The first real sea trout fishing trip after a long cold winter

Finally the weather showed some signs of early spring, beautiful sunshine all day, no wind and lot's of positive signals of good fishing conditions, from several of the most popular spots. It was time for the first real sea trout fishing trip after a long cold winter. And everything really "came together" yesterday in a perfect fishing trip, so here is a little photo essay from my trip to one of our fjords with my two fishing buddys - Peter and Svend.

Who said controlling the fly was easy!!!! :O)

Broad Global Partnership Formed to Rescue Troubled Oceans

"About 85 percent of the world's fish stocks are either seriously depleted or well on their way. We have over 400 dead zones where life has stopped - an area about the size of New Zealand."


SINGAPORE, February 24, 2012 (ENS) - The World Bank have announced the Global Partnership for Oceans, gathering governments, scientists, advocacy organizations, the private sector and international public institutions to confront the increasingly urgent issues of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss.


"Oceans are the lifeblood of our world," said World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick, announcing the new partnership in a keynote speech at "The Economist" magazine's World Oceans Summit in Singapore.

"They flow over more than 70 percent of our planet, and hold about 97 percent of its water. They absorb heat and carbon dioxide, generate oxygen, and shape the world's weather patterns. They provide about 15 percent of the animal protein for the world's population, the air that we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat," Zoellick said. "Whether we live inland or on coastlines, each one of us relies on healthy oceans."


"So for us as a development institution, it's also a core issue because about a billion people in the world depend on fish as their primary source of protein. It's a key source of jobs, whether for tourism or fisheries. There's hundreds of millions of jobs depending on this."


Read the rest of this article from Environment News Service - it all really sounds great, but words are easy - action is a very different other story, so it will be interesting to follow.......

The true cost of oil by

I don't understand anything anymore - what is happening in Canada, they have one of the largest nature resources on the planet, yet they somehow don't care about the gift they have and are apparently only focusing on short time "$oultion$" it makes me so extremely sad to se how much we humans are prepared to do for money - I don't like this world anymore, I don't like the human race - we have no emphatic feelings for all other spices on this beautiful blue planet........


What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project -- and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.

For almost twenty years, Garth's photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world's leading publications. His recent images from the boreal region of Canada have helped lead to significant victories and large new protected areas in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Ontario. Garth's major touring exhibit on the Tar Sands premiered on Los Angeles in 2011 and recently appeared in New York. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation PhotographersFilmed at TEDxVictoria on November 19 2011

http://garthlenz.com

http://tedxvictoria.com

Great vid from MidCurrent - absolute beauty

Connect Yellowstone from Marshall Cutchin on Vimeo.

Source to this great produced fly fishing vid - MidCurrent

AD Maddox Prints at the Trout Unlimited Annual Benefit and Auction

I really like A.D's paintings, so colorfull and facinating, something every fly fisher "on this planet" should treat themselves with, something which will make you dream about some of the unforgettable day's out there with your rod along the riverbanks of your favorite spot.
But what I also really like about A.D's work is that she supports some really important causes like in this case the important work of Trout Unlimited.

AD Maddox Prints will be available at the Trout Unlimited Annual Benefit & Auction in San Francisco, New York and Washington DC this Spring as well as Cast Hope in CA, WY Fly Casters and Upper Bear River TU. 

Here's the first of the 2012 canvases she is releasing.

PS. All A.D. Madox's available originals can be viewed on her website.

 Here's the quick link to her site : A.D. Madox 

Mail from Alex Morton - message from Nova Scotia

Hello

I received a message from Nova Scotia this morning, where they are desperately fighting off ELEVEN salmon farms.  Please consider signing their petition. They say the voices for wild salmon are vanishing as the fish go. They have spent years trying to bring wild salmon back, are just beginning to succeed and now 11 salmon feedlots are circling them, hungry for their waters. I know what that is like. My little community of Echo Bay fought hard to protect Broughton, but we were way too small, they didn't even notice us and we lost everything, there are 8 people left.

 http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-pen-fish-farming-on-nova-scotias-eastern-shore

 

I wish I had known what we were in for when salmon farms came banging on our door I would have fought harder, I would never have given them the benefit of our doubts, they looked so reasonable - who knew?  Well we know now.

