Twenty groups and individuals were selected from 50 applications -- likely the most any federal inquiry has received, says a senior commission counsel -- to participate in the inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. Read more…

The British Columbia agriculture and lands ministry considered and rejected the idea of protecting migratory birds by regulating light from greenhouses, the minister responsible Steve Thomson said yesterday.

“The lights have a huge social, health and environmental impact on the community,” said independent Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington. “The environmental impacts are far greater than just light pollution, because we live in a migratory bird flyway, so there are impacts on the waterfowl and on the raptors.” Read more…

Biologist Alexandra Morton is planning a 500 km walk from Sointula, on Malcolm Island, to Victoria in April and May. It's the next step in an ongoing campaign to force the provincial and federal governments to start protecting wild salmon. Read more…

OTTAWA - Members of Parliament are debating a private-member's bill this week that its proponents say would fill a critical gap in regulations governing genetically engineered seeds.

The bill presented by NDP agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko, the MP representing B.C.'s Southern Interior, would require an analysis of potential harm to export markets before sales of any new genetically engineered seeds are allowed. Read more…

Biologist Alexandra Morton has found alarming evidence of drug-resistant sea lice on Nootka Island within sight of a local fish farm. And the young farmed salmon are being shipped across Vancouver Island to be processed on Quadra Island, posing a major threat to the Discovery Islands and the whole Georgia Strait. Read more…

On her blog today, Alexandra Morton published a letter from a former Norwegian attorney-general, warning that Norway is losing the fight against sea lice and B.C. is likely to lose too -- unless fish farms are moved away from wild-salmon migration routes. Read more…

In a protest against Norwegian-owned fish farm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago, the Executive of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs began a 29-hour fast this morning. Read more…

The Marine Stewardship Council has taken a step towards certifying British Columbia's sockeye salmon fishery as ecologically sustainable, a move critics say risks the international organization's credibility.

“MSC certification of B.C. sockeye fishers is corporate eco-fraud,” said Vicky Husband, a senior adviser to the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “It's credibility will be lost to its consumers and markets.” Read more…

Federal fisheries minister Gail Shea’s comments about Skeena River sockeye salmon returns show why regional management is needed, said the New Democratic Party MLA for Stikine, Doug Donaldson.

To suggest salmon might be a year late returning shows a lack of knowledge, said Donaldson. “That’s absolutely asinine.” Read more…

People who follow sustainable seafood guidelines might be sabotaging their efforts by eating chicken or pork, according to a new study.

According to the study, 36 per cent of the world’s total fisheries catch is ground into feed for farmed animals -- and that means consumer-driven efforts to promote sustainable fisheries are having little impact. Read more…

Advocates for wild salmon were delighted to hear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is calling a judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run last summer. Read more…

After the escape of an estimated 40,000 Atlantic salmon from the Marine Harvest fish farm at Port Elizabeth on October 21, biologist Alexandra Morton has renewed her call for an independent judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run this summer. Read more…

Biologist Alexandra Morton today went to court to charge Marine Harvest Canada Inc. with illegal possession of wild juvenile salmon from an endangered stock. Read more…

The British Columbia Wildlife Federation is asking the province's auditor general to examine what it suspects is the mis-spending of the money the government raises from fishing and hunting licenses.

“We request an immediate investigation that will address a number of concerns regarding ministry practices which appear to be paradoxical to its own established policies,” said the letter to Auditor General John Doyle signed by BCWF president Mel Arnold and executive director Patti MacAhonic. Read more…

Biologist Alexandra Morton, after years of studying first orcas and then salmon, has launched a new blog -- and drawn remarkable traffic right from the start. Read more…

The crash of this summer's sockeye run has become a federal political issue, and two B.C. MPs are calling for an "emergency summit" to rescue wild salmon. Read more…

An international organization is appealing to Norway's King Harald V to help save B.C.'s wild salmon from the impact of Norwegian-owned fish farms. Read more…

The Fraser River sockeye run has crashed, from an expected 10 to 13 million fish to an estimated 1.7 million. Speculation on the reasons runs from warmer sea temperatures to the impact of sea lice on smolts passing fish farms in the Georgia Strait. Read more…

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs has called upon the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to close the chinook sports fishery on the Fraser River to reduce the number of sockeye being caught in the crossfire.

“We want to be clear that we take issue with this in terms of the overall health of wild salmon stocks. It’s bigger than our constitutionally enshrined right to fish. We’re talking about the survival of the salmon fishery itself, and I think all parties have a responsibility to withdraw,” said UBCIC Chief Stewart Phillip. Read more…

VANCOUVER - An advertisement calling for a ban on calf roping at the Calgary Stampede has found a home in the Globe and Mail after being rejected by Calgary’s two major dailies.

The full page ad from the Vancouver Humane Society shows a photograph of a cowboy labelled as a “bully” wrestling a calf described as a “baby.” The ad’s text says that calves are subject to stress, fear and pain for the sake of entertainment. Read more…