TORONTO-A plan to dump pesticides in the water is being developed between a foreign aquaculture company and local conservationists and tour operators along the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Cermaq, a wholly-owned Japanese company operating a salmon farm near Tofino, British Columbia, is seeking approval to dump nearly one million liters of pesticides in the waters of the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve.

The pesticide contains hydrogen peroxide, and Cermaq hopes to use it to eliminate sea lice that affect farmed salmon. The company has obtained a permit to dump pesticides into the water within three years, but since the permit will expire this year, it is seeking a renewal.

But Clayoquot Sound is also a feeding ground for migrating gray whales. Environmentalists such as Bonny Glambeck manage a team that conducts marine activities in Clayoquot Sound. They worry that pesticides will kill the food of whales such as krill and other crustaceans.

“For the past few years, gray whales have been struggling to find food,” Glenbeck told CTV News.

Tourists, such as Leonard John from the Ahousaht First Nations, who also regard whale watching as an important part of their business, have expressed the same concerns.

John told CTV News: “I am very worried that these fish farms will dump in our territory Hahoolthee.”

Another tour operator, John Forde, believes that granting Cermaq another pesticide license will make one industry better than another.

Forde told CTV News: “For the life of me, I don’t understand why this is allowed.” “I don’t understand how one industry is more favored than the economic benefits of another.”

Cermaq said in an e-mail statement that due to the instability of hydrogen peroxide, the pesticide is diluted before being discharged and will naturally decompose in seawater.

The company also told CTV News that high levels of hydrogen peroxide “may have a negative impact on crustaceans in the larval stage,” Buy said. During the normal use of pesticides, high levels of chemicals are discharged as “extremely high”. impossible”.

The company said: “Our approach is inclusive and open to all opinions. We strive to achieve better standards than global best practices, and the standards set by the Ahousaht nation where we operate in Clayoquot Sound.”

The British Columbia government has no deadline to decide whether to renew the license. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change, George Heyman (George Heyman) said that the pesticide “effectively is hydrogen peroxide and decomposes into hydrogen and oxygen.”

Selmark also stated that it has been negotiating with the Ayokhtian nation.