Here are the most popular posts in July. I have been putting up a list of the most popular for the past year or so. If you are looking for the most popular in a certain month, look on the first day of the next month, or close to it, for the previous months most viewed posts.
1. The Joys of Boating: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-joys-of-boating.html. The usual disaster for me, turns into fun reading for other boat owners.
2. John Horgan: What Are You Thinking? - Four year deal? First Nations Approval: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/john-horgan-what-are-you-thinking-four.html. This article on the Broughton Archipelago fish farm licences was the most popular post of the month.
3. DFO, Salmon and Killer Whales - Take Two: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales-take-two.html. A reprise of the first article on this subject that received 9,000 page views.
4. Taxpayer Support for Fish Farms - Too much Money to Ruin our Ocean and Kill our Salmon: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/taxpayer-support-for-fish-farms-too.html.
5. Raise Fish Farm License to $32 Million - Save Wild Salmon: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/raise-bc-fish-farm-license-to-32.html. The reality is that the big Norwegian companies are paying this in their own country. In BC, it is $5000. Yes, it really is that bad, and they get to pollute our ocean. They should have been paying since day one.
6. Fish Farms, Big Tobacco, Pretty Much the Same Thing: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/fish-farms-big-tobacco-pretty-much-same.html. This link is to the second post. There are three posts on the Sarah K. Cox report on fish farm activities. Two of the articles are posted on July 20, 2018, while the third is posted on the 26th of February, 2018.
7. 240 On-Land Fish Farm Systems and more than 20,000 actual on land fish farms around the world: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.
This is the all-time most popular post on this site, showing that there are, in fact, on-land fish farms all over the world, contrary to what the big Norwegian companies would have you believe.
Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Sunday, 22 July 2018
Donate to the Dzawada’enux First Nations Legal Fund - Eliminate Fish Farms in Broughton
This is the link to the gofundme site. Please donate: https://www.gofundme.com/salmondefence.
Below is the text that describes what the First Nations are doing. Woodward is the lawyer who won the important Tsilhqot'in Decision on lands in the interior. He will be using the same tack to claim First Nation ownership of water, land and the territory of coastal Nations.
*************
Be part of a powerful, multi-pronged legal strategy that will finally get foreign-owned factory fish farms out of BC waters!
Factory fish farms spew diseases, parasites and waste into the ocean, harming wild salmon and other sea life. The industry has had a particularly devastating impact on the Dzawada’enux First Nations (DFN) of Kingcome Inlet, BC, who sustained themselves for thousands of years with the abundant ocean resources of their territory, in what is today known as the Broughton Archipelago.
This small, resilient nation has tried everything to remove fish farms – flotillas, letters, government engagement – but to no avail. Norwegian giants Marine Harvest and Cermaq still operate 10 farms in DFN territory, even after most of their provincial tenures expired on June 20 of this year. The DFN were left with no choice but to go to court. They hired lawyer Jack Woodward, Q.C. to help them.
Building on the landmark decision for the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, whom Woodward also represented, the DFN have devised a multi-pronged legal strategy that is “unstoppable”, says Woodward. Using a combination of legal tools – Aboriginal title and rights claims, injunctions, judicial reviews, and other legal challenges – the DFN are the best hope for removing fish farms from BC’s coastal waters.
“It will cost some money, but once we get this thing moving, there will not be fish farms in DFN territory,” Woodward assures. “I believe that this man can do it for us,” says Melissa Willie. We will get fish farms out of our territory – we just need your support.” The DFN’s success will create legal precedents and blaze a trail for others to follow, forcing the factory fish farming business to adapt and move onto land or go the way of the dodo. Thus, anyone who shares the DFN’s concerns for this industry can only benefit from getting behind their efforts.
“When you look at the tourism economy or people who just want to fish for wild salmon, this fight is for all of BC, not just our nation,” says Chief Willie Moon (Okwilagame). But they can’t do it alone. The DFN have received virtually no revenues from the resources taken from their territories over the years and they maintain their remote community through hard work and perseverance. “It’s not easy for us to ask the outside world for help,” says Hereditary Chief Joe Willie (Hawil’kwo’lal), “but we will need help for this important work.”
The process is already under way, with the DFN having filed their title claim on May 28 and begun an injunction process on June 19. But they need your support to ensure they have all the resources required to see these cases through.
Your donation goes directly to the DFN’s Wild Salmon Defence Fund, through a lawyer’s trust account which is regularly audited and held to the highest standards of accountability, according to the rigorous rules of the Law Society of British Columbia.
Now is the time to stand up for our wild salmon and ocean resources by backing the DFN in court. “The legal and constitutional defenders of the environment in Canada are the First Nations,” says Woodward. “I’m honoured to support them and I hope you will too.”
***********
It bears being repeated that on-land fish farms are now all around the world. My list has 240 on-land companies: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. When is enough, well, enough? There is no reason for the old-tech, dinosaur, in-ocean farms anymore.
I think that the issue of First Nation rights is the correct strategy. All the years of science have borne no fruit because DFO has a bias toward fish farms, and while I think science should still go on, I think it is wrong to make the decision based on science, because the fish farms pay for science for their side. Science is political, it is bought and paid for and is ignored by DFO, unless it supports leaving fish farms in the water.
