alexandra morton

The Migration is going well!

Just a quick note from the front steps of the Kelsy Bay Center. We have walked 4 days through the mountains and made it to Sayward last night in a raging storm. Hundreds of people are waving some are walking with us for portions and even dropping of their children to walk with me for short distances.

We are off to support the people of Discovery Islands today in their effort to clear the Fraser River Migration route of Norwegian salmon farms to the benefit of all British Columbians.

It is very important that government take care of the families now dependent on these Norwegian companies as the salmon farm industry changes from net pen, to a Canadian landbased industry.

Please see Walk for wild salmon gets rolling

salmon are sacred

Finally the laws of Canada applied to Norwegian salmon farmer

Today, Todd Gerhart of the Department of Justice, stayed charges laid I against Marine Harvest, the largest Norwegian fish farm company in the world, for unlawful possession of wild salmon. In a landmark initiative Gerhart advised the Court that on April 16, 2010, DOJ filed a new Information against Marine Harvest, including the original charges laid by Alexandra Morton as well as new charges for unlawful possession of herring reported in October 2009. Mr. Gerhart will be the prosecutor.

My lawyer Jeffery Jones and I are relieved. “It is my strong opinion,” says Mr. Jones, a former Crown Prosecutor for DOJ, “that this industry was given access to the BC coast and appears to have been conducting itself as if it were above the law. Today’s decision by Mr. Gerhart and the Department of Justice confirms that no corporation is above the law. This is why private prosecutions are important democratic safeguards. Ms. Morton’s prosecution has triggered enforcement action by DOJ. I am extremely pleased by Mr. Gerhart’s decision.”

In June of 2009, young wild salmon were observed falling from a load of farm salmon being off-loaded from Marine Harvest’s vessel Orca Warrior. Some of these fish were collected and Marine Harvest admitted in the newspaper to catching the wild salmon. “By-catch” is fish caught without a licence in the process of fishing for other species. By-catch is strictly controlled in all other fisheries and in some cases causes entire fisheries to be shut down.

For decades we have heard reports of wild fish trapped in fish farms, eaten by the farm fish and destroyed during harvest, but when DFO was informed of these offenses they would not, or could not, lay a charge. Canada cannot manage wild fish like this. You can’t regulate commercial and sport fishermen and then allow another group unlimited access to the same resource. BC will lose its wild fish.

In 1993, the Pacific Fishery Regulations exempted salmon farms from virtually all fishing regulations. Unlike commercial fishermen, salmon farmers can use bright lights known to attract wild fish. The oily food pellets they use also attract fish and wildlife. Commercial fishermen are required to pay for observers and cameras on their vessels that record by-catch, so that fishing can be halted to preserve non-targeted stocks. No such enforcement has been applied to salmon farmers, despite regular reports of black cod, rock cod, herring, lingcod, wild salmon, Pollock, capelin and other species in the pens, in stomachs of the farmed fish and destroyed at harvest time….Until now.

This is a ray of hope that we can work through the issue of Norwegian salmon farming in BC waters. I am thankful to hand this over to the Department of Justice. Aquaculture is not the problem. The problem is the reckless way government sited it, managed it and gave it priority over the public fisheries. I call on government to protect the families now dependant on this industry as it undergoes the long overdue scrutiny of the courts, the judicial inquiry and public opinion.

This is only the first step. Many thanks to my my lawyer Jeff Jones.

Everyone Loves Wild Salmon.... don't they?

Everyone Loves Wild Salmon Don't They? from Alexandra Morton on Vimeo.

Rejection, condemnation, denial and disturbing evidence

Weekly Update April 5, 2010
Salmon Farming

This was another week of strong rejection, condemnation, denial and disturbing evidence regarding net pen salmon farms. It seems everyone can see the evidence globally, except industry CEOs and government. Jobs, economy, food security, local towns all thrive with the diversity made possible by abundant wild salmon. The era of a free dump into public waters for Norwegian salmon farming industry is coming to a rapid closure. If they want to exist fish farmers need to get out of the ocean.

