April 30, 2012
April 29, 2012
Salmon health alert
Salmon health alert
By SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail
Scientists Issued a devastating new warning last night about the safety of Scottish farmed salmon.
They said the fish is so contaminated with toxic chemicals it should be eaten no more than three times a year.
The chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and birth defects, come from the feed used in fish farms. The findings could have a shattering impact on the £700million-a-year Scottish salmon farming industry, which supports some 6,500 jobs.
Sales of salmon soared as farming brought prices down and the health benefits of oily fish emerged. It has overtaken cod as the best-selling fresh fish in Britain - and 98 per cent comes from Scottish farms.
Salmon farmers there branded the latest study "deliberately misleading" last night while the Food Standards Agency said the levels of pollutants were within safety limits used by Britain, the EU and the World Health Organisation.
Its chairman Sir John Krebs said the health benefits of eating oily fish outweighed any risk.
But Dr Jeffery Foran, an American toxicologist involved in the study, said neither he nor his family would eat farmed salmon again after what he discovered.
Poullutants
The project - based at the University of Albany in New York state - looked at pollutant levels in farmed and wild salmon bought in Britain, Europe and North America.
Previous small-scale studies had identified a contamination risk, but this is by far the biggest and most comprehensive study.
Researchers measured the levels of industrial pollutants - PCBs and dioxins - and agricultural pesticides such as toxaphene and dieldrin.
They examined 700 fish, some bought in London supermarkets and some direct from Scottish farms. The highest concentrations were found in fish from Scotland and the Faroe Islands.
Dr Foran said this may be because their feed contains oil recovered from the ground-up bodies of tiny sea life harvested in the North Atlantic - a dumping ground for decades for manmade toxins. Fish from Norway also performed badly.
The study, published in the respected U.S. journal Science, concluded: "The consumption advice is that no more than one meal every four months should be consumed in order to avoid an increased risk of cancer." Even smaller amounts, it suggested, could trigger harmful effects to brain function and the immune system.
Dr Foran said: "All the compounds we were looking for are classified as probable carcinogens. The evidence from comprehensive animal studies points to a range of cancers including liver, breast, lymphatic and thyroid.
"There are a variety of other health effects, particularly in relation to PCBs.
"They include reproductive and developmental effects. There are also neurological, brain function effects and immune system effects."
All the fish tested was in fillets, but the findings apply equally to smoked salmon. Almost all tinned salmon, however, is produced from wild fish which have only low levels of pollution.
"Benefits outweigh risks"
Despite the startling results of the survey, the FSA said it was sticking by its advice to consumers. Sir John Krebs said: "People should consume at least two portions of fish a week - one of which should be oily like salmon.
"There is good evidence that eating oily fish reduces the risk of death from heart attacks. We advise that the known benefits outweigh any possible risks."
Scottish Quality Salmon, which represents farmers, said the researchers had been wrong to use strict guidelines drawn up by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency rather than those used elsewhere in the world.
Technical consultant Dr John Webster said: "PCB and dioxin levels in Scottish salmon are significantly lower than the thresholds set by international watchdogs".
The organisation said its members apply "the most stringent independently inspected quality assurance standards in the world".
It said feed suppliers had taken steps to minimise PCB and dioxin levels, including sourcing fish meal and oils from seas which are less polluted and switching to plant oils.
But Don Staniford of the Salmon Farm Protest Group said: "This scientific study blows out of the water the myth that farmed salmon is safe, nutritious and healthy.
"It's official - salmon is now the most contaminated foodstuff on the supermarket shelf."
Dr Dan Barlow, head of research for Friends of the Earth, said: "We have long known that farmed salmon were more heavily contaminated with toxic pollutants than their wild relatives.
"We now know Scottish-raised salmon are among the most contaminated and that the levels of contaminants may be so high as to possibly detract from the health benefits of eating fish."
Pollutants are not the only problem facing salmon farmers. Recent studies have found contamination with radioactive waste from the Sellafield nuclear plant, while there are concerns about the use of malachite green to kill parasites and infections.
There are also health fears over feeding the fish chemicals which colour their flesh pink.
