From: Postmottak FKD
Date: September 21, 2009 6:16:06 AM PDT (CA)
Sir/madam
Thank you for your e-mail to Minister Helga Pedersen, who has asked me
to answer on her behalf.
We acknowledge your concern for the environment and the declining stocks
of wild salmon, and we believe that most Canadian fish-farmers share
your concern. All companies operating fish farms in Canada, including
Norwegian owned companies, are oblige to follow rules and regulations
at the place of operation, in this case Canadian federal and provincial
regulations and standards. The Norwegian government is confident that
the Canadian federal government, and the provincial government in
British Colombia, is regulating and controlling the fish-farming
industry in the best possible way to mitigate the environmental risk
from fish-farming, taking Canadian national and provincial
considerations into account.
Regards
Yngve Torgersen
Deputy Director General
Dear Yngve Torgersen:
Thank you for your effort to address our concerns, but I don’t think you have been accurately informed on the situation here in British Columbia. Nine million sockeye salmon vanished without a trace and the Minister of Fisheries, Gail Shea has told us your fish farms are not responsible because there was a coastwide collapse of all salmon. Fortunately this is not true. While there have been some very alarming collapses this year, this is not the case among the southcoast sockeye. Only the ones going past Norwegians fish farms vanished, the others made strong returns.
Similarly, the Pacific Region director of Fisheries, Paul Sprout, wrote letters in newspapers claiming that the lice on the juvenile sockeye that vanished were not the species found on farm salmon. This is not true either. On Marine Harvest’s own website over 92% of the farms reported the exact same species in the year and months that the missing sockeye swam past them.
The only thing being controlled is the public perception. The fish farm industry is increasingly associated with the spread of the ISA virus. But our Minister of Fisheries claims, against the science coming from Norway, that the virus is not carried in the eggs.
What do you say to this? How do you respond to the Canadian government protecting your industry with statements that are not accurate?
Can you be sure diseases on your fish farms are not responsible for loss of one of Canada’s most valuable fish resources? If so why?
Sincerely,
Alexandra Morton, biologist