BC needs the rights to our own salmon back from Ottawa, and the FN approach is the best way of achieving this. This assumes the FN will not be bought off by the multi-billion dollar fish farm companies from Norway.
And the BC government should put money into freshwater habitat restoration for salmon. Please send a letter to John Horgan, Lana Popham, Andrew Weaver, Adam Olsen, and Sonia Furstenau, asking them to put money into habitat by giving it to the Pacific Salmon Foundation that leverages money 4 to 7 times.
Please everyone. Send a note to our MLAs:
Below is the text that describes what the First Nations are doing. Woodward is the lawyer who won the important Tsilhqot'in Decision on lands in the interior. He will be using the same tack to claim First Nation ownership of water, land and the territory of coastal Nations.
*************
Be part of a powerful, multi-pronged legal strategy that will finally get foreign-owned factory fish farms out of BC waters!
Factory fish farms spew diseases, parasites and waste into the ocean, harming wild salmon and other sea life. The industry has had a particularly devastating impact on the Dzawada’enux First Nations (DFN) of Kingcome Inlet, BC, who sustained themselves for thousands of years with the abundant ocean resources of their territory, in what is today known as the Broughton Archipelago.
This small, resilient nation has tried everything to remove fish farms – flotillas, letters, government engagement – but to no avail. Norwegian giants Marine Harvest and Cermaq still operate 10 farms in DFN territory, even after most of their provincial tenures expired on June 20 of this year. The DFN were left with no choice but to go to court. They hired lawyer Jack Woodward, Q.C. to help them.
Building on the landmark decision for the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, whom Woodward also represented, the DFN have devised a multi-pronged legal strategy that is “unstoppable”, says Woodward. Using a combination of legal tools – Aboriginal title and rights claims, injunctions, judicial reviews, and other legal challenges – the DFN are the best hope for removing fish farms from BC’s coastal waters.
“It will cost some money, but once we get this thing moving, there will not be fish farms in DFN territory,” Woodward assures. “I believe that this man can do it for us,” says Melissa Willie. We will get fish farms out of our territory – we just need your support.” The DFN’s success will create legal precedents and blaze a trail for others to follow, forcing the factory fish farming business to adapt and move onto land or go the way of the dodo. Thus, anyone who shares the DFN’s concerns for this industry can only benefit from getting behind their efforts.
“When you look at the tourism economy or people who just want to fish for wild salmon, this fight is for all of BC, not just our nation,” says Chief Willie Moon (Okwilagame). But they can’t do it alone. The DFN have received virtually no revenues from the resources taken from their territories over the years and they maintain their remote community through hard work and perseverance. “It’s not easy for us to ask the outside world for help,” says Hereditary Chief Joe Willie (Hawil’kwo’lal), “but we will need help for this important work.”
The process is already under way, with the DFN having filed their title claim on May 28 and begun an injunction process on June 19. But they need your support to ensure they have all the resources required to see these cases through.
Your donation goes directly to the DFN’s Wild Salmon Defence Fund, through a lawyer’s trust account which is regularly audited and held to the highest standards of accountability, according to the rigorous rules of the Law Society of British Columbia.
Now is the time to stand up for our wild salmon and ocean resources by backing the DFN in court. “The legal and constitutional defenders of the environment in Canada are the First Nations,” says Woodward. “I’m honoured to support them and I hope you will too.”
***********
It bears being repeated that on-land fish farms are now all around the world. My list has 240 on-land companies: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. When is enough, well, enough? There is no reason for the old-tech, dinosaur, in-ocean farms anymore.
I think that the issue of First Nation rights is the correct strategy. All the years of science have borne no fruit because DFO has a bias toward fish farms, and while I think science should still go on, I think it is wrong to make the decision based on science, because the fish farms pay for science for their side. Science is political, it is bought and paid for and is ignored by DFO, unless it supports leaving fish farms in the water.
BC needs the rights to our own salmon back from Ottawa, and the FN approach is the best way of achieving this. This assumes the FN will not be bought off by the multi-billion dollar fish farm companies from Norway.
And the BC government should put money into freshwater habitat restoration for salmon. Please send a letter to John Horgan, Lana Popham, Andrew Weaver, Adam Olsen, and Sonia Furstenau, asking them to put money into habitat by giving it to the Pacific Salmon Foundation that leverages money 4 to 7 times.
Please everyone. Send a note to our MLAs:
John Horgan: john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca
Andrew Weaver: andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca
Lana Popham: lana.popham.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Carole James: carole.james.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Adam Olsen: adam.olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Ellis Ross: ellis.ross.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Melanie Mark: melanie.mark.mla@leg.bc.caFriday, 20 July 2018
Big Fish Farms - Big Tobacco, Pretty Much the Same Thing, Take 3
Go to the original post here: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html. Or go directly to the Sarah K. Cox report on PR and big fish farms, in BC: http://web.idv.nkmu.edu.tw/~tomhsiao/S%20T%20Management/DiminishingReturns_final.pdf.
These are the recommendations from the Cox report. Made almost fifteen years ago, they are still relevant today, that is how little that DFO has been willing to side with BC residents and wild salmon.
Government policies
These are the recommendations from the Cox report. Made almost fifteen years ago, they are still relevant today, that is how little that DFO has been willing to side with BC residents and wild salmon.
