alexandra morton

We arrive at the Cohen Commission

Yesterday was epic in rainfall, in the power of the people and the scope of the message we delivered. Most of the pictures a blurry with rain, cell phones died and people shivered but refused to leave and we saw this journey through!


We began assembling at the canoes in the dark. An ex- salmon farmer gave Global TV a live interview about the secrecy over disease in the salmon feedlots. Mayor Gregor Robertson and his wife arrived to paddle with us. Despite the storm enough people assembled on the beach to fill the canoes.

The water was rough and so we all checked each other's life jackets to make sure we could pull each other out by the jackets. Darwin and Sue of Fraser River Rafts watched us closely, ready for anything. As we progressed from Jericho to Vanier I kept glancing at them and knew all was OK every time I saw them flanking us.

When we arrived we were wonderfully greeted

The media attended


Hundreds of people were there getting soaked but smiling and we began walking. The police escorted us and when they saw the size of the crowd made the decision to give us a lane of the Burrard St Bridge. They saw to our safety and I would like to extend my thanks to all the officers that placed themselves between us and the fast moving traffic.




We stretched nearly the entire length of the bridge.




And then we walked through the streets of Vancouver

The Friends of Clayoquot Sound came out to support this!

And the Lillooet Talks

When we got to the Cohen Commission Chief Bob Chamberlin drummed a song and we joined him in singing.

A small group of us then took the elevator up to the Cohen Commission.


Chief Chamberlin, and I took the signed scroll into the hearing and stood silently until Justice Cohen looked at the scroll, then we nodded our support to him and walked out. There was a lot of media sequestered in a side room and they were eager to speak to us and so we told them we had paddled the lower Fraser River from Hope and walked through the streets of Vancouver simply to support Justice Cohen in ordering complete disclosure of the salmon feedlot disease records. This is so important because the biological effluent from these industrial operations passes over the gills of every wild salmon swimming the eastern shorelines of Vancouver Island, as well as most of the westcoast inlets. DFO has evidence that a new virus has challenged, weakened and killed a high proportion of juvenile and adult Fraser River sockeye since 2003. Salmon from the Atlantic packed by the millions into feedlots on the Fraser sockeye migration routes would seem THE most likely source of this new virus.


We were so wet we pooled water on the floor.

Picture removed and apology extended to Mr. Clare Backman of Marine Harvest

We left and joined the crowd at the Vancouver Art Gallery




I was so proud to stand with Chief Marilyn Baptiste who has put herself on the line for her home and Fish Lake and paddled with us to lend the power of her name and presence.


The powerful and dedicated Fin Donnelly spoke about his bill C-518 to move salmon feedlots out of our ocean. Fin is an MP and not only has he swum the entire Fraser River, he leads youth on canoes down the river every summer to teach them how to be leaders. I wish every riding in BC had someone like Fin Donnelly to vote for.

Chief Bob Chamberlin, a man brave enough to file a class action suit against the salmon farms to protect his territory spoke while powerful young Robert Willams stood by his side

My heart is full. I have seen the very best of humanity all around me through out this arduous journey. Our journey echoes many greater journeys with the same message. Governments regularly forget that they are hired to serve the people. It is our right, duty and imperative to our very survival to stand powerfully and peacefully for our future.

My deepest thanks to each and every one of you who paddled, who found time to stand to greet us, carry food to us, serve coffee, interview us, provide the boats, bless us, stand with us, sleep with the canoes in the pouring rain, cry, laugh, shiver and sneeze with us. I don't want us to scatter to the winds, please sign up at wildsalmonpeople.ca and form a voting block....a way to guide our future while staying dry.

You have my deepest respect thank you for staying safe and peaceful.
Until we meet again,
alex

Musqueam to Jericho Beach

Today we awoke to a windy morning and a challenging paddle around Pt Grey, but it went well. There were over 100 people on the water and 430 people met us. I am exhausted and preparing for the walk tomorrow to the Cohen Commission so I am just going to post images. If you can't be there any donations would be welcome as we are struggling to make ends meet. You can donate at www.salmonaresacred.org

There are articles in the Vancouver Sun, Province and other papers, here is a link from the Times Colonist:
I am just going to post pictures:

I am thinking we will make sure we get to keep our salmon

Katzi to Musqueam

This morning we left Katzi with a song

It was supposed to be windy and rainy, but it was not. It was calm, warm even sunny at moments. MLA Michael Sather paddled with us. After two hours of hard paddling.

