'Good Luck BC': Morton's Cry of Despair
Marine researcher accepts voters 'chose' farmed salmon, sealing fate of wild stocks.
New farm will be 'on the jugular of the BC coast.'
Alexandra Morton has spent over 20 years studying whales and salmon on the B.C. coast. That led her, inevitably, into conflicts about the fish farming industry. She has argued, on the evidence of her own research and others’, that farming Atlantic salmon is destroying B.C.’s native wild salmon.
After a vote taken last week by the Strathcona Regional District, it looked as if Morton and the supporters of wild salmon had sustained their worst defeat yet.
Morton isn't giving up -- but she is demanding that British Columbians take serious action if they really do want to save the salmon.
Last weekend Morton sent a letter to members of several newsgroups, setting out the problem. Excerpts from that letter:
"On June 25, 2009, the Strathcona Regional District rural directors opened the door to fish farming on the jugular of the B.C. coast. Every other fish farm has been sited among braided waterways, but this Grieg application is for one of the biggest fish farms on the B.C. coast to be lodged where 1/3 of all Canada's Pacific salmon pass on their voyage back to us through Johnstone Strait.
"Sensing some public opposition to this decision, the board did consider the risks and asked Grieg to compromise. But the concessions Grieg responded with are worthless tradebeads of deception as they are either impossible or irrelevant.
"The media reports they offer to harvest their fish before the wild salmon migrations, but they know their fish need to be in our ocean for 22 months and ours migrate every 12 months. They say they will have zero lice, but they know this is impossible with the drugs we allow in Canada. And they say they will turn off their growlights in the spring, when they never use them anyway.
"I know the fish farmers and I know the governments; in fact, they are often the same people. And most of all I know the fish...
'Wild salmon are failing'
"A Norwegian corporation has become gatekeeper to the Fraser, East Vancouver Island, and south coast Mainland rivers, and our fish are their market competitors.
"I have tried to bring reason to the B.C. fish farming industry for 21 years. My community has been lost. The science is done. The courts ruled the way it has been regulated is unconstitutional. The people of the B.C. coast are aware of the issue now.
"Wild salmon are failing and sea lice, diseases, and massive schools of salmon predators parked in pens every few km along their migration routes are clearly not helping. Anyone who looks can see that.
"And yet every level of government from federal to regional favours farm salmon over wild salmon. Since this is a democracy, I have to assume at this point that B.C. has made its choice.
'I have no right'
"There are many places on this coast that government could play with this risky business, so when I see one of the biggest farm applications ever, being handed B.C.'s primary wild salmon artery by the most local, on-the-ground level of government, I have to think, 'This is OK with B.C. This is what B.C. wants.'
"The next day I watched farm smolts pour through a hose from a truck. I could see the Atlantic salmon in the translucent tube swimming above black pavement falling into the farm boat and I thought, 'This is what B.C. has chosen.'
"I thought about cool forest rivers, and what the first salmon of this coast looked like as they enter the sea. Feeding trout, birds, then whales, my children, you, and the trees that make us oxygen and stabilize our climate.
"...I have no right to tell B.C. one salmon is better than the other. You have clearly made the choice.
"So British Columbia, here is what I am going to do.
"I can't sustain this effort against every level of government because no matter how thin the veneer of democracy, you did vote for them, you had the choice and you picked the people who are giving our coast to the Norwegian salmon 'farmers.'
'British Columbia, over to you'
"If you want wild salmon in British Columbia, you will need to roar all the way from Campbell River to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, because only you have the power to turn this around and let the wild lifeblood of this coast survive.
"If I can hear you, I will meet you wherever you take a stand, but until then, good luck in your decision. British Columbia, it is over to you.
Alexandra Morton Adopt a Fry"
'Only the public can turn this around'
Interviewed by The Tyee, Morton speculated that the Strathcona Regional District wanted to compromise, "because if they said no, they'd be overridden by the province."
She also emphasized that "Only the public can turn this around. The province won't care for four years, but the feds may have to listen to us."
Reflecting on the recent provincial election, Morton saw one silver lining: "People can't just write a cheque to some environmental organization and forget about it. They have to take personal action."
The Strathcona Regional District's website contains detailed files containing submissions on 'Bylaw No. 29,' as well as the minutes of the June 25 meeting, which includes numerous last-minute submissions.
In addition to Adopt-a-Fry, Alexandra Morton posts on Calling from the Coast.com, a video blog.
Related Tyee stories:
- Salmon farms receive district approval
- Sea Lice and Lousy Excuses
Are a BC ministry and the DFO in cahoots to explain away wild salmon toll? - A Fish Farm Critic Vindicated
New research bolsters Morton's claims of sea lice devastation.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Grumpy
29-06-2009
100 years from now...........
.........people will spit when hearing Campbell's name. The BC Liberals will be declared a rogue government and declared illegal.
BC will wither from the debt of massive lawsuits won by the states of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska over destroyed wild salmon stocks.
And not one wild salmon will remain on the West Coast.
NicS
29-06-2009
Carbon Tax in name only favoured over Wild Salmon
We'll never know for sure why the environment friendly (as compared to Liberals environmental record)BCNDP lost this last election, however I will never support DSF or Tzeporah Berman in the future. Suzuki even still claiming he supports the NDP. With such support, who needs enemies.
Suzuki has assisted the Liberals in the extermination of what many consider the West Coast's lifeblood. Wild Salmon.
In the end only history can tell the true tale of the betrayal of our salmon nation by the powers that be.
Peter Dimitrov
29-06-2009
If we had deliberately
planned to f**k up things as badly as we have we couldn't have possibly done any worse than what we have achieved, optimistically speaking that is. Indeed - over to British Columbians...you've done a heroic job Alex!
..if we as a population aren't wise enough, courageous enough, fiesty enough, determined enough, committed enough, creative enough, then it may be justly so that we are a population that does not deserve wild salmon or the 137 other species who rely one way or the other on wild salmon for their sustenance, indeed maybe we are a sheeple population who mildly accepts this destiny and the other injustices in BC, the lies, the corruption. I think handing it over to British Columbians is the correct thing to do, this needs to be a "WE"..together can movement, a political movement, but sure as hell not a movement by an exisiting political party or tsepsuki environmental organization to "use" to expand its power, public presence, membership, greedwash and greenwash.
bones
30-06-2009
I hope you don't give up Alex
<3
Gary
30-06-2009
Apathy in elected officials
" because if they said no, they'd be overridden by the province"
What kind of people are these in local government that we are electing? Afraid of Campbell? Jesus people, stand up and kick his ass. At least if you vote your conscience you'd be putting the ball in his court and making him out for what he is. Christ.
mmills
30-06-2009
a vote of ignorance
Alex Morton has devoted her expertise and energies to avert the destruction of our wild salmon heritage, an icon of our West Coast resources. Her intelligent, well-researched findings and years of warnings have fallen on deaf ears as the governments and people of British Columbia have hastened toward the destruction of the wild salmon population. The issue is gravely serious, yet the decisions made by local and provincial governments are at best mortally ignorant and irresponsible. This decision by the Strathcona Regional Council is blatantly stupid and portrays an obliviousness to the reality of the complete destruction of wild salmon in our waters. SHAMEFUL!
Skywalker
30-06-2009
Alex Morton rocks!
Alex Morton, who I have never met, deserves the Order of Canada. Actually she deserves even better but there is no award higher available today.
reallife
30-06-2009
Can someone clarify
for me the jurisdiction for fish farming? I thought the courts ruled that this was a federal responsibility and the BC government did not have jurisdiction. Or is this a shared responsibility between several levels of government?
reallife
30-06-2009
Is it possible
that fishing is harmful to salmon? We suspect that fish farms kill fish. We know that fishing kills fish. Perhaps we should stop fishing for a decade or so and see how the fish stocks respond.
