Direct link to latest edition of Pool 32 Mag - click on this image

What is Pool 32 Mag all about ?

Pool 32 Mag is a new fly fishing e-magazine for everyone who loves fly fishing, and wish to follow environmental issues as well.

The best part is that it's a totally FREE e-mag and it can be downloaded by anyone, anywhere on the planet.

Check it out, sign up or send it on to a friend who is just as crazy about fly fishing as we are.


If you chose to scroll further down you will find the Pool 32 Blog

"our cyber world of fishy stuff".


We HATE spam mails, so we will of course

handle your mail info's according to our very strict privacy policy.


Copyright © Mark Wengler

No photo reproduction of any kind without prior written


"Fly fishing isn't just a sport - it's a state of mind!!"

Check out earlier issues of Pol 32 mag


July 30, 2011

NFC is having a really good season this year

NFC is having a generally good solid season this year, despite a lot of rain, out breaks from fish farms and other difficult issues, the "Golden river" alias The Gaula river - one of my absolute favorites on this planet - is preforming very well again this year. This place is pure magic nothing more , and nothing less!!

Another monster salmon caught this season on the NFC beats: Andre Scholz with his big salmon measuring 121 cm and weighing 17,3 kg /38,2lb.
 

An other beauty was caught a few weeks ago - where on this planet is it possible to catch this kind of salmon these days?? - at the Gaula of course

Arve Nilsen (right) and NFC chairman Manfred Raguse holding Arve’s superb salmon!

Check out some more details about the fishing in Gaula this season HERE 



Demand a provincial moratorium on net-cage salmon farm tenures


By Bronwen Barnett

(Vancouver, Canada)

OVERVIEW

Net-cage salmon farming is one of the most harmful aquaculture production systems and its negative environmental impacts are widely documented wherever net-cage salmon farming is practiced. Despite these facts, salmon farmers in British Columbia continue to use this outdated technology and are even seeking to expand net-cage use.
Mainstream Canada is the most recent company to submit a tenure application to the B.C. government for a new open net-cage salmon farm located in Clayoquot Sound. If approved, and then licensed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the site would add about 600,000 more farmed salmon to an area that is designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
There is a more sustainable alternative to net-cage salmon farming: closed containment technology. Closed systems are being increasingly adopted as the technology matures and the retail and consumer demand for closed containment farmed salmon is growing rapidly.
Salmon farming companies that continue to try to expand the destructive net-cage industry are disconnected with the citizens of British Columbia who want a sustainable aquaculture industry, with retailers and shoppers who want to buy sustainable seafood, and with the technological advances taking place within their own industry.
With outdated and disconnected salmon farming companies – especially one willing to put aninternationally recognized Biosphere Reserve at increased risk – it’s clear we need government to step in on behalf of wild salmon and the health of the Pacific Ocean. The time is long overdue to stop the expansion of net-cages and demand that the aquaculture industry adopt better practices.
Join us in calling on the B.C. government to place a permanent moratorium on net-cage tenures in B.C. once and for all!


Sign the Petition here


Start an Online Petition »



July 28, 2011

Mail from Alex - Choen Commission

Dear Wild Salmon People:

This article below tells us where the problem with our wild salmon comes from.... deep within Ottawa.  This bad and wrong for us and for future generations.

Justice Cohen, Dr. Miller, myself and others need you to show up to witness the Aquaculture Hearings at the Cohen Commission in late August and early September.  Wild salmon are politically inconvenient, forcing the politicians in power to bite the hands that feed them because they need free-flowing rivers, lakes, rivers, streams and an ocean free of oil slicks, toxic algae and gender bending chemicals, and trees on the mountainsides. Salmon need the same thing we need.  When 100 of us paddled the lower Fraser and were joined by 100s more to walk in the pouring rain to the opening of the inquiry to ask Justice Cohen to release the fish farm disease records we succeeded.  No judge or government has done this anywhere else in the world despite many fighting salmon feedlots worldwide.

And now unless the salmon people stand by those of us in there fighting, we will be silenced too.  We are powerless without you.

The hearings are in Vancouver across from the Vancouver Art Gallery CohenCommission.ca 

See also salmonaresacred.org for events

Thank all of you who have sent funds, you are keeping this movement alive.

