New underwater video shot by researchers working with salmon biologist Alexandra Morton reveals in graphic detail the waste from a number of salmon farms covering the ocean floor beneath them.
According to a press release today from Morton's group Salmon Are Sacred, "Jody Eriksson, who collected the waste samples and filmed under the farms, said: 'It's a wasteland down under the farms. We were shocked: piles of faeces, rotting feed, bacterial mats and bubbling gases' a bottom smothered by waste. This is out of sight damage must be exposed!'
Video# 1: In the Broughton Archipelago, under a Marine Harvest salmon farm. The bubbles are methane. The waste is heaped in mounds devoid of life other than bacteria. This was once a productive crab ground. The Norwegian company just moved its livestock to another site and are carrying on business as usual. The federal government gave this site a licence to operate despite this obvious pollution, the province who is supposed to be managing our seafloor has done nothing.
Video #2: Bacteria growing under a Marine Harvest farm in the Broughton Archipelago. The white is bacteria called Beggiatoa. It grows in the sulfur-loaded environments associated with sewage, in this case tons of fish manure under Marine Harvest's feedlot. This was once rich crabbing grounds. Marine Harvest just moved their livestock to another place in Broughton. Apparently this is OK with the federal government because they just issued a licence to continue dumping here.
Video #3: Healthy Glass Reef-Building Sponge, not affected by salmon farm waste. This is what these sponges should look like. Scroll down to next video to see dead sponges under a salmon farm.
Video #4: Dead Reef-Building Glass Sponges Under Salmon Farm. Reef-building sponges are extremely slow growing and remarkable fish habitat in BC. The damage from this Cermaq/Mainstream salmon feedlot - owned largely by the Norwegian government - will take hundreds of years to heal if ever.
Video #5: Approaching a mound of salmon farm waste.
