Fishermen file injunction against DFO and hatchery in effort to protect wild sablefish

For immediate release
July 5, 2004

The Canadian Sablefish Association will launch an injunction in federal in court in Vancouver today, against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Sablefin Hatcheries Ltd. to stop the transfer of the world’s first farmed sablefish to open water net pens in BC waters.

“We have witnessed the devastation of wild salmon stocks by industrial salmon farming practices.  We have to stop the same thing happening to sablefish,” said Eric Wickham, Executive Director of the Canadian Sablefish Association. 

This injunction is the continuation of a 3-year legal struggle that the Canadian Sablefish Association (CSA) has undertaken to force government to be responsible and precautionary in their dual role to both support and regulate the development of new species in the aquaculture industry.  “ In the absence of DFO upholding their legislative responsibility under the Fisheries Act to act as stewards of the wild fish resource, fisherman are taking on that responsibility” Wickham said.

The CSA funded a preliminary study of the environmental impacts of sablefish farming on the wild resource. Over 20 diseases and parasites common to adult sablefish were identified.  Genetic risks and habitat concerns were also pointed out in this study.

The CSA has learned that the world’s first sablefish hatchery on Saltspring Island will soon move thousands of cultivated juvenile sablefish to two ocean net pen sites in BC’s coastal inlets. 

There has been no proper environmental assessment done for sablefish rearing in ocean net pens.  In fact, the criteria to do an environmental assessment for sablefish have not even been developed yet.  Regardless, the government and Sablefin Hatcheries are pushing ahead with this project.  The inlets of the BC coast are rearing areas for juvenile wild sablefish.   These sablefish farm sites will expose wild juveniles to countless parasite, disease and genetic risks just as salmon farms have affected juvenile wild salmon. “It appears DFO has learned nothing from their experience with salmon farming.  Allowing these feed lot operations in wild juvenile rearing areas is tragically irresponsible,” Wickham emphasised.

For more information please contact: 

Eric Wickham,
Executive Director Canadian Sablefish Association
604 915-9117 or 604 790-6371

Mr. Richard Pollard,
Lawyer, Richards Buell Sutton
604-661-9215 or 604-682-3664