A Salmon farm on the coast of British Columbia has been invaded by a group of Sea Lions, raising alarm among conservation groups, who fear they may become habituated to the environment. The Rant Point Salmon Farm near Tofino was the subject of an 'invasion event' in mid-March, according to Cermaq, the Norwegian multinational that runs the site, along with several others on the coast of British Columbia, and at other sites in Norway and Chile. However, conservation groups were not informed of the event until Sunday 3 April, when a Whale-watching trip observed the Sea Lions moving in and out of pens.
Several previous Sea Lion invasions have been recorded at Salmon Farms in British Columbia, resulting in heavy losses of Fish stocks (Sea Lions can consume up to three times their own bodymass in Fish each day, piling on fat which enables them to survive seasonal food shortages), and numerous Sea Lion deaths through entanglement. During a previous invasion at Rant Point in 2016, the Canadian Department of Fisheries allowed the company to shoot the offending Sea Lions, but this stance has not been repeated in 2022, with the same body insisting that only methods which remove the Animals without hurting them can be used. This is part of a wider change in policy on Salmon farming in Canada, which now wants to see the practice phased out by 2025, following years of campaigning by conservation and indigenous rights groups.
Salmon farming on the coast of British Columbia brings employment to the area, and enables farmers to access lucrative US markets easily, but, as in other areas where it is practiced, is strongly opposed by environmental groups. Farmed Salmon, which live at far higher densities than would naturally be the case, are seen as a reserve for Salmon diseases, which can go on to infect wild Salmon, with potentially devastating effects on wild populations. This has potential knock-on effects for many other species, including marine predators such as Sea Lions which rely upon them for food, but also Bears and even forest trees far from the shore. This is due to the complex life cycle of the Salmon, which spend much of their lives at sea, acquiring nutrients from marine sources, before swimming back up the rivers where they were born to mate, spawn, and die. Since most natural processes tend to wash nutrients downstream from the land to the sea, this makes Salmon important ecosystem engineers in British Colombia and other areas of natural temperate rainforests.
Salmon farms are also seen as highly poluting. This is because Salmon are predatory Fish, requiring farmed Salmon to be fed with Fish meal (generally made from wild-caught Fish species not favoured as food by Humans, raising further concerns about links between Salmon farming and overfishing), with the effect that both waste food and Salmon droppings are potential environment-changing pollutants. Furthermore, the problem of infections spreading easily within Salmon farms often results in farmers dosing the water with antibiotics and other medications, causing further environmental problems, and potentially leading to the spread of anti-biotic resistance in marine pathogens.
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