Stong words from Alex

[Englishman]

Strong words from Alex

Alex has just put up a new strongly worded letter in response to a Minster Ashfield letter. I still think the loose organisation that Alex has put together mostly via e-mail and her web site is the last best hope to get open net cage salmon feed lots shut down...

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

Go Alex!

 

[Whole in the Water]

Thanks for posting this Englishman. Forum members please read this very important letter.

We need to make phone calls, write letters to politicians and media, support anti net pen fish farming groups, or form our own concerned citizens groups etc., to pressure the Fed. Govt. to act to find out what the true and complete status is regarding this deadly virus NOW!

IF WE WAIT TOO LONG IT CAN SPREAD FURTHER AND POSSIBLY MUTATE TO OTHER SPECIES AND WIPE OUT ALL SALMON PERIOD!

NOW IS THE TIME TO DEMAND BETTER AND MORE ACTION. PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE IF YOU CARE ABOUT FUTURE OF SALMON AND SALMON FISHING!!! IT IS TIME TO FOR US ALL TO WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!

 

[Stosh]

Thank you Alex - wonderful letter.

Stosh

 

[Charlie]

11/25/2011


Open Letter to Minister Ashfield



Dear Minister Ashfield

I would suggest you stop treating us like fools. Your attached letter is grossly inadequate. Download Initial Request for 2011-001-03100.pdf (440.4K) Show us your Moncton test results because your lab is the only one that cannot find ISA virus. I would also suggest you stop obsessing over the quality of the River Inlet samples and go out and get your own samples. You have an entire department at your disposal.

Yesterday I received yet another set of positive ISAv results for salmon of the Fraser River. Download Report231111[13].pdf (15.9K)

You can stop calling the 1st Norwegian tests a "negative" result. Be more accurate and call them what they are - a weak positive. Download Report 021111.pdf (22.0K) You can't wave a magic wand and make black white.

I want to see Dr. Gary's Marty's PCR results. Don't just tell us he tested 5000 fish and got a negative, you need to tell us what segment and what probe, we need details because you are risking our fish with your actions.

As for Dr. Laura Richards, she personally petitioned to waive the Canadian Fish Health Protection Regulations in 2004 so Atlantic salmon eggs could pour in from an unapproved hatchery. That is why her words are meaningless to me. Download 2004 Fish Health1[1].pdf (2176.3K)

There is no reason BC would not have been contaminated by ISAv. Your department left the door wide open! You did not include ISAv on the hatchery import forms, likely because no one can actually sign a document saying there is no ISAv in Atlantic salmon eggs - the virus is that widespread. Your department did not even make ISAv a reportable disease in salmon farms, even as the same companies as use BC waters triggered a massive ISAv epidemic in Chile. This is unconscionable.

Shame on you. As we face grave uncertainty over introduction of the most lethal salmon virus known, you give the salmon farming industry a million dollars to go to trade shows so they can peddle their wares while we pay for the consequences.

In my opinion, Mr. Ashfield you, predecessors and key members of your department belong in court for reckless behaviour risking the most generous gift the people of British Columbia receive every year. You are not here to see communities of people, whales, eagles, bears come to life when the salmon come home. They are much too valuable to be risked by vacuous statements by the likes of you. Either stand up strong and fight for our fish or step down Mr. Ashfield.

Hundreds of British Columbians go into the rivers every year to fight for the wild salmon. We work for the wild salmon because we understand their value and we are not going to let you take this away from us. As hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon died every year in the Fraser River, before spawning, your department would not give your own scientists the money to find out why and when they came up with a very strong theory you starved them further for funds and locked their voices away from the media. And yet you throw money to the foreign owned salmon feedlot industry.

Please resign and take your senior Pacific Region staff with you. Remove the Pacific Biological Station from political clutches so that they can do the work that needs to be done. We need some people at the helm who want wild salmon to survive and you sir have shown no such ability. Step away from our fish.


Dr. Alexandra Morton

 

[Charlie]

Thanks for posting this Englishman. Forum members please read this very important letter.

We need to make phone calls, write letters to politicians and media, support anti net pen fish farming groups, or form our own concerned citizens groups etc., to pressure the Fed. Govt. to act to find out what the true and complete status is regarding this deadly virus NOW!

