Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc fields questions as the Liberal cabinet meets in St. John's, N.L. on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. An international corporate watchdog says Leblanc needs to immediately stop fish farms from spewing untreated blood water into the ocean after their fish are processed.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
November 29, 2017 - 11:33 AM
OTTAWA - An international corporate watchdog says Fisheries Minister Dominic Leblanc needs to immediately stop fish farms from spewing untreated blood water into the ocean after their fish are processed.
A video filmed by a B.C. photographer going viral this week shows clouds of red liquid billowing out of a pipe under the surface of the water.
Tavish Campbell, the photographer who made the video, says testing showed the blood-tainted water contained piscine reovirus which is deadly to wild salmon.
His video shows the bloodwater being released just a few hundred metres from a school of juvenile wild salmon and along one of the main migratory routes for Pacific wild salmon.
Sum of Us, a U.K.-based advocacy group targeting corporations it believes are acting unethically, launched a petition Wednesday calling on Leblanc to force companies to properly treat wastewater so there are no viruses or other pathogens that can harm wildlife.
Spokeswoman Emma Pullman said there are no regulations in Canada at either the provincial or federal level to control or monitor what is in the wastewater released into from fish farms and processing plants.
Blood Water: B.C.’s Dirty Salmon Farming Secret from Tavish Campbell on Vimeo.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2017