KEY Document: Aboriginals of the World Say No to Fish Farms, Updated Feb 11, 2016

The joining of aboriginal peoples from around the world against in-ocean fish farms has begun. This is another watershed moment just as the tipping point that happened in 2015 with the Norwegian government change in licence policy. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/12/key-document-tipping-point-goodbye-in.html.

Clayoquot Sound, BC, is a UNESCO Biosphere it is that special. Why then has Christy Clark, BC Premier, and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada allowed some 20 fish farm sites, most - 15 - owned by the Norwegian-style firm Cermaq, to remain stationed here?

As the Cohen Commission explained in its 1200 page tome into the collapse of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye runs, the government needs to take the conflict of DFO supporting fish farms out of their hands and for DFO to get on with saving wild salmon.

There are only 501 wild chinook salmon left in Clayoquot Sound, and the Kennedy Lake sockeye run collapsed in the 1990s from commercial-fishing. In the presence of 20 fish farms, that when they have diseases, like IPN or IHN, are shedding 56 billion virus particles per hour, which in 12 hours at a 2 knot tide, spread to 24 nautical miles, the run has never come back.

Look at the location of the Clayoquot Sound fish farms below and it's pretty easy to understand why no wild salmon could dodge the disease in its waters.

The Clayoquot Action group is meeting with the Norwegian Sami in February 2016 and taking its text to lay before the Norwegian government to get fish farms out of the ocean. They should get a friendly hearing because the Norwegian government is so fed up with the environmental damage of fish farms that it is handing out free on-land licences to get Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood and the rest out of the ocean and set up on land. This is a $9- to $12-million subsidy, representing the foregone in-ocean auction price of a licence.

Look at the itinerary below the graphic. I will post more on this important subject.

The Huffington Post sums up what British Columbians feel about fish farms: “While marches in the rest of the world largely targeted the fossil fuel industry, in BC, salmon farming is viewed as our own version of the tar sands, as despised as big oil.”

Hmm: As despised as big oil. I think that says it all about how British Columbians feel about in-ocean fish farms. Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood are just watching the world tell them to get out of the ocean and set up on land. And the consumers are paying attention, a long term issue if the fish farms can ever get anyone back. And Justin Trudeau thought that we were angry about the Northern Gateway oil pipeline. Sorry to tell him that just ain't so. Christy Clark needs to pay attention. She thought LNG was a big issue. 

See: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeff-matthews/bc-salmon-farming_b_8695522.html?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=4a3d3d0d35-Salmon_News_Dec_2_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-4a3d3d0d35-166907249.

Update Feb 10, 2016. Here is the petition document, and text that was presented to the Norwegian King by the aboriginals of the world, to get fish farms out of the oceans they use as free open sewers: https://www.change.org/p/to-the-citizens-of-norway-divest-from-dirty-salmon/u/15385858?recruiter=11533166&utm_source=share_update&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=facebook_link. 

Canadian Wild Salmon Delegation Itinerary

Oslo: January 28

Bergen: January 30-February 4
Public presentation: Wednesday February 3 / 1900 / More info

Alta: February 6-10
Public presentation: Monday Feb 8 / 1000-1130 / More info

Oslo: February 11-12
Public presentation: Thursday February 11 / 1900 / More info

//Download Itinerary PDF//

Update Feb 11, 2016. Here is an article in a Norwegian paper about the trip of the BC aboriginals to Norway to contact the Sami people and lay documents at the feet of Cermaq and the Norwegian government to get fish farms out of the world's oceans and particularly in BC. Do read this article, that points out that our coastal rainforest is dependent on salmon carcasses for nitrogen and carbon (in a previous post, I referenced the salmon carbon amount in cedar trees as 14%): https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.altaposten.no/meninger/2016/02/08/En-b%C3%B8nn-fra-Canada-12134055.ece&edit-text=&act=url&utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=820e44b091-Salmon_News_Feb_10_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-820e44b091-166907249.