Your Help Needed to Fight Fish Farm Industry Expansion

[flyfishergirl]

Hello

Today BC Supreme Court ruled in our favor once again. Justice Hinkson granted the federal government a suspension order until December 18, 2010 so that Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) can further prepare to assume control of regulating salmon farms. However, Justice Hinkson forbade any expansion of aquaculture during that period. Specifically, the province cannot issue any new fish farm licences and cannot expand the size of any tenure. He recognized the First Nation interest in this matter by granting the Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk Tribal Council intervenor status, which is essential as this case is based in their territory.

On the matter pursued by Marine Harvest at the Court of Appeal and sent back to Justice Hinkson to reconsider (that is whether the fish in the farms are privately owned by the companies and whether the Farm Practices Protection Act (FPPA) is still in force), Hinkson confirmed that the FPPA, will no longer apply to finfish aquaculture and thus no longer protect farms from nuisance claims.

On the question, does Marine Harvest own the fish in their pens? Justice Hinkson found that this was not the place for this decision. Marine Harvest will have to bring this before the courts themselves. For now, we know that the aquaculture fish are now part of the fisheries of Canada.

Today’s decision is met by the unrelated announcement by US box store chain “Target” that they have eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen, and smoked seafood offerings in its stores across the United States, because of farm salmon environmental impact on native salmon.

There is an enormous amount of work ahead to translate any of this into better survival of our wild salmon, but the courts seem consistently interested in bringing reason, the constitution and the law to bear on the Norwegian fish farm industry in British Columbia.

While I am truly sorry that jobs will be lost in ocean fish farming, bear in mind the industry is in deep trouble with mother nature herself in the fish farming strongholds of Chile and Norway. Trying to hold this nomadic fish in pens is never going to work, because it causes epidemics, unnatural sea lice infestations and drug resistance. Salmon farming is not sustainable and ultimately we are better served by our wild fish.

Alexandra Morton

[flyfishergirl]

Hi All

Attached you will find our letter to the Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and an associated press release.

We have just received word that the Supreme Court of BC has granted DFO an extension of until Dec, 2010, to allow time to complete their regulations and organize the Aquaculture Management Directorate. This means the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL) will continue to assume the management of salmon farms for this year but that no new permits will be allowed under the order.

While this can certainly be considered a ‘win’, we are still concerned that there will not be any meaningful action taken in the way of regulations (or other measures) that will help the wild salmon smolts during the spring 2010 outgoing migration.

As we learned in the December Finfish Aquaculture Regulations meeting with DFO and in our recent meeting with Trevor Swerdfager (Director General, Aquaculture Management Directorate), DFO will be proceeding on the following timeline: DFO will prepare the draft Finfish Regulations for Treasury Board approval in the late Spring 2010 with a planned publication in the gazette in May; DFO will receive public input on the draft regulation in June and July; the regulations are then modified and sent back to Treasury Board for final approval and issued probably in Oct or Nov at the earliest. This timeline assumes there isn’t a federal election during this process, which could set back the process several months to a year.

The new regulations will enable DFO to issue new licences to all salmon farms. We are told that the licences are where DFO may insert specific “license conditions” such as the measures we, and others, have suggested in our written submissions (i.e. sea lice thresholds, and sea lice monitoring), as opposed to the regulations themselves. However, there is no guarantee that the conditions and measures that we have put forward will be included.

Our letter was written to Minister Shea because we are concerned that at the very best we will not see effective regulations (or license conditions) applied to the farms until 2011. We have asked the Minister to apply interim measures until these regulations are in place. We need these measures in place now to protect the outgoing smolts in 2010.

Please see our letter and press release attached, and consider writing a letter to Minister Shea supporting our requests.

Regards Brian

Brian Gunn
President of the Wilderness Tourism Association
Tel: (250) 286-4080
www.wilderness-tourism.bc.ca

[flyfishergirl]

January 25, 2009

Honourable Gail Shea
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
200 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E6

Dear Minister,

Re: Aquaculture Interim Measures required now in order to save wild salmon

Background
Wilderness tourism (or nature based tourism as it is commonly called) is a key contributor to BC’s GDP and a significant private sector employer in BC. Direct tourist expenditures on wilderness or nature-based tourism products in British Columbia is approximately $1.5 billion dollars and provides for the equivalent of over 26,000 full time jobs.

