Mail from Alex Morton

Hello,

The fight to save wild salmon from salmon feedlots just went to the next level!

Mercola, the world's #1 natural health website  just posted our bio-political documentary Salmon Confidential!  Over 10,000 more people have viewed the film in just a few hours for a total of over 90,000 views since it was released a few weeks ago.

I am touring Salmon Confidential through BC, 18 screenings in 20 days you can see the schedule here.   The showings are sparking very animated dialogue afterwards. So many people are fed up and are now taking action, visiting their supermarkets, talking to their BC candidates, signing the boycott and change.org petition.  Finally, people understand they are going to have to step up in large numbers if we are going to protect wild salmon from salmon feedlot disease. Thank you!

Highlights of the tour include the evening with the brilliant Elizabeth May Canada's first Green Party Member of Parliament, April 20 in Sidney BC (entry by donation) and David Suzuki on April 18 in Vancouver buy tickets.

Today's blog All Bark and Bite is on the economy of salmon feedlots vs the wild salmon economy. Not only do we get the poop end of this deal, Canadian tax payers are paying to compensate the fish farmers for the disease outbreaks they are creating and you can be eating virus infected salmon when you buy BC farm salmon. Many consider this unwholesome.

The Province of BC has the power to revoke the licences of occupation of all the salmon feedlots on key wild salmon migration routes if it is in the public interest. This industry is 98% Norwegian-owned it is in Norway's interest. Wild salmon are in Canadian's interest.  Read my blog, examine the economics, contact the leaders of the BC political parties and tell them it is time (emails at bottom of blog page).  There is no reason to continue this madness.  It is time for BC politicians to serve the people and this tremendous resource. Transition the few workers in the salmon feedlot industry to something less damaging and lets move forward with bringing wild salmon and the economy of BC back into the pink!

Wild salmon need us right now.  They need to stop breathing in salmon feedlot sewage as they try to swim to sea.

Thank you all who have stepped up!

Alexandra Morton

Important mail from Alexandra Morton.

Hello 

This film is the behind the scenes on the greatest environmental scandal in British Columbia.  Please watch and then make sure all your MLA hopefuls watch this as they will be holding this ball as the issue breaks the surface, finally after twenty years.

SALMON CONFIDENTIAL

The wild salmon of British Columbia need our participation in stopping the viral pollution.  The Province of BC is charge of the land tenures for every salmon feedlot and thus they decide which wild salmon are exposed to this.

Please do what you can to spread this film.

Alexandra Morton

_________________________________

March 5, 2013

Dear Marine Harvest

I have been informed that a large percentage of juvenile Atlantic salmon in your Dalrymple Hatchery, Sayward BC, are infected with the piscine reovirus.  I understand that you intend to move these fish into ocean pens in the very near future where the virus will be loosed into the Pacific.

This Norwegian virus is associated with a disease called Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation known to severely weaken salmon to the point they may be unable to swim up a river. The BC provincial farm salmon vet, Dr. Gary Marty, reported the symptoms of this disease to Mainstream (August 8, 2008 Cohen Commission Exhibit # 1549-018). Heart lesions consistent with this disease were reported in your fish on April 29, 2009 by the same vet:

“Congestion and hemorrhage in the stratum compactum of the heart (i.e., the peripheral layer of dense cardiac muscle) is a distinctive lesion that I started seeing in 2008 in clinical submission from both Atlantic and Pacific salmon...” (April 29, 2009, Cohen Commission Exhibit 1549-318)

Dr. Marty reports 75% of BC farm salmon are testing positive for this virus. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/19/bc-piscine-reovirus.html

Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, a World Health Organization-sponsored disease detective lab states:

“If the potential hosts are in close proximity, it goes through them like wildfire,” www.wired.com/wiredscience/.../salmon-disease-identified

Indeed, juvenile wild salmon near Kingcome inlet near your feedlots were negative for this virus in 2008 and then positive in 2012.

The Cohen Commission into the Decline of the Sockeye Salmon of the Fraser River reported up to 90% of the sockeye that enter the Fraser River never make it to their spawning grounds.  Is this virus responsible? A very recent paper warns that this disease spreads over long distances http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22959429

Given this evidence, in accordance with the Precautionary Principle, your fish in the Dalrymple Hatchery represent a significant threat to the wild salmon of British Columbia if they are placed in ocean net pens.

