Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[troutbreath]

Hello

When you signed the letter to DFO asking  the Fisheries Act to be applied to the fish “farms” you checked the box that I could contact you for help.  Just let me know if you want to be removed from this list.  We have about 5,400 signatures, but I think we need at least 10,000 to be considered noteworthy by Gordon Campbell and the Minister of Fisheries, Shea. In the past few hours the signatures coming in has stalled.

I am hoping that you can find a way to let more people know about this. Please contact any and all who you think might sign and help us get some relief for the wild salmon. I have a small poster that can be printed and if you want me to send it let me know.

Below is an article published today in the Westcoaster.ca please do what you can, I doubt we will get this close to reason again.

To sign the petition to apply the Fisheries Act to fish farms the way it is applied to fishermen please click on the link below......... pass it on

Thanks for your help

Alexandra Morton
 
 http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cEkxX3p3MGFBbWNVVGNVU3lxQnBwQmc6MA..



We Can Build A Better Aquaculture Industry Ourselves

Published Date: 2009/3/19 0:40:00
Article ID : 6370
Version 1.00
By Alexandra Morton
Opinion

The website for Friends of Port Mouton shows a grim-faced Nova Scotia fisherman holding a fish farm protest sign.

The caption reads, “Something’s wrong when you have to fight like this just to keep your friggin’ harbour.”

He’s right.

Something is very wrong, and my grizzled-faced fisherman neighbours are standing in this man's shoes a continent away.

While government scoffs at the science, the fact is the wild salmon are vanishing on the extinction trajectory we predicted.

As the wild salmon go, so we go.

All the hype that fish farms benefit small coastal communities makes people from Port Mouton, N.S. to Echo Bay, B.C. angry.

But today there is no place for fish “farms” under the Constitution of Canada.

On Feb. 9, 2009, BC Supreme Court ruled: they are not “farms,” they are a fishery, their provincial licences to operate are unconstitutional and he removed this industry from provincial hands. The fish farmers are not allowed to privatize ocean spaces, and they cannot own a school of fish in our ocean. Their pens are irrelevant because the same ocean flows through both sides of the nets.

Marine Harvest has appealed the court ruling because their investors want the fish to be private property. The provincial government did not join Marine Harvest in this appeal.

Ok, so let’s take stock.

The fish “farming” corporations may not own their fish, their licences are unconstitutional and will be invalid in 11 months, and the B.C. government seems fine with this.

On the global front, their market is failing as Americans tighten their belts, and their share prices plummet due to a virus they appear to be accidentally infecting their own farms with down in Chile.

This industry has built nothing. As their market decays they will pull anchor and leave.


The Solution


I live in a small town and I know we need jobs, but someone in government is going to have to stand up and recognize that this social experiment is not working.

The Norwegian feedlot fishery is too mechanized, too damaging and too cheap.

Their fish are not worth enough for them to deal with their issues.

There has been a net loss in jobs, the price of wild salmon has been destroyed and the entire wild salmon fishery and the $1.5-billion tourism industry threatened.

So what’s the answer?
Wild salmon cannot be moved, so remove the ones in pens.

Offer incentives to Canadian fish farmers to build tanks on land where they can work on farming a range of fish species and rebuild a viable industry with infrastructure that will stay with the towns.

Form councils made of local people willing to work hard to restore wild salmon, using the remarkably successful biology of wild salmon as the compass and instruct government to help, not hinder these people

Apply the Fisheries Act fair and square to any aquaculture that remains in public waters.
We got into this mess because no one read the road signs and now we are way out of bounds and deep into the danger zone.

The final straw for me was the $5 million Pacific Salmon Forum tasked to respond to the plummeting wild Broughton salmon stocks.

They did indeed confirm there is a relationship between fish farms, sea lice and declining wild salmon and what do they recommend?

Leave farm salmon production at the level where all the damage to the lovely Broughton occurred.

This is wrong. When another fishery in Canada is even suspected (never mind millions in studies) of harming a wild salmon population they face reductions.

