Open-net cages threaten wild salmon

Re: Boston Legal Vs. Fish Farms, Brian Hutchinson, Oct. 8.

The transfer of sea-lice from farmed salmon to wild salmon in British Columbia is without doubt an enormously contentious issue.

As I explained to your reporter, an overwhelming body of evidence points to a direct link between the open-net industrial salmon pens and the fatal outbreaks of sea-lice on juvenile wild salmon. To characterize my comments as “acknowledgement” that the research is “conflicting and often inconclusive” misrepresents the science, my statements and the position of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform ( CAAR).

Peer-reviewed analysis from around the world is unequivocal: open-net cage salmon farms threaten wild salmon. Only the aquaculture industry and their defenders in government stubbornly claim otherwise. CAAR supports a transition to closed, contained fish pens to allow the industry to continue while protecting ocean ecosystems and our irreplaceable wild salmon stocks.