Hope to see you Justice Cohen needs to know this matters.

alex

TODAY'S VANCOUVER SUN....Ottawa silences scientist over West Coast salmon study

By Margaret Munro, Postmedia NewsJuly 27, 2011 8:22 AM


Read more: http://www.canada.com/technology/Ottawa+silences+scientist+over+West+Coast+salmon+study/5162745/story.html#ixzz1TKOP1YKA
 

July 25, 2011

C & R in Morrum - finally??



Is this a way of finally implementing a total C&R by 2012 in Morrum, we will see. However, the damage has been done, this year only 38 salmon have been caught all of which were killed - so very sad - and 26 of them were females!!! - how ignorant and stupid is that??!!!.
So, the next cycle of returnees in 4 - 5 years will be very low indeed.......perhaps even less than this year.
As for the understanding of how serious it is - I'm not so sure about that, but at least this is a start.


My good friend who is the Chairman of MFA. Nigel Griffiths, has done such a tremendous pice of work to create some awareness at Sveaskog AB - check out this link to a brilliant article from MFA and Mr.Griffiths  - But Sveaskog AB haven't listened and now we are witnessing how a little community are facing serious problems by decreasing real-estate prices, no customers in the local shops compared to only a couple of years back - but most of all how a very unique salmon stock are "slipping out into history"- so, so sad and very strange!!!

July 23, 2011

I feel for the Norwegian people

I absolutely hate terrorisme - and I really feel sorry for the Norwegian people in this very difficult moment.

Such a coward action - why would anybody want kill innocent and young people - words can't describe how we all feel right now - it's like a emptiness inside, unbelievable cruelty, unbelievable coldness - unbelievable behavior. What is the background for the creation of such a terrible Monster? - this is important to understand, so future terror actions like this one can be avoided, and innocent lives spared.

All my prayers goes to Norway in this difficult time - and all my warmest thought goes to the Norwegian people.

I hope and pray that all the guilty persons are caught and punished extremely hard.

P32M
Mark W.


July 20, 2011

Ask Mr. Beamish - WHY??

Picture 4
Ask Mr. Beamish why his totally neglect the facts of what is going on regarding the fish farm problems.

Here is his mail address:


After reading Alex's mail about Mr. Beamish behavior I decided to write him a mail - here is what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Beamish

I only have one question : WHY? 

It's so sad that anyone on this planet can neglect the problems wild salmon are fazing - especially in a position like yours.

Yours Sincerely
Mark W.

Mail from Alex Morton - Why Did Dick Do This?


Why Did Dick Do This?

On July 6-8, Dr. Dick Beamish, was on the stand at the Cohen Inquiry. Beamish is a very influential, recently retired DFO scientist. He was the Director of the Pacific Biological Station, Head of Salmon Interactions and he received the Order of Canada. On the panel with him was Dr. Stewart McKinnell of the North Pacific Marine Science Org., (an intergovernmental scientific organization doing research in the North Pacific) and Dr. David Welch, President of Kintama Research Services that tracks wild migrating wild salmon.
What transpired exposes exactly what is wrong with our federal fisheries, how we lost one of humanity’s greatest food supplies – the North Atlantic cod - and how we are going to lose BC’s wild salmon.
Sockeye banner
Dr. Beamish brought the power of his position to advance a politically convenient theory that the 2009 Fraser sockeye died in the Strait of Georgia, before they passed the fish farms, due to lack of feed. However, under questioning Beamish had to admit to Justice Cohen that his data did not actually fit his theory at all.
As his theory was crumbling, Beamish spontaneously performed what could only be described as a plug for salmon farming. He waxed on about how the industry feeds the world and how it is a good fit for BC. This had nothing to do with the line of questioning. Beamish’s theory that the Fraser sockeye died in the Strait of Georgia would clear the salmon feedlots of any responsibility for the demise of the Fraser sockeye.
DFO warning from DFO
In Exhibit #1342, is a 2003 memo from Dr. Brent Hargreaves, (DFO) explaining how Beamish took his data without permission to support an outlandish (my words) theory that sea lice drop off mature salmon in the fall and wait all winter to infect juvenile salmon as they come out of the rivers the next spring. This theory clears salmon farms from the list of suspect sources of lice. However, there is no evidence it is possible for sea lice to over-winter off a salmon. This memo is a warning about DFO from within DFO.
“Beamish then proceeded to say how these data supported his ‘novel’ theory that sea lice
Picture 4attached to adult salmon returning to spawn may over winter in the Broughton…He does not know where the fish samples were collected or how the resulting data should be interpreted…. This really is ‘shoddy’ science….I can only assume Beamish either does not recognize what he did was wrong, or he does not care…. In any case, I do not want to work or even be associated with any DFO “senior scientist” with this kind of behaviour and ethics. Please do not put me on the same ‘team’ as Dick Beamish.”

