The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council is blaming salmon farms for sea lice and disease epidemics. (Photo: Greenpeace)

Environmentalists, First Nations chiefs fast in protest

CANADA
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 00:40 (GMT + 9)

Environmentalists and the chiefs of several First Nations in British Columbia (BC) fasted for 29 hours in Vancouver just before Canada was to play Norway in men's hockey on Tuesday.

Executive Director of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Don Bain said the 29 hours represent the 29 salmon farms owned largely by Norwegian firms in the traditional territory of the coastal Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk Tribal Council. The Norwegian companies Marine Harvest and Cermaq dominate salmon aquaculture in BC.

“Norwegian-owned salmon farms operating in our traditional territorial waters are killing wild salmon and strangling the lifeblood of our whole culture,” said Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk of northern Vancouver Island, Globe and Mail reports.

Farmed salmon raised in open net cages in the ocean have been blamed for causing sea lice epidemics and spreading infectious diseases to wild salmon.

“With grizzly bears starving on the BC coast because of local extinctions of wild salmon, and fishing opportunities ruined for people, you've got whole communities that are threatened,” said Don Staniford, Global Co-ordinator of the international organisation Pure Salmon Campaign, which represents several groups opposed to salmon aquaculture.

The campaign recently sent a petition with over 12,000 signatures to the CEOs of Marine Harvest and Cermaq demanding the adoption of environmentally-friendly salmon farming practices. The petition is available to sign online.

"There are 29 fish farm tenures in the territory of the Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk and these operations are in opposition to the Government of Norway's support of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People,” Chief Chamberlin added.

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Protesters wrote a letter to King Harald V of Norway, expected to attend the Olympics, at the Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver, requesting the relocation of the open net cages in BC that threaten wild salmon stocks. They also released a letter from Norway’s former Attorney-General Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn, who headed a government commission assigned with creating a plan to protect wild salmon from the harms of salmon aquaculture.

“In 1999, I was proud to present the so-called ‘wild salmon plan' which proposed national protection for the 50 best salmon rivers and the 9 most important fjord-systems across Norway – the national laksfjords – where salmon farms would be prohibited. However, intense lobbying from the salmon farming industry watered down the proposals so that by the time they passed the parliament in 2007 the protected fjords had become smaller and gave less protection against the salmon farming industry,” Rieber-Mohn wrote.

The documentary "Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry" produced by Canadian filmmaker Damien Gillis shows the far-reaching impact of Norwegian salmon farming operations in BC and Chile. It is available in full and for free on the Pure Salmon Campaign website.

Related articles:

- The End of the Line for salmon?
- BC's largest farm loses thousands of salmon
- Pure Salmon Campaign issues request to King of Norway
- Millions of salmon missing from Canada 'summer run'

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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