FishyLeaks
Canadian Cover-Up on Infectious Salmon Virus
Exclusive Documents Online Now!
Fishyleaks (Part 5), 19 December 2011
Creative Salmon and AquaBounty Test Positive for ISA!
The Cohen Commission have shamefully still failed to post online any Exhibits from Day 2 of the ISA hearings and have only posted half of the Exhibits from Day 1 - and no Transcripts at all.
Exhibits NOT yet posted by the Cohen Commission but made public here include:
- A letter from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency detailing ISA in AquaBounty's GE salmon facility in Prince Edward Island: read online here
- Positive ISA tests results for chinook farmed salmon in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Creative Salmon): read online here
- An email from Dr. Kristi Miller states that Creative Salmon's ISA positive test results have now been reported to the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency): read online here
Read a transcript of Day 1 exclusively online here
And monitor the Cohen Commission's web-site for postings of Exhibits and Transcripts - they may get around to informing the Canadian public after their Xmas party or in the New Year sometime (if they can be bothered).
Read more via "What's Cohen On?"
More Fishyleaks exclusives below - scroll down to other documents released since the first Fishyleak in October
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Fishyleaks (Part 4), 17 December, 2011
Read a transcript of the Cohen Commission's ISA hearing on Day 1 (15 December) - download in full online here
The Cohen Commission shamefully waits for over a week and sometimes as long as two weeks to publicly post transcripts on their web-site.
Yet, 'accredited media' such as Mark Hume of The Globe & Mail receive transcripts the same day. Since the public are paying the $25 million bill for this public inquiry, Fishyleaks feels that the public have every right to read what's going on at the Cohen Commission (especially since Justice Cohen has banned livestreaming).
The transcript includes testimony by Dr. Kristi Miller:
Download in full online here
The Cohen Commission may have not posted transcripts yet but they have posted Exhibits for Day 1 (15 December) - including:
Download online here
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Fishyleaks (Part 3), December 13, 2011
Government biologist blows whistle on inadequate ISA security measures
Read a submission by Dr. Sally Goldes to the Cohen Commission - download the report here in full
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Read more background in The Times Colonist (December 13): "Fish health regulations called inadequate: Ex-government biologist questions federal assurances on salmon virus"
Fishyleaks (Part 2), November 30, 2011
Read a secret Government report detailing over 100 positive ISA cases in farmed Atlantic and wild Pacific salmon - download online here
Information kept secret from the Canadian public and the international community relates to 117 positive tests for ISA in farmed Atlantic and wild Pacific salmon from Southeast Alaska, the Bering Sea, Queen Charlotte Strait, the West Coast of Vancouver Island and Cultus Lake between August 2002 and April 2003. A map included in the undated and unpublished report details the sampling locations across the Pacific Ocean – in U.S. and Canadian waters:
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Such non-disclosure by the Canadian Government constitutes a breach of Canada’s international obligations to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), trade partners and to its neighbours in the United States, Russia and Japan who have valuable wild salmon resources.
The report – co-authored by staff at the Department of Fisheries Oceans (DFO Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo and the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island - states that: “These results lead us to conclude that an asymptomatic form of ISA occurs among some species of wild Pacific salmon in the north Pacific.”
The report details over one hundred positive tests for ISA in farmed Atlantic salmon (in ‘Saltwater’) and wild Pacific salmon (sockeye, pink and chinook) caught ‘Inside East Alaska’, ‘Inside Vancouver Island (inlets)’, ‘Vancouver Island and along the coast of Vancouver Island’, ‘Queen Charlotte Strait’, ‘Estavan Point’, ‘Dixon Entrance’, ‘Forrester Island’ and ‘Cultus Lake’.
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The 117 positive tests for ISA included 64 positives in sockeye salmon (out of 103 samples); 37 positives in chinook salmon (out of 116 samples); 15 positives in pink salmon (out of 88 samples); and one positive in farmed Atlantic salmon in saltwater (out of 2 samples). Over half of the positive tests were from Cultus Lake sockeye – where 100% tested positive for ISA (64 out of 64 samples). 10 out of 37 chinook caught ‘Inside East Alaska’ tested positive for ISA and 22 out of 40 chinook caught ‘Inside Vancouver Island (inlets)’ tested positive. The ISA-infected farmed Atlantic salmon “had 98% identity to most Canadian ISAV isolates” and “93% identical to European isolates”.
In summary, the ISA virus found in the infected fish was “94% to 98% homologous with Canadian ISAV isolates and 92% to 93% with European ISAV isolates.” ISA detected in chinook salmon “had an identity of 99.7% and 95.8% with ISAV isolates 810/9/99 from Norway and NBISA01 from New Brunswick, respectively”. According to the report, ISA was successfully sequenced and 22% of the salmon tested positive for ISA (it should read 117 instead of 116 of 520 samples).
The report ends with the following ‘Discussion’:
Download the report in full online here
Testing within the last few months has revealed a further seven positive tests – with the European genotype of ISA reported in sockeye salmon from Rivers Inlet and coho salmon from the Fraser River. The seven positives, reported by the OIE Reference Laboratory at the University of Prince Edward Island and the University of Bergen in Norway, included three sockeye, two coho, one chinook and one chum salmon (more background via ‘Chronology of a Cover-Up in Canada: ISA in British Columbia’).
