Wednesday, October 27, 2004

St. Andrews ….. The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) urges Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to heed the reports issued yesterday that recommend swift action by the department to address threats to Canada’s salmon, some of which are endangered. The federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development and the Auditor Generals of Canada, British Columbia, and New Brunswick have coordinated a comprehensive critique that urges more effective management by DFO to improve the fragile state of wild Atlantic salmon and protect them from the impacts of salmon aquaculture.

“These reports reinforce messages that ASF and other conservation organizations have been delivering for years,” said Bill Taylor President of ASF. “DFO must take action to improve its record and accountability to the Canadian public in the face of these independent audits.”

The New Brunswick Auditor General points out deficiencies in monitoring of aquaculture activities and enforcement of compliance. New Brunswick does not monitor escapes from salmon cages, and does not require that escapes be reported and recovered. The audit recommends that site information be made public, and that environmental monitoring findings be publicly reported on a regular basis. Decisions are made based on insufficient knowledge on the effects on wild salmon, such as diseases, sea lice, and escapes of farmed salmon from aquaculture sites. DFO continues to have difficulty in assessing the cumulative environmental impacts of salmon aquaculture operations, and there is a lack of progress in dealing with deleterious substances from aquaculture sites. The report acknowledges the importance of salmon to Canadians as the fish generates a wide range of economic, social and cultural benefits, and warns that lack of prompt action may put weak salmon populations and the long-term sustainability of fisheries at risk.

“These same concerns were pointed out by ASF in a progress report we issued in 2003 on Canada’s progress in living up to an international obligation made in 1994 to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization to protect wild Atlantic salmon from the impacts of salmon farming,” said Mr. Taylor. “The Canadian government failed our assessment, and the Auditor General’s report doesn’t encourage ASF that the situation has improved.”

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development has concluded that DFO has not implemented environmental assessments of its programs and policies, and does not even have in place a procedure for this, despite Cabinet having directed the implementation of such assessments as far back as 14 years ago.

“In other words,” said Mr. Taylor, “DFO has no way of measuring whether its plans and programs are impacting the environment. ASF wants to work with DFO to help make its salmon conservation programs more effective, but to change the present system, the Department must acknowledge the problems. So far, DFO has acknowledged that the department doesn’t get enough money from the Canadian budget to do its job. Beyond lack of resources, the audits are saying there is a problem with program management and efficiency.

“Much of the responsibility for protecting salmon has been downloaded by DFO to conservation organizations supported by the private sector, and cash-strapped provincial governments, such as Newfoundland where extra protection had to be implemented by the province,” concluded Mr. Taylor. “We are hopeful that the audits will help DFO face and overcome its “responsibility collapse” and put the department and the species under its protection on the road to recovery.”

The Atlantic Salmon Federation is an international, non-profit organization that promotes the conservation and wise management of the wild Atlantic salmon and its environment. ASF has a network of seven regional councils (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Maine and New England) that have a membership of more than 150 river associations and 40,000 volunteers. The regional councils cover the freshwater range of the Atlantic salmon in Canada and the United States.

For more information and to arrange an interview with Bill Taylor, please contact:

Muriel Ferguson, ASF Communications

(506)529-1033 (direct) or (506)529-4581 (switchboard)

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