Opening Up Containment

Our paper contributes to Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship on the practices and technologies of containment. We build on existing work in STS that has analyzed containment as a performative sociotechnical system that generates and sustains new realities, new systems, and new relationships. Our contribution draws from the problem of containment in salmon aquaculture. The stakes for containing salmon are very high. Farmed salmon escapes are environmentally damaging to ecosystems and wild salmon populations, and they put additional pressure on an industry that has a very poor environmental record. We consider in detail Newfoundland and Labrador’s “Code of Containment” that works to keep farmed salmon in cages and prevent them from escaping into the wild. Through our analysis of the Code, we argue that containment is not only about holding inside. It is also about holding together, an obsolete meaning of the term “to contain.” We add to STS scholarship by arguing that containment and its associated Code in Newfoundland holds together a large scale, industrial aquaculture sector that tolerates persistent farmed salmon escapes into the wild from ocean-based cages. We conclude by examining the broader implications of our analysis for STS scholarship on the practices and technologies of containment.

Sea Lice Are Sensitive to Low Frequency Sounds

The salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis is a major disease problem in salmonids farming and there are indications that it also plays a role in the decline of wild salmon stocks. This study shows the first ultrastructural images of pathological changes in the sensory setae of the first antenna and in inner tissues in different stages of L. salmonis development after sound exposure in laboratory and sea conditions. Given the current ineffectiveness of traditional methods to eradicate this plague, and the strong impact on the environment these treatments often provoke, the described response to sounds and the associated injuries in the lice sensory organs could represent an interesting basis for developing a bioacoustics method to prevent lice infection and to treat affected salmons.

Infrastructure that Sings: Kwawaka'wakw Social Media for Wild Salmon in the Broughton Archipelago

Background: As an exercise in decolonizing infrastructural approaches to communications, this article applies the framework of “Two-Eyed Seeing” to the example of Kwawaka'wakw social media communications related to the occupation of fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago in 2017. Analysis: Kwawaka'wakw social media communications worked to enact a “living infrastructure,” upholding reciprocal relations with salmon and ocean waters, in support of the mutual flourishing of the waters, salmon, and people. Conclusions and implications: Kwawaka'wakw nations and their allies drew on social media to shift communicational channels beyond mainstream media. This supported Kwawaka'wakw in building relationships with broader publics, who helped pressure government to make change. Contexte : Dans le but de décoloniser les perspectives infrastructurelles sur la communication, cet article emploie une approche à double perspective (« Two-Eyed Seeing ») afin d’examiner l’usage des médias sociaux fait par les Kwawaka'wakw pour communiquer sur l’occupation d’installations piscicoles dans l’archipel de Broughton en 2017. Analyse : En communiquant par médias sociaux, les Kwawaka'wakw ont cherché à mettre en place une « infrastructure vivante » qui maintiendrait des relations de réciprocité avec les saumons et l’océan dans le but de favoriser l’épanouissement collectif du saumon, des eaux et des humains. Conclusions et implications : Les nations Kwawaka'wakw et leurs alliés ont recouru aux médias sociaux afin de contourner les médias traditionnels. Leur approche leur a permis de rejoindre des publics plus larges qui ont aidé à mettre de la pression sur le gouvernement pour qu’il effectue des changements. Contexte : Dans le but de décoloniser les perspectives infrastructurelles sur la communication, cet article emploie une approche à double perspective (« Two-Eyed Seeing ») afin d’examiner l’usage des médias sociaux fait par les Kwawaka'wakw pour communiquer sur l’occupation d’installations piscicoles dans l’archipel de Broughton en 2017. Analyse : En communiquant par médias sociaux, les Kwawaka'wakw ont cherché à mettre en place une « infrastructure vivante » qui maintiendrait des relations de réciprocité avec les saumons et l’océan dans le but de favoriser l’épanouissement collectif du saumon, des eaux et des humains. Conclusions et implications : Les nations Kwawaka'wakw et leurs alliés ont recouru aux médias sociaux afin de contourner les médias traditionnels. Leur approche leur a permis de rejoindre des publics plus larges qui ont aidé à mettre de la pression sur le gouvernement pour qu’il effectue des changements. Contexte : Dans le but de décoloniser les perspectives infrastructurelles sur la communication, cet article emploie une approche à double perspective (« Two-Eyed Seeing ») afin d’examiner l’usage des médias sociaux fait par les Kwawaka'wakw pour communiquer sur l’occupation d’installations piscicoles dans l’archipel de Broughton en 2017. Analyse : En communiquant par médias sociaux, les Kwawaka'wakw ont cherché à mettre en place une « infrastructure vivante » qui maintiendrait des relations de réciprocité avec les saumons et l’océan dans le but de favoriser l’épanouissement collectif du saumon, des eaux et des humains. Conclusions et implications : Les nations Kwawaka'wakw et leurs alliés ont recouru aux médias sociaux afin de contourner les médias traditionnels. Leur approche leur a permis de rejoindre des publics plus larges qui ont aidé à mettre de la pression sur le gouvernement pour qu’il effectue des changements.