As we entered Musqueam territory we were escorted by the Musqueam Fisheries officers:

We arrived at the Discovery Center

We were welcomed by the First Nations of New Westminster. Grand Chief Stewart Philips and his wife Joan were also there, and they joined us on the paddle.

MP Fin Donnelly spoke about his Bill C518 to move salmon feedlots into tanks, and he joined us on the paddle

MLA MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert as joined us on the paddle as well and we got underway again and paddled hard as a light breeze came up behind us.

We passed though the heavily industrialized waters of downtown Vancouver. I marveled that young wild salmon swim through these waters by the millions. We smelled the sewer of Annacis Island, the sweet smell of massive donut production, cedar being milled and odors I could not identify. Then entered the North Arm of the Fraser. This was a lovely passage and just as it began to turn to dusk we approached the Musqueam beach.

And they welcomed us.

As the winds came up and the storm deepened 20 people in canoes arrived from Vancouver Island in beautiful carved canoes.

We are all here to communicate to Justice Cohen that we want the disease records of all the salmon farms so that we can know their affect on our wild salmon.

Matsqui to Katzie

Today we enjoyed breakfast provided by Sue and Darwin of Fraser River rafts.

Then we were each smudged before getting into our canoes

It was choppy crossing the river and the crews really had to pull together. We had an exciting moment when we got out of synch and the boat tipped hard. It gave me a real idea of how important the balance between us is!

Aaron Williams of the Squamish Nation gave us all a lesson on protocol. We learned to raise our paddles as we came in to signify we were not attacking, and to back our canoes in because no one can rush the beach while backing up a canoe!

As we approached we passed under the Golden Ears Bridge

Willie Pierre of Katzie sang us in beautifully as we approached.

Around the fire we each spoke about why we are here and our connections to the salmon and our communities. There are people from throughout British Columbia. There is a full moon rising and I am full of hope that there will be enough people in Vancouver to walk with us to make it clear that the salmon farmers of BC must release their disease data. It is much more than an issue about a fish. Salmon are a food source, they are an economic driver, they are ecologically essential. But all these reasons aside. If people really want something. If we tell our governments they must not take this away from us. If we say wild salmon are precious to us, that has to be enough.

Something has gotten terribly twisted that we have to prove we cannot live without salmon. Why do we have to prove their economic value? Why do we have to give something up that we love, that is spiritually important. Who decides we, the people cannot have something as good and generous as salmon?

No one, if we don't let them

On to Abbotsford

Today we left Skawh after a wonderful breakfast!

It was a perfect morning, sun, warmth and no wind

We saw a huge sturgeon jump! The conversation in the canoe was about our collective frustration with government's seeming disinterest in protecting wild salmon. Everyone has stories of sending in disease samples with no reply, refusal to protect areas from jet boats and getting no response when detrimental activities are reported. I have found the same thing which is what lead me to the lengths I am going now!

Clouds and a sprinkle of rain fell as we approached Matsqui and wind came up.

The councillors, Chief Alice Gabriel and a very welcoming group from the Matsqui Nation drummed us in. They offered us a delicious feast of salmon, bannock, potatoes, corn and more which was SO appreciated by the hungry paddlers, myself included.

As I sit in the car writing this I can hear the rain falling, but even more loudly are the drums, and singing around a blazing fire.

The salmon people don't mind the water.

The Paddle Begins

We awoke in the campsite in Hope to a wonderful breakfast provided by the band. National Chief Shawn Atleo arrived to wish us well and drummed and sang as we prepared to depart. This was a huge honour and that I am very thankful for.

The river was beautifully calm and warm. Thank you Dave Wooldridge for the Canoes!

There were about sixty of us in 5 voyager canoes and several smaller vessels. There was drumming and singing between the canoes. We saw salmon leaping.

Fraser River Rafts came with us in case any needed rescue and they pointed like this with their paddles to steer us away from trouble.

The Skwah First Nations invited us to a dinner and to spend the night on their territory

We arrived at sunset as a near full moon was rising.

