Walkus said the bulk of his business is now with aquaculture companies, but he has been fishing waters off Vancouver Island since 1954 and wild salmon stocks have been declining due to a variety of factors. To blame it all on fish farms is not fair, he said.

"Our wild stocks have so many predators — the sea lions, the harbour seals, commercial fishermen, climate change, no feed."

The Cohen commission on the decline of Fraser River sockeye in 2012 said the Discovery Islands act as a bottleneck along wild salmon migration routes and eliminating the fish farms was a key recommendation.

The recommendation was also contingent on Fisheries and Oceans finding more than a minimal risk to migrating sockeye by September 2020.

Last fall, the department reported finding nine pathogens from farmed Discovery Islands salmon, but said they posed minimal risk to wild stocks.