Morton urged to quit campaign
Opinion
She claims not to be against salmon farming, but when Alexandra Morton campaigns against ocean-based conventional salmon farming in B.C. and elsewhere, she is demonstrating the opposite. For years she has been trying to assert the financial and social benefits of having salmon farms move to some form of land-based tank systems that would eliminate any interaction between the farmed fish and the natural environment. She has failed to acknowledge the sustainability of the current farming methods, she has failed to acknowledge that the mandated adoption of such a land-based salmon farming policy of governments would eliminate the 6,000 some jobs depending on the industry such as it is today, and she has failed to provide the scientific justification for her campaign.
Ms. Morton was expressing her frustrations to journalists last week over the lack of support for her cause that she was able to muster during the recent federal election, which saw the only party that openly supports conventional fish farming win a majority of the seats in Parliament.
Robert Barron of the Nanaimo- based The Daily News wrote among else;
B.C. biologist Morton may soon give up her campaign
Longtime critic has attempted to change government policies regarding fish farms
After almost two decades campaigning against open-net fish farms on B.C.'s coasts, biologist Alexandra Morton said Thursday that she is nearly ready to throw in the towel. Speaking at the Association of Professional Biologists conference being held in Nanaimo this week, Morton said she feels she has "failed" in her efforts to change government policies and industry regulations to make the controversial fish farms more environmentally friendly. Morton said that with the election of a majority Conservative government in Ottawa, which she claims is in support of the fish farm industry, she can't see how she can continue her campaign.
However, Clare Backman, a spokesman for Marine Harvest Canada, a major fish farm company in the province, told delegates the industry has significantly changed since fish farming began in earnest in B.C. in the 1980s. He said operational standards and environmental regulations at the 134 farms now in operation along the province's coasts have become much more stringent over the years and the negative impacts they have on the environment and wild fish are increasingly "minimal."
"I just don't know what else I can do," Morton told the Daily News. "My efforts to try and save the wild salmon seem to be impossible. I'm broke and I have to survive. Once my work with the Cohen Commission is completed, I intend to reassess what's good for Alexandra and my family." Morton said she sometimes feels sorry that she went to the Broughton Archipelago in the first place. "The research myself and others have done doesn't seem to be acceptable and our calls for the separation of wild and farmed salmon doesn't happen," she said. "I'll continue to bring these concerns to the public for now, but I find the process these days to be extremely depressing."
And Ms. Morton told Julia Prinselaar of the Westerly News that "It would be wonderful to have government support to have a land-based [aquaculture] industry. I have nothing against aquaculture. I know it's not the only problem salmon have, but it's one we can totally fix". Morton says moving fish farms to land is the only way healthy wild salmon stocks and aquaculture can co-exist. "You have to separate them. That's the only answer and that will work beautifully," she said, adding that the need for the industry's skilled workers would continue. "They're aquaculturists. They can grow fish. These people have a skill that is necessary and the problem is the [open] net pens."
Meanwhile, a series of scientific studies by government researchers have failed to demonstrate significant harm being caused to wild salmon populations along the B.C. coast from the province’s salmon farms. Controlled laboratory studies also have shown that otherwise healthy juvenile pink salmon can tolerate much higher exposure to the Pacific version of the “salmon louse” than the native salmon in the Atlantic Ocean. Such studies form the basis for the current Canadian governments support for conventional salmon aquaculture.
In her article, Ms. Prinselaar quotes the communications officer for Mainstream Canada- Mr. Grant Warkentin- who says that government studies have shown closed-containment salmon farming to be a risky proposition both from a financial, social and environmental aspect;
While Mainstream says it is following the development of closed-containment aquaculture, Warkentin cited a September 2010 feasibility study of closed containment options for the British Columbia aquaculture industry, recently published by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which recently took over federal jurisdiction of aquaculture. "It concluded that the only system which could grow salmon to market size, and generate profit, was the RAS (re-circulating aquaculture system) we use in our hatcheries. However, such systems would be prohibitively expensive," he said. The study shows that an initial investment of $5 million (~€3.6 million) with net pen technology yields a 52 per cent return after three years, versus a $22.6 million(~€16.3 million) investment in RAS that would create a four per cent return on investment after the same time period.
Upon hearing this news, the UK-based seafood market consulting company Callander McDowell said in its weekly newsletter reLAKSation that;
It seems that British Columbia has recognised that salmon farming and wild salmon fisheries can live together in harmony, despite Ms Morton’s efforts to persuade the people of British Columbia otherwise.
We respect Ms Morton’s decision and urge her not to prolong the agony any further. It is not that she lost but just that common sense has prevailed.
