No cents to recover fish

Dan MacLennan
November 5,2009
Courier Islander

The response to last month's Marine Harvest fish farm escape calls into question the company's commitment to recover farmed fish from the wild.

That's how biologist Alexandra Morton, a well known open-net-cage opponent, views the Oct. 21 escape of Atlantic salmon from the company's Port Elizabeth farm in the Broughton Archipelago area. Both the company and a commercial fisher on scene agree large numbers of the escaped Atlantics schooled outside the farm for up to 10 hours after the escape but there was no recapture effort until after they'd largely dispersed into the wild.

On Oct. 23, two days after the escape was discovered, Marine Harvest issued a news release saying about 40,000 mature Atlantics had escaped from several holes in two pens. The release stated "a vessel is on site for recapture efforts."

The entrails of one of the escaped farmed salmon shows the remains of a wild salmon smolt.

What the release did not state is that thousands of the escapees that circled outside the pens for hours, were gone by the time the designated recovery seiner arrived from Campbell River. James Walkus, of Port Hardy-based James Walkus Fishing Co., was on the scene with two of his six vessels including the Kristin Joye, a seiner, shortly after the escape was noticed on the Wednesday.

See full story with images in The Courier Islander

For background news stories on the October 21st Atlantic Salmon Escapement, click here.