Vancouver Rally to Defend our Wild Salmon June 13th!

[cohochinook]

WHAT: Vancouver Rally to Defend our Wild Salmon!
WHEN: June 13th, 12:00 PM
WHERE: Environment Minister George Heyman Constituency Office, 642 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC

20 fish farm leases expire on June 20th, and we need them to stay expired! Fish farms are spreading parasites and diseases to our wild salmon, and their time is up.

But Premier Horgan has still not decided what to do, so we need to give him and his government a nudge and make sure he does his job to defend our wild salmon and save our wild salmon jobs.

Nothing gets the attention of elected officials more than regular, everyday voters showing up at their local offices in droves, so come join with friends and neighbours and wild salmon defenders from all walks of life to make your voice heard!

We need to send a strong message that wild salmon support us all. They are a source of natural wealth that give us food and culture, connect us to our families, feed our wildlife and support our ecosystems, and provide us with livelihoods. We will not let foreign-owned fish farms wipe out wild salmon!

So dress in your work clothes or your BC coastal best: plaid, gumboots, hip-waders & stanfields! Or bring your fishing gear! We need to send our elected politicians a message.

See you on at noon on June 13th!

Here's a Facebook link to share:
https://www.facebook.com/events/192438224810838/

 

[searun]

Right on, good idea. Also a good idea to have a set of key messages so you don't have some rogue comments making the effort look stupid. Something along lines of wild salmon are in crisis, we need to move these farms onto dry land. Given the industry notice they have 3 - 5 years to make the move then NO MORE.

 

[Englishman]

The rally is taking place in several juristictions, not just Vancouver. Venues include Langford, Comox, Campbell River and Port Moody.

Please see the e-mail from Stan Proboszcz of Watershed Watch Salmon Society below:-

" It's coming down to the wire on the fish farm front. The June 20th deadline fast approaches and the provincial government still has not confirmed they will let fish farm provincial licences lapse.

They need a gentle reminder, so people are organizing rallies at MLA offices across the province on June 13th, at noon!

Nothing gets the attention of elected officials more than regular, everyday voters showing up at their local MLA offices in droves. Please save the date and come out to rallies at MLA offices across the province on June 13 over lunch time.

Can you join the Facebook event for the rally closest to you for more details?

Langford - Constituency office of Premier John Horgan

Vancouver - Environment Minister George Heyman Constituency Office

Courtenay/Comox - Ronna-Rae Leonard, MLA

Campbell River - Transport Minister Claire Trevena

Port Moody/Coquitlam - MLA Rick Glumac

It’s time to stand up for B.C. and get fish farms out! We need the B.C. government to see honest, hard-working people show up in crowds on June 13 at noon.

Let show the B.C. government how important wild salmon are to us. Bring your rod. Wear your gumboots. Or just show up in your everyday work clothes. A few fishers have made noises about bringing their boats along and parking them out front. We think that is a great idea!

Everyday British Columbians love B.C. wild salmon. They’re a part of who we are. At noon on June 13th, go to your MLA’s office and ask them to defend our wild salmon.

See you on the 13th!

Stan

PS. Please share this email with anybody you think would be interested in helping before or on June 13th.

PPS. More rallies in different areas will probably pop-up. Email us if you want to help organize one in your area!"

 

[cohochinook]

Just a reminder about the Rally tomorrow. Hope to see some other Forum members out there.

Here's an interesting Opinion Piece that appeared in the Vancouver Sun on the issue of expiring salmon farm lease:

http://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-...on-farms-expire-future-of-industry-is-on-land

B.C. has an opportunity to resolve persisting concerns about salmon farming while safely expanding the industry, creating more jobs and revitalizing the wild salmon economy. Premier John Horgan must decide on June 20 whether to set a course to seize this opportunity, or consign B.C.’s salmon farming industry to a slow but certain death.

On June 20, provincial tenures for 20 open net-pen salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago expire. The Broughton has been a hotbed of controversy: a place where First Nations have ordered the eviction of farms and where much of the independent science proving the impacts of salmon farming on wild fish has taken place. It is also home to the land-based salmon farm Kuterra, a pilot project that proved to the world that salmon can be raised to market size in land-based systems that do not impact the environment. It is entirely appropriate that it should be here that the industry’s course correction begins.

The future growth of this industry will be on land and it appears that, worldwide, the smart money knows this. Currently, 250,000 metric tonnes of land-based production are planned and this number has doubled over the past year. One land-based farm under construction in Florida will produce more than B.C.’s total current output.

