Wilderness Committee Attends Large Wild Salmon Rally in front of DFO Offices
Thursday, August 20, 2009
At noon yesterday (Aug. 20th) there was a large rally held in front of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (aka DFO) Pacific Region head offices, with over 150 people attending!
Some high profile people who attended and spoke were Chief Bob Chamberlin of Kwicksutaineuk/Ak-Kwa-Mish Tribes (from the Broughton Archipelago area), Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and Rafe Mair.
The protest was organized by the Wild Salmon Circle, a new concerned citizen's group and was a great success. They were joined by the Wilderness Committee's new "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot, as well as many other people concerned with the health of wild salmon. People are especially concerned of the role sea lice from salmon farms are playing in killing our wild salmon and the lack of action from our governments.
As many of you know already, last week the Sockeye salmon runs of the Fraser River, the largest salmon bearing river in the world, have been devastated. Up to 13 million fish were expected to return this summer, but only 1.7 million have returned!
Check out the Globe and Mail front page story from last Thursday about the devasted Fraser sockeye runs.
This could be the signal of the end of Sockeye runs on the biggest salmon producing river in the world. This is of the magnitude of the loss of the Atlantic cod. This is a real crisis and DFO is shrugging their shoulders saying they don't know what happened.
Most likely several factors are leading to the demise of Sockeye and other wild salmon populations in BC. Overfishing, climate change that is warming ocean temperatures, sea lice from salmon farms, stream habitat destruction from logging and other factors are likely cummulatively negatively impacting wild salmon populations. One of the easiest negative factors, sea lice from salmon farms, could be resolved by removing salmon farms from the ocean. Many peer-reviewed scientific studies show that sea lice from salmon farms kill juvenile wild salmon, in turn killing wild salmon populations. This has been shown worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms, local wild salmon and sea trout populations plummet.
The federal government, with DFO, and the provincial government are still mostly denying that salmon farming sea lice is having any significant negative impact on wild salmon, despite the solid science pointing to the contrary. Not only is governments not taking action to protect wild salmon, such as moving or closing salmon farms, but they continue to promote salmon farming. It is a travesty that during the biggest wild salmon crisis ever to hit the west coast, our Fisheries Minister is not only somewhat ignoring in dealing with the issue, but is off galivanting in Norway promoting more salmon farms to kill even more of our vulnerable wild salmon!
Photo: by Don Staniford, The Pure Salmon Campaign - Fisheries Minister Gail Shea at Aqua Nor Aquaculture Conference and Trade Show in Trondheim, Norway. From left to right: Laurie Jensen (Mainstream/Cermaq) with the camera, "Sustainable Development - aquaculture" sign, Mary Ellen Walling (BCSFA), Gail Shea (Canadian Fisheries Minister), DFO official, "Canada - leader: sustainable aquaculture" sign, and Trevor Swerdfager (DFO's DG of Aquaculture Management).
The Wilderness Committee, as well as the Wild Salmon Circle, and many others are calling on the federal government under DFO to follow the Fisheries Act and follow their mandate of protecting wild salmon by shutting down salmon farms. DFO should also focus on restoring wild salmon population.
Please take action by signing on to Alexandra Morton's petition, if you haven't already. She is a researcher that has been working tirelessly to protect wild salmon. She has over 16,000 signatures, but needs thousands more to send a real message to the federal government.
Sign the petition here.
For more info on salmon farming, check out the Wilderness Committee's campaign page and backgrounder on salmon farming.
Thanks,
Geoff Senichenko
Research and Mapping Director, and Salmon Farming Campaigner,
Wilderness Committee
P.S. I'll leave you with more pics from the rally yesterday.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - Three central people in photo spoke: Tyee Bridge (from Wild Salmon Circle introduced speakers), Chief Bob Chamberlin and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot with rally participants holding large banner.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - the three central figures: Chief Bob Chamberlin (with tie), Rafe Mair (with white hat - he was also a speaker at the rally) and "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot along with other rally participants.
The protest was organized by the Wild Salmon Circle, a new concerned citizen's group and was a great success. They were joined by the Wilderness Committee's new "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot, as well as many other people concerned with the health of wild salmon. People are especially concerned of the role sea lice from salmon farms are playing in killing our wild salmon and the lack of action from our governments.
As many of you know already, last week the Sockeye salmon runs of the Fraser River, the largest salmon bearing river in the world, have been devastated. Up to 13 million fish were expected to return this summer, but only 1.7 million have returned!
Check out the Globe and Mail front page story from last Thursday about the devasted Fraser sockeye runs.
This could be the signal of the end of Sockeye runs on the biggest salmon producing river in the world. This is of the magnitude of the loss of the Atlantic cod. This is a real crisis and DFO is shrugging their shoulders saying they don't know what happened.
Most likely several factors are leading to the demise of Sockeye and other wild salmon populations in BC. Overfishing, climate change that is warming ocean temperatures, sea lice from salmon farms, stream habitat destruction from logging and other factors are likely cummulatively negatively impacting wild salmon populations. One of the easiest negative factors, sea lice from salmon farms, could be resolved by removing salmon farms from the ocean. Many peer-reviewed scientific studies show that sea lice from salmon farms kill juvenile wild salmon, in turn killing wild salmon populations. This has been shown worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms, local wild salmon and sea trout populations plummet.
The federal government, with DFO, and the provincial government are still mostly denying that salmon farming sea lice is having any significant negative impact on wild salmon, despite the solid science pointing to the contrary. Not only is governments not taking action to protect wild salmon, such as moving or closing salmon farms, but they continue to promote salmon farming. It is a travesty that during the biggest wild salmon crisis ever to hit the west coast, our Fisheries Minister is not only somewhat ignoring in dealing with the issue, but is off galivanting in Norway promoting more salmon farms to kill even more of our vulnerable wild salmon!
Photo: by Don Staniford, The Pure Salmon Campaign - Fisheries Minister Gail Shea at Aqua Nor Aquaculture Conference and Trade Show in Trondheim, Norway. From left to right: Laurie Jensen (Mainstream/Cermaq) with the camera, "Sustainable Development - aquaculture" sign, Mary Ellen Walling (BCSFA), Gail Shea (Canadian Fisheries Minister), DFO official, "Canada - leader: sustainable aquaculture" sign, and Trevor Swerdfager (DFO's DG of Aquaculture Management).
The Wilderness Committee, as well as the Wild Salmon Circle, and many others are calling on the federal government under DFO to follow the Fisheries Act and follow their mandate of protecting wild salmon by shutting down salmon farms. DFO should also focus on restoring wild salmon population.
Please take action by signing on to Alexandra Morton's petition, if you haven't already. She is a researcher that has been working tirelessly to protect wild salmon. She has over 16,000 signatures, but needs thousands more to send a real message to the federal government.
Sign the petition here.
For more info on salmon farming, check out the Wilderness Committee's campaign page and backgrounder on salmon farming.
Thanks,
Geoff Senichenko
Research and Mapping Director, and Salmon Farming Campaigner,
Wilderness Committee
P.S. I'll leave you with more pics from the rally yesterday.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - Three central people in photo spoke: Tyee Bridge (from Wild Salmon Circle introduced speakers), Chief Bob Chamberlin and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot with rally participants holding large banner.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - the three central figures: Chief Bob Chamberlin (with tie), Rafe Mair (with white hat - he was also a speaker at the rally) and "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot.
Photo: by Wilderness Committee - "Tum Tum - Voice of Wild Salmon" mascot along with other rally participants.
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