Salmon advocate and biologist Alexandra Morton is suing the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, alleging the DFO is putting wild salmon at risk by failing to inspect hatchery fish for a known virus prior to transferring them to fish farms.

Morton’s lawsuit charges the department with breaking fisheries regulations that say the minister can only issue a licence allowing fish farmers to transfer fish if they “do not have any disease or disease agent that may be harmful to the protection and conservation of fish.”

Regulations also require the minister to ensure the transfer won’t have an “adverse effect” on other fish stocks.

Morton won a similar legal case in 2015, after suing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Marine Harvest for transferring Atlantic salmon infected with piscine reovirus into its ocean feedlot operations. The virus is associated with Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI), a contagious and often fatal disease that has hit Norwegian and Chilean fish farms.

The Federal Court gave the DFO until September 2015 to revise licences granted to Marine Harvest to ensure diseased hatchery fish are not transferred into the open-net systems in the ocean. Marine Harvest and the federal government appealed the decision, but the federal government sought an adjournment in May after scientists revealed they had found a potential case of HMSI on a B.C. fish farm.

Asked about the fate of the appeal and department’s apparent failure to comply with the law, DFO communications advisor Athina Vazeos wrote in a statement that “It would be inappropriate to comment further as this matter remains before the court.”

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