Also, I have written an open letter to Justice Adair, who presided over the defamation trial Staniford vs Mainstream.  There are things Don Staniford is being accused of that are not true.  I offer her ladyship another view, with pictures, from a person who was there - me.

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2012/02/dear-justice-adair.html

On Friday, Justice Adair refused to rule on Mainstream's draconian proposal to immediately stop Staniford from speaking about fish farms. The terms of the request are so vague as to be nearly impossible to comply with and I believe would affect any who quoted anything related to Staniford. She will make a ruling on this at any moment.  As well, she could rule on the case at anytime - Did Don Staniford defame Mainstream, even though he never mentioned their name in the offending cigarette packs he used to draw parallels between the way Big Tobacco and Big Salmon manage public opinion?  We heard testimony on scientific papers reporting cancer-causing contaminants in farm salmon, then heard about salmon farming advertisements that targeted pregnant women to eat more farm salmon, as well as, an ad used on British Columbians reporting farm salmon are "natural, nutritious and free of contaminants."  Shame.

Most concerning to me was Mainstream's effort to make Staniford a liar for saying that thousands of us gathered in Victoria to tell government to get salmon farms out of the ocean, get away from our fish in the GET OUT Migration. I think it is dangerous when lawyers attempt to undo history, say people were not there. I have posted a slideshow on the link above in defense of all 5,000-7,000 of us who were there. This number came from the security guards at the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.  It would appear our message was not received.

Alex

Check out the new cool Le Mouching interactive web

The new super cool Le Mouching interactive website is online now.

It's filled with really interesting stuff, lots of great vid's like the one below, great articles and heaps of relevant links.

(The only thing I didn't like about it was that they didn't have a link to Pool 32 !!! - just kidding of course :O) 

I really like their approach to the whole fly fishing scene  - always with a fun angle and a big fat grin to it - well done guy's - thumps up from Pool 32.

Check it out using this direct link - Le Mouching

Sage: Elf Creek from Motofish Images on Vimeo.

It can be done - so no excuses left no to do it right

It can be done - so no excuses left no to do it in a right way, instead of just destroying everything arround these fish farms as we see everywhere.

Salmon Safe. Good For Farmers. Good For Fish. from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

Don Staniford's Day 20 farmed salmon lawsuit trial update.

Dr. Alex Mortons voice is worth listening to....

Dr. Alex Mortons voice is worth listening to and especially in this case - read it, learn something about how the world we live in these day's are changing rapidly - and then TAKE A STAND!!! do you like it or not??? - I my mind I have absolutely no doubt it is a very scary and sad development we are witnessing these days.....somehow I feel sorry for the future generations, because they have to deal with all the problems these huge corporations are creating now.

Norway - has free speech become too expensive?

By Dr. Alexandra Morton

Tomorrow, a judge in a BC court will be asked to make an instantaneous decision on day 20 of a 20-day trial whether to grant an injunction against Don Staniford speaking about the fish farm industry.

Standing in a hurricane we cannot see the pattern - that the storm tearing up the world is circular, that it reaches into the global stratosphere. Similarly, the proceedings in courtroom #52, Vancouver Law Courts would have little significance if you could not see the roles of Norway, China, Premier Christy Clark and shareholders. The defamation hearing Staniford vs. Mainstream is a test – can the corporate world tolerate democracy.

Big tobacco and Norwegian salmon feedlots hired the same strategist - Hill and Knowlton. The Tobacco Industry knew their product was suspect in killing people, and so it took skilled professionals to get people to keep buying cigarettes. Hill and Knowlton are top-flight, known for managing public relations for the Gulf War, the Exxon oil spill in Alaska, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and the massacre at Tiananmen Square. The salmon farmers have spent millions advertising just in the last two years.

But truth is more powerful.

