A federal judge issued an injunction to allow two salmon farms on the British Columbia coast to be replenished with juvenile fish after 19 closed by Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan through June 2022.
The decision allows Mowi Canada West to replenish two operations in the Discovery Islands as a separate lawsuit by Mowi, Cermaq Canada, Grieg Seafood and Saltstream continues over the abrupt decision to stop aquaculture in the area after 30 years. Saltstream operates a third farm for Chinook salmon instead of Atlantic salmon and is also affected by the injunction.
“The harm to Mowi and Saltstream, as well as to their employees, families and other businesses in the community, especially First Nations companies, will be real and significant if the injunction is not issued and Mowi and Saltstream are not allowed to drive continue with the transfer of fish to be carried out as part of their operations, ”wrote Judge Peter George Pamel in a decision published April 5.
Dean Dobrinsky, director of human resources for Mowi Canada West, said the company has yet to apply to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to transfer more than 1.2 million fish that would otherwise have to be euthanized.
“We have two locations, one in Port Elizabeth and one on Larsen Island, which currently need to be transferred to tree nursery fish,” Dobrinsky said in an interview on April 6, must go back and basically look at the science. “
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Homalco chief Darren Blaney, who represents one of the seven indigenous communities consulted about the closure and an opponent of ocean aquaculture, issued a statement following the verdict, stressing that approval for the transfer is pending is required.
“The minister must consult and record these seven First Nations in the Discovery Islands on all applications for the fish farms in Doctor Bay, Phillips Arm and Hardwicke,” said Blaney.
Dobrinsky said scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada did what the Cohen Commission recommended and examined the risk of salmon farms on sockeye salmon migration routes through the region.
“The nine-year study found that the risk to the wild red ruff on the Fraser River from the farms was less than minimal,” said Dobrinsky. “And then the minister added what appeared to be additional conditions that were this notion of social acceptance. These were new conditions under which we had never operated before. “
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