Media Releases

Certifying a net-cage farm as ‘sustainable’ given the well-documented negative impacts that they are having on the marine environment, especially wild salmon, does not make sense particularly given the latest ISAv developments. More »

A joint website – which details the unprecedented collaboration activities between these parties, including: combined monitoring efforts, data sharing agreements, shared research objectives and joint results – will go live today, 10 November 2011. More »

The Wild Salmon Narrows Declaration, signed by 54 local, provincial and national organizations is calling for the removal of open net-cage salmon farms from the Wild Salmon Narrows (WSN) in the northern Georgia Strait. More »

Over 50 organizations, businesses and fishermen from across Canada and the U.S. today submitted a joint letter to the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) opposing proposed draft Organic Standards for Finfish Aquaculture. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), together with the other signatories, is calling on the CGSB to overhaul the weak draft and develop organic aquaculture standards that are in line with basic organic principles. More »

Mainstream Canada has submitted a tenure application to the Provincial Government for a new open net-cage salmon farm located in Fortune Channel on the east side of Meares Island. If approved, and then licenced by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the site would add about another 600,000 farmed salmon to a “core aquatic protected area” of the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. CAAR is calling on the Provincial Government to deny this tenure application and to place a permanent moratorium on net-cage tenures in BC. More »

Mainstream Canada is restocking their Venture Point salmon farm in Okisollo Channel. With the recent reactivation of the Conville Bay farm in Hoskyn Channel (sublet by Grieg Seafood from Marine Harvest), the big three salmon farm companies in BC are ignoring the desperate need for an emergency migration route in the Wild Salmon Narrows. More »

Today Living Oceans Society and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) released a new report – Better than the Rest? A Resource Guide to Farmed Salmon Certifications. Largely written for retailers, this guide assesses the five eco-certifications on the market, two certifications in draft and the organic labels in use and in development for farmed salmon. Unfortunately all five eco-certifications fail to fully meet the requirements of credible standards. More »

Despite mounting public concern over the impact of aquaculture pesticides on the marine environment, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is in the process of developing regulations that will facilitate and enable the ongoing use of eco-toxic pesticides in the open water by the salmon aquaculture industry. DFO’s proposed “Pathogen and Pest Treatment” regulation would undermine the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the dumping of toxic substance into fish bearing waters, effectively exempting salmon farmers from legislation designed to protect the marine environment and Canada’s fisheries. Indeed, DFO is tasked to oversee the very Act it threatens to weaken with these new regulations. More »

Commercial-scale closed containment salmon farming in BC just took one huge step forward with the installation of a marine-based salmon farming tank in Campbell River. Local closed containment technology leader AgriMarine Inc. has installed the first of four solid-wall floating tanks that will be used to farm Chinook and coho salmon at Middle Bay. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) has supported AgriMarine’s efforts to realize this project since its inception. CAAR celebrates the installation of this first tank as a significant milestone in the transition towards more sustainable salmon farming practices. More »

Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) is in the process of adding 500,000 additional farmed salmon to one of BC's most sensitive wild salmon migration routes. Located along the Wild Salmon Narrows, MHC’s Conville Bay farm (a site that hasn't been used in three and a half years) has been reactivated. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) is dismayed by MHC’s decision as it will put the survival of the 2009 collapsed Fraser River sockeye offspring and other out-migrating juvenile wild salmon at increased risk. More »