All BC communities feel the impact of wilderness tourism in their economies. A large percentage of these businesses are small, localized businesses that provide stability, diversification and job creation, whether it’s in the wilderness, in or near communities and municipalities, or on First Nations settlement land. Wilderness tourism is a sustainable economic driver for BC. As other boom and bust resource sectors come and go in our communities tourism will continue to form a significant part of the economic foundation.

For eight years now the Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA), and other concerned stakeholders, have been asking for open net cage salmon farms to be properly regulated to remove the impacts imposed on juvenile wild salmon caused by sea lice incubated on salmon farms. In the same eight years we have been pleading with government to have safe migration routes without these ‘barriers’ for juvenile wild salmon.

The regulations, as they currently exist in BC, are woefully inadequate to protect wild salmon as they do not address the impacts that open net cage salmon farming has on the wild salmon stocks. There is no requirement in the current provincial regulations for the salmon farmers to sample the wild juvenile fry around the farms during the infectious sea lice stage. And we know from independent research that tens to hundreds of millions of salmon fry have died from sea lice incubated on open net cage salmon farms creating a ‘barrier’ to the wild salmon on their out migration routes. Until this problem is resolved all the good efforts to repair and improve salmon spawning habitat are being undermined.

After many years of devastating sea lice infestation on the wild salmon stocks of the Broughton Archipelago, in 2008 the salmon farming industry finally implemented the correct use of the chemical SLICE as a management practice. The timing of the application of SLICE was adequate to kill most of the incubating sea lice on their farms so as to minimize the transfer of sea lice to passing wild stocks. Fortunately, 2009 had good salmon returns in the Broughton Archipelago, most likely due to the correct application of SLICE. However, we must seriously caution the use of SLICE as an on-going management practice, because we know from experience in Norway and elsewhere that the application of SLICE will not be effective for long as the lice will become resistant.

More recent independent sampling of Fraser River sockeye smolts in the Discovery Islands over the last few years has indicated that these wild salmon populations have been infected by the sea lice incubated and transferred by the open net cage salmon farms in that area. We can predict that these smolts are also being weakened and/or possibly killed by these lice infestations. Unfortunately, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has turned a blind eye to this independent research and has instead focused their blame for the sockeye collapse on other factors such as global warming. The DFO Executive has categorically declared that the collapse wasn’t due to fish farms despite a lack of certainty by its own scientists as to the cause. The Fraser River sockeye judicial inquiry that is just getting under way will hopefully clarify the causes of the collapse as well as look into the corresponding managements actions of DFO. However, at best it will take over a year before any meaningful conclusions are to be reached and to formulate recommendations that will save our wild salmon.

The jurisdiction over the management of open net cage salmon farms in BC will transfer from the province to the federal government come February 10, 2010, as per the Supreme Court of BC decision. However, DFO has asked the Supreme Court of BC for an extension of an additional eleven months in order to develop meaningful regulations and organize the aquaculture branch. In either scenario most of the current BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL) regulations will be adopted until such a time that the new federal regulations are complete. As indicated the regulations and policies currently in place under the provincial government are woefully inadequate and will not protect our wild salmon.

Last summer, the WTA, and other stakeholders, made submissions to DFO regarding needed regulations, and the urgency to implement them. We continue to participate in the process to develop new Finfish Aquaculture regulations currently underway. It should also be noted that the BC Salmon Forum released its findings and recommendations just under a year ago, including the regulatory changes needed to save the wild salmon in BC.

Measures to protect Wild Salmon
Given that it could take DFO up to 11 months or more to develop federal regulations, we desperately need interim measures in place for the 2010 out migration of wild salmon (i.e. March – July). We implore you to implement the following interim measures now:

• During the out-migration period for wild salmon (March 1 to June 30), the sea lice levels on wild juvenile salmon must, at minimum, be maintained at background levels, or less. An extension to July 31 should be considered for areas where juvenile Fraser River sockeye are known to migrate.
• Comprehensive, independent monitoring of lice levels on wild juvenile salmon migrating past the farms must be in place coast-wide, and with funding from the salmon farming industry. The results of wild salmon sampling must be transparent and available to all stakeholders and the public.
• If it is found that the background sea lice count is exceeded then the salmon farm will be shut down or other remedial or compensatory measures will be implemented.
• The establishment of a migratory corridor, free of salmon farms is established from the mouth of the Fraser River to the north end of Queen Charlotte Strait.