IF WE WAIT TOO LONG IT CAN SPREAD FURTHER AND POSSIBLY MUTATE TO OTHER SPECIES AND WIPE OUT ALL SALMON PERIOD!

NOW IS THE TIME TO DEMAND BETTER AND MORE ACTION. PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE IF YOU CARE ABOUT FUTURE OF SALMON AND SALMON FISHING!!! IT IS TIME TO FOR US ALL TO WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!

It appears, it may have already "mutated"!

Conclusion
The RNA from both tissue types (gills and heart) seem to be of reasonable quality for real
time RT PCR, and the amount of RNA obtained after extraction was substantial. Hence, the
amount and quality of the RNA should not have influenced on the results.

Under ideal conditions we should be able to repeat all positive results when the Ct values are
below 37. The result obtained from sample H10 (gill tissues) was Ct = 34.5 and the result was
repeated once (Ct = 35.4), while the other four reruns were negative. The heart tissue from the
same individual was also negative. The gills from sample H14 was negative, but one of five
runs from the heart tissue was positive. None of the samples were positive when using the
Uni-ISAV8 assay. As can bee seen from the positive controls both assay have the same
sensitivity for detection of ISA virus RNA from European ISA viruses. This fact raises the
question: What are we detecting with the ISA7 assay? Based on my experience with both
assays a reasonable answer to this question is that we are not detecting any of the known ISA
viruses from Europe (or from eastern North America). A more exact answer requires that we
are able to sequence the RNA that is target by the ISAV7 assay.

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/Report231111%5B13%5D.pdf

 

[Whole in the Water]

WOW scary stuff... All the MORE reason to demand that we get more testing on samples to confirm what is really going on!!!!

 

[Little Hawk]

They stepped up their AD (********) campaign at the start of the Cohen Inquiry and have been spending a whack on it since.
All the problems with this industry notwithstanding - they have a well-oiled baffle gab machine on standby for instances just like this whenever negative attention is directed towards them.

They lie through their teeth and they need to be removed from our waters NOW!

 

[onefish]

Nauseating!

 

[IronNoggin]

They stepped up their AD (********) campaign at the start of the Cohen Inquiry and have been spending a whack on it since.

Of course they did.
And they now have even more scheduled since OUR Government just handed them a cool One MILLION to do so!

No sheckles in the coffers for hatchery efforts, science arm being slashed, but hey, those farmers NEED an influx. Would be almost humorous if it wasn't so damn SICK!!

Nog

 

[Bait tricks]

Have to fight fire with fire!

 

[Weff]

They lie through their teeth and they need to be removed from our waters NOW!

Agreed!

WTG Alex, couldn't have said it better myself!

 

[profisher]

I'll tell you right now the best way to fight the farms and DFO is to USE the media!!!! Forget the courts for now. Money needs to be raised to put together our sides own TV ads that run at prime time. Ads that tell the true story and also tell why the farmers are running theirs. Fight fire with fire. The truth will win out in the end, but it needs to be told and heard for that to happen.

 

[Theb55]

Absolutely right on. Especially tv. It works. That is why politicians use it constantly. That is why the fish farms use it. To sway public opinion!

 

[Little Hawk]

On behalf of those of us who have been in this battle for a long time, allow me the opportunity to thank each and every one of you for showing an interest and concern for the impacts this tragic industry has wrought on our coast.

Our Great Fishes now need all the help they can get in this - their darkest hour!

(Hmmm... where have I heard that before?)

 

[vetteman]

Alex has just put up a new strongly worded letter in response to a Minster Ashfield letter. I still think the loose organisation that Alex has put together mostly via e-mail and her web site is the last best hope to get open net cage salmon feed lots shut down...

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

Go Alex!

Dr. Morton has been confirmed as a speaker at the BCWF AGM which will be held in Courtenay this year. All BCWF members, delegates or not ,are welcome to attend these meetings with the exception of scheduled closed sessions and any possible in camera sessions. Should be interesting.
Dave

 

[Little Hawk]

Wow! This is good news Dave considering how many years the BCWF (and the SFI for that matter) have been sitting on the fence on this issue.

Go get'em Alex!