Strait of Georgia had no food
The whole premise of Beamish’s two submissions to the Cohen Inquiry was that his 'data' showed young sockeye were in "poor condition" and exceptionally small in 2007, and for that reason did not survive and this caused the 2009 crash. His evidence was the average length and weight of 65 fish caught in the second week of July in 2007, compared to other sockeye smolt samples caught in other years and places. July is considered too late to sample Fraser sockeye in the Strait of Georgia as most have left the area.
However when counsel took beamish to one of his own Tables of ‘data’ his numbers actually showed no difference in length between 2007 and other years. Another of his Tables showed the 2007 sockeye were actually larger than the 2008 smolts – the generation that produced the huge 2010 run. Some how Beamish thought he could ignore that the data he presented to this federal inquiry did not match between his submissions and did not support his theory.
Beamish said the reason the fish were so small in 2007, was unusually poor physical conditions in the Strait of Georgia that disrupted the sea surface mixing layer. Dr. Rick Thomson of DFO’s Institute of Ocean Sciences sent Beamish an email saying:
“I like your attempt to bring in the winds, but I think your interpretation is not correct… The winds are nearly zero in May 2007…” (Exhibit # 1334, July 8). Dr. McKinnell said they did not find anyunusual physical events in the Strait of Georgia in spring 2007.
Despite the lack of evidence, Beamish’s theory remained hinged on the concept that because of poor conditions, the young sockeye did not get enough to eat. However, his own chart showing their stomach contents revealed the 2007 sockeye did have food. When queried why he believed the fish did not have enough to eat, when his own report suggested otherwise, Beamish responded the stomach data was too small a sample size to be accurate. However, he was using this same sample size to say the 2007 fish were smaller and thus failed to thrive and this caused the crash.
Beamish's belief that here was no food in the Strait of Georgia also did not stand up to other research by DFO. Commission counsel showed Beamish a plankton study done by the Institute of Ocean Sciences (DFO), that said plankton in the Georgia Strait in 2007 was 'similar' to other years. Beamish just dismissed this, claimed it didn't say there was food (which it clearly did), and said plankton was 'complex' -- ie more data he could just ignore. (Exhibit # 1310, July 6).
When Beamish was asked “Is that not a statement that plankton levels in the Strait of Georgia were normal?
Beamish answered: “No, I don't I wouldn't interpret that to indicate that…”
McDade asked, would it be irresponsible to draw conclusions with a sample size of only 65 fish?
Beamish answered, “would it be irresponsible? It would not be something that I would do as a scientist to be a -- to draw major conclusions from that, that's true. I'm not so sure "irresponsible" is the right word. To say that they were smaller in -- I'm not sure that we actually said that. I don't remember saying that they were smaller in 2007 than 2008, because I recall that they weren't.”
Under questioning it was also revealed that Beamish had not done DNA testing of the 65 juvenile sockeye and so he did not actually know they were from the Fraser River.
McDade asks, so you couldn't draw the conclusion that the fish in 2007 were smaller than the fish in 2008.

Beamish: We just agreed to that. Yes. Now I seem to be incorrect about that.
McDade: You agree they weren't smaller in size?
Beamish: Than what?

