Scott Renyard, born in Revelstoke, British Columbia, is a filmmaker, author and scientist. He graduated in 1982 from the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a B.Sc. major in Botany. Scott continued his studies at UBC through the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP). There he studied fisheries and forestry conflicts and graduated with a M.Sc. in resource management and regional planning in 1986. In 1985, he took a job on the film, The Boy Who Could Fly, while completing his Master’s thesis on sport fisheries, A Planned Strategy for Developing Burrard Inlet’s Shore-based Sport Fisheries.
It was never part of the plan to leave his science path for a movie career. But, the shuttering of regional planning offices by the provincial government at the time turned a part-time venture into a new career. Thirty-five years later Scott has worked on more than 150 film and television projects in many capacities including writing, directing and producing.
As a screenwriter, Scott’s first writing credit was the last episode of Neon Rider, “What’s Up Doc?” for CTV/AVR Productions. Scott, later, sold spec scripts and doctored a number of others. In 1994, he founded Juggernaut Pictures, which has grown from a small independent film production company into a studio and distribution company. In 2001, Scott co-wrote and directed the one hour doc, “Project Cougar” for Discovery Channel garnering the highest ratings for a Monday night that season. The following year he directed the six-part docu-comedy series called “Check it Out” for Access Television.
Scott then wrote, directed and produced the award winning nature documentary, “Who Killed Miracle?”. In early 2014, Scott completed the remaster projects for “Living River” and “Indian Food Fishing on the Fraser River“. Later that year, he launched “The Pristine Coast” at the Vancouver International Film Festival to four packed screenings. The film was nominated for an Impact award, changed public policy in Canada, and went on to win the prestigious International Focal Award in London, England.
During the making of The Pristine Coast, Scott linked the collapse of Atlantic cod populations to disease carried by sea lice after reading a 1987 paper, Interactions of caligid ectoparasites and juvenile gadids on Georges Bank by John D. Neilson et al. Prior to this, commercial fishing was considered the sole culprit for the over 90% decline in Atlantic cod biomass. The increased presence of juvenile sea lice and reductions in juvenile fish corresponded with the introduction of open net pen fish farms off the east coast of Canada. Renyard determined that many of the wild fish population crashes in the northern hemisphere over the last several decades are likely due to disease outbreaks that originate or are amplified in open net pen fish farms. Modern open net pen fish farms were first introduced in Norway and Japan in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and many countries joined the new industry. Scott also believes that the loss of wild fish in the ocean is causing the release of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which explains ‘faster than expected’ rate of global warming since the late 1970’s. The commonly held belief is that climate change and over fishing has been the cause of wild fish population crashes. But after meeting Dr. Trisha Atwood who discovered that the removal of predators from aquatic ecosystems, carbon dioxide emissions increased 93%. Scott believes the demise of wild fish populations is effectively Atwood’s experiment, but on a global scale. Multinational corporations have been spreading diseases like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) virus by moving live fish products, like eggs, around to their farms in different parts of the world. Once the virus is present in the farms, sea lice bite the farm fish hosts and then carry the virus to wild fish mingling around the farms. The disappearance of wild fish in an ecosystem results in a trophic cascade down the food chain that suppresses the phytoplankton population. This, in turn, reduces the ocean’s ability to sequestrate carbon in the biomass of marine plants and animals. So when this happens, the whole system loses the ability to capture and dump carbon to the bottom of the ocean to be held indefinitely. So, Scott argues that the loss of wild fish is ultimately causing climate change, not the other way around.
In 2010, Scott got permission to film hearings at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry. He spent nearly a year filming the testimony and produced 395 episodes entitled Exhibit 2148. These episodes can be found either on The Green Channel, or on The Green Channel’s you tube channel.
Scott went on to complete two feature documentaries based on footage recorded at the Inquiry. The Unofficial Trial of Alexandra Morton is a film about one of the world’s most outspoken independent scientists regarding the impacts of open net pen fish farming. And the second film, entitled Trial of An Iconic Species complied the startling testimony of scientists regarding the rapid decline of the iconic Fraser River sockeye.
July 2017, Scott launched the streaming service, The Green Channel, with the goal to support environmental story tellers and the environment. Scott’s vision for the service is to be a hub for environmental films from around the world to not only increase awareness about a whole range of environmental issues, but also to broaden the scope of environmental stories making it more mainstream in the minds of the public and decision-makers.
In 2020, Scott began his journey into eco-comedies with “Save the Planet Already!” a feature comedy based on live stand up performances about the environment as a way to bring a wider audience to environmental issues. “Food and Fuel: A Story of Resilience” launched in 2021 examines how dependent our food supply is on fossil fuels. Then in 2023, Scott created, produced and directed “Pressure Point“, a 10 part eco-comedy series and “The Firekeepers“ a 7 part eco-biography series, both launching as original content on The Green Channel. Also in 2023, Scott completed and launched the feature documentary, “The Herring People“, and the shorter TV version, The Streamkeepers’ Way about a group of volunteers trying to save Pacific Herring populations in Howe Sound and Burrard Inlet.
Scott has recently published the following books: The Flag that Flew Up (children’s rhyming), Who Killed Miracle? (illustrated screenplay), The Pristine Coast (illustrated screenplay), The Unofficial Trial of Alexandra Morton (illustrated screenplay), Trial of An Iconic Species (illustrated screenplay), The Herring People (illustrated screenplay), Pressure Point: A series of Mishandled Events (screenplay collection).
Scott serves on the board of Moving Images Distribution, an educational distributor for independent filmmakers. Scott served on the board of the Squamish Streamkeepers for 20 years, an environmental organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing salmon and herring populations.