American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The coast of British Columbia (BC) is host to runs of salmon that have been the economic, social, and cultural basis of Northwest Coast Native societies for millennia. Wild salmon hatch in streams and spend varying amounts of time there before migrating to the ocean. After spending up to several years in the ocean, these fish return to their natal streams to spawn once, then die. These spawning cycles facilitated productive Native fisheries over the centuries and, since the 1870s, industrial fisheries for global markets. Today, industrial salmon aquaculture sites can be found almost everywhere in the protected waters near shore, along the migration routes of what were once flourishing populations of Pacific salmon. Fish farms compound the destructive effects of more than a century of logging, overfishing, and urbanization on the wild salmon fisheries. The most direct and striking impacts of fish farms—ones that are directly observed by many local Native people—are the spread of fish diseases and waste materials into the surrounding habitat. Sea lice infestations of wild stocks are on the rise: these parasites and other disease organisms concentrate in the densely stocked net pens and appear to spread easily to passing wild salmon. Although a few fish farms are stocked with chinook salmon, a species that is native to the region, most farm sites contain Atlantic salmon. The reality of salmon escapes from net pens and the fact that Atlantic salmon originating from fish farms have been shown to spawn successfully in BC’s rivers have raised grave concerns about the ecological consequences of the invasion of local streams by this exotic species of salmon. Furthermore, the effects of the sewage emanating from fish farms are often noted by Native people using traditional clam digging and fishing spots.