Safe Salmon
Safe Salmon
A diverse group of BC community, Indigenous, and business leaders announced the launch of the "Declaration in Defence of Wild Salmon". The declaration seeks to draw together the growing number of voices calling on the BC government to take action on salmon farming by refusing to renew fish farm leases when they expire in June, 2018.
Stan Proboszcz, science advisor, Watershed Watch Salmon Society says there are about 20 fish farm licences up for renewal.
Our political leaders have allowed salmon farming companies to place millions of Atlantic salmon in open net-pens on the coastal migration routes of our wild Pacific salmon. The science is clear: these farms host parasites and viruses, amplify these harmful contagions and spread them to our wild fish, compounding the other threats our salmon face. Net-pens send plumes of waste, antibiotics, pathogens, and anti-lice neurotoxins into our coastal waters. These farms, their foreign salmon, and their contaminants have no place on our coast.
"Particularly in the hot bed area where there has been a lot of science that has shown that the industry can cause wild salmon populations to decline, and that's in the Broughton Archipelago, so at the north end of Vancouver Island, said Proboszcz.”
The groups are calling on the BC government to mandate and support the aquaculture industry's move from open net pens to land-based closed containment production systems.
The declaration is found at www.safesalmon.ca, a website hosted by Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Georgia Strait Alliance and Living Oceans Society. You can add your voice here.