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DFO ignored Precautionary Principle in sustainable fisheries management – Former Ministers didn't

The Precautionary Principle is a pillar of Canada’s management fisheries, including aquaculture. The Precautionary Principle requires governments to prevent environmental harm by anticipating, preventing, and attacking the causes of environmental degradation. Governments cannot use scientific uncertainty to avoid that responsibility or to delay action that will avoid serious harm to fish stocks or their ecosystems.

 

DFO has a history of not adhering to the Precautionary Principle. Twice, DFO ignored the Precautionary Principle when recommending that open-net pen feedlots could remain in the Discovery Islands. Two successive Ministers of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard ignored that bad and unlawful advice to deny aquaculture licences in the Discovery Islands. Most recently, in 2023, former Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray embraced the Precautionary Principle in her decision to remove open-net pen salmon farms from the Discovery Islands in BC.

In June 2024, the Federal Court confirmed the Minister was right and DFO was wrong. The Federal Court noted that in contrast to DFO’s analysis, the Minister considered how the science and her legal duties–including the protection and conservation of fish and the Precautionary Principle–factored into her departure from DFO’s advice.

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The Federal Court also found that "the Minister met the requirement of the duty to consult" and "did not breach the Operators' right to procedural fairness."

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“We can’t afford any manageable stresses because the failure to protect wild salmon is simply not an option.”

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– Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard

FNWSA calls on the Fisheries Minister to apply the Precautionary Principle outlined in Canada's Ocean Act to remove all salmon farms from BC waters

The Fisheries Minister must continue to embrace the Precautionary Principle to fulfill the federal government's mandate to transition all remaining open-net pen salmon farms from coastal BC waters. As stated in the federal courts, this approach requires the removal of all salmon farms on the east coast of Vancouver Island, as they pose a direct threat to juvenile wild Pacific salmon migrating from the Fraser River. It defies good governance, responsible management and the Ocean's Act that the same principle enacted in the Discovery Islands cannot be applied to the same migration route a few miles up the coast.

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“We're clear in our messaging to the Minister and her officials that they're doing harm to our right, doing harm to our relation to the salmon, our relation to the river. They must continue their mandate to continue removing the open-net pen fish farms from the migratory routes.”

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– Tyrone McNeil, President, Stó:lō Tribal Council

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