Email the Minister of Fisheries

BC wild salmon are headed for extinction and farm salmon infected with the piscine orthoreovirus are a serious threat.

So many farm salmon are infected with this virus, that Canada is going to change its laws to allow the salmon farming industry to continue to put infected fish into marine pens along the BC coast. On April 4, 2016, DFO received preliminary results from a Norwegian virologist on the virulence of the virus, but someone covered the eleven lines of text reporting the results.

Before the Minister of Fisheries changes the law, he needs the facts and we need the facts. We need to see this email.

Unredact the test results for the virus PRV

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Goal: 2500

Before the Minister of Fisheries changes the law to legalize the transfer of farm salmon infected with the blood virus PRV into marine fish farms, we need see what has been covered up in an email from a Norwegian virologist.

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Dear Minister of Fisheries, Jonathan Wilkinson:
CC: my local MP

After losing three lawsuits, you are now trying to change the law to allow PRV-infected farm salmon into fish farms. Before you do this, we need know what the Norwegian virologist told DFO about the virulence of this virus.

To protect wild salmon, section 56 of the Fishery (General) Regulations prohibits the Minister of Fisheries from transferring fish infected with a “disease agent” into marine net pen fish farms.

The salmon farming industry argued in court that this law “severely impacts” their business, because so many farm salmon are infected with PRV.  PRV is a Norwegian blood virus associated with massive blood cell rupture and organ failure in Chinook salmon.

Three Ministers before you ignored the Federal Court ruling that farm salmon must be screened for PRV before issuing a licence to transfer them from hatcheries into marine farms.

As a result, wild salmon exposed to salmon farms are becoming infected with PRV and many runs of wild salmon are sliding towards extinction.

Your department’s position is that PRV is not harmful.

However, on April 4, 2016, DFO received virulence test results from a Norwegian virologist.  Eleven lines of this email were redacted.  Despite DFO promises to be transparent, requests for the information in this email have been denied.

Before you change the laws of Canada to fit the salmon farming industry by legalizing PRV-infected farm salmon, we need to review all information on how virulent PRV is to salmon.

Please release the unredacted version of the April 4, 2016 email from Dr. Rimstad to Dr. Kyle Garver (DFO).

Thank you,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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