For the first time ever, scientists have uncovered the presence
of infectious salmon anemia, a deadly virus that has devastated
farmed fish in Chile, in wild salmon populations on the West
Coast. This news arrived at a time when the Obama administration
is fast-tracking the approval of genetically engineered Atlantic
salmon, promoting environmental destructive corporate
aquaculture facilities and pushing the privatization of public
trust resources through the controversial “catch shares”
program. (See: Exposed: Federal funding for GMO salmon?)
Scientists from Simon Fraser University reported at a news
conference in Vancouver on October 17 that the virus had been
found in 2 of 48 juvenile fish collected as part of a study of
sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet, British Columbia. “The highly
contagious marine influenza virus, Infectious Salmon Anaemia
(ISA,) has for the first time been officially reported after
being found in the Pacific on B.C.’s central coast,” according
to a news release from the scientists. “Now