PatrickMcEvoyHalston
30-06-2009
She seems a remarkable
She seems a remarkable person. The "...I have no right to tell B.C. one salmon is better than the other. You have clearly made the choice" bit is disingenuous, though--gives the sense she's enjoying being the martyr.
Chris H
30-06-2009
She's absolutely correct
The people of BC have made their choice ... and it was not for the wild salmon of BC. Economically, farmed salmon make so much more sense than wild salmon anyway.
That is what the people of BC want, and apparently the Suzuki Foundation wants as well (as they lost their voice during the provincial election).
I, for one, will never eat another farmed salmon as long as I live. It's not about being a martyr, but recognizing when you've done all you can.
PatrickMcEvoyHalston
30-06-2009
Soulfully, farmed salmon
Soulfully, farmed salmon might well not make the most sense, though. Ever read the part of Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek, where Dillard compares the sedate cows to life by the brook? She was right--there is just something soul killing about farmed life.
seth
30-06-2009
We can beat them Alexandra - heres how
Dearest Alexandra
Both you and Rafe are right. The destruction Gordon Campbell will lay on us over the next five years is unimaginable
The BC NDP is mess with a ineffective unelectable leader utterly incapable of organizing her party, her policies, her opposition and an election campaign. Her make nice parliamentary techniques resound with the voter and the hostile press as cowardly. Bloated Bill Good whips her ass in a one on one. She is driving progressives to the Green's who are utterly fed up with her and her current supporters. Until that party gets its act together, progressives can still take action.
There is a way. It will be painful and you have already suffered much for the cause.
It is possible if we can get a movement going, to retake the BC Liberal party back from the fascista and send them packing off to the welcoming arms of Wilf Hurd over at BC's Neocon central. The party itself is very weak with almost no attendance at constituency meetings and almost no grassroots fund raising. It is ripe for a progressive counterattack. Tell your Green friends that now is the time to rally and gain control of the ruling political machine.
It is very easy for determined special interest groups to hijack political party's in Canada because the electorate is so disinterested. For inspiration look at David Orchard a far left progressive who almost beat Joe Clark for Conservative party leader. Look at how Harper and Stockwell Day and the religious right were able to hijack the ReformaTories. Look at how the Gordo and his media wing was able to wipe out Gordon Wilson who was leader of an actual Liberal party until Neocon mass membership buys defeated him. We can do unto Gordo as Gordo did to Gordon Wilson and do it within the year.
If progressives start buying party memberships in large quantities we can easily within the year take back all Liberal party constituency associations and their executive, make massive changes at party policy conventions, force a leadership review convention, change the party name back to Liberal and elect a progressive MLA as party leader.
You need to talk every progressive/green person you know into joining the BCLiberal party.
http://www.bcliberals.com/make_a_difference/bc_liberal_party_membership_information
Then having infiltrated coordinate a surprise attack leveled at every constituency.
I know it sounds horrible and the stench of rotting meat will be almost unbearable, but we can do it if we hold our noses and smile through gritted teeth. There are already lots of real Liberals in the BCLiberal party Christy Clark, Ken Jones, Carole Taylor, just booted Gordon Hogg and myriads more still hanging on hoping a messiah will come along and save them from the suffering neocon yoke. Some like Carole Taylor tried but the odor eventually overwhelmed them and without support they were had to quit.
This is Lotus Land where all is possible.
Sam Salmon
30-06-2009
Money is Now God
Brought to you buy people who have money as their god-which is to say most people.
Today's world is a sick sick place and becoming worse by the hour.
seth
30-06-2009
place for Gordo to go
Wilf Hanni(not Hurd) and the whole Con executive just resigned so there is plenty of room for the Gordo, Kevin "T Bird" Falcon and the rest of the gang to move over and fill the void.
doggone
30-06-2009
Seth
First suggestion I have taken interest in!
Seems a bit "push me pull you" but by God maybe it will work. I'm guessing that is exactly what the think tanks advised their owners for yoe these many years. I yust might take out that membership and ask all my contacts to do the same.
How much is it?