For starters what about the recommendations from the Cohen Commission?
Cohen made two recommendations that have been carried out; there has been no expansion of salmon farms in the Discovery Island area, and, there is a huge multi agency disease testing program under way looking at wild and net pen salmon.
http://www.genomebc.ca/index.php?cID=1235
On last night’s episode of “Game of Thrones”, a character (can’t remember who) said … Belief is so often the death of Reason. Imo, this fits the salmon farming issue here in BC and Washington, and especially so on forums like this.
The Belief, imo, is salmon are fewer so there must be a reason, and despite the evidence of warming water, commercial and FN over fishing, habitat destruction, ocean acidification, huge increases in the human population resulting in urban encroachment and more sewage and pharmaceuticals being filtered by our waterways, and because it sure as hell wasn’t me because I didn’t take over my limit last year … obviously a scapegoat was needed, and Alexandra Morton and her followers found salmon farms.
The Reason, imo, is that in the 40 or so years salmon farms have been operating here and in Washington, there are no documented cases of disease transfer from net pen salmon to wild and no documentation of wild salmon stocks being negatively impacted at the population level ;indeed, several sockeye and pink stocks have increased since farms started up. This disconnect between preconceived thoughts or beliefs, and common logic or reason, has been discussed many times, and far more eloquently, by Clayoquot Kid and others here on this forum.