PSF Submission, Federal Aquaculture Act Consultation Jan 14 2021

PSF made a formal submission in January to DFO’s consultation regarding the creation of a new federal Aquaculture Act. Thank you to PSF Science Advisor Dr. Brian Riddell for his work in drafting our submission along with the PSF Board’s Science Committee for input along the way. We felt compelled to make this submission given our position statement on open-pen aquaculture and research on salmon health. In a nutshell, we stressed the need for a new Aquaculture Act to acknowledge the protection of wild Pacific salmon and their ecosystems as the first priority of the federal government, and that all aquaculture proposals must also meet the requirements of the Fisheries Act. We made additional points supporting First Nations involvement in aquaculture decisions, application of the precautionary principle, and need for science to minimize interactions between aquaculture and wild fish populations. Read the submission here.