Justice Cohen recommends net-pen salmon farms cease to operate by 2020 unless they can be shown to pose less then minimal risk to migrating salmon (Recommendation 18, Vol.3, Pg. 20).  Putting exotic fish, infected with an exotic virus, known to spread like wildfire and weaken wild salmon is, in my opinion, in excess of minimal risk to one of the last great wild fisheries left on earth.

Either do not do this, or stand by your actions and inform British Columbians which feedlot you will be filling with these fish so that the impact can be measured.

Alexandra Morton

alexandramorton.typepad.com

Very interesting mail from Alex Morton.

I Just received this mail from Alex Morton - it all sounds like a "very bad movie" - so sad for Canada.
Shame on you Prime minister - you will pay big time one day, karma has a strange way of catching up on you

Hello

Last December, my lawyer Greg McDade made a prediction that was recorded in the Cohen Commission testimony - that within 12 months the federal government would attempt to strip the lab I am using to test for ISA virus of its international status.

He was right.  They are trying.

In response I went back to the wealth of information Justice Cohen and his Counsel Brock Martland gave us on ISA virus in BC and laid out what is known to the Director General of the Organization of International Epizootics (OIE).

7 labs have detected ISA virus in BC, 4 of them are federal government labs, whose results have been hidden, muzzled or misrepresented in government communications

Only 1 lab says 100% of his tests have been negative - Dr. Gary Marty, Provincial farm fish audit lab. His lab is now an outlier.

1 lab is non-government and thus harder to muzzle - that is the one the CFIA has gone after.

Last spring government drafted Bill 37 that would have made this research punishable by 2 years in jail.

The CFIA is clearly under pressure too.

The workers in the fish farm industry must feel uncertain about their future as does everyone depending on the wild fish economy. This virus is well known to damage their industry, which is already on its knees running out of food and customers.

I am asking the Director General of the OIE to cast an international eye on what is happening in BC, in hopes that we will be able to finish this work without escalating harassment.

Here is my letter to Dr. Bernard Vallat, DG of the OIE  http://alexandramorton.typepad.com

I could really use your help. Everyone needs to speak up, there is a petition on the site above. Share widely so people know they can help.

If you want to know the extent of what is going on please read my blog. This is sheer nonsense, in a high-stakes game that everyone looses; the shareholders, trade partners, fish farm workers, the wild salmon economy, politicians the wild salmon of the North Pacific and everyone that comes after us.



Alexandra Morton

Don Staniford wins defamation case launched by salmon-farming company

When I read these news I really felt that justice still has a chance out there in this insane world of money, power and greed - Huge congrats to Don Staniford and thank you from the bottom of my soul for keep on fighting for all of us in this very important matter.

PS. for more global information regarding this matter go to : Super Heros 4 salmon

Here is what the Calgary Herald wrote about this situation.

 

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS 

British-born activist Don Staniford has won a major victory against the global salmon-farming industry, the third time he's faced legal action over his campaigns.

Supreme Court of B.C. Justice Elaine Adair has dismissed a defamation case launched by salmon-farming company Mainstream Canada against Staniford.

The Norwegian-owned company had taken the activist to court over a 2011 campaign that included images of cigarette-like packages and statements such as "Salmon Farming Kills Like Smoking."

While Adair says the statements were defamatory and Staniford was motivated by malice, she says he honestly believed his statements were true and animosity wasn't his dominant purpose.

Mainstream Canada says it is disappointed and is reviewing the ruling.

Staniford faced his first legal threat from a Scottish salmon-farming company in 2001 that never went to trial, and he won a new trial that has yet to happen after appealing a defamation victory by B.C.'s Creative Salmon Company in 2007.

___________________________

Here is what the Brandon Sun wrote about this situation.

