Pacific Wild

To add salt to the wound in regards to our previous post about the recent fuel spill at a fish farm off the coast of Vancouver Island, new research has found bacterial and viral disease outbreaks in B.C. waters in the Discovery Islands, attracting massive sea lice infestations. This photo shows a wild Sockeye salmon in the #greatbearrainforest. Under Canadian law, it is illegal to transfer diseases or infected fish from holding pens or hatcheries into ocean waters - yet that's now a daily reality in B.C.'s farmed fish industry. As salmon farms invaded waters formerly occupied by their wild cousins, the “systems” invited bacterial and viral disease outbreaks and attracted massive sea lice infestations, while escaped fish introduced bred with wild salmon. First identified in Norway, HSMI - heart and skeletal muscle inflammation - is ranked as the number three killer of their farmed salmon, even described as “one of the most common infectious disease of farmed salmon in Norway.” As volume of farmed fish expanded, thanks to larger and deeper ocean cages, so did the biological impacts of overcrowding in Norway’s coastal waters. Now HSMI is here in British Columbia and the virus mostly likely associated with the disease is the subject of major lawsuit against the federal government. . More @ https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/03/04/Norwegian-Disease-BC-Fish-Farm/ Photo by @iantmcallister #bcpoli #fishfarm #salmon #hsmi