you don’t bother to look back at past history before you make your claims.
Ms Paddle:
Corrction: My apologies: there was a typo and I will make sure I address you correctly. You assert the term government regulator is not used in Canada. Incorrect. Just because government regulation is applied so sparingly even with a long list of regulations does not mean that there are not people in Canada who maintain they are government regulators.
Helmsdale, A is on the opposite end of the keyboard on my computer. The term regulator is actually irelevent just not a term I have heard used in Canada in my near sixty years of life.
nomlas : I would assume if an animal had hoof & mouth disease it would be visable and no one in their right mind would bring such an animal onto their property in the first place.Now you are just getting silly. Far removed from the topic at hand. By the way I caught a documentary early this morning from New Zealand on “organic ” vegetables. According to their study organic produce is actually no more nutritious than conventional produce and in some cases even less so and they also found that due to the high cost of “organic” the majority of people who only eat it actually eat less veg and fruits because of the prohibitive cost. Kinda blows your theory all to hell.
Annie Paddle: Please do not state what I do or do not do. I do look at history and I grew in a mixed native and white community. There are a lot of issues about interests groups and salmon. I get that so clearly. In the past I know how strongly interest groups have been vying for salmon on many levels.
I know there are other issues as well and I followed your comment on the salmon sharks and read about it and I also know many salmon are devoured by mammals. That said, I believe there are two very clear issues here. One is taking a wild salmon from the ocean or river.. however that is done by people or nature it is for the most part a simple and clean act. Whether it is deemed right or wrong by anyone.
I am compelled to speak up against Aquaculture because I used to be an assistant manager at a salmon farm almost 20 years ago. I realize practices change but one thing that has not is that it is not a simple and clean act. There are many issues which concern me including sea lice, fish waste flowing out onto the sea bed and transfer of diseases. I also have a friend who works at a farm processing plants, her aprons stained orange with the dyes from the farmed salmon… I have pulled dead seals and seabirds from predator nets still be used today around salmon farms. I have seen the antifoulant paint sloughing off the farm nets… on so many levels it speaks to me that I should speak out against it. This is not what the coast of BC needs.
Nomlas : I agree if you ask the question you should at least be directed to someone who can provide you with some kind of answer. That being said I think the question being ask needs to be a valid one and not a hysterical response to some article slagging aquaculture. Have you tried asking the PR people for the farms themselves ? As for the bay of Fundy I’m not familiar with it. It could perhaps be simply climate change or that there is something else going on that isn’t visible to you. The Atlantic coast is much different to the BC coast. We have a lot going on here including the EXXON Valdez spill years ago in Alaska . I’ve seen documentaries filmed in Alaska with people saying their fish runs are not returning in some small communities due to the spill. We also had a US plane go down during WWII that was supposedly carrying an atom bomb. It is believed to have crashed somewhere around Princess Royal Island, home of the famous kermode spirit bears. Did it have an impact ?? Who knows. We had the Canadian government dump a lot of nerve gas in 45 gallon drums off our coastline after WWII too. Did it have an impact ? Again who knows. The ocean is still a mystery and it will take a lot of science to find out what goes on out there.
Annie
Sea lice change their body shape every few days for the first month of life and the first stage only lasts hours. The way I study lice is to look at juvenile salmon, near and distant to fish farms and on migration routes as the fish approach and pass the farms. This work has been repeated for nine years with the same results. There are very few lice before the farms, lots of baby lice near the farms and then the lice just get older as the fish continue past the farm until they reach another farm. When there are no farm fish the lice disappear, when they drug their fish the lice go down when they put the farm fish back the lice return. There is a lot of basis for what I and others say I have written and published papers on all of these events.
In the biological world one can almost never say they have direct proof, because “direct proof” is a scientific term and in this case would mean watching a louse hatch from a farm fish and follow that .5mm creature for 3 days until it grew the limbs to attach to a salmon and see which salmon it attached to. This is physically impossible out in the ocean and so we use “weight of evidence.” This is where you look at a problem from all sides until you can form a a best guess. As people we use this all the time. If you hired a guy to mow your lawn and you came back and your lawn was mowed and the fella said he did it you would go on the weight of evidence even though you don’t have direct proof.
I am tired of this too.
Annie
I have hosted you for as long as I feel is productive. But you have no interest in the answers people are patiently providing, you playing ping pong here.
So now I am reviewing comments before they are posted. I don’t like this either.
Hi Annie: Regarding your question “did you go to the PR people of the industry?” That is a little like asking the fox to go into the hen house and count the chickens but that was the FIRST PLACE I went. I figured they are business people and would like to give answers that would dispell all the negative publicity floating around. I submitted 8 questions regarding their operations?????? I got back 000000000000 answers. Next I thought so the industry is licensed by the province. TheDepartmentAquaculture & Agricultue must have the information. I submitted a request for the same information to the head of animal health waited a week NO ANSWER. OK maybe I got the wrong address checked with Service NB again and NOPE it was the right E-Mail address!! I sent it again and put receipt tag on it! The e-mailwas opened 5 minutes after I sent it by the recipient. It’s been 3 weeks now and 0000000000000000000 answers!!!
Months before this I thought well there is a supreme body involved in this and that is DFO!! I sent the Director General an E-Mail. Her response “if you want any information regarding Aquaculture you will have to submit a request under the Access to Information Act. OK I did this before on another topic I can do it again!! A month went by and I get a letter saying that there will be a charge in access of $150.00 for the information. OK!!!!!!!!!!!! They got my Money!!! A month later I received another letter stating that the request will require consultation between differant departments and the province and that another delay will happen!! It has been 6 months since I made the initial request and still 00000000 answers. I get the feeling they don’t want to give me any information or maybe they don’t have what they are supposed to have!!!! Annie WHERE WOULD YOU GO NEXT????????????