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The B.C. government’s commitment to UNDRIP is being tested by this dispute. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham put Marine Harvest on notice regarding its obligations to First Nations and reminded the company that the province retains the right to reclaim tenured sites at the end of current terms, many of which expire in June 2018. The B.C. government is not issuing new tenures and has put a hold on existing ones.

Adding to the strength of the First Nations’ rights and title claims, B.C.’s salmon farm industry has never put to rest the impacts of disease on wild salmon. Science shows that open net-pens present a risk to wild salmon from parasites and disease that cannot be fully mitigated. Dense concentrations of salmon in net pens magnify the production of sea lice larvae, which have serious effects on the survival of young wild salmon.

Even back in the 1970s, it was clear the world’s oceans were in trouble. Since, salmon feces, uneaten food pellets, new disease transmissions and frequent escapes have added to the mess. If our priority is to protect B.C.’s wild salmon, open net-pens in areas like the Broughton Archipelago near young wild salmon routes must be transitioned onto the land where the companies operating the farms — not the wild fish and First Nations — pay the cost of dealing with the waste and disease.

The 2012 Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River gave a 2020 deadline for farms in the Swanson Island region to prove they are not harming wild salmon. The clock is ticking.