70% of the fish farms sampled had PRV-1, study finds

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A new study published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, states that 70% of the samples taken from 56 fish farms had PRV-1.

One of the co-authors is independent biologist Alexandra Morton, who explained, “The study was my concept and I funded a lot of the analysis and did a lot of the sampling myself. It was truly collaborative with Clayoquot Action sampling the Farms in Clayoquot Sound. An extraordinary man, Dr. Neil Fraser from Powell River got in his speed boat and went to the central coast. The Wild Fish Conservancy down in Washington State, sampled farms there. So it was a sustained effort by a lot of people, and then Dr. Gideon Mordecai did the analysis of the relationship between the different strains that we picked up.”

Cortes Currents reached out to Dr Mordecai, lead author of this paper and a Research Associate with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. He is currently on vacation but emailed that he will be ‘happy to chat’ after he returns.

I also wrote the BC Salmon Farmers Association and was provided with a few immediate observations from Brian Kingzett, their Director of Science and Policy. I will read these out after discussing some of the findings of this paper.

Some of the Discovery Island sites where Morton and her colleagues took samples are also within our broadcast area. So I asked Morton for any details she had about Raza Island, which is off the Northern tip of Cortes Island, and the Okisollo Channel, which is between Quadra and Sonora Islands.