We realize that there is a lot of work to develop a comprehensive, set of aquaculture regulations. However, in the meantime the sea lice ‘barriers’ imposed by the salmon farms are heavily impacting the wild salmon. You need to recognize this and implement appropriate measures to prevent this from occurring in the short term. We are positive that there is a mechanism where by these interim measures (or interim regulations) can be implemented under existing legislation or policy with little burden on DFO resources (e.g. under the Wild Salmon Policy). These measures can then be rolled over into the new DFO regulations.

Further, it is also our position that government (at either level) needs to follow the precautionary principle, and that no further expansion of salmon farms or new lease sites be approved until the new DFO aquaculture regulations have been implemented.

Your urgency on this issue is required. The health and survival of wild salmon, and our tourism industry depends on it.

Yours Sincerely,

Brian Gunn, President
Wilderness Tourism Association

Cc: Prime Minister Harper
Premier Gordon Campbell
Hon. Steve Thompson, Minister of Agriculture and Lands
Trevor Swerdfager, Director General, Aquaculture Management Directorate
Larry Pederson Deputy Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
Harvey Sasaki, ADM, Strategic Industry Development Division, MAL

[flyfishergirl]

Email from Alexandra...

On February 2, lawyer Jeffery Jones and I were back in court with my charges against Marine Harvest for illegal possession of wild pink salmon by-catch. On the previous date (January 4) Judge Saunderson instructed the Department of Justice to inform the court on this day as to whether they will be assuming conduct of this case.

However, Todd Gerhart of the Department of Justice was only prepared to tell the judge that he would make his decision “soon.” When the judge asked for a specific time, Gerhart did not answer. In response the judge stood the issue down and recalled us later in the day.

Marine Harvest used this opportunity to request disclosure of the “in camera” process hearing. This was a closed-door meeting between myself, a witness, my lawyer and the judge wherein the judge reviewed our evidence and decided the charge could move forward. The Marine Harvest Lawyer, Chris Watson held up some case law. Although the precedent he offered was from a different situation, we have nothing to hide and agreed. The Marine Harvest lawyer asked that I bear the cost of transcribing the process hearing, but Judge pointed out it was already transcribed.

Finally, Marine Harvest requested an arraignment date in April and so that is when we will learn if the Department of Justice will assume contact of this case.

I felt disappointed that DOJ couldn’t give us a decision sooner, despite the previous court order. Spring is coming to us again and with it all the young wild salmon and herring that can be entrapped, detained, destroyed, fed artificial food or even preyed on in salmon farm nets. However, I have learned the courts cannot be hurried and we should take heart that while this may be slow, at least it is not going backwards.

Mr. Gerhart might decide not to assume this case. Or he could decide to take it over and stay the charges. Or he could decide to conduct a trial and bring the resources of the Department of Justice and our substantial evidence in support of the wild fish that are being removed by fish farm by-catch. Mr. Gerhart appears to be very concerned with fairness and the public interest and has two decisions to make.


What is the likelihood of conviction? – On this point I can say we have: witnesses, samples of the wild juvenile salmon, and written admission from Marine Harvest that they had wild salmon in their possession.
Is this in the public interest – So I put this to you. Are you interested in seeing the laws of Canada applied to Marine Harvest to prevent them from taking wild fish without a licence or any record of quantity?


Mr. Gerhart says he is still willing to review new information about this case regarding the public interest. I look forward to providing further information to Mr. Gerhart to help establish the public interest in this prosecution. If other people feel the same way, Mr. Gerhart can be contacted directly at: Todd.gerhart@ppsc-sppc.gc.ca

This may be a critical time to demonstrate once and for all to the Canada’s Department of Justice how important wild fish are to the people of British Columbia.

[flyfishergirl]

Norwegian-owned fish farms target of chiefs' hunger strike

By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
February 13, 2010 9:00 PM
http://www.timescolonist.com/business/N ... story.html

First Nations chiefs are planning a 29-hour hunger strike leading up to the Olympic hockey game between Canada and Norway Tuesday, to protest Norwegian-owned fish farms.

Members of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs are fasting to support the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council's opposition to fish-farm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago.

"The 29-hour fast reflects the 29 fish-farm tenures in our territories," said Chief Bob Chamberlin, chairman of the Tribal Council.

Marine Harvest and Cermaq, which own the tenures in Musgamagw Tsawataineuk territory, both have Norwegian parent companies.

In addition to union president Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and vice-president Chief Willie Charlie, at least a dozen other hereditary and elected chiefs are expected to join the fast, which starts 5 a.m. tomorrow at the union office in Vancouver, Chamberlin said.

