Liberals Stand Against Wild Pacific Salmon

Hi everyone (Fin Donnelly, Elizabeth May, Mel Arnold, Todd Doherty, Dominic LeBlanc, Justin Trudeau, press).

Here is my post on Fin Donnelly’s Bill C-228 that would have required fish farms to be brought out of the water and set up on land, and thus stand for wild Pacific salmon.

Unfortunately it was defeated. Trudeau Liberals voted against wild Pacific salmon.

See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/12/bill-c-228-trudeau-liberals-stand.html.

As mentioned in this post, you can tell politicians that jobs and revenues are low in aquaculture, give them the correct figures and they just continue saying jobs and revenues, even though their information is false.

And in this post, I cover all the misinformation in Serge Cormier’s, Lib, speech: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/11/hasta-la-vista-liberals-salmon-as.html. That includes all the misinformation in Todd Doherty’s, BC, PC, speech against Bill C-228.

And, anyone who says on-land fish farms can’t be done, is simply wrong. Here is my list of more than 160 on-land fish farm systems around the world, comprising 20,000 actual on-land fish farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

And there is a surprising, almost stunning, amount of bad news stories about the global fish farm/seafood industry. I receive more than 20 global fish farm newsletters every week and have found more than a thousand bad news stories in little more than the past year. For example, the CEO of the company that owns Marine Harvest was thrown in jail earlier this year for corruption and bribes.

Here is one of my Bad News Bites posts. I think you may be shocked: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/07/news-bites-farmed-salmonseafood.html. Just scan the boldfacing for a minute.

I think the day is coming when BC takes back responsibility for wild Pacific salmon from DFO and the east.

DC Reid

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One more thing. If you want to see how mad the people of Atlantic Canada are about fish farms, take a look at this: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleForACleanOcean/photos/a.1436010463301283.1073741828.1434909030078093/1833819806853678/?type=3&theater/

Bill C-228 - Trudeau Liberals Stand Against Pacific Salmon - Updated Feb 3, 2017

It is a sad day in BC. In Parliament, the Liberal government stood against wild Pacific salmon by voting against Bill C-228 which would have required fish farms to be taken out of the ocean, Fin Donnelly's bill.

See: https://openparliament.ca/votes/42-1/175/. Look at all the MPs across the country who voted against wild Pacific salmon.

The only good news here is that 11 of 17 BC Liberals broke rank and voted for Bill C-228 (1 did not vote - Joyce Murray) so almost 70% of BC liberals voted yes to Pacific Salmon. They know that if they stand against wild Pacific salmon no one in BC will vote for them again (The same can be said of the Kinder Morgan approval - the Liberals are in for a big fight. The mid-90s Clayoquot Sound anti-logging protest to save old-growth forest that put more people in jail than any other protest in Canadian history will look like child's play compared with the fight that is coming on KM).

KM protest? BC says: "Just watch us." BC Liberals are toast.

Now, what we already know is: Salmon in BC are as important to BC as French is to Quebec (1).

And what we now know: The 113,000 British Columbians who signed a petition to stand with wild Pacific salmon (2) and get fish farms out of the ocean, will want to know the BC liberals that voted against Pacific Salmon: Stephen Fuhr, Joe Peschisolido, Carla Qualtrough, Harjit Sajjan and Jody Wilson-Raybould. You'll want to remember these people for the next election.

And, just so you know, you can tell an MP that jobs and revenue are low in fish farms, and they just come back saying they support in-ocean fish farms for, wait for it... jobs and revenue. They just don't get it. Perhaps the worst person to vote against Bill C-228 is Mel Arnold, the former Conservative fisheries critic, who came back with the familiar refrain, even though it is not true.

Here are the real jobs and revenue numbers: Fish farms/Liberals/DFO claim there are 6,000 jobs in BC and high revenue. However, the best stats, from BC Stats Report, that DFO's name is on the cover, says 1,700 multiplier jobs and $469 million revenue from all of aquaculture. That's only 28.3% of the claim. And I went out and determined that actual fish farm employment is only 820 jobs - only 13.7% - or only 1 in 10 of what fish farms claim. (3)

Even Marine Harvest admits there are few jobs in fish farming. Their 2016 Handbook, says it is low because the industry is so highly automated (4).

That's all. The rest of the fish sector is 12,200 multiplier jobs or 88.8% of the total jobs, leaving only 12.2% for the entire aquaculture industry, not simply fish farms. That is how bad the disparity is, but tell the Liberals and Mel Arnold this, and they just keep saying they support jobs. Sorry, that's not true. They are against jobs.

Here are the real revenue numbers from the fish sector: revenue is only $469 million for the entire aquaculture industry, not simply fish farms, only 21%. Sport commercial, and processing are almost 80% of total revenue of $2,177.8 Million.

So there are few jobs and little revenue in aquaculture, far, far below the other fish sectors. So jobs and revenue from fish farms are low. Those are the facts. Don't let anyone else tell you different.

I and others have pointed this out time and again to the Liberals/DFO/CFIA and they just don't get it. I'd say that British Columbians get it. Hasta la Vista Justin Trudeau/Dominic LeBlanc et al.

Links:

1. See the survey: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-residents-consider-salmon-a-cultural-touchstone-survey-finds/article1998476/.

2. See the petition of 113,000 British Columbians against in-ocean fish farms:  https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

3. The BC Stats Report is here: http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/BusinessIndustry/FisheriesAquacultureHuntingTrapping.aspx. The summary table is on fishfarmnews at: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html.