Scotland's estimated 300 salmon farms produce some 160,000 tonnes of salmon a year.
Almost three-quarters of the jobs in the industry are in remote rural areas with fragile economies.
These are boosted by an estimated £1million a week in wages alone.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205547/Salmon-health-alert.html#ixzz1tS98WrtF
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...but if you show some "big boobs" then you will see some serious changes!!!! - strange world we live in these days....it seems like we are getting more and more insignificant as a race!!!!
Scary message from Alex Morton
New Norwegian virus in supermarket farm salmon
Sointula, BC (April 13, 2012) Test results report 44 out of 45 farm salmon purchased from the Superstore and T&T markets throughout Vancouver tested positive for a newly identified Norwegian virus. The piscine reovirus weakens the fish’s heart causing Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI). HSMI is considered a “major challenge” in Norway infecting over 400 farms since it’s symptoms first appeared in 1999. It has spread to the U.K.
Scientists only recently identified the virus causing this disease making diagnosis possible. Thus no screening was possible for the 30 million Atlantic salmon eggs that entered BC for fish farming prior to 2010. Detected for the first time in Chile last year, Sernapesca, the fisheries regulator, responded with “intensified preventative measures.” Reports of HSMI in Chile drove industry share values down.
The virus reportedly spreads easily to wild fish near the pens like “wildfire”. There is no information on how it affects wild Pacific salmon.
The Provincial farm salmon health audits released by the Cohen Commission did not report HSMI. The Cohen Commission Technical Report on Disease and Parasites did not consider HSMI impact on Fraser sockeye. Author, Dr. Michael Kent, testified if HSMI appears in BC it would come from the wild fish (Aug. 23, 2012). Dr. Miller, from the DFO Genomic Lab testified on Dec. 15 that she is detecting the virus in wild sockeye.
If these fish are not from BC, we have a breach in BC’s food security protocol. People preparing to cook these may wash them, sending the virus into the water system. If the fish were raised in BC, why didn’t anyone who testified at Cohen know about HSMI? There is something very wrong when four women with shopping carts can find this and the salmon flu virus in Atlantic salmon in BC but almost no one else seems to know anything about it. Are the industry and government really unaware of HSMI, or is no one concerned there about wild salmon? I don’t see how Cohen can ignore HSMI. Weakening the heart of a fish that has to travel 100s of km against the Fraser River seems a bad idea.
“This hurts,” says Anissa Reed, co-founder of the SalmonAreSacred.org, “even with everything I heard at Cohen, I was still hoping the industry, Christy Clark and Stephen Harper were being a little more careful with wild salmon. I want to know what DFO’s response is to this.”
We hope the Province of BC will report which lease these fish came from. BC grants the licenses of occupation for each farm and so is responsible for the fact that the farms are sited in BC’s wild salmon habitat. We need to know, so we can go there and have a look at how the wild salmon are doing with this disease. Someone has be testing the wild salmon and if that falls to us then we will do it. No research on the state of wild salmon is going to be valid without testing for the European viruses.
In the 1991, Pat Chamut, Director General DFO Pacific Region said: “Continued large-scale introductions from areas of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic disease agents of which the potential impact on both cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to the resource and economically devastating to its user groups” (Chamut former ADM, DFO, to Sarna, Director of Pacific Rim & Trade, Policy Division, International Directories, DFO, 1990). It would appear he was right, but we are still going to suffer the consequences. How did Atlantic salmon happen to BC?
Further testing is underway to determine where the fish were raised and the origins of the virus. The lab sequenced the virus in many samples and found it 99% identical to Norwegian strains of Piscine reovirus.
Alex and the 3 other women with shopping carts, Nicole MacKay, Anissa Reed, Sabra Woodworth
Get the Facts! Join us on earth day in Victoria or for one of several scheduled talksDownload EarthWeekendTalks.jpg (2000.0K)
For much more information about these things
- Link to Alexandra Morton Website
April 16, 2012
April 14, 2012
Mail from Alex Morton - Sorry to continue with the bad news
Hello
In 1991, Pat Chamut Director General of DFO Pacific Region said:
“Continued large-scale introductions from areas of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic disease agents of which the potential impact on both cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to the resource and economically devastating to its user groups” (Chamut former ADM, DFO, to Sarna, Director of Pacific Rim & Trade, Policy Division, International Directories, DFO, 1990)
He was right, but he was powerless as DFO is today to stop this runaway assault on wild salmon. I cannot figure out why government would do this to us, to their own families and our future.
