Last week the BC Salmon Farmers Association launched a well-funded and slick PR campaign in an attempt to counter the growing concern about the impacts of farmed salmon on wild pacific salmon.

Their ads try to discredit over a decade of peer reviewed science linking farmed salmon with disease outbreaks and sea lice infestations. They try to counter concerns about escaped Atlantic salmon in BC waters, and about the amount of other fish needed to feed farmed salmon.

Our latest publication, Shut Down Salmon Farms, could not have come at a better time. This newspaper tells the story that the salmon farm industry is desperate to hide – that industrial salmon farming is having a devastating effect on wild salmon stocks both here in BC and globally.

While I was writing this paper, I was reminded yet again how much is a stake when wild salmon are under threat. Wild salmon play a critical role in nourishing the people and wildlife of this province. Many of BC’s iconic species depend on wild salmon, including orcas, dolphins, sea lions, eagles, grizzlies and even old-growth forests.

Farmed salmon can never replace what wild salmon provide us. If we want Canada's wild pacific salmon to thrive we must put species protection ahead of the profits of the salmon farming industry.

We will never have the millions of dollars the BC Salmon Farmers Association has to spend on fancy websites and expensive TV ads. But we have you, and thousands of other people just like you, who care deeply about the health of our oceans, our forests and our wild salmon.

Please join us to help spread the truth about the toxic legacy of industrial fish farms. You can help by distributing the print version of our newspaper in your neighborhood. Send us an email at emma@wildernesscommittee.org with your mailing address and how many copies you would like. We’ll send you a little or a lot – it’s your choice – for distribution to friends, family, co-workers or at your local bakery, coffee shop or library.

If you want to get more involved in the campaign, join a salmon action team in your community. We will be organizing events, raising awareness and taking action to protect wild salmon. You can email salmon@wildernesscommittee.org to learn more.

Thanks so much for taking action!

Tria Donaldson | Pacific Coast Campaigner
Wilderness Committee

P.S. If you you would like to donate to help the campaign to save wild salmon you can do so by clicking here.