Government policies
1. Redirect existing government funding for multinational salmon farmingcorporations and industry organizations to support closed-tank alternatives that will control disease and protect wild salmon stocks.
2. Initiate government-funded studies on the environmental and human health impacts of medications and other chemicals used on salmon farms.
3. Make government interactions with salmon farming corporations more transparent. This includes decreasing the cost and increasing the efficiency of Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests.
3. Make government interactions with salmon farming corporations more transparent. This includes decreasing the cost and increasing the efficiency of Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests.
4. Evaluate the economics of salmon farming in B.C., with special consideration to employment trends, potential impact on wild fisheries and other industries, government financial support, and public revenue generated by the industry from sources such as rents and taxes.
Protection for wild salmon and the environment
5. Reinstate the moratorium on all new salmon farms in British Columbia. Halt the planned expansion of farms on the north and central coasts.
6. Ensure the safe passage of wild salmon through the Broughton Archipelago by fallowing and removing the necessary salmon farms.
7. Begin transition of open net cage salmon farms to closed-tank technology.
7. Begin transition of open net cage salmon farms to closed-tank technology.
8. Increase regulatory requirements for protection of wild fish. This includes larger and more consistent fines for regulatory violations by salmon farming companies.
Use of antibiotics and therapeutants
9. Monitor and test salmon farm sites and their vicinities for antibiotic and Slice residues.
10. Ensure Health Canada’s testing for Slice and other therapeutants is adequate and that test results are publicly available.
In all of the above recommendations, it is critical that the legal rights and title of First Nations people be considered and respected.
Fish Farms, Big Tobacco, Pretty Much the Same Thing - Take Two
Go to the original post here: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html. Or go directly to the Sarah K. Cox report on PR and big fish farms, in BC: http://web.idv.nkmu.edu.tw/~tomhsiao/S%20T%20Management/DiminishingReturns_final.pdf.
There is so much damning information in the Cox report on how the industry did a makeover of its image to be seen as a healthy food, sustainable industry, with no environmental problems that it bears a second post.
Well, there was this: "A decade after the SHC’s creation, following what it calls a “Herculean” effort, nine aquaculture therapeutants were licensed for use in Canada. They included medications for sea lice and ISA, two of the most challenging health issues for salmon farms." (P 90)
So, this industry that says ISA is not in BC, had, almost two decades before, a medication okayed for ISA, the worst fish farm disease. And more importantly, there never was ISA in BC until fish eggs were brought from the western Atlantic, Iceland/Norway and so on. But they needed a drug for it. And to this day, the big three deny there is ISA in BC even though Alex Morton has published a paper on the Norwegian strain being in BC: https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-015-0459-1.
This paper also has a table of global ISA disease in it, so...
Is disingenuous too polite a word for the fish farms? Deny it's here but get a drug to kill it okayed?
Here is a bit of malaise in the industry, that had a major IHN outbreak early in the 21st century:
"All four companies suffering losses in 2002 cited disease outbreaks in British Columbia as a major contributing factor. The fifth, Nutreco, noted that disease on B.C.salmon farms had caused a decline of its fish feed sales on Canada’s west coast. Stolt-Nielsen, reporting on its Stolt Sea Farm subsidiary, wrote: “In addition to weak pricing, the industry in North America has suffered severely in 2002 from extraordinary mortalities, caused by viral and parasitic infections.” (P12))
An example is Pan Fish (that became Marine Harvest). It lost $208.6M in its global fish farm operations. (P13)
This is a humdinger of a document for thorough research and I suggest you read it. It is worth a couple of hours. You will find it hard to believe that fish farms are still in business.
P14 and 15 document the industry disease losses all over the province to IHNV in 2002 and 2003. At the last minute an 11th hour Sierra/Suzuki injunction prevented the fish offal being unloaded from a processor into the Fraser River. This document just keeps on getting worse.
Sea lice killed off the Broughton pink run in 2002: "“sea lice were associated with the decline observed in the Broughton Archipelago,”". (P 15). At the same time, BC had the highest Kudoa parasite losses in the world - myoliquifaction.
And check out the Fish Health Database (P17) the Province set up. The ongoing losses are hard to believe.
And in 2003, 25,445 kgs of antibiotics were used on fish farm fish in BC, (P29) second only to Chile.
And on the issue of jobs, as I have repeatedly pointed out, the jobs are far lower than industry/DFO claims, and workers are fired: "Pan Fish, for instance, employs about 300 people in B.C. This is down from a high of 500, and far fewer than the 950 workers Pan Fish announced back in 2001 that it planned to hire.
The company also scaled down its smolt production from five million in 2002 to 1.5 million in 2003. “The Canadian operations are struggling,” explained a Washington state Pan Fish manager. “Production is way down...they don’t need all of those people...” (P 30)
And wages in the industry are low and were declining in the period. See the graph on P 31, while CEO salaries could be in the millions, even in 2003.
Cermaq, Pan Fish and the others were repeatedly fined up to five figure amounts for infractions, though a blind eye was turned to many offences. (P 36)
And court cases were common with aboriginals who didn't want fish farms. (P42)
Another feature of fish farms, globally, is that they are a litigious industry, as I have pointed out, with cases worth millions of dollars. Stolt thought things would get worse.