Please see my blog for information on yet another apparently Norwegian virus that we found in Atlantic farm salmon in supermarkets. This one weakens the fish's heart - how is a sockeye supposed to travel 800 km against the Fraser River with a virus attacking their heart muscle? Is this why so many salmon are dying en route to their spawning grounds?
How is it no one knew about this during the Cohen Inquiry? Is government and industry blind to this disease? Or do they know it is here and just don't care?
Please consider emailing Premier Christy Clark to demand to know which of the Provincial Licences of Occupation these supermarket fish came from, so we can go there and see how this is spreading to wild salmon. DFO's own lab reported this disease at Cohen, but apparently they ignored their own lab and clearly nothing has been done because the supermarkets are stocked with fish carrying this virus. There are no bio-security warnings posted on them so every time someone washes these things before cooking and eating the virus is flowing down the drain into the ocean.
Sorry to continue with the bad news,
Alexandra Morton and the other three women with shopping carts, Nicole MacKay, Anissa Reed, Sabra Woodworth
In 1991, Pat Chamut Director General of DFO Pacific Region said:
“Continued large-scale introductions from areas of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic disease agents of which the potential impact on both cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to the resource and economically devastating to its user groups” (Chamut former ADM, DFO, to Sarna, Director of Pacific Rim & Trade, Policy Division, International Directories, DFO, 1990)
He was right, but he was powerless as DFO is today to stop this runaway assault on wild salmon. I cannot figure out why government would do this to us, to their own families and our future.
Please see my blog for information on yet another apparently Norwegian virus that we found in Atlantic farm salmon in supermarkets. This one weakens the fish's heart - how is a sockeye supposed to travel 800 km against the Fraser River with a virus attacking their heart muscle? Is this why so many salmon are dying en route to their spawning grounds?
How is it no one knew about this during the Cohen Inquiry? Is government and industry blind to this disease? Or do they know it is here and just don't care?
Please consider emailing Premier Christy Clark to demand to know which of the Provincial Licences of Occupation these supermarket fish came from, so we can go there and see how this is spreading to wild salmon. DFO's own lab reported this disease at Cohen, but apparently they ignored their own lab and clearly nothing has been done because the supermarkets are stocked with fish carrying this virus. There are no bio-security warnings posted on them so every time someone washes these things before cooking and eating the virus is flowing down the drain into the ocean.
Sorry to continue with the bad news,
Alexandra Morton and the other three women with shopping carts, Nicole MacKay, Anissa Reed, Sabra Woodworth
“Attention to biosecurity in this case was also important to help limit spread to adjacent sites, as HSMI has been spreading throughout the Norwegian salmon farming industry. At a time when humans are being encouraged to eat fish to help combat a range of conditions including coronary disease, it seems somewhat ironic that heart disease seems to be such a problem in the fish themselves” (Ferguson et al 2005, 28)
Really GREAT Patagonia project in BC
Patagonia is known for it's "green thinking" and environmental engagement, which I really like. Here is an other great example of how they get involved in local communities making a change in a very positive way. I just which more company's worldwide had the same environmental approach and sense of responsibility.
Check out this great video by clicking on this picture below.
Saving Salmon by Eating Them
Salmon are more than just fish. The immense spawning runs that once filled rivers from Southern California to the Alaskan Arctic formed the lifeblood of coastal ecosystems, nature’s conduit for moving nutrients from the bountiful Pacific to the sterile interior. Ocean elements have been discovered thousands of miles inland, brought there by salmon, and carried deep into the forest and mountains in the bellies of bears, wolves and human beings.
Salmon’s former abundance created a thriving human population, with great centers of culture and trade springing up wherever people gathered for the harvest. To the original inhabitants of our coastlines, salmon meant life itself. And today, these fish still carry deep meaning. They are symbols of wild, clean water, a connection to the ancient rhythms of tide and season.
