ACFFA chief slams shellfish tycoon’s attack on salmon farming

John Risley, retired co-founder of North America’s largest shellfish producer, Clearwater Seafoods, called for a moratorium on salmon farming expansion in an article in Atlantic Business magazine’s website.

Risley claimed farmed salmon “may, in fact, represent a deadly enemy to salmon’s survival” due to in-breeding of escaped farmed fish and wild stock, “exposing them to diseases previously unknown to the species, reducing their fitness and productivity strength”.

‘Salmon extinction’

He continued: “Ultimately, this can lead to the extinction - yes, the extinction - of wild salmon in river systems proximate to aquaculture activity.”

Risley also claimed farmed fish were artificially coloured and fed an inferior soy-based diet.

He claimed he was “increasingly aware that members of our government’s science community are concerned about the environmental costs of salmon aquaculture as it is currently carried out on the south coast of Newfoundland (and for that matter the southwest coast of Nova Scotia and the south coast of New Brunswick)”.

“We desperately need an open and informed debate,” said the tycoon, adding that no expansion should be allowed until it had taken place.

‘Lack of knowledge’

In a response in Atlantic Business, Farquharson criticised Risley’s “astonishing lack of knowledge” about the industry.

“Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector will not sit idly by in silence while a former wild seafood mogul John Risley, with no aquaculture experience, spouts opinions not based in fact about how salmon are grown, about our farming practices and about our globally-respected scientists,” said Farquharson, adding that “the assertion that farmed salmon caused the decline of wild salmon is false”.

The executive pointed out that there were many known factors contributing to wild salmon decline, and that farmed salmon eat a formulated feed with high quality ingredients. Salmon farmers were audited by third party certification programs for their entire supply chain, ensuring salmon is produced through environmentally and socially responsible means.

‘Do your own research’

She concluded: “A word of advice Mr Risley to quote a well-known phrase: ‘Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.’

“The next time you want to muse about Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector, I suggest you scrub off those windows and do some research of your own rather than allowing select anti-salmon farming activists to use you as a puppet.”

Read both articles in full here.