On June 13, 2017 I learned from Marine Harvest what damages are that they are seeking from me.
While there was no actual damage to the farms during the First Nation ceremony I attended, as everyone was very careful, Marine Harvest is now claiming they were concerned for the integrity of their farm's anchoring system because I made contact with one of the yellow buoys - with a teaspoon that I was using to collect a biological sample.
I don't want to spend much time on this because it is so ridiculous.
However, as I document areas of the BC coast currently experiencing heavy infection and losses from sea lice from salmon farms and the salmon farming industry and the Minister of Fisheries are fighting me to prevent disease testing of farmed Atlantic salmon stocks before transfer into BC marine waters, Marine Harvest thinks it is a good idea to sue me for touching a farm with a teaspoon.
They are worried about a teaspoon when they are having enormous impact on the health of wild salmon.
My colleagues and I have extensively published made-in-BC science on the impact of salmon farms, there is more science on their viruses every month, a First Nation has used their own funds to demonstrate closed containment can work and the lawsuits to protect BC from the impact of this industry are non-stop. And yet, Marine Harvest, biggest salmon farmer in the world, is so tone deaf to the concerns of Canadians that they think it is a good idea to go after me for damages to a farm with a teaspoon.
On Tuesday, June 20th I am back in court with Ecojustice o another case to try to stop Canada from allowing the industry to continue putting piscine reovirus infected Atlantic salmon into the Pacific. DFO and industry scientists tried to argue the virus is benign, but they lost that argument when other DFO scientists published that piscine reovirus is in fact causing disease in BC. No one will say how it was not diagnosed for so long.
Unfazed by science, the Minister of Fisheries who was given the mandate to use science to protect wild fisheries in Canada, is plowing ahead with Marine Harvest and the other operators to fight me in court so the industry can continue using diseased stocks.
And now this...
I have posted a very short video my facebook page regarding the offending teaspoon at Alexandra Morton and I hope you will help me distribute it more widely. https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.morton.1671
If you would like to write to Marine Harvest's head office in Norway about this here are the emails [email protected], [email protected]
I am not sure how this industry can stoop any lower and hope that with your help they will see it is time to do something different and get themselves into closed tank facilities where they can establish high-security perimeters and pioneer the future of aquaculture.
I promise you that someday I will write to you with good news, how government, First Nations, universities and others are working together closely, harnessing cutting edge science to work with the miraculous wild salmon and I will be reporting on the enormous economic, biological, social and psychological rewards we bequeath to the children with this work...
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