From the Rainforest: Fish Farms in Parks?!

August-September 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Dan Lewis

I left my sou’wester rainhat with our cabinsitter just before we paddled away from our beach. Although it was raining lightly, I had a canvas sunhat along, and just how hard could it rain in early June, anyway?

It rained very hard the rest of that day, and all through the night. We didn’t sleep well that night, as we hadn’t brought a tent (at my urging—go light, go fast!). So I had to surrender to Bonny the 1-person bivvy bag I normally use to stay comfortable in such situations.

By the time we arrived at the mouth of the Megin River the second morning, we had been skunked. The rainfall had flooded the river over its banks, and the rapid at the mouth was roaring, pushing white foam a quarter mile out into the bay.

We sat on the beach glumly, pondering our course. Our plan had been to paddle the kayaks up the river to the lake, a plan which was clearly not going to happen this week. The Megin is a large, pristine watershed in Clayoquot Sound, over twenty thousand hectares in size. It’s a beautiful river, with wild bears and wolves feeding on runs of all five species of salmon. The entire valley was designated a park by the BC government in 1993, a major conservation victory which was never celebrated, due to their decision to open most of the other pristine watersheds to clear-cutting.

The Megin and adjacent Moyeha River valley, make up the largest chunk of protected ancient temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island, and the southernmost large expanse in North America. In conservation biology terms, this relatively large protected area would form the ‘core’ of an enlightened land use plan. The core would be augmented by buffer zones of reduced industrial activity.

A mere mile from the mouth of the Megin, on the southern side of Shelter Inlet, lies Obstruction Island. This island was also designated a park in 1993, mostly because there were no plans to log it anyway, and it is an important scenic feature along the inside passage to Hot Springs Cove.

And there, right along the shore of Obstruction Island, sat a fish farm. We were shocked to see it not only along the shore of a park, but also so close to the core protected area of Clayoquot Sound. Farmed fish escapements are not uncommon, and it was obvious from our vantage point where a horde of escaped Atlantic salmon would likely head—straight up the “protected” Megin River! Then we heard a very industrial- sounding engine throbbing, and around the corner came a supply boat, belching out obnoxious black fumes…

There are many perspectives in land use planning. From a kayaker’s recreational perspective, it doesn’t make sense to us to paddle for two days to get to the heart of the Clayoquot Sound wilderness, only to find a fish farm located in a park.

Turns out this farm had been there before the park designation. The farm license was to be retained upon creation of the park, but the farm was to be re-located outside park boundaries, as industrial fish farming is incompatible with parks.

Last fall Pacific National Aquaculture (PNA) applied for a Park Use Permit to continue operating a farm inside the Obstruction Island park boundaries. The reason they gave was that all their other sites were contaminated with IHN, a disease which exists in the wild, but is magnified by the high concentrations of fish in the farm netcages. There is no saying that this disease will not also infest the farm inside the park.

Not only did they get the Obstruction Island permit in December, it was conveniently back-dated to October 15th 2002, the date they had actually put fish in the water at that site. Joyce Murray, the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection was not obliged to issue this permit. She had the ability to use her discretion, and to actually cancel the permit. Instead she bent over backwards to accommodate PNA, who obviously weren’t willing to wait for a mere technicality like a park use permit.

It’s bad enough that many of the protected bays and coves where kayakers have traditionally camped are now occupied by fish farms. Now they are beginning to be sited in parks. This is starting to happen in other areas of Vancouver Island, including Kyuquot and Nootka Sounds.

Our local environment group, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound (www.focs.ca), is a member of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform. I urge you to check out the CAAR website (www.farmedanddangerous.org), and to ask before you buy, whether it’s wild or farmed. By refusing to buy farmed salmon, you can send a strong message to the salmon farming industry that you don’t want fish farms polluting the ocean environment in which you enjoy paddling.

You can also contact Ms. Murray, and ask her to not renew the Obstruction Island permit, and to use her powers to keep fish farms out of “Super Natural” BC’s parks. Phone: 250-387-1187. Fax: 250-387-1356.

Email: joyce.murray.mla@leg.bc.ca.

You may well be wondering what happened to us that rainy day in June. We decided that since we’d paddled over 20 miles north of Tofino, and we had a house-sitter for the next 6 days, that we’d just paddle on to Hot Springs Cove. There we discovered that if it rains hard enough, the temperature of the springs plummets. And also, that during extreme high tides, the pools are filled with saltwater!

At that point something snapped. We decided to head for home. Turns out the cabin-sitter was only too glad to escape our island refuge, and we were left to enjoy the gently pounding patter of June rains on the roof, with a brisk cedar fire crackling in the woodstove.

© Dan Lewis and Bonny Glambeck operate Rainforest Kayak Adventures in Clayoquot Sound 1-877-422-WILD

Email: mail@rainforestkayak.com Web: www.rainforestkayak.com