November 12, 2007

Canadian businesses launch ad offensive against salmon farms
 

Canadian businesses in British Columbia have launched another salvo in a long campaign against salmon farms in the region, this time a full-page ad in the national newspaper urging open pen fish farms to be moved away from juvenile salmon migration routes along the B.C. coast.

The group of wilderness tourism operators, sport and commercial fishermen, seafood processors and concerned residents highlighted the fact that juvenile salmon heading out to the ocean past sea lice-infested open-pen fish farms in Georgia Strait may be killed once infested by the lice.

As a resort owner noted, wilderness tourism and fishing combined bring in more than US$1.6 billion for the region, nearly triple what the fish farming business brings to the region's economy.

The ad, addressed to Premier Gordon Campbell and the provincial and federal ministers of fisheries, ran in the national edition of the Globe and Mail newspaper.

The launch of the ad coincides with the unveiling of the SaveBCsalmon.ca website offering an online petition urging the relocation of fish farms away from wild salmon migration routes.

Sea lice have been notoriously known to cause economical damages to fish farms. In a recent study, sea lice cost salmon farmers more than US$100 million for treatment and lost production, which represents about 20 percent of their total costs.

Agriculture Minister Pat Bell said the B.C. government is committed to protecting wild salmon and added that the department is collaborating with First Nations, with industry and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform.

Bell said the government is working on an aquaculture plan after a report by a special legislative committee called for a ban on new salmon farms and a move to closed containment systems to keep farmed salmon out of ocean water.