Feds back pedal on salmon farms
Letter from Living Oceans:
I know, you’ve probably sent a dozen or more letters about salmon farming over time. But right now, the Fisheries Minister is about to make a decision that is critical to the future of wild salmon—and it doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere good with that.
You know the Liberals promised in 2019 they would ‘transition open netpen salmon farms from B.C. waters’ and that they set 2025 as their deadline. Here we are in 2023 and they’re just getting around to the plan.
Here’s the real kicker: the plan isn’t aiming to remove open netpens. It’s still in development, but it looks like industry has managed to twist this transition to their advantage: longer licences, increased production so long as they ‘progressively reduce interactions with wild salmon’.
This is not what we were promised.
Minister Murray has asked us to provide evidence that British Columbians do not want salmon farms, period. As if we got this far without you making that point loudly and repetitively…so who is still unconvinced? Maybe Cabinet; maybe the PMO. We don’t know for sure, so we’re asking you to write to all of them, plus the Pacific MPs who must surely understand that their political futures depend on you.
You can write to the lot of them with one click using our tool: [click here] and let them all know what you think! Use our letter or write your own, just make it abundantly clear that you want to see an end to ocean-based salmon farming and you expect that this will happen by 2025.
Our wild salmon no longer have time to wait while industry plays with ‘new technology’ that hasn’t even begun to solve the problems of lice, viruses, bacteria and pollution. Please write today—if we don’t hold the Liberals to their promise now, I sincerely doubt that any future government is going to take on this issue. We’ve come too far together to lose: let’s inundate them with proof that voters care deeply for the future of this coast and we know it depends on wild salmon.
With thanks for all that you do,
Karen