McDade: Than 2008.
Beamish: That's agreed. I agree that they're similar in size.
Beamish completely reversed position on his own theory! If media contacted Beamish I wonder what he would say? Would he flip back and say the 2009 sockeye died in the Strait of Georgia in spring of 2007, or would he say I made a mistake, misinterpreted and had problems with the consistency of my own data and explain how he could be so wrong as a public service paid by the people of Canada? BeamishR@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Beamish was under oath and was pontificating on the fate of the one of Canada's most precious, valuable and loved natural resources. What confidence can we take from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, if their own most celebrated scientist behaves like this?
McDade asked the Cohen Commission for the raw data Beamish based his theory on. We received the measurements for other areas, but not the crucial dataset – the 65 fish caught in the Strait of Georgia in the spring of 2007. So we don’t know what size they actually were. Yet.
And then we got the salmon farm infomercial. Time was short, the lawyers had to drop important questions to meet the commission deadline, but Beamish gave this speech to the audience of 5-6 people that included the head of the BC Salmon Farmers Association Mary Ellen Walling.
Beamish:
“British Columbia is perfectly positioned to be involved in aquaculture. We have a reputation for pristine waters and we have the technologies and the abilities to improve our aquaculture capabilities. So we think that not only will aquaculture continue to increase and be a major source of food on the planet, we think British Columbia will be perfectly positioned to develop that industry here.”
Who exactly is “we.”
If the sockeye were in poor condition, asked McDade, could that increase the impact of the disease DFO scientist Dr. Miller is investigating in the majority of Fraser sockeye?

Beamish: “Okay, I just want to be careful… I can't answer that, but I would think that that's possible, yes. I mean, I'm not qualified to answer that, but it does seem to be reasonable.”
Conservation Coalition lawyer, Tim Leadem marked exhibit #1343, an email from David Welch,
“I suspect that there may be some internal politics afoot to have mainly the
departmental staff speak on the sockeye issue so that DFO can be seen to be the lead organization, the source of most of the credible information. But it would be a tragedy if this morphed into the department trying to focus on the Strait of Georgia because (a) they have a better handle on how to study it (and can argue for more funding to do what they are already doing) and (b) because it puts the sockeye mortality problem in the Strait of Georgia BEFORE the smolts start migrating past the salmon farms.“
In Summary
A government scientist holding the Order of Canada put forward a theory that did not stand up to his own data, nor data from his own department. This theory would have the Canadian public believe that the 2009 sockeye died before passing the salmon farms and indeed we got a strong statement delivered by Beamish on the stand in support for salmon farms.
Beamish completely discredited himself. But the larger question is why did he use his considerable influence to peddle a theory to a federal inquiry that was biological gibberish?
Did he do this to protect salmon farms? Is that why we got the fish feedlot commercial in the middle of this mad hatters tea party?
Was Beamish influenced by policy or other pressures, not science, in his reporting to the Canadian public why millions of Fraser sockeye failed to return in 2009?
This is how we lost the North Atlantic cod. Policy drove DFO to overpower its own scientist who was warning the collapse was coming rapidly and who advised on how to avoid it. No one in DFO was held accountable for this even though the cod collapse was avoidable and is robbing entire generations of a food resource, jobs and stable communities. (Hutchings et al 1997, Is scientific inquiry incompatible with government information control?)
I think the Governor General has to scrutinize the validity of Dick Beamish continuing to hold the Order of Canada.
Be there
If you want wild salmon attend the aquaculture hearings at the Cohen Inquiry August 22 – September 9. When you have senior DFO scientists behaving in this manner we have got to realize wild salmon survival is up to us. I do not want to be your only source of information on what is being said about our fish at these hearings. First Nations, fishermen, local people, youth, environmental organizations, sport fishing clubs, tourism, tackle shops, wild fish processors, and any who want to step between government and the demise of wild salmon need to witness these proceedings themselves.
www.salmonaresacred.org
Alex Morton

Mail from Alex Morton - Herring with lice !!!


Herring with lice

I took these pictures on the evening of July 18 off a dock near northern Vancouver Island. If you look closely you will see there are sea lice on a lot of them. Sea lice on herring this small (they are about 4cm long) were never reported before salmon farms arrived. These lice appear to be Caligus, which are also found on farm salmon. There were thousands of herring, all of which are very young. For there to be this many lice, these little herring must have passed through an area with a lot of adult lice.
My guess is salmon feedlots. The lice are the light brown shapes with the "tails" which are egg strings.
(click on these pic's for a larger view)


Our fisheries are in big trouble under current management.  Please consider attending or sending your own representatives to the aquaculture hearings at the Cohen Inquiry in Vancouver August 22 - September 9.  My concern is that the proceedings will be unbelievable unless people hear it for themselves. I do not want to be your only source of information on this.

www.cohencommission.ca

Thank you all who donated, you are keeping us going for the next couple of months.  If you want to help out:

Pay Pal via www.salmonaresacred.org

or

Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society
Box 399
Sointula, BC V0N 3E0

Consider joining our 100,000 voices for wild salmon www.salmonaresacred.org
Alex Morton

Hatch - a new great DVD trailer from Gin Clear Media

July 19, 2011

This is fly - new edition out now

This is fly - a brilliant free fly fishing e-mag have just released their new edition 
Check it out and sign up HERE


July 18, 2011

BP did it again - do they never learn anything

BP did it again - a new oil leak in Alaska is a fact.

