All Bark and Bite

News flash Mercola has posted Salmon Confidential on their site!

Upcoming event: I am touring Salmon Confidential with filmmaker Twyla Roscovich 18 stops in 20 days! See the Schedule The audiences are packed, the discussions very lively!

Elizabeth May and Jane Sterk are joining me for a viewing of the bio-political documentary Salmon Confidential at the Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney April, 20, 2013, 6:30pm

ALL BARK AND BITE

The sole excuse given for allowing an industry as dirty as the Norwegian salmon feedlot industry to operate in beautiful British Columbia – is “the “economy.” So lets have a look at the deal we are getting. How much does this industry do for our economy? How does it measure up? What is the deal for BC? What does British Columbia get for allowing industrial feedlot waste into our key wild salmon migration routes? If we could have both wild and feedlot salmon, there would be no issue. But there is NO WHERE IN THE WORLD, that farmed and wild salmon co-exist.

The most of the figures below are from BC Stats

Wilderness Tourism generates $1.5 billion/per year

Sport+commercial fishing contributes $536.7 million to the BC economy
Salmon farming contributes $61.9 million

SALMON FARMING = 1/8th of wild fisheries

Sport fishing pays $218.9 million in wages
The salmon farming industry pays $55.7 million in wages

SALMON FARMING PAYS OUT 1/4 the amount in wages

Sport fishing creates 8,400 jobs
Fish farming jobs 1,700
Commercial fishing jobs 1,400 (down 50% since fish farms moved into BC)

SALMON FARMING MAKES 1/5th jobs that wild salmon make

Total Revenue:

Wilderness tourism (70% salmon-dependent) ………….…….$2.2 billion
Sport fishing ……………………………………………….………………………….$936.5 million
Aquaculture (Scallops, Oysters, salmon, etc.) …….……..$469.0 million
Commercial fishing ……………………………………….………………..…….$344.8 million

Aquaculture is worth 1/4th wilderness tourism

BC salmon feedlots are raising European salmon infected with viruses known to occur in Europe, dumping tons of raw, industrial feedlot manure daily, per site, over wild salmon, herring, prawns etc. The industry is 1/10th to 1/3rd the size of the wild salmon economy and yet it is allowed to pollute the waters wild salmon require.

It does not make sense to me to risk the much bigger, more sustainable wild salmon economy, with a foreign-owned, low employment, high-risk industry. Salmon feedlots are so marginally profitable their economy is dependent on using BC waters as a dump site. They can’t afford to shovel their manure. And yet, government after government has fallen for the salmon feedlot lobby to the point they are sacrificing jobs, revenue and the economy of coastal communities. Not only do we get the waste, we pay to help out the industry when their fish get diseased! The province of BC is the landlord of this industry, slumlord, really, and they have the power to move it off wild salmon migration routes. The Licences of Occupation required by each feedlot site can be revoked if it is in the public interest. But they don’t. So far.

The Wilderness Tourism Association of BC, representing a $1.6 billion industry, is asking for relief from this assault on their industry: “WTABC wants the Province and the government of Canada to close or fallow the salmon farms on BC’s key salmon migratory routes such as in the Discovery Islands, the Broughton Archipelago, and Clayoquot Sound. Only these actions would be following the precautionary principle.” (Press release, March 27)

Imagine if we worked with the wild salmon, brought them back to healthy numbers, the wild salmon economy could easily be doubled. The only big thing about the salmon feedlot industry is its bark and bite.

Want to Help WILD SALMON?

sign the petition:

Write the political leaders in BC, support them in standing up to this industry and telling them they have to get off wild salmon migration routes now.

Jane Sterk Liberal Party
Adrian Dix NDP

Visit your supermarket and ask them not to sell BC farm salmon, sign the boycott

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