Alexandra Morton Blog

Stand Up For Wild Salmon

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by

Alexandra Morton

Click here to Stand Up For

 

Wild Salmon.

  Tamara

 Comment on two new salmon farms on BC coast.

Cutoff date for comment is Feb 24.

Local people speak to Grieg Seafood at open house on February 10 in Port McNeill.  120 people pack the house.

 

The trouble with these two salmon farm applications:

 

  1. They set precendent in allowing farms closer than 3 km, which was set by the Province of BC.
  2. They set precedent in allowing shellfish leases to be flipped to become fin fish farms.  If this goes through many shellfish leases will be turned into salmon farms
  3. These farms are on the most productive local shrimping grounds and will displace local fishermen with no compensation for loss of income and their livliehood
  4. These fish farms are in an area where the chinook salmon of Knight Inlet rest on their way up the inlet.  If there are diseases in the farms, they can become infected and infect the rivers of Glendale, Klinaklini and Franklin Rivers.
  5. An infected salmon farm can released 65 billion infectious viral particles per hour (DFO Dr. Kyle Garver testimony Cohen Commission) and a the tides in this area can move 10km in 6 hours. So whatever comes out of these farms will be spread far beyond the lease
  6. This is a provincial decision, talk to your MLA!
  7. These farms also need a federal license which costs $800,000 in Norway, but are given out for free in Canada
  8. These farms are permitted to transfer diseased salmon from their hatcheries into this place, I am fighting this in court, decision has been pending for 8 months.

Comments

One response to “Stand Up For Wild Salmon”

  1. Dcreid Avatar
    Dcreid

    The licence in Norway is actually more expensive at $1.69 million.
    In BC the licence is about $5000.
    This means that each licenced fish farm is being subsidized to the tune of $1.64 million by taxpayers. So they have no reason to claim there is a cost barrier to on-land fish farms.
    And the list on my blog: http://www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com, now has 74 different on-land systems comprising 10,000 on land fish farms around the world. The Norwegians need to come out of the water.
    Even in Norway, with the recent escapes of steelhead, the call is, finally, to get the farms out of the water.