A B.C. Supreme Court justice has granted an aquaculture firm an injunction against activists, but will allow one who is a marine biologist to continue collecting water samples within a buffer zone outside its salmon farms.
Marine Harvest Canada was on Thursday granted an injunction that blocks activists from occupying its buildings on Swanson Island, located east of Port McNeill, and from boarding any of its farms and docks along Vancouver Island and B.C.’s coast. The injunction also blocks activists from a buffer zone between Marine Harvests’ farms and buoys.
An exception was made, however, for marine biologist Alexandra Morton, who is allowed to enter the buffer zone — in a boat no longer than 2.6 metres — so that she may continue collecting water samples for her research.
Morton’s research has focused on the piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), which has been detected in fisheries effluent collected by both the B.C. government and Atlantic Veterinary College. But researchers from the B.C. Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences and University of B.C. found that “infection studies in B.C. reveal no mortality of salmon resulting from a heavy PRV infection,” according to a report they prepared in March for the Ministry of Environment.
Nick Eagland – Vancouver Sun – August 3, 2018.
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