The news about the salmon farming industry suggests the world is become aware of how big a problem salmon farm is.
A remarkable new farmed salmon documentary has just come out. It will be online for just 30 days. These two young men really went the extra mile swimming inside a salmon farm, visiting a processing plant and the farmed salmon feed manufacturing plants. I highly recommend watching it. They are under attack by the industry and I hope they can take the pressure.
Norway just ordered the slaughter of 2 million farmed salmon, including some owned by the their Minister of Fisheries, because the sea lice on these fish have become resistant to drugs. They have lost control, the industry has lost its arms race with the sea louse.
Also in Norway the people have had it with the pollution and are protesting. This is a Google Translation.
Ted Danson came out in a big way to say “farmed salmon is a terrible choice for our oceans“
In New Brunswick, farmed salmon in the rivers of the Bay of Fundy are seen as a threat to the wild salmon.
My crew that visited the north coast of BC, Jody Erickson, Farlyn Campbell and Tavish Campbell did an incredible job covering the Skeena and Fraser watersheds.
What they documented is frightening – the sockeye of the Skeena are dying by the thousands before spawning… just like the Fraser sockeye.
In 2010, tons of Fraser sockeye were taken north to Prince Rupert for processing just as wild salmon were passing through this effluent and entering the Skeena. The generation of juvenile sockeye that were in the system rearing, are the generation that crashed this year and are now dying before spawning in unprecedented numbers.
Please consider helping me pay the lab bills to process these samples and communicate the results. Thank you to all who have stepped up and realize that if we want wild salmon it is up to us, and that is the way it should be. We are the ones that want these fish and know them. It would be careless of us to expect governments negotiating international trade deals can do a better job than we can.
You can donate online at: GoFundMe
or by mail:
Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society
Box 399
Sointula, BC V0N 3E0
If you need a tax-receipt you can donate to Raincoast Research Society, where the funds will go solely to the science.
Raincoast Research Society
Box 399
Sointula, BC V0N 3E0
This Babine sockeye was dying among the hundreds that had already died, before spawning:
Photo by Tavish Campbell
Comments
One response to “The tide is turning – but is it fast enough?”
Thanks for the great synopsis Alex – I believe the tide IS turning.
For our part, we are seeing in the Farmed Salmon Boycotts a growing awareness of this issue in the public that we contact. More and more, the response is “yeah, heard about that. It’s not right!” Store customers at our Boycott Rallies that, back in winter didn’t know what is going on, are now saying “sure, I’ll fill out the store’s COMMENT CARD to say stop selling farmed atlantic salmon.”
And then there’s the retailers…
Walmart appears to be paying attention. There’s an ongoing dialogue between Eddie Gardner and their Director of Corp. Social Responsibility – who then called and spoke to Shawna Green when he heard we were helping her launch a NEW boycott chapter on Vancouver Island. A big part of why Walmart is listening (in my opinion) is the uptake of SeaChoice’s Sustainable Seafood Guidelines by the major western Canada supermarkets.
So there’s that…