"Stolt believes that the flurry of environmental and consumer challenges to the salmon farming industry will increase in the future. Escaped fish, the spread of disease and parasites such as sea lice, the impact of antibiotic residues, synthetic pigmenting agents in feed and chemical residues such as PCBs in farmed salmon are some of the .issues Stolt believes the industry may have to confront." (P44)
The Cermaq labour relations scandal, thanks to Dagbladet, a Norwegian news paper,and the Chilean government, is jaw dropping stuff to read, starting on P 47.
There is far more stuff than this quote - note that Cermaq was called Mainstream in many countries: "“... is paying its workers less than minimum wage for overtime. Those hours have to be at least minimum wage. If we can’t negotiate a settlement, we will have to fine them,” said Moyano. And fine Mainstream the government did. Since 2002, the Chilean government has fined Mainstream 13 times for a range of violations. These include failing to issue employees with protective equipment, not giving workers employment contracts and not giving them a day off each week. The Chilean government even fined Mainstream for illegally suspending the company’s first legally elected union leader.133 In a report to Mainstream, Chile’s labour inspectorate wrote that the company violations revealed a “high degree of unreliability in Mainstream.”134
And get the communications' spin in Cermaq's comments, leading one to have very little belief in the veracity of what any fish farm says: "Dagbladet continued to write about Mainstream, even after the company issued a public statement rejecting what it called Dagbladet’s “misleading and deceitful accusations.” The company said it strives to have excellent relations with workers and that its Chilean management is dedicated to “maintaining the highest internal standards on work safety, training courses, communication with employees, etc.”137
Cermaq says this even though the Cox report goes on for almost two pages on labour problems in the industry, particularly Cermaq. Cermaq did a little window dressing, but the industry laid off 13,000 to 26,000 workers in the ISA crisis in 2008, and in the 2016 algal bloom crisis, that killed 38 million fish, the job losses were pegged at 5,000 people.
Read all the public protests, beginning on P 52.
And on fish escapes, a few stats (P54, 55):
Scotland - 1,000,000 - 1998 to 2001
Scotland - 430,000 - 2002
Scotland - 100,000 - Nov 2003
Norway - 370,000 - 2001
Norway - 730,000 - 2002
Norway - 415,000 - 2003
Chile - 900,000 annually
Chile - 1,000,000 - July storm, 2004
BC - 10,000 to 90,000 annually, 1991, 2004
BC - 1,000,000 lost in BC from 1990 to 2004. (P57) Intrafish reported
BC - 1,000,000 - chinook, 1989 - 2002
Faroe Islands - 600,000 - 2002 (Pan Fish was a minor shareholder)
Pan Fish tried to not report escapes from its global farms. And when citizens reported them to police in Norway over 11,000 lost fish, Pan Fish said it had implemented an: “internal company plan of action against escapes.” Sure.
Cox goes on to list even further escape data.
And if you go back to the following post, you will find how much money we have given to fish farms over the years: $107M + $177M = $284M, and this only includes early years, and the disease payments, in other words, the figure is low. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/taxpayer-support-for-fish-farms-too.html.
Also read the story on disease funds to fish farms. It starts on P 79 in Cox.
************
The PR story, what this post is actually about, starts on P 81 in Cox.
The first post on this site is: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html.
After Hill and Knowlton worked with the BC industry, to change the image to how nutritious, sustainable and environmentally healthy farmed fish was, it issued 32 press releases in Feb/March 2003, four times its previous output for the entire year in 2002.
"Hill & Knowlton said it would provide the BCSFA with a “whole range of communication services and media relations,” beginning with a glossy website full of information for the public and media. Soon the BCSFA launched its “Aquaculture Feeds Families” campaign... "
How did it go? Well, ED Walling said: “The Future of Aquaculture Looks Hopeful as the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association Celebrates Progress and Potential at Annual General Meeting.” Said Walling: “...it would appear that the truth about salmon farming – that it is an economically, environmentally sustainable industry – is becoming better understood.214”
So nothing changed but the press releases. And remember all the negatives listed above. That is fish farms for you, and Hill and Knowlton. It is not about truth, it is about telling your best story, even if it is BS.
Now, you will recall the SOTA board from Prof Miller's book about the conspiracy of government and industry in Scotland in 2004 to eliminate the science by Hites et al on the cancer-causing chemicals in farmed fish. They destroyed the article in little more than a week, even though it was correct. See Miller: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/key-document-fish-farm-tactics.html.
SOTA was one of the industry ruses used to fuel the false stories about Hites.
Here is Cox's list: " Nutreco, Heritage, Cermaq and Stolt – are represented on SOTA’s board of directors.215 Pan Fish is also a SOTA member, although not represented on the board. The president of SOTA’s board is Philip Fitzpatrick, business group managing director for Marine Harvest’s American operations. Jim Gracie, president of Stolt Sea Farm Americas, is secretary of the board" (P 84)
Then there was: "Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA)"
And the BC/CDN press ate it up rather than checking the facts: "The Vancouver Sun, began to include SOTA’s viewpoints as well those of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association. SOTA’s point of view has also been publicized in Canada’s national newspapers The Globe and Mail and the National Post. Companies like Heritage and Nutreco have also opened a new channel to government policy-makers through SOTA" (P 86)
Recently, I sent Miller the link to Cox's PDF, and he said, gee I wish I had had this when we figured out the Scotland story. It would have saved them a lot of time, that the exact same thing was happening in BC, coordinated globally by most of the same industry orgs masquerading as arms- length orgs: communications spin.
