Question Period Note: DFO Science beholden to Industry

• I have every confidence in the professional integrity of our Department’s scientists. Our researchers are well-respected in their fields of expertise and committed to public service.
• Scientific integrity is essential to their work; they strive to ensure transparency, high standards of impartiality and rigor, as well as research excellence.
• Debate among researchers is a normal part of the development of scientific knowledge and ensures that the best research outcomes are achieved for Canadians.

If pressed on Industry Collaboration:
• Our scientists regularly collaborate with researchers in academia, government, indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations and industry to access expertise, data or infrastructure to deliver research results.
• Research funded by Canadians for the benefit of Canadians is the norm at DFO. Industry-funding for research constitutes a small portion of our work.

If pressed on sea lice:
• The Department continues to put in place measures to ensure that sea lice from salmon farms present no more than a minimal impact on wild salmon.
• These measures are informed by years of research conducted by the Department on sea lice and its interactions with farmed and wild salmon as well as an extensive international body of science.
• The Department’s overall management of sea lice and fish health on farms is adaptive and will continue to be revised as new evidence emerges.

• The Globe and Mail published an article on October 15, 2020 with the headline “Scientist at Department of Fisheries and Oceans says Ottawa is too beholden to fish farm industry”.
• The article describes the views of one Departmental scientist on recent advice the department has provided in support of Cohen recommendations.
• In response to the Cohen Commission’s Recommendation 19, DFO looked at the overall risk estimate to Fraser River Sockeye salmon from diseases that occur in Atlantic salmon farms. The scientific risk assessments focused on farms located in the Discovery Islands area.
• The nine peer-reviewed, scientific risk assessments concluded that the transfer of these pathogens pose, at most, a minimal risk to migrating Fraser River Sockeye salmon in the area. A summary of the findings and science advice has been posted on the DFO website.
• The scientist also expressed concerns about industry funding aquaculture-related research. Most of the aquaculture-related research conducted by the department is funded by the department. Some of the departments research is undertaken in collaboration with external parties, but this does not impede the independence of DFO researchers from publishing their findings.

Sea Lice
• Sea lice are naturally occurring parasites that have lived in British Columbia’s (B.C.) coastal waters for thousands of years. Farmed fish are free of sea lice when they enter the ocean, but can pick them up in the marine environment.
• The Department requires sea lice management, treatment, and mitigation measures at farms when sea lice levels are high. These measures have been very effective; most years, more than 90 per cent of sites are below the regulatory thresholds for sea lice during the outmigration period (March 1 to June 30).
• DFO scientists work diligently to build understanding and knowledge about sea lice, its relationship to the marine environment and fish, and the treatments and methods used to reduce its abundance near wild and farmed species.
• The extensive body of literature on sea lice is constantly evolving. The Department’s overall management of sea lice and fish health on farms is adaptive and revised as new evidence emerges. Any evidence of population-level harm resulting from salmon farms would prompt the immediate revision, and potentially suspension, of aquaculture licences to ensure the conservation of wild salmon stocks.

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