Wild Pacific salmon have fed us—in both body and spirit—for 10,000 years. We have always found comfort in knowing they will return from the sea next season, and the one after that. But unless we can change destructive practices within the salmon industry, their return grows more doubtful with each passing year.
Have A Snack, Save A Species
Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia
Holiday 2011
At Patagonia, before we started our environmental assessment program and began leading “an examined life,” we blindly made our clothes like every other apparel company. In the spring of 1988, we retrofitted an old building in Boston on Newbury Street and opened our third Patagonia store. Within days, our employees there began complaining of headaches during their shifts. An air quality analysis found that the building’s ventilation system was simply recycling the same air, and that the formaldehyde and other chemicals used on our cotton T-shirts to prevent shrinkage and wrinkling was poisoning our staff.
Most other garment companies at the time would have fixed the ventilation and closed their minds to the formaldehyde problem. But that incident bothered us enough that we began working with select growers and processors to create an organic cotton supply for our products. Along the way, we found out a great deal about what goes into making our clothes. We helped form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to trace every step in making an article of clothing so that we can make intelligent decisions and cause less harm to ourselves and to the planet. We now know how much water goes into making a T-shirt (703 liters, or a day’s drinking water for 234 people). But we also know what kind of water – fossil water from old aquifers, irrigated water from impounded rivers or natural rainwater – is used in the process. By 1996, we had converted our entire sportswear line to 100 percent organically grown cotton. Sure, it cost more. But this decision kept thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals out of the environment. It’s one of our greatest success stories.
Now we want to bring the same kind of changes to the salmon-fishing industry.
Wild Pacific Salmon have fed humans – in both body and spirit – for 10,000 years. We have always found comfort in knowing salmon will return from the sea, season after season. But unless we can change destructive practices within the salmon industry, their return grows more doubtful every year.
Salmon used to be caught in the rivers during huge spawning runs that once filled rivers from Southern California to the Alaskan Arctic. Native American tribes along the shore would catch only what they needed and then allow the remaining salmon to go through for the next tribe, all the way into Idaho and Montana. But today, too many endangered stocks are dwindling under the pressures of indiscriminate harvesting and unsustainable fish-farming techniques.
If you catch a salmon in the ocean, you really don’t know where that fish came from. If it’s a sockeye, it may have come from the Fraser River in British Columbia where there was a run of 25 million fish last year (just 12 percent of what the run used to be). But that fish may have also come from a tributary of the Fraser where there are only 20-50 fish left. Or it could be a coho or Atlantic salmon that escaped from a fish farm, and is now loaded with dioxins, antibiotics, fungicides and other chemicals used to “clean” net pens. It could be a Chinook salmon from a hatchery, with all its attendant dumbed-down-gene-pool problems. How does the fisherman know – or the consumer? Unless you catch a salmon in its natal river, you don’t know where it came from.
The Patagonia Provisions Salmon Project is our effort to change the fishing industry, the same way we’ve changed how we make our clothes. Our goal is to create a new model that demonstrates how selectively harvesting salmon is not only possible, but good business, and can help protect the future of wild salmon. Working with SkeenaWild, a Canadian fish conservation organization, Patagonia has identified sustainable, in-river fisheries that use tangle-tooth nets, beach seines and traditional First Nations fish wheels and dip nets. These selective-harvest techniques produce higher quality fish and, most importantly, allow non-target species to survive and spawn. Our salmon provisions come only from fully mature fish, caught in their prime in the river where they were born, and caught upstream of any tributaries that may have endangered runs.
Whether creating a cotton T-shirt or a package of salmon jerky, we believe in following our resources all the way to their origin, so that we cause no unnecessary harm in doing business. You should demand to know where Patagonia Provisions products come from, the same way you should know where your clothes come from and how they’re made. In fact, we think you should be able to ask the same questions about anything you buy.
