Canada’s regulation of open-net pen salmon farms has been challenged by scientists and academics for years. Part of the problem stems from the structure of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which has the conflicting responsibilities of protecting our ocean environment and promoting aquaculture. Numerous studies have questioned the ability of the DFO to carry out both obligations with integrity and transparency.
For example, Judith Leblanc, president of the union representing scientists at the DFO, sent a blistering letter to the DFO accusing senior members of the department, the aquaculture industry, lobbyists, and politicians of undermining the work of their members in Newfoundland and Labrador, which was quickly becoming ground zero for open-net pen salmon farming in Canada.
That letter was leaked to the CBC and Leblanc doubled down in an interview, telling the news outlet that interference with scientific work was “commonplace.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/dfo-scientists-union-1.6322758
Although the letter focused largely on the management of cod stocks, Leblanc cited other fisheries, including open-net pen salmon farming.
“A pattern of decisions and events has emerged in the department that is causing scientists in the Newfoundland and Labrador region to have grave concerns about the current status and future direction in the department’s science advice, scientific independence, scientific excellence and integrity,” she wrote.
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A few months later, the DFO was in the headlines again, this time on the west coast. In January 2023, 16 research scientists sent an open letter to Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray. They said they were “deeply concerned” by a DFO report about the impact of sea lice infestations on farmed Atlantic salmon and wild Pacific salmon in British Columbia. Central to their criticism was that the report was written by employees of the DFO Aquaculture Management and Aquaculture Science and was reviewed externally only by a single academic who was associated with the industry. According to the letter, the report failed to meet “widely accepted scientific standards on numerous fronts.”
The report, “Is scientific inquiry still incompatible with government information control?” can be found here.