The PSF should take this industry back to 1994 levels where the wild salmon were surviving.

Something is indeed very wrong when you have to fight this friggin’ hard to do the obvious.

I don’t trust government or the industry to benefit the B.C. economy.

Norwegian fish farmers take your feedlots and go home.

Use your own coast as a litter box if you must, we can build a better aquaculture industry ourselves and have our wild salmon and our jobs, too.

To sign the petition to apply the Fisheries Act to fish farms the way it is applied to fishermen please click on the link below......... pass it on

Alexandra Morton
 
 http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cEkxX3p3MGFBbWNVVGNVU3lxQnBwQmc6MA..

[dereke]

 9758 People as of yesterday! Nice to see we are getting some support on this one. Way to go guys and gals.

[mci]

Did it hit 10000 yet?? If not lets get it up there folks!

[skibumAB]

To date 10,368 people have signed a letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Honourable Gail Shea and Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell to apply the Fisheries Act  fair and square on fish farms.
http://www.adopt-a-fry.org

[Folkboat]

 Hello all. Just bringing in my thoughts. I found this link while looking for what may be right or wrong. Perhaps the posters above could tell me their thoughts on this.
   A blatant double standard hits the seafood industry (editorial comment)
 
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton - Oct 17, 2007- The headline of one of the New York Times stories today is "Industry Money Fans Debate on Fish". The story goes on to document how NFI paid travel and expenses for a conference of the Maternal Nutrition Group, made up of scientists, dietitians, and doctors to review the latest findings on the health effects of omega 3 on fetal development. Based on the recommendation of this group, the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies coalition then publicized their recommendations that women need to eat more fish during pregnancy to improve their baby's health.

A number of national groups are using the fact that NFI paid some expenses in relation to this study to try and discredit the scientific findings. The fact the Times ran this headline shows what a blatant double standard now exists for issues involving the seafood industry.

When do you see the headline "Environmental Money fans arguments against farmed fish". The answer is never, because there is a double standard.

Environmental groups and organizations, such as the Pew and Packard Foundations, can spend literally millions of dollars in campaigns to promote wild salmon and disparage farmed salmon, and nowhere in the public debate do you ever see the linkage made between the funding sources and the arguments against farmed fish.

We ran a story last month (link) from BC showing somewhere between $5 and $10 million had been spent by environmental foundations specifically to discredit farmed salmon and promote wild salmon.

Yet because the money was not spent by "industry" it is not considered newsworthy-- it is just a fact of life.

But the environmental organizations themselves, from the Sierra Club to the Marine Stewardship Council, operate very much like businesses, even though they don't have shareholders to which they distribute profits.

Instead, these companies have entrenched management whose goals are to perpetuate the continued growth or survival of the organization while working towards its policy goals. In this sense, they operate like any other management group -- weighing decisions about funding and operations through the lens of what will best perpetuate and enhance their organization. This is based on the implicit belief that maintaining their organization is the first and perhaps most important step towards the policy goal. The only difference is that for seafood business, and for NFI, the goal is to have a profitable business while operating in a sustainable manner, while for an NGO, it is to have a successful non-profit while gaining power and influence through membership, financial clout, and influence with government.

Neither side has a monopoly on the definition of "public good". In our system, we think that an open and entrepreneurial environment brings the greatest public good because the opportunity for profit and reallocation of resources creates new products, opportunities, and organizations in a way that is more robust and creative than any other type of incentive.

In the case of mercury and fish consumption, there is a strong body of science that suggests that eating more fish means healthier babies. This is the message the industry, and the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies coalition is trying to get across.

Such a message contradicts the toxicity message from some of the environmental groups, who focus on mercury in seafood to the exclusion of mercury from other food and environmental sources. They focus on seafood because they also want to limit fish consumption for other reasons-- i.e. they think it will help eliminate overfishing. But in our case, the fact NFI spends money to have a conference merits a headline in the NY Times, while the fact that Foundations spend millions to discredit farmed salmon merits nary a peep. Yet farmed salmon is one of the healthiest sources of Omega 3 for most of the population. This is the double standard we live with today.

