Fw: [fishermenlist] Weekly salmon farm update April 5
Allison Huttton
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. www.salmonaresacred.org <http://www.salmonaresacred.org>
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.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/calls-to-save-salmon-from-across-the-pond/article1515880/
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.
http://www2.canada.com/westerly/story.html?id=d9ec075f-2f48-4e39-87ce-4b897a926551
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 is saying there is no
evidence of fish farms negatively affecting wild salmon populations.
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4367913&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#Int-3050053
<http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4367913&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#Int-3050053>
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.”
http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/News_Releases/UBCICNews03301001.htm
The
Intertribal Treaty Organization put out a press release 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: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/
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 they need
direction.
Thank you for reading,
Alexandra
Morton