The Get Out Migration is building. I am walking the length of Vancouver Island beginning on April 23 at the north end from Sointula. People are telling me they plan to walk too from their towns and along the same route and this is fantastic! If enough people do this, politicians might finally understand that wild salmon are much too valuable to risk in this way. Please know this is not an “event”, it is simply individuals who feel it is time to take a stand for wild salmon in a visible way and if you decide to do this please know you must be self-sufficient.

The Salmon & Trout Association of the United Kingdom, with Prince Charles as its patron and 100,000 members, made a stunning condemnation of salmon farming. It states that a review of the science:

“reveals a devastating catalogue of malpractice in the way salmon farming is impacting wild salmon, sea trout and the marine environment, and provides incontrovertible proof that it is a sword of Damocles suspended over some of Scotland's most iconic natural resources.”

The report lists sea lice as one of the biggest problems and accuses the salmon farming industry in Scotland “of precipitating an environmental disaster” and calls on government for the immediate implementation of a survival plan to save wild stocks. article

Meanwhile, while visiting BC Norwegian CEO of Mainstream (Cermaq) Mr. Geir Isaksen said that there is “no validity” in the research on sea lice and that we should all work together. He does not suggest that Mainstream release disease information however.

"I feel some of the arguments they use are not really real... for instance it's been a long debate on sea lice and the impact of sea lice on the migrating smolts on this area.... And in my view it seems at least that some of the arguments used against fish farming are not verified in this research," Isaksen said.

Last week I attended a meeting on the Fraser River sockeye and saw a graph depicting productivity of the different sockeye runs within the Fraser. All but one started into accelerating decline in the early 1990s. During this time period the % taken by the commercial fishing has been steadily cut back. If fishing was the driving problem, fish numbers should have increased as fishing decreased. The one run that is producing more and more fish per spawner is the Harrison and a recent DFO study found that while most juvenile Fraser sockeye travel north past 60 fish farms, the Harrison go south around southern Vancouver Island and do not encounter salmon farms.

In Ottawa, Mr. Trevor Swerdfager, Director General for Aquaculture DFO is telling our Federal Standing Committee on Aquaculture there is no evidence of fish farms negatively affecting wild salmon populations. transcript

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs rejected Mr. Swerdfager’s Aquaculture Regulation Strategic Plan in an open letter to Minister of Fisheries Shea “because it does not meet Canada’s legal and constitutional obligations to First Nations.” link

The Intertribal Treaty Organization put out a Download ITO Fish Farm Press Release March11 2010 on March 11, 2010:

“During the March 9-10, 2010 inaugural AGA of the Intertribal Treaty Organization (ITO) held in Prince George, attending Chiefs voted unanimously to support Indigenous Nations of the Broughton Archipelago and Georgia Straits for the immediate removal of fish farms from their territories to support in the survival of Fraser River bound fish stocks.”

The Town of Tahsis also wrote to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans asking for the fish farms near them to be removed:

“In conclusion, Tahsis needs to protect not just the wild salmon but its own economic interests. After the closure of our sawmill and subsequent collapse of our local logging industry, we need to look after what we have left for our economic survival. With that in mind, we ask that the federal government close the open containment fish farms in Nootka Sound. While this may negatively impact the local fish farm industry, we have proposed to them that they relocate to Tahsis and build land-based, closed containment facilities here. We are willing to work with them to find a solution that is mutually beneficial to all.”

I still have not receive any explanation from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Lands on why their own graphs and statements do not appear in agreement on the issue of drug-resistant sea lice in Nootka area.

March 22, 2010, Trevor Swerdfager told the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans:

“We have absolutely no evidence of that (Slice resistance) whatsoever in British Columbia. We know that this is one of the latest suggestions that has come forward. We have looked into that situation, which has been profiled frequently on the web. But it's not just that.”

