What am I saying? Of course, it's the BC coast. Why would anyone expect the Trudeau government to keep its promise? From The Narwhal:
Following an outcry from the salmon farming industry, the Trudeau government has backed away from its election campaign commitment to phase out open net pen salmon farming on B.C.’s West Coast by 2025.
Jane Deeks, press secretary for Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, confirmed in an email to The Narwhal that a transition plan will be developed by 2025 but open net pen salmon farms will not be removed by that date.
“Our government is working on a responsible plan to transition the industry away from open net-pen salmon farming in B.C., and we have committed to developing this plan by 2025,” Deeks said in an email in response to questions from The Narwhal.
“Our government will not impose drastic, systemic change on Canadian communities,” Deeks said. “We believe that the best policies come from meaningful engagement with those who will be directly affected.”"Meaningful engagement"? I thought that meant Mounties in full combat gear with assault rifles and snipers.
Following the escape of hundreds of thousands of salmon from an open net pen farm in 2017, the state of Washington committed to phasing out all open net pen Atlantic salmon farming operations by 2025.
The state also stopped hundreds of thousands of salmon infected with an Icelandic strain of piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) from being transferred to the farms, saying wild salmon could be at risk.
Both Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association maintain the piscine orthoreovirus is no cause for concern.
In B.C., infected fish are still transferred to ocean pens even though a June 2018 DFO study suggested “migratory chinook salmon may be at more than a minimal risk of disease from exposure to the high levels of PRV occurring on salmon farms.”
Johns said the Trudeau government’s revised commitment to develop a plan by 2025 is “simply not good enough.”
“It’s not acceptable. Our wild salmon simply cannot wait. We have had a catastrophic year.”
Last year’s Fraser River salmon returns were the lowest in recorded history, Johns noted. Only 300 chinook returned to Clayoquot Sound last year and Skeena River salmon were “decimated,” he said. In the Alouette River in Maple Ridge, 60,000 chum were expected last year but only 500 returned.
“We have a government that is not dealing with it as the crisis that it is,” Johns said.
“We have a salmon emergency taking place in British Columbia, and this will be the government that will watch our salmon go the way of our Atlantic cod. It will be under their watch, because inaction is something that will lead to it.”
The fish farmers are a little concerned.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.timescolonist.com/business/new-aquaculture-vessel-to-remove-sea-lice-from-farmed-salmon-at-22-coastal-sites-1.24076229
As with all multinational companies they still have huge influence on our governance.
TB
WHAT??? That does not make me happy. that shit was supposed to come out of the water. There aren't a lot of jobs tied up with this so whose ox is being gored?
ReplyDelete.. Apologies Mound.. I am unable to share a link to a coherent statement
ReplyDeleteby John Horgan and/or a BC Government Minister and/or spokesperson regarding the matter.
Perhaps like the Federal Government, they believe in, no, insist on.. expanded extirpation of species - keychain core species.. the herring, salmon, whales etc. Without salmon, sportfishing and commercial harvest evaporates, when commercial fisheries like groundfish fail coastal economy and tourism takes a staggering hit, Chinook salmon are already essentially gone as a species. Oh ! What do resident orca eat primarily ? No more whales will remain in the Salish Sea. Canada's ISAv HSMI and sealice infected farmed salmon that escape, can be in Washington protected (no farm) salmon waters in minutes. HSMI is highly infections, sealice are one of the scourges of farmed salmon
The classic policy flip and punt deserves a classic examination seeking a valid reason for delay.. or more likely, the discovery of a sell out in motion. In light of what I outlined above.. this 'plan' to delay or avoid stinks. Where is the successful business case based on the complete collapse of tourism and fishing in British Columbia ? There has to be 'real story' .. The Harper Party was an arrogant sellout of the west coast marine ecosystems and interrelated local economies. It was just 'tidewater' to Harper. Trudeau et al appear to be selling out as well. To whom ? Show me the money ! Show me the contribution currently, of Farmed Salmon in comparison to Tourism and healthy natural fisheries - for sport and commercial value. Its laugable. Its also essentially mindless to threaten that reality
Most of the jobs created in fish farming are in the processing plants.
ReplyDeleteThe employees are well paid, have good working conditions and are unionised( Steelworkers)
The fish plant jobs filled in the space left by layed off forestry workers particularly in sawmills.
There is a defunct on land fish farm in Nanaimo which failed economically mainly because of mis management.
The plant had only a handful of employees.
This is not an endorsement of fish farming.
It is a statement of the issues we have to deal with.
TB
.. perhaps TB could step up to bat.. re basic credibly researched estimations re the number of direct and indirect jobs related to farmed salmon in British Columbia. One could attempt the same in the eastern Maritimes. Some comparison re groundfish like cod, halibut, hake etc and also cultured shellfish industry economies needs to be rolled in per East and West coast fisheries
ReplyDeleteOne can reasonably enumerate the total number of open pens in BC and multiply by the approx numbers of salmon per pen plus multiply by the number of 'cycles' from fingerling to harvest size, annually. There is an overall local and a broader 'economy' involved, and integrated to this very specific 'industry'.. certainly.
Perhaps TB could relate or compare it - aside from the actual pens & feeding ie the 'husbandry' - to the handling, processing, distribution of the commercial wild fishery and local and broader economies involved. All aside, I do not think connecting laid off forestry industry people now gainfully employed via farmed salmon processing is a very useful aspect to bring in. It may seem like referencing unemployed Oshawa auto workers or Hamilton steel workers in Ontario getting work in the greenhouse tomato industry near Windsor
Who recalls one of the primary tourism draws of Iceland ? I do. Its whale watching ! I fell over astonished when I heard Iceland had granted licences to Japanese Whalers For Science.. in Iceland's territorial waters, about two or three years ago. Australia was also interested in 'the Science' .. though much of the current whaling, as well as extensive illegal fish poaching occurs in the Antarctic regions.
I myself am still awaiting 'The Science' ie the data. More realistically, I want to see a 'Business Case' re farmed salmon versus my previous comment and premise. I trust BC's Alicia Morton on matters re salmon and farmed salmon. I trust Andrew Leach - Univ of Alberta re all things Canadian Oil and Gas, not Alsison Krause. I trust Andrew Derocher - U of Alberta re all things Polar Bear & Sea Ice
I pay attention to Exemplars.. not to snivelling sold out political animals and cretins. BC would be wise to purge anyone resembling parasites like Rich Coleman and his brother from the province. John Horgan is no friend to First Nations whatsoever. Horgan is all about usurping Aboriginal Title to 'provide certainty' to Big Business, especially deep pockets Big Energy. BC has its work cut out for it.. As do the Prairie Provinces. Ontario and Quebec are mired in corruption. God help the Maritimes. Newfoundland & Labrador are to a great extent down to Oil and Mining and Tourism.
Overpopulation, Climate Change roaring down upon us all.. and corrupted 'leadership' in Politics and Governance - What could go wrong ? Hell, what could possibly Go Right ?