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
