English : Help us save the wild salmon in Canada

Help us save the wild salmon in Canada

Alexandra Morton, an internationally known whale researcher and author, has spent the past 22 years documenting the impact of salmon farming on the Broughton Archipelago ecosystem. She is a member of the international delegation presently in Norway and hosted by Norges Naturvernforbund / Friends of the Earth Norway. In a very personal appeal she urged Norway to help.


	20.05.2009

Alexandra Morton

- The scientific research I am involved in shows that sea lice production from one salmon farm can be 30,000 times higher than natural levels, with infection of wild juvenile salmon 73 times higher than in areas without salmon farms. And impacts can spread for 30 kilometers along wild salmon migration routes, said Alexandra Morton. She is one of thirteen members of the Pure Salmon Campaign coalition delegation [1]

- It's still not too late to stop the collapse of wild salmon and social decay here in western Canada. But to do so, it will take the efforts of concerned citizens working across borders, to make it clear to the Norwegian government that salmon farms must not destroy the wild salmon arteries flowing into the coast of British Columbia. In today’s world such behavior is an act of inexcusable immorality as future generations will need life on earth to survive, concludes Aleaxandra Morton.

Here is the complete version of her highly personal appeal:

Dear Norway, help us save wild salmon in Canada

By Alexandra Morton

Roughly 25 years ago, I moved from Los Angeles to the small fishing town of Echo Bay, British Columbia, in the heart of Canada's Broughton Archipelago to conduct research on killer whales. Over the years, I raised two children here and learned many of the orcas' mysteries. The research I have published finds that the once vibrant wild salmon populations that fed everything here, including the economy of my community have been diminished to a sputtering ember due to the environmental damage caused by large, corporate salmon farms.

Tragically, though, one large mystery still remains: In light of actions taken to protect the wild salmon in Norway and numerous studies documenting Norwegian fish farms damaging Canadian ecosystems, why are the people of Norway standing by while these publicly supported Norwegian corporations export their catastrophic industry around the world?

Salmon farms are feedlot that break the natural laws that cause wild salmon to thrive. They incubate infectious diseases and parasites such as sea lice, which breed in the billions. Small parasitic sea lice graze on the fish’s exterior, but because of their relative size are benign to adult salmon. Nature traditionally kept these parasites away from defenseless, newly hatched wild salmon; but modern mega-salmon farms have brought the two together, with disastrous consequences.

Since 2001, I've tracked the wild baby pink salmon as they emerge from their natal streams in a river of life. Year after year, I've documented how the majority of wild salmon schools become pock-marked with sea lice as they pass the feedlots, only to be found miles downstream, bleeding, wrecked and dying.

The scientific research I am involved in shows that the impact of a single salmon farm is far reaching. Sea lice production from one salmon farm can be 30,000 times higher than natural levels, with infection of wild juvenile salmon 73 times higher than in areas without salmon farms. And impacts can spread for 30 kilometers along wild salmon migration routes. The drugs used to attempt to control this are a poison that threaten life in the ocean surrounds.

Dead salmon cannot return to spawn. Eagles, orca whales, grizzly bears and human communities all suffer, as a vital link in their food chain is severed. Some rivers in the Broughton Archipelago had less then 50 pink salmon return in recent years. There should be millions.

As a scientist today, I see wild salmon are a sacred gift of life. From the moment their pink translucent eggs drop into cold mountain streams, they support life around them. They act as a virtual blood stream; their movement of ocean nutrients is key to the health of the land and sea. Current industrial salmon production practices break this essential flow.

As a biologist, I see solutions, but the Norwegian salmon farming industry refuses to take responsibility and remove these industrial sites from the most valuable wild salmon habitat in Canada. Last fall, a lovely little river next door came back from extinction with 17,000 salmon. When those fish went to sea, the fish feedlot in front of their river was empty. The fish could not be more clear, they can thrive but not where fish feedlots sit.

It's still not too late to stop the collapse of wild salmon and social decay here in western Canada. But to do so, it will take the efforts of concerned citizens working across borders, to make it clear to the Norwegian government that salmon farms must not destroy the wild salmon arteries flowing into the coast of British Columbia. In today’s world such behavior is an act of inexcusable immorality as future generations will need life on earth to survive.

Note:
[1] The Pure Salmon Campaign is a global coalition with partners in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Chile all working to improve the way farmed salmon is produced.