Fasts will also be held in communities around the Broughton Archipelago, said Chamberlin, who has already been approached by members of the Norwegian media.

"It is sad we have to turn to the international community to have our territory looked after, but we have turned to the provincial and federal governments to no avail," he said.

Tribal council and Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs members have invited King Harald V of Norway to meet with them while he is at the Olympic Games.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ottawa said King Harald will be in Vancouver to watch athletes perform and would not meet with any special-interest groups.

Chamberlin, who visited Norway last year, said in a letter to King Harald that the situation is urgent.

"All we ask for is that the river system and inlets which produce our wild salmon that have sustained the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk people since the beginning of time be shown the very same respect the Norwegian government demonstrated in safeguarding the wild salmon of Norway," the letter says.

Another letter to King Harald, signed by 170 people, will be delivered to the Royal Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver Tuesday by the Wilderness Tourism Association of B.C., Pure Salmon Campaign and Wild Salmon Circle.

"We hope Your Royal Highness can persuade Norwegian companies to clean up their act, move farms out of the path of migrating wild salmon and introduce closed containment systems to protect wild fish from sea lice, mass escapes and infectious diseases," the letter said.

At the hockey game, supporters dressed as bears and wild salmon will greet Norwegian fans and offer gifts of wild salmon.

Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada director of environmental relations, said standards in the Broughton Archipelago are as high as in Norway, and the company is in compliance with all local regulations.

Standards are even higher than prescribed when it comes to dealing with sea lice, disease or organic waste control, he said.

Backman said he is concerned the company has not been able to work out concerns with groups such as the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk.

Marine Harvest farms are in the territories of 20 First Nations, he said, adding the company has protocol agreements with seven and is in discussions with another five.

[flyfishergirl]

Hello

I apologize for a second email so soon, but important news on the issue of salmon farming has become daily. Most astonishing is the warning sent today to Canada from former Attorney General of Norway, Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn,

“we had an open goal to save wild salmon but we missed the target,”....”If you want to protect wild salmon then you have to move salmon farms away from migration routes. ”

I have posted his entire plea to Canada on my blog, see below for link.

I am working on a very serious incident in Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet where reports keep coming to me that sea lice are out of control on salmon farms. Neither the province nor DFO will act to stop this from spreading to eastern Vancouver Island, so we are doing the investigation for them. This problem is exactly what Rieber-Mohn is talking about.

http://www2.canada.com/courierislander/ ... 8cbfc32c7a

A group of us went to Nootka Island and found extremely high larval sea lice numbers. These farm salmon are being transported to Quadra Island for processing and a sample taken 90’ down from the plant’s effluent pipe found live lice eggs are pouring into Discovery Passage. Drug resistance in sea lice is causing serious problems in eastern Canada and Norway and means we stand to lose our ability to protect the Fraser sockeye. It is becoming increasingly apparent that wild salmon runs in BC, as in Norway, depend on de-lousing farm salmon that are on the migration routes. The Discovery Islands host 1/3 of all BC’s wild salmon during migrations as well as millions of Norwegian farm salmon. If these Nootka lice attach to the farm salmon we stand to lose a generation of wild salmon and more drugs will be used on our coast, with the end result being the situation in Norway loss of BOTH wild and farm salmon. I have contacted the federal and provincial governments all the evidence with no action from them to contain this. This is a well-known catastrophe. You can follow it by checking on my blog.

Dr Larry Hammell from the University of Prince Edward Island speaks about "an eruption of the lice last summer", developing resistance to sea lice chemicals, "treatment failures" etc http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/maritimenoon_ ... _26452.mp3

Professor Tor Einar Horsberg at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science who said: "The harsh treatment that is needed to reach lice limits will lead to more resistant and multi-resistant lice. There is a dramatic development, and I'm worried how this will end": http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utskriftsvennlig/?artId=588564

"The sea lice situation is now out of control along the entire coast of Nordland and south” : http://www.nmf.no/default.aspx?pageId=1 ... 354&news=1

I don’t know why we refuse to avoid the situation Norway is facing. It is not even good for the fish farmers. The province of BC maintains there is “no evidence” of drug resistance, but there is evidence everywhere people are willing to look.

You can join our efforts at www.adopt-a-fry.org

Alexandra Morton

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

[flyfishergirl]

Re-post from the blog. Great vid, and want to keep the topic running...

[flyfishergirl]

Hello

I have done several lectures recently and noticed a real change in attitude of the audiences. People are no longer asking about sea louse biology, they are asking what they can do to bring reason to this situation. So in response I will be sending out weekly updates. If this is too much for you, reply to this email and put Unsubscribe in the Subject line.

