Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists

Meshach writes "Scientists in Canada researching why salmon stocks are depleting face being muzzled by the Canadian Conservative government. Quoting: 'Science told Miller to "please feel free to speak with journalists." It advised reporters to contact Diane Lake, a media officer with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Vancouver, "to set up interviews with Dr. Miller." The documents show major media outlets were soon lining up to speak with Miller, but the Privy Council Office said no to the interviews. The Privy Council Office also nixed a Fisheries Department news release about Miller's study, saying the release "was not very good, focused on salmon dying and not on the new science aspect," according to documents obtained by Postmedia News under the Access to Information Act. Miller is still not allowed to speak publicly about her discovery, and the Privy Council Office and Fisheries Department defend the way she has been silenced.'"

Comments

Let the fishermen be the judge

[Anonymous Coward]

I have done stream survey on the west coast of British Columbia. I am a fly fisher, and have an intimate knowledge of what is really going on. The truth is that a combination of factors are ruining what was once one of the greatest fisheries on earth. It comes as no surprise that the Tories would try to put a muzzle on anyone trying to ring the alarm bells.

Intensive ongoing stewardship of the resource is the only possible solution. Yes it is extremely expensive and needs the complete cooperation of all. As things stand we can study the problems till there is no longer a fish problem to study. This is what our federal government would do as it keeps their cronies in work and makes for really good press. The federally funded studies are all centered around how to exploit the the fishing resource more efficiently, not how to preserve it. Every single paper that I have read is centered around a hands off approach to stream management...Let nature heal itself, is the doctrine.

The truth is that the damage has been done and the only approach that can possibly make a difference over the long term is, the clearing of blocked streams, the enhancement of riparian areas, the improvement and restoration of estuary land that is being gobbled up by our greed for real estate. And first and foremost let the truth about what has occurred be made public.The conservative government of Canada is a short sighted bunch of politicos that could not see the forest for the trees. What is needed is a conservation industry that pays our children back by returning what we and our parents have stolen from them with our short sighted greed!

Re:Let the fishermen be the judge

[Anonymous Coward]

Her research, as far as I have heard seems to indicate a virus propagating in the salmon population. It doesn't seem unlikely that such a virus could be coming from the salmon farms that the wild salmon often have to pass on their way to spawn. Combine that with the very likely fact that salmon farms are a source of sea lice that have been shown to infect wild salmon fry as they pass by, and you have a good argument that salmon farming is a primary cause of the decline in wild stocks of salmon.

I have caught wild Sockeye and they do not suffer from sea lice the way local fish do. And yes the sea lice problem has increased...but so has the effluent from things other than fish farms.

And yes I agree a productive natural fishery could easily again make chemically stupid fish farming financially ineffective if managed with common sense.

Deploy the submarines we bought from the British out in the open Pacific and sink the Asian drift net factory ships first...If they ever get the subs out of dry dock...But then again a whole industry has sprung up just fixing those boats so if they ever did go into useful service then their would be more unemployment.

I agree that sea lice and farmed fish are a part of the equation...there have been enough government and industry studies paid for by out tax dollars and the fish farm industry to prove that farmed salmon are not the cause to prove that there is more here than meets the eye. Same thing with the paid studies that prove that shitting in the ocean here in Victoria is not a problem. Like the good old lab rats...show me one that does not get cancer from exposure to just about anything. Pay enough money and government funded studies can prove just about anything, especially here in Canada.

My point was that the real damage to the fisheries is from many causes and will not be fixed by something as simple as eliminating salmon farming! Did you know that the Adams run last year was a record? Yet two years before that it was a bust. When the railways put a second track down the Fraser canyon in the early 1900's the canyon had a slide that blocked the fish migration for over one year at hells gate. The Adams is just starting to recover now. Some rivers like the Quesnel have never recovered.

Where the fish come from is just as important as where the go to mature and Sockeye spend very little time in close in coastal waters unless the spawning water in the rivers is too hot. Resident Georgia Straight Coho, Chinook, Cutthroat are much more likely to suffer really severe from the effects of sea lice. And as it turns out they are the fish that are most endangered. Also the fish that spawn in the lower river like Chum are suffering because of the loss of estuarine habitat...like the problems that plague Vancouver Island estuaries...the rivers Cowichan, Nanaimo, Puntlage, Stamp/Somas and the list goes on and on. This does not even take into consideration the myriad of hundreds of once pristine and productive creeks that produce smaller local fish in huge numbers. The answer is not in more useless studies it is in hard work and common sense. And above all stopping the wholesale rape of the seas.

From the abstract

[reve_etrange]

Long-term population viability of Fraser River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is threatened by unusually high levels of mortality as they swim to their spawning areas before they spawn. Functional genomic studies on biopsied gill tissue from tagged wild adults that were tracked through ocean and river environments revealed physiological profiles predictive of successful migration and spawning. We identified a common genomic profile that was correlated with survival in each study. In ocean-tagged fish, a mortality-related genomic signature was associated with a 13.5-fold greater chance of dying en route. In river-tagged fish, the same genomic signature was associated with a 50% increase in mortality before reaching the spawning grounds in one of three stocks tested. At the spawning grounds, the same signature was associated with 3.7-fold greater odds of dying without spawning. Functional analysis raises the possibility that the mortality-related signature reflects a viral infection.

The DOI is 10.1126/science.1196901.
The genomic signature that their microarray analysis identified suggests: 1) infection by a virus (virus associated pathways activated), 2) a possible connection to certain leukemias (same reason) and 3) osmotic gradient control malfunctions contributing to stress and mortality (same reason). Apologies to those without access - but Science isn't open - but their methods seem very sound. I really don't see the point of suppressing this. All that media attention would change is how polished her presentation is when that commission or whatever gets around to talking to her.

P.S. The biopsies were non-lethal!

Re:Notice: "Department of Fisheries ..."

[Kashgarinn]

Of course the difference here is that the government should represent the people and the people's interest, and letting the people know about the research is normal.

If your representatives are willing to block something vaguely important like this, what are they hiding which is really important?

Re:Imagine

[Ironhandx]

Realy?

I say this with incredulity because the Liberals did exactly that.

The only real difference is that the liberals shut down local fisheries and then sold the quotas equal to the fisheries they had just shut down to foreign nationals. So we still have over fishing going on, its just not helping canadians at all. All of it was very hush hush and no one knew about any of the fishing quotas that had been sold until Portuguese boats started getting spotted in Newfoundland waters.

Voluntary Juries.

[mevets]

Nobody should be threatened to perform public service; besides there are lots of people who would gladly serve on juries. What could go wrong?

Re:Imagine

[Midnight Thunder]

I sometimes wonder if Harper based his governance methods on those of George Bush and his cronies?