Aquaculture mediates global transmission of a viral pathogen to wild salmon

Global expansion of aquaculture and agriculture facilitates disease emergence and catalyzes transmission to sympatric wildlife populations. The health of wild salmon stocks critically concerns Indigenous peoples, commercial and recreational fishers, and the general public. Despite potential impact of viral pathogens such as Piscine orthoreovirus-1 (PRV-1) on endangered wild salmon populations, their epidemiology in wild fish populations remains obscure, as does the role of aquaculture in global and local spread. Our phylogeographic analyses of PRV-1 suggest that development of Atlantic salmon aquaculture facilitated spread from Europe to the North and South East Pacific. Phylogenetic analysis and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction surveillance further illuminate the circumstances of emergence of PRV-1 in the North East Pacific and provide strong evidence for Atlantic salmon aquaculture as a source of infection in wild Pacific salmon. PRV-1 is now an important infectious agent in critically endangered wild Pacific salmon populations, fueled by aquacultural transmission.

Bias in hatchery-origin coho salmon survival estimates due to underestimated prerelease mortality

The widely accepted belief that hatchery-origin salmon survive less well than natural-origin or wild salmon can be, at least in part, an artifact of the way hatchery salmon survival is estimated. Hatchery salmon are often marked several months before release, while natural salmon are marked during their seaward migration. Underestimated prerelease mortalities result in biased low survival estimates. In British Columbia, although hatchery rearing practices have been modified to reduce unrecorded mortalities, experimental evidence indicates that coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) smolt survivals continue to be underestimated by ∼13%. Better reporting and incorporation of survival bias in data sets and analyses as well as additional work to evaluate bias for other regions and species over time is needed.

Evaluation of genetic effects on wild salmon populations from stock enhancement

Many salmonid populations are of conservation concern, and the release of hatchery-produced juveniles is a frequently used measure to alleviate declines and increase harvest opportunities. While such releases may be of conservation value for some populations, stocking may also decrease the effective population size and subsequently impose additional strain on already threatened populations. In this study, we assessed how the cohort-wise effective number of breeders in five populations of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were affected by supplementation. Altogether, 19 cohorts were studied (2–7 cohorts per population) by estimating the proportion hatchery-released individuals and the effective number of wild and captive breeders in each cohort of the respective populations. We show that the effect of releasing captive-bred individuals varies both between populations and between years within the same population. A Ryman–Laikre effect—where the effective number of breeders has decreased as a consequence of supplementation—was observed for 11 cohorts. We discuss how supplementation can be adapted to optimize the effective population size, demonstrate that evaluation of supplementation can be reliably achieved, and show that supplementation programmes that lead to high proportions of hatchery-origin fish on spawning grounds are more likely to induce a Ryman–Laikre effect.

An Update on the Content of Fatty Acids, Dioxins, PCBs and Heavy Metals in Farmed, Escaped and Wild Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) in Norway

In this paper, we present updated data on proximate composition, amino acid, and fatty acid composition, as well as concentrations of dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and selected heavy metals, in fillets from farmed (n = 20), escaped (n = 17), and wild (n = 23) Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.). The concentrations of dioxins (0.53 ± 0.12 pg toxic equivalents (TEQ)/g), dioxin-like PCBs (0.95 ± 0.48 pg TEQ/g), mercury (56.3 ± 12.9 µg/kg) and arsenic (2.56 ± 0.87 mg/kg) were three times higher in wild compared to farmed salmon, but all well below EU-uniform maximum levels for contaminants in food. The six ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) PCBs concentrations (5.09 ± 0.83 ng/g) in wild salmon were higher than in the farmed fish (3.34 ± 0.46 ng/g). The protein content was slightly higher in wild salmon (16%) compared to the farmed fish (15%), and the amount of essential amino acids were similar. The fat content of farmed salmon (18%) was three times that of the wild fish, and the proportion of marine long-chain omega-3 fatty acids was a substantially lower (8.9 vs. 24.1%). The omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio was higher in farmed than wild salmon (0.7 vs. 0.05). Both farmed and wild Atlantic salmon are still valuable sources of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. One 150 g portion per week will contribute to more (2.1 g and 1.8 g) than the recommended weekly intake for adults.