Going Up the Chain to Get to the Bottom of the Greig Seafoods Penned-Salmon Die-Off

Morton seeks answers from Grieg over farmed salmon die-off

by Alexandra Morton - Common Sense Canadian

Dear Mr. Per Grieg Jr. owner Grieg Seafood (per.grieg@grieg.no):

Several weeks ago I received reports that salmon in your Skuna Bay farms were dying in large numbers.

A “mort-sucker” removes dead farmed salmon from a Grieg pen in Nootka Sound (photo: Alexandra Morton)
 
I visited these farms in Nootka Sound and confirmed the reports were accurate.


 I wrote a letter to your CEO, Morten Vike asking what the fish are dying of, who made the diagnosis and the actual test results so that I could repeat the tests and verify.

Mr Vike did not answer my questions, instead he went to INTRAFISH and called my “allegations” “utter nonsense.” Mr Vike went on to say there had been an algae bloom and that “the fish in Nootka Sound are healthy.”

One week later, I returned to your farms called Concepcion Point and Williamson and filmed large hoses sucking hundreds of dead salmon out of your pens into rusting dumpsters. They were not “healthy,” they were dead and they were apparently garbage. I wrote to your CEO, Morten Vike a second time, but he has still refused to answer. This makes it appear that Grieg Seafoods is hiding the true reason the salmon in your pens are dying.

Large amounts of dying farmed Atlantic salmon not only present a risk to the wild salmon of Nootka Sound, they also pose a risk to the most important Canadian salmon stock, known as the Fraser Sockeye. Your company is taking the fish that are still alive amongst the dead, rotting fish, trucking them across Vancouver Island and getting them processed on Quadra Island where the outfall pipe pours into the migration route of the Fraser sockeye.

I have co-authored a scientific paper on this outfall pipe and the risk it poses to the wild salmon of western Canada.

You can see the film of the mort suckers and the details at: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com

I recognize that the governments of Canada and British Columbia are weak and ineffective in protecting wild salmon from the impacts of the Norwegian salmon farms that are sitting in every wild salmon migration route of southern BC, but that does not mean the Canadian people feel the same way.

Can you address the citizens of Canada in a manner fitting of a Norwegian company raising Norwegian salmon in the Pacific Ocean and give us the truth about why the salmon in your pens are dying? As you must know it is very unclear in Canada as to who owns the fish in your pens.

I await your reply,

Alexandra Morton
Independent Biologist 

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