[troutbreath]

"Perhaps the posters above could tell me their thoughts on this."


You have an extra helping of farmed Salmon Folkboat.

[Folkboat]

  Thank you Troutbreath. I do believe I will. It seems when I go to the stores and ask where the "wild salmon" is from I get the same response. Alaska. Either I am shopping in the wrong stores or Alaska has the monopoly in the fishery industry. So if you dont mind, I will pass a great wild salmon recipe on to you.
   Since it’s the season to give, we thought we’d share with you our favorite Alaska salmon recipe.  This is the best recipe for readying Alaska salmon for your Christmas dinner, but it’s probably not what you think…
Step #1 - pour 100 salmon eggs into a large plastic tray. Culture for about 2 months.
Step #2 - after the eggs hatch, add a pinch of commercially available fish feed. This diet will contain beta-carotenes that are healthy for the baby salmon and also turn the flesh a nice red colour. Continue this process for another 3 months.
Step #3 -  when the baby salmon are large enough and feeding well, move them carefully from the freshwater hatcheries to the saltwater fish farms to continue growing. Be careful not to spill.
Step #4 - add more fish feed and continue growing the salmon in net pens for 2 to 12 months. If your salmon doesn’t feel well, order some drugs to make it feel better (don’t worry, that happens a lot in Alaska). Hint : the longer and larger you can grow your salmon, the better chance it has to out-compete wild salmon.
Step #5 - let your salmon go. It may die, but that’s OK, cause there are 99 more right behind it. And don’t worry about the fact that your salmon is eating fish in the ocean not meant for it or that your salmon may hump other wild salmon and eradicate them - it happens all the time in Alaska - it’s called ocean ranching.
Step #6 - when your salmon returns a few years later, catch it, tell your dinner guests it’s wild and serve it with a squeeze of lemon and pinch of basil.
Serving Size - Due to the fact that 96% of the 100 baby salmon you released will die, this meal only serves a family of four. If you would like to serve millions, then simply add more eggs. Try 1.5 billion - why not - the state of Alaska does it. Don’t you worry if there isn’t enough food in the ocean or if you erase the gene pool of natural wild salmon! If no one else cares, then why should you?
Not quite what you were expecting, huh?
Merry Christmas from ‘The Truth About Alaska Salmon’!
   For more info if you are interested  http://alaskasalmonranching.wordpress.com/

[Sam Salmon]

Some of 'Folkboat'''s post reads like Salmon Aquaculture propaganda other parts like anti-fishing bull from US-based enviro-loonies, he obviously has little original to say.

Let's keep an eye on this poster see where/how he fishes what he catches-if anything.

If there are no reports no helpful input into ongoing discussions we'll know he's just an amateur troll desperate for a new angle.

BTW-The only Alaska fish I've ever seen For Sale in Vancouver is so-called Copper River Sockeye Granville Island don't have none now nor does Finest at Sea nor does 7 Seas

I did buy some cans of Alaska Sockeye @ London Drugs today though-cheap, cheap, cheap.

[Folkboat]

 I am sorry. Did I enter a one sided propaganda forum, and what happend to Troutbreath's comment after mine? I enjoyed it. Forums to me are a place for open adult discussion from both sides of the issue. If I have stepped on toes, I am sorry.

[Novabonker]

I am sorry. Did I enter a one sided propaganda forum, and what happend to Troutbreath's comment after mine? I enjoyed it. Forums to me are a place for open adult discussion from both sides of the issue. If I have stepped on toes, I am sorry.

So how long have you worked for Hill And Knowlton?

[typhoon]

Weird. Either Folkboat is allowed to be a member here and has a right to his opinion or he does not.
I haven't seen anything in his posts that are "troll" worthy, and even if there was it would be up to the moderators to enforce the rules of the board.
Personal attacks have no business here.

[Terry D]

I'll second that.