http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cp_agriculture_home&articleID=1964129

Sunday, Jun 26, 2005
Fish farm halts sales after cancer-causing chemical found

VICTORIA (CP) - The cancer-causing chemical malachite green has been found in a second Vancouver Island salmon farm, an industry spokesman said on Friday.
Creative Salmon, located near the west coast tourism village of Tofino, voluntarily suspended sales of its organically raised Chinook salmon after federal scientists found malachite green in tests it conducted last month, company manager Spencer Evans said.

Earlier this month, malachite green was found in salmon raised at a fish farm also near Tofino operated by the Stolt Sea Farm group.

Health Canada has a zero tolerance level when it comes to malachite green, a cancer-causing chemical once used to kill fungus in fish eggs. It was banned in Canada in 1992.

Evans said he's dumbfounded how malachite green appeared in his company's fish.

"Creative Salmon has never used malachite green," he said. "How our fish got exposed to it, I really don't know. We're at a complete loss at this point in time. There's a possibility there was an error at the laboratory. I don't know."

The tests by Canadian Food Inspection Agency scientists found one Creative Salmon Chinook with a level of malachite green of 0.33 parts per billion, Evans said.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Evans said his company voluntarily suspended sales of its salmon after the malachite green findings.

"We sent out letters to all of our customers and the local community explaining exactly what had happened," he said. "We have suspended harvesting until further testing can be done to verify these results."

Creative Salmon sends most of its fish to the United States, but it also has customers in Japan and Canada, including the Tofino area, Evans said.

"We're one of the smallest salmon farming companies in the world," he said. "We produce about 1,500 metric tonnes of Chinook salmon every year."

The company sent other salmon samples to the CFIA laboratory in the Halifax area for further tests and sent samples to an independent laboratory in Guelph, Ontario, Evans said.

"They (CFIA) are going to test them, but they don't seem to be in any particular rush to do the testing," he said.

A spokesman for a Tofino-area environmental group said consumer protection must come first when cancer-causing chemicals are found in fish.

"It's just another example of the cocktail of chemicals and contaminants in B.C. farmed salmon," said Don Staniford, an aquaculture expert with the Friends of Clayoquot Sound.

"Far from cleaning up our act, B.C. salmon farmers are putting the reputation of Canadian seafood and Canadian food products at risk," he said.

Staniford said he doesn't hold much sympathy for Evans when he says his company doesn't use malachite green and doesn't know how the chemical turned up in the fish.

"From a consumer safety point of view, the fact is that B.C. farmed salmon is once again contaminated with a carcinogenic chemical," he said. "Health Canada have a zero tolerance for malachite green and B.C. farmed salmon is by definition unfit for human consumption."

Creative Salmon's fish stocks should be destroyed, Staniford said.

Evans said Japan allows levels of malachite green levels of five parts per billion in its fish. The United States does not even test for levels of malachite green, he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2005