On May 11, 2014, the biggest public affairs show in North Ameria will turn its penetrating spotlight on the practice of farming salmon in British Columbia.
I am glad that this industry is in the spot light. British Columbians have known for a longtime that there are serious issues with putting large schools of Atlantic salmon on wild Pacific salmon migration routes. The reason the industry is using the BC coast to grow Norwegian salmon, is the inexpensive access to the U.S. market. So it is a good thing that Americans will see where that piece of farmed salmon sushi comes from.
I enjoyed meeting Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the 60 Minutes host, very much. He is a remarkable man who performed brain surgery day before he flew out to British Columbia!
We spent a few hours on the lower Fraser River. Dr. Gupta was visibly moved by the life and death struggle of the spawning salmon.
The second day he visited my field station near Kingcome Inlet. He asked a lot of tough questions – it was a good interview.
The BC Salmon Farmers Association have put out a backgrounder on the CBS show. I have gone through their document and provided further information here.
So we will be watching together to see what 60 Minutes came away with after researching salmon farming in BC.
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