By: Keven Drews, The Canadian Press

Anti-salmon-farming activist Don Staniford has won another victory against the global aquaculture industry, despite some harsh words of criticism levelled against him by a Supreme Court of B.C. justice.
Justice Elaine Adair has dismissed a defamation case launched by the salmon-farming company Mainstream Canada against the British-born Staniford over a 2011 campaign that included images of cigarette-like packages and statements such as "Salmon Farming Kills Like Smoking."
In her ruling published Friday, Adair said while the statements were defamatory and Staniford was motivated by malice, the activist honestly believed in what he was saying and animosity wasn't his dominant purpose.
The ruling left officials at Mainstream Canada, a subsidiary of the Norwegian company Cermaq, disappointed.
But Staniford, who was removed from Canada this past February for overstaying a visitor's permit, was in a celebratory mood.
"I am over the proverbial moon and feel extremely vindicated," he said during a phone interview from Spain. "All along I knew that Cermaq (was) whistling in the dark."
"This is a victory not just for Don Staniford against Mainstream Canada. This is a victory for environmental campaigners, social-justice campaigners across the world."
Laurie Jensen, a spokeswoman for Mainstream Canada, said the company will be reviewing the ruling, noting it's too early to say if it will appeal, and she defended the court action, saying it was the right thing to do.
"What we're seeing is a character of a person," she said. "And because, you know, he's not found legally responsible doesn't mean that, you know, he's getting away with things."
She said Adair's ruling supports many of the company's allegations, but she's disappointed the judge dismissed the court action over fair comment, a ruling she called "outrageous."
The court action was not the first faced by Staniford.
His first legal threat came from a Scottish salmon-farming company in 2001 but that never went to trial. He also won a new trial that has yet to happen after appealing a defamation victory by B.C.'s Creative Salmon Company in 2007.
The latest defamation case was launched by Mainstream Canada based on a Jan. 31, 2011 Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture campaign.
Court documents state a news release sent to media included four mock-cigarette packages, all modelled after the Marlboro brand, containing statements like, "Salmon Farming Kills," "Salmon Farming is Poison," "Salmon Farming is Toxic," and "Salmon Farming Seriously Damages Health."
Images also appeared on the global alliance's website.
Many packages also included statements, such as "Norwegian Owned," and "92% Norwegian Owned."
Mainstream Canada, which has 27 fish-farm sites along the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island and is the second-largest salmon-farming company in B.C., argued there were more than 50 instances of defamatory words.
In fact, when questioned during the trial, Staniford wasn't aware of any research showing anyone had developed cancer after eating farmed salmon, Adair said in her ruling.
She said he admitted he didn't know whether a variety of chemicals were used on B.C. fish farms owned by Norwegian companies, but he identified emamectin benzoate as one such chemical.
Adair said Staniford did not know who used the chemical and couldn't identify a precise source.
"Staniford said that he did not know whether farmed salmon sold by Mainstream in B.C. is toxic to humans," she added. "He explained that he had not seen current data tests of contaminant levels in Mainstream’s farmed salmon, and so could not express an opinion."
But based on peer-reviewed science from the global salmon-farming industry, Staniford said the product "can contain cancer-causing chemicals and can carry an elevated cancer risk," noted Adair.
But the judge found Staniford believed what he said, although she called him a "zealot," challenged his credibility and noted his "closed-mindedness and deep prejudices make him an unreliable reporter of facts."
She also said "he will say almost anything to further his own agenda," and seems incapable of conceding error on some issues.
"He believes his own press, even when contradicted by other, contemporaneous documents."
In contrast, she complimented the company for its work of providing food for human consumption.
"They are conscious of the need to operate the business in a manner consistent with producing a product that is safe to consume and contributes to a healthy and nutritious diet," she said.
Adair ruled Staniford's defence of fair comment should succeed.
"I have found that he had an honest belief in the statements he made, and injuring Mainstream because of spite or animosity was not his dominant purpose in publishing the words in issue," she found.
Adair did not address the issue of damages before dismissing the case.
Staniford said the court case cost him about $100,000 even with his lawyer, David Sutherland, working at a reduced rate.
Jensen said the company had not yet tallied its court costs.
"Whether we won or lost, we did the right thing. People have to stand up to these people," she said. "Somewhere down the road, accountability will be made."
Staniford said he'll return to Canada as soon as he's allowed on March 1, 2013, and is planning a lecture tour around B.C. with Kurt Oddekalv, the leader of the Green Warriors of Europe, an environmental organization.
"I look forward to being welcomed into Canada," he said. "Already my supporters who threw a deportation party for me in Vancouver are planing a welcome party for me in Vancouver for the first of March."

