Science Breaks the Spell of B.C.’s Anti–Salmon Farming High Priestess

Canada’s 45th Parliament opens this week with Prime Minister Mark Carney under pressure to reset the nation’s aquaculture policy, as new science debunks years of activist misinformation about salmon farming in British Columbia.

Commentary
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

For years, Alexandra Morton has been the high priestess of anti–salmon farming rhetoric in British Columbia, preaching the gospel of “No Farms, No Sea Lice” with relentless zeal.

She has written it in blogs, shouted it into cameras, and splashed it across social media, strongly implying that open-net salmon farms are the sole drivers of sea lice infestations on wild salmon, and that removing these farms would magically cleanse the ocean of the parasites.

In one Instagram post, she wrote:
“No Salmon Farms, No sea lice!”

In a YouTube video, she echoed the same message:
“When you take the salmon farms out, the lice disappear. No farms, no lice.”

There are numerous other instances where Morton and her allies repeat this mantra each time reinforcing a simplistic narrative designed to undermine the salmon farming sector in BC.

That narrative—simple, emotional, and weaponized—has been the backbone of activist campaigns that pushed the Trudeau-era Liberals toward the politically expedient, but scientifically shaky, decision to propose phasing out salmon farms along the BC coast.

But now, science has caught up. And the activist story is falling apart.

A comprehensive eight-year peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Fish Diseases has just torpedoed the central pillar of Morton’s crusade. Conducted by researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Mainstream Biological Consulting, and the University of Strathclyde, the study tracked sea lice levels on juvenile wild salmon in the Discovery Islands from 2017 to 2024, including during and after the full removal of salmon farms from the region.

And here’s the kicker:

“Sea lice levels on wild salmon in 2024 were among the highest recorded during the last eight-year period in the Discovery Islands, despite the closure of salmon farms,” the study reports.

In other words—no farms, still sea lice.

For Morton, the initial drop in lice levels following farm closures was all the evidence she needed. But what she conveniently ignores is what happened next.

After all Atlantic salmon farms were removed by 2022 in the Discovery Islands, sea lice levels initially declined. But by 2024, they had rebounded, some to levels higher than when farms were still active.

These fluctuations, scientists concluded, were not due to farm presence or absence, but to natural factors such as ocean temperature, salinity, current flow, and wild hosts like herring and stickleback.

“These findings demonstrate that the evidence does not support the narrative of ‘no salmon farms, means no sea lice,’” said Lance Stewardson, a co-author of the study.

And that’s not an isolated conclusion.

The 2022 Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) review, conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, also found   no statistical correlation between sea lice counts on wild and farm-raised salmon.

Similar conclusions have been drawn from studies in Scotland, Norway, and the United States, all showing that claims made by anti–salmon farming activists are scientifically unsound.

In fact, courts in both Canada and the U.S., relying on expert testimony, have ruled that activist-driven assertions about sea lice and disease transmission from salmon farms to wild stocks are without merit.

Yet Morton and her allies continue to ignore this growing body of global and peer-reviewed evidence, instead doubling down on an outdated, oversimplified tale that paints fish farms as the sole villain in a much more complex marine ecosystem.

Morton has built a career—and a movement—on apocalyptic predictions of environmental collapse, blaming salmon aquaculture for nearly every ill in the ocean. But when those claims fall apart under the weight of real science, she and her supporters simply pivot to new doomsday talking points.

This latest peer-reviewed study should not be viewed as just a rebuttal of Morton’s sea lice mythology. It should be seen as a scientific reckoning that demands policy correction.

This week, as Canada’s 45th Parliament begins under newly minted Prime Minister Mark Carney, the opportunity to reset the nation’s approach to aquaculture has never been more urgent.

His newly appointed Fisheries Minister, Joanne Thompson, inherits a file clouded by misinformation and activist-driven falsehoods that shaped the Trudeau era’s most damaging decisions on salmon farming.

The Carney government now has both the opportunity and the obligation to correct course.

It must abandon the false premise that phasing out salmon farms will somehow ‘save’ wild salmon.
It must move beyond the politics of perception and into an era of precision-based policymaking.
And it must deliver a comprehensive aquaculture strategy rooted in science, ecological responsibility, and respect for Indigenous rights to strengthen coastal communities.

This policy must be built on facts, not fear and driven by scientific reality, not empty rhetoric.

(Facebook File image of anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton)