Fish farms and activists find way to work together

Judith Lavoie
May 12, 2010
The Times Colonist

Ground zero for B.C.'s fish-farm battles is Broughton Archipelago, where salmon farms are bang in the middle of wild-fish migration routes. But it's also an area where aquaculture companies and environmental groups are tentatively working together for the first time.

Marine Harvest Canada and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform initiated an uneasy truce last year, and now fish-farm companies Grieg Seafood and Mainstream Canada have joined an effort to reduce sea lice on farm fish and fallow some farms during out-migration of pink salmon through the archipelago.

The Broughton Archipelago Management Plan shows more can be achieved with a ceasefire than war, said Crawford Revie, Canada research chairman at the University of Prince Edward Island and a delegate at the international sea lice conference in Victoria, which ends today.

Scientists looking at lice from both sides of the fence are part of the management plan, which means advice given to policy-makers is seen as independent, Revie said.

"We are seeing whether, instead of just throwing mud at each other, we can come up with pieces of reviewed science that move us beyond polarization."

Read the full story in The Times Colonist