Good news hot off the presses:
We Really Won!
Marine Harvest has now filed their Appeal from the BC Supreme Court decision of Mr. Justice Hinkson and they conceded the main issues in our case that Provincial regulation of fish farms is unconstitutional!
Thank you to all who made this happen, there are not many success stories in this saga.
Please go to updates at www.adopt-a-fry.org for more information.
The Province has no mandate to protect wild fish and this is the crux of the mismanagement that both the industry and the rest of us in BC have faced for 20 years. The farms are now sited in the wrong places, ensuring social conflict and degradation of our wild salmon. To fix this the industry will have to down-size at the very least and be removed from the crucial wild salmon migration routes.
Federal Fisheries Minister, the Honourable Gail Shea, will need all the support we can give her to deal with this monumental mess that she inherited. Please do what you can to let people know about our letter in case they want to sign. In response to all of you who have written asking what can I do I have posted a new page on our website Actions. Please go there if you can and consider the very important request by my colleague Michelle Young, who grew up in the Broughton Archipelago before fish farms and knows personally what is at stake. Two gigantic fish farms are attempting re-zoning right on Johnstone Strait, guaranteeing all wild salmon that travel that route will be traveling through fish farm effluent. Given what we know now if these two farms go in we can know wild salmon are no long a priority in BC waters.
Thank you all for your hundreds of messages and best of all your great ideas! – alex
Recent article from The Tyee entitled ‘Good Luck BC’: Morton’s Cry of Despair
Earlier from Alexandra Morton and Carol Budnyk:
Hello All,
Fisheries Minister the Honourable Gail Shea finally answered us.Please go to www.adopt-a-fry.org The Letter to see her response.Here is my response to her: letter-to-minister.pdfand a follow up to our strategy: morton-follow-up-letter.pdf
Also go to www.farmedanddangerous.org to see that large environmental groups in BC are calling for immediate closure of salmon farms on the crucial Fraser River migration route.
Juvenile wild pink salmon sucked up from inside Marine Harvests Canadas Potts Bay fish farm in Knight Inlet and transported via the Orca Warrior and lying on the road in Port McNeill, 5 pm, June 16, 2009 (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Morton)
Pender Island… the LIVELY island?
I have lived on Pender for 14 years now, and during those years, have thought to myself occasionally, if I didn’t live here, where else would I live? There are so many wonderful people who live here, and yet so many things that could make this island a better place to live.
I am always on the lookout for ways to improve life on Pender. Not just drive by waves, which, by the way, are great, but basic, long term quality-of-life efforts each of us can make. A dwellers mindset perhaps. Pender… not just a temporary escape from the increasingly cramped world we live in, but a sustainable part of the real world.
How will we live on this island in future years? We all have to face the realities of today’s and tommorow’s world. The air appears less clear every year, the noise around us builds, and the costs mount.
I’m not a leader by nature, but I propose something like “Green Neighbourhood Meetings”, maybe quarterly, to discuss and make public, ideas about how we could navigate our island’s future without political rhetoric or incumberace. Small town style, local get togethers – around a glass of wine, tea, or whatever, to take control of what we have and what we want to be. Let’s get it… together. – Jocko