When consumers see a farmed salmon steak on the supermarket shelf they are likely unaware that marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions, dolphins and porpoises, may have been killed as the result of the production of the farmed fish.
Open net-cages attract marine mammals who are natural predators of salmon. Whether a salmon farm obtains a license to shoot the mammals that threaten their stock or the creatures are ensnared and drowned in the nets surrounding open net-cages, as routinely takes place, the death of seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises and birds is a cost of farmed salmon production that is hidden from the consumer.
Salmon farm companies are only required to self-report the mammals they shoot, not those that become entangled and drown in their predator nets. Citizen and community reports and footage shed light on the magnitude of marine mammal deaths caused by entanglements in salmon farm predator nets.
Watch a short video from callingfromthecoast.com of a sea lion caught in an underwater net pen at Wehlis Bay.
In a report released by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, (the federal department responsible for marine mammals) the BC salmon farming industry, between 1989-2000 legally killed 6,243seals and sea lions. The number of drowning deaths is unreported and unknown.
With an average of 85 active salmon farms in British Columbia, reports of marine mammal deaths are frequent:
In April 2007, 51 California sea lions were found dead at one of Creative Salmon's open net-cage fish pens in Clayoquot Sound. At least 110 sea lions drowned in Creative Salmon's nets in Clayoquot Sound in 2007, with 46 sea lions dying in their nets in 2006.
Within a two week period in March, 2007 one harbour porpoise, a steller sea lion (both listed as species of special concern under Canada's Species at Risk Act) and a Pacific white sided dolphin were all drowned in the predator nets at Mainstream's Wehlis Bay farm in the Broughton Archipelago. The deaths of these mammals only came to light because a filmmaker was shooting underwater footage in the area after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.
When consumers see a farmed salmon steak on the supermarket shelf they are likely unaware that marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions, dolphins and porpoises, may have been killed as the result of the production of the farmed fish.