Cooke's improved 'yellow' rating by SeafoodWatch for N.S. net-pen salmon is plagued by lack of data

The improved sustainability rating has environmentalists seeing red. "The Ecology Action Centre is one of three Canadian environmental groups dismissing Nova Scotia's rating for its lack of public information and reliance on industry data they cannot verify. The other groups are the David Suzuki Foundation and Living Ocean."

You can add the Atlantic Salmon Federation to that list.

"California-based Seafood Watch said it's recognizing reduced use of pesticides, low levels of sea lice and few escapes in Nova Scotia over the past five years, especially when compared to other provinces."

"The report also repeatedly noted the limited amount of data available in the region."

"In fact, Seafood Watch had to rely heavily on data from Cooke."

"For example, there is no mandatory public reporting on sea lice in Nova Scotia."

(nor is there any tracking or monitoring of escaped farmed salmon in Maritime rivers).

Quoted excerpts above from CBC News. View the full CBC article, December 11, 2021, by Paul Withers, here. or scroll through the link below to read it here.

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Its concerning to us that our N.S. Minister of Fisheries & Aquaculture, Steve Craig, credits the improved rating to be the results of the Province's efforts to improve regulations and managing of the industry. Yet clearly the report repeatedly stated that there was limited data available for the region - so SeafoodWatch had to rely heavily on information provided by Cooke, the lone operator in NS. We say that's a "red flag" not a yellow light.