From the Globe & Mail – March 20, 2011

by Mark Hume

Of all the theories heard so far by the Cohen Commission, the most
intriguing involves new research by a molecular scientist who is
pointing to the possibility of an epidemic of salmon leukemia.

Kristi
Miller hasn’t been called to testify on her research yet, but her work
is already causing a buzz at the inquiry, in part because it seems an
effort has been made to keep it under wraps.

Dr. Miller has not been available for media interviews, even though
she recently published a paper in the prestigious journal Science.
Usually, Fisheries and Oceans Canada promotes interviews when one of
their researchers gains an international profile for groundbreaking
work. But when Dr. Miller’s paper came out earlier this year, all
requests for interviews were denied.

She will be called before the
Cohen Commission, probably toward the end of the summer, when the
hearings begin digging into the possible role of disease in the decline
of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.

Brian Wallace, senior
counsel for the commission, will likely probe the full extent of her
research at that time, but if he doesn’t, Gregory McDade, a lawyer
appearing at the hearings for a coalition of conservation groups,
certainly will.

Mr. McDade signalled his deep interest in Dr. Miller’s work recently in questioning two witnesses.

When
Laura Richards, Pacific regional director of science for DFO, testified
last week, he asked her about a series of e-mails that suggested Dr.
Miller was being muzzled.

In a Nov. 2009 e-mail to Mark Saunders,
manager of salmon and freshwater ecosystems division, Dr. Miller said
she was being kept away from a science forum.

“Laura [Richards]
does not want me to attend any of the sockeye salmon workshops that are
not run by DFO for fear that we will not be able to control the way the
disease issue could be construed in the press. I worry that this
approach of saying nothing will backfire,” she wrote. “Laura also
clearly does not want to indicate … that the disease research is of
strategic importance.”

Dr. Richards testified that Dr. Miller had somehow misinterpreted things, and that there was no intent to silence her.

Mr. McDade also asked Scott Hinch about Dr. Miller’s work.

Dr.
Hinch is principal investigator at the University of British Columbia’s
Pacific salmon ecology and conservation lab, is the architect of some
remarkable research into why so many sockeye die in the Fraser River
before spawning, and is a co-author with Dr. Miller on the Science
article.

Dr. Hinch testified that some years more than 70 per cent of the sockeye die in the river, en route to the spawning grounds.

“And
that would make this problem the single greatest problem in terms of
loss of salmon of any that you’re aware of,” said Mr. McDade.

“Oh, yes,” answered Dr. Hinch.

“So we could be looking at losses of over three million fish in some years?” asked Mr. McDade.

“Yes,” replied Dr. Hinch.

Mr.
McDade then quoted the Science article, which hypothesizes the mass
mortality of salmon in the Fraser “is in response to a virus” that
infects fish before river entry.

“You agree with that statement?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Dr. Hinch.

“So
this purported virus, if it in fact exists, goes a very substantial way
towards … explaining the whole of the en-route loss?” he was asked.

“It could. And that’s why it got published in the journal Science,” replied Dr. Hinch.

“So
the Miller paper has hypothesized a purported virus but hasn’t named
it. … But in your discussions, you’ve talked about salmon leukemia as a
possible name for that?” said Mr. McDade.

“That was Kristina Miller’s offering, yes,” said Dr. Hinch.

“And have you heard that referred to by fish farmers as fish AIDS?”

“ I haven’t heard of that, no,” said Dr. Hinch.

“ But as a form of immune suppression?” asked Mr. McDade.

“Yes.”

Dr.
Miller won’t testify for months yet and she remains banned from giving
any media interviews. But her research, which could explain why up to
three million salmon a year are dying in the Fraser, is already
reverberating at the Cohen Commission.

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