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HUNDREDS of campaigners marched on the city of Vancouver yesterday protesting that fish farms are killing wild salmon on Canada's West Coast.
The "Pure Salmon" campaign against open net fish farming is being led by whale researcher and activist Alexandra Morton. Her 'Get Out Migration' message is designed to make both the Canadian federal and British Columbia state governments aware that wild salmon should take priority over farmed salmon. Yesterday she completed a 500 kilometre trek by foot across Vancouver Island which resulted in a rally and a march on the provincial legislature.
The campaign has gathered over 8,000 signatures on a petition to end open net aqualculture which says: “We the undersigned citizens of Canada stand against the biological and social threat and commerce of industrial marine net-cage feedlots using our global oceans. The science is clear: these operations risk wild salmon populations by intensifying disease and deplete world fishery resources to make the feed. They privatise ocean spaces and threaten our sovereign rights to food security.”
She told Canadian journalists: "The campaign is about understanding that salmon is not just a financial commodity — it is the backbone of the West Coast ecosystem. It is also about understanding salmon from a much deeper perspective than the money that it brings in.”
Not surprisingly, the campaign is worring the state's fish farming industry. Colleen Dane, communications manager for the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association, “ We respect people's right to protests but we feel that the walk’s specific demands for removing fish farms is short-sighted and misguided considering the level of regulation and the important contribution the industry makes to the province.”
Later this month the Pure Salmon campaign will travel to Oslo, the Norwegian capital to take their protests to the annual meetings of salmon farming giants Marine Harvest and Cermaq.
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