APES Launches a New Billboard Campaign

In the wake of news that ISA-diseased farmed salmon is being processed for human consumption, Eastern Shore residents have launched a bold new billboard campaign designed to educate consumers about the possible health risks associated with eating open pen farmed salmon.

Located on North Barrington Street, north of the Halifax Shipyards, the salmon flesh-coloured billboard reads: “Don’t want to risk eating ISA diseased fish? Don’t buy open pen farmed Atlantic salmon.” Consumers interested in more information are directed to a website, NSapes.ca, operated by the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES), a group formed to oppose the imposition of open pen salmon farms in their bays.

APES’ President, Dr. Marike Finlay, reports that the group decided to launch their billboard campaign when, in January 2013 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) cleared Cooke Aquaculture to process fish with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) for human consumption, “despite the fact that this is an internationally reportable disease that has required the wholesale destruction of the fish in every other jurisdiction.”

Cooke Aquaculture has confirmed that it would not be separating or otherwise marking fish from the disease site at the consumer sale end.

“If this is true,” says Dr. Finlay, “we do not see how a consumer could determine whether the Atlantic salmon filets they buy in the store have been contaminated by the disease or not. We think people should know this. It’s the only way they can have a choice about it.”

APES’ members are concerned that there have been nine recorded outbreaks of ISA in the Maritimes in the last 18 months, and four new viral strains. Patricia Ouellette, an officer with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told the CBC in a recent report that the CFIA has “shifted gears to preventing the spread of the disease and no longer considers eradication an option.”

“It’s in the water now,” says Bill Williams, Vice-President of APES. “We think that’s why the CFIA changed its policy, and is now letting companies grow out and harvest ISA-infected fish for human consumption because they say it’s not harmful to humans. But ISA also endangers the wild fish that swim by those pens, the herring, which is an important commercial fish, and the recovering wild salmon and cod stocks. Now why in the world would we want to feed our kids sick fish and endanger our wild stocks? Neither one makes sense.”

Dr. Alexandra Morton, a marine biologist who gave the Ransom A. Meyers lecture at Dalhousie University in 2012, has argued that “it’s probably not a good idea” to eat ISA infected salmon. According to Dr. Morton, “ISA is an influenza-type virus, and influenza-type viruses can mutate in unpredictable ways. We know that pathogens are becoming more virulent all the time; I believe events like this really can risk human health safety.”

Press contact: Marike Finlay 902 654-2265 marike.finlay@gmail.com
Press release written by Karin Cope
Photograph credit: Kristy Depper

Articles referenced in this release:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/01/19/nb-quarantined-salmon.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/01/28/nb-infectious-salmon-anemia-prevention-730.html
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2013/02/the-canadian-food-inspection-agency-cfia-has-declared-240000-isa-virus-contaminated-feedlot-salmon-are-fit-for-canadian-co.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/02/01/infected_salmon_declared_fit_for_human_consumption_by_canadian_food_inspection_agency.html

APES STATEMENT ON EATING ISA DISEASED FISH

Don’t want to risk eating ISA diseased fish?

Don’t buy open pen farmed Atlantic salmon.

In January 2013 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) cleared Cooke Aquaculture to process fish with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) for human consumption, despite the fact that this is an internationally reportable disease that has required the wholesale destruction of the fish in every other jurisdiction.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/01/19/nb-quarantined-salmon.html

Cooke Aquaculture confirmed that it would not be separating or otherwise marking fish from the disease site at the consumer sale end. Sobeys grocery stores have said that they would not knowingly sell diseased fish—we congratulate them for this stance; not all grocers have taken it—but in fact, it is impossible to determine whether the salmon you buy in the stores are from the disease site or not, since the diseased fish were not, apparently, labeled as such. http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/636034-cooke-anemia-infected-fish-can-be-sold-like-other-farmed-salmon or beginning at 16:53, listen to http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2334181521,2334182117,2334182479

We find it ironic and deeply disturbing that the CFIA requires significant protective regulations for the processing of these fish, that they warn against using “finfish that were bought in a grocery store as bait for catching finfish or other aquatic animals,” and suggest wearing protective footwear and garb around finfish, but still declare that processed ISA diseased fish is fit for us to eat. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/aquatic-animals/diseases/reportable/isa/fact-sheet/eng/1327198930863/1327199219511

We think we’d rather not risk it. We don’t know how bad ISA could be for us—the research on that really hasn’t been done-- but we do know that it is dangerous, even deadly for the wild herring, cod and salmon that swim by diseased, quarantined salmon feedlots—the Cohen Commission in BC has amply demonstrated that. http://salmonconfidential.ca/

Put simply, diseased or not, open pen salmon isn’t good for you. Treated with dyes, pesticides and antibiotics and raised in pens treated with various heavy metals, open pen farmed salmon may contain contaminants that can cause serious health risks for humans. Consumption of more than one meal of open pen farmed salmon per month could pose unacceptable cancer risks according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s methods for calculating fish consumption advisories. See http://www.albany.edu/ihe/salmonstudy/

NOTE: All “Fresh Atlantic salmon,” or “farmed salmon” for sale in restaurants or grocery stores, whole or in fillets, anywhere in North America, is open pen farmed salmon. “Wild” salmon is always some variety of wild Pacific salmon.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• DON’T BUY and DON’T EAT OPEN PEN FARMED SALMON!

http://www.salmonfeedlotboycott.com/

• Write to or call Premier Dexter demanding a halt to open pen finfish farming in Nova Scotia.
  Toll-free Message Line: 1-800-267-1993
  E-mail Address: premier@gov.ns.ca
  Address:
  Office of the Premier
  PO Box 726 Halifax, Nova Scotia
  B3J 2T3

• Sign our petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-pen-finfish-farming-on-nova-scotia-s-shore

• DONATE to help us continue this battle.

• Join our facebook group: Eastern Shore Residents Against Open Salmon Farming

• Inform yourself and others. Watch Salmon Wars and Salmon Confidential and check out our website and other links provided here. Share what you find out with family and friends.