Biologist Alexandra Morton has invited “all wild salmon people” to join her at Vanier Park on Monday, October 25, when she and her companions complete their paddle down the Fraser River.
In a post on her blog, Morton explained her reasons for going by canoe down the Fraser to attend the Cohen Commission:
In a world of perfect storms, we in B.C. spent a summer in awe of a perfect miracle. Something went very right. As 34 million sockeye swept in from the open Pacific they gave us a $500 million fishery, then swam through the city of Vancouver carrying 50 million kg of nutrients that they are now distributing throughout the interior of BC from Alaska to the Alberta border.
... How could the Fraser sockeye have made such a big comeback after such a collapse? Why has the “productivity,” (which is the number of adults that comes back per parent fish) been in decline for 18 years and suddenly reversed? I think the cause of these fluctuations is salmon feedlot diseases and here is why.
Eighteen years ago in July 1992 a salmon farm in the narrowest marine corridor used by the Fraser sockeye was stocked with IHN virus-infected salmon. IHN is lethal to sockeye. Government was secretive about this and let the infected salmon stay in the ocean. As a result, the disease spread to 13 salmon feedlots (9 million farm salmon) over three years in a 20 km radius exposing 6 generations of wild salmon to extremely high and unnatural levels of virus.
This is exactly when Fraser sockeye productivity began to fail. A second IHN epidemic raged in the feedlots for 3 years from Campbell River to Bella Bella via their smolt transport vessels. Again DFO did nothing to protect our wild salmon and the Fraser sockeye continued their decline.
Morton argued that “I think fish farmers cleaned up temporarily in 2008 and that is why we got so many sockeye back this year.” She went on to say:
The only way we are going to find out if this is accurate is if thousands of people support Justice Cohen in his sockeye inquiry and tell him we need the salmon feedlot disease records. Please walk with me to the Cohen Commission opening on Oct 25th to state we want the reign of corporate secrecy to end and to tell him we are watching this closely and expect nothing less than the complete truth.
Chiefs, fishermen, people of all walks of life are joining us in this effort. Without you, the fish farmers will continue to operate in secrecy, pouring all their effluent into our most valuable wild salmon migration routes.
The itinerary for October 25 is available online at Salmon Are Sacred.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Illahie
1 year ago
Morton is a hoaxter, Crawford is a fool
Morton is starting to run out of bullets. Her wild claims have all been proven false.
She is to be pitied.
Crawford on the other hand, is the fool of a hoaxer.
He should know that all Sockeye carry the IHN virus. It generally does not cause a problem unless the fish the fish become stressed.
Jeffrey J.
1 year ago
Tremendous democratic movement
The incredible support Ms. Morton receives around the province is staggering. People from all walks of life can see how industry is destroying our environment. They can also sense the lack of democracy and how our "leaders" simply deliver an industrial agenda contrary to the wishes of the majority.
Aside from the tiny number of elites who are telling us what to do, the majority celebrate someone willing to speak out against foreign corporation destroying our waterways.
Great coverage as always, something that we certainly won't be reading about in the Sun/Province.
blackie
1 year ago
Here we go again
This woman has no credibility. She's been wrong so many times now it's getting embarrassing. IHNV has been around, in the wild, for god-knows how long and was first identified the 1920s. Alaska put out an entire "how to" manual on controlling it in their hatcheries
http://www.cf.adfg.state.ak.us/geninfo/research/patho/pdf/sockeye_salmon_culture_manual.pdf
And as for the government hiding it -- the farm outbreaks are all documented on both the DFO and BCMAFF websites, including an investigation done on the 2001-03 outbreak
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/ahc/fish_health/IHNV_report_2003.pdf
And here's what the researchers had to say about the level of cooperation they got:
"I would like to thank the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (BCMAFF) and the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) for funding the study. I would also like to thank all the companies (Atlantic salmon producers and suppliers) who participated in the study. They were all extremely cooperative and very willing to spend a considerable amount of time helping me collect and validate the information presented in this document."
This BS really does have to stop.
Onyxescence
1 year ago
Vanier Park
I hope everyone will respect the fact that Vancouver's resident Canada geese are staging, or gathering at Vanier Park. They don't migrate but still have the old instinct to all gather together in the fall. Please leave your dogs at home and respect the Migratory Bird Act,ie no harrassing the birds.
Andy
1 year ago
Very lazy
Lazy journalism is a problem, and this "journalist" may be the poster boy.
To take a personal blog, cut and paste, and insert 4 sentences into it, doesn't pass for journalism.