The ’Na̱mg̱is Nation, the Stó:lō Tribal Council and allied communities are celebrating a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that upholds the federal government’s right to remove open-net salmon farms from B.C. waters.
According to a release from the ’Na̱mg̱is Nation, the ruling dismissed an appeal by Mowi Canada West, a Norwegian-owned farmed salmon company. The company had argued that a decision by former fisheries minister Joyce Murray to order its farms, and others, out of the Discovery Islands area in June 2022 was unfair and based on poor science.
A unanimous judgment later rebuked the company’s arguments in appealing a lower ruling, which had found Murray acted fairly. The court also awarded costs against the company.
“This ruling is a crucial step in ensuring the survival of wild salmon on our coast,” said ’Na̱mg̱is hereditary chief Ho’miska̱nis Don Svanvik. “It underscores that there is a clear path — morally, politically and legally — for the Liberal government to finish the job: to keep its promise to remove all open-net salmon farms from our coast by 2029, if not sooner.”
The release said Ecojustice represented Living Oceans Society, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Georgia Strait Alliance, Watershed Watch Salmon Society and independent biologist Alexandra Morton in the case.
The ’Na̱mg̱is and Stó:lō Nations intervened in the earlier ruling that Mowi appealed.
“The returns of the past two years have brought hope to our nation that wild salmon will nourish our bodies and the environment as they once did,” Svanvik said. “When these salmon went out to sea, they did not have to travel through a myriad of fish farms in the
Discovery Islands and the Broughton Archipelago. Wild salmon have demonstrated that when we get out of the way, they will come home.”
The release added that in summer 2025, sockeye salmon returned to B.C. coastal and upriver communities in numbers that exceeded projections.