Staniford used cigarette pack imagery (http://salmonfarmingkills.com) to make the point that farm salmon contain cancer-causing chemicals, that they are spreading like a cancer choking off wild salmon migration routes and otherwise harming oceans worldwide. Staniford never named Mainstream in these graphics, but BC salmon farming is 92% Norwegian owned and Norway is the biggest shareholder in Mainstream’s parent company, Cermaq. So through Mainstream, Norway is attempting to protect its industry, calling for an immediate gag order on Staniford and $1 million in damages.

Why such a big response to a guy with big mouth and no money?

Under the watchful eye of Justice Adair we saw evidence that the salmon farming industry knew cancer-causing chemicals are in their product even as they targeted pregnant women to eat more farm salmon:
In 2011, a multi-million dollar ad campaign put fish farm propaganda in our mailboxes saying;

“Farmed salmon is natural, nutritious and free of contaminants”

They know there are contaminants in farm salmon, but they paid huge bucks to tell British Columbians there are none.

While the salmon farming industry has the resources to hire Hill and Knowlton, Staniford’s tools are biting satire, superheroes, three websites, a Captain Condom suit and edgy, British humor. He knows people won’t read dry exposés on the industry. So he pushed the limits and Norway is pushing back hard. Mr. Wotherspoon, commercial litigation lawyer for Fasken Martineau, with 9 offices around the world, is asking Justice Adair for an immediate gag order on Mr. Staniford to shut him up for the few remaining weeks he is in British Columbia, before he is deported.

Norwegians should be concerned about this. In 2010, the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Chinese free speech dissident, Lui Xiaobo. When Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann accepted the award on Xiaobo’s behalf she said;

“To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.”

China took offence and imposed new rules concerning import of Norwegian farm salmon causing a 68% decline in shipments of Norwegian farm salmon to China. Massive stores of farm salmon rotted in warehouses.

While they are vulnerable to the trade winds they create, society’s rapacious corporate giants can save themselves from the spin of the vortex merely by leaning on another leg in another country. What Norway’s salmon feedlot operators lost in Norway, they gained in BC. BC farm salmon export to China skyrocketed from $249,000 in 2010 to more than $3.8 million in 2011 (Vancouver Sun, Feb 2012).

Now, however, free speech is threatening the profitable BC / China farm salmon connection. Staniford keeps saying salmon farming spreads disease. Indeed the ISA virus, the most lethal virus known to salmon and a form of influenza spread from Norway to Chile in 2007 causing 2 $billion dollars of damage. When my colleagues and I reported European strain ISA virus positive tests here in BC, what did the provincial Minister of Agriculture, Don McRae do? He made a statement that Premier Christy Clark would personally tell China we do not have ISA virus in BC. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency testified at the Cohen Inquiry in December that if ISA virus is in BC, trade in farm salmon could cease.

Recent industry trade paper headlines make it clear the farm salmon market is collapsing, because there is too much uneaten farm salmon on the market driving prices down below cost. Two weeks ago the US lifted a 20-year 24% duty on Norwegian farm salmon. This will allow Norwegian companied to sell more farm salmon to the U.S. and might save the motherships, but it puts their BC companies at greater risk. Farm salmon companies in BC report firing people and downsizing, they cannot survive without the Chinese market.
And so gale force winds spawned on the other side of the planet when Norway awarded one man for free speech have slammed into a small courtroom in Vancouver where Norway seeks to take free speech away from another man. The structure of the courts and democracy are creaking, rivets popping, paint peeling.

Norway I want to say to you - ISA virus is in BC, cancer-causing chemicals are in your fish, you do use BC as a dump as your companies never shovel their manure and wild fish are being killed in your pens. You can silence Staniford, but at what cost? You won’t hide these truths, because they are lying around in evidence everywhere. Corporations are like addicts they can’t stop themselves. They are blind to everything, but the next quarter. What does it mean when you hand out the Nobel Peace prize in one part of the world and then work to erode democracy where it has become inconvenient to business?

We all have to ask ourselves - what kind of world we want to exist in?