We are calling on the Liberal government to immediately remove the Canadian Scientific Advisory Secretariat Science (CSAS) report 2022/045 from the DFO website and for the senior scientist involved to be suspended from contributing further to the scientific record on the impact of salmon farms.

• CSAS report 2022/045: Association Between Sea Lice from Atlantic Salmon Farms and Sea Lice Infestations on Wild Juvenile Pacific Salmon In British Columbia

This Sea Lice CSAS confidently states sea lice on salmon farms are not the cause of the highly damaging sea lice infestations reported on young wild salmon as they try to migrate past the farms:“No statistically significant association was observed between infestation pressure attributable to Atlantic Salmon farms and the probability of L. salmonis infestations on wild juvenile Chum and Pink salmon in Clayoquot Sound, Quatsino Sound, Discovery Islands, and Broughton Archipelago.”However, sea lice research by universities and research stations over the past 22 years report the opposite.  Not only are salmon farms the cause of the outbreaks, but farm-lice infestation of young wild salmon can reduce entire salmon populations.

• Declining Wild Salmon Populations in Relation to Parasites from Farm SalmonScience • 14 Dec 2007 • Vol 318, Issue 5857 • pp. 1772-1775

Internal DFO documents we obtained reveal edits were made by senior DFO staff to the original results provided by a junior DFO scientist.  On May 19, 2022, a sentence stating infection of young wild salmon “is influenced” by farm lice was crossed out and replaced with a sentence stating lice on young wild salmon “could not be explained” by farm-source sea lice.Sixteen Canadian Academics, who viewed these documents, sent an urgent letter to Minister of Fisheries Joyce Murray on January 30, 2023 reporting what amounts to scientific “falsification” of evidence by DFO scientists.  They point out:“… statistically significant results were omitted”The DFO report “appears to rely on selective reporting on non-significant statistical results” producing conclusions that are “opposite” to what the actual results showed.“… analysis [by the academics] of the results in the report produces the opposite conclusions”“… suggest that the authors [of the CSAS report] have engineered the results to suit their initial bias.”We view the tampering of results in this DFO document as “research fraud” as defined by Elsevier, one of the biggest scientific publishers in the world:Falsification: includes omitting data or results in such a way that the research is not accurately represented. “A person might falsify data to make it fit with the desired end result of a study.”We have contacted the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) to caution them that the senior DFO scientist involved in altering this high-level sea louse report is acting as Canada's representative as a sea lice expert in a report they are working on.The danger of allowing this report to remain on the Canadian Scientific Advisory Secretariat website is threefold:This report was sent to the Strathcona Regional District Board as they decide whether to approve reinstating the farms in the Discovery Islands, one of the regions where sea lice impact was found and edited out. If this highly flawed document remains on the record, it can be used in court by the salmon farming industry against any future decision the minister might make to close salmon farms.  The industry relied on CSAS reports to successfully challenge a previous decision to close salmon farms in 2020. We suggest the stark evidence of DFO research fraud undermines the credibility of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Trudeau's promise of transparency and the “highest ethical standards”“The DFO has demonstrated unscrupulous behaviour with this recent Science Advice suggesting unethical bias that is not in the best interest of Wild Pacific Salmon.  The First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance urges Prime Minister Trudeau to bring his leadership into this situation to ensure DFO staff behaviour is consistent with Canada's Ocean Act, in particular the Precautionary Principle for the benefit of First Nations across BC and all Canadians, not just a small handful of corporate interests.” Says Bob Chamberlin, FNWSA Chair, “this situation is disgraceful and must be rectified”.Robert Chamberlin, Chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon AllianceAlexandra Morton, Independent Scientist