Saving Salmon by Eating Them
Salmon are more than just fish. The immense spawning runs that once filled rivers from Southern California to the Alaskan Arctic formed the lifeblood of coastal ecosystems, nature’s conduit for moving nutrients from the bountiful Pacific to the sterile interior. Ocean elements have been discovered thousands of miles inland, brought there by salmon, and carried deep into the forest and mountains in the bellies of bears, wolves and human beings.
Salmon’s former abundance created a thriving human population, with great centers of culture and trade springing up wherever people gathered for the harvest. To the original inhabitants of our coastlines, salmon meant life itself. And today, these fish still carry deep meaning. They are symbols of wild, clean water, a connection to the ancient rhythms of tide and season.
Wild Pacific salmon have fed us—in both body and spirit—for 10,000 years. We have always found comfort in knowing they will return from the sea next season, and the one after that. But unless we can change destructive practices within the salmon industry, their return grows more doubtful with each passing year.
Have A Snack, Save A Species
Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia
Holiday 2011
Holiday 2011
At Patagonia, before we started our environmental assessment program and began leading “an examined life,” we blindly made our clothes like every other apparel company. In the spring of 1988, we retrofitted an old building in Boston on Newbury Street and opened our third Patagonia store. Within days, our employees there began complaining of headaches during their shifts. An air quality analysis found that the building’s ventilation system was simply recycling the same air, and that the formaldehyde and other chemicals used on our cotton T-shirts to prevent shrinkage and wrinkling was poisoning our staff.
Most other garment companies at the time would have fixed the ventilation and closed their minds to the formaldehyde problem. But that incident bothered us enough that we began working with select growers and processors to create an organic cotton supply for our products. Along the way, we found out a great deal about what goes into making our clothes. We helped form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to trace every step in making an article of clothing so that we can make intelligent decisions and cause less harm to ourselves and to the planet. We now know how much water goes into making a T-shirt (703 liters, or a day’s drinking water for 234 people). But we also know what kind of water – fossil water from old aquifers, irrigated water from impounded rivers or natural rainwater – is used in the process. By 1996, we had converted our entire sportswear line to 100 percent organically grown cotton. Sure, it cost more. But this decision kept thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals out of the environment. It’s one of our greatest success stories.
Now we want to bring the same kind of changes to the salmon-fishing industry.
Wild Pacific Salmon have fed humans – in both body and spirit – for 10,000 years. We have always found comfort in knowing salmon will return from the sea, season after season. But unless we can change destructive practices within the salmon industry, their return grows more doubtful every year.
Salmon used to be caught in the rivers during huge spawning runs that once filled rivers from Southern California to the Alaskan Arctic. Native American tribes along the shore would catch only what they needed and then allow the remaining salmon to go through for the next tribe, all the way into Idaho and Montana. But today, too many endangered stocks are dwindling under the pressures of indiscriminate harvesting and unsustainable fish-farming techniques.
If you catch a salmon in the ocean, you really don’t know where that fish came from. If it’s a sockeye, it may have come from the Fraser River in British Columbia where there was a run of 25 million fish last year (just 12 percent of what the run used to be). But that fish may have also come from a tributary of the Fraser where there are only 20-50 fish left. Or it could be a coho or Atlantic salmon that escaped from a fish farm, and is now loaded with dioxins, antibiotics, fungicides and other chemicals used to “clean” net pens. It could be a Chinook salmon from a hatchery, with all its attendant dumbed-down-gene-pool problems. How does the fisherman know – or the consumer? Unless you catch a salmon in its natal river, you don’t know where it came from.
The Patagonia Provisions Salmon Project is our effort to change the fishing industry, the same way we’ve changed how we make our clothes. Our goal is to create a new model that demonstrates how selectively harvesting salmon is not only possible, but good business, and can help protect the future of wild salmon. Working with SkeenaWild, a Canadian fish conservation organization, Patagonia has identified sustainable, in-river fisheries that use tangle-tooth nets, beach seines and traditional First Nations fish wheels and dip nets. These selective-harvest techniques produce higher quality fish and, most importantly, allow non-target species to survive and spawn. Our salmon provisions come only from fully mature fish, caught in their prime in the river where they were born, and caught upstream of any tributaries that may have endangered runs.
