Proceedings 2010/011

Proceedings of the National Peer-review Meeting on Aquaculture Pathways of Effects ; 19-23 October, 2009

Chairs: G.J. Parsons and M. Chadwick

Summary

The CSAS Pathway of Effects (POEs) meeting was held in Ottawa, Ontario from October 19-23, 2009. Participants from DFO Science, DFO Aquaculture Management, DFO Habitat Management, external experts from universities, provincial governments, industry associations, First Nations, and environmental non-government agencies attended the meeting. The science review was based on proposed activity – stressor – effect linkages for each of seven categories of stressors: chemicals, escapes, light, noise, nutrients, pathogens and structure. The outputs from the meeting will inform the development of the overall Framework for Aquaculture Environmental Management (FAEM) and help regulators to carry out their responsibilities. The linkages identified in the draft POEs were determined to be comprehensive, but relatively simplistic representations, and did not communicate the full complexity of all relationships and feedbacks that may occur. There was reasonable evidence that cumulative and/or cascading effects occur across pathways, and varied geographically and temporally and by level of activity. An appreciation of the complexities was essential to understanding the linkages. It was also noted that the POEs did not directly identify large-scale synergistic ecological functions and yet are recognized by science as being important. It is important to note that this CSAS process excluded consideration of mitigation measures and the potential to reduce or eliminate stressors or effects. Mitigation measures, their effects and potential side-effects will be assessed in a future process. From this meeting, eight key supporting scientific papers that complement the POE diagrams will be published. The following is a summary of that process.

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