Fresh~Hors
Thu, Nov-03-05, 06:15
>From TheTyee.ca
More Wild Salmon Wiped Out Link Address:
http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2005/10/02/WildSalmonWipedOut
Published: 2005-10-02 23:46:00 By Rafe Mair TheTyee.ca
How long can officials ignore sea lice connection?
There is another wipeout of pink salmon runs in the Broughton
Archipelago as predicted by Alexandra Morton, the biologist
who lives in the area, and who has studied the problem up
close. The cause of the wipeout? The Atlantic salmon fish
cages whose occupants provide hosts for hundreds of thousands
of sea lice which in turn attach themselves to and kill tiny
migrating salmon smolts (the little babies going out to sea).
This is scarcely a new story - the same phenomenon had similar
horrendous impacts of salmon and sea trout (sea run brown
trout) in Norway, Scotland and Ireland.
So how have fish farmers, often the same multi national
companies that savaged fish farms in Europe, got away with it?
This is a very hard question to answer because the evidence is
overwhelming.
Would you believe sun spots?
One answer is that fish farmers have been able to cast doubt
on the cause of lost smolts. They have been able to say that
unless you can trace the precise lice on the smolt to the
fish farm, the lice may be wild ones. This argument has been
devastated by scientists like Dr. Patrick Gargan form Ireland
and British Columbians like Dr. John Volpe and Dr. Neil
Frazer whose findings have been backed by no less a personage
than Dr. Dan Pawly of the University of British Columbia,
declared by Time magazine to be one of the top 50 scientists
in the world.
Friends, watching and listening to the fish farmers and their
government pals is like being witness to the Mad Hatter's Tea
Party in Alice in Wonderland. Let me give you but one of many
examples. The fish farmers and their PR people say that Dick
Beamish, not a fish biologist, provides evidence that sea lice
from fish farms don't bother wild salmon and has so reported.
They clearly hope no one reads what
Mr. Beamish has, in fact, written because his subject had
zilch to do with the impact of lice from fish cages on
pink salmon smolts but the effect of lice from fish farms
on adult wild salmon out in the wild ocean itself!
Like a lawyer defending a client who is guilty as hell, fish
farmers say "in the alternative" it might be mackerel
consuming the wild salmon at sea ... it might be warmer water
... or perhaps sun spots. Any imaginable and some unimaginable
alternatives are raised. But, forgive my lapse into scientific
jargon, that's all bullshit. Every single independent
scientist who has studied the subject has made the irrefutable
connection between failed salmon runs and the fish cages which
form the gauntlet they must run when going to sea as smolts.
The expert consensus
The work Alexandra Morton has done has been peer reviewed and
published in scientific journals. The recent study by Martin
Krkosek, assisted by Dr John Volpe and colleagues has been
peer reviewed and published in 2005 by The Royal Society, one
of the most prestigious journals in the world of science. The
issue is beyond all doubt.
Yet, through all this, the fish farmers continue and are
expecting a pliant government to give them more licenses to
bugger things up on the North Coast.
But why is the government not doing its duty?
One reason is, of course, that the fish farmers dump money
into the Campbell government's election coffers. Another is
that aquaculture sounds so modern and "with it" that only a
troglodyte would fight it. The answer to that, of course, is
that carefully monitored aquaculture is a great thing but fish
farms are unregulated and when they break the law, the
Campbell government gives them the fines back.
Over the course of the last five years I have interviewed or
spoken to every person involved, whether scientist or
environmentalist. None of them oppose salmon farming. What
they protest is governments permitting farmers to ply their
trade where that exposes wild salmon to mortal danger. Is that
so unreasonable?
The issue is coming to a head and the reaction of the
government will depend upon the voices of the public being
heard over the self-serving crap dished out by the offshore
corporations who want to operate in our environment without
having to concern themselves with petty little annoyances like
laws protecting wild salmon.
