It’s a tragedy for Canada’s precious wild west coast salmon stocks. Thousands of mature, invasive Atlantic salmon have escaped from a commercial U.S. fish farm near Victoria. The worst part? The disaster was sadly inevitable.

Scientists and conservationists have been warning for years that Atlantic salmon farms pose an enormous risk to the five species of Pacific wild salmon, including the threatened Chinook or King salmon species.

Disease, sea lice and predation have long posed huge risks—now escaped adult Atlantic salmon will try to spawn in nearby rivers and compete with native fish for food sources and habitat. In short, it’s a nightmare. And it’s time it came to an end.

Tell Environment Canada and Health Canada to stop gambling with our most precious Pacific resource. Ban Atlantic salmon farms on the west coast for good.

There is literally no reason for these farms to exist. It is possible to build 100% escape-proof cages for these fish—but salmon farmers refuse because they are too expensive. But more shocking, there is no reason for salmon farms to be in the ocean anyway. The entire problem can be eliminated with land-based, even urban salmon farms that don’t put wild salmonid species at risk.

If we don’t safeguard our salmon from invasive, for-profit fish farming, in a few months, maybe a year, there will be another “great escape.” Eventually, Atlantic salmon will become established in one of our river systems and the great wild salmon runs of the Pacific—Sockeye, Coho, Chinooks—will fade away forever.

It’s time to stop fish farms once and for all. Join us and call for a ban on invasive, Atlantic salmon farms in the Pacific.

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