Fw: [fishermenlist] The Migration
Allison Huttton
Salmon Are Sacred
GET OUT
MIGRATION
Last
week a fish farm magazine (Intrafish) reported that stickleback fish are the
source of sea lice, not salmon farms and our government scientist appeared to
agree. The non-government scientific community of BC have thoroughly and
repeatedly trounced this, and yet here is it again.
Therefore, I have
decided it is time to take the issue of industrial salmon farming to the people
in an unprecedented way. I have written letters, done the science, met with
government and industry around the world, engaged in government processes,
talked to thousands of people, been the subject of international media and films
and today I stand facing a vertical wall of impenetrable denial. Nothing has
brought reason to this situation. We will lose our wild salmon if government
continues to carelessly put farm salmon before wild salmon every
time.
Because there has been no significant progress in spite of
this enormous effort and time spent by many, I no longer feel there is hope of
reforming this industry. Government is allowing Norwegian salmon farmers to
continue denying even the most basic issues, like sea lice and ISA virus
introduction to the North Pacific. If we let this play out our wild fish
simply will not survive
So it is time for the Get Out Migration.
I am not talking about all aquaculture. I am referring specifically to the
massive scale Norwegian feedlots. There are Canadian fish farmers who know
how to use tanks on land who are not impacting our wild salmon and herring. This
is about saving wild salmon and all of us who depend on them.
I
will begin deep in the beautiful Ahta River in mid April with the salmon and
move by boat through the Broughton Archipelago to Sointula. On Earth day April
22 I will simply start walking to Victoria and ask people join me to stand up
for wild salmon so that our politicians will know we exist. We will communicate
our progress and connect the countries facing this industry through the website
www.salmonaresacred.org <http://www.salmonaresacred.org>
We hold salmon as sacred because they so generously feed our world. They
built the soil of this province with their flesh, they grow our children, they
feed the trees that make the oxygen we breath, they are food security in a world
losing ability to even pollinate flowers.
When we get to Victoria,
we will meet with representatives from government.
We cannot match
the corporate fish farm PR machine, nor their lobbying power. So I am simply
inviting people to make themselves visible by joining us on foot, electronically
and by mail. This will be peaceful, colourful, musical, fun, family
oriented. Unless we all stand up and become visible, government will
continue to degrade the laws of Canada to the benefit of the salmon farming
industry, as suggested in the most recent throne speech. The salmon
farming industry cannot survive unless is it free to grow relentlessly to meet
their responsibility to their European shareholders. BC cannot survive this, we
know we cannot pour an endless amount of fish into the ocean. We will carry a
message to the Federal government – do not degrade the Fisheries Act again so
that it no longer protects the fish that belong to the people of
Canada.
Please stand up for wild salmon by joining a migration
emerging from the Broughton Archipelago then leaving Sointula on 22nd April and
closing with a blessing in Victoria on Mothers’ Day (9th May). If you are
interested in hosting other events, leading a migration arm from the Fraser
River Valley, Gold River or other places in B.C. or just joining us for one step
of the way please let us know. www.salmonaresacred.org <http://www.salmonaresacred.org>
This website will be active shortly.
Hope to see you on this
migration.
Alexandra Morton