After 280 days of occupying salmon farm facilities in the Broughton Archipelago and 350 days of talks between indigenous leaders and the Province of BC, salmon farms are leaving the Broughton Archipelago. After a 30-year effort, it is hard to believe that I am writing these words. I have enormous respect for the First Nations who made this happen by occupying the salmon farms in their territories over 280 days through the storms of winter, and for the First Nation leaders who doggedly hammered out this agreement over the past year and also I have a greater respect for the NDP/Green government that showed meaningful respect to these indigenous governments. As hereditary chief Ernest Alfred, who led the occupations said, "you cannot reconcile with First Nations while killing off their most important food resource." Of concern however, is that the farms are not leaving all at once and so wild salmon will still suffer exposure to sea lice, industrial viruses and chemicals coming from the farms.
In response I am launching EXTINCTION WATCH, so we that we can watch over these fish together. It would be tragic if they went extinct even as the farms were being removed. While EXTINCTION WATCH can only observe, I think that having many eyes on these fish is their greatest security.
I have been a biologist on the water here for 30 years, and I have researched and documented the suffering inflicted on wild fish by salmon farms for two decades. I will be updating on the condition of the juvenile salmon this spring, as we count the number of sea lice on them, and document the abundance of the fish leaving Broughton Rivers.
Juvenile pink salmon dying of sea lice from salmon farms photo A. Morton
I will also continue with a technique developed last year to sample farms for viruses by capturing the feces and other waste that pours out of the farms into the surrounding marine environment. I will update on the status of the farms, document their frequent die-offs and chemical treatments.
We know wild salmon and steelhead in the Broughton are in serious trouble, DFO has not opened a commercial fishery here in years. The orca that came to feed on salmon, don't come anymore. Some rivers, like the Embly River are empty now.
This is no surprise, wild salmon are in collapse everywhere there are salmon farms. Stocks are so low in the Broughton if they go any lower its called extinction.
You can help with a donation by clicking the image on the upper right of this page, you can send me your own observations on the situation in Broughton and follow the progress of this work here and on my facebook page. A huge step towards protecting salmon and the whales that depend on them has been taken... on paper... now it is time to see it through into the wet wild world of the BC coast.
Alexandra Morton sampling farm salmon waste 2018 Photo Courtesy of Sea Shepherd Society