top of page
tavishcampbell.ca-1883-2.jpg

The FNWSA rejects industry-biased risk assessments of the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS)

First Nations leaders do not support the ten science risk assessments of CSAS which DFO currently relies upon to conclude that open-net pen salmon farms pose no more than minimal risk to wild Pacific salmon. The CSAS process is heavily dominated by representatives of the salmon farming industry and is operated by the aquaculture branch of DFO, which has an internal mandate to promote and expand the aquaculture industry.​

​

In 2022, Dr. Andrew Bateman, Manager of Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF)'s Salmon Health program and participant in four of the nine Discovery Islands risk assessments, testified before the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO). He stated that the findings of "minimal risk" failed to reflect the current state of knowledge and the true scientific consensus, while omitting key risks such as sea lice, cumulative effects and ignoring the conservation status of wild sockeye stocks.

SUt5HXsv_400x400.jpg

"The (CSAS) processes were neither unbiased nor independent. The risk assessments were implemented, closely managed and influenced by senior officials from DFO aquaculture – and employees, contractors and others linked to the salmon farming industry served on the steering committee and as senior reviewers, so that conflict of interest threatened the integrity of the process."

​

– Dr. Andrew Bateman, Manager of PSF’s Salmon Health program

Leading scientists have testified at FOPO on the flaws of DFO science

Dr. Gideon Mordecai

May 2022

Dr. Andrew Bateman

May 2022

Dr. Kristi Miller Saunders

May 2022

The FNWSA specifically endorses 7 out of the 48 recommendations put forth by FOPO in March 2023. These include Recommendation 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, and especially 45, which calls for an independent review of DFO's scientific data on the risks to wild Pacific salmon from open-net pen salmon farms in BC.

On January 30, 2023, 16 professors and research scientists wrote an open letter to the Fisheries Minister pointing to "serious scientific failings" in DFO's risk assessment report on open-net pen salmon farms in BC

In 2022, DFO falsified results of research findings in risk assessments on sea lice. The risk assessment concluded that sea lice on salmon farms is not significantly associated with sea lice on juvenile wild salmon. Internal DFO documents released under the Access to Information Act in 2023 demonstrated that DFO’s own results revealed the opposite conclusion: there is a significant association between sea lice infection on wild Pacific salmon and sea lice from open-net pen salmon farms. Independent scientists requested the data analyzed in DFO’s risk assessment so that they could verify and validate findings made in the risk assessment. Sixteen months later, DFO responded to the request but redacted all of the relevant data and information necessary to validate the risk assessment.

bottom of page