From dwindling salmon stocks, to fish farms and supertankers, Ottawa sees the BC coast as just something to be monetized. Yes, yes, Vancouver is Canada's largest port, our commerce gateway to Asia, but it's time to rein in these predatory policies before the orca go the way of the plains bison.
8 comments:
The biggest loser of Covid 19 will be the environment.
Rules will just 'have' to be diluted to put the economy on it's feet again!!
Be prepared for more environmental battles that we have ever seen.
The battle for change vs the economy( such as it is) will become very antagonistic and perhaps violent.
TB
Mound, the evidence suggests that commercial interests don't want killer whales which they see as competitors for wild salmon. The whole point is to mine a resource until it is gone. Coexisting with nature is not part of the plan.
Yes, I'm cynical but what other conclusion can we draw from the evidence?
In this age in which we must monetize anything and everything, creatures such as the orca don't carry much weight. We value them because they're so majestic and iconic of the west coast. Coastal first nations have a much deeper connection with them. I sense that most of our countrymen would be content to have them leaping for our pleasure from concrete pools. It grates, certainly on me.
.. Its an excellent video Mound, Thanks ! I find the situation of resident Orca.. dispiriting, ignorant.. failure. It reflects the situation of wild salmon of course.. and as a whole, the entire west coast fishery. A critical fishery.. and a damning reflection of our current Government & previous Harper Government. The pattycake Ministry.. Oceans & Fisheries needs a vicious headslap.. and a renaming
It's complicated.
The federal government is made up of mainly people who have no connection to the sea and it's inhabitants.
They generally see themselves as managers of the economy and all else is secondary.
Here on the west coast the fishermen are mainly first nations and their relationship with the federal government is strained at the best of times.
Many years ago, when it was realized that fish stocks were under strain, the federal government bought back many fishing licenses from non first nations and gave them to first nations.
Giving the licenses to first nations was reason enough to refuse to control fish quotas in a sustainable way.
By the time the FN had control of the industry it was already in decline.
The west coast is littered with closed fish canning factories from a day of plenty.
The fish farms are replacing lost logging and pulp mill jobs particularly in more remote areas with little regard to the environmental damage they cause.
In both cases the fish stocks suffer because of mismanagement.
This year the salmon stocks are about to suffer because of the landslide in the Fraser Canyon; this has fishermen extremely worried.
Not a good sign for the Orcas.
TB
It strikes me that we need to rebuild the coastal food chain, TB. That should begin by sharply curbing the herring roe harvest. That's an export industry that competes directly with the salmon for their feedstock.
We need to recognize that our fisheries are a public resource, not the industry's. A few years ago there was some contagion that devastated fish stocks in Asia. That market turned to BC for our prawns. The local prices skyrocketed. The commercial fleet made out like bandits. That caused a shortage of affordable supply in British Columbia with restaurants having to take prawns off the menu because of the exorbitant prices.
What gave the commercial fleet the right to a windfall profit at the expense of the owners of that resource, the people of British Columbia? It's an argument no one seems to want to make.
Restore the herring stocks. Allow the salmon to recover, restoring the food supply to our resident orca. And force fish farms inland where their disease and sea lice can be contained.
No Spot prawns this year and jitters around the other fisheries, all because of Covid19.
We overlook the ocean which is about 350ft away.
A week ago we had herring spawning for the first time in years and there was not one boat fishing.
Herring is primarily caught for the roe, most of whats left goes to fertilizer.; not many eat kippers around here!
TB
Possible solution.
Place all fish farming , it does not need to be salmon other species will do,on land .
It has been done before but failed because of incompetence.
This would reduce the strain on the pacific salmon and provide a decade of fish farm construction.
On land fish farms could be strategically place next door to the processing plants.
This would rid us of the transportation of of farmed fish that often are shipped 50 to 60 km for processing.
These are solutions that would cost the consumer a little more but would deny the investors in such industries of much!
TB
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