As a result of our filing charges against Marine Harvest for illegal possession of wild salmon there is now a new condition of licence wherein they have to report wild fish trapped in their pens. This is not enough as this will be done in-house, by the Norwegian fish farm companies and there is no way to ground-truth their numbers, however, we are making a difference and need to push this further until it matches the independent observer program Canadian fishermen are subject to.

Every week people from inside the industry are coming to me to report things they feel very badly about. These folks are heroes, risking their jobs for the wild fish. One day I hope they will go public, but until then I will do what I can. As you can see below the tips I got from Nootka about the drug resistant sea lice has inspired a response. Again it is not enough, but it is moving in the right direction.

Please check my blog for what needs to be done by you right away. The Fisheries Act is under threat of being degraded to protect the Norwegian salmon farmers:

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

The only people who are going to protect our wild fish is us.

Alexandra morton


Local lab to test for sea lice drug-resistance
By Paul Rudan - Campbell River Mirror
Published: February 25, 2010
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/85395767.html

Testing to determine if sea lice are becoming resistant to a chemical product used by fish farmers is expected to begin this spring in Campbell River.

“We hope to begin in April. Some people may say that’s already too late, but you have to start some place,” said Dr. Sonja Saksida of the B.C. Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences.

Alexandra Morton, a biologist, activist and opponent of open netpen salmon farms, recently raised concerns that sea lice may be becoming resistant to SLICE – a vet-prescribed chemical remedy that fish farmers use to kill naturally-occuring sea lice on Atlantic salmon.

Morton said concerns were passed on to her that sea lice were proliferating on Grieg Seafood farms located on the West Coast in the Esperanza Inlet.

“These concerns were passed along by friends and family...no one wants to go on the record because they are fearful of losing their jobs,” she said Wednesday.

According to Morton, provincial data shows that salmon on Grieg’s West Coast farms were treated with SLICE last fall, but then sea lice numbers quickly rebounded. This may indicate, she said, that the sea lice are becoming drug-resistant.

She also speculated that these drug-resistant lice may have already been introduced into Discovery Passage. Salmon harvested on the West Coast are trucked to Campbell River and then over to the Walcan processing plant on Quadra Island.

A video taken by divers shows a dark-coloured and particulate-filled effluent coming from the Walcan outflow into Discovery Passage. Morton claimed the effluent contained sea lice, along with chunks of salmon organs, fins and scales (the video can been seen online at alexandramorton.typepad.com).

“If I’m wrong I imagine I’ll be sued, but if I’m right...,” said Morton. “There’s strong evidence of drug-resistance.” Morton added that she is not “out to get” Walcan, but is disheartened the B.C. government is doing nothing to study or identify potential problems of drug-resistance.

However, a co-owner of Walcan disputed Morton’s allegations and said the company is in full compliance of its Ministry of Environment regulation, and even passed a government environmental audit last week.

“Our job is to be in full compliance...and we believe that what we’re doing is safe,” said Bill Piery. “She (Morton) never even contacted us. Her approach is to discredit and damage us...we feel she’s more interested in telling a story then in finding out the facts.”

A representative of Grieg Seafoods also discounted the drug-resistant sea lice theory. Mia Parker, the company’s manager of regulatory affairs, said there have been drug-resistant problems with sea lice in the Atlantic Ocean which affect fish farms in Norway and Scotland, but the species of sea lice that live in the Pacific Ocean are very different.

“The vets here have noticed that the sea lice we find here are less aggressive and cause less harm (to fish) – they are genetically different,” said Parker. “Normally you’d see signs of drug resistance. We haven’t seen any signs...”

Dr. Saksida is also doubtful that West Coast sea lice are becoming drug resistant. She and another biologist recently submitted a new research paper to the Journal of Fish Diseases that addresses the topic. The study is presently being peer reviewed before it is published.

“We have five years of sea lice treatment data from the farms...it doesn’t look like there are any issues of resistance,” she said.

Dr. Saksida also doubted if sea lice could survive the journey of harvesting, transport and processing, and emerge alive at the end of an outflow in Discovery Passage.

Nevertheless, testing for drug resistance – hopefully using sea lice captured from both the west and east coasts of Vancouver Island – is expected to begin April. It’s something that needs to be done, according to both Parker and Morton.

“It’s a good idea, but a little bit late,” said Morton.

