New research shows sea lice from salmon farms infect Fraser River sockeye salmon

Sidney, B.C. - A new study published yesterday in the journal Public Library of Science ONE by researchers from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, and the Universities of Victoria and Simon Fraser provides the first link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon.

LINK

B.C. developer touts salmon-rearing tank over fish farms

“I came out of the net industry and appreciate all of the issues of rearing salmon in net cages” said Richard Buchanan, CEO of Vancouver-based AgriMarine Holdings, citing disease, sea lice, fish escapes and waste deposits that contaminate shellfish.

Buchanan says his system will prove that healthy salmon can be produced for about the same cost, and with less environmental damage, as salmon grown in marine net cages.

Net farmers are skeptical that fish can be raised in tanks as economically as in net pens.

LINK (Via:The GLobe and Mail)

Lawsuit filed over Russian River gravel mining

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has elected to approve the withdrawal of up to 350,000 tons of gravel from the Russian River every year for a period of 15 years.

Russian Riverkeeper and the Redwood Empire chapter of Trout Unlimited have now filed a lawsuit alleging the level of mining proposed by will harm the river, its beleaguered salmon and steelhead populations and riverside landowners.

LINK (Via: The Press Democrat)

The project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) says that a truck route will be built along the riverbank, complete with several bridges, to transport the gravel from 15 mining sites along a 6.5 mile stretch of the river. Trucks would join public roads at Geyserville en route to the Syar processing plant on Healdsburg Avenue in Healdsburg. Up to 480 truck trips per day are envisaged.

LINK (Via:The Sonoma County Gazette)

Washington State cuts Salmon in the Classroom program

Every year, 40,000 schoolchildren in the state are introduced to the life of salmon through the Salmon in the Classroom program. But due to state budget cuts the program is ending in January.

LINK (Via: The Seattle Times)

Maybe the state should just close one of their useless hatcheries so we can continue to educate future generations about the importance of salmon?

The Salmon People

"The Salmon People" is a documentary about the struggle of Alaska's Natives to survive without Chinook salmon while corporations catch their fish and dump them overboard as trash in the quest for fish sticks and the filet-o-fish sandwich.

And the beat goes on.

A record amount of chinook salmon bycatch by the trawl fleet in the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery this fall has triggered another consultation under the Endangered Species Act.

Although the initial estimate of 58,336 chinook in the Gulf has been revised down to 52,401, the total is still well above the threshold of 40,000 fish that requires consultation under the ESA.

LINK (Via: The Alaska Journal of Commerce)

Stay of Execution

A federal appeals court has halted the killing of sea lions who make fast food of endangered salmon and steelhead at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

LINK (Via: KOMO)