While Mr. Swerdfager says they looked into the situation it would be good to know what he found. These lice have now spread to the wild chum salmon heading to sea, pictures below.

Perhaps you can understand why I feel it is time to stand up and be counted. There are solutions. This is a mess brought on by very poor leadership.

Thank you for reading,

Alexandra Morton

Management by Denial

Dear Fin Donnelly – west coast Fisheries Critic

I still have not heard from the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands how the Download F...BCSFA_GRAPHS_ATL_2.4_2009[1] posted on the MAL website does not suggest sea lice in the area of Nootka Island are drug resistant. Treatment with Slice in October should have brought these lice numbers to near zero for a period of weeks. Not only did lice levels not drop low enough, they did not remain low.

While MAL has not answered my question for 5 weeks, Trevor Swerdfager, Director General of Aquaculture Management DFO has taken this a step further by telling the Federal Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans that in regards to Slice resistance in Nootka area:

“We have absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever in British Columbia. We know that this is one of the latest suggestions that has come forward. We have looked into that situation, which has been profiled frequently on the web. But it's not just that.” (March 22, 2010).

This statement is indefensible. The MAL graph IS, in and of itself “evidence” of drug resistance and all the more so because MAL will not explain these numbers. We know this graph combines several areas, but Grieg's own graph of the specific farms near Tahsis is worse - showing an average of over 40 lice per fish, that after treatment dropped only to OVER THREE TIMES THE PROVINCIAL LIMIT. The drug could not even kill enough lice to reach the provincial limit for number of lice and the lice started reproducing immediately post treatment.

Grieg did harvest their fish, but not before this lineage of sea lice spread to the wild juvenile salmon of Tahsis Inlet,
and in the process of harvesting spread these lice to the Discovery Islands
.

To the people reading this email this is exactly how we got into this fish farm mess. The provincial regulation of salmon farms does not deal with the issues in a way that is scientifically defensible or biologically effective. Questions go unanswered and erroneous statements are passed up the chain to the highest levels of government. Mr. Swerdfager’s statements to the Standing Committee suggests this behaviour will continue unabated as regulation transfers to federal jurisdiction.

The provincial government of British Columbia has to answer why, after application of Slice, did the average number of sea lice per fish in the Grieg salmon farms, Esperanza and Steamer, not drop to the allowed limit for sea lice in British Columbia? This has now reached the National level and these lice are traveling to sea in the wild salmon of Tahsis Inlet. Please note in the transcript below Mr. Swerdfager also suggests DFO does not acknowledge drug resistance in eastern Canada, even though the fish farm industry itself does and is getting new drugs specifically to deal with drug resistance! This suggests it is DFO policy to make this problem go away simply by denying it.

All of this is very disturbing and symptomatic of government covering for an industry that is associated with wild salmon population declines around in the world (Download Ford and Meyers). This type of irresponsible management is the reason First Nations, towns, scientists, business people and environmental organizations are all uniting in calling for removal of net pen salmon farms away from our wild salmon.

Mr. Donnelly, I can see no reason to continue asking MAL to answer questions they are stalling on. This lineage of lice is still alive and thriving on the wild salmon in the area and these specific lice should be tested today for drug resistance with participation from the salmon enhancement community of Gold River and the First Nations of the area so that we can all be sure this is being done properly. This is easy and possible and the only responsibly way to deal with this. It is only a short – window of opportunity and there are people who can easily collect these lice on hand.

Alexandra Morton

Time to Take a Stand

See www.salmonaresacred.org and learn about the Get Out Migration April 23 - May 8 where we can make a stand for wild salmon. There is a petition that will be presented to government at the end of the migration petition

We the undersigned stand against the biological threat and commerce of industrial net-pen feedlots using our global oceans. The science is clear these operations risk wild fish populations by intensifying disease, they deplete world fishery resources to make the feed. They privatize ocean spaces and threaten our sovereign rights to food security.

Stop Buying and selling industrial net pen farm fish. Fish Farms Get Out of our Oceans: