Issue 25
November 2013
Legacy Š Wild Game Fish Conservation International
The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation Published by volunteers at:
Wild Game Fish Conservation International We honor and thank military men and women around planet earth who fight for the rights and freedoms that many take for granted.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy Wild Game Fish Conservation International Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI): Established to advocate for wild game fish, their fragile ecosystems and the cultures and economies that rely on their robust populations. LEGACY – The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, no-nonsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their contributions to society and the varied and complex issues impacting them and those who rely on their sustainability. LEGACY exposes impacts to wild game fish while featuring wild game fish conservation projects, fishing adventures, wildlife art, accommodations, equipment and more. Your photos and articles featuring wild game fish from around planet earth are welcome for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of LEGACY. E-mail them with captions and credits to Jim (wilcoxj@katewwdb.com). Successful wild game fish conservation efforts around planet earth will ensure existence of these precious natural resources and their ecosystems for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY.
Wild Game Fish Conservation International Founders
Bruce Treichler
Jim Wilcox
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Contents Congratulations to wild salmon campaigners extraordinaire, Don Stanford and Elly Edwards, on your recent arrival _________________________________________________________________________________________ 9 The Responsible Economy____________________________________________________________________________ 10
WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook ________________________________________________________ 12 Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 13 Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby _________________________________________________ 13 Norway recognizes that its salmon can be hazardous to health __________________________________________ 14
We Are What We Eat: The Hidden Costs of Farmed Salmon _____________________________________________ PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges __________________________________ Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here _________________________________________________________ The Seafood You Should (and Shouldn't) Eat ___________________________________________________________ Feedlot salmon (L) vs wild salmon (R) – Picture worth a thousand words _________________________________ Genetically modified salmon (aka Frankenfish) – Coming soon? _________________________________________ Cancer risk linked to radiation levels in fish species after Fukushima ____________________________________
16 20 21 22 26 27 28
Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse is recalling two batches of its Oak Roasted Flaky Salmon due to detection of Listeria monocytogenes __________________________________________________________________ 30 Union of BC Municipalities Asks Province to Ban GE Crops and Animals _________________________________ 31 Hold The Salmon: Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked to Higher Risk of Cancer _________________________________ 32
We’re asking tough questions for wild game fish conservation ______________________________________ 34
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen: Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and Coastal Affairs ______________________________ Jay Inslee, Governor, Washington State _______________________________________________________________ John Lawrence, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Walmart Canada ______________________________ Maria Cantwell, US Senator, Washington State _________________________________________________________ Puget Sound Energy _________________________________________________________________________________ Karen Valenzuela, Commissioner, _____________________________________________________________________
34 34 35 36 36 37
Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada ___________________________________________________ Costco ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Maria Cantwell, US Senator, Washington State _________________________________________________________ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ______________________________________________ Utilities and Transportation Commission, Washington State _____________________________________________ Department of Environmental Quality, Montana ________________________________________________________ Tamar Haspel, Writer, Food and Health ________________________________________________________________
37 38 38 38 39 39 40
Responses to WGFCI: ____________________________________________________________________________ 42 Kelly Susewind, Washington State Department of Ecology ______________________________________________ 42 Tamar Haspel, Writer, Food and Health ________________________________________________________________ 43
Community Activism, Education and Outreach: __________________________________________________________ 44 Leave this world better than when you found it _________________________________________________________ 44 The tide is turning - but is it fast enough? ______________________________________________________________ 46 Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott – History and Update _________________________________________________ 47 Salmon Confidential scales fishy issues in B.C. ________________________________________________________ 50
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The True Cost of (farmed) Scottish Salmon ____________________________________________________________ 52 Totem pole symbolizes cross-border unity for First Nations _____________________________________________ 53 American oil sands opponents turn their attention to B.C. pipeline plans _________________________________ 54 B.C. First Nations protests Kinder Morgan pipeline _____________________________________________________ 55 “40 Million Salmon Can’t be Wrong” ___________________________________________________________________ 59 Canadian Wildlife Federation in the September - October 2013 Bulletin has declared its position on open pen aquaculture ________________________________________________________________________________ 60 Time to choose – soon you will have no choice _________________________________________________________ 61 Twyla Roscovich: Salmon Confidential Documentary (Watch HERE) _____________________________________ 62 VIFF 2013 Review: 'Salmon Confidential' Eye Opening Five-Star Work ___________________________________ 63 British Columbia: Salmon Feedlot Industry’s Slum Landlord ____________________________________________ 64 Salmon Feedlot Boycott: Farmed Atlantic salmon, Don’t Buy It! _________________________________________ 65 Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott ______________________________________________________________________ 66
Farmed Atlantic Salmon – Don’t Buy IT: An International Campaign ______________________________________ Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________ GE salmon not worth the risk _________________________________________________________________________ Wild Salmon Warriors Community Basketball Team ____________________________________________________
67 68 69 72
Idle No More – International Day of Action – “Earth Revolution” _________________________________________ WGFCI honored to participate: Idle No More - International Day of Action ________________________________ GREENPEACE – End Destructive Salmon Farming _____________________________________________________ Welcome aboard Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior – Vancouver, British Columbia ___________________________ Environmental and economic issues linked, says new head of Greenpeace Canada _______________________ Rainbow Warrior visits Seattle: Public Tours – October 26 and 27________________________________________ American Rivers: Don’t let the Corps dam salmon to a cruel fate_________________________________________ President Obama – Say NO to Keystone XL Pipeline ____________________________________________________ Fight Over Energy Finds a New Front in a Corner of Idaho ______________________________________________ Pipeline Die-In During Harper Government Meeting with BC Indigenous Leaders__________________________ Who you gonna call? - Fish Busters ___________________________________________________________________
73 75 76 77 78 80 81 82 83 86 87
Impacts of open pen salmon feedlots ______________________________________________________________ 88 Alaska Salmon Farming Watch video HERE ___________________________________________________________ 88 Waste Contamination from salmon farms ______________________________________________________________ 89 Salmon Farming – Is it as good as we think? ___________________________________________________________ 92 ISA and sea lice prevalence in salmon on the rise ______________________________________________________ 95 Norway to slaughter sea-lice infected salmon __________________________________________________________ 96 Escaped Farmed Salmon Found in Large Numbers in NB Rivers _________________________________________ 97
Shatner blasts B.C. salmon farming ___________________________________________________________________ 99 Hvordan dyrke frem uangripelighet? __________________________________________________________________ 100 The Washington Post is Wrong About Farmed Salmon _________________________________________________ 104 Unbelievable that Canada lets Norway do this _________________________________________________________ 106 Latest Escape Demonstrates Salmon Farming is Unsustainable, Says the Atlantic Salmon Federation_____ 107 Newfoundland fishermen net escaped salmon _________________________________________________________ 109 Mmmmm. Natural product of Norway.... yummy. _______________________________________________________ 110
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Salmon farming isn’t sustainable yet _________________________________________________________________ 111
Climate Change _________________________________________________________________________________ 112 Harper government claims to be leader on climate change action _______________________________________ 112
Ocean Health – Acidification, De-oxygenation, Warming ___________________________________________ 115 Pacific Ocean’s Perilous Turn ________________________________________________________________________ 115 Ocean of change: Changing chemistry of seawater poses lethal threat to marine life _____________________ 116 Human Assault Pushes Ocean to Limit Unseen in 300 Million Years _____________________________________ 118
Energy production and wild game fish: Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Wind, Natural Gas ___________________ 120 Oil – Drilled, Tar Sands _________________________________________________________________________________ 121 Canada takes another run at finding a pipeline for its tar sands oil ______________________________________ 121 Gaps wide in oil spill scenarios ______________________________________________________________________ 122 Tanker hazards could throw wrench into pipeline debate _______________________________________________ 124 CN is considering shipping crude oil by rail from Alberta to B.C.: memo ________________________________ 126
Chinese companies can sue BC for changing course on Northern Gateway, says policy expert ___________ Environmental experts condemn lack of analysis on oil export plans____________________________________ Shorelines Hearings Board sides with Quinaults on crude-by-rail projects_______________________________ B.C. first nation asks UN envoy to look into Northern Gateway complaint _______________________________
129 131 135 136
ND Waits 11 Days to Tell Public About Oil Spill ________________________________________________________ Fracking May Be Polluting River with Radioactive Waste _______________________________________________ Living Oceans: Enbridge poem _______________________________________________________________________ Selected Response Poetry and Thoughts: _____________________________________________________________ Albertans generally willing to pay in return for B.C.'s support of Northern Gateway pipeline ______________
138 140 143 144 145
BP trial resumes with testimony about company's 86-day struggle to cap blown-out Gulf well Additional photos courtesy of NBC slideshow _________________________________________________________ Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Warning: Some Columbia River Fish Not Safe To Eat __________________________________________________ WGFCI supports retirement of Montana’s Colstrip coal plant ___________________________________________ Labor groups favor narrower review of Wash. coal export proposals ____________________________________ Final hearing on Longview coal export dock Thursday in Tacoma_______________________________________
148 150 150 151 152 154
Hydropower and water retention ________________________________________________________________________ 157 Water Wars: Egyptians Condemn Ethiopia's Nile Dam Project __________________________________________ 157 Dam dispute comes to a head ________________________________________________________________________ 159 U.S. regulators recommend renegotiating Columbia River treaty for ecosystem __________________________ 161 Fix White River Dam _________________________________________________________________________________ 165 Expansion of salmon habitat could be an issue in Columbia River Treaty talks __________________________ 166 Cheslatta First Nation hopes to restore part of Nechako River __________________________________________ Big chinook run doesn't let Columbia dams off the hook, activists say __________________________________ Plan for hydro dam on B.C.'s Similkameen River raises immediate environmental concerns ______________ Natural Gas ___________________________________________________________________________________________ First Nations ban pipelines for BC Liquefied Natural Gas _______________________________________________ Do Not Drink This Water! ____________________________________________________________________________ Fracking Hell – The Untold Story _____________________________________________________________________
167 170 174 175 175 176 176
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Alberta scientist Jessica Ernst warns Newfoundland of fracking risk ____________________________________ 177
Corporate. Government and Non Government Organization “Greenwashing”: _______________________ 180 Kinder Morgan presents its case for more tankers _____________________________________________________ 180 Northern Gateway Pipelines – “Protecting our coastline” ______________________________________________ 183 Christy Clark: BC’s Liquefied Natural Gas to Asian Markets ____________________________________________ 184 Premier's statement on Thanksgiving _________________________________________________________________ 185 Why an aquaculture awareness; week? _______________________________________________________________ 186 Forest Management ____________________________________________________________________________________ 188 U.S. House backs bill to boost logging in national forests. Kilmer votes no ______________________________ 190
Government action/inaction and wild game fish ___________________________________________________ 192 I Don’t Pay Attention to Politics… ____________________________________________________________________ 192 Norwegian Fish Farms are Killing Canada’s Wild Salmon ______________________________________________ 193
Tories accused of ignoring Cohen report on salmon fishery ____________________________________________ The DFO and the Broughton Salmon Collapse – Part 2 _________________________________________________ First Nations, DFO sign key Memorandum of Understanding ___________________________________________ Clark, Redford move closer to pipeline agreement _____________________________________________________
194 195 196 197
Christy Clark warns Canada unprepared for tanker oil spills ____________________________________________ If B.C. pipelines not built, oil will flow west by rail _____________________________________________________ Stephen Harper On Keystone Pipeline: Canadian PM 'Won't Take No For An Answer' ____________________ Silencing Scientists _________________________________________________________________________________ Mass cull ordered of Norwegian farmed salmon! ______________________________________________________ Department of Wild Salmon doing Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ work ___________________________
199 201 204 208 209 211
After meetings with federal ministers, Chief Stewart Phillip urges British Columbians to take to the street_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 212 First Nations want Northern Gateway pipeline project killed ____________________________________________ 214 Virus found in Wisconsin trout _______________________________________________________________________ 215
Mining and wild game fish _______________________________________________________________________ 217 Jeremy Williams: River Voices (Documentary Project) _________________________________________________ 217
Water appropriation (over appropriation) _________________________________________________________ 218 Washington Supreme Court Rules For Tribe In Skagit Case ____________________________________________ 218 Longtime foes unite over water plan for Eastern Washington ___________________________________________ 219
Wild fish management ___________________________________________________________________________ 224 Sudden disappearance of sardines has serious economic and ecological effects on the B.C. coast _______ 224 Farmed Salmon Are Not a Sustainable Alternative _____________________________________________________ 227 Alexandra Morton, Department of Wild Salmon: What is happening to wild Pacific salmon? ______________ 228
Ongoing Conservation Projects __________________________________________________________________ 229 Alexandra Morton: Unhealthy Pacific salmon __________________________________________________________ 229 David Suzuki helps develop insect-based fish food ____________________________________________________ 230 New product seen as viable alternative to fish-based meal ________________________________________________ 230
Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses __________________________ 233 Bill Swann: Swanny’s Guided Fishing ________________________________________________________________ 233
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Jim and Donna Teeny: Jim Teeny Incorporated ________________________________________________________ 234 Diane Michelin: Fly Fishing Fine Art __________________________________________________________________ 235 Leanne Hodges: West Coast Wild ____________________________________________________________________ 236 Forest Echoes – Cultus Lake, British Columbia, Canada _______________________________________________ 237 Gašper Konkolič: Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia More HERE ________________________________________ 238 Bahia Sportfishing Lodge ____________________________________________________________________________ 239
Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners _________________________________________________ 241 WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: _____________________________________________________ 241 Featured Artists: ________________________________________________________________________________ 242 Diane Michelin: “Slice of Heaven” ____________________________________________________________________ 242 John Martin Prevost and Leanne Hodges: “Blackfish” _________________________________________________ 243 Lulu Marie on Facebook _____________________________________________________________________________ 244
Featured Fishing Photos: ________________________________________________________________________ 245 Molly Marks: Father and son, Jon and Griffin Marks fishing on the Puyallup on a beautiful Fall day ________ 245 Antonio Amaral (Owner-Captain, Bahia Sportfishing Lodge) ____________________________________________ 246 Bryanna Zimmerman with hefty, Humptulips River Chinook (King) salmon ______________________________ 247
Adrian Arcadia With a dandy lightning trout ___________________________________________________________ Wayne Foresee: Chilliwack River, British Columbia, Canada____________________________________________ Denny Clemons: “Gotta Love Gortex” ________________________________________________________________ Gašper Konkolič: Two wild beauties from Slovenia rivers _____________________________________________________ Great Lakes Fall River Fishing - Action video __________________________________________________________ Smiles all around on Charterboat Slammer – Westport, Washington ____________________________________ Philip Friedman: Oarfish washes up on Catalina Island ________________________________________________
248 249 250 251 252 253 254
Recommended Reading _________________________________________________________________________ 256 Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales”
Watch orcas up close HERE ________________________________ 256
Video Library – conservation of wild game fish ____________________________________________________ 257 Final Thoughts: _________________________________________________________________________________ 258 Truth _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 258
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy Forward As we begin our third year, the November 2013 issue of Legacy marks twenty five consecutive months of our web-based publication, the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published by Wild Game Fish Conservation International. Legacy is published each month to expose risks to the future of wild game fish and their ecosystems around planet earth to our growing audience. Legacy is also utilized to promote the many benefits of healthy populations of wild game fish. Please share this uniquely comprehensive publication with others far and wide as it includes something of interest and importance for everyone. Our hope is that those who read Legacy will come to understand that what is good for wild game fish is also good for humans. Similarly, what is bad for our planet’s wild game fish is really bad for humans! It’s exciting that a growing number of recreational anglers and others around planet earth are passionate about conserving wild game fish and their continued availability for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. Just as exciting is that growing numbers of consumers and retailers are paying close attention to the impacts each of us have on global resources through our daily activities and purchases. We continue to urge our readers to speak out passionately and to demonstrate peacefully for wild game fish and their ecosystems; ecosystems that we are but one small component of. As recreational fishermen, conservation of wild game fish for future generations is our passion. Publishing “Legacy” each month is our self imposed responsibility to help ensure the future of these precious gifts that have been entrusted for safekeeping to our generation.
Bruce Treichler
James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Congratulations
to wild salmon campaigners extraordinaire, Don Stanford and Elly Edwards, on your recent arrival - meet Elseanne River Stanford
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The Responsible Economy Editorial introduction – Bruce Treichler (co-founder, Wild Game Fish Conservation International) In a previous issue, we pointed to some companies whose corporate behavior seems to be consistent with the values we espouse. Patagonia was one of those companies. Recently, they have been promoting a new concept that they intend to spend the next two year exploring; The Responsible Economy. Patagonia defines this as: “What is a responsible economy? It’s one that cultivates healthy communities, creates meaningful work, and takes from the earth only what it can replenish. It’s one where all the indicators currently going in the wrong direction – CO2 emissions, ocean acidification, deforestation, desertification, species extinction, water contamination, toxic chemical release – all those things that are leading us to bankruptcy, will even out, then reverse. What would make up this economy? Where do we already see examples?” They are inquiring into how to have a prosperous economy without the need to constantly grow, with more consumers buying more stuff, which requires increasing the amount of natural resources used. We are intrigued with this idea, although it is not clear how it would work in real life. We invite you to read their initial column below:
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! We at Patagonia, like all business people, know that long-term income has to exceed long-term expense. To do otherwise is to go bankrupt, as Ernest Hemingway described, in the usual two ways: “Gradually, then suddenly.” Today we are using the equivalent resources of one and a half planets, yet we live on only one. All the indicators of earthly health are in deteriorating: plentiful freshwater, clean air, arable land, robust fisheries and biodiversity. How do we reverse this decline (and accompanying climate change) before it becomes catastrophic? Most conversations addressing that question hone in on technological solutions. Each year we attend sustainability conferences where the talk centers on innovation as the way to reduce resource use and waste. But at these conferences, among decent people doing their best, there is always an elephant in the room, concealed behind a curtain few are willing to draw to the side. The elephant is growth-based capitalism, and the assumption that a growth economy equals prosperity and a healthy society. This campaign names and confronts the elephant. And it will explore what alternatives look and feel like, from large -scale economies to small, local ones. We see a growing global dissatisfaction with the way the present economy relies on relentless consumption in order to function, while delivering less social benefit than it promises. At the same time, we see trends toward meaningful change in both large corporate and industrial movements, and innovative, community-minded businesses. We know we must consume less, and far more slowly – as well as innovate as quickly and ingeniously as we can. What is a responsible economy? It’s one that cultivates healthy communities, creates meaningful work, and takes from the earth only what it can replenish. It’s one where all the indicators currently going in the wrong direction – CO2 emissions, ocean acidification, deforestation, desertification, species extinction, water contamination, toxic chemical release – all those things that are leading us to bankruptcy, will even out, then reverse. What would make up this economy? Where do we already see examples? During the next two years, Patagonia will explore these questions. We don't have all the answers but, we invite you to join us as we seek out the stories, solutions, examples, and new leaders of the responsible economy. This is the most ambitious and important endeavor we’ve ever undertaken. “Our other environmental campaigns (the depletion of the oceans, pollution of water, obstacles to migration paths for animals) have been about the symptoms of this problem,” said Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia. “Now we are addressing the core.” Stay tuned.
“It’s up to Generation Now (us) to save planet Earth for the future” TTTaaa’’’K K B Kaaaiiiyyyaaa B Blllaaannneeeyyy
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook
The October issue of Legacy is being read in these countries
4,500+ WGFCI Faceb
ook friends
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits
Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby (see article on next page)
Read related article HERE)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Norway recognizes that its salmon can be hazardous to health (translated via Google translate) June 19, 2013 Pregnant women and young, do not eat salmon more than twice a week. This is the new recommendation from the Norwegian government, forced to recognize - belatedly - that oily fish is also full of toxic chemicals. The government is particularly interested that the news does not cross the border. Consider: in 2012 Norway was the cause of 60% of the world production of Atlantic salmon, the country produced nearly 1.2 million tons of this fish. And 29 billion dollars annually from exports of this key sector of the economy could be affected.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! FRANCE French consume about 2.3 pounds of Norwegian salmon on average per year. France imported in 2012, some 161,175 tonnes of Norwegian salmon, about 15% of the production of the Nordic countries. This is the first export market, followed by Russia. In 2011, Rue89 alerted you on this subject and found it surprising that the Department of Health recommends eating fatty fish two to three times per week on behalf of its many virtues supposed health (they are good for the heart, movement and the fight against certain inflammatory diseases, even against some cancers). Is it reasonable to eat as much meat and bone meal fed, antibiotic and pesticide same fish? The pharmacologist Claudette Bethune , who worked for the Norwegian food safety body (the NIFES ), had clearly decided:
"The presence of pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs in salmon generates a risk of cancer, which, for young people, exceeds the expected salmon health benefits. " POPs in salmon It was only after a big media pressure that health authorities have come to recognize that they too pushed for consumption. The alert launched by the VG newspaper is very clear:
"The doctors call not to eat farmed salmon. " The newspaper about an independent team of biochemistry laboratory Bergen, who believes that this fish is simply dangerous for young children, adolescents and pregnant women because of persistent organic pollutants it contains. Under the precautionary principle, these groups of people should not consume. Dr. Anne-Lise Bjorke Monsen, a member of the lab, said:
"The pollutants found in farmed salmon have a bad influence on the development of the brain and are associated with autism, hyperactivity and lower IQ. We also know that they can have a negative effect on the immune system, the endocrine system and metabolism. They can also be transmitted through breastfeeding. If you need Omega-3 from fish, mackerel and herring are very good. " In addition, the toxicologist Jerome Ruzzin had established a link in mice between an exclusive food to farmed salmon for eight weeks and the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
READ ENTIRE RUE89 OBSEVER ARTICLE HERE (translated via Google translate)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
We Are What We Eat: The Hidden Costs of Farmed Salmon Salmon seems to be the perfect food -- very tasty, high in protein and healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, and easy to prepare and cook. But as with every other overfished species in the sea, there simply aren't enough of them left in the wild to meet our growing demand. It seems that whenever humans really like a particular type of fish, that popularity guarantees a rapid decline in their population. In the Atlantic Ocean, wild salmon stocks have already been depleted and studies show that wild Pacific salmon stocks are also declining. Humans have done this before with species like cod. Now the only way we can meet our voracious appetite for salmon is to farm them by "aquaculture." Amazingly, about 70 per cent of all the salmon we now eat are raised on fish farms.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! However, there are hidden costs of salmon farming that most consumers never see. Many people are not even aware that they are eating farmed salmon, let alone understand its many negative environmental impacts. I believe it's important for people to understand how what they eat is produced so they can make the best choices for their families and the environment. Farmed salmon spend the majority of their lives in mesh net cages in the open ocean. Their waste and fecal matter flows freely into surrounding waters, often smothering the seafloor and the marine life there. A small salmon farm of 200,000 fish can produce as much fecal matter per year as a city of 62,000 people. But unlike cities and some land-based livestock farms, the waste from salmon farms is never contained or treated. In addition to fecal matter, antibiotics and pesticides that are occasionally added into salmon feeds can also flow into surrounding waters and be consumed by wild salmon and other fish species that do not need to be medicated. While salmon farms can do harm to any marine ecosystem where they are located, the most serious concerns arise on Canada's West Coast where the bulk of Canadian farmed salmon is produced. Ironically, salmon farms in British Columbia almost exclusively raise Atlantic salmon because these salmon grow better in crowded farm conditions. Since Atlantic salmon are not native to the Pacific, when they escape from the mesh net pens they are an invasive species and can displace wild salmon species by reproducing and consuming their natural food supply. Between 1987 and 2008, over 1.5-million Atlantic salmon escaped into the Pacific Ocean from salmon farms in B.C. and thousands more continue to escape each year. As water flows freely in and out of salmon pens, it also means that parasites, diseases and viruses can easily be transferred between wild and farmed populations. While salmon farmers claim to have control over the spread of diseases, indications are that they are not fully capable of controlling infections. The biggest concern now is the possibility of farmed Atlantic salmon spreading a foreign Atlantic salmon disease known as ISA into wild Pacific salmon populations. The same Norwegian companies that operate in Canada have already spread ISA to Chile, nearly collapsing the entire salmon farming industry in the country. However, Chile does not have wild salmon. If ISA ever spreads into wild Pacific salmon populations in Canada, the results could be even more devastating for both the wild Pacific salmon stocks and marine ecosystems. Wild Pacific salmon are simply too valuable to Canada and the entire coastal B.C. ecosystem to take any risks which could endanger this critical resource. Coincidentally, the same government department that is responsible for preserving wild salmon is also responsible for promoting farmed salmon. Since many of the farms are foreign owned, mainly by Norway, Canadians have an interest in what happens to our resources. Thankfully, there is a solution to these problems: simply move open-ocean salmon farms onto landbased closed containment systems. The technology already exists, but the industry is reluctant to make this significant shift due to the massive, one-time capital outlay needed to convert. But some smaller-scale entrepreneurs are already proving that closed containment is working very well.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! That said, however exciting the possibility of widespread use of land-based containment systems is, the biggest flaw of salmon farming remains: the use of large quantities of smaller, wild fish used to feed the farmed salmon. The main reason carnivorous salmon are so nutritious is because they eat other fish packed full of nutrients. To produce one kilogram of farmed salmon, they must be fed around 1.2 to 3 kilograms of wild fish. As wild fish stocks continue to be depleted worldwide and we look to aquaculture as the future of seafood, the solution should never involve feeding farmed salmon a diet of wild fish that contributes to the depletion of wild fish stocks. If we do insist on farming salmon in this country, let's do it in the most responsible manner: on land, in closed systems. Let's spread the word!
What are the comprehensive costs of open pen salmon feedlots and their products
?
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Enjoy seasonal wild Pacific salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges
Editorial Comment: When making your next dining reservations for yourself, you and your loved one or a party, please be sure to look first at the restaurants that do not offer open pen feedlot salmon on their menu. This is a simple way that we can thank these businesses for their significant dedication and commitment to our iconic wild Pacific salmon.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here
Eddie Gardner: BAD CHOICE! So called “Fresh Farmed Atlantic Salmon Steak Tip" is very fatty and this absorbs high concentrations of PCBs. For your health and for the well being of the marine habitat, do not purchase this product.
Nikki Lamarre: They couldn't pay me to eat that!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
BEST SEAFOOD CHOICES
The Seafood You Should (and Shouldn't) Eat Simple rules help clear up seafood confusion Eat Fish to Save Fish? To save the oceans—and our health—we need to eat more fish. The right fish. That's the mantra behind the new book The Perfect Protein, written by Andy Sharpless, the fearless leader of Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Intrigued? So were we. We tracked down Sharpless to learn more about his innovative concept for preserving ocean life, beating the obesity epidemic on land, and feeding the world by shifting diets to the best fish. "The world's industrial-scale commercial fishing fleets have basically overfished the oceans," he says. "That comes down to fishing above scientifically recommended catch limits, destroying nursery habitats for young fish, and catching non-target species and discarding them at sea—bycatch." If we want to have healthy fish left to eat, we need to know which ones to indulge in, which ones to enjoy occasionally, and which ones to avoid. Sharpless shares his recommendations…
Simple Rule: Stay
small—eat the little
fish.
What It Means: Smaller species reproduce really quickly, and in most cases are an abundant, strong, and fertile part of the food chain, Sharpless says. In fact, little fish could feed millions of people sustainably and healthily if well managed. "The lower down on the food chain, the smaller your footprint on nature," he adds. "If you can develop an appetite and taste for them, you'll have a lot to choose from, they're cheaper, and they're better for nature." Read More: How to Cook with Sardines
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Simple Rule: Eat wild, not organic. What It Means: Wild
Atlantic mackerel is rich in omega-3s that help your brain fire at full. Atlantic mackerel is low in contaminants, too, making it a strong seafood pick for you and the planet. Bonus tip? Beware of "organic" seafood. Although there are some organic fish farms outside of the country, they aren't certified by U.S. authorities. Instead of organic, look for healthy wild picks listed in reliable seafood guides. Read More: 21 Ways to Feed Your Brain
Clams Simple Rule: Enjoy lots of shellfish. What
It
Means: Generally
speaking, Sharpless says most shellfish are a good choice. Oysters, mussels, and clams—farmed or wild— help improve water quality and, because of their shorter lifespans, tend to accumulate fewer contaminants, he says. Scallops are a little trickier; you'll want to look for diver- or day-boat-caught scallops, ones caught with minimal impact on the environment. Read More: MasterChef Winner’s
Homemade Clam Chowder Recipe
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Alaskan Salmon
Simple Rule: Eat
big fish mindfully and
rarely.
What It Means: Just
like birthday cake should be an occasional treat, so should healthy big-fish picks like Alaskan wild-caught salmon. Larger fish take years to reproduce, and chronic overfishing has left many big-fish species in major peril. Orange roughy, for instance, can live to be 100 years old and only start reproducing at age 40. Overharvesting young roughy has left the species in limbo. Also noteworthy? Big fish, the head honchos of the food chain, often contain higher levels of contaminants like mercury because they accumulate up the food chain. (Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is an exception, and a healthy choice.) Read More: The 10 Healthiest Fish on the Planet
Simple Rule: Bycatch means shrimp must be bygones. What It Means: "If you want to be a responsible seafood eater, you have to say good-bye to shrimp," Sharpless says, noting that shrimp fleets tend to catch a lot of other things in their nets, too. American data show shrimp catches contain 5 pounds of non-shrimp species per pound of shrimp. "Much is dumped out on the deck, damaged, injured, killed, or discarded at sea," Sharpless says. When you eat shrimp, you're responsible in part for 5 pounds of bycatch, including sea turtles and pretty much any other type of fish in the Gulf. Farmed shrimp isn't any better. It's been found to harbor banned antibiotics—even ones that could cause cancer—pesticides, and bits of insects. Read
More: 6
Shrimp
Disgusting
Facts
about
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Simple Rule: Eat wild seafood. What It Means: One-third of all fish caught in the world are turned into fish meal or oil; of that, 81 percent goes to farmed fish like salmon. It takes 5 pounds of wild fish to produce 1 pound of farmed salmon, not a favorable footprint on nature. Plus, farmed salmon tends to be full of parasitic sea lice, requiring the treatment of high-dose toxic chemicals. Read More: The Truth about Salmon
Ready to become a smarter seafood shopper? Looking to fill your family members' bellies with affordable, safe, and healthy fish? Use the information in this story and take the following steps: • Buy The Perfect Protein, take notes, whip up some of the celebrity chef recipes, and make sure your copy finds its way into friends' and family members' hands. Knowledge is power! • When in doubt, follow the maxim "Eat wild seafood. Not too much of the big fish. Mostly local," a major guiding principle of The Perfect Protein. • Whether it's a paper version in your wallet or an App, download the Seafood Watch Recommended Species Guide. • Stop supporting grocery-store chains that source some of the most threatened species of fish. Read Where to Buy the Best Fish for guidance. • For more species to avoid, check out 12 Fish You Should Never Eat. • Still not feeling fish? Reach top vegetarian sources of protein.
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Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Feedlot salmon (L) vs wild salmon (R) – Picture worth a thousand words
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Genetically modified salmon (aka Frankenfish) – Coming soon? Watch video HERE
Editorial Comment: If approved for human consumption, Frankenfish will likely be reared in open pen salmon feedlots around the world. When sited in the world’s oceans, this faux salmon industry will over shadow the risks of the existing open pen salmon feedlot industry: Public Health Cultures Communities Economies Wild ecosystems
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Cancer risk linked to radiation levels in fish species after Fukushima October 2, 2013 Fukushima problematic prior to 2011 tsunami - Watch HERE TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS AFTER Fukushima, many fish species still have highly elevated amounts of radioactive cesium from the stricken plant, including species that Japan exports to Canada, according to the Japanese Fisheries Agency’s tests on fish catches. And Japanese fish and seafood exports to Canada have grown significantly since Fukushima, with $24 million in exports in 2012, up 20 percent from $20 million in 2010, according to Statistics Canada data. In July this year, a sea bass caught in Japan had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium—10 times Japan’s ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilo in food. It was the second-highest amount found in a sea bass since the disaster occurred.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! And in February, a greenling in the harbour of the Fukushima plant had a record 740,000 becquerels per kilo of cesium—7,400 times Japan’s ceiling. Two in five fish tested in July had detectable levels of cesium 134 or cesium 137, radioactive isotopes released from Fukushima.
On average, fish in the 33,000 tests since March 2011 had 18 becquerels per kilo of cesium. In March and April 2011, fish also had 65 becquerels per kilo of iodine 131. (The Straight didn’t count in these averages any fish caught in Fukushima prefecture, where most species are banned from the market.) Fish caught far out in the Pacific had an average of two becquerels of cesium per kilo. The Straight used these levels to determine how much radiation the public has been exposed to in Japan and elsewhere, based on fishery data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The average radiation levels are below Japan’s ceiling and Health Canada’s much higher ceiling of 1,000 becquerels per kilo for cesium and iodine 131. But the radiation detected can still cause cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cancer-risk formula, a leading international standard for forecasting cancer risks from radiation. The What’s more, the EPA formula underestimates cancer impacts because it doesn’t fully include all research on radiation impacts, in the estimate of Daniel Hirsch, a UC Santa Cruz nuclear expert. (Also according to Hirsch, Health Canada uses a less accepted cancer-risk formula that underestimates the dangers even more.) Hirsch helped preside over a study of nuclear-power workers in the 1990s that found cancer rates at least six to eight times higher than predicted by official formulas.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse is recalling two batches of its Oak Roasted Flaky Salmon due to detection of Listeria monocytogenes September 26, 2013 Recalled from customers Ref 24/2013 Update 3
Risk As a precautionary measure, Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse is recalling two batches of a further product due to detection of Listeria monocytogenes, which may pose a risk to health. Listeria monocytogenes can cause illness in certain groups of people, such as pregnant women, unborn and newborn babies, and anyone with reduced immunity, particularly the over-60s. Product identification Name: Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse Oak Roasted Flaky Salmon Batch codes: 20081, 21081 Pack sizes: 150g, 170-180g, 250g, medium sides and trimmings
200g,
200-
Date codes: 12 November 2013 and 13 November 2013 Action taken by the company Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse is recalling the above product. Product recall notices are being supplied to retailers to be displayed in store, advising consumers of the recall and what they can do if they have purchased the affected product. No other Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse products are known to be affected. Advice to consumers If you have bought this product, with the above batch code, please do not eat it. Instead, return it to the store it was purchased from or contact Loch Duart Artisan Smokehouse.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Union of BC Municipalities Asks Province to Ban GE Crops and Animals September 19, 2013 Vancouver This morning, in an unprecedented step, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), at their Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, passed a resolution “that UBCM ask the British Columbia government to legislate the prohibition of importing, exporting and growing plants and seeds containing genetically engineered DNA, and raising GE animals within BC, and to declare, through legislation, that BC is a GE Free area in respect to all plant and animal species." Already 14 municipalities in BC have declared themselves GE Free Zones, and 10 Official Community Plans of Regional Districts have come out against GE crops, as communities across the province mobilized for a ban on GE crops.
Editorial Comment: Implementation of this ban on GE crops and animals will keep GE salmon and GE fish meal out of British Columbia, including the open pen salmon feedlots sited in wild Pacific salmon migration routes.
“We’re overjoyed with our success,” said Teresa Lynne of the Society for a GE Free BC, a volunteer non-profit group, “We’re so grateful to all the councilors who heard our concerns and took this amazing step on our behalf. The provincial government needs to legislate this ban and then ask the federal government to do the same.” “This was possible thanks to the actions of so many passionate and committed people. Every action made a difference,” said Lynne, “We all want to protect our families, environment and food system from the risks of genetically engineered crops and foods.” “This is an unprecedented victory for grassroots communities,” said Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, “Finally we see a level of government in Canada debate this issue and respond to peoples’ concerns.” Supporters of the UBCM motion gathered almost 7000 signatures on online and hardcopy petitions, and rallied yesterday morning outside the UBCM meeting location. For more information: Teresa Lynne, Society for a GE Free BC, 604-475-4457; Lucy Sharratt, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network; 613 241 2267 ext. 25
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Hold The Salmon: Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked to Higher Risk of Cancer July 11, 2013 What’s good for the heart may not be so healthy for other organs, says the latest study that links omega-3 fatty acids to an elevated risk of prostate cancer. It’s not just an apple a day that keeps the doctor away anymore — recently, fish oils found in species like salmon, trout and tuna have been associated with a lower risk of heart disease and even Alzheimer’s. In fact, the most recent revisions to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 2010 recommended consumers substitute high-fat protein sources with more seafood, including fatty fish. Not surprisingly, fish oil has since skyrocketed to be the most popular supplement in the United States. A new study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, however, shows that these fish fats may not be improving everyone’s health — in the trial, those with high concentrations of marinederived omega-3s in their blood showed a 43% higher risk of developing prostate cancer than those with the lowest levels. MORE: Omega-3s as Study Aid? DHA May Help Lowest-Scoring Readers Improve Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and while the latest statistics show that most men will eventually develop prostate cancer if they live long enough, only a specific type of cancer, known as high-grade, carries high risk of serious health problems. While a quarter of a million Americans are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, only about 30,000 of those cases are fatal, and almost all of them involve high-grade cancer. The latest research found that the association between omega-3s and prostate cancer held for both high- and low-grade prostate cancers.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! It’s not that omega-3s are harmful, but that the fatty acids may have more complex effects on the body than previously thought. “We have this tendency to talk about good foods and bad foods, good nutrients and bad nutrients,” Dr. Theodore Brasky, a research assistant professor at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the study’s head author. The nutrients commonly found in fish fight potentially damaging inflammation, but they may also increase oxidative damage to the DNA in cells, similar to the effects of stress, that can create fertile ground for cancers to grow. MORE: Omega-3 Supplements Don’t Lower Heart Disease Risk After All The study measured omega-3 blood levels in the participating men, and did not include information on the volunteers’ eating habits, so researchers could not differentiate between the effects of fatty acids from fish from those of supplements. However, the overwhelming majority of the participants did not take fish oil supplements. Based on the results, Brasky says that men with a family history of prostate cancer should discuss with their doctor whether fish oil supplements are safe for them, since these pills tend to contain concentrated doses of omega-3 — supplements contain between 30% to 60% of a serving of fish, and if a fish oil supplement is taken everyday, that adds up to a lot of daily fish oil. Brasky also suggested that men cut down on their fatty fish intake, though not eliminate it entirely. Andrew Vickers, a statistician specializing in prostate cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, agrees, saying that fish oil supplements may pose a relatively higher risk for prostate cancer than fish in the diet. “The problem comes when you take components of a diet and put it in a pill,” Vickers says. While the omega-3 fatty acids may increase oxidative damage to prostate cells, for example, anti-oxidants, which might be part of an overall healthy diet that includes fish as well as fruits and vegetables, might counteract these effects. Because the study did not query the men about their diets, it’s difficult to tell whether the men were consuming other healthy foods as well. MORE: Fish Oil Fail: Omega-3s May Not Protect Brain Health After All Most health experts recommend that people try to eat a healthy, balanced diet to protect against diseases and most cancers, and turn to supplements only if that’s not possible, since supplements may provide only partial benefits. That’s why the American Cancer Society does not currently recommend that men take fish oil supplements, according to Marjorie McCullough, the society’s strategic director of nutritional epidemiology. Brasky’s work isn’t the first to suggest that omega-3 fatty acids may have both positive and negative effects on the body. In a September 2012 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that omega-3 supplements were not associated with lower risks of stroke or cardiac death. Those results were confirmed by another study in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed omega-3 supplements did not reduce risk of dying from a heart event among a group of people at high risk of heart disease. Researchers involved in those studies, however, acknowledged that they were not able to account for the effect of other medications to treat heart problems, such as cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medications, in keeping death rates down. In the same way, more research will have to tease apart how other nutrients in a balanced diet — including antioxidants — work together to influence the effect of individual nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
We’re asking tough questions for wild game fish conservation
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen: Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and Coastal Affairs I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International regarding the recent news that millions of Atlantic salmon raised in open pen salmon feedlots sited in Norway's uniquely-productive wild salmon migration routes will be slaughtered because of the infestation of drug resistant sea lice in these feedlots. Removing these lice-infested salmon is clearly the proper action. Given that these fish to be slaughtered were near market size, will they be sent to market for human consumption or will they be disposed of in a manner not to risk public health and the environment?
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen
Jay Inslee, Governor, Washington State I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to comment on your Draft Outcomes for Sustainable Energy and Clean Environment The following action items are recommended to help ensure that your identified outcomes for sustainable energy and clean environment are achieved. Shellfish: Increase improved shellfish classification acreage in Puget Sound from net increase of 3,076 acres from 200713 to net increase of 8,614 acres by 2016 Ensure that shellfish hatcheries sited above Washington’s marine shorelines shall comply with pollution regulations Implement and enforce science-based harvest Jay Inslee management levels Ensure protection of Washington’s valuable shellfish from industrial pollution (open pen salmon feedlots, transportation of coal and oil, logging and others) Pacific Salmon: Increase the percentage of ESA listed salmon and steelhead populations at healthy, sustainable levels from 19% to 25% by 2022
Change subtitle from “Pacific Salmon” to “Wild Game Fish” Implement and enforce science-based, non-treaty harvest management levels Remove outdated water retention structures Oppose construction of water retention structures to maintain healthy watersheds Ensure protection of Washington’s valuable wild game fish from industrial pollution (open pen salmon feedlots, transportation of coal and oil, logging and others)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Healthy Lands: Increase the number of contaminated sites cleaned up by 17% from 5,815 to 6,803 by 2020
Ensure protection of Washington’s vitally important lands (below and above marine and fresh water levels) from industrial pollution (transportation of coal and oil, logging and others) Remove outdated water retention structures Oppose construction of water retention structures
Clean, Cool Water: Increase the percentage of rivers meeting good water quality from 43% to 55% by 2020
Change “percentage of rivers” to “percentage of shoreline (marine, river, lake) area/ miles” Implement and enforce science-based water allocation. Remove outdated water retention structures Oppose construction of water retention structures Ensure protection of Washington’s vitally important water quality (marine and fresh) from industrial pollution (open pen salmon feedlots, transportation of coal and oil, logging and others)
Healthy Air: Increase the percentage of population living where air quality meets federal standards from 82% to 100% by 2020
Ensure protection of Washington’s vitally important air quality from industrial pollution (transportation of coal and oil, logging and others) Remove outdated water retention structures Oppose construction of water retention structures
John Lawrence, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Walmart Canada I’m writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth to respectfully request that Walmart remove all open pen feedlot salmon from your store shelves. As the world’s leading retailer, Walmart has the ethical and professional responsibility to operate in a manner that protects human health and wild ecosystems. As countless numbers of peer-reviewed and published scientific articles have documented, the open pen salmon feedlot industry and its products harm public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.
John Lawrence
This is further documented by the fact that the SeaChoice certification criteria recommends that consumers AVOID open pen feedlot-raised Atlantic salmon. By continuing to disregard these science-based findings and globally-recognized certification, Walmart is, in fact, risking human health and wild ecosystems. This shameful action by Walmart and your seafood suppliers is irresponsible and unethical at best.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Hopefully Walmart management will see the writing on the wall and remove open pen salmon feedlot products from your shelves. Until then, Wild Game Fish Conservation International will strongly advise our associates to shop for seafood only in stores that abide by the SeaChoice Certification, or stricter, by not selling open pen feedlot salmon to unsuspecting customers.
Maria Cantwell, US Senator, Washington State Risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies require your immediate leadership before it is too late. Among these risks are those associated with open pen salmon feedlots sited in wild salmon migration routes, transportation and export of coal and oil via rails and west coast terminals, irresponsible logging in sensitive ecosystems, construction of ineffective water retention facilities in salmon-bearing rivers, open pit and strip mining in sensitive ecosystems and many more. These are among the risks we expose each month in the web-based magazine, Legacy. Here's the link to the October issue of this informative magazine for you and your staff to use as one of your references: http://issuu.com/steelheadsalmon-society/docs/legacy1013.
Maria Cantwell We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International look forward to discussing some of these issues beginning with open pen salmon feedlots with you or staff in the not too distant future.
Puget Sound Energy I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and as a Puget Sound Energy customer to respectfully urge Puget Sound Energy to retire the Colstrip coal-fired electric plant in Montana. The vast majority of Puget Sound Energy customers are adamantly opposed to generating electricity using coal-fired facilities. The risks associated with burning coal to public health, the air we breathe, the water we drink and our environment are far too great to continue with these weapons of mass destruction. Wild Game Fish Conservation International will continue to work with individuals and other organizations to retire Puget Sound Energy's, problematic Colstrip plant.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Karen Valenzuela, Commissioner, Thurston County, Washington State I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to begin a dialogue regarding the decommission and removal of the Skookumchuck Dam located in Thurston County. This 1970 dam is owned and operated by TransAlta - Its reservoir provides the water used to generate electric power via the Centralia Steam Plant (aka Centralia Coal Plant). With the retirement of the Centralia Steam Plant in less than 15 years, it's reasonable to expect that the Skookumchuck River will be returned to a free-flowing tributary of the Chehalis River.
Karen Valenzuela
Removing the fifty+ year old dam would have several benefits including, but not limited to:
No longer a significant liability to Thurston County Bucoda and downstream residents and businesses will no longer be in harm's way of a breached dam Fish and wildlife species will recover with a healthy river New business and recreation opportunities in the South County
Certainly, removal of the aging Skookumchuck dam is the right thing to do. Additionally, it will be a relatively small component of the overall cost to restore the landscape of this problematic site. Please advise if you and appropriate Thurston County staff are interested in discussing this matter further.
Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada I'm writing to you as Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to respectfully request that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Pacific Region Laboratory be provided your authorization and necessary resources to determine the cause(s) behind the significant numbers of wild Pacific salmon returning with a definite yellow color to British Columbia's coastal rivers and streams this Fall. Identifying, understanding and correcting this matter is of extreme international importance, given that Canada and US origin fish share the same marine ecosystems.
Gail Shea
Of course, wild Pacific salmon are key components to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. As such, this matter deserves the full attention of your professional staff in order to expedite its immediate resolution.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Costco I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to respectfully recommend that Costco stores no longer sell open pen feedlot salmon to unsuspecting customers. The unsustainable practices of the open pen salmon feedlot industry are directly responsible for risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. There is no legitimate justification for open pen salmon feedlots (aka weapons of mass destruction) in today's society, a society that values wild salmon and all that they support. Continuing to sell open pen feedlot salmon to Costco customers is unethical and irresponsible.
Maria Cantwell, US Senator, Washington State I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to express our concern regarding the September 23 Washington Post article, "Why Farmed Salmon is Becoming a Viable Alternative to Wild Caught": http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/why-farmedsalmon-is-becoming-a-viable-alternative-to-wildcaught/2013/09/23/aaff33ca-1cbf-11e3-86855021e0c41964_story.html. Nothing could be further from the truth as open pen salmon feedlots are, according to peer reviewed science, direct risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. In fact, these destructive feedlots are often referred to as weapons of mass destruction.
Senator Cantwell
The sooner open pen salmon feedlots are removed from the world's oceans, the better off our societies will be. Your leadership in Congress must continue to include efforts to rid our productive oceans of this unethical industry and its subpar products.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International regarding the Q13 Fox News special report, "Saving the Orcas". http://video.q13fox.com/Saving-theorcas-25242702.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! In this report, three primary risks to the Southern Resident Orca populations were identified:
Declining populations of chinook salmon (primary diet component of Orcas)
Water pollution
Boat noise
The report targeted the boat noise, especially the noise from commercial whale watching boats. The larger, often controversial, issue that significantly contributes to declining chinook salmon and pollution is that of open pen salmon feedlots sited in Washington state and in British Columbia marine environments. These weapons of mass destruction are directly responsible for risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. Any serious effort to save and recover Southern Resident Orca Whales would certainly include the immediate and permanent removal of open pen salmon feedlots from wild Pacific salmon migration routes. Not doing so is throwing hard earned taxpayer money down the toilet.
Utilities
and Transportation Washington State
Department
of
Commission,
Environmental
Quality,
Montana According to the information available on the Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission website: “The UTC regulates private, investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities in Washington. It is the commission's responsibility to ensure regulated companies provide safe and reliable service to customers at reasonable rates, while allowing them the opportunity to earn a fair profit.” We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International have concerns regarding Puget Sound Energy’s 2013 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) as it pertains to the Colstrip electric plant and its reliance on coal. They include documented risks to public and environmental safety, especially related to contaminants released into the air we breathe, the soil used to grow our food and the water we drink. These same contaminants significantly impact wild ecosystems and the cultures, communities and economies that rely on them. Continuing to rely on coal extraction, transportation and burning to generate electricity must end in order to reverse the negative impacts to public health and to our environment. As evidenced below from the 2013 IRP, Puget Sound Energy expects Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission to believe that it continues to be cost effective to produce electricity via the problematic Colstrip facility:
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “There is long-term uncertainty for coal generation in general, but Colstrip reduces cost and market risk in most likely scenarios. A number of factors may impact the future operations of coal-fired generation throughout the United States; this IRP investigates their potential impact on the economic operation of PSE’s Colstrip facility. For this analysis, PSE developed four environmental compliance cost cases to test the economic viability of Colstrip under a variety of potential regulatory requirements. Overall, the analysis found that Colstrip reduces cost and market risk for our customers. Three key risk factors have the greatest effect on Colstrip’s performance as an economic, least-cost resource: very high CO2 costs, very high disposal costs for coal combustion residuals, and very low natural gas prices for a very long time. At this time, the analysis indicates that continuing current operations at Colstrip saves PSE customers about $131 million per year. Put a different way, replacing Colstrip with another resource would result in approximately a 5 percent annual rate increase, apart from any other rate pressures. Conditions may change in the future, but for this planning cycle, it does not appear PSE should begin developing resources to replace Colstrip. “ As presented during public testimony associated with Puget Sound Energy’s 2013 IRP, nothing could be further from reality as the true operational and social costs of operating the coalfired Colstrip facility are grossly and intentionally underestimated by hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Puget Sound Energy’s continued fraud and risks to public and environmental health must end as they are absolutely unacceptable to those who expect our elected and appointed officials to protect us and our treasured natural resources from greed-driven atrocities.
Tamar Haspel, Writer, Food and Health In an article titled 'Farm-raised Salmon vs. wild: The gap is closing', published on September 24, 2013 in the Seattle Times, you wrote that "Salmon farms will never have a zero impact on the environment, and everyone agrees that there is work to be done before that goal is met. But all involved acknowledge that progress is being made." Unfortunately, you failed to interview those like Alexandra Morton who have been paying attention to the consequences of salmon farming for more than a decade. She can describe what happened in British Columbia to the salmon fishery as well as the impact on First Nations with the advent of salmon farms there. I urge you to interview her and publish that interview in the Post. Those who have been focused on this are much less sanguine about the consequences of salmon farming than any of those you interviewed for your article.
Tamar Haspel
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! I was going to regale you with the facts as I understand them. Instead, I invite you to view the video, Salmon Confidential at http://salmonconfidential.ca/ This video was done by Alexandra Morton. I also encourage you to review the Executive Summary of the Cohen Commission report which can be found at http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/pdf/FinalReport/CohenCommissionFinalReport_Vol03_04.pdf# zoom=100 The full report can be found at http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/ Finally, I am coeditor along with Jim Wilcox of the Legacy, a monthly publication of Wild Game Fish International. You may find copies of this publication at http://issuu.com/steelhead-salmon-society/docs There is a good deal of information about salmon farming in the United States, Canada, and other countries such as Norway in almost every edition. Our Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/WGFCI The organization, Salmon are Sacred, has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/111365508874859/ You may find the information there helpful as well.
Who is responsible for my family’s wellbeing? I am. The buck stops here.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Responses to WGFCI:
Kelly Susewind, Washington State Department of Ecology Water Quality Program Manager Thank you for your September 24, 2013, email to Director Maia Bellon. You expressed your concerns over Quilcene Bay water quality issues; and Coast Seafood, which operates an oyster hatchery in the area and discharges water to the bay. The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) has been studying the effects of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, on Puget Sound waters for several years. Excess nutrients drives algae growth in marine waters, and algae decay can lead to lower dissolved oxygen levels in Puget Sound. In response to a request from Ecology, Coast Seafood’s consultant Dr. Jack Rensel submitted a report to Ecology in February 2013 (Quilcene Bay Shellfish Hatchery Discharge Study) based upon sampling and observations in September 2012. The report indicates that at that time Coast Seafood discharged 0.88 kilogram per day (kg/d) of total nitrogen and 0.46 kg/d of dissolved inorganic nitrogen to Quilcene Bay. Ecology staff familiar with Puget Sound water quality reviewed the report and concurred with Dr. Rensel’s findings that the facility does not discharge enough nitrogen to affect water quality in Quilcene Bay. Ecology monitors water quality throughout Puget Sound. The purpose is to track long-term trends. You can find additional information about our marine water quality sampling efforts on our web page: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/database.html. Two recent assessments provide additional information in this region: o In a recent summary of what we know about impacts from human nutrient loads to Hood Canal, EPA and Ecology concluded that dissolved oxygen in Hood Canal is strongly driven by Pacific Ocean conditions. You can find our report, Review and Synthesis of Available Information to Estimate Human Impacts to Dissolved Oxygen in Hood Canal at https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/SummaryPages/1303016.html o Ongoing work at Ecology includes quantifying nutrient loads to Puget Sound and the Straits. In our work, we have estimated that the nutrient load to Quilcene Bay is 33 kg/d of dissolved inorganic nitrogen based on the period 1999-2008. Coast Seafood’s discharge represents 1.4% of the total dissolved inorganic nitrogen load reaching Quilcene Bay. While we have not assessed this facility in detail, it does not appear to us that the facility’s nutrients would significantly alter dissolved oxygen conditions in Quilcene Bay. You can find our report, Puget Sound Dissolved Oxygen Model Nutrient Load Summary for 1999-2008, at: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/SummaryPages/1103057.html If we can answer any additional questions on this matter, please contact Gary Lee of our Southwest Regional Office Water Quality Program at (360) 407-6291 or gary.lee@ecy.wa.gov.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ď ś Tamar Haspel, Writer, Food and Health Thanks for getting in touch. I'm familiar with Alexandra Morton's work and position, and I didn't interview her for the same reason I didn't contact any representatives of the salmon farming industry: I was trying to write a disinterested piece that gave a balanced picture of salmon farming. Talking to people on the far ends of the opinion spectrum -- whether they believe salmon farming is an unmitigated evil or an unequivocal good -- tends not to help me, or my readers. While I believe those people play an important role as partisans and advocates, they don't generally make good sources for the kind of story I was trying to write.
Waiting for more responses. Cowards, All!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Community Activism, Education and Outreach: Leave this world better than when you found it
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The tide is turning - but is it fast enough? Dr Sanjay Gupta from 60 Minutes came to British Columbia to interview many people about salmon farming. It was an honor to meet him, he is a humble and remarkable person. We visited the lower Fraser River where so many of the wild salmon are suffering from an unknown condition that is turning them yellow.
We also visited the place I have been fighting for for 30 years, between Kingcome and Knight Inlet at my research facility, Salmon Coast Field Station.
I will let you know when this segment of 60 Minutes airs. The Norwegian salmon farming industry exists to serve the American consumer. I don't know what Dr. Sanjay Gupta will say about farmed salmon, but it is clear Canada cannot stand up to Norway and tell its three companies to clean up or get out. So it is up to the people thousands of miles away standing at fish counters in California deciding where to put their money. 60 Minutes has approximately 15 million viewers.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott – History and Update Perspective: Stó:lõ People - Wild Salmon People Eddie Gardner, Skwah First Nation, Coordinator of the Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott October 14, 2013 We, the Stó:lõ people, consider wild salmon as our relatives. This familial relationship has great significance to our physical and spiritual wellbeing. The Stó:lõ are guided by the message of our elders “This is our land; we need to take care of everything that belongs to us.” As wild salmon are our relatives, we have a special responsibility to care for and protect them from harm. We have an aboriginal right to fish for salmon that has sustained us since time immemorial. This right comes with a responsibility to take care of them. We conduct annual First Salmon Ceremonies to honor our relatives so they will return once again in their renewable cycles.
Eddie Gardner – Wild salmon activist Talking and singing the talk, walking the walk “Farmed Atlantic Salmon – Don’t Buy IT!”
One only has to think about the impact on our world of the loss of wild salmon: bears, eagles, wolves, seals, whales, and a large number of other species would suffer; the trees along the river would be without nutrients they need to stay strong; Aboriginal people would lose a fishery they have a right to, and the wild salmon economy would end in disaster. We are pleased the province of (British Columbia) B.C. chose wild salmon as the fish icon of “Supernatural B.C.” Sadly, wild salmon are an endangered species. In his report looking into the 2009 collapse of Fraser River sockeye salmon, Justice Bruce Cohen stated: “I have concluded that the potential harm posed to Fraser River sockeye salmon from salmon farms is serious or irreversible.” Justice Cohen emphasized, “Mitigation measures should not be delayed in the absence of scientific certainty,” and advocated that the federal government put wild salmon first. Since the October 2012 report, the federal government has not implemented key recommendations Justice Bruce Cohen urged the federal government to act upon swiftly. http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/FinalRe port/.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Prior to the Cohen Commission, many scientists, environmental groups and First Nations raised red flags about open-net feedlots being placed squarely along the narrow wild salmon migration routes between Vancouver Island and the mainland. With the advent of expanding fish farms dotting the coastal migration routes of wild salmon over the last 25 years, there has been a corresponding decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon. Parliament gave (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) DFO impressive statutory powers to protect the environment in which wild stocks live. Such statutory powers acknowledge the importance of productive habitat for a sustainable fishery and form a core component of DFO’s mandate. The Cohen Commission’s Final Report included a recommendation that the Government of Canada remove from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ mandate the promotion of salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product. The current Conservative government has chosen to disregard this recommendation. Currently DFO has two roles regarding aquaculture: 1) Enabler – to promote the aquaculture business climate and 2) Regulator – to administer, monitor and enforce the compliance with laws and regulations. This seriously compromises their statutory mandate to protect wild fisheries and oceans. Because they have chosen to disregard the Cohen Commission’s recommendation to remove this clear conflict of interest, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has lost credibility with a large sector of the Canadian public and in the international community. To date, DFO has not yet completed research into the effects of diseases and pathogens from fish farms on the Fraser River sockeye. As a result, significant scientific uncertainty remains around the effect of salmon farms on Fraser River sockeye salmon. The provincial and federal governments have given up their ability to properly manage wild fish and their habitat in servitude to the aquaculture industry whose practices are detrimental to wild fish, the marine environment and the health of people who consume their contaminated farmed fish products. This is all in spite of the mounting scientific evidence and global studies that indicate net-pen farmed fish pose health risks due to high levels of cancer-causing Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). See: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130807094241.htm. Open-net fish farms are fighting a losing battle in efforts to contain deadly mutating viruses and harmful parasites that can spread to wild salmon. The open-net technology is fundamentally flawed, as it is impossible to quarantine farmed fish from wild salmon. Therefore, this industry is forced to use chemicals and antibiotics to keep their farmed salmon healthy. Should a disease outbreak occur for any reason, their farmed salmon are culled and the aquaculture industry looks to the federal government for compensation. Meanwhile, should wild salmon catch a deadly virus, the DFO would not compensate anyone for the loss of wild salmon, upon which a huge economy depends that includes Aboriginal fisheries, sports fisheries, eco-tourism and commercial fisheries. The DFO has simply rejected recommendations put forward by First Nations people and environmental groups to remove net-pen fish farms from the coastal waters and move them into containment on land. This is a feasible alternative to the existing situation as the technology exists and would be economically sustainable. The “precautionary principle” calls for DFO to make the B.C. and Atlantic coastal waters net-pen fish farm free zones.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Currently, the province of B.C. has the jurisdiction to approve or revoke seabed leases to the aquaculture industry along the coast of BC; they have, to date, chosen not to revoke these leases. This makes the province a slum landlord to an unruly open-net feedlot aquaculture tenant. The province is also guilty of ignoring the precautionary principle. Given that both levels of government have thrown caution to the winds and continue to support having open-net feedlots along the migration routes of wild salmon, we have taken up the promotion of consumer cautions through the Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott action. The Chilliwack Chapter of this robust boycott movement started in January 2013 with several rallies at local supermarkets and restaurants. More people are being educated on the standards that have been set by SeaChoice to avoid buying and consuming red-listed net-pen farmed Atlantic salmon. Save-On-Foods, Price Smart and Coopers supermarkets have adopted SeaChoice standards to protect the health of their customers. This is the essence of an ethical and socially responsible corporate policy. Safeway has recently come on board in adopting SeaChoice standards and has set a deadline of 2015 to have all their fresh and frozen seafood sourced from sustainable and traceable sources, or be in a credible improvement project. To help them implement this policy, Safeway has partnered with the SeaChoice program supported by Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society B.C., the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans and Sierra Club B.C. The Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott will expand with a new chapter opening up in Duncan, B.C., led by Shawna Green-Marwick. Chilliwack Chapter members will join Shawna and her Chapter members October 22 at a rally in front of Wal-Mart in Duncan. Vancouver is another place where there will be another chapter equipped with tools, including signs, posters and brochures to bring more public awareness about the harmful practices of net-pen fish farms, as well as warnings about consuming contaminated red-listed products. Given the governments’ apparent indifference to leaving open-net feedlots on migration routes of Fraser River sockeye salmon, boycott action to reduce the demand for net-pen farmed salmon could result in having open net pens removed from the coastal waters of B.C. We intend on assisting other towns in Canada and the United States to follow suit with developing more boycott chapters. We will also promote the boycott of net-pen farmed salmon in the U.S. since a huge percentage of B.C. farmed salmon are destined for U.S. markets. Boycott net-pen farmed salmon wherever they are sold for your own health and wellbeing.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Salmon Confidential scales fishy issues in B.C. The movie looks at B.C. activist Alexandra Morton’s quest to save the province’s iconic wild salmon. Watch Salmon Confidential HERE October 3, 2013 Alexandra Morton’s quest to save B.C.’s iconic wild salmon is documented in the film Salmon Confidential. Morton has her finger on many different threads — biologically and politically. The makers of Salmon Confidential aren’t keen on keeping anything about their new documentary quiet. The movie, which debuted Wednesday at the Vancouver International Film Festival, looks at B.C. activist Alexandra Morton’s quest to save the province’s iconic, beloved and delicious wild salmon. Morton aims to ensure her story of the viruses infecting B.C.’s sockeye salmon goes viral and, to that end, is releasing it for free on the movie’s website salmonconfidential.ca.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Morton set her big screen debut in motion when she contacted filmmaker Twyla Roscovich. She felt a movie needed to be made to raise awareness about the state of the fisheries and the fallout from the federal inquiry called in 2009 to look into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. Dubbed the Cohen Commission — it was headed by Justice Bruce Cohen — the inquiry’s final report released in 2012 was titled The Uncertain Future of Fraser River Sockeye. Morton believed what she witnessed through the proceedings “had to be put into a film so people would know, because wild salmon are so important to B.C.’s economy, ecology and spirit.” Asked what she’s hoping audiences will take away from the movie, Morton said, “If you want wild salmon we have to make salmon farms get out of the ocean and into tanks. Second, if the Canadian government is not looking after wild salmon — if we want salmon it is up to us to figure out what is happening to them and convince society to make the changes required.” Morton described working with a filmmaker as “an exercise in patience.” “I like to move fast to and I had to do things over and over. However, I trusted Twyla’s judgment and she got the message across better than I ever hoped. So it was all more than worth it.” Roscovich, who emailed The Sun from a remote location near Bella Bella, met Morton in 1996 at Orcalab on the Johnstone Strait. “She was still studying whales and dolphins and I was doing my first video contract filming the orcas in Johnstone Strait. Eventually, in our own separate ways we both ended up shifting our focus to advocating for the endangered salmon those whales depend on. When we met up again we found we were both interested in the same thing.” Then last July Roscovich got a call from Morton about salmon infected with viruses from Europe. “She asked if I would be interested in doing a short film about it to help raise awareness about what she was finding. At the time it didn’t sound like the sexiest film topic. I thought it would be difficult to make an interesting film about salmon viruses. I agreed to do it, though.” The original plan was to make a short film, maybe 10 minutes long. “But as I began to follow Alex around, as she conducted her research, a whole story began to open up that was actually very interesting and quite disturbing. Alex is a brilliant sleuth and hanging out with her is always a ride. She’s always hot on the trail of a new lead, whether it’s a fish virus or a report of suspicious fishy activity. She has her finger on many different threads — biologically and politically. After following her around for a month I realized I had a much bigger story on my hands.” Roscovich found, after six weeks of trailing Morton and two months of editing, that the shortest film she could make was 70 minutes. Then she sweetened her cut with the music of Bocephus King, Andrew Oye, Kelly Bedford. Roscovich says she draws her personal inspiration from the beauty of B.C. “This incredible coast is the driving force behind all of my films,” she said. “I have sailed around many other countries now and nothing I’ve seen holds a candle to the B.C. coast. We have it all — whales, dolphins, bears, wolves, and a huge amount of marine life. The salmon are what fuels this coast. Plus, I love to eat them.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The True Cost of (farmed) Scottish Salmon
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Editorial Comment: Like the Lummi Nation, we at Wild Game Fish Conservation International (headquartered in Washington state) understand that we need to work closely with others to recover wild Pacific salmon while protecting them from irreversible spills from bitumen and LNG pipelines, pollution from coal by rail, and risks associated with open pen salmon feedlots, irresponsible logging, mining and more. This extraordinary gift from the Lummi Nation will stand forever to remind each of us that wild Pacific salmon know no borders.
Carver Jewell James, centre left, of the Lummi Nation in Washington state, watches with his family as Tsleil-Waututh First Nation drummers play after unveiling a totem pole that was a gift from the Lummi Nation, during a ceremony in North Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday September 29, 2013. The totem pole is meant to be a symbol of cross-border unity among Coast Salish nations opposing the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and expanded oil tanker traffic.
Totem pole symbolizes cross-border unity for First Nations Gift from Lummi Nation in Washington state is a symbol of unity among Coast Salish nations opposing the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
American oil sands opponents turn their attention to B.C. pipeline plans October 1, 2013 VANCOUVER - Oil sands opponents who have been fighting the Keystone XL pipeline project in the United States are turning their sights on two pipeline proposals in British Columbia. The conservation group Forest Ethics launched the website tarsandssos.org in Washington state today, featuring real-time tracking of all tankers in and out of Kinder Morgan's Westridge terminal in Burnaby— the terminus of its Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta. Forest Ethics U.S. spokesman Matt Krogh (crowg) says the website is the start of a cross-border campaign to oppose the Canadian projects. Although neither Trans Mountain nor Northern Gateway projects cross the border, the group says the additional 700-plus tankers that would move the crude in the waters of the Pacific are a concern for Americans. The Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge (TSX:ENB) would deliver 525,000 barrels of petroleum a day to a tanker terminal in Kitimat, on the north coast of B.C.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
B.C. First Nations protests Kinder Morgan pipeline Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam cross Burrard Inlet in canoes October 14, 2013 The Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam nations and environmentalists crossed Burrard Inlet in traditional canoes to protest U.S. oil giant Kinder Morgan's $5B plans to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline. Protesters dodged tankers as they sailed close to the Westridge Marine Terminal, in a bid to stop Kinder Morgan nearly tripling the capacity of the pipeline, which carries crude oil from the Alberta oilsands to tankers in Vancouver. When completed, the proposed expansion is expected to increase capacity in Trans Mountain from the existing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day to 850,000 barrels per day. The protest comes as cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats head to British Columbia as part of a major government push to mollify opponents of building oil pipelines to the West Coast.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The new Harper initiative follows a report from the prime minister's special pipelines representative in British Columbia, David Eyford, who told Harper last month that negotiations with First Nations are a mess. Tsleil-Waututh Chief Rueben George says Kinder Morgan's pipeline interests are directly at odds with the interests of his people, who want to see Burrard Inlet restored and maintained as a healthy ecosystem. (CBC) Sources tell CBC News Eyford urged the federal government take the lead role in dealing with Indian bands on both the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge's Northern Gateway project. The Trans Mountain line stretches 1,150 kilometres between Edmonton and terminals in the Vancouver area and Washington State. It carries heavy and light crude oil, as well as refined products such as gasoline and diesel. It has been involved in several recent spills including more 100,000 litres of light crude oil that was spilled at Kinder Morgan's Sumas terminal in January. Meanwhile, an Enbridge official says the company expects a decision from the federal government on its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline by mid-2014, meaning the pipeline could be moving oil by 2018. The Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Enbridge would deliver 525,000 barrels of petroleum a day to a tanker terminal in Kitimat, on the north coast of B.C.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Greenpeace protesters blockade Burnaby terminus of Kinder Morgan pipeline facility October 16, 2013:
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! METRO VANCOUVER - Greenpeace protesters vowed to halt work at Kinder Morgan's oil pumping and storage facility in Burnaby as they began a fog-shrouded early-morning protest at the suburban Vancouver plant. VIEW MORE PHOTOS HERE, or if you're using a mobile app, tap the story image and swipe. "We have shut down the facility today,'' said Greenpeace spokesman Mike Hudema shortly after more than a dozen demonstrators took over the site on the shores of Burrard Inlet. "We have two protesters that are locked down to the front gates of Kinder Morgan,'' he said Wednesday. "Right now I am watching two others scale the pipes used to load tar sands into the tankers that already come into this inlet, and then there are other activists that have climbed two storage tanks.'' He said the activists intended to stay until they had sent a strong message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The protest was staged as the federal government prepared for the throne speech, which sets out its parliamentary agenda for the upcoming House of Commons session. Greenpeace opposes expansion of pipelines in British Columbia, and Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline. "With every extra tanker or kilometre of pipeline, we increase the risk of an accident that would be catastrophic to the coast and our communities,'' he said in a statement. Currently the line moves about 300,000 barrels of Alberta bitumen and other petroleum products daily, but the company has applied to nearly triple its capacity to 890,000 barrels daily. "Over 130 First Nations have already said no to these tar sands pipelines and tanker proposals and the prime minister continues to try to ram these proposals through,'' he said. Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Lexa Hobenshield said in a statement the company understands that project of this size and scope tend to attract a variety of views. "We have been and continue to be open to engaging with individuals and groups to hear their concerns and to share factual information on the project,'' she said. Hudema said activists in Wednesday's protest wore armbands with "Arctic 30'' printed on them in support of the 30 people detained by Russian authorities. He said that was after two Greenpeace protesters tried climbing onto an oil drilling platform in international waters in the Arctic near Russia.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
“40 Million Salmon Can’t be Wrong” Watch and listen to the promotion - take action
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Canadian
Wildlife Federation in the September - October 2013 Bulletin has declared its position on open pen aquaculture
"CWF and its Board of Directors want an end to open pen fin fish aquaculture on both coasts of Canada in the next 10 years and, in the meantime, a moratorium on new fin fish aquaculture operations".
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Time to choose – soon you will have no choice
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Twyla Roscovich: Salmon Confidential Documentary (Watch HERE) V VIIFFFF M Moosstt PPooppuullaarr CCaannaaddiiaann EEnnvviirroonnm meennttaall D Dooccuum meennttaarryy A Aw waarrdd
Encore
Salmon Confidential is a new film on the government cover up of what is killing BC’s wild salmon. When biologist Alexandra Morton discovers BC’s wild salmon are testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide, a chain of events is set off by government to suppress the findings. Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms, into British Columbia’s most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants. The film documents Morton’s journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon. The film provides surprising insight into the inner workings of government agencies, as well as rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with managing our fish and the safety of our food supply.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
VIFF 2013 Review: 'Salmon Confidential' Eye Opening Five-Star Work October 10, 2013
From "Vancouver International Film Festival" via Michael Coleman comes a look at what he feels is a must see doc experience titled "Salmon Confidential." BRITISH COLUMBIA SPOTLIGHT "Salmon Confidential" - Bottom line - you will never eat farmed fish for the rest of your life after viewing this. A must see, especially for British Columbians known for world-renowned Sockeye, "Salmon Confidential" is a corker of a doc. It’s staggering and eye-opening to see how the business of B.C.’s natural resources and food has been tainted by government and how puppet scientists have given up their objectivity simply cow towing to governmental party lines. This is the GMO monster in a different form and here the monster kills by passing on poisons and infection that are a recipe for extinction of a foundational salmon species. An important film right on par with "The Cove" impact wise, "Salmon Confidential" is an important don't miss it experience for all who care to listen. – 5/5 stars (The film so needs to be seen that the creators are even willing to have folks watch it for free online - all you have to do is click on www.salmonconfidential.ca to check it out)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
British Columbia: Salmon Feedlot Industry’s Slum Landlord Boycott Feedlot Salmon
Graphics credit: Gary Haggquist
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Salmon Feedlot Boycott: Farmed Atlantic salmon, Don’t Buy It! Walmart: Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada – October 1, 2013
Editorial Comments: British Columbia’s open pen salmon feedlot industry is directly responsible for risks to: •
Public health
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Wild ecosystems
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Cultures
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Communities
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Economies
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott Walmart, Eagle Landing, Chilliwack BC OCTOBER 1, 2013 (ed. please see photos and comments on previous page) Chilliwack – The Chilliwack Chapter of Farmed Salmon Boycott held a peaceful rally at Walmart situated at Eagle Landing in Chilliwack. Brochures were handed out to Walmart customers informing them about contaminated open-net pen farmed salmon and encouraging them to use SeaChoice guidelines in choosing seafood to purchase. The guidelines warn customers to “AVOID” these products as they come from farmed sources with a combination of critical problems – habitat damage, lethal impacts on other species and poor management practices. In addition, restricting consumption of net-pen farmed salmon is recommended due to elevated mercury or PCB levels. Children and women of childbearing age should take the strongest precautions. Learn more at www.edf.org/seafoodhealth. Last August, the Boycott group was pleased to learn that Safeway is working towards the full phase out of red-ranked farmed salmon to a sustainable alternative by 2015 or before, based on the SeaChoice standard. “We are hopeful that Safeway comes fully on board much sooner, joining the ranks of PriceSmart, Save-On-Foods and Coopers,” stated Wayne Froese of the Chilliwack Boycott Chapter. “It is our goal that all supermarkets and restaurants remove open-net pen farmed salmon from their shelves,” commented Frank Supernault. “That way, it will make this aquaculture industry go out of business and they will have to close down”, he added. “We will intensify our boycott movement by bringing start-up boycott kits to other towns”, said Eddie Gardner. Chilliwack boycott volunteers will be going to Duncan BC October 22, and then they will schedule a visit to Olympia, Washington to help set up boycott chapters in those areas. “People are really interested in getting involved because, although the aquaculture industry and governments have more money and resources, we the people, have better choices,” pointed out Ian Stephen. Chilliwack Boycott members are encouraged by the interest recently shown by John Lawrence, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Walmart. Mr. Lawrence communicated his intent to hold a telephone conference with Eddie Gardner to discuss our request to remove open-net pen farmed salmon products from Walmart shelves. He indicated he wanted to know more about the Chilliwack boycott’s mission in the context of Walmart’s current position, which favors the Best Aquaculture Practices standards that are flawed. Fundamentally: the use of open net feedlots to grow farmed salmon is unethical, irresponsible, and messy. Open net feedlots pollute the habitat of migrating wild salmon, and could cause irreversible harm with the spread of sea lice and mutating viruses. Of all the threats to wild salmon caused by human activity, open net fish farms pose the most serious threat and could bring wild salmon to extinction. This would be devastating to the fishing economy of BC, and it would put an end to Aboriginal rights to a fishery that First Nations have depended upon for thousands of years.
For your personal health, for the well-being of wild salmon and all that this magnificent gift to BC supports, join us in boycotting open-net pen farmed salmon.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Farmed Atlantic Salmon – Don’t Buy IT: An International Campaign
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings •
September 24, 2013 “40 million Salmon Can’t Be Wrong” • Learn how you can be a part of “40 million salmon can’t be wrong”
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October 1, 2013 with Chelsey Ellis from ECOTrust, Paul Biglin Spirit Bear Coffee October 15, 2013 with Shamentsut - Greenpeace Canada
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wild Salmon Warrior News
GE salmon not worth the risk October 2013 The wild salmon that return to us every year, offering their nourishment, inspiration and beauty, are a miracle of creation. Autumn Skye Morrison’s “The Call of the River” inspired Salmon Wisdomon the back of 7”x9” versions and was shared with friends, family and colleagues. People were inspired by it!
“The Call of the River” An original painting by Autumn Skye Morrison
It reads, in part, “Salmon are an important part of the wheel of life, a powerful reminder of our interconnectedness and a teacher of self-sacrifice. To indigenous cultures of the Northwest, salmon are highly respected and appreciated, symbolizing instinct, determination, prosperity and renewal. The Celts believe salmon to be one of the wisest and most ancient of all animals, representing wisdom, transformation and inspiration.”
In September, the US company AquaBounty, started by two Canadian men with the goal of developing and marketing genetically engineered salmon, stated in an FDA document that they would very soon apply to Health Canada for market approval in Canada where they feel that “the key” to worldwide acceptance of genetically engineered salmon lies. According to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, CBAN, “AquaBounty does not yet have permission from Environment Canada to commercially produce its GE salmon eggs at its PEI facility. Environment Canada refuses to disclose if the department is already assessing a request from AquaBounty.” Their plan is to ship these ‘Franken-salmon’ eggs to a facility high in the mountains of Panama to be grown to market size in tanks, harvested, packaged and shipped back to us to eat. Does this sound crazy? It gets worse.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! In 2009, the DFO reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus had been found in the GE salmon in the supposedly secure AquaBounty research facility on PEI. What if these infected salmon were to escape their tanks in PEI or Panama through flooding or some other disaster? AquaBounty says that 95% of the salmon would be sterile females and the rest males. But they can’t guarantee ISA infected male salmon wouldn’t escape into the biosphere. It’s yet another pending environmental disaster and the entire process of assessing the environmental risk is being done in secret without public consultation. Canada has not even ratified the UN protocols on bio-safety for international transport of living modified organisms. There are also the health implications of eating GE salmon to consider. Dr. Mercola already lists conventional farmed salmon as the worst in his top 10 foods to avoid. Add in transgenic engineering of Atlantic salmon with genes from an “eel-like creature” the “Ocean Pout” and a Chinook, and then feed it a diet of God only knows what GMO-derived feed, antibiotics and drugs and this plan is a health train-wreck right out of the gates. Please write to the Minister of the Environment and Health Canada and express your concerns. For an easy to use form letter that will be sent to the right people, visit cban.ca and click on “No GM Fish” and follow the links. Raise awareness in your community about GE salmon. It could be approved or rejected any day now in the US where there have been delays and considerable push-backfrom the public and lawmakers. Rather than engineering Franken-Salmon to feed people we should be exploring ways to help wild salmon populations remain strong, sustainable and understood by the people. We should be having a conversation about how to take care of the environment in which they are born, the ocean in which they mature and the path they swim to reach their ocean feeding grounds. Instead of blaming climate change, ignoring the salmon farming which are spreading diseases and parasites into our oceans, and basically giving up on wild salmon, we should be looking to nature and ourselves for clues as to how to create the conditions for long term wild salmon health. This autumn, the Pink salmon returns from the Fraser River all the way up to the Skeena were massive. How did that happen and what clues does it give us to answer these questions? On September 12, Mark Hume wrote in the Globe and Mail: “The massive return of one species – pinks – coming on the heels of a disastrous run of another –sockeye – may be linked to a dramatic shift in ocean conditions last year. And it has raised questions about the possible role of a controversial experiment that took place when the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. dumped iron material in the ocean last summer, stimulating plankton growth just as the pink salmon were moving through the area.” People in the know about this have told me that “dumping” is not what they did, but rather they strategically dispersed 100 tons of the iron-rich rock dust over a large area to find out if they could fertilize that part of the ocean for increased plankton growth, and thus nourish all marine life, many species being food for wild salmon among a myriad of other creatures. What about the totally unexpected 2010 Sockeye return to the Fraser River – nearly 40 million? How did that occur? That’s a conversation that needs to happen and the reason why the Artists Response Team, with musicians Kevin Wright and Holly Arntzen, along with artist and ocean ecologist Russ George, are presenting a new musical show and tour called 40 Million Salmon Can’t Be Wrong, which hopes to inspire a national conversation about the phenomenon of those 40 million sockeye.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Scientists were predicting only one million would return, but there was a 4,000% increase, after the Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian islands erupted in 2008, dispersing mineral-rich volcanic ash over the North Pacific ocean. The plankton bloomed and ocean life exploded. That summer, the baby Sockeye that swam out to sea from the Fraser River, along with all other marine life, were treated to a feast of plankton nourished by the volcanic dust. They grew and grew and returned to our rivers, 40 million strong. Read the CBC article about the researchers at the University of Victoria who pieced the story together here Find out when this show is coming to your community at artistresponseteam.com Let’s talk about how we can ensure wild salmon for generations to come not how we can genetically engineer them in such a way that we get to run away from our shared responsibility to take care of the life systems that naturally gift us with this precious food and source of cultural and personal inspiration for all, especially our indigenous cultures. Whether it’s GMO corn, soy, canola, cotton, non-browning apples, alfalfa or salmon, people all over the world are finally coming to the understanding that taking care of our food system is each person’s responsibility. Government agencies have proven that they cannot be trusted with this sacred duty. People the world over have the ability and the survival imperative to create a better food system than big agribusiness interests can or ever will. More food is currently being grown by small to medium sized farm operations than big agri-corporations. We can build on this and we are! We can clearly see genetically modified and engineered foods are only about the corporate monopoly of the food system through patents and selling lots of pesticides, etc. They are only about shareholder profits. GMO crops are damaging human, animal and environmental health to an extent we just don’t know, bankrupting farmers with patent infringement lawsuits and stealing food sovereignty from all of humanity and nature. The promise of GMO crops producing an increased yield have been de-bunked. They don’t. They are a crime against all life on earth. People are finally dumping Monsanto stock as the world wakes up to the crimes against nature, people and common sense these big agribusiness corporations are committing. People are standing up, finding their power and their voices and taking unprecedented actions to reimagine and remake our food systems healthy again, with justice for farmers and truth for all. On October 12, UN World Food Day, millions around the world will take to the streets again in the March Against Monsanto. In Vancouver’s March starting at 10AM at the Vancouver Art Gallery one of the highlights will be a live performance of Michael Jackson VS GMOs –– Don’t Eat It, an antiGMO mockumusic video set to the music of Jackson’s Thriller and Beat It. Created and performed by our very own Raamayan Ananda (Swami G) and Tha Truth IS Media Alliance, this flash-mob performance and music video will engage and inspire generations of Michael Jackson fans to get involved in this cause, spread the message about stopping GMOs and perform the templated flashmob dance in their community. Like Michael Jackson says in his song Man in the Mirror, “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.” Check out the preview video at Indiegogo.com Search Don’t Eat It and please support the production with a donation. The video is set to be released on Friday, October 11th as part of Vancouver’s march! Common Ground salutes everyone doing such amazing work for a better world though art, science, activism and principled business. We are the change we want to see in the world! Come and stand with us!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wild Salmon Warriors Community Basketball Team Fine tuning
Thursday night practice! — with Tyler Alan Jacobs, Camellia Brown and Patti Olsen.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Idle No More – International Day of Action – “Earth Revolution” Vancouver Art Gallery Watch and Listen: Hereditary Chief, Dan Wallace, Ta’Kaiya Blaney and Eddie Gardner October 7, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
WGFCI honored to participate: Idle No More - International Day of Action Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – October 7, 2013
The Idle No More movement is alive and well in British Columbia and elsewhere around planet earth where indigenous people and their lifestyles have been, and continue to be, negatively impacted by government-enabled corporate greed; a mentality that is short-lived as impacted people vow to be Idle No More. The Idle No More rally held on the front steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery on an evening of rain showers attracted in excess of 200 men, women, boys and girls from diverse cultures and from multiple nations to share their concerns and to recommend specific civil actions. Consistent messages were shared by several distinguished guest speakers during this historic event. They included key words such as: Love, Honor, Respect, Harmony, Solidarity, Unity, Urgency. Expect long overdue outcomes from the international Idle No More campaign. Jay Peachy “This man (Jim Wilcox) drove four hours from Olympia Washington just to support the indigenous movement. He is a defender of Wild Fish and a leader in the battle against farmed salmon for all nations. He is an inspiring warrior.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
GREENPEACE – End Destructive Salmon Farming “Save Our Salmon” New Greenpeace ship visits Vancouver – Watch video HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Welcome aboard Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior – Vancouver, British Columbia Photo credit: Jay Peachy
Heliport
Bridge Deck
Communications Room
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Environmental
and economic issues linked, says new head of Greenpeace
Canada October 9, 2013 The new executive director of Greenpeace Canada said her main goal is to change the narrative around environmental issues and challenge the idea that Canadians have to choose between supporting the environment or growing the economy. The economy can grow by investing in alternative and renewable sources of energy rather than spending it on expanding the tarsands or building more nuclear power plants, Joanna Kerr said. “Citizens have not been given that opportunity in Canada to determine the future of energy,” she said Tuesday in an interview. “Canadians have been given a false choice between the economy and the environment.” Kerr said it’s important for people to “follow the money” to see the how oil and gas industry is influencing the debate on the country’s energy future. “My Number 1 goal is to change the narrative — whether it is around the Arctic or the tarsands or the need to protect our forests or oceans,” she said. “If we don’t get out of our dependency on fossil fuels, the future of humanity is really very, very vulnerable.” Kerr started in her new position Monday. Her visit to Vancouver from Greenpeace’s head office in Toronto coincides with the arrival of the Rainbow Warrior 3, the organization’s flagship vessel, on the west coast. Kerr was born outside Toronto in Georgetown. Because her father was a mining engineer who worked abroad, she grew up outside Canada. Among the countries she lived in was Tanzania, which had a big impact on her. She said living in East Africa made her personally aware of the effects of inequality and how her “white skin” gave her privileges such as better sanitation and medical care, which reduced her chances of getting diseases such as cholera. She most recently worked in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the chief executive of Action Aid International, a global federation working to eradicate poverty and injustice.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Greenpeace was founded 44 years ago in Vancouver. In 1969, a group of protesters organized to oppose the detonation of nuclear bombs by the U.S. on Amchitka Island off the southwest coast of Alaska. Although the underground explosions went ahead as planned, Greenpeace has since become the largest environmental organization in the world. Kerr said she wants to counter characterizations of environmentalists as radicals. In fact, she said, environmentalists such as Greenpeace are proposing common sense solutions to what are complex problems. “What I think a lot of people think is: ‘I have to worry about the next five years, the paycheque, the job — I don’t see a solution,’” she said. “It is so easy to paint environmental organizations as not facing reality or wackos. It is really the reverse: We have to face reality and we can.” Kerr said she’s in the enviable position of heading a non-governmental organization that doesn’t rely on any government money. It’s a sign of how much Canadians support Greenpeace, she said, that people give money to the organization without expecting to get a tax deduction in return. “There is a massive, massive base that gives money to Greenpeace on a monthly basis because they’re 100-per-cent behind the cause and highly politicized,” she said. Last year Greenpeace Canada received $9.8 million in donations from Canadians. According to its 2012 audited statement, the organization’s total expenses were $11 million. “Greenpeace does a huge amount with very little money,” she said. “It has honed its strategies to be very, very cost effective.” Kerr believes a major change occurred in the environmental movement in 2009 because of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. While the conference didn’t lead to a binding international treaty, it did result in a massive increase in awareness of the need for action on tackling the warming of the globe, she said. Kerr believes people now have a growing sense of urgency that more than elite-level lobbying and research is needed to combat climate change. “We’re out here doing peaceful protests, civil disobedience,” she said. “That’s one part of who we are. Those images speak louder than anything.” She said she hopes to continue Greenpeace’s tradition of civil disobedience while taking a more integrated approach and linking the environment with issues such as international development and human rights. Kerr criticized the federal government for not coming out in support of two Canadians who are among the 30 activists from around the world arrested by Russia during a protest against oil exploration in the Arctic Circle last month. They were aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise. All have been charged with piracy and face 15-year prison sentences.
READ ENTIRE VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Rainbow Warrior visits Seattle: Public Tours – October 26 and 27
She’s been raided, rammed, shot at and bombed, but the spirit of the Warrior is stronger than ever. The Greenpeace flagship — the Rainbow Warrior — is still on the frontlines for the environment. And if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to stand on a Greenpeace ship, now is your chance! The new Rainbow Warrior is sailing to Seattle for the first time in her history. For an afternoon, hop on board, see where the action happens and meet the crew. Get a first hand look at one of the most environmentallyfriendly ships ever made.
Bring your family and friends and join us at Pier 66 on October 26 and 27. Come tour the ship and learn first hand about Greenpeace's work to protect the planet.
Join us in Seattle on October 26 and 27 to see the new Rainbow Warrior!
Sailing around the world exposing environmental destruction — whether it's standing up to Big Oil, revealing forest criminals or stopping nuclear tests — is what Greenpeace ships are made to do. And their work has never been more crucial, nor have the stakes been higher. Just a month ago, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was seized by the Russian government — her crew put in detention — all for protesting against drilling in the melting Arctic.
Celebrate Greenpeace ships and the work they do on October 26 and 27, anytime between 10 am and 5 pm. Tours of the Rainbow Warrior are on a first come, first serve basis. You can find more information about the Seattle open boat tours and RSVP here. The Rainbow Warrior ships have been the heart and soul of Greenpeace global campaigning for over 30 years. It's a proud legacy. And the newest Rainbow Warrior — Greenpeace’s first high seas sailing vessel — is better equipped to carry it on than any other Greenpeace ship before her. Her mission continues to be possible because of the support of people like you. Come join us and visit the ship. We can't wait to have you. For a green and peaceful future, Amber Smith Greenpeace USA Field Organizer
P.S. The new Rainbow Warrior is making its first-ever stop in Seattle on October 26 and 27. RSVP now to joins us on board for an afternoon and tour the Greenpeace flagship!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
American Rivers: Don’t let the Corps dam salmon to a cruel fate The White River Chinook Salmon is the last surviving spring-run salmon stock in South Puget Sound. They were saved from extinction in the 1980s. But when they get to the Buckley Dam, they impale themselves on the dam’s exposed rebar, and they fail to locate or find space in the dams’ outdated fish trap. Even if the fish make it into the overcrowded fish trap they’re often so tired and injured that their chances of surviving the ride to their spawning grounds are compromised. It’s time for the Corps to stop dragging their feet. Send a message today urging them to update the fish passage to help protect thousands of fish dying at the base of the dam.
Watch the Video
and Take Action
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
President Obama – Say NO to Keystone XL Pipeline “Protect OUR Water”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Fight Over Energy Finds a New Front in a Corner of Idaho September 26, 2013
LAPWAI, Idaho — In this remote corner of the Northwest, most people think of gas as something coming from a pump, not a well. But when it comes to energy, remote isn’t what it used to be. The Nez Perce tribe has lived in this corner of North Central Idaho for thousands of years. The Nez Perce Indians, who have called these empty spaces and rushing rivers home for thousands of years, were drawn into the national brawl over the future of energy last month when they tried to stop a giant load of oil-processing equipment from coming through their lands.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The setting was U.S. Highway 12, a winding, mostly two-lane ribbon of blacktop that bisects the tribal homeland here in North Central Idaho. That road, a hauling company said in getting a permit for transit last month from the state, is essential for transporting enormous loads of oil-processing equipment bound for the Canadian tar sands oil fields in Alberta. When the hauler’s giant load arrived one night in early August, more than 200 feet long and escorted by the police under glaring lights, the tribe tried to halt the vehicle, with leaders and tribe members barricading the road, willingly facing arrest. Tribal lawyers argued that the river corridor, much of it beyond the reservation, was protected by federal law, and by old, rarely tested treaty rights. And so the Nez Perce, who famously befriended Lewis and Clark in 1805, and were later chased across the West by the Army (“I will fight no more forever,” Chief Joseph said in surrender, in 1877), were once again drawn into questions with no neat answers: Where will energy come from, and who will be harmed or helped by the industry that supplies it? Tribal leaders, in defending their actions, linked their protest of the shipments, known as megaload transports, to the fate of indigenous people everywhere, to climate change and — in terms that echo an Occupy Wall Street manifesto — to questions of economic power and powerlessness. “The development of American corporate society has always been — and it’s true throughout the world — on the backs of those who are oppressed, repressed or depressed,” said Silas Whitman, the chairman of the tribal executive committee, in an interview. Mr. Whitman called a special meeting of the committee as the transport convoy approached, and announced that he would obstruct it and face arrest. Every other board member present, he and other tribe members said, immediately followed his lead. “We couldn’t turn the cheek anymore,” said Mr. Whitman, 72. The dispute spilled into Federal District Court in Boise, where the Nez Perce, working alongside an environmental group, Idaho Rivers United, carried the day. Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill, in a decision this month, halted further transports until the tribe, working in consultation with the United States Forest Service, could study their potential effect on the environment and the tribe’s culture. The pattern, energy and lands experts said, is clear even if the final outcome here is not: What happens in oil country no longer stays in oil country. “For the longest time in North America, you had very defined, specific areas where you had oil and gas production,” said Bobby McEnaney, a senior lands analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. A band stretching up from the Gulf of Mexico into the Rocky Mountains was about all there was.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
But now, Mr. McEnaney said, the infrastructure of transport and industrial-scale production, not to mention the development of hydraulic fracturing energy recovery techniques, and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, are affecting more and more places. The Nez Perce’s stand, in a way, makes Mr. McEnaney’s point. The tribe’s fight, and the galvanizing decision by its leaders to step in front of the transport, drew in people who had not been involved before. “Our history is conservative. You don’t go to court, you don’t fight,” said Julian Matthews, another tribe member. The fighting stance by tribal leadership, he said, was partly driven by pressure from members like him, already pledged to opposition. Others described the board’s decision as a thunderbolt. After the special meeting where leaders agreed they would face arrest together, the news blazed through social media on and off the reservation. “Everybody knew it in an hour,” said Angela Picard, who came during the four nights of protest when the load was still on tribal lands, and was one of 28 tribe members arrested. Pat Rathmann, a soft-spoken Unitarian Universalist church member in Moscow, Idaho, heard the new tone coming from the reservation. A debate over conservation and local environmental impact, she said, had suddenly become a discussion about the future of the planet. “The least I could do was drive 30 miles to stand at their side,” said Ms. Rathmann, whose church has declared climate change to be a moral issue, and recently sponsored a benefit concert in Moscow to raise money for the tribal defense fund. The equipment manufacturer, a unit of General Electric, asked the judge last week to reconsider his injunction, partly because of environmental impacts of not delivering the loads. Millions of gallons of fresh water risk being wasted if the large cargo — water purification equipment that is used in oil processing — cannot be installed before winter, the company said. “Although this case involves business interests, underlying this litigation are also public interests surrounding the transportation of equipment produced in the U.S. for utilization in wastewater recycling that benefits the environment,” the company said. The risks to the Nez Perce are also significant in the months ahead. Staking a legal case on treaty rights, though victorious so far in Judge Winmill’s court, means taking the chance, tribal leaders said, that a higher court, perhaps in appeal of the judge’s decision, will find those rights even more limited than before. But for tribe members like Paulette Smith, the summer nights of protest are already being transformed by the power of tribe members feeling united around a cause. “It was magic,” said Ms. Smith, 44, who was among those arrested. Her 3-year-old grandson was there with her — too young to remember, she said, but the many videos made that night to document the event will one day help him understand.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Pipeline
Die-In During Harper Government Meeting with BC Indigenous
Leaders Watch video HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Who you gonna call? - Fish Busters
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Impacts of open pen salmon feedlots
Alaska Salmon Farming
Watch video HERE
Alexandra Morton “The salmon farming industry does not like Alaskan salmon on the market they nearly own, so they try to drag Alaskan salmon down to their level. Salmon Ranching is different in that it releases the fish and they become part of the food chain. They also do not use Atlantic salmon. That said, they are running risks with disease, breeding out wild characteristics that are essential to wild salmon and competing with wild salmon for resources. This is an issue that Alaskans should monitor. The reason I am fighting salmon farms in BC is because wild salmon are crashing, toxic algae blooms occurring, the seafloor is laid to waste, First Nation rights and title violated, European pathogens contaminating the Pacific, the resident orca were displaced from the Kingcome Inlet region, drugs are used with no warning to local people fishing in the area, sea lice plagues, local economies harmed by loss of wild fish... The industry came into the place I called home and took it over with no consideration for the damage caused. I am not trying to fix the whole world, just the area that I know well and understand.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Waste Contamination from salmon farms
Tens of thousands of farmed salmon confined to net pens produce a huge amount of waste: chemical, biological, organic, and inorganic. For more than 25 years, researchers around the world have recognized the harm from salmon farm waste and its long-term impacts on water quality, fisheries resources, and sea-bed ecology.1 THE WASTE PROBLEM Salmon net pens discharge untreated sewage, including contaminated feed laced with chemicals, toxic residues, nitrogen, phosphorus, and copper and zinc—not to mention diseases and parasites— directly into coastal waters throughout the world. In addition, tons of contaminated salmon, together with processing wastes—bones, entrails, and even the carcasses of seals, sea lions, and other predators—are dumped in landfills or processed for fertilizer or animal feed. Sewer Systems in the Sea Experts have calculated that factory salmon farms, each extending over several acres of coastal waters, discharge extremely high concentrations of untreated sewage. •
According to Scotland’s World Wildlife Fund, salmon farms there produce nitrogen wastes equal
•
to a human population of more than nine million people. 2
Even industry insiders concede that a typical 200,000-fish salmon farm releases: •
nitrogen equal to 20,000 humans,
•
phosphorus equal to 25,000 humans, and
•
fecal matter roughly equivalent to a city of 65,000 people. 3
In 2000 and 2001, nutrient discharges from aquaculture in the Northeast Atlantic, including Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and Ireland, were estimated at almost 40,000 tons of nitrogen and 6,600 tons of phosphorus.4 Pollution from Nutrients Sewage and other wastes from salmon farming causes far-reaching environmental harm by: •
contaminating the sea-bed and its shellfish species,
•
contributing to the antibiotic resistance of shellfish and wild fish, and
•
causing eutrophication that triggers toxic algal blooms.
The accumulation of sewage on the seafloor under and around salmon farms directly harms marine biodiversity. Scientists in Scotland, Norway, Ireland, and Canada have all shown that some of these effects may last several years and extend for several hundred meters away from salmon farm. 5 Divers have also found biological “dead zones” under salmon farms—areas on the sea-bed devoid of marine life. This problem is so prevalent that every few years salmon farmers relocate their net pens to prevent the sea-bed from completely dying.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! As a result, salmon farms are gradually moving further offshore and contaminating a larger area of once healthy water. Pollution from Chemicals Salmon farm sewage often contains chemicals and contaminants 6 that easily enter the food chain and accumulate as they move up it, ultimately reaching humans. Among these chemicals are: •
copper
•
zinc
•
tributyltin, a fungicide
•
oxytetracycline and oxolinic acid, both antibiotics
•
ivermectin, an anti-parasite compound
•
emamectin benzoate, cypermethrin, azamethiphos teflubenzuron, and dichlorvos—all
•
insecticides.
•
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).7
The abuse of antibiotics by large salmon farming operations has not only led to chemical resistance in wild fish species but also raised health concerns for humans whose diets already include milk, eggs, and meat products containing unknown amounts of similar drugs. 8 Pollution from Mass Mortalities Massive farmed salmon deaths (euphemistically referred to as “morts” in the industry) add to the burden of pollution from commercial salmon farms. Industry-wide, mortality rates in factory salmon operations range from 10 percent to 40 percent. Outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as Infectious Salmon Anaemia, may necessitate the slaughter of 100 percent of a farm’s stock, as it did in Scotland in 1998-99 when eight million fish had to be killed to stem the spread of disease. The sheer volume of dead fish can only be measured in tons. In British Columbia, for example, where factory farms produce 70,000 tons of salmon annually, an estimated 20,000 tons of dead fish have to be discarded each year. Globally, production of almost 1.9 million tons of salmon produces a disposal problem for several thousand tons of dead and dying salmon. In many parts of the world, thousands of tons of dead farmed salmon are dumped every year in landfills. Because most salmon farms are in remote locations, dead fish are often expediently dumped in isolated areas rather than farmers paying to ship the waste to legitimate treatment sites. In Scotland, for example, one company was caught dumping thousands of disease suspected farmed salmon on an environmentally sensitive beach.9 Alternative disposal methods involve depositing fish in large silos and applying chemicals to hasten decomposition. Dead salmon, some diseased and others contaminated with chemicals, may also be used by farmers for fertilizer or converted to compost and applied to farms and gardens. Still other salmon “morts” end up in pet food or as feed on mink farms. CLOSING THE NET ON WASTE Alternatives to irresponsible dumping and waste discharge have been tried for several years. Scotland’s Environmental Protection Agency experimented with various systems until the late 1990s when it yielded to industry pressure and concluded that the cost of requiring new technologies was “not viable for commercial salmon production under present economic conditions.” Similar studies in Canada, with treatments for waste water from salmon farms, were also declared “uneconomic” and discontinued.10
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Although dead salmon and their wastes can be safely disposed of with various filtration and treatment systems to protect marine ecosystems, the salmon farming industry has resisted all such proposals in the interest of keeping costs low to offer the cheapest product possible. The savings to consumers, however, means a far heavier price must be paid by wild salmon, the shellfish industry, and traditional commercial fishing livelihoods. More to the point, no one yet knows the true cost of cheap farmed salmon to human health S. J. Cripps and L. A. Kelly, “Reductions in wastes from aquaculture,” In D. J. Baird et al. (eds.), Aquaculture and water resource management, Blackwell Science, Oxford, 1996. See also J. R. Henderson et al., “The lipid composition of sealoch sediments underlying salmon cages,” Aquaculture, 158:69 (1997), pp. 83-89. 1
M. MacGarvin, “Scotland’s secret? Aquaculture, nutrient pollution, eutrophication and toxic algal blooms,” WWF Scotland, Aberfeldy (2000), <www.wwf.org.uk/fileLibrary/pdf/secret.pdf>. 2
R. W. Hardy, “Urban legends and fish nutrition,” Aquaculture Magazine, Nov/Dec (2000), <www.aquaculturemag.com/siteenglish/printed/ar chives/issues00/00articles/ND2000Urban.pdf>. 3
Scottish Executive, “Eutrophication assessment of aquaculture hotspots in Scottish coastal waters,” Paper presented to OSPAR by the Scottish Executive, May 2003, <www.ospar.org>. 4
D. J. Wildish et al., “Acoustic detection of organic enrichment in sediments at a salmon farm is confirmed by independent groundtruthing methods, ”Marine Ecology Progress Series 267 (2004), pp. 99-105, <www.intres.com/abstracts/meps/v267/p99-105.html>. 5
6 K.
Haya, “Environmental impacts of chemical wastes produced by the salmon aquaculture industry,” In B. T. Hargrave [ed.]. Environmental Studies for Sustainable Aquaculture 2002 Workshop Report, (Canadian Technical Report), Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2411 (2002), <www.mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/mesd/publications/pubs-f.html>. P. W. Balls, “Tributyltin (TBT) in the waters of a Scottish sea loch arising from the use of antifoulant treatment netted by salmon farms,” Aquaculture, 86 (1987), pp. 227–237. 7
C. D. Miranda et al., “Diversity of tetracycline resistance genes in bacteria from Chilean salmon farms,” Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 47 (2003), pp. 883–888, <http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/3/883>. 8
9 “Fears
raised by salmon dump,” The Sunday Times, July 17, 2004, posted on “Aquaculture Corner,” of the Mangrove Action Project, <www.earthisland.org/map/ltfrn_159.htm>. G3 Consulting, Salmon Aquaculture Waste Management Review & Update, Report prepared for British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, 2000, <www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/epdpa/industrial_waste/agriculture/pdfs/salmon_aqu.pdf>. 10
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Salmon farm with feed blowers visible situated in British Columbia, Canada
Salmon Farming – Is it as good as we think? By Alexandra Morton
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Salmon farm called Sir Edmund Bay, owned by Cermaq near Kingcome Inlet, British Columbia, harvesting farmed salmon The argument for farming the oceans goes like this: the human population is growing, we need to maximize food production, humanity has moved from hunting to farming on land and it is time to do the same in the oceans. Prominent marine explorer and educator Jacque Cousteau is often quoted and salmon “farming” sounds like a good idea in this context. But let’s look at the reality, is salmon farming a good way to feed people, is it sustainable and is it good for us? My firm opinion after 30 years of trying to bring reason to the invasion of Atlantic salmon farms in the North Pacific is “no” on all counts, but you decide. Salmon farms typically contain 600,000 salmon held stationary in net pens anchored to the seafloor along the coastlines of many countries. Atlantic salmon exist high on the food chain. They don’t eat marine plants or even the tiny zooplankton at the ground floor of the marine pyramid of life. To “farm” Atlantic salmon enormous quantities of wild fish have to be caught, ground up, shipped, extruded into pellets with grain and other additives, thrown back into the water and after 18-24 months less fish are taken out of the ocean, and shipped to people in cities far beyond the ecosystems they used.
READ ENTIRE 72 AND RISING ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ď ś ISA and sea lice prevalence in salmon on the rise September 23, 2013 The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) reported that there has been an increase in the prevalence of two pathogens that harm domestic salmon: the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus and caligus or sea lice. According to the Health Status Report on ISA/caligus prepared by Sernapesca, during the first half of 2013 there were no new outbreaks of ISA virus. The latest cases of this disease were recorded in April. The Service noted that the way of expressing the frequency of the disease is the prevalence, which corresponds to the proportion of positive centres over the operational centres at any given time. Given that this measure involves new and old cases, and relates them to the total susceptible centres, the prevalence expresses the extent of the situation in a more realistic way. The report specifies that "in the epidemic curve (since the first case of ISA in the country in July 2007 to date), constructed from the monthly prevalence of the ISA positive centres along with the number of susceptible centres (with Atlantic salmon), it is noted that that the prevalence of positivity to the virus corresponding to the HPR 0 variant has been increasing in recent months," and that a peak of 36 per cent was reached in June. Sernapesca said that 76 per cent of the cases correspond to the Aysen region, 22 per cent to the Los Lagos Region and 1.85 per cent at the Magallanes Region. "All the positive centres were harvested and are now undergoing a health rest period," said Sernapesca. Furthermore, indicators of caligidosis in farming centres categorized as high surveillance show that "during the year 2013 there has been an increase of centres in the categories of higher loads, compared to the previous year." The major difference is recorded in the region of Los Lagos, which last year had experienced lower parasitic loads than the Aysen Region. Monitoring of the High Dissemination Centres (CAD) of the Specific Health Programme of Caligidosis Surveillance and Control (PSEVC-Caligidosis) showed an increase from the first week of March. At that time, the indicator for the first time exceeded 20 per cent of the active high surveillance centres, and peaked at 29.07 per cent in the last week of April. Then there was a decline in May and June. Sernapesca attributes this improvement, in part to the lower water temperature, "which produces a lengthening of the life cycle of the parasite" and "the incorporation of new therapeutic tools to control the disease." Besides, it highlights the implementation, in coordination with the private sector, of the "sanitary management measures together with concession groups of high parasitism and health risk such as AC 3A, 8 and 16 in the Region of Los Lagos and AC 18A and 20 in the Aysen region."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Norway to slaughter sea-lice infected salmon October 10, 2013 As Norway orders the slaughter of two million sea-lice infested farmed salmon, the Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland) is questioning whether Scottish Government would ever take similar action. The Norwegian authorities have recently ordered that some two million sea-lice infested farmed salmon in the Vikna district of Nord Trondelag be slaughtered with immediate effect after becoming resistant to chemical treatments against the sea-lice parasite. The action has been prompted specifically to protect wild young salmon (smolts) migrating through the fjords to the open sea next May and June from huge numbers of juvenile sea-lice being produced on and released from particular salmon farms that have been unable to control their lice numbers. Last week the Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) (S&TA(S)) wrote to the Scottish Government, drawing attention to the situation in Norway and asking what consideration it is giving to applying “similar punitive sanctions” against salmon farm operators in Scotland which are unable to keep sea-lice numbers below agreed thresholds. Hugh Campbell Adamson, Chairman of S&TA(S), said: “Norway’s clamp-down on those salmon farms where sea-lice numbers are out of control shows that it takes the protection of wild salmon seriously. The contrast with the situation in Scotland could hardly be more marked. Here the salmon farming industry’s own figures confirm that sea-lice numbers have been out of control for many months on farms in areas such as West Sutherland and the northern part of Wester Ross and yet the Scottish Government declines to take any action whatsoever. It is difficult to reach any other conclusion but that Scottish Government has decided that west coast wild salmon and sea trout are expendable and that such a price is worth paying in the interests of salmon farming and its expansion.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Escaped Farmed Salmon Found in Large Numbers in NB Rivers October 10, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! St. Andrews - Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) biologists are concerned that the large number of farmed salmon showing up at the fish trap on the Magaguadavic River is indicative of a large escape from sea cages in the Bay of Fundy that has gone unreported by the aquaculture industry. “This is a serious issue,” said Jonathan Carr, ASF’s Director of Research and Environment, “as it is mandatory in New Brunswick for industry to report escapes of 100 salmon or more.” He has counted a total of 71 farmed salmon in the Magaguadavic fish trap this season, with a jump in numbers just lately. This is the largest number of escapes encountered at the Magaguadavic since 2001. “The number is expected to rise, as additional fish have been observed at the fish ladder below the trap, added Jonathan Carr. While people do pay greater attention to larger escapes, chronic low level escapes, year after year, can be just as threatening - and the Magaguadavic indicates that other regional rivers suffer this fate as well. Mr. Carr also notes that, without ASF’s monitoring program on the Magaguadavic River, these fish would have gone undetected. “How many other escaped farmed fish are entering other rivers?” he asked. “We have no idea because there is no comprehensive monitoring program in N.B., despite salmon being farmed in the Bay of Fundy at some of the highest densities in the world.” In other nearby Bay of Fundy rivers, there is no trap to prevent escapees from entering these rivers. Some of the escapes are sexually mature and the timing of this incident coincides with the wild salmon spawning season, which increases the likelihood and severity of negative interactions between wild and farmed fish. When farmed and wild salmon interbreed, the progeny are less fit to survive and are less likely to produce healthy offspring themselves. This most recent unreported escape highlights the need for better containment of farmed salmon, as well as increased enforcement of existing provincial and federal regulations. ASF has long called for more transparency and accountability within the aquaculture industry, which will depend on stricter regulations by provincial and federal governments. Last week it was reported that between 20,000 and 50,000 mature farmed salmon escaped from a cage site on the South coast of Newfoundland, raising similar concerns in that province. The event was reported to DFO, which prompted officials to implement a fish recapture plan. “The problem”, continued Mr. Carr, “is that reporting escape events is self-regulated by the industry. If they don’t report it, then we don’t know about it unless there is a monitoring station in place such as on the Magaguadavic”. In Maine, escaped farmed salmon can be traced back to the sea cage operator responsible using DNA technology. “This helps to keep the industry honest”, said Mr. Carr. “Our monitoring program on the Magaguadavic provides an early warning system for the salmon rivers in the region,” concluded Mr. Carr. “For instance, when escapes have been reported to Maine officials, they have set fences or traps in specific rivers to try to stop the infiltration of the escapes into those systems. These methods should also be adopted in Canada. Keeping these escaped salmon from interacting with endangered wild salmon in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy is fundamental to the recovery of Atlantic salmon populations
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ď ś Shatner blasts B.C. salmon farming July 31, 2009 Vancouver Sun: William Shatner has boldly gone where no actor has gone before: British Columbia's controversial fish farms. The Canadian-born-and-raised actor has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking that salmon farms be removed from crucial wild-salmon migration routes off northern Vancouver Island. Shatner said sea lice from salmon farms are having a disastrous impact on "one of Earth's most precious assets, the wild salmon and steelhead of B.C." A Canadian fisheries spokesman says there's no evidence lice are hurting wild salmon stocks.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ď ś Hvordan dyrke frem uangripelighet? September 30, 2013 Note: Original article translated to English In parallel with the increase in production, come alerts that something wrong is happening! It is now recorded that resistance to each delousing agents and there will eventually be even stronger warnings that lice are becoming drug-resistant! Resistance development in salmon lice will can bred on the farm by itself! Is it a development due to irresponsible management? Individuals develop higher exposure tolerance for active substances after sea lice treatment, and this is again seen in the offspring that then show the same characteristics. The alternative treatments will again allow sea lice to develop new tolerances etc. Finally, one is left with a hereditary trait that is untreatable!
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
When does self-recognition from the industry occur to understand that this scenario is developing fast? We see that the growth of the industry has been tremendous, with more than a doubling in the period 20052012. This, despite numerous warnings from the Directorate for Nature Management, the Auditor General, and a number of researchers. Where is the self-realization? Are salmon farmers in the process of painting themselves into a corner covered in lice? FIG. 1: Biomass Increase in aquaculture 2003-2012 / ton (source SSB)
In 2009, it looked as if the industry is at a crossroads when it comes to combating lice. The use of delousing agents increased significantly while many expressed strong concern for this development. Despite this, it does not seem to have influenced the decision makers and the growth has continued from 862,909 metric tons (2009) to 1,241,482 metric tons (2012). It is a remarkable increase of 44 % or 378,573 metric tons during just four years! If we look at farmed salmon consumption in relation to the production increase, showing the increasing need for every ton of farmed fish. This shows that the need for sea lice treatment increases and the development of resistance is a result of this. Since 2009, the industry also adopted teflubenzuron and diflubenzuron despite strong warnings. This is an extremely active substance that degrades ecosystems by dissolving the shells for organisms such as lobsters, crabs, shrimp and copepods. Diflubenzuron and teflubenzuron are extremely active substances that may have adverse effects even in small doses. The Environment Agency confirms that diflubenzuron and teflubenzuron and harmful effects on the environment.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! Figure 2: Evolution of the amount farmed salmon that require chemical treatment of lice per metric ton of biomass for the drugs azametifos, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, diflubenzuron, emamectin and teflubenzuron
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Figure 3: The amount of required chemical treatment of sea lice per metric ton of biomass for hydrogen peroxide:
These results show an alarming development in the aquaculture industry in Norway. In the long term, such use of chemical substances indicates stronger resistance in individuals! The chemical “toolbox ” to the industry will soon be empty. What happens to wild salmon and sea trout then? Sea lice infestations in migrating salmon leads to increased mortality. To maintain a steady influx of wild salmon to our rivers, we are totally dependent on maintaining a low level of sea lice at the time and place where salmon smolts migrate to the sea. The presence of sea lice causes lower success of the wild individuals. Sea trout are located close to the coast and do not go up the river to spawn. Sea trout are even more affected by sea lice and population trends for this is far from positive since 2000. This situation must be handled now! The industry must change to closed systems on an equal footing with other industries are required to reduce their environmental footprint. Or should we wait to see what happens at the smolt migration in 2014, maybe 2015 etc? Are we willing to sacrifice a species without seeing that the only solution is to impose technology to this industry so that the problems can be solved? Farmed salmon in closed containment systems!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Parasitic sea lice from farmed salmon can spread to wild fish nearby.
The Washington Post is Wrong About Farmed Salmon September 25, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Today the Washington Post ran an article in their Food section lauding advances in the salmon farming industry. Their message? Farmed salmon are a good choice. We’re here to set the record straight: farmed salmon are not a sustainable seafood choice, and they’re not good for the oceans. If you want to be a responsible seafood eater, therefore, you should not eat farmed salmon. When you eat farmed salmon, you’re really eating another fish called the jack mackerel, or any number of other wild fish being fed to salmon. Salmon are carnivores, and wild salmon hunt and eat other fish. To simulate a wild diet, farmed salmon are fed a stomach-turning mixture of fish meal (ground up fish) and fish oil, plus protein substitutes. To make their fish food, salmon farmers use smaller, little-known species like jack mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. The problem is that many of these species, especially jack mackerel, are dangerously overfished. Even if the ratio of wild fish to farmed fish it 1 to 1, you are still eating a pound of jack mackerel or another wild species—which are likely in trouble—when you eat your farmed salmon. And because the ratio is really 3 to 1 for most of Chile, you are likely eating 3 pounds of jack mackerel or other fish when you and your friends and family dig in to your pound of farmed salmon.The jack mackerel fishery is in very bad shape, and a responsible eater can’t feel good about that choice. Buying three pounds of fish and then throwing two away later would be crazy, but salmon farming operates under the same logic. It’s fair to say that salmon farming is better than it used to be, but it used to be horrendous. Even the best farms still pollute their waters with parasiticides, chemicals, and fish feces. The Chilean farmed salmon industry uses over 300,000 kilograms of antibiotics a year, causing bacterial resistances that affect fish, the environment, and human beings. In Chile, home to the article’s much lauded Verlasso fish farm, the majority of farms are located in pristine, deep-water fjords off of Patagonia, where even a minimal footprint could irreparably damage the ecosystem.
It’s not time to feel good about farmed salmon. Feeding
one fish to another is inherently wasteful and inefficient, and the smart choice is to abandon salmon farming for something more sensible: making wild fish stocks more abundant by using science-based fishery management. The jack mackerel, anchovies, and sardines that we grind up and feed to farmed salmon worldwide are delicious fish, so why not eat them instead? Oceana is working to implement science-based fishery management all over the world. As long as they’re managed properly, wild seafood can provide a healthy seafood meal a day for a billion people. Consumers can still eat healthy, wild fish, and our ocean waters can stay free of the chemicals, feces, and parasites that come with salmon farms. But this won’t happen if we keep on grinding our wild fish stocks up to turn them into faux, er farmed salmon (or to feed them to pigs and other livestock, but that’s another story). We think that makes good sense, and we hope you agree. And will someone please tell the Washington Post’s tasting panel to include jack mackerel, anchovies or sardines the next time when they do another taste test? After, all that’s what the tasters are actually eating. Plus they are delicious, and don’t have sea lice!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Unbelievable that Canada lets Norway do this
Alexandra Morton: “In the region between Kingcome Inlet and Knight Inlet we saw toxic algae blooms, never seen in the region, begin as the salmon feedlots got bigger. The brown seaweeds turn to the brilliant green seaweeds that thrive in high nitrogen levels that salmon farms contribute to. Changing the seaweed species is like cutting down a fir forest and planting alder, it alters ecosystem nurseries essential to life in BC. Seen here is a bloom of noctiluca - classic symptom of pollution. Salmon feedlots are the only increased source of nitrogen and phosphorous in the archipelago... tons of waste daily per feedlot, they never shovel their manure, just dump it on top of the prime prawn, rock cod and salmon habitat. Unbelievable that Canada lets Norway do this.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Oops!
Editorial Comment: The escape of open pen feedlot salmon into wild salmon ecosystems is problematic on many fronts including public health, uncontrolled spreading of salmon diseases and parasites, breeding with wild salmon and anadromous trout, out competing wild salmon for available feed…
Latest
Escape Demonstrates Salmon Farming is Unsustainable, Says the Atlantic Salmon Federation
The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) has deep concerns over the recent escape of between 20,000-50,000 mature farmed salmon from a Cooke Aquaculture farm site last week in Newfoundland, Canada, according to a CBC report published on September 25th, 2013. The timing of the escape coincides with the wild salmon spawning season, which increases the likelihood and severity of negative interactions between wild and farmed fish. This most recent escape calls to question the environmental sustainability of current salmon farming practices and ASF is calling on industry and governments to invest in closed containment salmon farming technologies, which eliminate the interaction of farmed and wild fish. In the CBC report, Cooke Aquaculture assures the public that the escaped farmed salmon pose no threat to the local environment. Don Ivany, ASF’s Director of Programs for NL, says that enough scientific evidence exists on the interaction between wild and farmed salmon to suggest otherwise:
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “All of the fish from this most recent escape are mature fish, and now we’re into the fall of the year when most salmon begin to spawn. There is a high risk for interaction between these escaped farmed salmon and our wild fish, and the timing of the escape couldn’t be worse.” In Newfoundland, healthy wild Atlantic salmon runs still exist and contribute more than $32 million annually to the local Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through recreational fisheries, according to an independent Gardner-Pinfold report (September 2011). Escaped farmed salmon pose a threat to these wild populations, especially during the spawning season, says Mr. Ivany: “a large body of scientific evidence suggests that when farmed and wild salmon interbreed the resulting progeny are less able to survive than their wild counterparts and are less likely to produce healthy offspring themselves.” Newfoundland’s salmon farming industry has been plagued with problems this year, including three outbreaks of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) this summer according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s website (updated August 31, 2013), and confirmation by Department of Fisheries and Oceans of farmed salmon in half a dozen rivers on the South coast of Newfoundland in the past 12 months from previous escape events. Problems such as disease outbreaks, parasites, and escape events are not limited to Newfoundland; they exist wherever Atlantic salmon are farmed, globally. For example, Chile’s salmon farming industry was almost completely wiped out in 2008, following catastrophic outbreaks of the ISA virus. The crash of Chile’s salmon farming industry resulted in 20,000 industry layoffs, according to Merco Press (October 28, 2009). “If you add up all of these incidents of disease outbreaks and escapes, you conclude that this industry is not sustainable, both from an economic and environmental standpoint. The industry should invest in a transition to environmentally-sustainable alternatives, such as closed containment salmon aquaculture on land,” says Mr. Ivany. Closed containment aquaculture, which involves raising salmon in land-based tanks, provides a sustainable alternative to traditional salmon farming. It eliminates the interaction of farmed fish with wild fish and the marine environment, and greatly reduces incidences of disease. Earlier this month, an international workshop was held in West Virginia to discuss and share the latest technologies for sustainable closed containment aquaculture. While the industry is still in its infancy, several companies from across North America and Europe have already begun raising salmon commercially using closed containment facilities. In Newfoundland, Mr. Ivany was encouraged that a representative from Newfoundland’s provincial government attended the workshop. “Closed containment salmon farming is the only responsible way to commercially produce Atlantic salmon,” says Mr. Ivany, “We must begin transitioning salmon production to land-based facilities, for the sake of our environment and for our local economies.” -30The Atlantic Salmon Federation is dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and the ecosystems on which their well-being and survival depend. ASF has a network of seven regional councils (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Maine and Western New England). The regional councils cover the freshwater range of the Atlantic salmon in Canada and the United States.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Newfoundland fishermen net escaped salmon October 17, 2013
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – More than 2,000 farmed salmon that escaped from a pen off the south coast of Newfoundland have been rounded up by local fishermen. The province says the fishermen were given special licences after 20,000 salmon escaped last month from a local fish farm. The fishermen used nets to catch the fish. The owner of the farm, Cooke Aquaculture, says the fish escaped after a strong current pulled down a floating salmon pen. The federal Fisheries Department says many of the farmed fish have already been eaten by seals and other large fish.
Editorial Comment:
We have no idea:
• •
• • •
how many fish actually escaped (originally reported to be 20,000 – 50,000) what size the escaped fish were (originally reported “are mature fish, and now we’re into the fall of the year when most salmon begin to spawn. There is a high risk for interaction between these escaped farmed salmon and our wild fish, and the timing of the escape couldn’t be worse”) how many survived to compete with wild stocks for resources how many will breed with wild stocks which diseases these escapees will transfer to wild stocks
Open pen salmon feedlots (aka weapons of mass destruction) must be removed from the oceans.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Mmmmm. Natural product of Norway.... yummy.
Inside of a line-caught, escaped, farmed Atlantic salmon In Norway. This is how farmed salmon look before they give them synthetic pink color in the last couple of weeks before they are sent to market. Ed. Note the white fat bars that are indicative of open pen feedlot salmon. There appears to be more toxic laden fat than beneficial meet.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Letter to the Editor
Salmon farming isn’t sustainable yet September 30, 2013 Tamar Haspel’s article about farmed vs. wild-caught salmon was misleading [“The gap’s closing,” Food, Sept. 25]. When you eat farmed salmon, you’re really eating other fish — the jack mackerel, sardine or anchovy — which are fed to the salmon. According to industry averages, you are consuming three pounds of these other fish, which are likely threatened, when you eat a pound of salmon. The answer isn’t to make salmon aquaculture sustainable. It’s to make wild fish stocks more abundant, using science-based fishery management instead of promoting salmon farming, which is destructive and wasteful. Putting those three pounds of jack mackerel or other fish straight onto your plate is better for the environment and your health. Wild-caught fish are also delicious (and they don’t ingest tons of antibiotics like Chilean farmed salmon). Editorial Comment: Notice the following about this Atlantic salmon raised in an open pen salmon feedlot: •
Abnormal head and mouth
•
Abnormal gill color
•
Abnormal flesh color
•
Abnormal amount of fat (white diagonal bars)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Climate Change
Harper government claims to be leader on climate change action September 28, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! OTTAWA – The Conservative government has responded to an international report on “unequivocal” global warming by slamming past Liberal inaction and renewing its warning of an alleged NDP carbon tax. The latest report Friday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms the planet is heating up and that it’s “extremely likely” human activities are the cause. “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia,” said the scientific report released in Stockholm. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased. The report says the effects are especially apparent in the Northern Hemisphere, affecting everything from sea ice and snow fall to permafrost. “Multiple lines of evidence support very substantial Arctic warming since the mid-20th century,” says the document. Harper government playing ‘leadership role’ on climate change? While environmental groups and some governments around the world used the report as a clarion call for action, Conservative Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq issued a statement saying her government is already “playing a leadership role in addressing climate change.” Said Aglukkaq in the release: Unlike the previous Liberal government, under whose watch greenhouse gas emissions rose by almost 30 per cent, or the NDP, who want a $21-billion carbon tax, our government is actually reducing greenhouse gases and standing up for Canadian jobs Canada, however, is on pace to achieve only half of its 2020 promise to reduce greenhouse gases by 17 per cent below 2005 levels, according to Environment Canada. And of the reductions made, 75 per cent were attributed to provincial actions in a 2012 report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy — a group the Conservative government has since closed down. US on track to meet its targets The State Department in Washington, meanwhile, reported Thursday that the United States is on track to meet its 2020 target. John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, is nonetheless calling Friday’s IPCC report “another wake-up call.” “Once again, the science grows clearer, the case grows more compelling, and the costs of inaction grow beyond anything that anyone with conscience or common sense should be willing to even contemplate,” Kerry said in a statement. Harper won’t take ‘No’ for an answer on Keystone XL The contrast in tone on the climate file between Ottawa and Washington was reinforced Thursday when Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a forum in New York that “you don’t take ‘No’ for an answer” on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The TransCanada project to export Alberta bitumen to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which still needs President Barack Obama’s approval, has become a potent symbol for American environmentalists. Critics fuming over Conservative comments Aglukkaq’s sharp-elbowed, partisan response to the IPCC report left environmental critics fuming.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “We have an opportunity to rise to the challenge of protecting our kids’ future, so let’s not blow it to score political points and prop up oil company profits,” said Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada. New Democrats said the minister’s comments embarrass Canada. “This report should be a call to action for one of the greatest environmental challenges of our generation,” said NDP environment critic Megan Leslie, “not the basis for Conservative attacks on non-existent NDP policies.” John McKay, the Liberal environment critic, labelled Aglukkaq’s release “really stupid.” “As long as you’re not serious about pricing carbon, you’re not serious about climate change,” said McKay, something he said a number of provincial governments have already recognized. Canada will face disproportionate effects from climate change The IPCC report, the fifth by the UN-sanctioned intergovernmental panel, is designed to provide governments with solid scientific evidence to support policy making. The reports also make up the baseline for UN negotiations toward a new global climate deal, which is supposed to be completed in 2015. To that end, the IPCC reported that each of the last three decades has been successively warmer than any since 1850. “In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983–2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years,” said the report. Canada can expect disproportionate climate effects because of its northern latitude. “From a Canadian point of view it’s important to remember that the temperature change we experience in Canada is larger than the global average temperature change,” Greg Flato, a climate scientist with Environment Canada, said in an interview. “That’s been the case in the historical observations and that’s been projected to continue in these climate model projections of the future.” Fossil fuels driving climate change Burning fossil fuels is the driving force, says the report. Thomas Stocker, a co-chair of the IPCC working group, flatly asserted in an accompanying release that “substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions” are required. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers noted that global energy demand is expected to grow by 35 per cent by 2035. “Most economists agree that most of this demand will be met by fossil fuels for the foreseeable future,” CAPP spokesman Alex Ferguson said in an email. Ferguson said the oilsands account for just 0.14 per cent of global GHG emissions, and Alberta requires a carbon tax of $15 per tonne — something many other oil exporting countries don’t have. That won’t dissuade environmental critics who have long argued the Harper government’s emphasis on pipeline building, energy exports and oilsands expansion simply can’t be reconciled with overall emissions reductions. Amid the accusations and counter-claims, Ian Bruce of the David Suzuki Foundation said the IPCC report actually does offer a message of hope, if governments have the will to hear it. “Our parents’ generation didn’t know about climate change, but we do,” Bruce said. “It’s really up to our generation to tackle this problem.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Ocean Health – Acidification, De-oxygenation, Warming
Pacific Ocean’s Perilous Turn Watch video HERE Ocean acidification, the lesser-known twin of climate change, threatens to scramble marine life on a scale almost too big to fathom.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Ocean
of change: Changing chemistry of seawater poses lethal threat to marine life September 23, 2013
Oregon fishermen tell stories of strange events on the Pacific Ocean that have made them shudder over the past half dozen years. The Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on the state’s north coast watched oyster larvae die en masse for three years in a row in the mid-2000s — depriving oyster farms along the entire West Coast of seed oysters. Florence crabber Al Pazar saw baby octopuses, an inch or two long, climb up his crab lines to escape the sea waters in the 2005 season. When he pulled up his pots, the crab were dead. Eugene fisherman Ryan Rogers, who drags in great piles of salmon on an Alaska purse seiner, has instead brought up nets full of jellyfish in recent years. “Sometimes we’ll catch 4,000 or 5,000 pounds of jellyfish. They spray all around. We get stung,” he said. “It makes it difficult to bring your net in. You have to let it go and lose the salmon that are in your net.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Scientists — including many at Oregon State University — are beginning to define the cause of these events. They call it ocean acidification and hypoxia. Wind, currents and ocean chemistry conspire to create pools of corrosive waters that can be lethal to key commercial species in Northwest waters — and favorable to some nuisance species, such as jellyfish. The die-off of coral reefs has been publicized everywhere from Australia to the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean. But less well known are the problems surfacing on the West Coast of North America — where people may have more cause to worry. “Scientists are learning that ocean acidification is hitting waters off the West Coast earlier and harder than elsewhere on the planet,” Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said recently. Kitzhaber in August appointed five Oregon State University scientists to a multistate panel that’s charged with determining the extent, causes and effects of ocean acidification along the Pacific coast. Acidification is a potential threat to shellfish and other marine life and also to thousands of jobs that depend on them, according to the governor, so the state needs a clearer understanding of what’s happening in Oregon’s waters. Oyster growers, crabbers and fishermen have reported losses in the millions related to the strange events. “Equally evil twin” The precise cause is poorly understood but, study-by-study, experts in chemical and physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, marine biology, ecology and physiology are building a picture of the problem. They theorize that acidification is spurred by a rapid increase in the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean, which sets off a chemical reaction that sours the waters. Scientists estimate that the world’s seas are 30 percent more acidic than they were before the industrial revolution 200 years ago. Top marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco, who’s on leave from OSU to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, calls ocean acidification the “equally evil twin” of climate change. Both involve excess carbon dioxide and both are inhospitable to life. Readings taken out in the center of the Pacific show fluctuations around an average that is stepping ever upward, said George Waldbusser, a professor of ocean ecology and biogeochemistry at OSU. But the coastline of Oregon and Washington see higher levels of acidity because deep ocean currents drive cold, acidified waters from the east Pacific to the west. Each May and June, winds along the Oregon Coast switch directions and begin shoving warm surface waters away from the shore, and that allows upwellings of those cold deep waters, which are devoid of oxygen and dangerous to sea life. Scientists call it “hypoxia,” which means devoid of oxygen. Fishermen call these areas “dead zones” because the sea life that can swim away does and those creatures that can’t die.
READ ENTIRE REGISTRY GUARD ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Human Assault Pushes Ocean to Limit Unseen in 300 Million Years 'We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change,' warns report. 'The next mass extinction may have already begun.' The news, the evidence that supports it and the warning that accompanies it could hardly be more dire. October 13, 2013 The latest audit by an international team of marine scientists at the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) found that the world's oceans and marine life are facing an unprecedented threat by combination of industrial pollution, human-driven global warming and climate change, and continued and rampant overfishing. According to the report, The State of the Ocean 2013: Perils, Prognoses and Proposals, the degradation of the ocean ecosystem means that its role as Earth’s ‘buffer’ is being seriously compromised. As a result, the authors of the report call for "urgent remedies" because the "rate, speed, and impacts of change in the global ocean are greater, faster, and more imminent than previously thought." "[Last week's] UN climate report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced changes to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a roadmap for action. We must use it." -Prof. Dan Laffoley, IUCN Driven by accumulations of carbon, the scientists found, the rate of acidification in the oceans is the highest its been in over 300 million years. Additionally, de-oxygenation--caused by both warming and industrial runoff--is stripping the ocean of its ability to support the plants and animals that live in it. The combined stressors, according to the report, are "unprecedented in the Earth's known history. We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure. The next mass extinction may have already begun." Professor Alex Rogers of Somerville College, Oxford, and Scientific Director of IPSO said: “The health of the ocean is spiraling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought. We are seeing greater change, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously anticipated. The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support life on Earth.” Among the report's comprehensive findings, the panel identified the following areas as of greatest cause for concern: • De-oxygenation: the evidence is accumulating that the oxygen inventory of the ocean is progressively declining. Predictions for ocean oxygen content suggest a decline of between 1% and 7% by 2100. This is occurring in two ways: the broad trend of decreasing oxygen levels in tropical oceans and areas of the North Pacific over the last 50 years; and the dramatic increase in coastal hypoxia (low oxygen) associated with eutrophication. The former is caused by global warming, the second by increased nutrient runoff from agriculture and sewage.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! • Acidification: If current levels of CO2 release continue we can expect extremely serious consequences for ocean life, and in turn food and coastal protection; at CO2 concentrations of 450500 ppm (projected in 2030-2050) erosion will exceed calcification in the coral reef building process, resulting in the extinction of some species and decline in biodiversity overall. • Warming: As made clear by the IPCC, the ocean is taking the brunt of warming in the climate system, with direct and well-documented physical and biogeochemical consequences. The impacts which continued warming is projected to have in the decades to 2050 include: reduced seasonal ice zones, including the disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice by ca. 2037; increasing stratification of ocean layers, leading to oxygen depletion; increased venting of the GHG methane from the Arctic seabed (a factor not considered by the IPCC); and increased incidence of anoxic and hypoxic (low oxygen) events. • The ‘deadly trio’ of the above three stressors - acidification, warming and deoxygenation - is seriously effecting how productive and efficient the ocean is, as temperatures, chemistry, surface stratification, nutrient and oxygen supply are all implicated, meaning that many organisms will find themselves in unsuitable environments. These impacts will have cascading consequences for marine biology, including altered food web dynamics and the expansion of pathogens. • Continued overfishing is serving to further undermine the resilience of ocean systems, and contrary to some claims, despite some improvements largely in developed regions, fisheries management is still failing to halt the decline of key species and damage to the ecosystems on which marine life depends. In 2012 the UN FAO determined that 70% of world fish populations are unsustainably exploited, of which 30% have biomass collapsed to less than 10% of unfished levels. A recent global assessment of compliance with Article 7 (fishery management) of the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, awarded 60% of countries a “fail” grade, and saw no country identified as being overall “good”. Regarding the urgency of the crisis, the marine scientists issued a stark warning to world governments, called on leaders to take immediate action, and offered the following steps they said "must" be taken: • Reduce global C02 emissions to limit temperature rise to less than 2oC, or below 450 CO2e. Current targets for carbon emission reductions are insufficient in terms of ensuring coral reef survival and other biological effects of acidification, especially as there is a time lag of several decades between atmospheric CO2 and CO2 dissolved in the ocean. Potential knock-on effects of climate change in the ocean, such as methane release from melting permafrost, and coral dieback, mean the consequences for human and ocean life could be even worse than presently calculated. • Ensure effective implementation of community- and ecosystem-based management, favouring small-scale fisheries. Examples of broad-scale measures include introducing true comanagement with resource adjacent communities, eliminating harmful subsidies that drive overcapacity, protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, banning the most destructive fishing gear, and combating IUU fishing. • Build a global infrastructure for high seas governance that is fit-for-purpose. Most importantly, secure a new implementing agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the auspices of UNCLOS. In response to the IPSO study that arrived just one week after the IPCC report on climate change which also highlighted the threat of global warming to the oceans, Professor Dan Laffoley, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said: “What these latest reports make absolutely clear is that deferring action will increase costs in the future and lead to even greater, perhaps irreversible, losses. The UN climate report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced changes to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a roadmap for action. We must use it."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Energy production and wild game fish: Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Wind, Natural Gas
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Oil – Drilled, Tar Sands
TransCanada President and CEO Russ Girling announces the new Energy East Pipeline during a news conference in Calgary on August 1, 2013. TransCanada Corp says it will move ahead with the $12 billion project to ship Alberta crude to refiners on its east coast and beyond, scaling up the project as its U.S.-bound Keystone XL line stalls in Washington.
Canada takes another run at finding a pipeline for its tar sands oil October 10, 2013-10-14
NEW
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Gaps wide in oil spill scenarios October 11, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! VICTORIA – The B.C. environment ministry has released its promised study of the current state of crude oil spill response capability, tracking the growing tonnage of petroleum shipping along the West Coast and estimating response time and effectiveness if oil was to spill at sea. Oil recovery in computer simulated oil spills could be as high as 25 per cent after five days, or as low as four per cent for Alaska crude, with another quarter evaporating.
Editorial Comments: Canada plans to greatly expand shipping of crude oil, bitumen, Liquefied Natural Gas and coal from marine terminals sited near the entrance to the Fraser River. Rapid expansion of bitumen and LNG shipping is also planned via terminals at Kitimat at the head of Douglas Channel.
The study was commissioned to back up Premier Christy Clark's conditions for B.C.'s approval of expanded heavy oil shipments, either from twinning the TransMountain pipeline from northern Alberta to Burnaby, or the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project across northern B.C. to a new tanker port at Kitimat.
These plans include hundreds more trips by very large ships and their support vessels, often in treacherous conditions.
Environment Minister Mary Polak said the study shows the need to increase response capability before the B.C. government would consider increased oil shipments.
Given the trend, Canadian taxpayers will no doubt pay for lost revenues to the open pen salmon feedlot industry following oil spills.
Increased marine accidents will occur – massive amounts of oil will be spilled – Canadian taxpayers will be billed for associated clean-up.
Truly irresponsible and unethical. "While we respect federal jurisdiction over marine spills, we must ensure B.C.'s interests are being met, and that means adding more resources to protect our coast," Polak said. The three-volume report also details the huge and growing traffic that exists now. Shipping data show a 17 per cent increase in marine traffic volume from 2011 to 2012. An estimated 110 million cubic metres of petroleum products per year are shipped, about a third of which is crudelike bunker oil carried as fuel on ships of all kinds. The biggest tanker cargo is 38 million cubic metres of mostly Alaska crude a year. The study includes recovery estimates for seven oil spill scenarios, six of which assumed a spill of Alaska North Slope crude that has been shipped by tankers down the B.C. coast to U.S. refineries since the 1970s. Two scenarios involve an Alaska crude spill in Dixon Entrance, with four per cent recovery in summer and three per cent in winter. One scenario examines a summer-time spill of diluted bitumen in the Juan de Fuca Strait, with response from Canadian and U.S. ships and oil recovery equipment. It estimated 31 per cent oil recovery after five days, in summer conditions with daylight-only operations. Tanker shipments from Kinder Morgan Canada's Burnaby terminal hit a high of 69 in 2010. some of which were diluted bitumen. The expansion would mean 300 tankers a year in and out of Vancouver harbour. The federal government has launched its own research project to model the drift and behaviour of a bitumen spill in the ocean around Kitimat, and funded marine weather forecasting to facilitate shipping.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Tanker hazards could throw wrench into pipeline debate October 11, 2013 A study commissioned by the B.C. government into oil-spill preparedness confirmed what most already knew: As things stand, a tanker accident would almost certainly cause an environmental disaster. Premier Christy Clark had said as much last week when she declared in an interview that Canada is woefully under-resourced when it comes to having a plan to deal with the fallout from a tanker mishap in coastal waters. But the report by U.S.-based Nuka Research, released this week, put the scope of that vulnerability in grim, black-and-white terms. The analysis identified a range of gaps in Canada’s current response design that included everything from not having enough rescue tugs to the absence of laws that lay out how parties affected by a spill will be compensated. More than anything, however, the report made clear that when it comes to dealing with a major oil leak, it’s not a question of how it will all be cleaned up because it won’t: Even in the best-case scenario sketched out by Nuka, nearly 50 per cent of the oil remained in the water after spill-response efforts were conducted. In most cases it was much higher. The question now is how this report affects the oil pipeline debate in the province. B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak said it provides a blueprint for the “world-class” oil-recovery response system the provincial government has stipulated must be in place for any pipeline proposal to be considered. Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver welcomed the findings and said Ottawa shared the same objectives as the B.C. government. The study comes amid evident softening of the hard line Ms. Clark was taking on pipelines before the May provincial election. Since her smashing majority win, she’s struck a more conciliatory, less strident tone. She and Alberta Premier Alison Redford are now best buddies, the frost that once enveloped their relationship now utterly thawed. As the leader of a government that professes to be all about “getting to yes” when it comes to economic development, Ms. Clark would undoubtedly like to find a way to make pipelines a reality; or at least a pipeline. For that to happen, however, there is going to have to be a massive cleanup effort, one that involves the distressingly inadequate oil-spill response strategy currently in place. The cost of that could be in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Even then, it seems unlikely the government will allow oil tanker traffic near the north coast, an area central to the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. In its brief to the National Energy Board hearings into the Enbridge application last May, the B.C. government said that in most spills no oil is recovered. And in some months of the year, response is almost impossible.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! That is a point that was certainly made by Nuka analysts in an earlier report for the Haisla Nation on the Enbridge bid. The study laid out conditions that would prevent any type of spill response, scenarios that included wave heights that are often found in the waters of Dixon Entrance – the same waters that tankers would transit under the Gateway proposition. In its latest report, Nuka says: “Even when wind and waves are moderate enough that on-water containment and recovery equipment can be deployed, other conditions may preclude a response. Fog, clouds and darkness, as well as temperature and strong currents can also limit a response.” And fog along the northern B.C. coast is common. Given the vagaries of environmental conditions around the world, it’s little surprise that some areas especially sensitive to the impacts of a spill have been deemed off limits to tanker traffic by governments. My guess is that the Dixon Entrance, and the waters off the Great Bear Rainforest, will ultimately be identified as an area to be avoided by oil tankers because of the many uncertainties the location poses for oil-spill response. The risk is simply too big. Still, the Nuka report does articulate a plan that could clear the way to pipeline development in the province. It would take massive resources and extraordinary willpower, but it could be done. But in B.C., even the greatest oilrecovery plan in the world will be met with suspicion and resistance. That will never change.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
IDLE NO MORE
CN is considering shipping crude oil by rail from Alberta to B.C.: memo Greenpeace obtained the internal documents under the Access to Information Act September 22, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! OTTAWA — CN Rail, at the urging of Chinese-owned Nexen Inc., is considering shipping Alberta bitumen to Prince Rupert, B.C., by rail in quantities matching the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, documents show. Internal memos obtained by Greenpeace under the Access to Information Act show the rail carrier raised the proposal last March with Natural Resources Canada. “Nexen Inc. is reportedly working with CN to examine the transportation of crude oil on CN’s railway to Prince Rupert, B.C., to be loaded onto tankers for export to Asia,” states a departmental briefing note setting up the March 1 meeting. An attached CN presentation paper notes that “CN has ample capacity to run seven trains per day to match Gateway’s proposed capacity.” Greenpeace provided the documents to The Canadian Press.
Prince Rupert harbor Editorial Comment: Wild game fish including British Columbia’s iconic wild Pacific salmon and anadromous trout will not tolerate bitumen spills during transportation of this highly toxic material by rail. The uniquely productive ecosystem in the marine environment of the Prince Rupert harbor will not survive bitumen spills during loading and transporting associated with exporting this highly toxic material via Large Crude Carrier (LCC) class supertankers. Bitumen spills are impossible to clean up. Transporting bitumen via rail across Alberta and British Columbia for export via supertankers is irresponsible and illadvised given the extraordinary risk to public health, ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.
The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry crude oil to Kitimat, B.C., has met fierce opposition from First Nations and environmentalists. Greenpeace researcher Keith Stewart said the CN rail pitch has the appearance of a “Plan B” in case Northern Gateway is blocked, but that it raises “the same or greater risks.” The horrific Lac-Megantic, Que., disaster in July, which claimed 47 lives when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, has focused intense scrutiny on the burgeoning oil-by-rail industry. Some 5.5 million litres of oil either burned or leaked into the environment in Lac-Megantic. The fire burned for four days. A spokesman for CN Rail told The Canadian Press in an email that “no specific crude-by-rail project to Prince Rupert (was) discussed” at the March meeting with Natural Resources Canada.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The company “does not disclose publicly its commercial discussions with customers,” Mark Hallman said in the email. “CN will continue to explore new opportunities to move crude oil safely and efficiently to markets,” Hallman wrote. “The company will consider concrete crude-by-rail proposals, including any specific project to move crude to Prince Rupert. However, there is no infrastructure in place at Prince Rupert to transfer crude oil from train tank cars to vessels.” Hallman also noted it was the government that asked CN for the meeting, not the other way around. Indeed, the documents obtained by Greenpeace show Ottawa was intensely interested in oil by rail, at least prior to the Quebec accident. “NRCan is currently meeting with Transport Canada to mutually understand how rail could be part of a solution to current market access challenges,” says an undated memorandum for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. The memo describes rail as “an increasingly viable option” and states that carriers Canadian Pacific and CN “have indicated that the potential to increase rail movements of crude oil is theoretically unlimited.” Rail officials had indicated that a project to bring crude to port for tanker export “is likely in future.” A separate memo for International Trade Minister Ed Fast and Dennis Lebel, then the transport minister, assets that Transport Canada “has identified no major safety concerns with the increased oil on rail capacity in Canada, nor with the safety of tank cars ...” The memo states that “transportation of oil by rail does not trigger the need for a federal environmental assessment” but notes that “proposals to construct new infrastructure to support the activity” may require an assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The “Departmental Position” on oil by rail is entirely blacked out from the memo. Greenpeace’s Stewart said the Lac-Megantic tragedy revealed that federal safety regulations hadn’t kept pace with the oil-by-rail boom. “If the government or industry imagines they can use these regulatory loopholes to do an end-run around opposition to tar sands moving through those lands or waters, they will be in for a rude awakening,” said Stewart. Opposition in Canada to the Northern Gateway and in the United States to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline has keyed on stopping or slowing development of Alberta’s oilsands development. The undated memo to Oliver, the natural resources minister, suggests that’s wishful thinking. “Despite difficulties related to new pipeline capacity, Canadian crude producers are unlikely to slow down production and will turn to rail to ensure their product reaches market,” said the memo. “To date, there hasn’t been a project to bring crude by rail to port for tanker export, however rail officials indicate that such a project is likely in future.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Graphic by Craig Fleisch (craigfleisch.ca) for The Vancouver Observer
Chinese
companies can sue BC for changing course on Northern Gateway, says policy expert October 12, 2012
A Canada-China investment treaty known as Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection (FIPPA) will stop BC from negotiating a greater share of profits and creating regulations related to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline for the next 31 years once it comes into effect at the end of October, an international investment law expert warns. "This treaty, in effect, will pre-empt important elements of the debate of the Northern Gateway pipeline and may frustrate in a very significant way the ability of the current BC government or any future government—if the NDP were to win in spring—from stopping that pipeline or bargaining a better deal for BC," said Gus Van Harten, an Osgoode Law professor who specializes in international investment law. Van Harten noted that arbitrators in foreign investment agreement disputes will most likely judge in favour of Chinese investors in cases where the host country attempts to impose new or updated regulations that may interfere with the investor's bottom line.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! "If this treaty comes into effect, and there's any Chinese ownership whatsoever in assets related to this pipeline—minority ownership, ownership we generally don't know about—then Canada will be exposed to lawsuits under this treaty, because the BC government will be discriminating against a Chinese investor, which is prohibited by the treaty." The treaty will protect investors' rights for 31 years as of November 1. Canada-China FIPPA agreement may be unconstitutional, treaty law expert says 14 reasons why Canada-China investment deal needs more time, debate The Northern Gateway is a controversial pipeline project proposed to run from the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta to the northern coast of British Columbia. It would build a twin pipeline running from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, BC. The eastbound pipeline would import natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would export bitumen from the oil sands diluted with that condensate to the new marine terminal in Kitimat, where it would be transported to Asian markets by oil tankers. The project is currently under review from the National Energy Board, which is set to make a decision on whether or not the project will go ahead by the end of 2013. The proposed pipeline has polarized BC politics. BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark has demanded a "fair share" of its profits for the environmental risks the pipeline could pose to BC's northern coast. Meanwhile, the BC NDP has taken a firm stance against Northern Gateway, asserting a "Made in BC" environmental assessment that would involve consideration for First Nations rights and environmental concerns. Disputes can be decided in secret tribunals under FIPPA Van Harten wrote in another op-ed for The Toronto Star about the unprecedented secrecy that surround the three-person tribunals which judge the disputes between a foreign investor and the host country. Harten called this a reversal of previous Canadian government policy. "The turn to secrecy is an about-face for the government. Canada was until now a champion of openness in investor-state arbitration," Van Harten wrote. "The Canada-China deal undermines basic Canadian principles of public accountability and open courts. It raises dramatically the stakes of Chinese takeovers in the resource sector. If ratified, it will tie the hands of future elected governments for at least 31 years." Canada paid out $160 million in investor-state compensation since 2001 under NAFTA, Canada's last major international trade-related agreement, with another payout pending in a case involving research and development rules in Newfoundland. "We have lost about half of the decided cases against the government, all by U.S. companies under NAFTA," Van Harten wrote, as a warning against the investor-state clause in FIPPA.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Environmental experts condemn lack of analysis on oil export plans A half dozen experts had been set to take the witness stand alleging that the threat of an oil spill happening at the Port of Grays Harbor is more of a possibility than local government officials are letting on and the measures permitted to prevent and mitigate for potential spills are woefully inadequate. “A comprehensive study is needed to evaluate the hazards, risks and appropriate mitigation before placing millions of gallons of crude oil in a seismic, tsunami and liquefaction hazard zone,” says Joseph Wartman, a University of Washington associate professor with a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering. “… The mitigation for Westway and Imperium is inadequate. Building code provisions and warning and evacuation plans are by themselves insufficient mitigation to prevent significant impacts from a tsunami, liquefaction and a seismic event.”
Editorial Comments: Additional WGFCI concerns resulting from spill and leaks of toxic bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands (the world’s greatest environmental disaster) pose significant public health and environmental risks, greater than those associated with crude oil, to: • Ground/drinking water near sources of bitumen spills and leaks • Chehalis River, its tributaries as well as other bodies of water near the rail line utilized to transport Canadian bitumen • Grays Harbor during transfer of bitumen to and from storage tanks. • Pacific Ocean and shorelines when crude tankers wreck
Be wary of the hype Phil Brooke: “Proponents of inundating Washington state with coal and crude oil exports are currently spending tens of millions of dollars on a sophisticated public relations environmental protection.
offensive
promising
jobs
and
Please take that message with a grain of salt. Realize it was crafted by a skilled advertising agency to manipulate you into believing there may be some benefit to welcoming massive amounts of toxic cargo into our communities and water ways. Their single goal is to ease your conscious into ignoring the widespread damage these proposals will inflict on Washington state.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “In the swift and debris laden Chehalis River, oil is not likely to be as effectively and readily contained and/or recovered, thereby providing an opportunity for oil to rapidly spread and impact nearby shorelines in Grays Harbor,” adds Paul S. O’Brien, manager of ECM Maritime Services in Seattle with more than 36 years of experience in the field of oil and hazardous substance spill prevention. A week-long set of hearings were to begin Sept. 27 in Tumwater by the land-use hearings board. However, the state Shorelines Hearings Board remanded part of the permits for Imperium Renewables and Westway Terminal Co. to offload crude oil at the Port of Grays Harbor and decided the hearings were no longer needed. Besides Westway and Imperium, a third company called U.S. Development Group is also considering exporting crude oil at a terminal in Hoquiam. U.S. Development has not yet started its permitting process. However, if all three proposals moved forward, it could bring as much as 2.4 billion gallons of crude oil by train through Grays Harbor. The permit, initially granted by the state Department of Ecology and the city of Hoquiam, was challenged by the Quinault Indian Nation and a coalition of five conservation groups — the Friends of Grays Harbor, Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Grays Harbor Audubon and Citizens for a Clean Harbor. Expert witness declarations were recently released by the Quinaults and environmental groups. SEISMIC HAZARD AHEAD “At the project sites, there exists a very high seismic hazard, a very high liquefaction hazard and a high tsunami hazard,” says Wartman, with the University of Washington. Wartman says there is a 14 percent chance of a magnitude 8-plus earthquake and a 63 percent chance that a magnitude 6-plus earthquake will strike the region during project design life of 50 years, although, he notes that the structures, if approved, would likely be present for much longer than 50 years. “The Grays Harbor area is known to be a subject to periodic tsunamis,” he adds. Yet, he notes that crude export proposals are not designed to look out for seismic or geologic hazards and says neither the city nor Ecology looked at the issue in depth. Wartman notes that the permit’s main protections against spills “are containment berms/alls surrounding the storage tanks. In the event of liquefaction, tsunami or seismic events, these containment systems are likely to be damaged, thus reducing or negating their ability to contain an oil spill after an earthquake. This would allow oil to enter the environment and the water. Evacuation planning, warnings and risk management cannot mitigate against risks posed by locating oil storage tanks in a tsunami zone. Warnings of an impending tsunami or an earthquake cannot prevent damage to an oil storage tank or allow for evacuation of a tank before damage occurs because tsunamis can strike within tens of minutes to hours after an earthquake.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! PLAN BEFORE, NOT AFTER O’Brien, who worked for the state Department of Ecology for 18 years and was in charge of the state’s oil spill prevention program, disagrees with the strategy his former state agency has taken. O’Brien says the state and city have requested specific oil spill prevention plans be put in place — but only after the final permits are granted. That “leaves too many unknowns to allow a determination that there will be no probable significant adverse effect to the environment.” Fred Felleman, an environmental consultant specializing in the impacts of maritime trade on the marine environment in the Pacific Northwest, agrees that a lack of study ahead of time and specifics could lead to a disaster. “In addition to the primary issue of the timing of the vessel traffic analysis, other aspects of marine traffic are unanalyzed and unknown,” Felleman says. “These issues include details about the tug escorts required — such as horsepower, bollard pull, sea keeping, propulsion characteristics, winch or tethering requirements, or what size vessels are subject to escorts — under what conditions the bar will be closed for oil vessel traffic, if at all; whether there will be different rules for barges versus tankers; and whether barges towed by wire will be allowed.”
O’Brien added that specifics should be happening before the permits are granted, noting there is “limited availability” for oil spill response at the Port of Grays Harbor and neither Imperium nor Westway have provided any specifics in their plans. He says because of the lack of available resources on the Harbor, contractors “would have to supplement their existing inventories with offsite response assets if a spill response from a facility or vessel exceeded available capability.” “A significant oil spill from either of the two proposed oil facilities could certainly exceed currently available response resources in Grays Harbor,” O’Brien says. “The result of exceeding available response resources would delay a response and allow oil to spread to other areas in Grays Harbor, resulting in increased environmental impacts. However, due to Chehalis River currents that are typically present in the vicinity of both terminals, pre-booming is not considered safe and effective much of the time.” MORE TRAINS Paul Rosenfeld, an environmental chemist with a doctorate in soil chemistry from the University of Washington, notes the number of loaded and unloaded trains annually passing through the terminals would potentially rise from 730 in 2012 to 1,703, an increase of 133 percent. More oil trains means a bigger risk of a derailment and an oil spill into one of the rivers or creeks, according to the testimony.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! James Jorgensen, a salmon and steelhead management biologist for the Quinault Indian Nation, noted that if a crude oil spill were to occur upriver because of a derailment, it would devastate the fisheries for the entire Chehalis Basin. Jorgensen notes the trains from Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad run from Centralia through the towns of Rochester, Oakville, Porter, Elma, Montesano, Aberdeen, Hoquiam to the Port of Grays Harbor. “That route runs near or adjacent to the Chehalis mainstem for significant distances and it crosses numerous tributary waters of the Chehalis River as it runs northwest and west to Grays Harbor. From the town of Montesano most of the route hugs the north shore of the river and its side-channels, then the estuary before crossing the Wishkah River and arriving at the Port.
A major oil spill at any time of the year would harm various life stages of Grays Harbor salmon and steelhead. MORE SHIPMENTS Brent Finley, an environmental consultant and attorney who serves as project manager of Environment International Ltd. also cautions that increasing the number of tanker vessels transiting Grays Harbor, the probability that Grays Harbor will be affected by an oil spill will be increased. Finley notes that between 1993 and 2006, Grays Harbor ranged between a low of 31 vessels per year to 134 vessels per year. Since 1998, the annual number of tanker vessels entering Grays Harbor has not exceeded 84 tanker vessels. Using 2012 levels, an average of one tanker vessel is already transiting Grays Harbor every two days, Finley says. The total vessel entry transits associated with the Imperium and Westway projects would be 260, or 520 entry and departure transits, Finley says. “When the anticipated traffic from the Imperium proposal is combined with the anticipated traffic from the Westway proposal, there is a 410 percent increase in tanker traffic,” Finley says. “At this rate, a loaded, outbound crude tanker will transit Grays Harbor on average every day and a half.” Add in the expected tanker traffic from U.S. Development Group’s current proposal of 60 loaded, outbound crude tankers will be departing from Terminal 3, then “there is a 481 percent increase in tanker traffic. At this rate, a loaded, outbound crude vessel would transit Grays Harbor every 1.14 days on average. On average, 2.2 tankers would transit Grays Harbor every day.” Finley says that adding vessel traffic doesn’t automatically mean there will be an oil spill, “however, Grays Harbor and the neighboring outer coast is a dynamic system.
Weather conditions change. Sea state changes. Wave, current and tidal conditions change.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Shorelines Hearings Board sides with Quinaults on crude-by-rail projects The state Shorelines Hearings Board plans to rule that the City of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology didn’t account for all relevant factors when issuing permits to two crude-byrail projects on Grays Harbor. In siding with the Quinault Indian Nation’s appeal filed in June, the board said in a letter that the Determination of Non-Significance rulings for projects proposed by Westway Terminal Co. and Imperium Renewables, issued by the City of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology, will likely be revoked.
An aerial view of the wreckage of the crude oil train is seen in Lac Megantic, July 8, 2013.
The letter, signed by the board’s Administrative Appeals Judge Kay M. Brown, states that a majority of board members will rule that Hoquiam and Ecology didn’t adequately account for the cumulative impacts of all three proposed crude-by-rail projects on Grays Harbor, agreeing with the Quinaults that a proposal by U.S. Development Group should also have been considered. The board’s letter goes on to say the agencies also didn’t properly consider the impacts on rail transportation and shipping when issuing the permits. The city and the department should have required a rail transportation impact analysis and a vessel traffic analysis prior to issuing the determination, Brown wrote. The board will also inform the City of Hoquiam and the Department of Ecology that the environmental analysis “didn’t appear significantly robust pertaining to seismic hazards, archaeological and cultural resources and oil spill hazards,” she wrote. Jan Buechler, a legal assistant with the state Environmental Land Use Hearings Office, said the Shorelines Hearings Board will issue a formal decision in the coming weeks.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
A worker uses a small boat to move logs in Kitimat, the destination of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The National Energy Board that is reviewing the proposed project says the effects of an oil spill can persist for decades.
B.C. first nation asks UN envoy to look into Northern Gateway complaint September 30, 2013
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! VANCOUVER - A group of British Columbia first nations is asking the United Nations special reporter on the rights of indigenous peoples to investigate the actions of the provincial government on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The UN envoy will be visiting Canada next week, and the Yinka Dene alliance has asked James Anaya to look into permits issued to pipeline proponent Enbridge for some exploratory work on the project. The Yinka Dene say the permits for geotechnical drilling and tree removal should not have been granted over First Nations' opposition. The pipeline that would link Alberta's oil sands with the B.C. coast, and tankers bound for markets in Asia, faces staunch opposition from many aboriginal and conservation groups. A federal review panel will deliver its recommendations on the project to the federal minister by the end of the year, and both federal and company officials have been meeting with aboriginal and community organizations in B.C. as the deadline draws near. The UN envoy will visit Canada from Oct. 7 to 15, and later submit a report to the UN human rights council and the Canadian government.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ND Waits 11 Days to Tell Public About Oil Spill October 11, 2013 When a pipeline rupture sent more than 20,000 barrels of crude spewing across a North Dakota wheat field, it took nearly two weeks for officials to tell the public about it. The break in a Tesoro Corp. pipeline happened in a remote area, and officials say no water was contaminated or wildlife hurt. But environmentalists are skeptical and say it's an example of a boom industry operating too cozily with state regulators. "It shows an attitude of our current state government and what they think of the public," said Don Morrison, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, an environmental-minded landowner group with more than 700 members in North Dakota. "It's definitely worrisome. There is a pattern in current state government to not involve the public." The North Dakota Health Department was told about the spill on Sept. 29, after a farmer whose combine's tires were coated in crude discovered oil spewing and gurgling from the ground. Although the state initially thought just 750 barrels of oil was involved, it turned out to be one of the largest spills in North Dakota history — an estimated 20,600 barrels over 7.3 acres of land, or about the size of seven football fields. The Health Department said the fact that the spill initially was believed to be small was one reason the agency didn't make a public announcement for 11 days — and only after The Associated Press asked about it. Some top state officials, including Gov. Jack Dalrymple, have said they weren't even told about the pipeline break until this week. Kris Roberts, an environmental geologist with the North Dakota Health Department, said that while companies must notify the state of any spills, the state doesn't have to release that information to the public. That's not unusual in major oil-producing states: Alaska, Oklahoma and Texas also do not require the government to publicly report spills. North Dakota is the nation's No. 2 oil producer. But the public is often told about spills, particularly if oil gets into a waterway or otherwise threatens the environment. This oil spill occurred in a field near Tioga, not far from another wheat farm where oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951. The nearest home is a half-mile away, and state regulators say no water sources were contaminated, no wildlife was hurt and no one was injured. But Morrison, of the landowner group, and Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for theSierra Club, aren't convinced. "When seven acres of agricultural land is affected and they say there was no environmental impact, it defies common sense and logic," Morrison said.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! "Obviously, if you have an oil spill, some species of wildlife are going to be impacted, no matter where you have a spill," Schafer said. Roberts says his agency reacted appropriately. He says Tesoro reported the spill to state regulators within one day after a wheat farmer found it. A state regulator was on site within hours, Roberts said. "We deal with a spill and make sure it's cleaned up," Roberts said. "We don't issue press releases." However, Roberts did work with Tesoro in crafting a company news release on Wednesday. The company issued the media statement on Thursday, after questions from the AP. In the news release, Roberts said Tesoro "has been aggressive in containing the crude oil" and he was "very pleased with the company's proactive response efforts." Even some other state officials are concerned about how they found out about it.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
A Marcellus shale natural gas well in Pennsylvania. - Credit: Wikipedia.org
Fracking May Be Polluting River with Radioactive Waste October 2, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Fracking may be contaminating a Pennsylvania river with radioactive waste, a Duke University study to be published this week shows. Scientists found elevated levels of radioactivity in river water at a site where treated fracking wastewater from oil and gas production sites in western Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale is released into a creek. The natural gas-rich Marcellus shale is seeing a drilling boom, part of a nationwide rush to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, techniques to extract shale gas and oil. Studies have shown that energy production, including the waste water associated with fracking — a method of injecting chemicals, sand and water deep underground to crack rock formations to release oil and natural gas — may release significant fugitive methane emissions, helping to drive climate change. Duke researchers looked at sediment samples collected downstream of the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility in Indiana County, Penn., and found that radium levels were 200 times greater in those samples when compared to those collected upstream of the plant. The plant processes fracking flowback water — highly saline and radioactive fluid that is returned to the surface as part of the fracking process. Researchers have long been concerned about concentration of bromide, chlorides and other contaminants being discharged from the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility. One researcher, Conrad Volz, former director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities at the University of Pittsburgh, testified before the U.S. Senate in 2011 about the high level of contaminants in Josephine’s effluent. “The treatment removes a substantial portion of the radioactivity, but it does not remove many of the other salts, including bromide,” said study co-author Avner Vengosh, a Duke professor of geochemistry and water quality. Radioactivity levels were found to be elevated in sediment near the outflow from the plant, and they were high enough that only a licensed radioactive disposal facility is qualified to accept them, said coauthor Robert B. Jackson, Duke professor of environmental science. Radioactivity has accumulated in the river sediments and exceeds thresholds for safe disposal of radioactive waste, he said. Radioactivity found in the creek downstream of the fracking wastewater treatment plant is in low concentrations initially, but the study’s results show what happens when a large amount of fracking wastewater is treated in one location for a long period of time, said Jackson, whose previous research showed “systematic evidence” of methane contamination in drinking water associated with natural gas extraction in the Marcellus. “Each day, oil and gas producers generate 2 billion gallons of wastewater,” Jackson said Tuesday. “They produce more wastewater than hydrocarbons. That’s the broader implication of this study. We have to do something with this wastewater. “The use of fossil fuels has a direct climate connection,” he said. “Hundreds of billions of gallons of wastewater is a consequence of our reliance — our addiction — to fossil fuels. That’s another price we pay for needing so much oil and gas.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Cornell University environmental engineering professor Anthony Ingraffea, whose research has shown that climate change-driving methane emissions from shale gas extraction in the Marcellus may be significant, said methane concentrations could also be high in the fracking flowback wastewater the Josephine Brine plant treats. “Entrained in that flowback is methane,” he said. “Even before that waste goes to a place like Josephine, it’s stored in open pits, or stored in vented tanks. As such, it’s going to off-gas, not just methane, but VOCs (volatile organic compounds).” Ingraffea said the Duke study shows that one of the major problems with the rapid expansion of shale oil and shale gas development is that it requires an extremely high volume of water for fracking, which means there’s a high volume of waste associated with it. “That waste has to be properly captured, stored, transported and, ultimately, disposed of,” Ingraffea said, something the Duke study shows Josephine and other wastewater treatment plants like it are not accomplishing. The Duke study, “Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania,” will be published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Living Oceans: Enbridge poem We (Living Oceans) just couldn’t resist … Enbridge has walked into it yet again, this time with a poetic flourish! A whole new, softer, gentler Enbridge buying ad space for lovely pictures and a poem that discloses the depth of their misunderstanding of the ocean:
The ocean -Vast. Deep. A limitless pool of life. A playground for the tiny and giant things that live within it. And a gateway to the other side. The ocean should remain an ocean. Always. Really? We know you’ll all spot the errors, but here’s the challenge: give it back to them in seven lines or less! In your choice of iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets, free verse or haiku, let them know what the ocean means to you. Or what Enbridge and its pipeline and tanker proposal mean to you. E-mail your poem to info@livingoceans.org Whatever you write, have fun with it and we’ll post the entries on our website for everyone to enjoy. (So please use language suitable for publication: there are children watching!)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Selected Response Poetry and Thoughts:
Enbridge-Black. Creep. A limitless pool of dough. A playground for tiny minds and giant profits to play with. And a spillway for the Dark side. NO devotion to the Ocean. Ever! Andy M.
The ocean --Finite. Threatened. A fragile pool of life. A playground for the tiny and giant corporations that feed upon it. And a bellwether of human greed. The ocean should remain an ocean. Oil free. Greg B.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Albertans
generally willing to pay in return for B.C.'s support of Northern Gateway pipeline September 19, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! As politicians push for an oilsands pipeline to the West Coast, a new poll shows strong support among Albertans for the proposed Northern Gateway project - and a general willingness to pay to see it happen. Roughly half of respondents are willing to set aside money to pay for a spill, if necessary, while just over a quarter are prepared to share oil revenues with the British Columbia government to win its support for the project. The survey, conducted by polling firm Leger for the Calgary Herald, indicates 68 per cent of Albertans back the Northern Gateway pipeline, with 17 per cent opposed and the remainder uncertain.
Editorial Comment: It’s no surprise that Albertans: Support construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline in order to make more money by exporting dirty bitumen across British Columbia to Asian Markets Don’t support sharing oil revenue with British Columbia Don’t support financial compensation to First Nations.
In Calgary, the heartland for Canadian energy companies, support rises to 70 per cent. The pipeline, proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge to send bitumen from northern Alberta to Kitimat, B.C., for eventual export to Asia, set off political sparks last year. The Redford and Clark governments squabbled over B.C.'s demand for a "fair share" of the economic benefits from the $6billion development. But with Christy Clark's Liberal government safely re-elected this spring, Premier Alison Redford and her B.C. counterpart agreed in July to talks between their senior officials on how to facilitate natural resource exports through Canada's most western province. The Leger poll shows only 15 per cent of respondents believe Alberta should make no concessions to B.C. to get the pipeline built, while 12 per cent said it shouldn't be built at all. "What surprised me overall is the willingness to concede something," said Leger's Alberta vicepresident, Ian Large. "It seems to me Albertans are more willing to negotiate to get it built than perhaps the premier is." Asked what the Alberta government should be prepared to offer to B.C. - respondents could choose multiple options - 49 per cent said set aside money to pay for a spill, if needed, followed by 27 per cent willing to share oil revenue with British Columbians. The Leger poll indicates 22 per cent of Albertans support paying money to First Nations affected by the pipeline route to get Gateway built. Investing in B.C.-based businesses or opportunities was backed by 16 per cent, while only 10 per cent supported raising the carbon tax on Alberta greenhouse gas emissions. For the Redford government, however, giving up part of its energy royalties to B.C. has been a nonstarter. "Nobody is talking about changing the Constitution of Canada," Energy Minister Ken Hughes said Wednesday.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Hughes said the new working group on energy exports made up of the Alberta and B.C. deputy ministers of energy is "going well," although he provided few details. The minister wouldn't comment what options - if any - are under discussion regarding the sharing of economic benefits between the provinces. "That is simply one element of a very complex, very intertwined economic relationship between Alberta and British Columbia," said Hughes. "We're engaging to understand what our common interests are."
Editorial Comment: The expected bitumen spills, leaks and wrecked oil tankers will negatively impact America’s and Canada’s wild Pacific salmon, their ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. The damage associated with bitumen spills/leaks is irreversible – no amount of funding will be enough. Can you say Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez?
Gateway has faced tough sledding in B.C. over environmental concerns that pipeline construction and potential spills when it is operation - would wreak havoc on pristine waterways and wilderness. Opposition has been particularly strong from some First Nations whose territory it would cross. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dispatching a number of his ministers and senior bureaucrats to B.C. in the coming weeks to meet with First Nations chiefs, part of an ongoing effort to see progress on Gateway, as well as the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain line. In Calgary on Wednesday, federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said he'll be returning soon to B.C. but Ottawa won't be involved in discussions around the "fair share" condition put forward by Clark. "The matter of benefits to British Columbia, I think that's a matter for discussion between the two provinces," he told reporters following a speech at an energy conference. "I'm hopeful that arrangements can be worked out." Both the Alberta and federal governments see a West Coast pipeline as crucial to opening Asia as a large market for Canadian energy resources. The demand from B.C. for a greater slice of the economic benefit from an oilsands pipeline is by far the most controversial of the five conditions the Clark government set out for supporting Gateway, with the others relating to pipeline safety, environmental and aboriginal issues. The National Energy Board's review panel is expected to make its decision on Gateway in December, said Oliver. Pipeline security has been a major issue not only in B.C. but in Alberta, where the province has faced a series of spills. The Leger poll found 68 per cent of Albertans are satisfied with the safety of the pipeline system in the province, while only 22 per cent weren't satisfied and 10 per cent didn't know. Only 40 per cent of respondents believe the Alberta government regulates the pipeline system closely enough, while 35 cent disagreed and fully one in four people didn't know. Leger conducted the online survey of 1,208 eligible Alberta voters between Sept. 11 and Sept. 17. The stated margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
BP
trial resumes with testimony about company's 86-day struggle to cap blown-out Gulf well Additional photos courtesy of NBC slideshow September 29, 2013
NEW ORLEANS - The methods that BP employed during its 86-day struggle to stop oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico will be the focus of a trial resuming Monday in the high-stakes litigation spawned by the worst offshore spill in the United States.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! BP insists it was properly prepared to respond to the 2010 disaster, but plaintiffs' attorneys will argue the Londonbased global oil company could have capped the blown-out well much sooner if it hadn't ignored decades of warnings about the risks. The plaintiffs' lawyers, who are teaming up with attorneys for the five Gulf states and two of BP's contractors for the second phase of the trial, also say BP repeatedly lied to federal officials and withheld information about the volume of oil that was flowing from the well "It should pay the price for its choices. BP should be held accountable for the lengthy delay caused by its fraud," they wrote in a pretrial court filing. BP maintains that its spill preparations complied with every government requirement and met industry standards. But the April 20, 2010, blowout of its Macondo well a mile under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico 50 miles (80 kilometres) off the Louisiana coast presented "unforeseen challenges," the company's attorneys wrote. "With these uncertain and unique conditions, one overarching principle governed the team's work: 'Don't make it worse,'" they wrote, saying BP deserved "recognition, not condemnation" for its spill response efforts. The federal judge presiding over the case without a jury has set aside exactly 120 hours over 16 days for the trial's second phase, which he divided into two segments. The first part, lasting four days, focuses on BP's efforts to seal the well. The second segment, lasting 12 days, is designed to help U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier determine exactly how much oil spilled into the Gulf. The first phase of the trial featured testimony from high-ranking company executives and rig workers who described their harrowing brush with death after an explosion on the rig Deepwater Horizon killed 11 of their colleagues. The second phase will consist almost entirely of technical testimony by dueling experts in several scientific disciplines. The Justice Department's experts estimate 4.2 million barrels, or 176 million gallons (666 million litres), spilled into the Gulf. Government experts believe the oil was flowing from the well at a higher rate shortly after the blowout than it was when the well was sealed with a capping stack, which was equipped with a pressure gauge. BP's experts concluded that flow rates increased over time, due in part to the erosion of steel rams on the rig's blowout preventer. For the first phase, lawyers for Gulf Coast residents and businesses and for the Gulf states were adversaries with Deepwater Horizon owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton. But they are aligned against BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a minority owner of the Macondo well, for the second phase. Barbier ultimately could decide how much more money BP and its contractors owe for their roles in the deadly disaster. A "penalty phase" for the trial hasn't been scheduled yet. Transocean and Halliburton argue that their share of responsibility should be reduced as a result of BP's alleged misconduct in planning for and responding to the spill. In May 2010, BP tried in vain to use the "top kill" method to stop the flow of oil by pumping mud and other material into the blowout preventer. Plaintiffs' lawyers claim BP knew the strategy was doomed to fail based on higher flow rate estimates that the company didn't share with federal officials at the time. BP says it already has spent more than $26 billion on its Gulf restoration efforts, including more than $14 billion on spill response and cleanup costs and more than $11 billion to compensate businesses, residents and government entities.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Coal
Warning: Some Columbia River Fish Not Safe To Eat September 23, 2013 New advisories from health officials in Washington and Oregon warn that some fish in the Columbia River aren’t safe to eat. The warnings do not apply to ocean-going fish like salmon and steelhead.
The advisories are for a 150-mile stretch between Bonneville Dam and McNary Dam. In the one mile closest to Bonneville, health officials warn against eating any fish because of PCBs. And in the rest of that watery span, they recommend no more than one serving of fish per week because of mercury. The warning doesn’t apply to salmon, steelhead, lamprey and American shad because they spend most of their lives outside the Columbia. Even so, Paul Lumley says the pollution problem is unacceptable. He represents four Northwest tribes with fishing rights on the Columbia. “They’ve been working so hard with all these other agencies to help implement good laws like the clean water act, to make sure that we have cleaner water in the future,” Lumley says. “And it’s just not working – we have to do more.” Oregon toxicologist David Farrer says the pollution may have come from coal burning plants and other industries. He says the rest of the Columbia River — and its tributaries — could have problems too, but there’s not enough data to determine that.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
WGFCI supports retirement of Montana’s Colstrip coal plant
Pollutants in coal ash settling ponds leach to poison the aquifer.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Labor groups favor narrower review of Wash. coal export proposals September 25, 2013 Spokesmen for three national labor groups sounded off Wednesday against the state Department of Ecology’s plan to subject the Gateway Pacific coal-export proposal at Cherry Point to a more stringent environmental review than the Army Corps of Engineers plans. The Army Corps announced earlier this month it was doing a more site specific review after previously announcing in July it would work jointly with Ecology effort. Ecology announced its decision in late July after getting about 125,000 comments from the public over a 121-day period. The agency plans to look at the cumulative impacts of rail traffic bringing coal by rail from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming to serve the export docks proposed by SSA Marine. In a move that appears to be a first nationally, Ecology also is planning to consider the greenhouse gas effects of burning the coal in China, India and other potential markets.
Editorial Comment: As noted in the previous article, risks to public health and the environment have been significantly impacted by coal transportation and coal burning. The insanity of knowingly poisoning our environment with coal must end.
Labor prefers the Army Corps’ approach, which is more in line with past reviews, said John Risch, national legislative director for the transportation division of SMART. He told reporters in a Wednesday morning teleconference from Washington, D.C., that environmental review has become a way to thwart or delay projects. He suggested the state’s approach could slow the Cherry Point project and “would be a regulatory nightmare.’’ By contrast he painted the Corps’ approach as “reasonable and rational” and like other Army Corps reviews. “Our union supports and virtually all labor unions support environmental reviews that have high standards,’’ he said. But asked whether labor could seek legal action to challenge the projects, Risch deferred to project sponsors. In a repeat of industry and labor’s past arguments, Risch explained the reason for supporting the projects. The biggest is that “expanded ports and trade means expanded economic opportunities” for ports and other communities. Although Gateway Pacific is primarily meant to ship millions of tons of coal a year, Risch said improved infrastructure also will “make our west coast ports more competitive’’ for exports of agricultural products, commodities, potash and coal. Environmentalists aligned against the projects see the global market for coal past its peak and even declining in the U.S. – including plans in law to phase out a coal burning power plant in Centralia by 2025.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! They oppose helping China with a new source of dirty fossil fuels implicated directly in the climate changes that are warming the planet, melting polar ice fields, elevating sea levels and changing the acidity of the Pacific Ocean in a way that is harmful to sea life. “The Army Corps decision to do a separate EIS document on Cherry Point takes a very narrow view of the environmental impacts from coal export and is just further delaying and confusing the process,” said Beth Doglio of the Power Past Coal coalition, in an email. “The Corps has a blinders-on approach in not considering how communities along the transport lines – both rail and marine - would be impacted by this proposal. Six other federal agencies, seven tribes, numerous elected officials and municipalities, and 120,000 citizens have called for a full and thorough review of the coal export proposals.” Doglio described Power Past Coal as a coalition “representing hundreds of organizations, communities, businesses and health officials opposed to coal export off the West Coast.” Also speaking out with Risch were Herb Krohn, Washington state legislative director for SMART’s transportation division, and Jeffery Soth, of the Operating Engineers union who said he grew up in Whatcom County where the Pacific Gateway project would be built. Krohn said the Ecology approach is unprecedented and “has the potential to bring all future industrial developments to a halt in our state.’’ Soth said the project could create 2,000 jobs ofwhich a couple hundred would be operating engineers that run heavy equipment or work as mechanics as a site is being prepared. But the Whatcom County communities are divided on the project, and several Lummi tribal totem pole carvers passed through Olympia this week as part of a 1,700 mile trip to raise awareness of health and environmental impacts from the coal proposals. Labor groups appear fairly well united on the export issue. The Washington State Labor Council voted to approve a resolution last year that needed a two-thirds supermajority support to pass. Council spokeswoman Kathy Cummings said there was no strong dissent. More recently the AFLCIO voted at its convention in Los Angeles to back the exports of coal. Gov. Jay Inslee has not taken a clear position for or against the export facilities, but he enjoyed support form both environmental and labor groups during his campaign last year. The Democratic environmentalist governor is also a clear advocate of responding to climate change, moving the nation’s economy away from fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives, and he has said he wants to let the state’s regulatory review run its course. “We’re not interested in picking a fight with the governor,” Krohn said, describing Inslee as noncommittal on this issue. “We supported him. We think the governor tends to be good on labor issues.” The environmental permitting process is expected to take about two years for the Cherry Point project. Scoping work on the environmental review of the Millennium project at Longview is just getting under way, and hearings are ongoing around the state to consider what approach Ecology should take.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Final hearing on Longview coal export dock Thursday in Tacoma October 12, 2013 A controversial proposal to ship coal to Asian markets through a Longview export dock will get an airing Thursday in Tacoma, the last stop on a statewide tour. The Washington state Department of Ecology and the federal Army Corps of Engineers have held four hearings on how broad to make the project’s environmental review. The fifth and final meeting is this Thursday from 4-8 p.m. at the Tacoma Convention Center. The proposal to export as much as 44 million metric tons of Wyoming and Montana coal is drawing heavy public comment from both sides. Already, 15,000 comments are in Ecology’s record, and past hearings in Longview and Vancouver, Wash., drew crowds of more than 1,000 people. As outlined by Millennium Bulk Terminals – a project co-owned by Arch Coal Inc. of St. Louis, and Australian energy giant Ambre – the coal export facility would be built on 100 acres of a 416-acre site along the Columbia River that had been used by two aluminum plants and other industrial plants. The more than $600 million facility could start sending one ship a day of coal via the Columbia River in late 2017 and that could expand by 2018 to two ships daily, according to Millennium executives. If Ecology’s recent environmental scoping decision on a coal-export dock proposed for Whatcom County is a guide, the state would consider the global-warming and ocean-acidification impacts of burning the exported coal in China to generate electricity. The agency also could look at impacts of shipping coal by rail. Few, if any, trains are certain to travel through South Sound in service of the Millennium project – unlike the rival Gateway Pacific project at Cherry Point. But some empty trains from Longview could pass north through Bucoda, Tenino, East Olympia, Tacoma and Sumner, according to officials at BNSF Railway, one of two shipping firms that would link Millennium to coal fields. Beth Doglio, co-director of the Power Past Coal campaign created by several environmental groups, said she expects her group to concentrate at the hearing on the ocean and climate change aspects of coal exports. “The main concern is ocean acidification. The Sound is in trouble; the more coal is burned, the more trouble the Sound is going to be in. I think it is as simple as that,” Doglio said Friday. Robin Everett, an organizer for the Sierra Club, said ocean acidification (the process of lower pH levels and higher carbon dioxide intake into the ocean, threatening marine life) and the impacts of releasing mercury through burning coal are specific potential concerns for Puget Sound marine life.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Coal-export opponents in the region have also voiced health worries about coal dust and traffic impacts of hauling coal by rail. On the other side of the project are labor, business and agricultural interests that are making a jobs argument in favor of coal-export docks. Millennium Bulk Terminal’s president and CEO, Ken Miller, says 1,350 temporary construction jobs and 135 direct, permanent jobs could be created if the project moves forward and opens in 2015. He said that 300 permanent jobs in Cowlitz County, which has recently experienced double-digit jobless rates, could be directly and indirectly attributed to the project. Gov. Jay Inslee, who has convened a panel with state legislators to search for ways to reduce carbon pollution in Washington, has not said clearly which way he’ll go on the coal-exports issue. But he has favored a broad look at impacts, including looking at what the cumulative effect would be from several export docks in the region. The Army Corps of Engineers has rejected that approach and now plans to issue its environmental scoping decision separately from the state. The Army Corps review is narrower and considers impacts more specific to the project location. The tug of war over coal exports is happening at a time coal is losing favor domestically, and Washington has taken steps to phase out its last coal-burning plants at Centralia by 2025. Miller, the Millennium executive, says that as U.S. demand for coal shrinks, worldwide demand is predicted to grow. “In the near term, there is more demand coming. Whether this coal comes from the U.S. or Indonesia or South Africa, Australia, Russia or Vietnam, the coal is going to get to its end location,” Miller said.
Editorial Comment: We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International appreciate that Thurston County's Board of Commissioners oppose the proposed coal export terminal in Longview. Unfortunately, this action will not ensure that additional coal trains will not travel north via rail through Thurston County, especially if the proposed Cherry Point export facility upgrades near Bellingham and those along BC's Fraser River are approved. A worse-case scenario is that all proposed coal export terminal upgrades are approved as the greatly increased number of very long coal trains would compete for time and space with increased number of very long crude oil and bitumen trains also traveling to and from west coast export terminals. The nightmares we currently face with our rail system (derailments, landslides, floods, etc) will be exacerbated if these proposals are approved. When, not if, these coal and oil trains derail, their spilled loads will put public health and ecosystems along the rail lines at increased risk - These derailments will also cause the entire freight and passenger rail system to come to a screeching halt. With Asian markets turning away from coal toward natural gas, it seems foolish to not invest in less harmful power generation / conservation opportunities instead of investing in outdated technologies that endanger everything we value.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “The point being there will be no net difference (in global emissions) if these projects go on or not.’’ Some local governments are on record in opposition to the project, including Thurston County’s three-member commission, which approved a resolution opposing coal exports in August 2012. Commission chair Sandra Romero noted that rail lines in Thurston County run within 200 feet of the main road in Bucoda, a small south county community. “Since the coal is transported via open top rail cars without covers, Thurston County is at risk for contamination of its farmlands, forests, lakes, streams and rivers. Coal is a toxic material that contains heavy metals, mercury, arsenic, and lead. Exposure to these toxins in high concentrations is linked to cancer and birth defects,” Romero wrote in comments she entered into the record last month in Longview. Bob Guenther, president of the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council, and other members of the business-backed Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports argue that coal mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana is cleaner burning than what China now uses. They also argue that exports will go through Canadian ports if Washington ports are not used. “If we want to give up those jobs we can do it. China will burn that coal or they’ll ship it through Canada,’’ Guenther said last week. “I just don’t see the advantage to shutting down the opportunity to develop our ports for coal and other shipments.” Environmentalists don’t buy the argument that stopping the exports out of Washington just sends them to British Columbia. They say that adding U.S. coal to the market could drive down prices, making it cheaper for China to rely on it to generate electricity. The public has until Nov. 18 to submit comments on the Longview proposal. The final environmental review is expected to take up to two years, and Millennium is estimating an 18- to 24-month time frame. Construction would begin after any appeals are resolved.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Hydropower and water retention
Water Wars: Egyptians Condemn Ethiopia's Nile Dam Project As the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam takes shape, tempers rise. September 27, 2013
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! "Ethiopia is killing us," taxi driver Ahmed Hossam said, as he picked his way through Cairo's notoriously traffic-clogged streets. "If they build this dam, there will be no Nile. If there's no Nile, then there's no Egypt." Projects on the scale of the $4.7 billion, 1.1-mile-long (1.7-kilometer-long)Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam often encounter impassioned resistance, but few inspire the kind of dread and fury with which most Egyptians regard plans to dam the Blue Nile River. Egypt insists Ethiopia's hydroelectric scheme amounts to a violation of its historic rights, a breach of the 1959 colonial-era agreement that allocated almost three-fourths of the Nile waters to Egypt, and an existential threat to a country largely devoid of alternative freshwater sources. But what Egyptians regard as a nefarious plot by its historic adversary to control its water supply, Ethiopians see as an intense source of national pride and a symbol of their country's renewal after the debilitating famines of the 1980s and '90s. "People are enthusiastic. They're excited, because no leader has tried such a project in Ethiopia's history," said Bitania Tadesse, a recent university graduate from the capital, Addis Ababa. "It's a big deal that is going to be beneficial to future generations." Intense Water Politics Ethiopia maintains that Egypt and Sudan downstream have no reason to be fearful. The government says it's merely redressing the inequalities of previous water-sharing arrangements, which had left the nine upstream countries largely bereft of access to the Nile. But the changing regional dynamic is a tough pill for Egypt to swallow. For decades it has used its regional clout to stymie the dam-building plans of its impoverished upstream neighbors. International organizations, such as the World Bank, which has financed hydroelectric ventures in the past, shied away from involvement in such a controversial proposal, handing Egypt a de facto veto. But weakened by several years of economic and political unrest in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Egypt now finds itself ill-placed to counter a resurgent Ethiopia. (See "Saudi Arabia Stakes a Claim on the Nile.") A total of "98 percent of Egypt's freshwater comes from outside its borders, and it has exceptionally little leverage," said Angus Blair, an economic and political analyst at Cairo's Signet Institute. "The answer lies with working with its neighbors."
READ ENTIRE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Dam dispute comes to a head October 14, 2013 A nearly two-year standoff between the Sauk County Board and a state agency over a county-owned dam is expected to come to a head tonight. Although the dispute involves property at Lake Redstone near Reedsburg, its outcome could have an impact on all Sauk County (Wisconsin) property owners that purchase flood insurance. The board is slated to vote on a resolution that repeals and recreates its floodplain zoning ordinance. Tucked into that resolution is the adoption of a new flood map for the Lake Redstone dam. The map was drawn up after a 2009 state Department of Natural Resources-sponsored study determined an area downstream of the dam that would flood if the dam were to break was larger than originally thought. The DNR required the county to update its floodplain ordinance to reflect the new boundaries. However, in December 2011, the board rejected the changes after property owners below the dam complained about the new building restrictions and potential property value declines that would result from their adoption.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
DNR officials initially hinted that if the new boundaries were not adopted, the department could initiate a process in the state Legislature by which the state could supersede the county’s ordinance. But the agency eventually reached an agreement with the county to postpone that process. In return, the county board agreed to adopt a temporary moratorium on building below the dam. However, the moratorium expires in November, which is also the deadline for the county to adopt now Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps. The county must adopt new floodplain maps by Nov. 20 if it wants to maintain its enrollment in the National Flood Insurance Program. “If suspended, your community becomes ineligible for flood insurance through the NFIP, new insurance policies cannot be sold, and existing policies cannot be renewed,” wrote David Stearrett, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Floodplain Management Branch, in a letter to Sauk County Board Chair Marty Krueger. The resolution that will be voted on tonight includes a revamp of the county’s floodplain ordinance, the new FEMA maps, and new dam breach maps for three dams including the one at Lake Redstone. The measure recently passed the county’s zoning committee on a 5-1 vote, with Supervisor Gerald Lehman of Reedsburg voting against it. A fiscal note from Sauk County Controller Kerry Beghin attached to the resolution says if it is not adopted the DNR could charge the county for costs associated with adopting a superseding ordinance. “They’d have to hold a public hearing and go through a whole process and they could charge us for that,” said Sauk County Conservation, Planning and Zoning Department Director Brentt Michalek. He said the state also could revoke $50,000 in grant money it provided the county to study the Lake Redstone Dam if the new dam map isn’t adopted. Representatives from the DNR will be present to speak to the county board about the resolution tonight. Aside from the dam analysis map and the new FEMA floodplain maps, the resolution updates the county’s floodplain ordinance to reflect changes the DNR has made to its model ordinance. Changes include a clause that restricts the construction of new structures or roads that raise the floodplain by more than .01 feet, the addition of new flood storage areas, and new restrictions on accessory buildings, among others. Small accessory buildings that cost under a certain dollar amount previously were permitted in floodplains. “Now, regardless of the size or cost, it has to be at or above the floodplain,” said Sauk County Conservation, Planning, & Zoning Department Deputy Director Brian Cunningham. The county board meets at 6 p.m. at the West Square Building in Baraboo.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
U.S.
regulators ecosystem September 20, 2013
recommend
renegotiating
Columbia
River
treaty
for
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! YAKIMA, Wash. - A U.S.-Canada treaty that governs operations of the fourth-largest river in North America — affecting everything from power prices and water supplies to grain shipments and recreation in the Pacific Northwest — should be renegotiated to make the system more flexible amid climate change and to aid threatened and endangered species that weren't considered when the treaty was created decades ago, federal regulators recommended in a draft document released to The Associated Press. However, the document also says efforts to improve the ecosystem should not impair often competing efforts to ensure long-enjoyed low power prices in the region, which are made possible by 11 U.S. hydropower dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries. Bill Dobbins, general manager of the Douglas County Public Utility District, which operates Wells Dam in Washington state, said the proposal to increase river flows in the spring, when it would help young salmon migrating to the ocean, would lead to less power production from the dams. Generators are already operating at capacity then, wind farms are producing power that competes for space on the grid, and the water will end up being spilled over the dams, rather than held in reserve for fall and winter. He added that it remained unclear what adding the term "ecosystem function" to the treaty would mean for dam operations, and how the proposals would be funded. Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Executive Director Paul Lumley praised the proposal to elevate ecological concerns to the same level as hydropower and flood control, saying it would make the treaty a model of international water management. "Diminished water quality and quantity issues will frustrate the Columbia Basin's on-going salmon restoration efforts, and the region will be unprepared to address climate change," he said in a statement. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said he met with members of the U.S. Entity on Friday and told them of his concerns about the ecosystem issue. "The U.S. Entity's latest draft recommendation continues to raise contentious ecosystem concerns that only serve to distract from the essential task of working with Canada on the core issues under the treaty - the need to rebalance power benefits and to address long-term flood control needs," he said in a statement. Whether the document, to be released publicly Friday, will unite those varied interests remains to be seen. Originating high in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, the Columbia River flows 1,240 miles through Canada and the United States to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean. Its drainage area crosses both countries and touches seven U.S. states, and its average annual runoff dwarfs the Colorado and Missouri rivers. The runoff was deadly on Memorial Day 1948: Spring runoff from a melting heavy snowpack pushed the river over its banks far downstream in Oregon, killing more than 30 people and destroying the community of Vanport. Economic losses exceeded $100 million. The disaster started negotiations between the U.S. and Canada for better management of the river's dams and reservoirs, both for flood control and hydropower generation.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The ensuing treaty, signed in 1964, has no expiration date, but either country may cancel it or suggest changes beginning in 2024 with 10 years' notice. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration are leading the review of the treaty in consultation with other federal agencies, four Northwest states and more than a dozen tribes. U.S. regulators will send their final recommendation in December to the State Department, where the ultimate decision on whether to renegotiate rests. "The treaty has been a model of international water management," said Steve Oliver of the Bonneville Power Administration, who is coordinating the effort for the U.S. entity. "And we feel like it is appropriate to review it at this time." Under the treaty, Canada stores water behind three major dams for flood control and to maximize hydropower generation. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to pay Canada $64 million for flood control for the life of the treaty — far less than the estimated damages that would have occurred with additional flooding — and to send electricity generated at downstream U.S. hydropower dams to Canada. As currently operated, the river is managed well for flood control, but the U.S. could study changes to river operations to boost water supplies in the summer if necessary, said Jim Barton of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the alternating chair for the U.S. Columbia River Treaty Operating Committee. However, the document maintains that the U.S. should seek a more balanced share of the equity of the power that is sent to Canada, valued at between $250 million and $350 million. The document also recommends ecosystem concerns be considered on equal footing with the original charges of hydropower generation and flood control. At the time the treaty was signed, federal protections for endangered species didn't exist — since then, 13 Pacific fish species have been listed for protection. In addition, tribal rights were not enforced, and climate change, which scientists predict will reduce or change the timing of water runoff in the basin, wasn't an issue.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The Grand Coulee Dam in Grand Coulee, Washington on the Columbia River is one of the world's largest concrete structures. The 50th anniversary of the Columbia River Treaty expires in September 2014, at which point either Canada or the U.S. can give 10 years' notice of intention to reopen or terminate provisions.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Fix White River Dam
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Expansion of salmon habitat could be an issue in Columbia River Treaty talks September 26, 2013
SPOKANE, Wash. - Salmon could one day return to areas above the massive Grand Coulee Dam if the issue gains favour as part of a broad reassessment of the Columbia River Treaty. The issue of salmon passage has resurfaced as officials explore renewed treaty talks, The Spokesman-Review reported Thursday. Tribes in the Northwest and First Nations in Canada have long sought the restoration of salmon habitat above the 550-foot-high Grand Coulee. "That's been a goal ever since the dam was built," said Michael Finley, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. "My grandparents and my parents have talked about it as long as I can remember." The Grand Coulee Dam was built in the 1930s without fish ladders, halting salmon runs to the Upper Columbia River. Officials initially rejected options that would have moved fish beyond the Grand Coulee. The 1964 Columbia River Treaty focuses on hydropower and flood control. Now officials in the United States are interested in expanding the treaty's purpose to also address issues such as salmon and climate change. Liz Hamilton, executive director for the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association in Portland, said renewed salmon runs would benefit the region. Hamilton said the summer Chinooks that used to migrate through Washington to British Columbia weighed as much as 80 pounds. Hamilton said the Northwest can be proud of its hydropower system while working toward fixing mistakes made during the development of the system. Originating high in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, the Columbia River flows 1,240 miles through Canada and the United States to the Pacific Ocean. Its drainage area crosses both countries and touches seven U.S. states, and its average annual runoff dwarfs the Colorado and Missouri rivers. The runoff was deadly on Memorial Day 1948: Spring runoff from a melting heavy snowpack pushed the river over its banks far downstream in Oregon, killing more than 30 people and destroying the community of Vanport. Economic losses exceeded $100 million. The disaster started negotiations between the U.S. and Canada for better management of the river's dams and reservoirs, both for flood control and hydropower generation. The ensuing treaty, signed in 1964, has no expiration date, but either country may cancel it or suggest changes beginning in 2024 with 10 years' notice.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Cheslatta First Nation hopes to restore part of Nechako River Project would divert water from Rio Tinto Alcan reservoir September 29, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! A First Nation in north-central B.C. wants to replenish a portion of the upper Nechako River, using water from a reservoir created by a Rio Tinto Alcan dam that dried up the river 60 years ago. The Cheslatta Carrier Nation plans to independently finance the $280 million river restoration project by diverting water the company is already forced to discharge and selling hydroelectric energy of its own to BC Hydro. The Cheslatta will submit their application to the provincial government Monday to divert water from Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kenney Dam on the Nechako Reservoir to an eight-kilometre stretch of the upper Nechako River, which dried up when the company built the dam in 1952 to provide hydro power to its aluminum smelter in Kitimat. The Cheslatta want to divert some of the water from the existing spillway — which floods the ancestral lands given back to them by the company last year — to replenish the upper reaches of the Fraser River’s biggest tributary. “This issue’s been going around forever, but we finally decided to build a spillway ourselves and the only way to pay for it is to install a hydro-generating facility,” said Cheslatta spokesman and policy adviser Mike Robertson. When Alcan built the dam at the headwaters of the Nechako River it reversed the flow of water through a 16-km tunnel to a power plant at Kemano and flooded the lands of the Cheslatta, who were not consulted. In 2006, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that the company can generate power for sale or to supply the smelter according to the terms of its original one-of-a-kind licence, which dates to 1950. However, one of the consequences of providing Kitimat with cheap power is erratic water levels in the lakes, particularly when surplus water accumulating behind the dam has to be spilled. It goes out through a release facility at Skins Lake, which can cause Cheslatta Lake, downstream, to flood. For the fifth time in two years, crews headed to the banks of the lake last week to recover human remains washed away from a traditional burial ground after flooding, Robertson said. The remains of about 60 Cheslatta have been washed away and recovered since the surplus water was first released in 1956, Robertson said.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “Through several court cases and out-of-court settlements they are mandated to release this base flow — that is the water we’re applying for,” Robertson said. “We’re comfortable that we can take the water that already flows into the Nechako and create a hydro facility without asking for more water. “Each and every year when they release huge amounts of water, to keep the salmon alive, the Cheslatta system goes through an annual period of complete massive erosion and flooding.” The Cheslatta have been in discussions with BC Hydro to secure a long-term agreement to buy electricity from the proposed facility, Robertson said. “We’re almost forced to become an (Independent Power Producer) in order to bring stabilization to our world,” he said. BC Hydro embarked on an ambitious plan to secure energy from IPPs under the energy selfsufficiency policy of former premier Gordon Campbell, who publicly supported the restoration of the Nechako River in 1996 while he was opposition leader. The Cheslatta are not asking the government for funding, but Robertson said they want the province to “direct” BC Hydro to sign a “viable energy purchase agreement.” “We have all the confidence in the world that if we get an EPA that financing won’t be an issue,” he said. In August, BC Hydro said it has deals with independent power producers for 129 different projects with 81 of those already complete and generating about 20 per cent of the province’s electricity needs. Robertson said the First Nation had positive discussions with Rio Tinto Alcan about the project last Thursday, but a company representative was unavailable for comment before press time Sunday. If their water licence is approved, the Cheslatta will proceed with engineering and could begin construction on the site within three years, Robertson said. Still, the company holds the licence to the Nechako reservoir’s water and owns the Kenney dam and would need to approve the project, Robertson said. “We’re hopeful that they’ll work with us and put some of these outstanding issues to rest once and for all.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Big chinook run doesn't let Columbia dams off the hook, activists say September 24, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! BONNEVILLE DAM, Wash. — The tiny fish-counting station, with its window onto the Columbia River, was darkened so the migrating salmon would not be spooked. And it was silent — until the shimmering bodies began to flicker by. Then the room erupted with loud clicks, as Janet Dalen's fingers flew across her stumpy keyboard. Tallying the darting specimens, she chanted and chortled, her voice a cross between fish whisperer and aquatic auctioneer. Her body swayed from left to right. Her tightly curled bangs never moved. "Come on, come on, come on," Dalen urged, as she recorded chinook and steelhead, sockeye and coho. "Treat the fish counter nice. Keep going, sweetheart. That's a good girl.… Pretty boy! Salute to the king! He's a dandy. Beautiful, beautiful. Lotta fun. Just can't beat it. An amazing year." A record fall run of chinook salmon is heading up the Columbia River — more than any year since the Bonneville Lock and Dam was built in 1938, impeding natural access to the prized fish's traditional spawning grounds and stirring a controversy that has yet to abate. On Tuesday, the millionth adult chinook salmon so far this year migrated upstream through the massive dam, a milestone that had never before been reached. Biologists are talking hopefully of a fall season that alone could also crest the million mark. On Sept. 9, fish counters like Dalen tallied a one-day record of 63,870. "Is this something to celebrate? Absolutely," said Sara Thompson, spokeswoman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, a coalition of the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes. "But this is one population of salmon. There is still more work to do." Salmon form the backbone of the tribal culture and economy in the Pacific Northwest and southeastern Alaska. They are also crucial for commercial and recreational fishermen. The dam generates hydropower for the region and parts of California. Balancing the competing needs is a daunting task. This year's robust fall chinook salmon run has increased calls to remove some wild salmon populations from endangered species lists, but it has done little to quell opposition to the series of dams on the Columbia and its tributaries. "This is a good news story for the fish and fishermen with the fall chinook return," said Joseph Bogaard, executive director of Save Our Wild Salmon. "But you can't lose sight of the fact that there are 13 distinct populations of salmon that remain at risk" in the Columbia and Snake rivers, listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The reasons for this year's fall chinook run are more complex than mysterious. Biologists for the tribes; the Bonneville Power Administration, which owns and markets the power generated by the dam; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns and operates the dam; cite a number of interrelated factors. Much work has been done to make the turbines, which generate the power, safer for juvenile fish to pass through, said Kevin Wingert, a BPA spokesman. Other measures include structures that allow fish to pass the dam at more natural and safer depths.
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish! Spawning areas have been cleared of debris and invasive species. Ocean conditions in recent years have been favorable for the salmon's survival, with low temperatures and abundant food. And since 2006, the agencies involved in operating the Columbia's dams have been under court order to increase so-called spill, the amount of water going over the dams during spring and summer, flushing young salmon away from the turbines and out toward the ocean. But critics say a draft management plan under review for Columbia River salmon and their cousins the steelhead would allow dam operators to curtail spill, the very thing these critics say has aided fish. "The draft so far discounts or eliminates spill, one of the few things we know actually works," said Glen Spain, northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Assns. "What we need to do is not just rejoice when the salmon runs are good but fix the conditions that would lead to salmon extinction in the river when ocean conditions are bad." But Ben Hausmann, fisheries biologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the idea was to curtail the spill only after the fish numbers dropped past a certain point for three days running, "a signal that the out-migration of fish has ended." The Northern California fall chinook run is also expected to be healthy this year. A federal judge in Fresno ruled in August that stored water must be released to improve conditions for the fish in the Klamath River instead of being diverted to Central Valley farmers. The release has alleviated concerns about a possible fish kill like the one that shut down the salmon fishing season from Monterey Bay to the Oregon-Washington border in 2006. The Columbia River controversy aside, Hausmann and his colleagues at Bonneville seemed a little stunned last week by the record numbers. The fish counters could barely keep up. Like psychiatrists, they work in 50-minute sessions in the dark little room filled with aquatic accouterments. Dalen, with 14 years of experience, had her best hour ever recently when she tallied 3,483 adult chinook. "I've never seen anything like it," she marveled during a brief break in the action. "I remember good hours of about 2,000." The 10-year average for adult chinook on Sept.17 is a measly 7,157; five years ago, that daily total was only 4,451. But on this day, during this banner run, Dalen and other counters tallied 18,896. She scrutinized the glowing window as another cluster of fish swam by. A few, tired, were pushed back downstream. When that happens, Dalen must subtract them from the running total. "Ooh, a beautiful steelhead. Oh, what a beauty," she exclaimed before the fish was pushed backward, and she changed her tune. "Oh, you stinker. Make up your mind â&#x20AC;&#x201D; up or downstream, girlfriend. Your swimsuit looks great."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Plan
for hydro dam on B.C.'s Similkameen River raises immediate environmental concerns September 24, 2013
A river that has been identified as one of the most endangered in B.C. is the site of a proposed hydro dam by Fortis Generation Inc. Plans to build a 45- to 65-megawatt power facility — with a 175-metre-high concrete dam and 21kilometre-long reservoir — on the Similkameen River, about 15 kilometres south of Princeton, are drawing immediate environmental concerns. Mark Angelo, rivers chair of the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C., noted in an interview Tuesday that the Similkameen was named one of the top 10 most endangered rivers in B.C. in 2011 due to a dam proposal on the Washington state side of the international border at Shanker’s Bend that would have flooded into B.C. That proposal was later shelved. Angelo said this new "Canyon Dam" proposal is in the early stages by Fortis, which purchased the former Princeton Light and Power, the company that proposed a dam at this same site in the early 1990s. He warned that "construction would create a reservoir upriver of the canyon that is estimated to destroy not only the canyon ecosystem" but extensive wildlife habitat, including for trout and other fish. The dam would inundate about 800 hectares. From a recreational perspective, it has very high values as a paddling destination and the canyon stretch is also a striking and very beautiful part of river," Angelo said. "Clearly, the dam would have significant adverse impacts ...."
Editorial Comment: The irresponsibly conceived Canyon Dam and its resulting reservoir will irreversibly destroy many of the existing environmental services and recreational benefits provided for free via the environmentally-sensitive Similkameen River watershed. The Canyon Dam must never be constructed.
Ruth Sulentich, community and aboriginal relations manager for Fortis, said the company is working with the province to obtain an investigative permit necessary to access land parcels for conducting technical and environmental studies to evaluate the viability of the project. "Should the investigative studies determine the project is economically, technically and environmentally feasible, Fortis Generation would begin application for long-term lease arrangements for the land." It could take two years to complete the technical and environmental studies, along with discussions with the general public and First Nations, to produce a viable project, the company said, adding that a hydro reservoir would have the benefit of reducing flood risk on the river and increase summer flows.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Natural Gas
First Nations ban pipelines for BC Liquefied Natural Gas
Editorial Comment:
Clear, concise, accurate messages for each of us to listen to, understand and rally in support of
Spoken from the heart with decades of experience
0% Bovine Excrement
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Do Not Drink This Water! Watch HERE Fracking Hell – The Untold Story Watch HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Alberta scientist Jessica Ernst warns Newfoundland of fracking risk September 23, 2013 ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Alberta resident Jessica Ernst is warning Newfoundland about the risks of hydraulic fracturing, saying she blames the contentious fracking process for making her well water flammable. “It does ignite like a blow torch,” she said from her rural home near Rosebud, Alta.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! It’s too dangerous to even use to flush toilets. One spark could cause the gas to ignite and cause a serious explosion. Ernst visited Stephenville, N.L., on Sunday to convey what she says is a cautionary tale about an oil and gas extraction method that industry proponents defend as safe. Debate about fracking is escalating on Newfoundland’s scenic west coast where there are plans to drill exploration wells near Gros Morne National Park pending government approvals. Newfoundland on the edge of fracking Ernst was invited by a concerned citizens group to speak to local residents. “For areas that do not have fracking yet, once you let it in, you’ll never get it out,” she said. Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping water, nitrogen, sand and chemical additives at high pressure to fracture shale rock formations and allow gas or oil to flow through well bores to the surface. It’s increasingly used across Canada and the U.S. as energy demands grow while conventional sources wane. Ernst, a 56-year-old environmental consultant with a Master of Science degree and 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, is hardly a lone voice raising alarms. The award-winning documentary Gasland tracks complaints of water contamination in rural areas across the U.S. where gas wells were fracked. Industry’s claims of no water contamination challenged Emma Lui, national water campaigner for the citizens’ interest group Council of Canadians, said a lack of independent research before and after fracking means safety assurances ring hollow. It’s common for industry and some governments to say there are no known cases of water contamination, but that’s because they don’t have that baseline information. They don’t actually have the adequate research to back those claims up. Tom Marshall, Newfoundland and Labrador’s natural resources minister, said he has heard those concerns and is gathering input across Canada to ensure provincial regulations reflect best practices. Newfoundland grants exploration licences, consulting with geologists The province has not yet received formal applications to frack wells in western Newfoundland although exploration licences have been granted in what’s known as the Green Point shale, he said in an interview. The Progressive Conservative government will consult geologists and geophysicists now studying Newfoundland’s west coast where, unlike Alberta’s more shallow coalbed gas deposits, it’s believed deep shale formations hold oil, he added. Any drilling proposal would get full environmental scrutiny, Marshall said. Our government has always been one that supports economic development. But only within a framework that ensures protection of the environment and protection of public health and safety. Ernst said Newfoundlanders should be wary. “We got the same promises here.” Ernst’s $33 million fracking lawsuit
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! She has filed a $33-million lawsuit with the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta against North American energy producer Encana, the provincial energy regulator and the provincial government. Her unproven statement of claim alleges gas wells fracked around her property between 2001 and 2006 unleashed hazardous amounts of methane and ethane gas and other chemicals into her private water well. Ernst claims that Encana fracked “without taking necessary precautions to protect in-use aquifers or water wells” from such contamination. She also claims that regulators at the Energy Resources Conservation Board, now the Alberta Energy Regulator, failed to reasonably act on her reports of contamination or her concerns that Encana breached laws and regulations meant to protect water supplies. Finally, Ernst claims the Alberta government failed to reasonably protect her well water, investigate contamination or correct reported damage. Bob Curran, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator, declined in an email to comment on the lawsuit as it’s before the courts. Alberta defends fracking safety Bart Johnson, a spokesman for the Alberta government, also declined to comment on the case but said fracking has been done safely for decades. “In regard to hydraulic fracturing generally, the technology has been used safely in Alberta for over 60 years and its use is tightly regulated and monitored by the Alberta Energy Regulator,” he said in an email. “Approximately 174,000 wells have been fractured in the province since the technology was introduced in the 1950s.” The province and energy regulator have not filed statements of defence. Encana blames Ernst In its statement of defence, Encana denies all of Ernst’s allegations and blames her for any pollution. It says Encana complied with or exceeded all laws and regulations “in respect of its coal bed methane exploration, drilling, stimulation and production operations” and took all necessary precautions to safeguard the Ernst water well. “To the extent that natural gas or related substances have been detected on the Ernst property or in the Ernst well, which is denied, such substances occurred naturally or by other causes.” Encana suggests Ernst failed to maintain her water well and is at fault for any contamination. It also says two gas wells at the heart of her allegations were not fracked but “stimulated” — a process that pumps inert nitrogen gas at high pressure into coal seams to release natural gas. Skin burns Ernst says in a rebuttal filed in court that she sought professional advice to look after her well since she bought the 20-hectare property in 1998. She first noticed problems eight years ago when she developed strange burns on her skin and her two dogs recoiled from a fresh bowl of water, she said. She now trucks fresh water in from another community. “If they can frack all around Gros Morne, they’ll be able to frack all of Newfoundland,” Ernst said. “They did that here.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Corporate. Government and Non Government Organization “Greenwashing”:
If the Kinder Morgan plan goes ahead, there will be more oil tankers plying the Salish Sea.
Kinder Morgan presents its case for more tankers October 3, 2013
100% Bovine Excrement
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! A representative of Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. pitched his company's proposal to expand its trans-mountain pipeline to directors at the Regional District of Nanaimo last week. Michael Davies, the director of marine development for Kinder Morgan, said the existing pipeline to Burnaby will be expanded to increase the amount of tankers — there are currently four tankers per day plying the Salish Sea, two empty and two full. This would increase to six. In his presentation, he stressed that the extra tankers would utilize extensive safety measurers in order to prevent a spill. "The ships calling in Vancouver do so through a well-established system, with pilotage and tug escorts," he said. "The aids to navigation are well-established and the area is monitored by both the Canadian and U.S. Coast Guards. For loaded tankers, tugs have to be tethered in Vancouver Harbour and they must have two pilots on board."
Editorial Comment: As reported in this issue of Legacy, Christy Clark, British Columbia’s Prime Minister, “the federal government would not have the resources to handle a large-scale disaster” Residual crude oil leaked during British Petroleum’s, Deepwater Horizon failures continues as a shameful environmental disaster on the ocean floor, along the shorelines and in the estuaries. – Alberta’s tar sands bitumen is significantly heavier and more toxic than crude oil. The second pipeline will double the risks associated with bitumen leaks along the pipelines’ problematic route.
He also noted that all vessels are double hulled and rigorously inspected. "Tankers are among the highest scrutinized vessels in the shipping world," he said. Kinder Morgan, he said, is conducting two years of public consultation — of which the presentation to the RDN was a part. "Our target is to file an application with the National Energy Board this year," he said. "The application should be submitted in December and we will continue our consultations. It's a two-year regulatory process, so we don't expect an answer before 2015 and the earliest we could see this is 2017." He conceded that having more oil tankers plying the waters would increase the risk of a spill, but stressed it remains a small risk. "The probability would increase because of increased tanker traffic," he said. "That's very small, but that is where the change of risk comes from." Directors had some tough questions for Davies, with Parksville director Marc Lefebvre leading the discussion. "You talked about risk assessment," he said. "That's a mathematical thing. What did it tell you? Will the number of potential spills increase with the volume?" Davies stressed the study is not completed yet, noting it begins with a traffic study and what the realistic worst-case scenario for an oil spill would be and the probability of an accident that could lead to a spill. "The other piece we are looking at is the consequences," he said. "We do trajectory modeling of where oil could go from a spill. Then we look at one deterministic spill to look at the environmental consequences."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Lefebvre followed up with a query about the company's maximum liability in the event of a spill, noting that once the tanker leaves port it is no longer a Kinder Morgan responsibility. "I've been told that if a tanker did damage, the liability would be 10 per cent of the overall destruction," he said. Davies replied that while there is a $132 million cap, there are other funds — more than $1 billion — that would kick in if they were needed. For his part, City of Nanaimo director Jim Kipp expressed concern about whether or not Canada has the physical capacity to deal with a major spill. "I am concerned with our coast guard and its ability to contain an oil spill," he said. "What work have you done with the Coast Guard?" In response, Davies noted that Western Canada Marine Response is the agency that is responsible for providing oil spill response. "The Coast Guard's role is as a federal monitoring agency," he said. "They do have the ability to take over direction of it if the responsible party isn't performing, but their role is primarily as a monitoring agency." Gabriola Island director Howard Houle said the oil spill response issue is troubling. "I have great concerns about the increase in tanker traffic you're telling us about," he said. "Those concerns fall mainly around oil spill response. You have good response in a harbour, but otherwise, not really. It can take 72 hours to get equipment there. That's not good enough. If there was a spill, there would be damage to fisheries and recreation and the coastline." Houle quizzed Davies on the properties of the diluted bitumen that would be transported past the Gulf Islands. "I'm told that if it floats it's relatively easy to clean up, but if it sinks, how are you going to get it off the bottom?" he asked. "The damage done to the environment would be huge. It's not an issue of if, but rather, of when." Davies conceded the response time has room for improvement, noting it's the main reason for the federal and provincial reviews. "We are looking at what is required to reduce response times to significantly less than 72 hours," he said. "That's a commitment we are prepared to make through the hearing process. I would expect to see significant enhancements to reflect the potential risks this project could present." He said as well that comprehensive tests done over a 10-day period in a variety of wave and wind conditions. "We didn't see any of it sink during this period," he said. "We also tested conventional skimming equipment and it was quite effective. We also looked at burning, dispersants and beach cleaning agents."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Northern Gateway Pipelines – “Protecting our coastline” Watch Gateway “facts” HERE for more corporate greenwashing
Before Northern Gateway pipelines built to Kitimat terminal.
Disastrous oil spills expected if Northern Gateway pipelines are built to Kitimat terminal. Will not have this level of emergency response.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Christy Clark: BC’s Liquefied Natural Gas to Asian Markets Watch HERE
Editorial Comment: Christy Clark: “LNG is the cleanest burning fossil fuel on the planet”
Not saying much when comparing to coal and oil
Extracting Liquefied Natural Gas risks public health, ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies
Transportation of LNG via pipelines has similar risks
Transportation of LNG via ships at sea will add hundreds of trips in and out of overcrowded ports (Vancouver, Kitimat) with inadequate Coast Guard oversight and spill capabilities.
wild
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Premier's statement on Thanksgiving October 12, 2013 VICTORIA - Premier Christy Clark has issued the following statement on Thanksgiving: "In British Columbia, we have a lot to be thankful for. We live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, in a tolerant, diverse, and prosperous society. "Our focus remains on growing the economy, and creating more opportunities both now and in the future - so our children and grandchildren will have ever more to be thankful for. "Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to help those less fortunate. To those who take time away from your families to volunteer or donate this long weekend - thank you. "I wish all British Columbians a happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving."
Editorial Comment: Unfortunately, the expected economic growth in British Columbia is at the unacceptable expense of game fish and wildlife along with the cultures, communities and economies that rely on them. Shameful and ill-advised.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Why an aquaculture awareness; week? September 25, 2013
100% Bovine Excrement
Did you know that the three largest companies who produce British Columbia's largest agricultural export - farm-raised salmon - are all based right here in Campbell River? Did you know that salmon farming provides around 6,000 jobs on Vancouver Island? Did you know that BC's salmon farmers are committed to being environmentally, economically and socially sustainable? These are just a few of the pieces of information that we as salmon farmers want to share with our neighbours this week as we celebrate our third annual Aquaculture Awareness Week. This week is our chance to raise awareness of who we are, what we do and why we do it and also to celebrate the hard working men and women who have made our industry what it is today. And today we look very different than we have in the past. Salmon farming is a relatively new industry - starting a few decades ago with a few momand-pop operations that were interested in trying something new. From there we've grown and developed, made mistakes and learned from them to become a world-class industry that sets the bar when it comes to sustainability. That's why Aquaculture Awareness Week is important to us. It's our chance to recognize where we've come from, where we are and where we want to go in the future.
Mary Ellen Walling Executive Director British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association
Editorial Comments:
• • • •
More than 90% of the open pen salmon feedlot industry sited in British Columbia is headquartered in Norway. The open pen salmon feedlot industry is not socially, economically or environmentally sustainable. As evidenced with sustainable seafood policies (influenced by the salmon feedlot industry), the bar for sustainability needs to be set much higher. The open pen salmon feedlot industry has a long history of risking public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! From the recently announced Global Salmon Initiative to seeking third party certifications to new research and technologies, our industry is committed to always improving. Famous ocean explorer and researcher Jacques Yves Cousteau said that we must farm the seas, and that's what aquaculture is all about. Farm-raised fish production has now overtaken beef production and is growing, as is the demand for fish protein. That's why it's so important for salmon farmers in BC and around the world to work together to ensure our industry operates responsibly and sustainably now and into the future. That's a big picture - but it's one the salmon farmers in your community are thinking about regularly. Our commitment to environmental protection, attention to responsible practices and dedication to the communities where we operate are all brush strokes in that big picture.
Eddie Gardner: “This is an industry that lobbies to push for the approval of higher allowable levels of contaminants that would be deemed "safe" for human consumption at a time when studies have shown they already have contaminant levels that resulted in their products being red-listed to "avoid." Price Smart, Overweatea's, Save-On-Foods and Coopers have good reason to ban net-pen farmed salmon from their shelves and we are lobbying other supermarkets to follow suit. The Overweatea Food Group's sustainable food policy is developed and implemented in partnership with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society BC, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans BC and Sierra Club BC. Choose ocean-friendly seafood and protect your health and well-being at the same time by using SeaChoice.org! BCFSA is unethical to promote their products that are raised in floating sewers that pollute the ocean and become a breeding ground for sea lice and viruses that pose threats to wild salmon.”
Aquaculture will be critical in providing food for the future - and Vancouver Island farmers are already leading the way. Why eat salmon? When we get asked "Why should I eat farm-raised salmon?" our answer is simple: You should eat salmon. Period. Farm-raised or wild-caught, salmon is one of the best options for increasing healthy Omega 3s in our diets, lowering saturated fats and reducing your risk of coronary heart disease. It's also loaded with vitamins A, B and D. Canada's food guide recommends at least two 150 gram servings of fish every week. One of the benefits of farm raised salmon is that it provides fresh salmon available year-round so you can take advantage of salmon's many health benefits no matter what the season. Farm-raised salmon is very good for you: our farmers use no growth hormones or genetic modification enhance growth, contaminant levels are low compared to other proteins and because of the close care given to our fish, health issues are rare. As well, because salmon on farms are fed, there is complete control over what they consume. That gives us complete confidence in the health and safety of our product. And, of course, it's delicious. It's also sustainable. Finfish aquaculture, of which salmon farming is a part, is one of the most heavily regulated industries in Canada. Here in BC, our farmers take pride in going above and beyond those requirements - setting the bar for world-class standards and constantly looking for ways to improve what we do and how we do it. Our members also seek third party certification to further prove that We're very proud of the healthy, high quality product that our farmers produce - but ultimately, no matter what the source, we encourage people to increase the amount of salmon you eat. It's good and good for you.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Forest Management
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
U.S. House backs bill to boost logging in national forests. Kilmer votes no September 23, 2013 WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House has approved a bill to sharply increase logging in national forests — a measure the GOP said would create jobs in rural communities and help reduce wildfires that have devastated the West. The bill also would add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from new timber sales while reviving an industry that has shed tens of thousands of jobs in the past three decades. Opponents called the bill a giveaway to the timber industry and said it would harm water quality and habitat for fish and wildlife and jeopardize recreation areas that have become a major source of jobs in national forests. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which was approved Friday (Sept. 20) on a 244-173 vote. Seventeen Democrats joined 227 Republicans to back the bill. The North Olympic Peninsula’s congressman, Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, voted no. The Obama administration says the measure would jeopardize habitat for endangered species, increase lawsuits and limit the president’s ability to create national monuments. The bill as passed has little chance of approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate, although senators have not ruled out adoption of a forest management bill. ‘Create more jobs’
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Keith Chu, a spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Wyden “agrees it’s time get the [timber] harvest up, to create more jobs in the woods and make forests healthier.” Wyden also plans to introduce a forest bill this fall, Chu said, but added: “It’s clear that bills that undermine bedrock environmental laws or turn large swaths of federal land over to private ownership cannot pass the Senate or be signed into law by the president.” The House bill’s sponsor, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash, said wildfires burned 9.3 million acres last year, while the Forest Service only harvested timber from about 200,000 acres. “We burned 44 times more acres than we’ve managed,” Hastings said. “Imagine the carbon imprint” of those wildfires, which are fed in part by overstocked forests. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said many rural counties in Oregon and other states “are literally on the brink of bankruptcy sitting next to national forests” where increased timber sales could provide a lifeline. “They’re choked with smoke, and their economies are choked” by policies that prevent logging, Walden said. Environmental groups criticized the bill. “They’re viewing our national forests as big ATM machines that they can just level out to fill county coffers,” said Noah Matson, vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group. Increased logging “is not a sustainable, long-term solution” to economic problems in the rural West, Matson said, adding that an increase in logging jobs could be offset by a decrease in outdoor recreation jobs that have increasingly come to dominate rural Western economies. The bill includes a provision developed by members of the Oregon delegation to turn over half of federally controlled lands in western Oregon to a state-appointed trust that would manage them for timber production. The other half would be managed for fish and wildlife habitat, including creation of new wilderness areas. The measure also includes a federal subsidy for timber-dependent counties until the logging revenues start to come in. The bill makes logging a requirement on some public forestland, speeding up the timber sales process and making it more difficult for legal challenges to be filed. If enacted, the bill could again result in clear-cutting of national forests, Matson said, calling that a return to misguided policies that harmed wildlife and the environment for generations. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would increase revenue from timber sales by about $2 billion over the next 10 years, with a net gain to the government of about $269 million over that period.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Government action/inaction and wild game fish
I Don’t Pay Attention to Politics…
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Norwegian Fish Farms are Killing Canada’s Wild Salmon
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Tories accused of ignoring Cohen report on salmon fishery October 9, 2013 Re: Feds listen and respond to concerns over fisheries, Letters, Oct. 3 Conservative MP John Weston notes the supposed achievements of the Conservative government and expresses his confidence that Fisheries Minister Gail Shea has taken seriously the requests made to her to respond to the Cohen Commission Report. The Cohen Commission Report was tabled by Mrs. Shea on Oct 31, 2012. That is a full 12 months that this $26 million taxpayerfunded report has gathered dust, completely ignored by the Conservative government.
Gail Shea
When the report was tabled last fall, I motioned to have the Fisheries Committee study the report and bring forward Justice Bruce Cohen as a witness. Unfortunately, the Conservatives moved that the motion be debated in secret and it has never been adopted. According to Justice Cohen, some of the most harmful environmental effects on the sockeye are contaminants and algae blooms. Much of the research in these areas was done by the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's (DFO's) Contaminants Program and at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), both of which were slated for elimination by the Harper Conservatives. Eliminating the Contaminants program involved firing 75 DFO scientists, many of whom were based at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Victoria. Fortunately, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has stepped in and saved the ELA. The Conservative government has chosen to ignore the Cohen Commission Report. It is extremely unfortunate and absolutely unacceptable but after a full year of silence, there is simply no other explanation. My Liberal colleagues and I have repeatedly urged the Conservatives to begin implementing the Cohen Report's recommendations to no avail. We will continue fighting for their adoption because if changes do not take place, the Conservatives' path will prove disastrous for the sockeye, for fish habitat, for our environment, and for all of Canada's fisheries. It is time Minister Shea and the Conservative government turn the tide at DFO and get this country's fisheries back on track.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
The DFO and the Broughton Salmon Collapse – Part 2 Watch, listen and learn as Marine Biologist, Alexandra Morton, exposes risks of open pen salmon feedlots
Editorial Comment: Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth strongly advocate for immediate and permanent removal of open pen salmon feedlots from the world’s wild salmon migration routes because of their documented risks to: •
Public health
•
Wild ecosystems
•
Cultures
•
Communities
•
Economies
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
First Nations, DFO sign key Memorandum of Understanding September 27, 2013 Leaders of the BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit and Union of BC Indian Chiefs met Tuesday with Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to sign a BC First Nations Fisheries Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU "establishes and defines a collaborative relationship to achieve concrete outcomes that are mutually beneficial to all parties, and supports the aspirations of First Nations in BC, through establishing a joint dialogue process regarding general and specific issues related to fisheries and aquatic resources in BC." "We are pleased that we have finally signed this important MOU, which has been in development for more than a year", said Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit political executive. "Fisheries issues are critical to First Nations in BC. This MOU provides a much needed mechanism that will provide opportunities to discuss key fisheries and aquaculture issues and will hopefully lead to collaborative efforts to achieve concrete outcomes that are not only mutually beneficial, but also address the aspirations and needs of First Nations in BC." BCAFN Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould of the Cape Mudge band said the MOU provides key opportunities. "First Nations in BC, concerned about the health and vitality of fisheries, continue to look for opportunities to work jointly with other governments on improved fisheries management," she said. "Unilateral legislative development is not acceptable. First Nations and indeed many Canadians stood together last year in opposition to unilaterally developed omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45. Past Fisheries Ministers have committed to "robust" consultation with First Nations and I am encouraged by this step towards improved relations. DFO's commitment to high level political engagement with First Nations is critical to work jointly through the challenging issues, including legislative and regulatory changes, facing our communities." Chief Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said it was also time the federal government acted on Cohen Commission recommendations. "It has been nearly one year since the Cohen Commission final report was tabled and we have yet to see an official response to the report's recommendations from Canada. Commissioner Cohen made 75 recommendations with respect to the protection and conservation of wild salmon. "We fully expect that, under this MOU, we will finally be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue with DFO and the federal government on how they intend to make the necessary investments in the protection of wild salmon as prescribed in Commissioner Cohen's recommendations."
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Clark, Redford move closer to pipeline agreement October 1, 2013 “I get more confident about that as the weeks pass,” Ms. Clark said in an interview. “We are engaged at the highest level of the bureaucracy, the deputies are meeting about the five conditions and talking about how we can meet them together.”
Very Large Crude Carrier class tankers proposed to carry condensate to Kitimat, BC and bitumen from Kitimat via the often treacherous Douglas Channel – 250 additional round trips per year.
The Premier’s comments mark a significant change in tone from just a year ago, when Ms. Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford emerged from a Calgary meeting and told reporters their discussions were “frosty.” Talks between Alberta and B.C. were stuck in political stalemate after Ms. Clark demanded a “fair share” of the financial benefits stemming from any oil sands pipeline crossing her province, along with other environmental and First Nations conditions being met.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! At the time, Ms. Redford rejected the B.C. demands, suggesting that it was a grab for Alberta’s royalty revenues. But Ms. Clark later clarified that her idea for a “fair share” of the benefits was not intended as a royalty grab, that there were other avenues to meet her conditions.
Douglas Channel, British Columbia
Fast-forward to the B.C. election last May – where Ms. Clark’s Liberals won a surprise victory against their NDP challengers – and a friendly summit in Kelowna this June, and the two premiers seem to be working hard to show the relationship has begun anew. “There is a real appetite in Alberta, and I’m really pleased about the direction that this is going. Now we see the federal government really stepping up and wanting to meet their pieces of the five conditions.” The Premier said progress in the talks is confirmation that the B.C. conditions are “tough, but fair and clear.” For Alberta’s part, the province’s Energy Minister Ken Hughes was equally optimistic, if short on details about the nature of the talks. With B.C. looking to make the most of its natural gas reserves by encouraging exports to Asia – and Alberta hoping to do the same for both its oil sands bitumen and natural gas – Mr. Hughes said Alberta and B.C. have a lot in common. He said the “mutual understanding” of each other’s ambitions and opportunities is growing, and it doesn’t hurt that B.C. Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman once lived in Alberta and “actually understands us, which is helpful.” But he said there’s a lot of work to do. “There are many aspects to the relationship between Alberta and British Columbia,” Mr. Hughes said. “What you will see if there are results out of this is progress on specific projects that we can all support.” Ms. Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper met in B.C. two weeks ago where they discussed the future of oil pipelines, a prelude to a high-profile federal effort to build support within B.C. for both Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, and the plan to twin the existing Kinder Morgan line. That federal push also includes sending deputy ministers from Ottawa to meet with native leaders in an effort to forge a new relationship. However, federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver told reporters in Calgary earlier this month it was up to Alberta and B.C. to sort out whether B.C. gets its special conditions met. Ms. Clark insists her conditions are not intended to try to prevent economic development. “We’re seeing the rewards of sticking to our guns on that because the rest of the country, increasingly, is coming to accept that these conditions can be met.” Environmental economist Andrew Leach – who holds the Alberta School of Business Enbridge professorship in energy policy – said B.C. has a right to make sure environmental and spill risks brought on by a crude pipeline are fully addressed, and covered. However, he said putting restrictions on which products from other provinces can be shipped through B.C. is “dangerous territory” for the free movement of goods in Canada. “It just becomes a huge economic cost to everyone,” he said.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Christy Clark warns Canada unprepared for tanker oil spills October 2, 2013 Watch CBC interview HERE If a tanker were to spill oil off the coast of British Columbia today, the federal government would not have the resources to handle a large-scale disaster, warns B.C. Premier Christy Clark. In an interview with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, Clark sounded the alarm over Canada's inability to handle a major coastal oil spill now, let alone in the future should new pipelines be approved. "We are woefully under-resourced," Clark said. Her comments come amid a recent video ad campaign by Coastal First Nations in B.C. directed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The video shows devastating images from the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989. The song The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel accompanies the dramatic pictures. The video tells viewers a similar oil spill could cost taxpayers $21.4 billion to clean up and notes that 80 per cent of British Columbians oppose oil tanker traffic in the province's coastal waters. "British Columbians have spoken. Will Stephen Harper listen?" asks the video ad campaign.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Clark conceded that the federal government is taking some measures to address the danger, but "that's going to have to happen before any more heavy oil comes off the coast," the premier said. "They've begun to look at safety on the coast and the coast guard resources, and so that's a start, that's encouraging."
Editorial Comment: • 100% pure bovine excrement! • Canada’s Coast Guard in British Columbia was recently gutted, including closure of key facilities. • Canada’s environmental protection laws continue to be legislatively weakened.
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt recently travelled to B.C. as part of the federal government's push to woo First Nations into supporting the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan pipeline projects. "Part of the reason why we're going out to the West Coast is to engage and to speak with those groups that are very interested in what we're doing on the world-class tanker system," Raitt told CBC News on Sept. 14. The federal government announced in March a number of steps to develop a world-class tanker safety system, including the creation of a panel to review Canada's current system and propose further measures to strengthen it. Joe Oliver, federal minister of natural resources, said the system in place now can handle a fairly large spill off the B.C. coast. He has also set up a panel on tanker safety to look at other measures. "We're going to improve it to the extent necessary because … we're utterly committed to world-class safety, and whatever needs to be done to get us there we will do," Oliver told CBC News. Clark made it clear nearly 15 months ago that "world-leading marine oil spill response, prevention and recovery systems for British Columbia" were among the conditions the federal government and the province of Alberta had to meet in exchange for her support of any pipelines running through her province. The Joint Review Panel into Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is expected to give Oliver a decision by Dec. 31, 2013. On Wednesday, an Enbridge official said the company expects the federal government to approve the pipeline, which would move oil from northern Calgary to a tanker terminal in Kitimat, on the north coast of B.C., by 2018. Senior vice-president Vern Yu said the Calgary-based company expects the federal government's decision to be challenged by pipeline opponents. "We
expect that there would be some appeals to that decision and
What planet are our elected officials from?
that would take us into early 2015 and at that
Of course there will be appeals from the international community of organizations and individuals who truly care about planet earth
point we would be able to start construction, which would allow for somewhere around a 2018 in-service date," Yu said.
and her future generations!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
If B.C. pipelines not built, oil will flow west by rail B.C. and Alberta include scenario as part of talks on energy exports October 15, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! B.C. and Alberta acknowledged Tuesday that if the Northern Gateway Mountain pipelines to the west coast are not built, rail will fill the “void” to the coast.
and
Trans
It’s the first time the B.C. Liberal government has stated that Alberta oilsands bitumen will flow to the B.C. coast and onto tankers destined for Asia whether or not pipelines are built. The acknowledgment came in a terms of reference released by B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford on their joint effort to co-operate on opening new markets and expanding exports for oil, gas and other resources. The move marks a return to more friendly relations after the premiers clashed last year over Enbridge’s $6.5-billion Northern Gateway project to Kitimat. Kinder Morgan has also proposed a $5.4-billion twinning of its Trans Mountain line to Burnaby. Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman said if B.C. is going to have a discussion about transporting oil with Alberta, it must include the prospect of rail in order to determine the safety and environmental risks. However, in the aftermath of July’s deadly explosion of a runaway oil train in Lac-Mégantic, Que., Coleman said transporting oil by rail makes him nervous. The derailment and subsequent explosion left 47 dead. “There’s been no prejudgment on this, but I can tell you that we are not interested in seeing millions of barrels of oil move by rail across British Columbia without being assured absolutely of the safety of the land base,” Coleman said from South Korea, where he is talking to companies about LNG prospects in B.C. Coleman’s deputy minister is co-chairing the working group created by the two western premiers to deliver recommendations by the end of the year on how the provinces can work together on marine and land spills, fiscal and economic benefits, First Nations’ consultation, transportation and social licence. The issues are similar to the five conditions that Clark declared in 2012 must be met for the province to consider the construction and operation of heavy oil pipelines. The conditions include a world-class marine and land spill response, prevention and recovery system. The terms of reference released Tuesday stated that both pipeline and rail transportation are viable alternatives for the movement of energy resources to the west coast. “If pipelines are not developed, rail will step into the void to deliver bitumen to the West Coast,” said the 10-page terms of reference. Rail is a federal responsibility, but the document notes the two provinces need to consider rail safety measures. “It will be necessary to ensure that new modern rail cars that are designed to handle bitumen are used to mitigate environmental risks along with adequate overpasses and rail sidings to protect communities,” states the terms of reference.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Coleman said he has told the federal government that rail would be the wrong solution and that the five pipeline conditions need to be met. Internal federal government memos published earlier this fall showed CN, at the urging of Chinese-owned Nexen Inc., is considering shipping Alberta bitumen to Prince Rupert in northwest B.C. by rail as a possible Plan B if the Northern Gateway is blocked. Coleman noted the rail line to Prince Rupert is only operating at 30 per cent capacity. He said he was aware work has been done to examine it as an oil rail route. Rail lines such as CN and CP have already been ramping up shipments of oil elsewhere in North America as decisions on pipeline projects have been delayed. That includes TransCanada’s controversial $5.3-billion Keystone XL project to the U.S., which has not been approved by U.S. President Barack Obama. CN transported oil in about 30,000 rail cars in 2012 and expects to double that to about 60,000 in 2013. The latter number is equal to about one fifth of the volume that would be shipped on the Northern Gateway pipeline each year. CN declined to comment directly on the premiers’ terms of reference statement on transporting oil by rail. But CN spokesman Mark Hallman noted railways have a solid record in transporting hazardous material. According to the Association of American Railroads, of which CN is a member, 99.97 per cent of hazardous materials carloads moved by railroad arrive at their destination without a release caused by an accident. “The safety of CN’s operations and of the communities in which it operates is of the utmost importance to the company,” Hallman said in an email. There has been significant opposition to the two Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline projects, but environmental groups and First Nations also have concerns over transporting oil by rail. Before B.C. considers the issues of shipping oil by rail, it needs to examine efforts in the U.S. meant to strengthen safety, says Eoin Madden, a climate change campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. After the deadly Lac Mégantic crash, the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration said American companies were shipping crude oil in unsafe rail cars that are often overloaded and that potentially contain corrosive, explosive and flammable materials that are not fully identified on shipping manifests. Madden said there’s an inherent threat in proposing transport of oil by rail to the coast as an alternative to pipelines. “They’re saying, ‘We’re going to go by rail and it’s super dangerous, unless you let us put our pipelines through’,” he said. Geraldine Flurer, coordinator of the Yinka Dene Alliance in north-central B.C., said transporting oil by rail is not acceptable to First Nations that already oppose the pipelines. “Just imagine if there was just one accident — there would be devastation,” she said.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Stephen Harper On Keystone Pipeline: Canadian PM 'Won't Take No For An Answer' September 26, 2013 TORONTO -- Canada's prime minister said Thursday he "won't take no for an answer" if the Obama administration rejects the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the Keystone XL project, a flashpoint in the debate over climate change, during a visit to New York City. The long-delayed project carrying oil from Canada's oil sands needs approval from the U.S. State Department, and Harper's remarks are some of his strongest to date. "My view is that you don't take no for an answer," Harper said. "We haven't had that but if we were to get that it won't be final. This won't be final until it's approved and we will keep pushing forward." Harper, who made the remarks at a Canadian American Business Council event, said he's been in regular contact with President Barack Obama. Harper said it will create 40,000 jobs in the U.S. "The logic behind this project is simply overwhelming," the prime minister said. Harper said politics has cast doubt on whether the pipeline will be approved but said he's optimistic it will be approved. "Ultimately, over time, bad politics make bad policy," he said. "The president has always assured me that he will a make decision that's in what he believes is in the best interests of the United States based on the facts. I think the facts are clear." The Obama administration is considering whether to approve the pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta across six U.S. states to the Texas Gulf Coast. A decision late this year or early next year. Republicans, and business and labor groups, have urged the Obama administration to approve the pipeline as a source of much-needed jobs and a step toward North American energy independence. Environmental groups have been pressuring President Barack Obama to reject the pipeline, saying it would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. They also worry about a spill. Obama's initial rejection of the pipeline last year went over badly in Canada, which relies on the U.S. for 97 percent of its energy exports. The pipeline is critical to Canada, which needs infrastructure in place to export its growing oil sands production. The northern Alberta region has the world's third largest oil reserves, with 170 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Canadian
environmentalists paint catastrophic picture of oilsands for U.S. lawmakers October 11, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! WASHINGTON — Five prominent Canadian environmentalists told Washington lawmakers this week that the Keystone XL pipeline will lead to such a huge growth in oilsands’ carbon emissions, it will help tip the world into catastrophic climate change. Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently told Americans that Canada would not take “no for an answer” on the pipeline, until the project is approved, the environmentalists said further expansion of the oilsands should be immediately stopped – followed by a gradual shutdown of all operations. “The current trajectory for the growth of the tar sands is consistent with the International Energy Agency’s prediction of a six-degree (Celsius) growth in the temperature on the planet,” Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, told reporters Friday at a news conference. “That is a catastrophic scenario.” “Most of the oil that remains in the ground in Alberta has to stay there,” he added. The environmentalists, who included broadcaster and scientist David Suzuki, came to the U.S. capital to counter what they claim is a disinformation campaign waged over the last eight months by Canadian politicians. The environmentalists met this week to try to persuade a handful of U.S. senators and congressmen, as well as Kerri-Ann Jones, the U.S. State Department assistant secretary in charge of the Keystone file, to stop the pipeline’s construction. The environmentalists said that if U.S. President Barack Obama was sincere when he stated earlier this year that his decision on the cross border pipeline will be based on its potential impact on carbon emissions, he should reject the project. The activists said the pipeline is a facilitator that will help triple oilsands output over the next 15 years, with the resultant tripling of carbon emissions. They said they told U.S. lawmakers that the Canadian government has misled them by claiming that the pipeline is not a factor in expansion plans. (Some oilsands companies have stated that if the Keystone is not built they will have to curtail expansion plans.) The 1,900-kilometre pipeline will transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day mainly from the oilsands to Midwest and Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The oilsands produces about 1.7 million barrels a day of bitumen. The Alberta government predicts that will more than double to 3.7 million by 2021. The carbon emission increase will be so large it will negate emission decreases achieved by other sectors of the economy, Gray said. For instance, carbon emission reductions from the closure of all the coal plants in the province of Ontario “will be completely wiped out by the growth of the tar sands,” he told reporters. He added that the growth of the oilsands alone would prevent Canada from reaching its 2020 emission reduction goals. Tzeporah Berman, a veteran campaigner against the forestry industry’s clear-cutting practices, said the Canadian government’s “ruthless pursuit of oilsands development and pipelines” has led to the muzzling of scientists and the shutdown of scientific research into climate change and the oilsands’ regional environmental impact.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Through its million-dollar advertising campaigns, she said, the Canadian government has tried to deceive Canadians and the U.S. that oilsands projects are essentially clean and the Canadian government’s environmental record is exemplary. She said the government co-opts critics by publicly labeling them “radical extremists” who don’t have Canada’s national interests at heart. She argued that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has enacted new regulations that discourage Canadians from participating in public hearings on pipeline construction. She also noted that the federal government had passed an omnibus bill that repealed 70 federal environmental laws that removed protection for fisheries habitats, and Canada’s rivers and lakes. “When we looked through access-toinformation documents for why this had been done what we came up with were letters from the pipeline companies and the oil industry requesting our federal government remove those laws because they were in their way,” she said. “We are seeing a Canada emerge that is difficult to recognize,” she said, adding that the “majority of Canadians want clean energy and climate leadership.” The environmentalists’ pleas came the same week North America’s business leaders tried to turn up the heat on Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. A letter to that effect was signed by more than 165 CEOs and presidents of companies ranging from Boeing and AT&T to Caterpillar Inc. and ExxonMobil. The letter says it’s possible to manage the environmental risks of Keystone. “We urge you to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to signal to the world that the necessary ingredients for a strengthened U.S. recovery are in place and bolster the foundations of U.S. competitiveness and energy security,” the letter concludes.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Silencing Scientists September 21, 2013 Over the last few years, the government of Canada — led by Stephen Harper — has made it harder and harder for publicly financed scientists to communicate with the public and with other scientists. It began badly enough in 2008 when scientists working for Environment Canada, the federal agency, were told to refer all queries to departmental communications officers. Now the government is doing all it can to monitor and restrict the flow of scientific information, especially concerning research into climate change, fisheries and anything to do with the Alberta tar sands — source of the diluted bitumen that would flow through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Journalists find themselves unable to reach government scientists; the scientists themselves have organized public protests. There was trouble of this kind here in the George W. Bush years, when scientists were asked to toe the party line on climate policy and endangered species. But nothing came close to what is being done in Canada. Science is the gathering of hypotheses and the endless testing of them. It involves checking and double-checking, self-criticism and a willingness to overturn even fundamental assumptions if they prove to be wrong. But none of this can happen without open communication among scientists. This is more than an attack on academic freedom. It is an attempt to guarantee public ignorance. It is also designed to make sure that Canada’s “Black Hole of Shame“– Alberta Tar Sands nothing gets in the way of the northern resource rush — the feverish effort to mine the earth and the ocean with little regard for environmental consequences. The Harper policy seems designed to make sure that the tar sands project proceeds quietly, with no surprises, no bad news, no alarms from government scientists. To all the other kinds of pollution the tar sands will yield, we must now add another: the degradation of vital streams of research and Canada’s “Cesspools of Shame” – Open pen salmon feedlots information.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Mass cull ordered of Norwegian farmed salmon! September 21, 2013
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has ordered the forced slaughter of millions of fish at two locations this week. The reason? sea lice… the lice appear to be resistant to chemical treatment and In order to save the wild salmon passing through next spring, the farms have been ordered to close down to get rid of the lice. The locations are more than hundreds of miles apart, so it is not just an isolated incident. The first is in Vikna outside Brønnøysund where sea lice levels have been reported to be as much as ten times the permitted levels. One of the companies is Sinkaberg-Hansen linked to the Minister for Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen. The Minister’s family is heavily involved in the salmon farming industry and is reported to be the largest family owned operation in Norway. But there is more. Skifteneset Hardanger is the location where the Norwegian company Bolaks has 2 sites. The two sites are located barely 700 meters apart and biomass will reportedly consist of 460 000 fish in Skifteneset South and 480 000 on Skifteneset North, a total of 940 000 fish.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (FSA) has issued a decision on the compulsory slaughter of two sites owned by Bolaks in Hardanger after they failed to get below the permitted limit . – The FSA stated that there was a clear risk to migratory stocks. FSA has since late summer, followed the evolving lice situation at Bolaks closely. Following unsuccessful attempts by Bolaks to bring the infestation under control, the FSA found it necessary to send the decision on the compulsory slaughter of the two plants .They have failed to bring down the number of lice, despite repeated treatments.
Editorial Comment: We all need to do all we can to get the word out regarding the feedlots' risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies - consumers need to stop buying this garbage. Open pen salmon feedlots and the salmon in them are rightly dubbed “weapons of mass destruction.”
It is the first time such an order has been given because of resistance of lice to treatments , stated veterinarian Hulda Bysheim , of the Food Safety Authority of Bergen. She did not deny that resistance problems have been a major contributing factor to the compulsory slaughter order. The treatments have not been effective enough and the sites have now been above the permitted limit since summer. According to unconfirmed reports the relevant fish are said to be in class 3-4 kg. This is a rough translation of what the chair on the union Naturviterne (Norwegian Association Of Natural Scientists) has to say about the lice situation in Norway: Then it happened; farming on the coast of Trøndelag have to use drugs. Sea lice are becoming multiresistant to antibiotics and chemical poisons. Toolbox is empty veterinary institute say. FSA has ordered massive slaughter of fish. This is a foreseen disaster. Salmon farmers are about to incur a serious crisis of confidence. Foreign food authorities have been skeptical, but in the Norwegian media, this is interpreted as trade policy measures. We should, however, take issue with lice, disease and massive medication seriously. This is about more than Russian government’s protectionist attitudes. It is worrying when fisheries minister own company is among those who have to slaughter because of excessive use of medication. Does the management of the Ministry had a great sales page for the aquaculture industry? Many people I talk to are now more skeptical of Norwegian farmed salmon. Natural scientists have for several years been skeptical of several factors in the salmon industry. Livestock certainly put a massive concentration of biomass in marine ecosystems that provide a large infection pressure of diseases and is a feast for the jumper lice. This allows one to reach unresolved challenge of keeping salmon healthy and free of parasites. In addition, it represents a huge burden on wild salmon stocks. The taxation of marine resources for feed production moves in reality only biomass from non – commercial resources to marketable salmon. It is important that this is done in a sustainable way that does not destroy marine ecosystems. It has unfortunately not always been the case. Genetic pollution through escapes have been a burden for several wild salmon stocks. Along with other factors such as power regulation and acid rain has led to a decline and even extinction of wild salmon in several rivers. The salmon industry has been more keen to reassure markets and investors than sustainability. Share prices on key businesses in the salmon industry has not been affected by the last day slaughter because multidrug resistance. There is reason to question whether aquaculture is able to deal with the problems. New licenses should not be granted until this issue is finally resolved. This situation occurs because the aquaculture industry has not taken the signals from communities in salmon management, marine biology and veterinary medicine seriously. Sustainable management requires holistic thinking. Then expertise of sustainability must into decision-making to a greater extent than now.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Department of Wild Salmon doing Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ work
Alexandra Morton Sampling crew – my dog and me. She is not good with pencils or scissors, but she does quietly warn me when others come by looking for salmon... It was a good day…
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Aerial photograph of The Great Bear Rainforest in a photograph by Andrew S. Wright, a protected wilderness area that the proposed Enbridge pipeline, if built, would put at risk
After
meetings with federal ministers, Chief Stewart Phillip urges British Columbians to take to the street Ministers' visit foreshadows Harper's plan to declare pipelines "in the national interest", the head of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs told the Vancouver Observer. September 20, 2013
After two meetings this month with top federal ministers that convinced him Harper is preparing to declare Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines in "the national interest," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, is urging British Columbians to take to the streets. "My message to those who have been very diligent in their efforts to bring their concerns forward about the possibilities of catastrophic oil spills and oil line ruptures, 'Now is the time to bring these issues into the street, to be visible and vocal while these federal officials are in BC.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! "'They need to see and hear from BC the types of things we were seeing last fall and winter when there were many many marches and rallies that were giving public expression to the collective opposition to pipeline proposals. We need to see evidence of that immediately." Last week was strangely quiet, I thought, after a flurry of media about the "parade of federal ministers" descending on British Columbia this week to win over pipeline opponents. It as almost as if the ministers hadn't really come, or if they had, they hadn't been talking to the media about what they were doing. Strange. I caught up with Chief Phillip yesterday and he confirmed my suspicion that while things have indeed been strange, they haven't really been quiet. "Now is the time, something must be done" I met Chief Phillip at the 2013 Healing March in Fort McMurray, where I talked with him at length about the impact of the Alberta oil sands on First Nations. His words echoed what he had said standing in the boreal forest in a park outside the city. "Now is the time, something must be done." He indicated that First Nations opposing pipeline projects wouldn't just roll over if the government were to push the pipelines through. He was confident that no matter how remote the location of blockades or protests were, thanks to social media, the story would get out and resistance would prove effective. He said that British Columbia wasn't for sale. Yesterday, he told me two Federal ministers had requested different meetings with him this month and there will be a third meeting on September 24. After being "ignored for months", it's been overwhelming, he said, to suddenly receive so many requests for meetings. First, "out of the blue," with "short, abrupt notice," Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, himself contacted Stewart requesting a meeting with him and the Vice President of the BC Union of Chiefs, Bob Chamberlain. It was the same Joe Oliver who had "branded", as Steward calls it, the opponents to the Enbridge pipeline "radicals" and "enemies of the state." Now here they were sitting in an office together face to face. "It was somewhat of a strange exchange, given the fact Minister Oliver sat there and repeated by rote, speaking points reflective of the government of Canada’s position on the pipeline issue. We took the opportunity to continue to express our ongoing concerns with respect to these pipeline proposals. My point is there wasn’t any engagement, or dialogue in terms of Minister Oliver saying 'what will it take? What are your recommendations? There was nothing of that nature. He just sat there and repeated his talking points." Phillip went on to say that, "We were surprised they were seeking a meeting because they have been very adversarial about our position and branded us as radicals and enemies of Canada for even challenging the government’s position on these issues and quite suddenly he wants to meet." "It was curious, because we’ve heard these same speaking points ad nauseum through the media the last couple of years." I asked Chief Stewart what he was thinking as he listened to Minister Oliver repeat the points he'd heard hundreds of times and if he was thinking that he was delivering a message that came straight from the Prime Minister.
READ PAGE 2 OF VANCOUVER OBSERVER ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
First Nations want Northern Gateway pipeline project killed Leader says they have built a ‘wall of opposition’ against Enbridge September 23, 2013 If the federal government wants to have a good relationship with First Nations in British Columbia, they have to accept the Northern Gateway pipeline project is dead, says Art Sterritt of the Coastal First Nations. That’s the message Sterritt said all First Nations leaders will be giving this week at meetings with federal government officials in Vancouver. Ed John of the First Nations Summit said First Nations are completely opposed to heavy-oil pipelines, but are receptive to discussing natural gas pipelines if there is a real benefit. “We’ve been promised jobs and opportunities in the past, but we haven’t seen those materialize. You won’t see much support if there are no opportunities for First Nations people,” John said. Sterritt and John are among the B.C. First Nations leaders talking to high-ranking government officials through Wednesday. Last March, the federal government appointed Vancouver lawyer Doug Eyford as a “special federal representative” to talk to B.C. and Alberta First Nations about natural resource developments, including the proposed $6.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline to Kitimat. Eyford is scheduled to give his final report to government — which the government has said won’t be released publicly — by Nov. 29. Eyford was asked to focus on energy infrastructure in Western Canada and look into First Nations’ concerns with the Northern Gateway proposal, as well as the development of liquefied natural gas plants and other energy infrastructure in B.C. and Alberta. “This new energy envoy our prime minister appointed has made a round of meetings with First Nations, and the prime minister is wondering why the relationship with First Nations in B.C. is so bad,” Sterritt said Monday. Sterritt said he believes this is the first time since Stephen Harper was elected that meetings have taken place between First Nations and deputy ministers. Deputy ministers from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, Transport Canada and Natural Resources Canada are attending this week’s discussions. Sterritt said First Nations “will maintain a wall of opposition” to the Northern Gateway proposal, adding he believes 80 per cent of British Columbians are also against the project.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Virus found in Wisconsin trout State officials worry about impacts, but release infected fish August 30, 2013 State natural resource officials are wondering how a mysterious virus found its way to Wisconsin trout and what it will mean for the health of aquatic life. “It’s a big unknown,” said Susan Marcquenski, a fish health specialist for the state Department of Natural Resources. “There’s very little information about the effect of the virus on cool-water species.” Despite the uncertainty, state authorities confirm that they released 270,000 brown trout this year from hatcheries where fish tested positive for the cutthroat trout virus. An additional 160,000 had already been released last year before officials got the test results. At the Nevin Hatchery in Fitchburg near Madison, thousands of trout were released into the wild before officials learned some of the fish had tested positive for cutthroat trout virus. Rory Linnane/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Raised in state hatcheries, the trout were meant to bolster the species’ population in local watersheds. They were the first fish known to be infected with the virus east of the Mississippi River, according to Marcquenski, though the virus may have previously gone undetected. Because only samples of fish are tested, officials do not know how many of these fish were carrying the virus when released into the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Yahara river system. Part of the rationale for releasing the infected fish was the benign history of the virus, which has been found in several western states. Though similar to the virus that causes Hepatitis E in humans, it has no known health impacts on the trout it inhabits, and likely cannot spread to mammals. But little is known about the potential for the virus to spread to other cold-blooded animals that share a home with trout, such as pike, bass, other species of fish, and even amphibians. “We definitely need more research,” Marcquenski said. She and a professor at the University of Florida, Thomas Waltzek, are developing a proposal to study the effect of the virus on other fish species. Waltzek is also helping the DNR develop ways to track and remove cutthroat trout virus from fish eggs. Wisconsin DNR officials first found the virus in November in lab results for brown trout at the St. Croix Falls Hatchery, analyzed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The virus was also found at the Nevin Hatchery in Fitchburg near Madison and in trout from Lake Michigan. Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captured this image identifying the cutthroat trout virus in fish cells. Photo courtesy Corey Puzach/La Crosse Fish Health Center “It’s quite a puzzle to us,” said Al Kaas, chief of DNR’s fisheries culture section. “We’ve been trying to figure out how our biosecurity measures broke down and allowed it to show up in three different locations in Wisconsin.” The virus may have come to the state by people moving fish and fish eggs, or natural movement of fish and predators, Macquenski said. Sometimes birds pick up fish from neighboring waterways and drop them in the state’s exposed hatcheries. Marcquenski said DNR officials, after consulting with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, as well as DNR’s Fish Management Board, released a group of trout likely carrying the virus. “They chose not to take any regulatory action,” Marcquenski said. “So the fish were stocked in the watershed surrounding the St. Croix Falls Hatchery.” Kaas noted that none of the hatchery fish died or experienced adverse effects from the virus. That watershed runs from the headwaters of the Mississippi River down to the Gulf of Mexico. Jim Winton, a supervisory research microbiologist at the Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle who specializes in fish viruses, said he was not seriously concerned about the DNR’s decision. Although Winton said a precautionary principle is to not move fish that are carrying a virus, he noted that the virus may have already naturally migrated to the watershed. “The fish either had it or acquired it from a local source,” Winton said. “If the virus was already in the watershed, it’s pretty hard to put that genie back in the bottle.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Mining and wild game fish
Jeremy Williams: River Voices (Documentary Project) Watch and listen to River Voices introduction – Please donate HERE if you are able
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Water appropriation (over appropriation)
Washington Supreme Court Rules For Tribe In Skagit Case October 3, 2013 The decision could affect 6,000 landowners who were allocated water under rules that have now been struck down. That figure includes more than 600 residents with homes that have already been built. The Washington state Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Ecology overstepped its authority in allocating water from the Skagit River for new development. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community sued Ecology, contending harm to salmon and steelhead if stream flows were too low. The tribe’s chairman Brian Cladoosby (KLA duhs bee) says this is a huge victory for the Swinomish people and for salmon that need adequate stream flows to survive. The Skagit is home to three species of fish that are protected under the Endangered Species Act . The court’s 6-to-3 decision overturned a lower court ruling that sided with the state. The case has been closely watched by rural and agricultural landowners in the Skagit River basin who drilled wells about a decade ago. Skagit County’s Civil Attorney Will Honea says this decision has the potential to leave thousands of rural and agricultural landowners without a legal source of water. The Department of Ecology issued a statement expressing disappointment the ruling and vowing to find water supply solutions for homes and businesses.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Longtime foes unite over water plan for Eastern Washington After years of water wars, Eastern Washington farmers, the Yakama Indian Nation and conservationists have teamed up to push a multibillion-dollar proposal that offers something for all of them: more water, fish passages at dams and more land protected from development. But will it fly? September 29, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Mount Baldy ranch, KITTITAS COUNTY — When Urban Eberhart looks out over this deep, sage-brush-covered valley south of Ellensburg, he envisions a towering concrete wall stretching 3,200 feet across the expanse to hold back 50 billion gallons of water. The Wymer Dam and Reservoir is part of a much larger, roughly $4.2 billion proposal to provide more water for fish, and farmers like Eberhart, in the drought-prone Yakima Valley over the next 30 years. The effort, if it pans out, would be the biggest thing to hit the region since the Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1942. “This is how we survive,” says Eberhart, 52, who had to truck in water during one drought to keep his fruit trees alive. “Without this, we don’t make it.” There’s a chance Eberhart will get his wish. Groups that once fought themselves to a standstill — including farmers, big-name environmental groups and the Yakama Indian Nation — have joined together to persuade Congress and the state Legislature to help fund the projects. The all-for-one strategy has brought unity by providing something for everybody. Environmental groups get 50,000 acres put under state protection. The tribe would get fish passages and other improvements to restore salmon runs largely wiped out by past dam construction. Farmers would get new and bigger reservoirs and a 5-mile-long tunnel to move water between lakes. There’s also broad support among state Republican lawmakers. And Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee urges action too, arguing in part that climate change will bring more frequent and severe droughts. These projects, supporters say, would help maintain a thriving agricultural industry and revive salmon runs that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Yet, even though there’s unprecedented cooperation to see the proposal through, critics remain. Some environmental organizations, including the Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club, oppose new water storage, including expansion of a reservoir at Bumping Lake that would inundate old-growth forest. Others, including Democratic House Capital Budget Chairman Hans Dunshee, complain about the cost, saying the plan is bloated with expensive projects that were included to keep disparate interests on board. The overall price of $4.2 billion is in 2012 dollars. That figure does not include financing, which alarms Dunshee even more. He wants to limit the state’s share to no more than half the cost.
Editorial Comment: • Given risks (marine mammals, fish eating birds, ocean acidification, open pen salmon feedlots, industrial pollution) to wild salmon and anadromous trout in the Columbia River basin, it’s likely that predictions of increased fish populations in the Yakima River basin will never be realized. • Capitol project cost does not include routine or emergency maintenance, downstream response associated with dam failure or lost environmental services. • This project, if approved, should be funded via BPA ratepayers, those who enjoy “cheap” power and water and those who benefit from river transportation subsidies.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project, by comparison, is expected to cost about $3.1 billion. Supporters say water users, including farmers, would pay back their share of the cost over time. But Dunshee said that’s not written down anywhere, and no one has told him that. “If there’s no repayment plan and agreement, it’s a very sweet deal for them,” he said. “Nobody sells you a house without having a repayment plan in place.” Norman Whittlesey, a retired professor of agricultural economics at Washington State University, says the proposal “is a bit of a hoax on the public the way it’s packaged. Everybody in the Yakima Valley is going to get something out of this, and all they have to do is get the taxpayer to pay for it.” Where the money would flow There was a time when the interests now pushing the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan could barely talk to each other. “In the past we’ve been at odds, in honest-to-God shouting matches between the two sides,” said Mark Charlton, of Charlton Farms in Ellensburg, a veteran of the water wars. Environmental groups and the tribe opposed the reservoirs because the proposals didn’t do enough to restore fisheries and protect habitat. And farmers opposed efforts to restore fisheries because they didn’t include more water for agriculture. What led to the truce? Money. Or rather, the idea they each have a better shot at getting their projects funded by working together. “There’s no doubt that if you put a bunch of people in a room and you ask them ‘what will it take for you to support this,’ that’s going to be more expensive than if you just talked to the irrigators or you just talked to the enviros,” said Jay Manning, a former state Department of Ecology director who is representing several conservation groups supporting the plan. But, Manning said, there is nothing in the plan where “I would say, well that’s kind of fluff, you don’t really need to do that.” For certain environmental and conservation groups, including American Rivers and the Wilderness Society, a key component was the Legislature’s decision this year to buy 50,000 acres of private land in the Teanaway River area in Eastern Washington for $100 million.
Editorial Comment: • $100 million for 50,000 acres ($2K per acre) in an area where available water is overallocated is an irresponsible use of state taxpayer funds given that this land will never be developed (no water) • Some landowners (speculators?) made out very well while taxpayers took it the shorts, again!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the month. The Yakama Nation, in addition to more water for river flows, would get fish passages on several dams, including the Cle Elum, Keechelus and Kachess dams, to help restore salmon and bull trout at a projected cost of more than $400 million. And farmers, theoretically, would get enough water to survive future droughts. The package includes installing an outlet in Lake Kachess to access more water, building the new Wymer reservoir that would use pumps to bring in water from the Yakima River, enlarging an existing reservoir at Bumping Lake, and digging a 5-mile-long tunnel — large enough to walk through — under Interstate 90 to transfer water from Lake Keechelus to Lake Kachess during high-runoff periods, all at a cost of roughly $2.5 billion. Other projects, including habitat restoration and efforts to improve water conservation, bring the total price tag to around $4.2 billion, a figure that doesn’t count inflation or financing. The plan aims to create an additional 590,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre to a depth of one foot. Climate: “Something is different” Eberhart argues the region needs every drop. The fruit and hay farmer, with a clean-shaven head and hyperkinetic personality, is one of the biggest cheerleaders for the basin plan. He’ll talk your ear off about the constant threat of drought, and how in 1994, there was a drought so severe he had to rent a truck to haul in water from a well to keep his fruit trees alive. “It was horribly expensive. And that’s just a survivability thing,” Eberhart said, although in this case his apple and pear trees never fully recovered and he ended up removing them. Climate change, he argues, will bring warmer weather to the mountains, and less water stored as snow. Instead it will fall as rain and simply flow downstream during the winter months — when farmers don’t need it. “Something is occurring that is different than before. Our snowpack is not materializing and the consistency and severity of our drought years are increasing. It doesn’t matter what you call it, I call it climate change, but something is different,” he said. Eberhart argues everything in the plan is needed to help agriculture and fish — the region’s way of life — survive. Climate models do project the region will get less snow, said Professor Philip Mote, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University. He agreed shrinking snowpacks are likely to lead to more droughts in the Yakima Basin. But there’s no consensus on that point. Some scientists say it’s too early to make that call.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! Mote said that, in any case, spending billions to store additional water may not be the answer. He said an analysis is needed to look at climate-change projections and whether the cost of building new water storage is worth the benefit. Economic benefits in question A 2012 state and federal study put the economic benefits of the overall project at roughly $6 billion to more than $8 billion over the next 100 years. However, Dunshee, D-Snohomish, questions the analysis. “It’s really pretty bad junk science,” he said. He says the vast majority of the economic benefit described in the report — more than 80 percent on the high end — is pegged to the recovery of salmon runs. Creating fish passages on dams, improving habitat and providing more water for stream flows are projected to bring back salmon in large numbers. The government study used a 15-year-old survey of Washington state residents that looked at their willingness to pay for improved fisheries. They call it the “passive value” of fish. The study extrapolated the survey results to the populations of Washington and Oregon and projected the value of recovered fisheries to be as high as $7.1 billion. Whittlesey, the retired WSU economics professor, says that “what they are doing is using the value created by the projected fisheries to justify expenditures of other projects in the Yakima River — none of which contribute much if anything to the fisheries.” Derek Sandison, director of the Columbia River office for the state Department of Ecology, stood by the report, saying in an email: “it represents the most rigorous evaluation of societal demand for the existence of salmon and steelhead available for any large portion of the Columbia River basin.” Sandison also said the benefit of additional water for fisheries should not be discounted. In testimony before the House Capital Budget Committee in February, Sandison said roughly 450,000 acre-feet of water — out of the 590,000 acre-feet added under the plan — would be available for out-of-stream uses including irrigation. The rest would go to fish, and even more water would be added to the river flows through conservation, he said. “You can build fish passage facilities at all the dams in the basin and construct a myriad of habitat projects, but if there isn’t sufficient flow ... there won’t be many fish benefits,” he wrote in an email.
READ ENTIRE SEATTLE TIMES ARTICLE HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wild fish management
Sudden
disappearance of sardines has serious economic and ecological effects on the B.C. coast October 14, 2013
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! A $32-million commercial fishery has inexplicably and completely collapsed this year on the B.C. coast. The sardine seine fleet has gone home after failing to catch a single fish. And the commercial disappearance of the small schooling fish is having repercussions all the way up the food chain to threatened humpback whales. Jim Darling, a Tofino-based whale biologist with the Pacific Wildlife Foundation, said in an interview Monday that humpbacks typically number in the hundreds near the west coast of Vancouver Island in summer. They were observed only sporadically this year, including by the commercial whalewatching industry.
“Humpbacks are telling us that something has changed,” he said. “Ocean systems are so complex, it’s really hard to know what it means. For one year, I don’t think there’s any reason to be alarmed, but there is certainly reason to be curious.” Humpbacks instead were observed farther offshore, possibly feeding on alternative food sources such as herring, sandlance, anchovies, or krill, but not in the numbers observed near shore in recent years. The sardine, also known as pilchard, has a uniquely fascinating history. Sardines supported a major fishery on the B.C. coast in the mid-1920s to mid-1940s that averaged 40,000 tonnes a year. Then the fish mysteriously disappeared — for decades — until the first one was observed again in 1992 during a federal science-based fishery at Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. With the re-emergence of the sardines came the humpbacks, around 1995, becoming so numerous in coastal waters off Vancouver Island that they supplanted grey whales as the star attraction of the whale-watching industry. Peter Schultze, a senior guide and driver with Ocean Outfitters, said humpbacks are normally found seven to 10 kilometres or closer to shore, but this year were about 18 to 32 kilometres out. That meant for more travel time and fuel burned and less time with the humpbacks, if they were observed at all. “There were a lot of days where people got skunked.” Overfishing had long been blamed for the disappearance of sardines from B.C. waters. But scientists today attribute the overriding cause to changes in ocean conditions that proved unfavourable to sardines. B.C. started commercial fishing for sardines in 2002, and in 2013 had an allowable catch of about 25,000 tonnes, which compares with a total estimated population of 659,000 tonnes. “This year was unexpected,” said Lisa Mijacika, a resource manager with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Vancouver, noting fishing did take place in California and Oregon. “They are a migratory fish heavily influenced by ocean conditions.” Scientists from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico will meet in December to try to find answers to the sardine’s movements.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! There are now 50 B.C. commercial sardine licences, half held by First Nations. The fishery normally operates from July to November, but not this year. “They’ve given up looking, pulled the plug,” confirmed Lorne Clayton, executive-director of the Canadian Pacific Sardine Association. “It certainly was disappointing. It’s cost them time, fuel, and crew to go out and look, with no compensation.” While seiners fishing close to the surface got skunked, he noted that commercial hake fishermen with trawl nets at depths of 200 to 350 metres reported catching hake “filled with sardines,” Clayton said. “I think they didn’t come to the surface this year. Right now, it’s all speculation.” Darling said that doesn’t explain the sudden change in humpback behaviour off the island. “If sardines were there in any number, you’d think the whales would have figured that out,” he said. “I don’t think anyone really has a bead on what’s going on.” Clayton said the B.C. sardine fishery has a wholesale value of about $32 million, with the fish going into the canned market, as well as for reduction and oil. The loss of the fishery this year could have repercussions for next. “Not only does it affect their livelihood but it puts a hole in the marketplace,” he said. Even if sardines come back next season, “you may have to claw your way back into the marketplace.” Clayton said that ocean temperatures tides, plankton and light are all factors that could be influencing the sardines. “In a given year, fishermen have to search them out to go fishing. They don’t just arrive at your boat.” He noted that the sardine fishery also collapsed this year in South Africa. “They disappeared entirely with no evidence at all.” Darling said society should question whether the greater value of sardines is as prey for natural predators in the ocean, including the humpbacks upon which the whale-watching industry depends so heavily. “Would it not make sense to leave the fish that are driving the whole system and supporting virtually everything? There are some important questions to be asked about the sardine fishery.”
Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Year of the Wild Game Fish!
ď ś Farmed Salmon Are Not a Sustainable Alternative Yesterday the Washington Post published a dangerously misleading article about farmed salmon. Lauding improvements in the salmon farming industry, they assert that farmed salmon is a viable alternative to wild-caught fish. We'd like to set the record straight: farmed salmon is a terrible choice for our oceans. When you eat farmed salmon, you're really eating another fish called the jack mackerel, or another wild species like sardines or anchovies. Salmon are carnivorous, and farms feed their fish food pellets made from these smaller wild fish. The problem is that many of these species, especially jack mackerel, are dangerously overfished. For most Chilean farms, it takes about three pounds of wild fish to feed one pound of salmon. So you are likely eating three pounds of jack mackerel or other wild species -- which are likely in trouble -when sit down to eat your pound of farmed salmon. A small number of Chilean farms have managed to reduce this ratio to one to one. But even then, it still takes a pound of wild fish to make your pound of farmed salmon. Feed conversion is just one of many problems. Chilean farms are located in pristine, deep-water fjords off of Patagonia, where even minimal pollution could irreparably damage the ecosystem. No matter what they do, even the most responsible salmon farms will pollute their waters with parasiticides, chemicals, and fish feces. The Chilean farmed salmon industry also uses more than 300,000 kilograms of antibiotics a year to keep their fish alive, causing bacterial resistances that affect the surrounding ecosystem and people. Salmon farming is better than it used to be, but it used to be horrendous. The answer to this problem is not, as the Washington Post article suggests, to make salmon aquaculture sustainable. It's to make wild fish stocks more abundant using science-based fishery management instead of promoting salmon farming, which is a destructive and wasteful way of eating wild fish. As long as fisheries are managed properly, wild seafood can provide a healthy meal a day for billions of people. Eating three pounds of jack mackerel straight from the oceans to your plate is a far better choice for the environment and for your health. By eating less-popular species you can still enjoy a healthy, wild fish, and our ocean waters can stay free of the pollutants that come with salmon farms. But this won't happen if we keep on grinding our wild fish stocks up to turn them into salmon fish-food. So skip the farmed salmon. Opt for wild-caught, or break out of your boring (and unsustainable) salmon routine and try eating that jack mackerel, or another wild fish, instead.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Alexandra
Morton, Department of Wild Salmon: What is happening to wild Pacific salmon?
Alexandra Morton: “The Department of Wild Salmon is on the case of the yellow salmon, I hope DFO is too. If this is caused by a European virus, something needs to be done, because there are a lot of these fish. Their spines are yellow, the cartilage in their heads is yellow, their spleens are huge and black, their livers green dotted with red and swollen. Jaundice may have affected a few salmon in the past, but we need to know what has caused this epidemic so we can figure out if there is something we can do to help the salmon, life-givers to this coast. Helping salmon is the same as helping ourselves whether you eat salmon or not. They feed the trees that make the oxygen we breath.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Ongoing Conservation Projects
Alexandra Morton: Unhealthy Pacific salmon Countless numbers of these unusually-colored, Fraser River, wild Pinks (aka humpies) were observed in early October. Ms. Morton and her small band of “Department of Wild Salmon” assistants are collecting samples for testing, recording key measurements and taking photos to document this alarming situation. As of the Legacy publication deadline, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ world class laboratory in Nanaimo, British Columbia and its high level scientists (subject matter experts) continue to be off limits when it comes to analyzing these important samples professionally collected by Ms. Morton..
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
David Suzuki helps develop insect-based fish food New product seen as viable alternative to fish-based meal October 16, 2013 Long a vocal critic of B.C.’s conventional fishfarming industry, environmentalist David Suzuki has helped create a new product being tested as feed for farmed salmon. Suzuki and Brad Marchant, CEO of the Vancouver-based start-up company Enterra, coined the idea of using maggots fed on food waste to create a sustainable source of protein while fly fishing in Yukon.
Don Staniford, “This is brilliant,” said marine biologist Alexandra Morton, a staunch opponent of conventional open-net fish farming. “It is such a relief when I see something like this that makes sense.”
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! “For years we’ve been fighting salmon aquaculture, not because we are against aquaculture, but we felt that [conventional] aquaculture was the wrong way to do it,” Suzuki told The Vancouver Sun. “First of all, the salmon are grown in open nets, so you are using the ocean as a sewer. Closed containment is the way it has to go.” Suzuki said he would oppose using the feed in open-net salmon aquaculture. “I would not like that at all,” said Suzuki. “I think it should be used, with vision, in hard containers, but I think that [technology] is coming.” “I wouldn’t be happy, but I guess it’s better than fish meal,” he said. Recent advances in closed containment fish farming have begun to address some of the effects of salmon farms on wild salmon, predators and the marine environment, but feed remains problematic. Critics, including Suzuki, complain that the feed used to grow farmed salmon simply converts one kind of fish — often anchovy from Peru — into another at a huge cost to the health of wild fisheries. “I asked David what else we could feed fish and he said, ‘They eat insects,’” Marchant said. Suzuki’s fly-fisherman’s insight tickled Marchant’s inner venture capitalist. “So we went looking for an insect system that could convert food waste into food that we could give to fish and chickens,” Marchant said. As co-founder, Suzuki acts as science adviser to Enterra, but donated his shares in the company to the David Suzuki Foundation. While B.C.’s aquaculture industry has made progress in reducing the amount of fish meal and fish oil in feed, an insect-based system that diverts waste food from landfill would be a great leap forward, said Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation. “This is brilliant,” said marine biologist Alexandra Morton, a staunch opponent of conventional opennet fish farming. “It is such a relief when I see something like this that makes sense.” “What makes no sense is to harvest large amounts of fish from the ocean and drag them the length of the planet to end up with less fish,” said Morton. Enterra takes fruit and vegetable waste from grocers and food processors — including Overwaitea Food Group and Sun Processing — combines it with a small amount of fish trim and waste bread and feeds it to the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly, a common insect indigenous to North America. “It only takes three hours for them to eat the food, so it never sits around or rots,” Marchant said. The larvae are fed every few hours and grow to the size of a small fingertip.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish! After two weeks the larvae are cleaned, cooked, dried and ground into meal. The end products include meal that is about 60 per cent protein and oils, both suitable for fish or poultry feed. The larvae castings are being tested as fertilizer at Davonda Nurseries in Langley and organic vegetable producer Amara Farm in Courtenay.
Watch concept video HERE
“We take traceable, pre-consumer food waste and turn it into a substitute for fish meal, poultry meal or soy meal — all resource intensive products,” said Marchant. About 30 per cent of the world’s food is sent to landfill, taking its nutrients with it, he said. Every 100 tonnes of food waste yields five tonnes of meal and oil and seven tonnes of fertilizer. About 80 tonnes of water is removed through evaporation, a process fuelled in part by heat generated by the larvae themselves. Feed products are entering the second phase of testing on salmon by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in West Vancouver, while the company waits for approvals from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The company is about to begin construction on a commercial-scale plant in Langley scheduled to open next year.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses
Bill Swann: Swanny’s Guided Fishing
King Salmon, Silver Salmon, Steelhead. If your looking for a guide to put you on some trophy fish, Swanny's Guided Fishing is by far the best! King Salmon or Chinook, whether the hard fighting Springers or the line ripping Fall runs, Swanny has the dates, time, technique and rivers dialed in to catch these beauties. Steelhead are one of the top fighting fish you can hook into. Catching these elusive fish takes skill and knowledge. Swanny has been on top of this fishery for 30+ years. Summer Steelhead or Winter Steelhead, Swanny can put you on them. Silver salmon or Coho, are more fun to catch and eat than should be allowed. These hard fighting fish dance on the water and give a real thrill! Book a trip with Swanny and you'll be coming back time & time again! Fully Licensed Guide - Master Coast Guard License - Fully Insured 30 years of Experience - 3 Generations of memories & fun!!!! Be sure to attend Bill’s October 23 (7:00 PM) family-friendly program “Twitching Jigs for Chehalis Salmon” hosted by the Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited. - 5046 Boston Harbor Rd NE, Olympia, Washington
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Jim and Donna Teeny: Jim Teeny Incorporated Note: Be sure to mark your calendar for November 20th at 7:00 PM. The Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited will host Jim and Donna Teeny’s, alwayspopular, family-friendly “Fly Fishing for Large Steelhead and Salmon” program. Admission is free to the public. This exciting and interesting program will be held at the North Olympia Fire Department – 5046 Boston Harbor Rd NE, Olympia, Washington Come by and say hi to Jim and Donna to learn from the ones who have been there and done that
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Diane Michelin: Fly Fishing Fine Art
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Leanne Hodges: West Coast Wild
West Coast Wild Studio and gallery is located at 741 West Road on Quadra Island, BC. We are open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 am to 4 pm. You can call to arrange a studio visit or email us from our contact page. Leanne Hodges
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Forest Echoes – Cultus Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Gašper Konkolič: Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia
More HERE
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Bahia Sportfishing Lodge
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners Many businesses around planet earth rely on healthy populations of wild game fish. This is true for fishing guide/charter services, resort and hotel owners, fishing tackle and boat retail stores, clothing stores, eco/photo tours, grocery stores, gas stations and many more. In fact, wild game fish are the backbone of a multi-billion dollar per year industry on a global scale. This is why we at Wild Game Fish Conservation International offer complimentary space in each issue of “LEGACY” for business owners who rely on wild game fish populations to sustain your business. An article with one or more photos about your business and how it relies on wild game fish may be submitted for publication to LEGACY PUBLISHER. Please include your business website and contact information to be published with your business article. Selected submissions will be published each month. Healthy wild game fish populations provide family wage jobs and balanced ecosystems while ensuring cultural values. They also provide a unique, natural resourcesbased lifestyle for those fortunate to have these magnificent creatures in our lives. Conservationists working together with the business community effectively protect and restore planet earth’s wild game fish for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY. WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations:
American Rivers LightHawk Native Fish Society Salmon and Trout Restoration Association of Conception Bay Central, Inc Save Our Salmon Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter Sportsman’s Alliance For Alaska Steelhead Society of British Columbia Wild Salmon First Wild Salmon Forever
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Featured Artists:
Diane Michelin: “Slice of Heaven” Original watercolor - 29" x 22" See more of Ms. Michelin’s uniquely-beautiful art: Fly Fishing Fine Art
Welcome to Fly Fishing Fine Art, including original paintings, limited edition prints and commissions in fly fishing and angling themes, by Canadian watercolor artist Diane Michelin. Diane is anxious to capture the essence of fly fishing and record those memories that bring us back to the river. Her art is currently on display in museums, fly shops, lodges and private collections. Browse through the gallery, and contact Diane Michelin directly to discuss your purchase of fly fishing fine art.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
John Martin Prevost and Leanne Hodges: “Blackfish” Leanne Hodges: “In recognition of the plight of the indigenous and the disgusting mismanagement by Canada’s Federal Fisheries Department to adhere to their mandate to protect the majestic and now highly threatened, resident orca population.”
Leanne Hodges’ West Coast Wild
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Lulu Marie on Facebook
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Featured Fishing Photos:
Molly Marks: Father and son, Jon and Griffin Marks fishing on the Puyallup on a beautiful Fall day
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Antonio Amaral (Owner-Captain, Bahia Sportfishing Lodge) Black Grouper (top), African pompano (bottom) - Canavieiras, Bahia, Brazil
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Bryanna Zimmerman with hefty, Humptulips River Chinook (King) salmon
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Adrian Arcadia With a dandy lightning trout
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Wayne Foresee: Chilliwack River, British Columbia, Canada
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Denny Clemons: “Gotta Love Gortex” A Fall Morning with Friends on Washington State’s Humptulips River
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Gašper Konkolič: Two wild
beauties from Slovenia rivers
Idrijca River
Sava Bohinjka River
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Great Lakes Fall River Fishing - Action video Kyle McClelland, Owner, guide, and Outdoor Film/Media Producer at XXL Chrome Chasing
As a Great Lakes Fishing Team, Team XXL Chrome Chasing is always on the fish! From Lake Superior tribs, to Lake Michigan tribs, to Lake Huron tribs, down to Lake Erie tribs, and over to Lake Ontario tribs. Our main focus is on the Great Lakes tributaries, but we also do a lot of Big Lake Fishing in the summer time. We also offer one of the best Guide Services in the Great Lakes Region! Along with the Guide Service we are also stocked with some of the best fishing products on the Market all aimed to maximize your success on the water!! We also post weekly informational videos, reports, and informational post!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Smiles all around on Charterboat Slammer – Westport, Washington
Charterboat Slammer owner-operator, Rhett Weber, lending his skills and years of experience to land a wild Pacific salmon for a happy client.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Philip Friedman: Oarfish washes up on Catalina Island
Look what washed up at Catalina Island. In the late afternoon of Sunday October 13th, 2013, Catalina Island Marine Institute instructors returned home to find an 18-foot-long oarfish in the crystal waters of Toyon Bay.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Recommended Reading
Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales”
Watch orcas up close HERE
In Listening to Whales, Alexandra Morton shares spellbinding stories about her career in whale and dolphin research and what she has learned from and about these magnificent mammals. In the late 1970s, while working at Marineland in California, Alexandra pioneered the recording of orca sounds by dropping a hydrophone into the tank of two killer whales.
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Video Library – conservation of wild game fish Aquaculture Piscine Reovirus in British Columbia: (14.36) Salmon Confidential: (69:15) The Fish Farm Fight; (6:51) Salmon Wars: Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities (6:07) The Facts on Fish Farms (60:00+) “Algae culture fish farm” (6:40) Vegetarian Fish? A New Solution for Aquaculture (7:32) Everyone Loves Wild Salmon – Don’t They? - Alexandra Morton (2:53) Atlantic salmon feedlots - impacts to Pacific salmon (13:53) Farmed Salmon Exposed (22:59) Salmon farm diseases and sockeye (13:53) Shame Below the Waves (12:37) Occupy Vancouver, BC - Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:18) Farming the Seas (Steve Cowen) (55:53) Farming the Seas (PBS) (26:45) Cohen Commission – Introduction (9:52) Deadly virus found in wild Pacific salmon (1:57) A tribute by Dr. Alexandra Morton (5:35) Green Interview with Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:06) Closed containment salmon farms (8:15) Don Staniford on 'Secrets of Salmon Farming' (7:50) Greed of Feed: what’s feeding our cheap farmed salmon (10:37) Land-based, Closed-containment Aquaculture (3:14) Hydropower Undamming Elwha (26:46) Salmon: Running the Gauntlet - Snake River dams (50:08) Mining Pebble Mine: “No Means No” (1:15) Locals Oppose Proposed Pebble Mine (7:23) Oil: Extraction and transportation Tar Sands Oil Extraction: The Dirty Truth (11:39) Tar Sands: Oil Industry Above the Law? (1:42) SPOIL – Protecting BC’s Great Bear Rainforest from oil tanker spills (44:00) H2oil - A documentary about the Canadian tar sand oil (3:20) From Tar Sands to Tankers – the Battle to Stop Enbridge (14:58) Risking it All - Oil on our Coast (13:16) To The Last Drop: Canada’s Dirty Oil (22:31) Seafood safety Is your favorite seafood toxic? (6:06)
Legacy – November 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Game Fish!
Final Thoughts:
Truth