Whether creating a cotton T-shirt or a package of salmon jerky, we believe in following our resources all the way to their origin, so that we cause no unnecessary harm in doing business. You should demand to know where Patagonia Provisions products come from, the same way you should know where your clothes come from and how they’re made. In fact, we think you should be able to ask the same questions about anything you buy.
April 11, 2012
April 10, 2012
SOS over farm plan
SOS over farm plan
By IAN ALLEN and the Marlborough Express
The cumulative destruction of the forest and marine eco-system in the Marlborough Sounds has reached a tipping point, says environmental scientist Helle Janssen.
Finfish farming could push it over the edge, he said.
Mr Janssen was speaking at a public meeting in Havelock, organised by the Sustain Our Sounds group, to address concerns over the New Zealand King Salmon Ltd application to build a further nine salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. About 40 people attended the meeting at the sports pavilion on Thursday night.
"We are killing the Sounds by a thousand cuts," Mr Janssen said.
"If we kick the butt of this system, it will kick back majorly and we will be the poorer for it."
The crowd were given anti-salmon farm car bumper stickers and the New Zealand King Salmon Ltd application on CD.
Sustain Our Sounds chairman Danny Boulton said the good turnout showed people cared about the Marlborough Sounds.
"For the night before Easter, to get people out, shows they obviously have a genuine interest."
Mr Boulton said the group needed $500,000 to fight the proposal. "It sounds like a lot of money but shared between us it's not a big ask."
He asked people at the meetingt for financial support.
Sustain Our Sounds scientific adviser Rob Schuckard has worked as a mussel farmer in the Marlborough Sounds. He claimed the Sounds could not sustain the increased nitrogen levels produced by the additional tonnage of salmon from the proposed further nine New Zealand King Salmon farms. The extra nitrogen would fill the water with harmful algae, he claimed. Increased algae would also affect birds such as the king shag and cormorants which wouldn't be able to dive for food, he said.
Former Marlborough mayor Tom Harrison said the New Zealand King Salmon proposal was the most important issue the Marlborough community had faced.
"I'm so concerned about what is going to happen here.
"This is serious," he said.
Mr Boulton said algae was killing off the vitality of the Sounds and could lead to dead zones.
A landowner living beside one of the existing farms had already noticed increased algae levels in the water, he said. "We have reason to be concerned not only about the proposed farms but about what we have already."
April 9, 2012
The Spring 2012 Issue of The Patagonia Journal is now online
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If you like a very classical and beautiful approach in how to produce an e-mag then The Patagonia Journal is the place to go to. They have a very special style to their approach in layout and picture style, which I really like, it's kind of conservative and yet young and fresh.
This issue really make me want to pack my gear and jump on a plane to Patagonia - "the land of fire" - and i know that one day before I leave this planet it WILL happen!!!
Here is a couple of shoot from this great issue - check it out by using this direct link :
.... and a link to the past issues of The Patagonia Journal
The Patagonia Journal omethimes present an artist and in the Winter issue 2012 they presented a really brilliant artist named Emaus Miciu Nicolaevici from Argentina.
Here is a little taste of some of his amazing paintings......
.....this one of the lonely tree I'm absolutely crazy about....
New april edition of Flymage out now
For every fly fisher who have been waiting for the first magical cast of a new season, the waiting is nearly over - at least for all of us europeans :)
In the new april edition Flymage brings us some really brilliant footage and a nice video so don't hesitate check it out using this direct link - Flymage/english version
PS. Here is a little taste of what you can expect inside this edition of pure fly fishing and outdoor living.
April 8, 2012
Mail from Alex Morton - election coming up
Hello
I am writing this because there is an election coming up that could do the local environment significant good and I think it is important to be aware of these opportunities if we are going to pass anything on to the future generations.
My lawyer, Greg McDade, is running for election to the Board of Vancity - a co-operative/credit union, that works to better its communities, not for shareholder profit. A strong environmental voice on its Board would be good for wild salmon. If you have an account there, you can vote.
McDade, was given a First Nation meaning "wolverine." All who saw him question DFO, the CFIA and the fish farmers through the Cohen Inquiry can appreciate the good fit this name has to the man.
