No compromise for Morton
Opinion
She was one of those that energetically founded the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) group some years ago- hell bent to stop the expansion and ultimately the removal of the salmon farming industry in British Columbia as we know it. In an “open letter to compromised environmentalists”, Ms. Morton states;
“Dear Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR): With regret I ask that you remove Raincoast Research (the name chosen by Ms. Morton for her investigation of net-pen salmon aquaculture and other issues), from your supporter page. While I was one of your founders, I do not support your efforts to certify Norwegian net pen feedlots with the World Wildlife Foundation. Net pen salmon feedlots kill wild salmon around the world. They have to get out of the ocean, there is no right way to do the wrong thing”.
Earlier this month, Ms Morton suggested that she may be contemplating giving up the fight against conventional salmon farming in British Columbia, partly due to the fact that “people don’t seem to appreciate my research” or something to that effect. This comes as no surprise to industry observers, as Ms Morton’s research and public statements about her research have often been proven unprofessional.
Take Ms. Morton’s famous “barrel study” as an example- pink salmon juveniles held in confined spaces until some of them died. To no professional scientist’s surprise, the dead fish had more sea lice on them than the surviving fish. A visit to a typical salmon farm would show that a few “runts” or “slow swimmers” (fish suffering from one ailment or the other) are hanging around the corners of the net pens with a bunch of lice attached, while another ~30,000 healthy fish are happily swimming around in the rest of the enclosure with hardly any lice. Ms Morton’s study didn’t examine the cause of death among the fish that died during her experiment- she just recorded the number of sea lice on dead and surviving fish.
In her statement to CAAR, Ms. Morton states that the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has “...muzzled scientists and prevented them from testing farm salmon for the disease that appears to be weakening and killing the Fraser sockeye...”. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the professional scientists from DFO have the greatest respect within the international scientific community, and there has never been any restriction on the government sampling and testing of farmed fish in B.C. for disease. Ms. Morton has also failed to substantiate her reasons for CAAR to “step away from the World Wildlife Fund's certification that will seal the demise of wild Canadian salmon”. While CAAR has shown an interest in pursuing a stance on salmon farming that is ultimately based on sound science, Ms. Morton has not.