Then there is the PAA, preceded by the SPAA, and you will remember it from the fake news site in BC, Sea West News and its article about conservation orgs supporting fish farms... I don't think so: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/conservation-orgs-support-in-ocean-fish.html.
All the BC fish farm people on the claimed arms' length PAA org is a real hoot. (P 87)
And then there is the SHC - the Salmon Health Consortium - it lobbied government until it got 9 therapeutants - meaning chemicals for lice and diseases - okayed by the feds. Go back up and look at the losses to disease (ISA) and lice and you will see why: they need chemicals to kill things in fish farming.
But there is this troubling thing. "It began as a three-way alliance among the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, the New Brunswick Salmon Growers’ Association and the Canadian Animal Health Institute. The consortium identified medication needs for farmed salmon, found pharmaceutical corporations willing to develop products and – sometimes with money from the federal government – helped pharmaceuticals jump through Canada’s regulatory hoops. The consortium did this for 10 years, until it voluntarily dissolved in 2002, its mission virtually accomplished." (P 90)
Members were from fish farms and contractors in the field, so they got money to do the work, and to deal effectively with drug companies and the provincial and federal governments. Voila, they got all those chemicals, and their own regime for using them. And many got paid for doing it. How do the rest of us get those jobs?
So where did those SHC execs go after 2004, you wonder? "Many former SHC staff and board members today work for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture aquaculture drugs and vaccines." (P 92) Hmm.
And there you have it, everything but the recommendations. I will put those in the next post, as this one is getting very long. It is the PR angles that are important, and why the comparison with Big Tobacco is fitting. And, they used the same PR firm, Hill and Knowlton.
There is so much damning information in the Cox report on how the industry did a makeover of its image to be seen as a healthy food, sustainable industry, with no environmental problems that it bears a second post.
Well, there was this: "A decade after the SHC’s creation, following what it calls a “Herculean” effort, nine aquaculture therapeutants were licensed for use in Canada. They included medications for sea lice and ISA, two of the most challenging health issues for salmon farms." (P 90)
So, this industry that says ISA is not in BC, had, almost two decades before, a medication okayed for ISA, the worst fish farm disease. And more importantly, there never was ISA in BC until fish eggs were brought from the western Atlantic, Iceland/Norway and so on. But they needed a drug for it. And to this day, the big three deny there is ISA in BC even though Alex Morton has published a paper on the Norwegian strain being in BC: https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-015-0459-1.
This paper also has a table of global ISA disease in it, so...
Is disingenuous too polite a word for the fish farms? Deny it's here but get a drug to kill it okayed?
Here is a bit of malaise in the industry, that had a major IHN outbreak early in the 21st century:
"All four companies suffering losses in 2002 cited disease outbreaks in British Columbia as a major contributing factor. The fifth, Nutreco, noted that disease on B.C.salmon farms had caused a decline of its fish feed sales on Canada’s west coast. Stolt-Nielsen, reporting on its Stolt Sea Farm subsidiary, wrote: “In addition to weak pricing, the industry in North America has suffered severely in 2002 from extraordinary mortalities, caused by viral and parasitic infections.” (P12))
An example is Pan Fish (that became Marine Harvest). It lost $208.6M in its global fish farm operations. (P13)
This is a humdinger of a document for thorough research and I suggest you read it. It is worth a couple of hours. You will find it hard to believe that fish farms are still in business.
P14 and 15 document the industry disease losses all over the province to IHNV in 2002 and 2003. At the last minute an 11th hour Sierra/Suzuki injunction prevented the fish offal being unloaded from a processor into the Fraser River. This document just keeps on getting worse.
Sea lice killed off the Broughton pink run in 2002: "“sea lice were associated with the decline observed in the Broughton Archipelago,”". (P 15). At the same time, BC had the highest Kudoa parasite losses in the world - myoliquifaction.
And check out the Fish Health Database (P17) the Province set up. The ongoing losses are hard to believe.
And in 2003, 25,445 kgs of antibiotics were used on fish farm fish in BC, (P29) second only to Chile.
And on the issue of jobs, as I have repeatedly pointed out, the jobs are far lower than industry/DFO claims, and workers are fired: "Pan Fish, for instance, employs about 300 people in B.C. This is down from a high of 500, and far fewer than the 950 workers Pan Fish announced back in 2001 that it planned to hire.
The company also scaled down its smolt production from five million in 2002 to 1.5 million in 2003. “The Canadian operations are struggling,” explained a Washington state Pan Fish manager. “Production is way down...they don’t need all of those people...” (P 30)
And wages in the industry are low and were declining in the period. See the graph on P 31, while CEO salaries could be in the millions, even in 2003.
Cermaq, Pan Fish and the others were repeatedly fined up to five figure amounts for infractions, though a blind eye was turned to many offences. (P 36)
And court cases were common with aboriginals who didn't want fish farms. (P42)
Another feature of fish farms, globally, is that they are a litigious industry, as I have pointed out, with cases worth millions of dollars. Stolt thought things would get worse.
