Bruce Winfield

Gazette staff

PORT McNEILL - An unknown number of Atlantic salmon have escaped from a fish farm in the Broughton Archipelago, said Marine Harvest Canada.

The Atlantics escaped from Marine Harvest's Port Elizabeth site, at the south end of Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago, company officials confirmed Wed., Oct. 21.

The loss was discovered after scuba divers found several holes in two pens while removing fish which had died as a result of low oxygen levels, said a company press release.

Prevention methods to eliminate further escape are in place, the company said, and this incident has been reported to regulators and a vessel is on site for recapture efforts.

The number lost will not be known until those remaining in nets are counted, said Marine Harvest, but the company currently estimates that 40,000 Atlantics escaped.

This unfortunate event may represent a significant financial loss to the company.

The cause of the holes remains under investigation, but may be related to the

fish removal process.

Marine Harvest Canada will provide an update when more information is known.

The news brought quick reaction from the Living Oceans Society in Sointula, which said the huge salmon farm escape reinforces the urgent need for action on closed containment.

“We knew something was up when I received a call this morning from a gillnetter who’d been fishing north of Malcolm Island and catching numerous Atlantic salmon,” said Will Soltau, who is Living Oceans Society’s Salmon Farm Campaign Local Coordinator. “Everything pointed to yet another large escape from an open net-cage farm.

“This demonstrates once again the urgent need to transition all open net-cage farms to closed containment systems,” Soltau continued. “This will be a major financial loss to the company and another blow to the health of our marine ecosystems and wild salmon populations. Closed containment could have prevented both.”