Read this article from Reuters
- now you could really claim that BP stands for "Benefit of Pollutions"


LONDON/ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - BP reported yet another pipeline leak at its Alaskan oilfields, frustrating the oil giant's attempts to rebuild its reputation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP said on Monday that a pipeline at its 30,000 barrel per day Lisburne field, which is currently closed for maintenance, ruptured during testing and spilled a mixture of methanol and oily water onto the tundra.
The London-based company has a long history of oil spills at its Alaskan pipelines - accidents which have hurt its public image in the U.S., where around 40 percent of its assets are based.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said the spill occurred on Saturday and amounted to 2,100 to 4,200 gallons.
A BP spokesman said the cleanup was under way and the company would determine the cause "in due course."
Lisburne, which is managed as part of the Greater Prudhoe Bay Unit, has produced no oil since June 18, according to Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records, suggesting maintenance work requiring a prolonged shutdown.
The spokesman said the field had been undergoing "its annual maintenance."
BP's blown out Macondo well caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, spewing almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf and putting BP's future in the U.S. at risk.
Previous problems including leaks from corroded pipelines in Alaska and the fatal Texas City refineryblast in 2005 had already earned the company a poor reputation for safety, something analysts say it needs to address if it is to continue to grow in North America.
BP shares were down 1.089 percent at 454 pence at 0919 GMT.
Production from the entire Lisburne field remains shut off while the spill is addressed, Alaska officials said.
Immediate efforts are focused on containment and cleanup, said Tom DeRuyter, state on-scene coordinator for the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The methanol-produced water mix has spread into wet tundra as well as onto a gravel pad, bringing risks to slow-growing vegetation, DeRuyter said.
"You have actively growing plants and they're very susceptible to the contaminants," he said.
The pipeline will also have to be dug up to allow for an investigation into why it failed, he said.
Resumption of normal operations at that part of the field may require a relatively long wait, DeRuyter said.
"I think they're looking at trying to get that pad back up before freeze-up," he said.
(Editing by James Jukwey and Hans-Juergen Peters)

link to this article - HERE 

July 5, 2011

Great new edition of fortyone degrees

The new edition of Fortyone Degrees is now online. It's a mixture of fly fishing and hunting with some really amazing shoots from several exciting places - check it out here by clicking on the photo!!

Here's a couple of pic's from this great new edition





Check it out HERE

July 4, 2011

New mini mag from the fantastic Årgård River Camp

No dirty gold campaign - brilliant!!


Here is what you do if you want to help out and support this brilliant 
No Dirty Gold campaign 

Mail from Alex Morton.



Dear wild salmon people:

Over the weekend Don Staniford found minutes of a recent meeting of Cermaq's BC Corporate Team posted on the web.  This posting has now disappeared, but not before we saved it.

In it the Cermaq's BC Corporate Team is asked to keep quiet on the "situation" in BC.

I have explained the context of this in my blog: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

I strongly suggest that if you want to see BC wild salmon survive that you attend the fish farm hearings at the Cohen Commission in Vancouver, August 25 - September 9 (check commission website to confirm as date approaches as they have experienced many delays). I will be blogging about the proceedings. However, if you have a legal or personal interest in wild salmon, nothing is better than witnessing this first hand.

First Nations, commercial and sport fishing organizations, wilderness tourism associations, municipal governments, environmental organizations, MLAs, MPs the NDP, Conservatives, Liberals, Green Party should all send representatives.  I don't believe in the power of government to work for the people anymore.  I don't believe the Cohen Commission will be able to save the Fraser sockeye without us.  But together, truth can be served.  Justice Cohen has done his part by making the province of BC release their salmon farm disease records.  No one has ever done that before worldwide, but what we do with this information is up to us, the wild salmon people.