"Stolt believes that the flurry of environmental and consumer challenges to the salmon farming industry will increase in the future. Escaped fish, the spread of disease and parasites such as sea lice, the impact of antibiotic residues, synthetic pigmenting agents in feed and chemical residues such as PCBs in farmed salmon are some of the .issues Stolt believes the industry may have to confront." (P44)
The Cermaq labour relations scandal, thanks to Dagbladet, a Norwegian news paper,and the Chilean government, is jaw dropping stuff to read, starting on P 47.
There is far more stuff than this quote - note that Cermaq was called Mainstream in many countries: "“... is paying its workers less than minimum wage for overtime. Those hours have to be at least minimum wage. If we can’t negotiate a settlement, we will have to fine them,” said Moyano. And fine Mainstream the government did. Since 2002, the Chilean government has fined Mainstream 13 times for a range of violations. These include failing to issue employees with protective equipment, not giving workers employment contracts and not giving them a day off each week. The Chilean government even fined Mainstream for illegally suspending the company’s first legally elected union leader.133 In a report to Mainstream, Chile’s labour inspectorate wrote that the company violations revealed a “high degree of unreliability in Mainstream.”134
And get the communications' spin in Cermaq's comments, leading one to have very little belief in the veracity of what any fish farm says: "Dagbladet continued to write about Mainstream, even after the company issued a public statement rejecting what it called Dagbladet’s “misleading and deceitful accusations.” The company said it strives to have excellent relations with workers and that its Chilean management is dedicated to “maintaining the highest internal standards on work safety, training courses, communication with employees, etc.”137
Cermaq says this even though the Cox report goes on for almost two pages on labour problems in the industry, particularly Cermaq. Cermaq did a little window dressing, but the industry laid off 13,000 to 26,000 workers in the ISA crisis in 2008, and in the 2016 algal bloom crisis, that killed 38 million fish, the job losses were pegged at 5,000 people.
Read all the public protests, beginning on P 52.
And on fish escapes, a few stats (P54, 55):
Scotland - 1,000,000 - 1998 to 2001
Scotland - 430,000 - 2002
Scotland - 100,000 - Nov 2003
Norway - 370,000 - 2001
Norway - 730,000 - 2002
Norway - 415,000 - 2003
Chile - 900,000 annually
Chile - 1,000,000 - July storm, 2004
BC - 10,000 to 90,000 annually, 1991, 2004
BC - 1,000,000 lost in BC from 1990 to 2004. (P57) Intrafish reported
BC - 1,000,000 - chinook, 1989 - 2002
Faroe Islands - 600,000 - 2002 (Pan Fish was a minor shareholder)
Pan Fish tried to not report escapes from its global farms. And when citizens reported them to police in Norway over 11,000 lost fish, Pan Fish said it had implemented an: “internal company plan of action against escapes.” Sure.
Cox goes on to list even further escape data.
And if you go back to the following post, you will find how much money we have given to fish farms over the years: $107M + $177M = $284M, and this only includes early years, and the disease payments, in other words, the figure is low. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/taxpayer-support-for-fish-farms-too.html.
Also read the story on disease funds to fish farms. It starts on P 79 in Cox.
************
The PR story, what this post is actually about, starts on P 81 in Cox.
The first post on this site is: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html.
After Hill and Knowlton worked with the BC industry, to change the image to how nutritious, sustainable and environmentally healthy farmed fish was, it issued 32 press releases in Feb/March 2003, four times its previous output for the entire year in 2002.
"Hill & Knowlton said it would provide the BCSFA with a “whole range of communication services and media relations,” beginning with a glossy website full of information for the public and media. Soon the BCSFA launched its “Aquaculture Feeds Families” campaign... "
How did it go? Well, ED Walling said: “The Future of Aquaculture Looks Hopeful as the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association Celebrates Progress and Potential at Annual General Meeting.” Said Walling: “...it would appear that the truth about salmon farming – that it is an economically, environmentally sustainable industry – is becoming better understood.214”
So nothing changed but the press releases. And remember all the negatives listed above. That is fish farms for you, and Hill and Knowlton. It is not about truth, it is about telling your best story, even if it is BS.
Now, you will recall the SOTA board from Prof Miller's book about the conspiracy of government and industry in Scotland in 2004 to eliminate the science by Hites et al on the cancer-causing chemicals in farmed fish. They destroyed the article in little more than a week, even though it was correct. See Miller: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/key-document-fish-farm-tactics.html.
SOTA was one of the industry ruses used to fuel the false stories about Hites.
Here is Cox's list: " Nutreco, Heritage, Cermaq and Stolt – are represented on SOTA’s board of directors.215 Pan Fish is also a SOTA member, although not represented on the board. The president of SOTA’s board is Philip Fitzpatrick, business group managing director for Marine Harvest’s American operations. Jim Gracie, president of Stolt Sea Farm Americas, is secretary of the board" (P 84)
Then there was: "Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA)"
And the BC/CDN press ate it up rather than checking the facts: "The Vancouver Sun, began to include SOTA’s viewpoints as well those of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association. SOTA’s point of view has also been publicized in Canada’s national newspapers The Globe and Mail and the National Post. Companies like Heritage and Nutreco have also opened a new channel to government policy-makers through SOTA" (P 86)
Recently, I sent Miller the link to Cox's PDF, and he said, gee I wish I had had this when we figured out the Scotland story. It would have saved them a lot of time, that the exact same thing was happening in BC, coordinated globally by most of the same industry orgs masquerading as arms- length orgs: communications spin.
