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Join 20,000 people on the letter to the Fisheries Minister asking that the laws of Canada be applied to fish farms

 sign here

 Follow this issue as we work our way through the courts at Alexandra Morton’s blog: 

I will be giving a presentation on Fish Farming: The Science and the Politics in Courtenay on Sunday, 14 March 2010 at 2:00 in the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Rd., Courtenay. Admission by donation.

See films on current investigation into the impact of salmon farms: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/ 

Hello,

I am a biologist who moved to a remote floathouse community on the BC coast in 1984 to study orca whales.  I have spent 26 years in Echo Bay and raised both my children here (Listening to Whales - Ballantine Books).

At first I thought fish farming was a good idea. But as the biologist on the grounds I noticed disturbing signs and began publishing science on the impact that net pen salmon farms have on whales and wild salmon  journal . I also participated in every government process on salmon feedlots and wrote over 10,000 pages of letters to government. But government has been deaf to science, its own government reports and reason.

The crux of the problem is that feedlots allow diseases to reproduce at an unnaturally high rate.  If, as in the case of salmon feedlots, the farm population is in contact with wild populations - disease epidemics are triggered and spread far beyond the farm (farm lice).  We are exposed to this lesson repeatedly and everywhere there are salmon feedlots, wild salmon are in exceptional decline due to amplification of parasites, viruses and bacteria (Ford and Myers 2008).

A simple solution that would benefit the BC economy and ecology:

• Apply the Canadian Fisheries Act  to fish farms as it is applied to all other marine users.  If the fish farmers (92% Norwegian-owned) cannot meet this standard they should leave.  
• The Provincial government could support the Canadian fish farmers who would like to reinvent the industry in tanks on land in towns starved for employment.
• Restore wild salmon using local management and the fish’s own biology.

Thank you for visiting this website.  I am dedicated to bringing reason to this situation. This website funded a very successful BC Supreme court action that changed the relationship between government and the fish farming industry (see UPDATES page), hosts our letter to government demanding the laws of Canada be applied to the salmon farming industry (see LETTER page) and is a tool to keep us in touch.

Thank you,

 Alexandra Morton

 Alex Morton explains the situation:

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This film was produced by Twyla Roscovich www.callingfromthecoast.com
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