4. Worldwide job numbers, MH Handbook: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/09/worker-job-numbers-worldwide-marine_27.html

Petition e-463 - Take Fish Farms out of the Ocean, and Put them on Land

Fin Donnelly, federal BC, NDP MP, has started a petition - Petition e-463 - to get fish farms out of the BC ocean where the federal DFO, CFIA and now, sadly, the Liberals, Justin Trudeau and Dominic Leblanc are now trying to put more farms in the ocean, and trying to change the results of science finding PRV in farmed salmon in BC.


Please sign: https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-463.

DFO and CFIA trying to change the science is truly something that should lose many people their jobs. It is Ottawa  not understanding BC, and BC has to stand up.

I will have more to say on the issue. See: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2016/06/cfia-testing-for-isav-in-british-columbia-acceptable.html.

Now, back to the topic: We had hoped that Justin Trudeau, Dominic Leblanc and the Liberals would be a welcome change from the Harper era and the environmental damage they caused. I guess we were wrong. Enbridge is down, and BC residents are not keen on Kinder Morgan.

If you look at Petition e-270, started by a NS, LIBERAL, Bernadette Jordon of South Shores you will find that BC resident signees tower over all other provinces in overwhelmingly rejecting in-ocean fish farms. We are 1300% higher than the next province, that's how much BC wants fish farms out of the ocean.

The Liberals are not listening, and they are losing support in BC, the most environmentally conscious province in Canada. When I was in Ottawa receiving the national, Roderick Haig-Brown Award for my environmental writing, largely on the damage caused by fish farms in the ocean, I was told that 80% of Canadians are in support of taking fish farms out of the ocean.

In my acceptance speech, I told them that jobs and revenue were low and environment, jobs and revenue from the fishing sector are far too great to allow Norwegian fish farms to stay in the ocean, particularly when their own government, in Norway, are so fed up with their damage, they are granting free, on-land licences, a $9- to $12-million subsidy compared with the in-ocean auction price. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/07/roderick-haig-brown-award-2016-dc-reid.html.

We subsidize fish farms to the tune of $1.17- to $1.56-billion to use our ocean as a free, open sewer. The sewage damage is worth $10.4 Billion and we taxpayers absorb the cost. This makes no sense, and we don't want to pay.

The Index to this site gives access to all the research I have done to come up with figures: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/01/key-document-index-2015.html.

Please sign the petition: https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-463.

Ottawa Fisheries Critic MPs - Mel Arnold, Elizabeth May, Fin Donnelly

Hi Mel, Elizabeth, Fin

Nice to meet you in Ottawa on the weekend.

[I met with them because I was the lucky recipient of the national, Roderick Haig-Brown Award for environmental writing, and my on-going work on analysis of fish farm problems. I was flown to Ottawa to receive it].

The four major problems with wild salmon are: DFO, habitat restoration, fish farms and climate change.

In BC, DFO – in Ottawa – is seen as perhaps the most important problem in dealing with BC wild salmon.

Here is a post on the Ottawa staff being the problem: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/06/dfo-is-problem-with-salmon-in-bc-dfo.html. You will note the unwillingness to do anything about Cohen, or make the legal changes. You might want to get on Watershed Watch’s email list, as well as West Coast Environmental Law.

Changing the laws back from what Harper did is the current issue. Here is a news article: http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/20/news/liberal-ministers-announce-steps-fix-harpers-environmental-overhaul?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=b2c93002e2-Salmon_News_June_24_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-b2c93002e2-214661381. You will note it says little about salmon – that’s a legitimate, major complaint.

Here is a post on the legal changes that are required: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/07/stephen-harper-government-eliminates.html. It gives a link to the Huffington Post’s list of 17. My list of 9 law changes that need rectifying is: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/summary-fish-farm-environmental-laws.html.

The most important thing is for DFO to be stripped of its conflict of interest of supporting fish farms as well as wild salmon. Cohen said it should only do the Wild Salmon Policy and wild salmon. Conflict goes back 40 years in Norway, as government and industry act together to make more fish farm money/business, but as I have said, Norway is so fed up with their sewage/pollution it is giving out free licences to set up on land, a $9- to $12-million subsidy representing the in-ocean, auction value of a licence. In BC, our licence cost is almost non-existent at $5,000.

In BC, the licence subsidy for Norwegian fish farms to use our ocean as a free open sewer is: $1.17- to $1.56-billion. And the sewage cost we bear is another $10.4-billion. The best stats, BC Stats, says that max revenue from fish farms is $469 million, and a small $61.9 Million contribution to GPP. I went out and found that actual employment is a very small 820 jobs. The multiplier figure for the rest of the fish sector is: 12,500 jobs. I also did major work to re-investigate the entire take from fish in fresh/salt. It is $2.52 Billion and the figure has already been published.

See the BC Stats table in a recent post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/06/cohen-commission-bc-still-waiting-for_27.html.

In other words, it makes no economic or environmental sense to leave fish farms in our water. They need to be on land or go back to Norway and set up on land because their own government is fed up with them. They also need to change fish to a vegetarian, so they are not liquidating the ocean’s small fish that Third World mouths should be eating, in order to feed fish only First World mouths can afford.

Let me know what other subjects you may have an interest in, or simply look at the blog: www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com. There is an index in 2015: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/01/key-document-index-2015.html. It gives a link to a previous index of posts before 2014.

Dennis 

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And check out the graphic on the chemicals in farmed salmon - only ten times the amounts found in other flesh-based food. I wouldn't eat one. And, yes, dioxins cause cancer.