Then there is the PAA, preceded by the SPAA, and you will remember it from the fake news site in BC, Sea West News and its article about conservation orgs supporting fish farms... I don't think so: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/conservation-orgs-support-in-ocean-fish.html.
All the BC fish farm people on the claimed arms' length PAA org is a real hoot. (P 87)
And then there is the SHC - the Salmon Health Consortium - it lobbied government until it got 9 therapeutants - meaning chemicals for lice and diseases - okayed by the feds. Go back up and look at the losses to disease (ISA) and lice and you will see why: they need chemicals to kill things in fish farming.
But there is this troubling thing. "It began as a three-way alliance among the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, the New Brunswick Salmon Growers’ Association and the Canadian Animal Health Institute. The consortium identified medication needs for farmed salmon, found pharmaceutical corporations willing to develop products and – sometimes with money from the federal government – helped pharmaceuticals jump through Canada’s regulatory hoops. The consortium did this for 10 years, until it voluntarily dissolved in 2002, its mission virtually accomplished." (P 90)
Members were from fish farms and contractors in the field, so they got money to do the work, and to deal effectively with drug companies and the provincial and federal governments. Voila, they got all those chemicals, and their own regime for using them. And many got paid for doing it. How do the rest of us get those jobs?
So where did those SHC execs go after 2004, you wonder? "Many former SHC staff and board members today work for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture aquaculture drugs and vaccines." (P 92) Hmm.
And there you have it, everything but the recommendations. I will put those in the next post, as this one is getting very long. It is the PR angles that are important, and why the comparison with Big Tobacco is fitting. And, they used the same PR firm, Hill and Knowlton.
Sunday, 15 July 2018
The Joys of Boating
The other day, sun climbing from Mount Baker, I drove
through sleepy Oak Bay Village before 6 AM. The day before, I had started the
boat, and listened to its purr of money, got the downriggers out, rigged the
rods with flashers, bait holders and spoons, so that I would be ready to go
when I cast off the lines. On my fishing day, I rigged one line with a large
anchovy in a 602 teaser, behind a Farr Better Flasher in green. The bait had
been moved from freezer to fridge the night before, so it would be unfrozen
enough to insert the wire, and bend it behind the dorsal fin, before inserting
the treble hook.
Heading out from Oak Bay Marina through the gap at the
Turkey Head, I throttled up. The bow rose above my eyes and stayed there. I gave
it more gas, but it would not settle, so I tried the other obvious thing: I
tilted the leg down, and as it descended the boat came up and settled flat at cruising
speed. Ah, the joy of a boat that treats you well, when you treat it well with
regular infusions of cash.
The tide was ebbing, and following my own advice,
prior to fishing the Flats, where fish had been brought in in the past few days,
and other boats were already fishing, I turned the corner to fish an ebb tide
back eddy, until 9 AM, when the flood would begin, and I would join my
confreres on the Flats.
My own advice is that in summer fishing, when big springs
are relentlessly heading east at 1.5 MPH close to shore in shallow water, it is
best to fish the ebb tide back eddies where they will fin forward, but stay
put, until the tide turns and flood pushes them east, toward their natal river.
By the time I had the slow spiral on the bait, that I use in summer for large
fish, rather than the slightly faster spiral for winter fish, the boat had been
carried to the west end of the eddy.
I swung the boat around, heading east, into the ebb.
After ten minutes, it dawned on me the ebb was strong enough that the boat was
not gaining any ground. The GPS speed-over-ground feature registered zero to half
a knot. Mighty slow. Several Grady White and Trophy-style boats motored past me
en route to the Flats. I was happy to see them go as it meant they would not be
fishing in the restricted area that comprised my back eddy.
Another ten minutes went by and it was clear I was
going nowhere. I hit the green button for the ball, disconnected the release
clip, and throttled up. At six knots, the boat soon putted up to the head of
the eddy, whereupon I sent the ball, release clip and bait down to 33 feet. Then
the boat made a loud beep, beep, which is what it does when the key reaches the
first détente prior to starting. But I was not starting the boat, and the beep,
beep continued blasting in my ear.
Several minutes of this rattling odd behaviour ensued
until it dawned on me that the ongoing beep must also be an engine warning sound.
Oil pressure was fine, the temperature was not over heating, and the fuel tanks
registered lots of gas. At which point, I hurriedly got the ball back up threw
the rod and gear into a glumph before the transom and throttled up.
I gave it lots of gas, but no matter how much I gave
the engine it would not speed the boat beyond 7 knots, nor reach the plane. Then
a tremendous backfire almost deadened my hearing, followed almost immediately
by another in-board engine backfire bigger than the first.
It was time to make for the marina and hope the engine
was going to make it back from Trial Island. I had been here before. One summer,
more than a decade ago, I was fishing pinks four miles south of Trial, in a
well-developed tide line. My main engine began over heating on the temperature
gauge, and smoke began pouring from under the engine cover. I throttled up onto
the plane and behind me left a cloud of smoke, flames coming out and beginning
to melt the gas line to the kicker.