If you can donate even the smallest amount of money, we can stay with this until people with real resources realize that it is time for them to step in and help us.  

There are no losers here.  We can protect the 1,250 fish farm jobs, but where we are headed now is not serving them either.

Many of us received a huge advertisement newspaper from the BC Salmon Farmers in the mail this week.  They are spending millions to make us think Atlantic salmon we are not allowed near, fed on fish shipped from Chile are better and more sustainable than the millions of wild salmon that flowed home to us every year.   They spread stories that I am a corporation, wealthy, funded by Americans. They are so deep in this now, they don't see what they have become.

Thank you for sticking with me on this,  


Alexandra Morton    


July 1, 2011

Press release on the ongoing lawsuit against what is effectively the Norwegian Government.

THIS IS A MUST READ PRESS RELEASE!!!!!!



Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, 1st July 2011

Cermaq in the Dock in Canada
- CEO Geir Isaksen challenged to testify in Supreme Court of British Columbia

Tofino, B.C. – Cermaq’s CEO Geir Isaksen was today challenged to testify in the ongoing ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ lawsuit Vs. the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) and Don Staniford [1].  According to legal papers filed yesterday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, ‘Examinations for Discovery’ will take place during September and the expected 20-day trial is scheduled to start in Vancouver on January 16 lasting until February 10, 2012. 

At a case planning conference on Wednesday (June 29) between lawyers representing GAAIA and Mainstream Canada (a division of EWOS Canada and a subsidiary of the Norwegian-owned multinational Cermaq), it was agreed that Mainstream Canada shall file any amended Notice of Civil Claim on or before July 18 and that GAAIA has until August 15 to inform the Plaintiff of the representative they wish to examine (read online here). 

“GAAIA will be calling on Cermaq’s CEO to bear witness to how Norwegian-owned salmon farming spreads disease,” said Don Staniford, Global Coordinator for GAAIA.  “Geir Isaksen stands in a unique position to shed light on the global spread of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) and on the vertical transmission via infected eggs from Norway to Chile – and potentially to British Columbia.  How on earth can Cermaq seriously argue against the case that ‘Salmon Farming Spreads Disease’ when their own scientific research vindicates the fact that ISA was spread to Chile from Norway?”


In June, Geir Isaksen announced his surprise resignation as CEO of Cermaq but will continue until the end of September.  In May, GAAIA wrote to the Cermaq Board of Directors, the King of Norway and Prime Minister of Norway demanding a “change of leadership at the helm of Cermaq” due to non-disclosure of disease data and a potential breach of reporting requirements to the Oslo Børs (stock exchange) [2].  A shareholder resolutionwas also filed at Cermaq’s AGM in Oslo in May calling for a CEO succession plan.  Last year, the Pure Salmon Campaign called for the resignation of Cermaq’s CEO Geir Isaksen and Don Staniford delivered a letter to Cermaq’s head office in Canada (watch the video: “Wild Salmon Advocates Call for Cermaq Chief’s Resignation”.      


       

“GAAIA’s ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ campaign goes way beyond the borders of Mainstream Canada,” said Don Staniford, Global Coordinator for GAAIA.  “Why a Norwegian Government-owned company such as Cermaq have chosen to fight this case in British Columbia and abuse the Canadian courts is a mystery.  The fact is that Norwegian-owned companies in Chile, Scotland, Norway and Canada are guilty of spreading infectious diseases and killing sea lions, seals, salmon, wild fish and, sadly, even their own workers.
Salmon farming kills around the world and should carry a global health warning.  Quit salmon farming now for the sake of the health of our global ocean, the health of wild fish and our children’s future.”

GAAIA launched the “Salmon Farming Kills” campaign in January at the Seafood Summit in Vancouver.  In February, the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) dismissed the campaign as “immature, inappropriate and irrelevant”.  In March, legal counsel to Cermaq wrote to GAAIA demanding a retraction, full apology and punitive damages claiming that “Salmon farming spreads disease” and other statements were defamatory.  In response, Mr Staniford wrote a letter to Cermaq’s head office in Norway copied to the Norwegian Government and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (the largest shareholder in Cermaq) asking “that Cermaq apologizes on behalf of the Norwegian people and the Norwegian Government for killing wild salmon and spreading infectious diseases around the world”. 