Rafe Mair's column for The Tyee runs every Monday and he can
be heard every weekday morning from 8:30-10:30 on 600AM. His
website is www.rafeonline.com.
fairuse
More Wild Salmon Wiped Out Link Address:
http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2005/10/02/WildSalmonWipedOut
Published: 2005-10-02 23:46:00 By Rafe Mair TheTyee.ca
How long can officials ignore sea lice connection?
There is another wipeout of pink salmon runs in the Broughton
Archipelago as predicted by Alexandra Morton, the biologist
who lives in the area, and who has studied the problem up
close. The cause of the wipeout? The Atlantic salmon fish
cages whose occupants provide hosts for hundreds of thousands
of sea lice which in turn attach themselves to and kill tiny
migrating salmon smolts (the little babies going out to sea).
This is scarcely a new story - the same phenomenon had similar
horrendous impacts of salmon and sea trout (sea run brown
trout) in Norway, Scotland and Ireland.
So how have fish farmers, often the same multi national
companies that savaged fish farms in Europe, got away with it?
This is a very hard question to answer because the evidence is
overwhelming.
Would you believe sun spots?
One answer is that fish farmers have been able to cast doubt
on the cause of lost smolts. They have been able to say that
unless you can trace the precise lice on the smolt to the
fish farm, the lice may be wild ones. This argument has been
devastated by scientists like Dr. Patrick Gargan form Ireland
and British Columbians like Dr. John Volpe and Dr. Neil
Frazer whose findings have been backed by no less a personage
than Dr. Dan Pawly of the University of British Columbia,
declared by Time magazine to be one of the top 50 scientists
in the world.
Friends, watching and listening to the fish farmers and their
government pals is like being witness to the Mad Hatter's Tea
Party in Alice in Wonderland. Let me give you but one of many
examples. The fish farmers and their PR people say that Dick
Beamish, not a fish biologist, provides evidence that sea lice
from fish farms don't bother wild salmon and has so reported.
They clearly hope no one reads what
Mr. Beamish has, in fact, written because his subject had
zilch to do with the impact of lice from fish cages on
pink salmon smolts but the effect of lice from fish farms
on adult wild salmon out in the wild ocean itself!
Like a lawyer defending a client who is guilty as hell, fish
farmers say "in the alternative" it might be mackerel
consuming the wild salmon at sea ... it might be warmer water
... or perhaps sun spots. Any imaginable and some unimaginable
alternatives are raised. But, forgive my lapse into scientific
jargon, that's all bullshit. Every single independent
scientist who has studied the subject has made the irrefutable
connection between failed salmon runs and the fish cages which
form the gauntlet they must run when going to sea as smolts.
The expert consensus
The work Alexandra Morton has done has been peer reviewed and
published in scientific journals. The recent study by Martin
Krkosek, assisted by Dr John Volpe and colleagues has been
peer reviewed and published in 2005 by The Royal Society, one
of the most prestigious journals in the world of science. The
issue is beyond all doubt.
Yet, through all this, the fish farmers continue and are
expecting a pliant government to give them more licenses to
bugger things up on the North Coast.
But why is the government not doing its duty?
One reason is, of course, that the fish farmers dump money
into the Campbell government's election coffers. Another is
that aquaculture sounds so modern and "with it" that only a
troglodyte would fight it. The answer to that, of course, is
that carefully monitored aquaculture is a great thing but fish
farms are unregulated and when they break the law, the
Campbell government gives them the fines back.
Over the course of the last five years I have interviewed or
spoken to every person involved, whether scientist or
environmentalist. None of them oppose salmon farming. What
they protest is governments permitting farmers to ply their
trade where that exposes wild salmon to mortal danger. Is that
so unreasonable?
The issue is coming to a head and the reaction of the
government will depend upon the voices of the public being
heard over the self-serving crap dished out by the offshore
corporations who want to operate in our environment without
having to concern themselves with petty little annoyances like
laws protecting wild salmon.
Rafe Mair's column for The Tyee runs every Monday and he can
be heard every weekday morning from 8:30-10:30 on 600AM. His
website is www.rafeonline.com.
fairuse