Only in B.C.- eh?
Opinion
Go figure- the politics around salmon farming in British Columbia is never a dull topic, but a recent development show just how crazy things are. To put things in perspective, here is some background information:
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Salmon farming supports some 6,000 full-time, year-round jobs in B.C.- most of them in coastal communities where unemployment rates of over 50% are not unusual
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There is a huge opportunity for expansion of the industry, and prices are at historically high levels
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The Canadian government recently spent some $ 27 million (~€ 17.5 million) on an inquiry into a poor return of wild sockeye salmon, which concluded that "data presented during this Inquiry did not show that salmon farms were having a significant negative impact on Fraser River sockeye". Due to pressure by environmentalists, the inquiry was largely focused on interaction between farmed and wild salmon
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As the sockeye inquiry got underway, the biggest return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in about one hundred years was recorded- over 30 million fish
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Last year the sockeye run was above the average, while a whopping 26 million pink salmon returned- more than double what was expected, and other rivers saw similar encouraging results
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This year- speculation has it that over 70 million sockeye salmon may return to the Fraser River
The Canadian government had halted the review of new applications for salmon farms during the sockeye inquiry, but as Member of Parliament John Weston explained in a recent letter, the government is now taking actions that are consistent with the inquiry’s recommendations: “to resume the review of applications for new aquaculture sites and amendments to existing sites in B.C.”. In his letter he also pointed out that “Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector worldwide, now supplying over 50 per cent of the global demand for fish and seafood. In Canada, aquaculture is worth over $2 billion (~€ 1.3 billion) annually and employs more than 14,000 Canadians. It’s clear that aquaculture is a real economic driver — especially for our riding”.
So now that there are applications for new salmon farms in the pipeline, the likes of extreme anti-salmon farming activists like Alexandra Morton are on the bandwagon- suggesting that these new farms will again cause the demise of sockeye and other salmon runs along the coast of B.C. Referring to two applications by Marine Harvest near Port Hardy on the north end of Vancouver Island, a petition claiming to have garnered tens of thousands of signatures suggests that this is “...where Fraser river sockeye and other salmon runs migrate through”. There is no mention in the petition of the eight Marine Harvest salmon farms that have been operating in the area for years. One of the people that apparently signed the petition is from North Vancouver, and she added the following comment: “I own two (commercial) salmon licenses and a salmon boat”. In other words- “leave the wild salmon for me so I can kill them”!
In his book “Ecofundamentalism: A Critique of Extreme Environmentalism”, author Rögnvaldur Hannesson suggests among else that “This kind of environmentalism may well be a minority or even marginal opinion, but there are signs that this mind-set has more influence and penetrates people’s way of thinking to a greater extent than it deserves. This mind-set makes otherwise reasonable people receptive to exaggerated or plainly wrong arguments against nuclear energy, use of fossil fuels, genetically modified foods, opening up of new mines, and much else. It makes people predisposed to support, by donating money and otherwise, organizations that claim they are trying to save the world when in reality they would be better described as trying to destroy it”.
Ms. Morton and her followers better get used to the idea of new salmon farms in B.C.- there are more applications coming, and there is no justifiable reason for not approving most of them.