At this point, I killed the main engine, and started
the kicker. I had to sit on top of the engine cover, smoke making me disappear
into purple haze, hand wrapped in a towel, to hold the hot tiller. As the minutes
went by, the boat stopped burning, my rear end began to cool, and my heart came
back to near normal. I waved at a boat going by, they waved back and kept
going, not understanding I was in trouble.
But, I thought, I’ll just putt my way home. Several
other boats went by, waving at my growing frantic wave, but not stopping to
help. The kicker kept putting. After two hours, the light beginning to move
well into the western sky, Trial Island was still some miles away, and the ebb
tide was carrying me away to the west. Wind began to rise from the north east,
bringing waves up to four feet. I was going nowhere, and was not going to reach
safe harbour going like this.
I had to make the difficult decision that I had no
choice but to restart the main engine and hope it did not overheat until I
reached safely. Soon, up on the plane, things began to look a little happier.
It was with relief that I passed the south tip of Trial. Then through a seven-foot
standing wave, that sent everything in the cabin flying. The boat landed so
hard, I thought the hull would break.
The engine began its skyward climb into the danger
zone. Soon it was higher than the boiling point of water, and heading for 250
degrees, as I passed the golf course corner at full blast. On shore, golfers
leaned on their drivers and one pointed at me. The reason was that I was
leaving a blue cloud of smoke. I passed the Oak Bay Beach Hotel at rocket
speed, and full bore made it through the Turkey Head gap, with flames coming
out the back end. At way over reasonable speed, I made fast for my slip, hoping
the boat would not explode before I had it tied off, and could grab the fire
extinguisher.
To my great good fortune, another boater on the dock,
seeing the long line of flames from my engine, raced to my slip, and grabbed
the bow line, while I hit reverse. The engine died, the flames grew higher and
I exited right over a gas tank that could explode, extinguisher in hand.
From the dock, I aimed the CO2, fearing the engine was going to blow apart,
taking me with it. The other boater handed me a hose, and I doused the back end
with water, enough to fill the engine compartment and separate flame from gas
tank.
All of this other near-death experience raced through my
mind as, just the other day, my boat slowly, achingly made the golf course
corner tee box, backfiring so loud, I closed the door between us. I opened the forward
hatch and prepared to jump and pull the toggle on my life jacket. There was no
way I was going to kill the engine. The anchor and line were in the forward compartment,
minutes away. The kicker may not be able to beat the ebb home.
The backfires grew louder, the boat speed slowed to five
knots, and I shot the Gap, too fast for the tethered boats beside me. If I didn’t
slow down, I would hammer the boats on B dock and hit my finger fast enough to
lift the bow right out of the water. I had no choice but to back off on the
gas.
To my great relief, as speed slipped down to 2.3
knots, the engine came clear and clean, as though nothing had happened. I
turned past the kicker of my neighbour, hit reverse, then hit neutral and
grabbed the stern line and slid it over the cleat. Thank god. Oh, to be on the dock
separated from an engine that might blow.
I went straight for Gartside Marine services, just by
the parking lot, and, fortunately, Kelly, their office person, was already in
working, and drew up a work order, before I left, shaking, to my car. Ah, the
joys of boating. The last time it was a completely new engine, that was $13,000
at the time, in 2003. No doubt a new engine is far above that price today. Will
my insurance cover the problem? We’ll see.
Monday, 9 July 2018
Raise BC Fish Farm License to $32 Million - Save Wild Salmon
Hi John et al [Adam Olsen, John Horgan, Lana Popham, Andrew Weaver, Sonia Furstenau]
In Norway, the big companies are spending $32- to
$40-million for a license.
Do you know what the big companies pay in BC? $5000. In
other words, they are not investing in BC, they are raping BC.
You need to include in your fish farm policies a drastic
increase in license fees. Charging the same as in Norway would bring in for the
120 licenses the industry claims it now has in BC: $32 X 120 = $3.8 Billion to
$40 X 120 = $4.8 Billion. That is how much BC is subsidizing fish farms to ruin
our oceans.
Raise the license to $32 million and Marine Harvest, Cermaq
and Grieg Seafood would pay it because they are doing so in their own country,
Norway. And $32M is a bargain rate for them.
See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/bad-news-bites.html.
Item 393.
“393. Huge License Costs - Norway: http://salmonbusiness.com/have-the-salmon-auction-winners-paid-too-high-a-price-for-the-gold/.
"“Adding a minimum price of NOK 120 (€ 12.7) million per license is
incomprehensible. In areas with the highest dominance of listed companies, the
real price can quickly reach between NOK 200-250 (€ 21-26) million per license.
You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that this is a gratuitous
fit for only a handful of the major publicly listed companies,” NSL Managing
Director Robert Eriksson said."
At an exchange rate of a Norwegian Krone equaling .16 of a dollar, the license cost in CDN dollars is: 120 X .16 = S19.2 million; 200 X .16 = $32 million, and 250 X .16 = $40 million.
At an exchange rate of a Norwegian Krone equaling .16 of a dollar, the license cost in CDN dollars is: 120 X .16 = S19.2 million; 200 X .16 = $32 million, and 250 X .16 = $40 million.
Put the $3.8 B into freshwater habitat restoration for wild salmon.
DC Reid