Clayoquot Action
Founded in 2013 by Bonny Glambeck and Dan Lewis, Clayoquot Action’s mission is to protect the bio-cultural diversity of Clayoquot Sound. In the beginning, three challenges to wild salmon were focused on: impacts of mining, salmon farming and oil spills. Today, advocating for protection of wild salmon by removing open-net pen fish farms from Clayoquot Sound is Clayoquot Action’s main focus.
“We are a grassroots conservation organization working to address threats to wild salmon in the Clayoquot Sound...Our main focus at this time is our fish farm campaign, using research, education and peaceful advocacy.”
Dan Lewis - Founder
“We bring issues out of the shadows, and we now have MUCH more awareness in the area regarding wild salmon than we did 10 years ago.”
“What makes us unique is we are place-based…[and] have been here for 30 years….We have the depth of relationships in the surrounding communities.”
The Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is in the unceded Nuu-chah-nulth traditional territories of Hesquiaht, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations.
Clayoquot Salmon Investigation [CSI]
The CSI watchdog program works to expose the dirty secrets of fish farming. Staff & volunteers frequently head into the Sound to observe operations, and record data to release to the public. Recently the CSI program has been testing salmon for Norwegian Piscine Orthreovirus (PRV).
Some operational successes thus far have exposed two salmon mass die-offs, 2 separate sea lice epidemics, heavy chemical usage towards sea lice removal and the discovery of blood water pipes.
Read all CSI activity and articles HERE.
Fish Farms
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This contagious virus, foreign to BC’s waters, has the capability of rupturing red blood cells, organ failure and death of Chinook salmon who contact the virus. 2019 samples showed between a 90-100% PRV infection rate of farmed salmon between Cermaq and Creative Salmon Facilities.
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Sea lice are a natural ocean crustacean. Salmon by nature pick up sea lice on their life journey from the saltwater ocean back into watershed streams to spawn. Lice then die off in the fresh water. Salmon farms allow lice to live on salmon hosts through a significantly longer life cycle. Moreover, the parasites vastly multiply and spread within crowded open-net pen farms. One to three lice can kill a juvenile wild salmon, and twenty four sea lice were counted on one single wild salmon fry in 2019. More than likely contracted from surrounding fish farms.
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High quantities of salmon enclosed within fish farms release a very high amount of salmon sewage. One salmon farm produces the equivalent sewage to a city of 150,000 people. The entirety of farms in the Clayoquot Sound, if operating at the same time, produce the sewage equivalent to a city of 3 million people.
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Aquatic mammals are often attracted to fish farms because of the abundance of prey located within. Marine mammals such as Sea Lions and Humpback Whales have been known to breach enclosures to then become trapped or entangled, sometimes resulting in their death.
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Hazardous Algal Blooms, or HABs, result from the rapid growth of micro-algae in water, typically formed from an increased amount of nutrients with an ecosystem. HABs are seen to be interconnected with aquaculture operations, and can be very detrimental to aquatic ecosystems.
Clayoquot Action’s Mission to Curb Farmed Salmon Operations
Open-net pen fish farms are large nets placed within coastal waters in order to contain fish. Fish farms cannot control the outflow of waste from facilities into waterways, allowing the free flow of pollution. Juvenile wild salmon can enter the farms, becoming trapped and/or infected, and a free flow of sea lice, pesticides, excrement, antibiotics & excess feed are released into Clayoquot Sounds coastal waterways.
Get Wild Program
This ‘First of its kind wild salmon recommendation program’ was established in Tofino for the encouragement of individuals and businesses alike to buy ethically sourced wild salmon, and avoid the purchase of farmed salmon. The educational program’s goal is to help individuals & businesses make the sustainably responsible choice when buying salmon in Tofino.
“The Get Wild educational program is to educate people about eating wild salmon. Over twenty restaurants have come on board in Tofino, and we have partnerships with local businesses. It is a real community effort.”
-Dan Lewis
Salmon People Pledge
This sustainably conscious pledge gives voice to the protection of BC’s wild salmon. The goal is to insure future survival of wild salmon for generations to come. BC is at a critical risk of losing coastal salmon runs. Taking the Salmon People Pledge motivates individuals to think and act differently.
Blood pipes were discovered under a fish processing plant, dumping processed salmon blood directly into Browns Bay. Located on the edge of BC’s largest salmon migration route, Discovery passage. One third of all BC salmon pass through this bay, now tainted with disease and infection, including PRV virus. After the discovery at Browns Bay, the Creative Salmon processing plant in Tofino was investigated, finding the same thing. Clayoquot Action was first to break this unbelievable story.
