Some supermarkets are keeping a very dirty secret

By Alexandra Morton

Recently, I received positive lab test results showing that large supermarket chains are selling farmed salmon that are testing positive for salmon flu virus and the salmon heart virus. I am horrified to think that my friends are feeding their children infected fish.

Food companies are required to tell you if a cookie has 2 grams of fat. Don't you think they should be required to tell you if a product is diseased?
I’ve worked as a biologist for the past 23 years and I know that hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon are crowded into pens in the ocean and this causes viruses to mutate and ‘go viral.’ Viruses spill out of these netpens and can infect the wild fish that we rely upon.

We have strong scientific evidence to suggest that farm salmon viruses have led to the loss of millions, if not tens of millions, of wild salmon. While fish viruses are not considered lethal to humans, we all saw how flu viruses in chickens and swine mutated to become a threat to humans.

Viruses in feedlots are dangerous and people deserve the right to make informed choices about their food. With hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon packed into a tight space, it is so easy for viruses to spread like "wildfire" on the farm and pouring out into the ocean infecting wild salmon threatening their survival.
Last weekend a British Columbia salmon farm killed 500,000 fish due to yet another viral outbreak and this week new major infections were reported in salmon farms in both British Columbia and Washington State.

Fish from these infected farms could be sold in stores today. If you were buying infected salmon, you would want to know, right? After next week you might not ever hear about it again.

The provincial government of British Columbia, Canada is expected to pass a bill next week making it illegal for anyone to publicly report fish farm virus outbreaks in British Columbia. What country are we living in? How is it possible that it will be illegal for me to tell you that you are eating infected fish?

It is Bill 37 Animal Health Act proposed by Minister Don McRae. We must stop this. While stores like Costco and Safeway will not stop selling farmed salmon tomorrow, they have all the power to start labelling the fish they sell immediately.

Sign my petition asking them to label all farmed salmon with a history of viruses from the farms where they were raised or we will never buy fish from these stores again. Then ask everyone you know to sign on as well. 



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