McDade has stood with me on the front line defending wild salmon from the corporate salmon for years. He was the head of Sierra Legal Defence Fund (Ecojustice).
He won our BC Supreme Court challenge against the Province of BC, the Government of Canada and the industry - to stop the pretending that these were provincial "farms," and place them under the Fisheries Act, where government is supposed to protect wild fish. No one thought it was possible to win this, except him.
He was my lawyer through the grueling Cohen Process, where he kept on working with his junior lawyer, Lisa Glowacki, long after the money ran thin. I was deeply disturbed by the documents I was reading and McDade, helped me see how to stay focused and keep move forward
As the fish farm fight keeps moving up the political ladder, to where we are now standing at the door of the highest levels, I have to understand far more than the biology. Greg has provided painfully honest comment and guidance drawing on decades of experience fighting for our environment. He has read every situation we have encountered with uncanny accuracy - he does not waste time or energy chasing distractions.
McDade is rock in a world that is shifting rapidly and it is pretty clear that unless we pick up the pieces right now and start reassembling what we need to thrive, we are going to see changes that are not good for us. He is a good guy to have on your side.
If you bank on-line, you can vote (www.vancity.com) anytime starting Tuesday, April 3. He’s #5 on the ballot.
For more info, you can go to the Vancity site after April 3 or his facebook page: facebook/GregMcDadeforVancity, or contact him at gregforvancity@gmail.com.
More news soon, on the fish farm front.
Alex
wildsalmonpeople@npogroups.org
I am writing this because there is an election coming up that could do the local environment significant good and I think it is important to be aware of these opportunities if we are going to pass anything on to the future generations.
My lawyer, Greg McDade, is running for election to the Board of Vancity - a co-operative/credit union, that works to better its communities, not for shareholder profit. A strong environmental voice on its Board would be good for wild salmon. If you have an account there, you can vote.
McDade, was given a First Nation meaning "wolverine." All who saw him question DFO, the CFIA and the fish farmers through the Cohen Inquiry can appreciate the good fit this name has to the man.
McDade has stood with me on the front line defending wild salmon from the corporate salmon for years. He was the head of Sierra Legal Defence Fund (Ecojustice).
He won our BC Supreme Court challenge against the Province of BC, the Government of Canada and the industry - to stop the pretending that these were provincial "farms," and place them under the Fisheries Act, where government is supposed to protect wild fish. No one thought it was possible to win this, except him.
He was my lawyer through the grueling Cohen Process, where he kept on working with his junior lawyer, Lisa Glowacki, long after the money ran thin. I was deeply disturbed by the documents I was reading and McDade, helped me see how to stay focused and keep move forward
As the fish farm fight keeps moving up the political ladder, to where we are now standing at the door of the highest levels, I have to understand far more than the biology. Greg has provided painfully honest comment and guidance drawing on decades of experience fighting for our environment. He has read every situation we have encountered with uncanny accuracy - he does not waste time or energy chasing distractions.
McDade is rock in a world that is shifting rapidly and it is pretty clear that unless we pick up the pieces right now and start reassembling what we need to thrive, we are going to see changes that are not good for us. He is a good guy to have on your side.
If you bank on-line, you can vote (www.vancity.com) anytime starting Tuesday, April 3. He’s #5 on the ballot.
For more info, you can go to the Vancity site after April 3 or his facebook page: facebook/GregMcDadeforVancity, or contact him at gregforvancity@gmail.com.
More news soon, on the fish farm front.
Alex
wildsalmonpeople@npogroups.org
Canadian scientists recently announced they have detected ISA in multiple species of wild Pacific salmon
| Jim Wilcox |
Het pens and ISA
Response from US Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington State):
As you may know, Canadian scientists recently announced they have detected ISA in multiple species of wild Pacific salmon. While the virus does not pose a threat to human health, previous outbreaks of ISA in Chile and Norway did significant damage to their aquaculture industries. This virus could harm the Pacific Northwest salmon fishing industry and the coastal economies that rely on it because thousands of Washington state jobs depend on healthy, sustainable salmon populations. A 2010 Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Study found that commercial fisheries, after processing and distributing their stocks, contributed $1.6 billion to the local economy.
