Most Sampled B.C. Salmon Farms Had HSMI, and Independent Pathologists Confirmed It
Scientists from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of British Columbia repeatedly examined open-net pen salmon farms in British Columbia over more than a year. They found outbreaks of the viral disease heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, or HSMI, on most farms sampled, and three independent pathologists confirmed the diagnosis. First Nations subsequently removed the farms from their territories. The findings suggest HSMI outbreaks are much more common on farms in B.C. than Fisheries and Oceans Canada reports.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has repeatedly downplayed the significance of these findings, emphasizing uncertainty over whether the disease occurs in the region because it applies diagnostic criteria more stringent than those used in other salmon-farming regions.
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The detail that matters is who helped write the stricter criteria: Fisheries and Oceans Canada developed them alongside the aquaculture industry itself.
Working alongside industry is not proof of capture. What makes the concern serious is that First Nations, independent scientists, NGOs and even the department's own scientists have repeatedly raised questions about whether its science advice is sufficiently independent from its policy mandate to promote and regulate aquaculture.