The Martin Sheen
Undercurrent News reports that biologist
Alexandra Morton and the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will begin a weeks long investigation of salmon farms in the northern area of the
Salish Sea. Through use of Society's vessel, The Martin Sheen, Ms. Morton will audit and monitor salmon farms along the migration route of the wild salmon leaving and returning to the Fraser River along the eastern shoreline of Vancouver Island.
Salmon Net Pen Locations
and Routes of The Martin Sheen
and Wild Salmon
Along the route Ms. Morton will be looking for impacts from these pens of concentrated populations of salmon and risks those impacts pose to wild salmon.* Testing will look specifically at the plumes flowing down current from these structures, measuring concentrations of
parasitic sea lice, Piscine reovirus, ISA virus, and Salmon alphavirus (see
here for a discussion of the virus and their impacts).
*most farmed salmon are non-native with genetically modified species ("frankenfish") having been recently approved
Decades of research leave little doubt to the risks these operations pose to the wild populations of salmon. In Puget Sound there is a press by industry to expand these operations, putting at risk the native salmon runs. Marketing efforts which claim farmed salmon lessen pressure on wild salmon ignore the risks Ms. Morton continues to elevate.
