Canada has permitted more than 100 industrial salmon feedlots in British Columbia to operate along wild salmon migration routes, exposing ecologically and economically valuable salmon runs to epidemics of disease, parasites, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste. The petition documents Canada's failure to enforce the Fisheries Act in allowing industrial aquaculture to erode the capacity of ecosystems to support wild salmon. The proliferation of salmon feedlots is linked to dramatic declines in British Columbia's wild salmon populations and the detection of a lethal salmon virus.

"Fish farms in Canada are an unholy marriage between various levels of the Canadian governments and foreign-owned companies," said Chief Bob Chamberlain of the Kwikwasu'tinuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation. "We continue to explore, identify and act upon whatever means possible to rid our traditional territories of open net cage fish farms."