I want to go there....NOW!!!!!

Check out this vid from "Where wise men fish" - great action, great location, what am I doing here in Denmark - I want to go there NOW!!!!!!

Support the Sea Shepherd - buy one of their t-shirts.

Thes giy's are doing a great job protecting our oceans and they need all the support they can get. One way to support "The Sea Shepherd" project is to buy one of their t-shirts - check out their collection through this direct link to their WEBSHOP

Want to join the Cove Guardians 2012-2013

August 10, 2012

From the Sea Shepherd website 

Operation Infinite Patience: Cove Guardians 2012-2013

The dolphins need you.  Sea Shepherd is gearing up for our annual dolphin defense campaign Operation Infinite Patience 2012-2013. Cove Guardian volunteers are needed.  We need volunteers to travel to Taiji, Japan and we need volunteers around the globe to engage the Japanese government.

The dolphin slaughter continues in Taiji, Japan.  We have slowed it down these past two years, but dolphins continue to be driven into the Cove for capture and slaughter.  Until the slaughter ends, we will not stop! We will display our Infinite Patience.

The drive hunt season is set to begin on September 1, 2012, and continue through February or March 2013.  Here is your chance to participate.  We need volunteers to join us on the ground in Taiji.  Want to be a Cove Guardian?  We know that our presence on the ground costs the Japanese government a significant of money and the greater our presence; the more expensive it becomes for them.

The Japanese authorities are getting desperate. Just this past season Cove Guardian Erwin Vermeulen was detained by the Japanese Government for 64 days and forced to stand trial for a crime he did not commit. This trial cost the Japanese government a significant amount of money. The judge found Vermeulen not guilty and the government of Japan was forced to pay him $10,000 USD for wrongful incarceration. Acquittals are essentially unknown in Japan thus demonstrating how little evidence existed to support the case. Vermeulen donated all funds to Sea Shepherd.

If you cannot become a Cove Guardian in Taiji your participation is still critical.  We need dedicated and passionate supporters all over the world to follow our tweets4taiji on Twitter and other information coming out of the campaign. Your continued efforts to contact the Japanese embassies and consulates and inform them of how offensive this slaughter is and how it damages Japan’s reputation is as important as ever.

We know that our presence and the communications to the Japanese embassies and consulates reduced the number of dolphins killed these past two years.

Not everyone who wants to crew for Sea Shepherd can take the time needed for an Antarctic campaign, nor is it possible for everyone who applies for ship’s crew to be selected. However, with very few exceptions, most Cove Guardian applications are accepted.  While this is a relatively easy campaign to join, be aware that it can be emotionally difficult and financially expensive.  It is not something to act upon lightly.  It is important work and we must stand tall and strong in the face of this horrific slaughter -until it ends. Many Cove Guardian volunteers return to Taiji and others have gone on to crew on our ship-based campaigns.

Think you have what it takes to practice Infinite Patience in Taiji?  Write to Scott West atcoveguardian@seashepherd.org and request a Cove Guardian application package.

New really great edition of Flymage out now

New really, really GREAT edition of Flymage out now - check it out this direct link 


The guy's have created a really nice edition once again - huge congrats from Pool 32 to my "fellow publishing brothers" :)
Keep it coming guy's - you made an absolutely brilliant job, I really liked it.


Her is a couple of shot from an article about sea trout fishing in Denmark - which I of course liked a lot. Yehaaaa !!! 

"Trutta" - Video Trailer from Flymage Magazine on Vimeo.

New great edition of Blood Knot out now.

They did it again !!! - New great edition of Blood Knot Mag is out now, this time it' is a green issue, which I really like, brilliant idea Guy's. It's filled up with information, videos, and great green content, and reaches from a fun side to a much more serious angle.
So if you haven't signed up yet - then what are you waiting for!!! -  if free and it's very easy, just a couple of clicks and you are set to get some serious fly fishing content in your mailbox. Use these two direct links to this new really great Green edition and sign up page.

