Presentation: State-of-Knowledge Initiative for the Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture of the British Columbia Legislature

Delivered November, 2006.

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How Science Informs Management Actions

[A full pdf copy for printing may be downloaded from the WAVES database.]

DFO relies on sound scientific knowledge to make management decisions and regulations. Hasty decisions or actions based on inconsistent results place natural resources at risk and/or incorrectly impact people’s lives.

In the biological sciences, the development of new scientific knowledge is seldom straight forward or fast. There are many unknowns, interactions, and natural environmental variations that contribute to differing findings between research projects.

Given alternative research outcomes, it is imperative that more research and scientific analysis be undertaken to help us fully understand the ecological effects. Only through replication of studies, prediction and verification of outcomes, and observation can we build confidence in new results and knowledge.

Research concerning salmon farms, sea lice, and wild salmon is an example of this dilemma in natural science.

The wide ranging estimates of juvenile salmon mortality that were recently published (i.e., "Farm-origin sea lice induced 9-95% mortality in several sympatric wild juvenile pink and chum salmon populations.") are of limited use in the development of effective policy and management plans.

Even if everyone agreed that sea lice account for some juvenile mortality, is the mortality incremental to other natural sources, and does it result directly in equal losses of spawning adults?

The latter can not be assumed as there are many factors during later life phases that will influence the final number of adult salmon that return to spawn.

Differences in scientific perspectives may be confusing to the public but are certainly not unusual during the development of new knowledge. It can be expected and is healthy for the development of a sound scientific knowledge.

DFO will continue to evaluate all sources of information in this issue to ensure healthy wild salmon populations while developing a management plan for a sustainable aquaculture industry. However, when uncertainty of information is large and there is a possibility of irreversible harm or extremely costly damage, then a precautionary approach may be taken.

Ultimately, it is the number of adult wild salmon reproducing that must be sustained.