And they drummed us in:

One hour after we left on this journey the BC salmon farmers put our a press release

"BC's salmon farms: well-managed and sustainable"

All I have to say is prove it. Release all your disease information from all our salmon feedlots that are polluting the waters that the Fraser sockeye swim through for the past 18 years when the Fraser Sockeye decline began. And make sure you include 2008 so we can see what was different that year that we got back all these salmon.

The historic journey continues. Martin Luther King and Gandhi showed what to do when the rights of people are taken away. You gather peacefully and powerfully and say "No More." We the indigenous and neo-indigenous people of British Columbia have the right to keep wild salmon, to protect our communities and to look out for our future.

Join us, meet us when we arrive in Vancouver on October 25 at 9 am at Vanier Park to walk to the Cohen Commission to support Justice Cohen in his very difficult investigation into what is happening with the Fraser sockeye and to tell him that we are watching.

From Hell to Hope

Today Fraser River Rafts took us through Hells Gate to kick off the Paddle for Wild Salmon!!!! It was a hair-raising experience and spectacular beginning to this historic journey.

60 paddlers are setting out in the morning we will be landing at the Telte Yet Campground in Chilliwack at 5 pm tomorrow. We are honoured to have Chief Marilyn Baptiste is paddling with us!

Enderby

Neil Brook invited us down to Kingfisher on the Shuswap River and there found found thousands and thousands of sockeye and many chinook salmon. The Lower Shuswap is the clearest water and the sockeye seem the biggest of any river we have visited.

The salmon were resting where a cold water tributary came into the Shuswap because there would be more oxygen in the 6 degree water than in the 14 degree water

Neil Brook took us drift boating for 6 km and there was a steady procession of sockeye with lots of the big dark chinook mixed in. The First Nations call him Cupirekaksu - keeper of the Chinook. Neil pointed out the "dunes" of gravel created by the chinook digging redds

Deanne Leon - Cook invited us to the beautiful school with paintings of the elders throughout the school and we painted salmon with the children. Then she organized an incredible feast of salmon and bannock and an evening of presentations at the high school.

The people of Enderby are dedicated to the salmon of the Shuswap. They are trying to guard their salmon nurseries from jet boats and sewage. Neil has worked with three generations of people to teach them about the salmon and some have dedicated their lives to the fish. They are trying to stop ATVs from ruining the bogs in the headwaters. They have had lakes poisoned with Rotenone to kill yellow perch which are used as live bait and escape. The First Nations and the neo-indigenous, the new people who also see the land as home, want to protect their valley.

Some of the people feel that because they are trying to protect the valley government has vilified them. Saying no to industrialization has to be allowed or else we will derange our planet to the point that it can no longer support us.

Thank you Enderby for all that you do for all of us Wild Salmon People....

Now we are preparing for the Paddle for Wild Salmon www.salmonaresacred.org

Why I think salmon farm disease is harming Fraser sockeye

In a world of perfect storms, we in B.C. spent a summer in awe of a perfect miracle. Something went very right. As 34 million sockeye swept in from the open Pacific they gave us a $500 million fishery, then swam through the city of Vancouver carrying 50 million kg of nutrients that they are now distributing throughout the interior of BC from Alaska to the Alberta border. Tens of thousands of people stood beside them as they entered the Adams River, the people of Takla Lake wind dried them, the people of the Stellaquo stood guard over them as they spawned, the people of Lumby are trying to get them past the Wilsey dam.

How could the Fraser sockeye have made such a big comeback after such a collapse? Why has the “productivity,” (which is the number of adults that comes back per parent fish) been in decline for 18 years and suddenly reversed. I think the cause of these fluctuations is salmon feedlot diseases and here is why.

Eighteen years ago in July 1992 a salmon farm in the narrowest marine corridor used by the Fraser sockeye was stocked with IHN virus infected salmon. IHN is lethal to sockeye. Government was secretive about this and let the infected salmon stay in the ocean. As a result, the disease spread to 13 salmon feedlots (9 million farm salmon) over three years in a 20 km radius exposing 6 generations of wild salmon to extremely high and unnatural levels of virus.

This is exactly when Fraser sockeye productivity began to fail. A second IHN epidemic raged in the feedlots for 3 years from Campbell River to Bella Bella via their smolt transport vessels. Again DFO did nothing to protect our wild salmon and the Fraser sockeye continued their decline. (See graph below).

