Escape and release?

Dan MacLennan
February 18, 2010
The Courier Islander

The province has exonerated Marine Harvest for its actions in a fish farm escape last October, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL) refuses to release its investigation report, leaving serious discrepancies about re-capture efforts unexplained.

That has the Georgia Strait Alliance calling for the investigation to be reopened, and calling for a more active role from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "There's an incredible lack of transparency," GSA spokesperson Ruby Berry told the Courier-Islander Wednesday. "There isn't an effective reporting system.

There isn't an effective gathering of information by the province. "There's a real lack of public transparency about what goes on at the farms, with escapes and disease and parasite loading and Slice use. All of the above have an effect on the waters around the farms and there's very little requirement of the farms to let the public know. There's very little requirement of the farm companies to let the government know what's going on, especially in a timely manner, when something can be done about it."

Read the full story in The Courier Islander

Read a related story in The Courier Islander; February 26, 2010; "Marine Harvest did the right thing - MAL".

Read background news stories.