[flyfishergirl]

As seen in the Courier Islander Campbell River newspaper @ http://www.canada.com/Public+interest+b ... story.html

___________________________________________________________________________________

Salmon Farmers bragging they have best and most regulated farms in the world are missing the point.

"Best and most regulated open net cage farms in the world" so say the CEO'S of the Norwegian Salmon farm companies. I choose not to dispute this claim as I have no real way of measuring. What I do know is that what should be the most important regulation for the salmon farms is missing, measuring their impact on wild fish. That is the requirement to ensure and to pay for sampling of the out migrating juvenile wild salmon for sea lice infestation around their farms by independent trained personnel (similar to that employed in the Broughton Archipelago); to make the results of the sampling transparent and public; and to take appropriate action when that lice count reaches a level greater than the natural background levels. Only this regulation/action will protect our wild salmon.

No other industry that I am aware of can escape the regulated requirement to monitor their impacts on the environment and to take appropriate action to mitigate any such impacts. Imagine the environmental mess we could have if the mining industry were not required to monitor and manage the impact of their tailings and effluents, which are discharged back into the environment. Yes, the salmon farming companies are required to monitor the sea lice counts on their fish in their pens, but not on the wild salmon around the pens where it really counts. It is only through the efforts of independent scientists and monitoring groups like Alexandra Morton, Marty Krkosek, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Wild Fish Conservancy that we have been able to find out about the major impacts that the sea lice, incubated on the open net caged farm fish, have imposed on the wild salmon.

We have had years of denial from salmon farm companies as they have tried to mislead us on the effect the lice incubated by the farms had on the wild salmon. Now they are finally using the chemical Slice to control their sea lice. I can also remember the many years where the farms applied the Slice too late in the season (after the juvenile salmon had emerged from the rivers and swam past the farms to be heavily impacted by the sea lice) to stop the impacts on the wild salmon. It wasn't until the Spring of 2008 that the salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago, and elsewhere, finally got it right and heeded the advice of the independent scientists, tourism operators and some DFO officials to apply the Slice early enough in the season and as a result we finally had a good return of pink salmon (in 2009) that went to sea in the spring of 2008. Why did we have to lose so much for one good return?

After seeing the results of the sampling in the Broughton Archipelago we asked the salmon farm companies and the DFO for scientific and transparent monitoring of the wild salmon in Clayoquot Sound where many farms are situated. We got the response that it is being done and that there is no proof that salmon farms are creating a problem. However we were not allowed to see the apparent actual monitoring results. Skeptical that unbiased monitoring had taken place, we helped organize an independent and transparent study, which found that indeed, wild salmon fry in inlets with multiple salmon farms had significantly higher sea lice infection rates than fry migrating down fjords with few or no farms. Again, we have been grossly mislead.

Now, we have events around Nootka Sound where the salmon farm companies and the province are telling us there is not a sea lice problem, or the lice are not resistance to Slice, and that these lice are not being transported alive into Discovery Passage, but the independent researchers are saying otherwise. Who do you think we are going to believe?

When are the responsible regulatory agencies going to require all of the farms to have independent, transparent monitoring of the juvenile wild salmon around their farms and these results made public? Without the appropriate regulations and actions in place to protect wild salmon we will not stop their devastation caused by the sea lice incubated on the salmon farms.

Coastal wild life, First Nations, and the livelihood of businesses: tourism, and commercial and sport fishing, all depend on appropriate and timely action. We feel the public interest has not and is not being well-served, and this has to change.

Brian Gunn, President.

Wilderness Tourism Association

[flyfishergirl]

Hello

This was a ground-breaking week with NBC News, CTV, Vancouver Sun and Globe and Mail reporting on problems with Norwegian industrial salmon farming and very disheartening news from DFO that we should not expect healthy wild salmon returns this year.

There was a significant legal decision and I received a graph which seems to portray the lice levels in the Grieg Seafood fish farm that we filmed in Nootka.

Next week the Federal Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is formed. If we don't get impact of salmon farming on their agenda the Norwegian fish farm industry will be successful again in degrading the Canadian Fisheries Act, to protect Norwegian interests at expense of threatening our salmon. So stay in close touch with your MP about this. They are hearing from a very well-run Norwegian lobby. We don’t have those kinds of funds, but we are much more numerous.

And if you have doubts about contacting your MP there is new research showing that the politically active are the happiest people!

I have put all these links on my blog, I know you will let me know if some don’t work.....

Thanks to all of you,

alex