Salmon epidemics are extremely rare in the wild, because predators keep pathogens low by removing sick fish. Every wild salmon that swims between Vancouver Island and mainland is now passing feedlot effluent over its gills, like running livestock through sheep dip. If they do not die directly they become carriers as they join other populations of salmon further north.

This 92% Norwegian-owned industry is highly secretive about disease, but Norwegian scientists tracking the spread of farm salmon disease worldwide warn that BC is “guaranteed” to get the Norwegian virus Infectious Salmon Anemia if we continue to import eggs from the Atlantic. The Minister of Fisheries, Gail Shea, is deaf to reason even though scientists report ISA from Norway is now raging in salmon feedlots in Chile.

DFO research underway since 2003 reports Fraser sockeye appear to be dying of a new virus:

“… A potentially novel disease, possibly viral in origin, has been affecting a high proportion of juvenile and adult Fraser sockeye salmon that may weaken fish and directly or indirectly enhance mortality.”

This paper has not been released, nor has DFO told us what this virus is, but a “novel” virus could not have come from the wild salmon, it had to be introduced. During this time period the Fraser sockeye decline accelerated.

In 2001, a bureaucrat with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands signed an understanding with the BC Salmon Farmers Association agreeing to pay $70,000 to create a salmon feedlot disease database, but the information is so secret that even the provincial enforcement officers are not allowed to see it.

The Freedom of Information Commission ruled in March 2010 that salmon feedlot disease was public information and on April 1 a notice on the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands website said the fish farmers would no longer allow provincial vets to test for disease out on the sites!

As a participant in the Cohen Inquiry I have requested the disease records of all salmon feedlots on the Fraser sockeye migration route, but the industry is stonewalling us.

So lets recap. Disease has spread everywhere salmon feedlots occur worldwide; DFO has done nothing to remove diseased farm salmon from our biggest wild salmon migration routes, even as exposed wild stocks began collapsing. The Minister of Fisheries has left the BC border open even though Norwegian scientists say we are guaranteed to import lethal salmon disease and DFO’s own science says it looks like a new virus is killing Fraser sockeye.

These are the reasons I think salmon feedlot disease is driving the boom and bust cycles of Fraser sockeye. I think the fish farmers cleaned up temporarily in 2008 and that is why we got so many sockeye back this year.

The only way we are going to find out if this is accurate is if thousands of people support Justice Cohen in his sockeye inquiry and tell him we need the salmon feedlot disease records. Please walk with me to the Cohen Commission opening on Oct 25th to state we want the reign of corporate secrecy to end and to tell him we are watching this closely and expect nothing less than the complete truth. Chiefs, fishermen, people of all walks of life are joining us in this effort. Without you, they fish farmers will continue to operate in secrecy pouring all their effluent into our most valuable wild salmon migration routes. See the Itinerary at www.SalmonAreSacred.org

Shuswap

Last night we had a great meeting Kalamalk Fly Fishers!

This morning we drove up to Shuswap Falls in Lumby and watched sockeye try to get up the falls created by the 1929 Wilsey hydroelectric dam. They could not make it. There has been a plan to build a fish ladder here since the year after the dam went in.....in 1929, but so far it has not been built. It affected all of us deeply to see the fish relentlessly beat themselves up trying to reach historic spawning grounds.

We then walked part of the Lumby Salmon Trail. A wonderful initiative and a beautiful and informative walk. We talked with many truly motivated people who want the economic development of Lumby to respect wild salmon. They share my sense that a town that works with the wild salmon benefits the people far more than heavy industrial activity.

These folks and others are determined to make it possible for Shuswap salmon to return to their easternmost spawning grounds. I hope they achieve to the benefit of all of us on this coast. We had an impromptu meeting with the regional district and they too seemed to understand the importance of wild salmon. It feels like maybe the Shuswap salmon will be able to make it all the way home soon.

We stopped downstream of the dam and found salmon couples happily paired up and spawning.

It was very clear to see how the salmon had cleaned up the gravel. Note the fine silt on the rocks in the foreground and the circle of clean gravel where the salmon have cleaned it up.

I am very thankful to the people of the Shuswap River for standing guard over the spawning grounds of this area. Lumby is a beautiful valley and the people of this area have a vision of thriving alongside of the salmon they love.