APES STATEMENT ON EATING ISA DISEASED FISH

by Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore

 

Don’t want to risk eating ISA diseased fish?

Don’t buy open pen farmed Atlantic salmon.

In January 2013 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) cleared Cooke Aquaculture to process fish with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) for human consumption, despite the fact that this is an internationally reportable disease that has required the wholesale destruction of the fish in every other jurisdiction. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/01/19/nb-quarantined-salmon.html

 

Cooke Aquaculture confirmed that it would not be separating or otherwise marking fish from the disease site at the consumer sale end. Sobeys grocery stores have said that they would not knowingly sell diseased fish—we congratulate them for this stance; not all grocers have taken it—but in fact, it is impossible to determine whether the salmon you buy in the stores are from the disease site or not, since the diseased fish were not, apparently, labeled as such.http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/636034-cooke-anemia-infected-fish-can-be-sold-like-other-farmed-salmon or beginning at 16:53, listen to http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2334181521,2334182117,2334182479

 

We find it ironic and deeply disturbing that the CFIA requires significant protective regulations for the processing of these fish, that they warn against using “finfish that were bought in a grocery store as bait for catching finfish or other aquatic animals,” and suggest wearing protective footwear and garb around finfish, but still declare that processed ISA diseased fish is fit for us to eat. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/aquatic-animals/diseases/reportable/isa/fact-sheet/eng/1327198930863/1327199219511

 

We think we’d rather not risk it. We don’t know how bad ISA could be for us—the research on that really hasn’t been done-- but we do know that it is dangerous, even deadly for the wild herring, cod and salmon that swim by diseased, quarantined salmon feedlots—the Cohen Commission in BC has amply demonstrated that. http://salmonconfidential.ca/

 

Put simply, diseased or not, open pen salmon isn’t good for you. Treated with dyes, pesticides and antibiotics and raised in pens treated with various heavy metals, open pen farmed salmon may contain contaminants that can cause serious health risks for humans. Consumption of more than one meal of open pen farmed salmon per month could pose unacceptable cancer risks according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s methods for calculating fish consumption advisories. See http://www.albany.edu/ihe/salmonstudy/

NOTE: All “Fresh Atlantic salmon,” or “farmed salmon” for sale in restaurants or grocery stores, whole or in filets, anywhere in North America, is open pen farmed salmon. “Wild” salmon is always some variety of wild Pacific salmon.

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

DON’T BUY and DON’T EAT OPEN PEN FARMED SALMON!

http://www.salmonfeedlotboycott.com/

• Write to or call Premier Dexter demanding a halt to open pen finfish farming in Nova Scotia.
  Toll-free Message Line: 1-800-267-1993
  E-mail Address: premier@gov.ns.ca
  Address: 
  Office of the Premier
  PO Box 726 Halifax, Nova Scotia
  B3J 2T3
• Sign our petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-pen-finfish-farming-on-nova-scotia-s-shore
• DONATE to help us continue this battle.
• Join our facebook group: Eastern Shore Residents Against Open Salmon Farming
• Inform yourself and others. Watch Salmon Wars and Salmon Confidential and check out our website and other links provided here. Share what you find out with family and friends.