In March, Mainstream Canada filed a ‘Notice of Civil Action’ in the Supreme Court of British Columbia which claimed that statements such as “Salmon farming spreads salmon AIDS (ISA)” and “Salmon farming – harming wildlife and spreading diseases” were defamatory.   Cermaq claimed that such “defamatory actions” represented “a direct attack on Mainstream Canada’s and parent company Cermaq’s reputations as responsible company engaged in sustainable aquaculture”. 

GAAIA responded by challenging Cermaq to “Bring it On!” and stated in March: “Cermaq and the Norwegian Government: see you in court”.   The lawsuit attracted media attention in Norway via Dagbladet, Dagens Naringsliv and Reuters; in Canada via The Times Colonist, The Straight, Business in Vancouver,  and The Globe & Mail; and via the international trade press.

In April, Cermaq gave a presentation acknowledging publicly that ISA was spread to Chile from Norway via vertical transmission of infected eggs.  The Norwegian company involved was identified as Aquagen – a company part-owned by Cermaq and Marine Harvest.  In May, GAAIA filed a ‘Response to Civil Claim’ defending the ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ campaign and providing the ‘Defendants’ Response to Facts’ and ‘Additional Facts’.  GAAIA wrote to Cermaq CEO Geir Isaksen and Cermaq’s Board of Directors challenging Cermaq to report more publicly on the disease risks in Chile and Canada.  Cermaq wrote back stating that: “We notice that you would like to see in particular the spread of ISA to Chile and the risks of ISA and Salmon Leukemia in British Columbia included in our future reporting” [3].  On July 21, Cermaq will publish their Q2 2011 financial results.  

In August, the ‘Cohen Inquiry’ will tackle the issue of infectious diseases and salmon farming in British Columbia.  According to the BCSFA – a trade body which includes the Norwegian-owned companies Cermaq, Marine Harvest and Grieg - the public can expect a “media circus” and the explosive revelations will cause irreparable and irrevocable “reputational and economic damage”.  

In May, The Globe & Mail reported that “there are approximately 35 indications of the existence of ISA identified in these records to date”.   This week, The Tyee asked: “Is a Virus Ravaging BC's Sockeye? and the Pacific Free Press asked “Is Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) lurking on salmon farms in British Columbia?”.   The Globe & Mail also reported that: “information showing provincial inspectors found signs of a disease, infectious salmon anemia, or ISA, had been detected in British Columbia”. 

Contact:

Don Staniford: dstaniford@gaaia.org (Email to arrange a phone interview)


Notes to Editors:

[1]  Don Staniford is an award-winning campaigner and author.  He has campaigned on salmon farming issues since 1998 and has worked for Friends of the Earth Scotland, the Salmon Farm Protest Group, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, the Pure Salmon Campaign and now works for the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA). 

In 2002, he won the Andrew Lees Memorial Award at the British Environment & Media Awards in London.   According to the judges, “he was a significant influence in persuading the Scottish Parliament to hold a formal inquiry into fish farming, has written a widely praised Friends of the Earth critique of fish farming in Scotland and uncovered proof that fish farm workers were being ordered to use illegal chemicals”. 

In 2005, he won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize at the BC Book Prizes for co-authoring the book “A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming” (read his chapter “Silent Spring of the Sea”).  

In 2009, following a four-year lawsuit Vs. Creative Salmon, Mr Staniford won on appeal in the Supreme Court of BC and then won again in the Supreme Court of Canada.  

[2] Read the letter to the Board of Directors of Cermaq dated 10th May online here

The letter includes:

“Cermaq are guilty of covering up scientific evidence – backed by Norway’s National Committee for the Investigation of Ethics in Research (Nasjonalt utvalg for gransking av redelighet i forskning) – proving a direct link between infected eggs from a Cermaq-owned company (AquaGen) in Norway and the spread of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) to Chile.  Furthermore, Cermaq is now covering up disease risks in British Columbia which could lead to significant financial losses for shareholders, investors and the company itself as well as untold ecological losses, impacts on wild Pacific salmon and communities which depend upon healthy wild salmon populations”.

[3] Email dated 18th May 2011 from Lise Bergan, Cermaq’s Corporate Affairs Director (Direct office #: +47 93 25 11 14; Mobile #: +47 23 68 50 30; Email: lise.bergan@cermaq.com)


Press release online here.