In response to the recent ISA discovery in Canada, I authored a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2112) on October 19, 2011. This amendment calls on the National Aquatic Animal Health Task Force to evaluate the risk the virus could have on wild salmon off West Coast and Alaskan waters, and to develop within six months a plan to address this emerging threat. I am pleased my amendment became law on November 18, 2011, when H.R. 2112 was signed by President Obama (P.L. 112-55).
Additionally, on November 2, 2011, I sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science expressing the need for the U.S. federal government to independently test samples of the recently detected salmon virus, rather than relying on Canadian scientists. The letter urges the Committee to commit the resources needed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to measure salmon virus susceptibility among different species, assess surveillance and monitoring, develop an essential action plan to respond to the potential salmon virus, and establish better techniques for virus detection. As we continue to learn more about the potential infectious salmon anemia virus on the West Coast, I will work to ensure NOAA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other state and federal agencies have the resources necessary to protect our wild salmon.
Since being elected to the Senate, I have committed myself to protecting the environment and natural resources, not only within Washington State but throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Pacific Northwest wild salmon support tens of thousands of local jobs. I believe we need to take immediate action to protect these jobs by quickly developing a salmon virus action plan. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as we continue to closely track this ISA threat.
Response from US Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington State):
As you may know, Canadian scientists recently announced they have detected ISA in multiple species of wild Pacific salmon. While the virus does not pose a threat to human health, previous outbreaks of ISA in Chile and Norway did significant damage to their aquaculture industries. This virus could harm the Pacific Northwest salmon fishing industry and the coastal economies that rely on it because thousands of Washington state jobs depend on healthy, sustainable salmon populations. A 2010 Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Study found that commercial fisheries, after processing and distributing their stocks, contributed $1.6 billion to the local economy.
In response to the recent ISA discovery in Canada, I authored a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2112) on October 19, 2011. This amendment calls on the National Aquatic Animal Health Task Force to evaluate the risk the virus could have on wild salmon off West Coast and Alaskan waters, and to develop within six months a plan to address this emerging threat. I am pleased my amendment became law on November 18, 2011, when H.R. 2112 was signed by President Obama (P.L. 112-55).
Additionally, on November 2, 2011, I sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science expressing the need for the U.S. federal government to independently test samples of the recently detected salmon virus, rather than relying on Canadian scientists. The letter urges the Committee to commit the resources needed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to measure salmon virus susceptibility among different species, assess surveillance and monitoring, develop an essential action plan to respond to the potential salmon virus, and establish better techniques for virus detection. As we continue to learn more about the potential infectious salmon anemia virus on the West Coast, I will work to ensure NOAA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other state and federal agencies have the resources necessary to protect our wild salmon.
Since being elected to the Senate, I have committed myself to protecting the environment and natural resources, not only within Washington State but throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Pacific Northwest wild salmon support tens of thousands of local jobs. I believe we need to take immediate action to protect these jobs by quickly developing a salmon virus action plan. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as we continue to closely track this ISA threat.
...Response to this from my friend Patrick in BC.
If the Canadian Harper Government does not stop the Norwegian salmon farms very soon, BC's rivers will within 5 years look like Norway's, Scotland's and Chile's rivers who has almost lost all their wild salmons to farm salmon diseases, sea lice explosions and ocean pollution. If that happens many many jobs and businesses will go lost, including Fraser River Lodge which even with the weddings still going will have no big chance to survive without any fishing at all.
I have followed this case very close for over 12 months now, met and talked to the leading sea biologists in Vancouver who works on the coast direct with the diseased salmon. Been in courtrooms listening to the experts against the salmon farms. Read over 100 detailed reports from BC, Norway and Chile and its all pretty accurate that the consequences of salmon farming is putting the BC wild salmon in great danger to disappear... Unfortunately!!!
Anyone who wishes to follow this case on FB in more details can check this site: "Salmon Are Sacred" founded by Alexandra Morton.
Patrick
Hungry Junkies - new vid out from these totally hooked up salmon dudes
...and an older one from these totally "salmon'ed up guy's" in their Russian paradise
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