Indigenous groups say they can’t trust Canada’s fisheries minister after salmon-farming permit decision

Indigenous chiefs representing a range of communities in British Columbia, Canada, traveled to the country’s capital of Ottawa to make opposing arguments for and against net-pen aquaculture in the province’s coastal waters.

Two separate Indigenous factions, advocating for and against future aquaculture operations in the region, held press conferences on the issue, which has been brought to a head by a Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans' decision to deny license renewals for 15 open-net pen Atlantic salmon farms in the Discovery Islands, located in B.C.

One group, the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship, formed to assert tribal rights and sovereignty in favor of continuing finfish aquaculture in B.C. Chiefs representing some of the tribes met in Ottawa to meet federal decision makers, and the coalition called for current Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray to resign after her decision to close the farms.

“After the disrespectful and damaging decision to close salmon farms in my territory in the Discovery Islands without consent of Rightsholder First Nations, we as a coalition can no longer trust that Minister Murray can deliver a thoughtful, unbiased transition plan for the remaining salmon farms in the sovereign territories of Nations that wish to host them,” Wei Wai Kum First Nation Elected Chief Councilor Chris Roberts said. “It makes no sense that the government of Canada is trying to shut down any sustainable salmon farming supported by Nations when DFO’s own science says just that – it is sustainable.”

A central part of the debate over the presence of aquaculture in the region is its impacts on wild salmon populations in the area and whether farmed salmon spread disease and sea lice to their wild counterparts. A study recently published by the DFO exploring the connection between sea lice and wild salmon found little link – but other scientists claimed that the study was flawed.  

Some First Nations groups, in contrast to the coalition, are opposed to salmon farming on the grounds it puts the wild salmon populations they traditionally relied on at risk. Darren Blaney, chief of the Xwemalkwu First Nation – known as “the people of the fast-running waters” and whose traditional territory includes the Discovery Islands – argued against salmon farming in B.C., the Globe and Mail reported. He told the publication that since some farms closed in 2020, baby wild salmon have looked healthier.

Roberts, however, said members of the coalition do steward wild salmon populations as they have done for generations.

“We are the original environmentalists, not the fancy downtown activists. We have stewarded wild salmon for thousands of years, and our guardians and monitors continue to protect it,” Roberts said. “We protect the wild salmon while at the same time exploring opportunities of a growing sustainable salmon farming industry that supports the future of our communities in keeping with the laws and traditions of our people.”

Since the DFO started making decisions on the future of B.C. aquaculture, 40 percent of salmon farms in the province have been removed, the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association said in a release. That has resulted in harm to communities that rely on the farms, and has also caused Canadian farmed salmon prices to go up.

“We are very worried, and Canadians should be worried too. Minister Murray is on a path to reduce or eliminate salmon farming in Canada. She is ignoring the science of her own department. She is ignoring our voices, and has demonstrated she can’t be trusted,” Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation Councilor Isaiah Robinson said. “Canadians in any resource industry would resent their jobs being wiped out by the bias of one Minister in Ottawa, especially when there are no new jobs in their communities to replace them.”  

Photo courtesy of the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Aquaculture