Warning: Undefined array key "HTTP_REFERER" in /homepages/6/d125890587/htdocs/Client/HuffStrategy/MediaManager/ReadRelease.php on line 34
Cyberspace opposition to British Columbia fish farm expansion - Environmental Communication Options/Huff Strategy

Cyberspace opposition to British Columbia fish farm expansion

Mar 13th, 2014 5:49 AM

Over 100,000 petition BC Premier to say NO to fish farms
(Sointula, BC, March 13, 2014) As the Province of British Columbia considers two new fish farm applications, the milestone of over 100,000 signatures on a petition has passed. The petition asks BC Premier Christy Clark to not issue the new fish farm licenses. The Change.org petition is at: http://chn.ge/1fVs6GP. "BC residents are the vast majority of signators," observed the petition’s architect Alexandra Morton. Morton of Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society observed, "Exceeding 100,000 names is like having almost the entire population of a community the size of Langley, Saanich or Kelowna telling Premier Christy to just say no to fish farm expansion." Salmon farms are floating industrial fish feedlots with 600,000 or more salmon in each location. There are over 100 salmon farms in coastal British Columbia, 98% run by three Norwegian companies. The harm caused by fish farms located on the wild salmon migration routes is related to the manure, waste, sea lice, viruses and drugs poured out into the most important wild salmon migration routes of BC. For more information go to http://www.alexandramorton.ca. The two sites in the Goletas Channel (northwest of Port Hardy near the northern tip of Vancouver Island) are where Fraser river sockeye and other salmon runs migrate through. Marine Harvest, one of the Norwegian multi-nationals dominating the BC salmon fish farm industry, are involved with both new salmon farm applications. Morton stated, "Siting fish farms at Goletas contradicts the Cohen Commission recommendation that salmon farm siting policy be revised to protect wild salmon migration routes. Yet, less than two years after Cohen the old ways continue unabated." While the Federal government currently licenses the fish farms, the Province of BC issues the rental agreements to companies to use the seafloor where the farms are located. Morton concluded, “Now it is over 100,000 people telling Premier Christy to keep the fish farms off the wild salmon migration routes, tomorrow it will be even more citizens asking her to do the right things and say no to the fish farms."
-30-
To learn more, please contact: Alexandra Morton, Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society alexandramorton5@gmail.com, 250-974-7086. Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society is an organization dedicated to public awareness, legal challenges and communications relating to wild salmon in British Columbia.