Fish-farming advocate blasts critics

Critics of salmon farming employ scare tactics and faulty science, an outspoken advocate for the industry has told a government committee.

"Activists like David Suzuki, Greenpeace,CAAR[Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform]and all the rest are trying to frighten people into thinking if they eat fish it will be bad for them," Patrick Mooretold the legislature's sustainable aquaculture committee in Vancouver on Wednesday.

There is no evidence that salmon farming is decimating pink salmon populations of the Broughton archipelago off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, the Greenpeace co-founder and former president said.

"It is a complete fabrication and they only quote scientists who are pushing this fabrication those who have publicly vowed to destroy the industry in the first place," Moore said.

Other witnesses at the hearings have cited a recent scientific paper published this in the U.S.that estimates sea lice from fish farms kill up to 95 per cent of the juvenile pink salmon that pass by.

Moore says it's not fish farming that threatens wild salmon stocks.

"It's the commercial salmon fishery that kills the most salmon in British Columbia every year," he said.

The aquaculture committee had been scheduled to wrap up seven months of hearings on Thursday in Victoria, butwill accept written submissions until the end of this month. The committee will also meet selected experts for two days in early November.

It is scheduled to present its recommendations on the future of fish farming to the legislature by next spring.