THE GREEN ISSUE           SIGN UP

Here is just a couple of shots showing what you can expect from this "Great Green edition" of Blood Knot Magazine.

Loved this one - keep it coming :)

Very interesting mail from Alexandra Morton

Hello The salmon farming industry is in deep financial trouble and their BC operations appear to be making their problems worse.

Here is what the CEO's and Analysts are saying. http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2012/06/how-viable-is-salmon-farming-.html

Is government covering up the serious European disease issue in BC waters to protect an industry in deep trouble? I would be interested in hearing thoughts on the contents of this blog from anyone familiar with the world of global corporate finance.
Thank you.
Alexandra Morton

Family eats salmon covered in worms....

Family eats HEB salmon covered in worms: kxan.com

Salmon Wars- Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities

What will it take.....

This place I simply have to visit one day

“The Tongass is America’s salmon forest and one of the few places in the world where wild salmon and trout still thrive. Some 65 percent of  Tongass salmon and trout habitat is not Congressionally protected at the watershed scale, and is currently open to development activities that could harm fish. It’s time for Congress to better protect the richest resource of the Tongass: wild salmon.”

Tim Bristol
Trout Unlimited, Alaska Program Director

Check out their website : The Tongas

Getting ready for the fly fishing show.....

It's time to open the door to new exhibitors, but we wanted to give our "seasoned" exhibitors one more opportunity to reserve your space at the shows.

Search your desk for the 2013 Fly Fishing Show Exhibitor Contract and send it in now to reserve your favorite spot at each show location.  Whether you require a larger booth space, a corner, and proximity to the casting pond (or bathroom), we'll help you get what you want.  

Contact us if you have any questions.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Chuck Furimsky

The Fly Fishing Show

The BC salmon police did it again

The Bill 37 has been redrawn - "The BC Salmon Police" did it again.

Huge congrats from Denmark - absolutely great work.

But this is only one step on a long difficult journey. There are still lot's of problems to deal with, so please help this fantastic team of Wild Salmon Warriors.

You can help them by signing the petition using the link underneath.

(just click on this petition and it will bring you directly to the website)

...or donate to the continuing of salmon disease testing - by using this direct link...

More Salmon Culled After IHN Detected

Mail from Alex Morton - Victory - Bill 37 has been withdrawn, so far!!

Hello

Almost unbelievably Minister Don McRae's Bill 37 has been withdrawn. It remains on the order paper, but will not be revisited in this sitting of the BC Legislature!  The Liberals have cancelled the fall sitting, so it won't come up for another year. Therefore,  we are free to continue tracking these viruses, figuring out which ones are present and where and what they are doing.  The threat of prison was extremely unpleasant, but we had decided to challenge the act had it passed - a number of lawyers thought it was unconstitutional.

I want to thank all of you who wrote letters, posted comments on the Salmon Are Sacred facebook page, signed thepetition (please keep signing). Lana Popham, Michael Sather, and Scott Fraser are fantastic wild salmon warrior MLAs, Bea Olivastri of Friends of the Earth wrote a press release on this Bill from Ottawa this morning, Andrew Gage of West Coast Environmental Law wrote a powerful critique of the Bill in a letter to McRae, Elizabeth Denham, BC Information and Privacy Commissioner also wrote a powerful letter to McRae laying out the implications of his draconian bill. Karen Wristen, Greg McDade, John Davis, Jeff Jones, David Sutherland, Vince Gogolek all lawyers whose response to the bill helped us sort this out. Thank you to everyone who donated - so glad we can use the money for testing now! Thank you Ethan Baron for the fantastic reporting that first alerted us and then further reported on McRae's comments about needing this bill ASAP in case of a summer epidemic that might require limits to free speech. Thank you to all the people of this coast who have seen enough and are speaking up to tip us about the situation out on the salmon farms right now. Thank you Anissa Reed!!! You are awesome, Thank you Sabra Woodworth for always being there.

We turned this terrible thing back, it was all of us, not one person less, perhaps democracy is still alive. It is SO rare to get good news, but this is huge. We can get back to work now to turn off the viral spills. We are truly a movement now, a beautiful, inspired creative, peaceful, diverse enormous, movement not afraid to use our voices. We just want wild salmon to survive, and to protect them we have become like them we don't give up, thank you, thank you, thank you all of you!

