Shifting Baselines

This week the Vancouver Sun ran a story about the deaths of marine mammals at salmon farms, which smatter the British Columbian coast:

The Living Oceans Society says that within a two-week period a Pacific white-sided dolphin, harbour porpoise and Steller sea lion got entangled and drowned in the predator nets at Mainstream Canada's Wehlis Bay farm in the Broughton Archipelago.

The Sointula, B.C.-based group also notes that fish farms are only required to report mammals they shoot, meaning the extent of the total yearly deaths at salmon farms is unknown.

Sorry? Only required to report mammals they shoot? Steller sea lions are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (and the western population through the Aleutian Islands is listed as endangered). The Steller sea lion is also protected in Canada as a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act. Maybe fish farmers are shotting only the dolphins and porpoises but NOT the sea lions...

...A Vancouver Island fish farm disclosed that 51 sea lions had become trapped in its nets and drowned.

Maybe aquaculturalists don't have to shoot many sea lions, since the drowning takes care of them. Many types of fishing have incidental bycatch (seabirds, turtles, sharks) and now it appears that fish farming does, too.

Marine mammals caught in fish-farm nets
Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007

SOINTULA, B.C. (CP) -- British Columbia fish farms are getting the blame for more deaths of marine mammals, and environmentalists fear the toll may be much higher.

The Living Oceans Society says that within a two-week period a Pacific white-sided dolphin, harbour porpoise and Steller sea lion got entangled and drowned in the predator nets at Mainstream Canada's Wehlis Bay farm in the Broughton Archipelago.

The Sointula, B.C.-based group also notes that fish farms are only required to report mammals they shoot, meaning the extent of the total yearly deaths at salmon farms is unknown.

Spokesman Will Soltau says aquaculture reporting requirements are "clearly inadequate" in B.C.
The society released its findings just days after a Vancouver Island fish farm disclosed that 51 sea lions had become trapped in its nets and drowned.

Soltau says if these incidents are any indication, the scale of mammal drownings on the coast "could be of significant concern."