Read more details via:
"Canadian Cover-up on Infectious Salmon Virus - Leaked report reveals over 100 positive ISA cases in farmed and wild salmon" (November 30)
“Chronology of a Cover-Up in Canada: ISA in British Columbia” (November 25)
“Positively Negative - How the CFIA Failed to Defuse ISA in BC” (November 9)
“ISA Spreads to Fraser River Chinook and Chum Salmon; European strain in Coho; Confirmed in Sockeye” (November 2)
“Fishyleaks: ISA reported in coho salmon in the Fraser River” (October 31)
“Nightmare on the Fraser River” (October 31)
“The Man With the Smoking Gun” (October 24)
“ISA – Diary of Disease Disaster” (October 2011)
“Fish Farmageddon – The Infectious Salmon Aquacalypse” (August 2011)
Read the first official report of ISA (European genotype) in sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet on the Central Coast - online here
Read the official reports from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the second case of ISA (European genotype) in coho salmon in the Fraser River - online here
Read the report from the OIE Reference Laboratory on the positive samples in Fraser River chinook and chum (and coho) – online here
Read the report from the Norwegian laboratory confirming a positive sample in Rivers Inlet sockeye – online here
Read the report from the Norwegian laboratory on two further positives in sockeye and coho salmon in the Fraser River – online here
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Fishyleaks (Part 1), October 31, 2011
ISA reported in coho salmon in the Fraser River
Read how the Canadian Government is privately briefing trade partners including China, Japan, the European Union and the United States on a second case of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) in coho salmon in the Fraser River.
Read a letter from GAAIA to the Canadian Government (31st October 2011) - download online here.
Read a press release - "Nightmare on Fraser River" online here
Internal Government documents obtained by GAAIA reveal that this second case (ISAV #2) was reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) by the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) Reference Laboratory at the Atlantic Veterinary College on October 20 and to the Cohen Commission last week.
The New York Times first broke the news on Friday (October 29): “Documents released on Friday showed that an adult coho salmon supplied by salmon advocates to a prominent laboratory showed signs of carrying the disease. That fish was reported to have been found in a tributary of the Fraser River, a critical salmon run for fishermen in Canada and the United States.”
The Canadian Government have been swift to contact their trade partners in China, Japan, the European Union and the United States and draft “media lines” and “communication products” yet have patently failed to notify First Nations, fishermen or the general public. 'Internal' documents from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency enclosed below (note the pages overlap):
ISAV #2 in coho salmon in the Fraser River (Weaver Creek) follows the report of ISA in sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet (reported to the CFIA on 15th October):
Read Dr. Fred Kibenge's OIE Reference Laboratory report to the CFIA dated 15th October 2011 detailing the European genotype of ISA in sockeye salmon caught in Rivers Inlet - online here.
Another CFIA 'Internal' update - dated 24th October (#5) - was sent to the Cohen Commission last week:
Read more via “The Man With The Smoking Gun” (24th October 2011).
Read a letter from GAAIA to the Canadian Government (31st October 2011) - download online here.
Read more details via the GAAIA reports "ISA: Diary of Disease Disaster" and "Fish Farmageddon: The Infectious Salmon Aquacalypse" - online here
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Read how Marine Harvest and Cermaq in Canada lobbied to prevent the disclosure of disease information.
In 2008, Marine Harvest claimed in a submission to the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner that release of disease information “would cause significant commercial harm”, “undue financial loss” and that “Marine Harvest Canada’s reputation could be tarnished and sales volume reduced”. It further stated that: “Marine Harvest is a publicly traded company on the Oslo Stock Exchange and as such, corporate reputation is very important in maintaining share price and shareholder loyalty” (Read the submission from Marine Harvest in full here).
Cermaq (who operate in Canada as Mainstream) claimed in another submission (dated April 2008) that “disclosure would result in ‘undue financial loss’ to Mainstream”, “damage Mainstream’s business” and referred to “the harm which such information in the wrong hands can do” (Read the submission from Cermaq in full here).
In 2011, the BC Salmon Farmers Association (whose members include Marine Harvest and Cermaq) also lobbied the Cohen Commission not to release disease data as part of the Cohen Inquiry.
As the Superheroes 4 Salmon reported via "Crackingthe Cohen Code, Deciphering the Disease Conundrum" (27th June):
"In a submission last month to the Cohen Commission, the BCSFA argued that there would be “reputational and economic damage” and “reputational harm” if documents relating to infectious diseases were released publicly. The BCSFA claimed that:
“Irreparable damage will occur to the reputations and economic interests of the BCSFA’s member companies and their shareholders before the aquaculture hearings have even begun” (read in full online).
Another submission from the BCSFA referred to the: “likelihood of misuse and irrevocable damage to the economic interests and reputations of participants and individuals” and stated that:
“The BCSFA says that insofar as there remains a financial incentive to demarket salmon aquaculture in B.C., there is a real and substantial risk that any information relating to aquaculture that is released through the commission process, whether in the hearings or through applications, will be selectively interpreted to harm the industry’s reputation” (read in full online)."
For data on global salmon farming operations visit the 'Farmed Salmon Exposed' archive: http://www.farmedsalmonexposed.org/global-statistics_2008.html