Very important to keep the change.org petition  http://www.change.org/petitions/costco-safeway-loblaws-we-don-t-want-to-eat-salmon-flu-or-heart-viruses petition growing so the supermarkets will understand that we don't want diseased farm salmon to be sent all over the province on ice to supermarkets where the viruses could spread and people are eating them.  I realize the word is that these viruses don't hurt people, but we do know feedlot influenza is dangerous and knowingly moving it all over the place is a bad idea.

The BC Liberals were set to push this bill through and we turned it back 

Back to work

Alex

Mail from Alex - "Bill 37"

Hello

Minister Don McRae said today in the Vancouver Sun that he is "considering" an amendment to his bill 37 that will silence all of us working on disease in our salmon, as well people working on bird flu, mad cow disease, etc. 

An insider reports: "Bill 37 will probably be pushed through this week.
There are still about 20 something bills to discuss; this bill isn’t expected to get back on the floor for debate. Instead the government will just declare that by a certain point in time all debate is over and all the bills are passed."

Who knew our system of democracy is this frail?

We are headed for Victoria to look the people who would do this to us in the eye as this goes down.  I have over 600 samples in labs and I probably will not be able to tell you what is in our wild salmon, oolichans, steelhead and the fish in supermarkets without threat of two years in jail.  The salmon farmers have started a petition to restrain me, clearly there are things we learning that are making government and the salmon farm industry very uncomfortable. They have the power, we have the voice.

I have given the BC leg schedule and link to the broadcasts. http://alexandramorton.typepad.com

I list a number of ways to be heard, please also consider signing this petition to the supermarkets who are selling salmon culled from viral outbreaks. 

McRae would not be even considering making amendments to his bill if it were not the outcry to date. Please consider being heard and joining us in Victoria.

Alexandra Morton

We Don't Want to Eat Salmon with Flu or Heart Viruses

COSTCO, Safeway & Loblaws: We Don't Want to Eat Salmon with Flu or Heart Viruses

Some supermarkets are keeping a very dirty secret. 

Recently, I received positive lab test results showing that large supermarket chains are selling farmed salmon that are testing positive for salmon flu virus and the salmon heart virus. I am horrified to think that my friends are feeding their children infected fish. Food companies are required to tell you if a cookie has 2 grams of fat. Don't you think they should be required to tell you if a product is diseased?

I’ve worked as a biologist for the past 23 years and I know that hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon are crowded into pens in the ocean and this causes viruses to mutate and ‘go viral.’ Viruses spill out of these netpens and can infect the wild fish that we rely upon. We have strong scientific evidence to suggest that farm salmon viruses have led to the loss of millions, if not tens of millions, of wild salmon.

While fish viruses are not considered lethal to humans, we all saw how flu viruses in chickens and swine mutated to become a threat to humans. Viruses in feedlots are dangerous and people deserve the right to make informed choices about their food.

With hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon packed into a tight space, it is so easy for viruses to spread like "wildfire" on the farm and pouring out into the ocean infecting wild salmon threatening their survival.

Last weekend a British Columbia salmon farm killed 500,000 fish due to yet another viral outbreakand this week new major infections were reported in salmon farms in both British Columbia and Washington State. Fish from these infected farms could be sold in stores today.

If you were buying infected salmon, you would want to know, right? After next week you might not ever hear about it again. The provincial government of British Columbia, Canada is expected to pass a bill next week making it illegal for anyone to publicly report fish farm virus outbreaks in British Columbia. What country are we living in? How is it possible that it will be illegal for me to tell you that you are eating infected fish? It is Bill 37 Animal Health Act proposed by Minister Don McRae.

We must stop this. While stores like Costco, Safeway and Loblaws will not stop selling farmed salmon tomorrow, they have all the power to start labelling the fish they sell immediately.

Sign my petition asking them to label all farmed salmon with a history of viruses from the farms where they were raised or we will never buy fish from these stores again. Then ask everyone you know to sign on as well. 

A click on this image of the Petition will bring you right to the sign up section. 

C