Driven by rising feed prices and the cost of controlling sea lice and disease, the same multinationals that are farming in B.C. waters with net-pens are elsewhere exploring contained systems. In Norway and Europe, support for containment solutions is high, with research funding, government loan guarantees and incentive pricing for ‘green’ salmon farms combining to help fuel a transition to land.

Today in B.C., our wild salmon and ecosystems absorb the cost of industry’s failure to control parasitic lice and disease. Repeated infestations of lice have been shown to reduce productivity of both wild pink and coho salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago and sadly, the same may be happening now in Clayoquot Sound. The latest scientific papers show that viruses originating on the farms can cause disease in wild Pacific species. And when farmed salmon escape, parasites and diseases are carried into the natal streams of wild salmon.

Last month, Washington State elected to phase out open net-pens, prompted by the threat posed by escaped salmon. This leaves B.C. as the only place in the world trying to manage commercially viable Pacific salmon fisheries and an open-net pen industry of Atlantic salmon, in the same water. Everywhere that the net-pen industry exists it leaves a legacy of plummeting stocks of wild salmonids. As we enter yet another season of wild salmon scarcity, with even some of our mighty Fraser River stocks on the endangered list, how can we fail to take action?

On June 20, Horgan can refuse to renew the expiring farm tenures and instead offer the industry incentives to establish land-based farms before it’s too late. Hopefully our federal government, which regulates operating licenses, will soon articulate its plan for a transition and work with B.C. Today, a land-based B.C. industry has the advantage of skilled human resources, developed Pacific Rim markets and infrastructure built over the past 30 years. There are willing hosts in North Island communities where jobs are needed and new investment prized. B.C.’s nascent industry will lose much of that advantage once markets begin to be served by land-based projects in the U.S., Japan and China.

Wild salmon are resilient and will thrive again if we first remove the obvious threats from salmon farms and then manage them intelligently. It is within our grasp to conserve and restore wild salmon ecosystems and thereby preserve the culture and economy based on the keystone species that defines this place.

Tony Allard is president of Hearthstone Investment and chairman of Wild Salmon Forever; Ross Beaty is president of The Sitka Foundation and a founding member of Wild Salmon Forever.

 

[cohochinook]

Thanks to those who turned up at the rally yesterday. Here's a photo from it.

 

[cohochinook]

Here's a copy of an email I sent after the rally:

'george.heyman.MLA@leg.bc.ca'; 'doug.donaldson.MLA@leg.bc.ca'; 'premier@gov.bc.ca'

Dear Premier Horgan, Minister Donaldson and Minister Heyman,


The BC, NDP government as an election promise said you would protect wild salmon. As you know, on June 20th the renewal for 20 fish farm leases in the Broughton Archipelago are coming up for renewal in BC. I am writing you to urge you to not renew these fish farm leases. There is overwhelming evidence pointing the to dangers that farmed salmon pose to our wild salmon in British Columbia.


I draw your attention to the following:


• Washington state has recently banned open net pen salmon farming. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/washington-state-fish-farms-salmon-farming-1.4560888

• In BC new science has revealed further evidence of disease transfer to our wild fish. https://www.psf.ca/news-media/pacific-salmon-foundation-position-aquaculture-bc

• First nations have ramped up protests due to dwindling wild stocks in their territories. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/first-nations-leaders-rally-in-support-of-b-c-salmon-farm-occupation-1.4279850

• The discovery of virally infected blood water from aquaculture processing plants being discharged into the ocean unchecked and video of diseased and deformed fish taken inside of aquaculture cages. http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/sample-of-b-c-farmed-salmon-blood-water-tests-positive-for-virus-critic

• In April 2018 the Commissioner of the Environment report stating Canada not properly managing fish farms. http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/att__e_42999.html

• Elsewhere in the world this industry is transitioning to closed system technology that is creating vast job opportunities. https://www.fishandfly.com/no-more-open-sea-fish-farms-says-nasf/


I urge you to not renew these open net pen fish farm leases! The industry needs to transition to land based or close containment where BC could become leaders in the world. This would be a win-win solution to this quagmire—one that sustains an improved industry, protects wild salmon and ocean health, maintains employment and creates new technologies, jobs and export opportunities, positioning Canada as a global leader in economically viable solutions. The Provincial Government could help provide incentives to do this thru reductions in BC Hydro costs, government grants, tax incentives to depreciate equipment for the industry faster and marketing and advertising support.


Please live up to your election promise of standing up for wild salmon and do the right thing in not renewing the 20 BC salmon farm leases on June 20th.


Sincerely,

 

[Cuba Libre]

Over 100 out in Courtenay.... mix of fishermen, FNs and Greens all came together