There are calls for an investigation into what some say is a mass escape of thousands of fish from a salmon farm.
Farmed fish are showing-up in rivers leading into the Bay of Fundy, but so farno one has reported a problem at any of the dozens of salmon cages in the bay.
Biologists are counting farmed salmon that are showing up where they don’t belong, at a fish ladder on the Magaguadavic River.
Three more were caught Wednesday, bringing the total to more than 80.
The Atlantic Salmon Federation says it indicates a big escape of thousands of farmed salmon has occurred somewhere in the Bay of Fundy, and other river watchers are wondering whether they will be impacted too.
“They can head up here unobstructed,” says Sean Doyle of the Hammond River Angling Association. “There are no dams or hydro dams. There’s really nothing holding them back from coming up.”
Angling groups fear an influx of farmed fish will damage efforts to bring back wild Atlantic salmon.
“They may interact with the natural breeding salmon,” explains Doyle. “It’s just something you don’t want in a river where you want to protect the wild stock.”
Under current regulations in Canada, it is almost impossible to trace an escaped farmed salmon back to a specific cage, but that technology does exist and is in use elsewhere.
Operators in Maine are required to file information on fish genetics with state authorities so that D.N.A. technology can identify escapes.
“They can track back to a specific site where that fish came from,” says Fundy Baykeeper Matthew Abbot. “There’s no reason we can’t be doing the same thing in Canada.”
The Fish Farmers Association suspects this is not a large escape from one farm, rather, smaller escapes from numerous cages.
The law says escapes of more than one hundred fish must be reported within 24 hours.
“This could be an unreported escape event,” says Abbot. “Even if its leakage, small numbers of fish from multiple sites. That remains very concerning.”
No company has yet to report a major escape to the New Brunswick Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron
