Legacy - January 2014

Issue 27

January 2014

Legacy Š Wild Game Fish Conservation International

The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation Published by volunteers at:

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Where conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection, especially of the natural environment

Genetically-Engineered Atlantic salmon (aka Frankensalmon) irresponsibly approved by Environment Canada for commercial production

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Contents WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook ________________________________________________________ 10 Editorial Opinion _________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Special: _________________________________________________________________________________________ 12  2013 - What We Accomplished – Alexandra Morton _____________________________________________________ 12  Position on Open-pen Finfish Aquaculture – Canadian Wildlife Federation _______________________________ 13  Beware Marauding Carp ______________________________________________________________________________ 14

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 16  Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby _________________________________________________ 16         

Enjoy seasonal wild Pacific salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:____________________________________ PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges __________________________________ Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here _________________________________________________________ Pesticide Residues Committee (UK): Read Entire 2010 Report HERE _____________________________________ What are you eating __________________________________________________________________________________ Watch Salmon Wars video HERE ______________________________________________________________________ Russia threatens with embargo on Norwegian fish ______________________________________________________ Whole Foods shamefully offers Norwegian feedlot-raised Atlantic salmon ________________________________ Can A Fish Farm Be Organic? That's Up For Debate ____________________________________________________

17 18 19 22 23 23 24 26 27

We’re seeking truth for wild game fish _____________________________________________________________ 29              

Barak Obama ________________________________________________________________________________________ The Honourable Gail Shea ____________________________________________________________________________ Miranda Wecker ______________________________________________________________________________________ Miranda Wecker ______________________________________________________________________________________ Loblaw stores ________________________________________________________________________________________ The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq ______________________________________________________________________ Maria Cantwell _______________________________________________________________________________________ Vickie Raines ________________________________________________________________________________________ Rob MacWhorter _____________________________________________________________________________________ Whole Foods Market__________________________________________________________________________________ Billy Frank, Jr. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Maria Cantwell _______________________________________________________________________________________ David Boulet _________________________________________________________________________________________ Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray ______________________________________________________________________

29 29 30 31 32 32 33 33 34 35 35 35 36 36

Responses to WGFCI: ____________________________________________________________________________ 38  Yngve Torgersen - re. sea lice _________________________________________________________________________ 38  The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq - re. New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project _________________________ 40  Sebastien Houle re: EcoCert Certification ______________________________________________________________ 41  Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. – re. Genetically Modified salmon _____________________________________________ 41  Vickie Raines – re. Chehalis River basin flood issues ___________________________________________________ 42  Vince Panesko – re. Proposed Chehalis River dam _____________________________________________________ 43

Community Activism, Education and Outreach: ____________________________________________________ 44  Leave this world better than when you found it _________________________________________________________ 44

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Sign the petition to Northern Dynasty Minerals _________________________________________________________ 46  Help Wild Steelhead Coalition return wild steelhead to our rivers ________________________________________ 47  Oceana: Aquaculture Overview________________________________________________________________________ 50  salmonALERT.org ____________________________________________________________________________________ 51  Eddie Gardner: Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycotts at Superstores Across BC, Saturday, January 18, 2014_________________________________________________________________________________________________ 52  Farmed Salmon Boycott Rally: Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada – November 19, 2013 ________________ 53  Open-net farmed salmon boycott set to expand ________________________________________________________ 56  Day of Action for Wild Salmon and Public Health _______________________________________________________ 59  Atlantic Farmed Salmon Boycott, Real Canadian Superstore ____________________________________________ 60  Supermarkets: Stop sourcing salmon from Wester Ross Fisheries Limited _______________________________ 61  Say No to Scotland’s Yes Ministers! ___________________________________________________________________ 62    

Supermarket Scamon - Farmed Salmon Belongs in the Trash Bin! _______________________________________ Supermarket Scamon Protest in London (November 19, 3013) ___________________________________________ Diseased feedlot salmon offered in Denmark by shipping, oil and gas giant - Maersk ______________________ BBC Countryfile on Salmon Farming - Complaint by Protect Wild Scotland _______________________________

63 64 65 66

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Protestors urge farmed salmon boycott outside Good Food Ireland awards ______________________________ Welcome to Reality ___________________________________________________________________________________ Petition: Health Canada: we don’t want FrankenSalmon on our dinner plates _____________________________ Even Mr. Burns won't eat mutant fish __________________________________________________________________ Landers: Canoeists paddle way of Columbia salmon ____________________________________________________ Northern Gateway Too Risky - There is no PLAN B _____________________________________________________ NO PIPELINES _______________________________________________________________________________________ British Columbia Opposed to Exporting US Thermal Coal _______________________________________________ No Coal Ports for British Columbia – Members of Parliament, Peter Julian and Fin Donnelly_________________________ Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________

67 68 69 70 71 74 75 76 77 78

Impacts of open pen salmon and trout feedlots _____________________________________________________ 79  Alexandra Morton: Salmon farming - looking dodgy on many fronts _____________________________________ 80  It is Official - the CFIA never retested my samples ____________________________________________________________ 81  Offloading ISA-infected, Newfoundland feedlot salmon _________________________________________________ 84  Norwegian Owned Salmon Farming Kills Sea Floor Ecosystems _________________________________________ 86  15 – 20 young eagles caught in the cages – no response! _______________________________________________ 87  ISA confirmed in Chile’s Aysen region _________________________________________________________________ 90  Loosen regulatory net, fish farmers say ________________________________________________________________ 91  Fish-farm firm still focused on Atlantic salmon in B.C. despite shift in Chile ______________________________ 93  EU to reopen salmon farm inquiry _____________________________________________________________________ 95  Rolls-Royce Builds a Salmon Tanker __________________________________________________________________ 97

Climate Change __________________________________________________________________________________ 99  Canada’s real international shame — and it’s not Ford: Burman _________________________________________ 99

Energy production : Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Wind _______________________________ 103 Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands _________________________________________________________________ 105

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 ALL the tarsands money and all the tarsands men _____________________________________________________ 105  Toxic Lakes From Tar-Sand Projects Planned for Alberta ______________________________________________ 106  Oh Canada…. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 109  Oil: Leave it in the ground ___________________________________________________________________________ 110  Science Says: Stop Tar Sands and Arctic Drilling Now _________________________________________________ 110  Megaloads Coming To Eastern Oregon Roads _________________________________________________________ 113  This Is What Happens When a Pipeline Bursts in Your Town ___________________________________________ 116  Nigeria Oil Spill Coats River As Hundreds Of Yearly Leaks Continue To Devastate Ecosystem ____________ 118  Oil Pipeline Explodes In China, Killing 35 And Setting The Ocean On Fire _______________________________ 119  Deadly Sinopec pipeline blast in China raises questions in BC _________________________________________ 121  Vancouver asks for thorough oil-terminal study _______________________________________________________ 123  MLA, Mayor turn up heat on Fraser River jet fuel, tanker plan ___________________________________________ 126  Fracking and Earthquakes ___________________________________________________________________________  Fracking the American Dream: Drilling Decreases Property Value_______________________________________ Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________  Chuck Chiang: China’s new cap on coal use could hurt viability of proposed local coal terminals _________

129 131 133 133

 Massive coal mine leak damaged fisheries, habitat ____________________________________________________ Hydropower and water retention ________________________________________________________________________  Billy Frank Jr. Commentary: Chehalis River Dam Threatens Treaty Rights _______________________________  Enbridge plans major private power project on fish-bearing river _______________________________________  Site C dam: BC Hydro’s plan pits need for power against threat to farmland and wildlife __________________  First Nations split over BC Hydro's Site C dam megaproject (with video) ________________________________  Downstream impact of B.C. dam proposal on fish, flooding concern Alberta _____________________________  Chinook Salmon Redds left High & Dry on the Sacramento River _______________________________________  Earthquakes prompt inspection of North Texas dams __________________________________________________  Oroville Dam earthquake investigation may be needed _________________________________________________  PacifiCorp looking to divest the leaky dam that creates Mirror Pond in Bend ____________________________  Main Street dam’s days are numbered ________________________________________________________________

137 140 140 142 144 145 148 150 151 153 156 157

Liquefied Natural Gas __________________________________________________________________________________ 158  Seizing the LNG “Opportunity” _______________________________________________________________________ 158  Pollution report on B.C. LNG projects raises alarm ____________________________________________________ 159  China state-owned energy giant draws up plans for massive LNG project in B.C. ________________________ 161 Solar _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 163  First Nations leading Earth's future generations _______________________________________________________ 163

Forest Management _____________________________________________________________________________ 164  Bill aims to help timber counties _____________________________________________________________________ 166

Government action/inaction and wild game fish ___________________________________________________ 168    

I have to stop saying “How stupid can you be” ________________________________________________________ Tell the FDA: We Don’t Want Frankenfish _____________________________________________________________ Canada’s Approval of GM Fish Eggs Threatens Environment, Groups Say_______________________________ GMO salmon criticisms 'don't merit comment' _________________________________________________________

168 169 170 172

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 UPDATE 1-Canada must do more to engage aboriginals on pipelines - report ____________________________ 175  Gateway project would put waters off Kitimat at 'very high' risk of oil spill, study concludes ______________ 177  Engineers poke holes in Enbridge tanker safety _______________________________________________________ 179  Northern Gateway opponents gearing up for legal battle with feds ______________________________________ 183  Vermont: First state to ban fracking __________________________________________________________________ 186  Obama Approves Major Border-Crossing Fracked Gas Pipeline Used to Dilute Tar Sands ________________ 187  Feds spend $40 million to pitch natural resources _____________________________________________________ 189  Harper government's extensive spying on anti-oilsands groups revealed in FOIs ________________________ 192  Senate To Probe Fish Farms _________________________________________________________________________ 197  Canadian taxpayers bail out Norwegian fish farms for diseased fish ____________________________________ 199  Cooke shuts down for about six months ______________________________________________________________ 202  Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission – Public Meeting ______________________________________ 204  WDFW Chehalis River Salmon Management Policy ____________________________________________________ 205  B.C. mines minister to lobby for New Prosperity project ________________________________________________ 208  Sechelt (shíshálh) First Nation Opposes Hazardous American Coal Shipments __________________________ 211

“Greenwashing” (aka: Bovine Excrement) ________________________________________________________ 212      

Creative Salmon achieves organic certification ________________________________________________________ Enbridge uses anonymity for new hydroelectric projects _______________________________________________ Cooke Aquaculture partnering with Dalhousie _________________________________________________________ Organic fresh salmon fillet Atlantic farmed ____________________________________________________________ Port Metro Vancouver CEO confident coal dust issue “thoroughly” reviewed ____________________________ Northern Gateway Pipelines – A better spill response action plan _______________________________________

212 214 217 219 220 223

Mining and wild game fish _______________________________________________________________________ 224  Taseko wants judicial review into Prosperity Mine’s harsh assessment _________________________________ 224

Salmon Hatcheries and Wild Salmon _____________________________________________________________ 226  Lawsuits Put NW Fish Hatcheries In The Crosshairs ___________________________________________________ 226  Port Moody salmon hatchery burns 'to the ground,' destroying this year's stock _________________________ 228

Wild fish management ___________________________________________________________________________ 230  Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists ____________________________________ 230  Too many chum salmon to be processed _____________________________________________________________ 233  Underutilized wild Pacific salmon ____________________________________________________________________ 235  Salmon shortages stressing out grizzlies _____________________________________________________________ 236  Wildlife officer spots salmon poachers using night-vision ______________________________________________ 238

Ongoing Conservation Projects __________________________________________________________________ 240  An epic return: Chum returns show that years of hard work have restored habitat throughout peninsulas__________________________________________________________________________________________  Summer Chum on Path to Recovery __________________________________________________________________  Amazing return of coho to small Campbell River creek _________________________________________________  State Awards $743,000 to Lewis County for Salmon Recovery Projects __________________________________

240 243 245 247

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses __________________________ 250   Anissa Reed Designs ________________________________________________________________________________ 250

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Gašper Konkolič: fly fishing guiding Slovenia _________________________________________________________ 251  Vital Choice – Wild Seafood and Organics ____________________________________________________________ 252

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners _________________________________________________ 254 WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: _____________________________________________________ 254 Featured Artists: ________________________________________________________________________________ 255  Jay Peachy: “Return” _______________________________________________________________________________ 256  Diane Michelin: “Team Work” (upper) – “On the Rock” (lower) __________________________________________ 257  Dan Wallace: Commissioned engraving – strict attention to detail ______________________________________ 258  Leanne Hodges - Tentative title: “Orca Celebrate Returning Chinook” ___________________________________ 259 Gary Haggquist: "#5 Waterway Series", acrylic on canvas, 12"x 36", 2012__________________________________ 260

Featured Conservationist – Walking the Talk ______________________________________________________ 261  Eddie Gardner: Heart and Soul of the International Feedlot Salmon Boycott _____________________________ 261

Featured Fishing Photos: ________________________________________________________________________ 262  Kyle McClelland: Late November wild coho salmon ____________________________________________________ 262  Clarissa Snyder and Bryanna Zimmerman ____________________________________________________________ 263  Serena Malcom: Roosterfish, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico _________________________________________________ 264    

Denny Clemons: Fall Salmon Fishing on the “Home River” _____________________________________________ Rock Wyrsta: Napoleon Wrasse – Rainbow Beach Fishing Classic ______________________________________ Black Marlin 1 – Fishermen 0 (Panama) _______________________________________________________________ Gone Fishing _______________________________________________________________________________________

265 266 267 268

Recommended Reading _________________________________________________________________________ 272  Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales” Watch orcas up close HERE ________________________________ 272  Terry Wiest: Float Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead __________________________________________________ 273

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish ____________________________________________________ 274 Final Thoughts: _________________________________________________________________________________ 275  Truth _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 275

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy Forward Happy New Year! The January 2014 issue of Legacy marks twenty seven 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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

4,500+ WGFCI Faceb The December issue of Legacy has been read in these countries

ook friends

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Editorial Opinion Jim Wilcox, Wild Game Fish Conservation International

We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International strive month in and month out to expose risks to the world’s wild game fish to those who could help society conserve these magnificent creations. We utilize Legacy, our monthly, web-based magazine as our primary communications tool to reach out to our global audience.

In addition, we feature recent work of wildlife artists, photos of recent fishing trips and businesses that rely on clients who often travel great distance at considerable expense to fish for wild wish in wild habitats.

Unfortunately, these wild game fish and their fragile ecosystems are often in harm’s way of one or more development projects that are undertaken to “improve our lifestyles and create family-wage jobs”. Many of these projects involve extraction, transportation and utilization of natural resources including oil, natural gas, coal, minerals and more. We also see risks to wild game fish due to dam construction, open pen salmon feedlots, over allocation of water, land use practices – the list continues.

Now is the time for society to do a reality check – what is truly worth restoring and conserving?

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Human dignity, civil rights, basic freedoms Public health Breathable air, drinkable water, safe food Comfortable housing Efficient transportation Quality education

These very basic needs require conservation (wise use) of the very resources we have enjoyed for thousands of years. Today, many of these resources are over-exploited – others are trashed in the name of progress – this under-regulated implementation of outdated techniques and technologies is not sustainable, it must end sooner than later if we are to leave a better place for our heirs.

Now, more than ever before, conservation of the world’s finite resources must become a way of life – we must develop and embrace new technologies that also protect our natural, life-sustaining resources (air, water, food).

Now is not the time to make international trade deals to further enrich a few corporate leaders and government officials at the expense of public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies – now is the time to re-think what we must work toward for the betterment of our global society – Let’s not put this difficult task off until tomorrow – Let’s not rely on our governments to meet our basic needs – Let’s get to work together today – we have no other reasonable alternative – it’s our responsibility!.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Special:

 2013 - What We Accomplished – Alexandra Morton December 5, 2013

This video is a summary of battles fought and won in the 2013 effort to protect wild Pacific salmon from the many risks of open pen salmon feedlots sited in wild salmon migration routes along British Columbia’s uniquely productive coast.

To continue this important research will require each of us to contribute what money we can. All contributions will be greatly appreciated and will be used wisely.

2014 is the year to permanently rid our wild oceans of open pen salmon feedlots – it will only take place if much needed funding is available for sample testing and community outreach.

Please join this worthy fight to protect British Columbia’s Iconic, wild Pacific salmon and steelhead.

Watch, Listen, Learn HERE Then take action by doing the right thing for our wild salmon and steelhead.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Position on Open-pen Finfish Aquaculture – Canadian Wildlife Federation Read Entire Paper HERE

The Canadian Wildlife Federation’s Position on Open-pen Finfish Aquaculture

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Open-pen finfish aquaculture alters important aquatic habitats and significantly affects native populations of wild salmon and other wildlife.

These effects may put the survival of both Pacific and Atlantic salmon species at risk.

Although the aquaculture industry creates economic benefits, because of its significant impact on wildlife, CWF would like to see the practice of OPFA in Canada phased out over the next 10 years.

In the meantime, CWF believes it imperative that no more OPFA operations be established in Canada.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Beware Marauding Carp November 19, 2013 EARLIER this month, researchers demonstrated that a Eurasian species of fish, the grass carp, had begun reproducing in Lake Erie. This may not sound like alarming news, but unless we take steps to prevent its spread, this animal is poised to disrupt the ecology of the Hudson River and New York’s other inland waters.

Grass carp are like underwater lawn mowers.

They reach nearly five feet in length and 100 pounds in weight and are so efficient at consuming vegetation that they have been stocked all over the world as “biocontrols” for problematic weeds. But as with so many misguided introductions, the grass carp will spread out of control. Now that they are in Lake Erie, it is just a matter of time before they swim east to the Hudson River along the Erie Canal.

In the Hudson River, aquatic vegetation helps underpin the food chain and provides essential habitat to fish and wildlife. About half of the river’s original aquatic vegetation was destroyed during the 19th and early 20th centuries by dredging and filling to improve the shipping channel, and the vegetation that remains faces serious threats from storms and the rising sea level.

The establishment of a large population of grass carp, a fish that flourishes in large, turbid rivers like the Hudson, could further endanger this habitat and decimate the river’s already embattled native fishes.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems More than just the Hudson is threatened. Similar problems could occur in other waters along the course of the Erie Canal, including the Finger Lakes and Oneida Lake, which also contain valuable beds of aquatic plants.

This has happened before. In 1986, Eurasian zebra mussels first appeared in the United States, in Lake Erie, having been transported inadvertently in the ballast water of commercial vessels. The zebra mussels spread quickly, and in 1991, they were discovered in the Hudson. Just one year later it was estimated that 550 billion zebra mussels inhabited the river. This eruption of zebra mussels disrupted the workings of the river’s ecosystem, depleting the phytoplankton at the base of the food chain by more than 75 percent and cutting populations of its fish by as much as 60 percent.

The grass carp is not the only new invader waiting to use the Erie Canal. Two other Asian carp species now swimming into the Great Lakes through the Chicago Canal are likely to use the Erie Canal as they move east to the Hudson, where their appetite for plankton will threaten the food supply of what remains of the once huge shad population in the river.

In coming decades, many other potentially harmful species that have arrived through purposeful or accidental introduction are positioned to use the Erie Canal and cause problems for New York’s lakes and rivers.

Fortunately, there still is time to stop the grass carp from invading the inland waters of New York.

One solution would be to recreate the natural barrier between Lake Erie and the Hudson River by building a barricade along the Erie Canal that would allow essential canal operations like recreational boat passage while impeding the movement of invaders.

Various types of such barriers have been proposed or installed on canals around the world. This has involved replacing traditional canal locks with hoist or rail systems, chemical or electric barriers, or bubble screens (which deploy a thick wall of air bubbles that impede the movement of mobile creatures). The barrier best suited to the Erie Canal should be determined by a study of alternatives that considers their costs, compatibility with canal operations and effectiveness against invasive species.

Now is the time to perform such a study. Too often, people consider canal barriers only in a crisis, when an invader is already in the process of moving through the canal. Such delayed crisis planning often leads to hurried and flawed designs, wasteful spending and ineffective control of invaders.

Led by groups like the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and with the assistance of other conservation organizations and scientists, we need to develop and implement a plan that maximizes the benefits that the Erie Canal can provide to New York, while minimizing the risks from the spread of the grass carp and other harmful invaders. The zebra mussel has demonstrated how much ecological damage one species can cause, and the growing international record shows that invasive species are rarely eradicated once established.

We must do this now, before the carp take this decision out of our hands.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

 Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby Read related article HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Enjoy seasonal wild Pacific salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Pesticide Residues Committee (UK): Read Entire 2010 Report HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 What are you eating Watch video trailer HERE

 Watch Salmon Wars video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Russia threatens with embargo on Norwegian fish December 13, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A Russian ban on import of fish from Norway will lead to a 20 percent price increase for consumers.

Russian veterinarians who recently returned from a visit to Norway are unsatisfied with the Norwegian state system of food safety control and want to stop all import of fresh fish and fish products from the country.

The Federal Service for Veterinarian and Vegetation Sanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) wants to put a total embargo on salmon from Norway from January 1 or even earlier, Aleksey Alekseyenko from the organ says to Izvestia. According to him, Norway has a lousy system for quality control and food safety, which has allowed for low-quality fish to enter the Russian market.

Commenting on a similar threat from Russian authorities in July, a regional representative of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority said that: “Norway exports salmon to 120 different markets, but it is only the Russian market which presents this kind of characteristics of the Norwegian fish”.

Rosselkhoznadzor and representatives from the fisheries sector in Russian are going to have a closed meeting on Friday where they will discuss a possible total embargo on fish from Norway.

A total embargo on Norwegian fish will have huge consequences for Russian fish industry, which is heavily dependent on raw material from Norway.

“That would be a blow to our production and to consumers”, says head of the Fish Union Sergey Gudkov to Izvestia. “We will take all possible measures for ensure that the limitation will not affect all sorts of fish.”

A stop on imports from Norway will lead to a deficit of raw material at processing factories and bring production down, says General Director of the Union of Fishery Managers of the North Gennady Stepakhno. Consumers will have to pay 20% more for trout and salmon if import of these species is to be banned, he says.

Norway is the largest exporter of salmon and trout to Russia, with 78 percent of the market. On second place is Chile with 7 percent.

Norway in 2012 exported 320.000 tons of fish and fish products to Russia. The export had a value of €820 million.

The new Russian boycott threats to the Norwegian fish industry are far from the first. In 2005-2006, the country introduced a full import ban on Norwegian frozen fish and a number of salmon export companies have later been blocked from entering the Russian market. Several experts believe the Russian fish import market is strictly controlled by state-supported cartels which efficiently block access of independent structures.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Whole Foods shamefully offers Norwegian feedlot-raised Atlantic salmon

Alexandra Morton: “Dear Whole Foods - I can't believe you are selling Norwegian farmed salmon - do you know the levels of dioxins allowed by the EU, that a Norwegian pediatrician is warning mothers to limit consumption, that Norway lobbied the European Union to allow 10xs more endosulfan in farmed salmon feed - a pesticide recommended for a worldwide ban in 2010.

I thought you were a safe place to shop, that you had researched your products. I will not be returning to your stores until you make it clear you are not selling farmed salmon. I don't trust your judgment anymore.”

Claudette Bethune: “If anyone does "eat at least 12 ounces" of this Norwegian farmed salmon a week, this equates to a toxic level of intake of nearly 2-times that of the EU tolerable weekly intake for methyl mercury and over 3-times the EU tolerable daily intake, and over 6-times the WHO tolerable daily intake, for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs. With over 15-times the dioxins and dioxin like PCBs than allowed in chicken, and over 33-times that allowed in pork, Norwegian farmed salmon has no business being on any 'food' shelf.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Can A Fish Farm Be Organic? That's Up For Debate November 20, 2013 This year, Americans are expected to buy more than $30 billion worth of organic grains, produce, coffee, wine and meats.

Some producers of farmed fish want the chance to get a cut of those profits, and retailers, who can charge a premium price for organic farmed fish, are with them.

"The NOP wants to grow the organic sector, and to do that they're just lowering the standards rather than require that producers meet them."

But an organic label for aquaculture is not coming easy.

For more than 10 years, the issue has been on the agenda of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program. But a planned meeting to discuss the matter in October was canceled by the federal government shutdown. Now federal officials are saying the final determination on the issue is at least six months away.

Among the groups closely eyeing the proceedings are environmentalists, who say fish farms shouldn't quality for an organic label if they rely heavily on feed that can't be verified as organic. And they cite other problems on fish farms, including pollution and disease that make them less sustainable than the typical organic farm.

"The problem is, organic rules are based on how you treat the soil. So how do you apply that to things like seafood?" says Patty Lovera, with Food and Water Watch.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems To solve the problem of fitting fish farms into the same policy as land-based farms, federal regulators are simply rewriting the rules. The NOP — with help from the National Organic Standards Board, or NOSB, and its own Aquaculture Working Group — is now developing a set of guidelines that specifically address aquaculture. They would allow up to 25 percent conventionally grown material — specifically fishmeal — in the diets of farmed fish certified as organic. The plan would be to slowly scale this amount down over the years, though critics say they doubt this process would occur.

But this seems like too much to some consumer advocates.

"They're totally compromising the current United States standards [on organic certification]," says Urvashi Rangan, with the watchdog group Consumers Union.

Farmed salmon are typically fed fishmeal, a ground-up paste of anchovies, menhaden and other wild-caught species, some of which come from stocks that are rapidly declining. Under existing organic laws in the U.S., there is no way to certify these wild fish as organic.

To solve this, the federal government is proposing to allow fish farms to use meal only from "sustainable" fish species.

How To Clean Up Fish Farms And Raise More Seafood At The Same Time So what exactly does that mean? Miles McEvoy, the deputy administrator of the National Organic Program, tells The Salt that for now, the term "sustainable" remains undefined and unregulated.

Can Salmon Farming Be Sustainable? Maybe, If You Head Inland The fishmeal question is likely to continue to be contentious for open-ocean fish farms. But inland fish farms could potentially be in a better position to abide by organic laws, says Zeke Grader, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations in San Francisco. "I think it's possible for there to be organically farmed fish, but they would have to be raised in completely closed, recirculating systems that don't touch the ocean," Grader says.

That's because some salmon farms with open-ocean pens have been infested with a marine parasite called sea lice, which scientists say has devastated certain wild salmon populations in British Columbia. (Representatives of Canada's salmon farming industry have disputed this claim.)

George Lockwood, chairman of the NOP Aquaculture Working Group, says the sea lice issue "is an unsubstantiated claim" against salmon farming.

Still, Lockwood says his group has recommended to federal regulators that organic salmon farms be required to undergo rigid environmental assessment to earn the USDA organic stamp — a more rigid assessment, he says, than the current standards for organic land-based livestock farms. Lockwood also points out that the European Union is already certifying some farmed salmon from countries like Ireland as organic.

Rangan at Consumers Union sees these moves as watering down the principles of organic agriculture.

"The NOP wants to grow the organic sector, and to do that they're just lowering the standards rather than require that producers meet them."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

We’re seeking truth for wild game fish

 Barak Obama President United States of America We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International respectfully urge you and your administration to oppose efforts associated with Cochin, Kinder Morgan's 1,900-mile proposed pipeline, to transport condensate obtained from fracking in the United States to the tarsands in Alberta, Canada.

The risks to public health at home and abroad and to our precious wild ecosystems far outweigh any purported benefits of this irresponsible project.

Barak Obama

 The Honourable Gail Shea Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada I am writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International regarding comments made by Grant Warkentin (communication officer, Mainstream Canada). in the November 18, 2013 edition of the. Chilliwack Progress Grant Warkentin, like other open pen salmon feedlot industry marketing professionals is once again spinning the message as directed by his corporate leadership Unfortunately this message could not be further from the truth when it comes to the undeniable risks directly associated with open pen salmon feedlots; public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

For Grant Warkentin to say that salmon farmers care for their products like other farmers do is really stretching the truth.

Gail Shea

Ranchers certainly don't crowd their animals into disease-laden, parasite-infested cages where they live in a cocktail mix of feces, excess feed and chemicals. Those who care about their products don't feed them PCB-laden wild animals, chicken feathers and GMO plants.

Like the open pen salmon feedlot industry and the government that enables it, Mainstream Canada / Cermaq is guilty of significant harm to public health and to our wild ecosystems.

We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International respectfully request the immediate and permanent removal of all open pen salmon feedlots from wild salmon migration routes as wild salmon and the open pen salmon feedlot industry are not compatible - they simply cannot co-exist.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Your courageous leadership on this challenging matter will result in a healthier Canada and will be appreciated for decades to come.

 Adreanne Nolette Communications Coordinator.

EcoCert Canada.

Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth have recently learned of the Ecocert certification program in Canada and elsewhere.

We find it odd that the Ecocert Canada label is appearing in British Columbia, Canada on Organic Atlantic salmon raised in open pen feedlots located in Norway.

Certification body for sustainable development in Canada

Given the documented risks of the open pen salmon feedlot industry around the world to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies, it seems unreasonable that a credible certification program would in fact certify these problematic practices and products.

As the Certification Coordinator for Ecocert, please provide the requirements essential for Atlantic salmon raised in Norway and sold in Canada to receive the Ecocert Canada label.

We look forward to your response in the not too distant future .

 Miranda Wecker Chair Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth regarding ongoing efforts to rectify the ineffectiveness of the Grays Harbor Salmon Management Plan This plan must be developed to emphasize the conservation (aka wise use) of the Chehalis River basin's wild salmon, steelhead, trout and other native game fish . Conservation of these species is becoming more and more important as demands increase for them and their fragile ecosystems.

Miranda Wecker Miranda Wecker Continued development in the Chehalis River floodway, under-regulated logging in the basin's forests and riparian areas, concerns regarding climate change and the likely possibility that a major dam will be constructed in the headwaters of the Chehalis River (prime spawning and rearing habitat) are all reasons to ensure sustainable runs of these irreplaceable, natural resources.

This is the message that has been delivered loud and clear during recent public hearings on this matter. Conservation of these is fish is the top priority within the Chehalis River basin – as such, their conservation must be your highest priority.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Miranda Wecker Chair Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission The following are a few questions and comments after reviewing WDFW's PowerPoint presentation from Saturday's Commission meeting (December 7, 2013):

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Keeping the focus on conservation (wise use) of Chehalis River basin salmon and steelhead is key

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Regarding the Chehalis River Fall Chinook graph: •

Miranda Wecker

It seems as though the red line (Natural Spawners), not the blue line (Actual Run size), should be regarded as the actual escapement - if so, there are very few years when the artificial escapement goal is achieved. In conservation-based management, this will need to be changed to have sustainable wild populations

• Given the general inability year in and year out to achieve escapement, it seems: o Harvest should be curtailed in most years o Escapement goal should be increased to produce more wild chinook when opportunities arise

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Regarding the Humptulips Fall Chinook graph: •

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Appears that the escapement goal is being utilized as a goal for escapement to the hatchery and not a goal for natural spawners - even at that, there are years where natural spawners don't meet the escapement goal

Regarding the graphs associated with the values for recreational and commercial Chehalis River salmon fisheries •

Although the administrative note says that these two values cannot be compared, it seems that WDFW managers and economists would greatly benefit from comparing apples and oranges when attempting to manage public resources for the greatest return on investment

•

Doing so would clearly document the financial benefit of viable recreational salmon fisheries over a outdated commercial fisheries

•

Continued maintenance and reliance of ineffective hatchery programs in support of questionable commercial fisheries in the Chehalis River makes no economic or environmental sense.

•

Restoring and conserving the Chehalis River basin's wild salmon is what will provide the greatest return on investment for Washington citizens.

Without a wild salmon conservation-based mentality, Washington citizens are being shamefully led down a very expensive, unsustainable garden path.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Loblaw stores Wild Game Fish Conservation International respectfully recommends that Loblaw's and your associated grocers comply with the respected SeaChoice.org, science-based, seafood standard that urges customers to avoid buying and eating farm raised Atlantic salmon.

In this day and age, it is absolutely irresponsible and unethical for otherwise legitimate grocers to poison their customers with products laden with harmful chemicals.

Similarly, it is shameful that Loblaws condones the risks associated with open pen salmon feedlots, including risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

Now, like no other time in history, retail leaders like Loblaw, should be offering the best quality product for fair prices to your customers - offering them open pen feedlot salmon when wild Pacific salmon are available is wrong thinking and a very large Public Relations error.

Please be a responsible company and remove farmed Atlantic salmon from your shelves at your earliest opportunity.

We look forward to your response in the not too distant future.

 The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq Minister of the Environment, Canada Courtesy copy:

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Hon. Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Robert Chisholm, NDP Fisheries Critic Hon. Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal Party Fisheries Critic Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party

We are writing to respectfully express our opposition to your decision to allow the production of genetically modified (GM) fish eggs in Prince Edward Island.

Leona Aglukkaq

The small US company, AquaBounty will send all of its GM salmon eggs from Prince Edward Island to Panama for growing out and processing, to send the fish into the US consumer market. This plan is extremely risky for Canada and the rest of the world.

Its unacceptable that the entire process for assessing the environmental risk was secret and that the public had no chance to be involved or be consulted.

Canada has an international responsibility to stop this living pollution. Please reverse this decision and make sure that Environment Canada does not approve production of GM salmon or any other GM fish in Canada. The risk to Atlantic salmon and our environment is too great.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems We respectfully urge you to take immediate action to stop GM salmon in order to protect endangered wild salmon and trout.

 Maria Cantwell Senator (Washington State) US Congress Wild Game Fish Conservation International, on behalf of our associates around planet earth, respectfully request that you do all you can to oppose the sale and possible production of genetically engineered salmon in the United States of America.

This week Environment Canada approved AquaBounty's request to commercially produce and raise genetically engineered Atlantic Maria Cantwell salmon: http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2013/2013-11-23/html/notice-avis-eng.html#d106 A similar request by AquaBounty is being considered by the US FDA. This must never be approved given the many risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

We know from AquaBounty that not all of these GE Atlantic salmon will be sterile and that AquaBounty will not be able to control where these fish will be reared, These two facts alone are reason enough for you and your colleagues in Congress to oppose the insanity of genetically engineered Atlantic salmon.

 Vickie Raines Chair Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority Washington State The issues surrounding the ongoing efforts to reduce damage associated with Chehalis Basin floods continue to get more and more murky over time.

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It's not at all clear why the Quinault Indian Nation is not included in Flood Authority and Governor's Group decisions that impact their treaty rights to fish, hunt and gather It's not at all clear why the Flood Authority is now involved in proposing a capital project to protect I-5 using transportation dollars - It's been presented in public that the Flood Authority would focus on smaller scale projects throughout the basin Vickie Raines Will the proposal to protect I-5 incorporate assumed benefits of the proposed Chehalis River dam or will it be proposed as if there is no dam as this is what is expected by many.

When would the work to protect I-5 begin and end Would the I-5 project involve federal dollars.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Rob MacWhorter Forest Supervisor Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Service Office Wild Game Fish Conservation International is concerned about the proposal by the Red Flat Nickel Corporation (RFNC) to develop on approximately 1,100 acres of the Rogue River-Siskiyou Nation Forest at the Red Flat area. We believe that the cumulative effects of this development will threaten water quality and essential habitat for the wild, native fish in the free flowing watersheds of Hunter Creek and the Pistol River.

Rob MacWhorter

While the full extent of RFNC’s plans have not been revealed to the public, the implications of large blocks of nickel laterite development in Red Flat would be disastrous to the homewaters of its native fish populations. The Forest Service has recognized three Endangered Species Act (ESA) threatened fish species adjacent to the RF 38 Test Drilling site, including the Southern Oregon Northern California Coasts (SONCC) Coho salmon, Southern DPS Pacific eulachon, and the Southern DPS Green sturgeon. Additionally, the Hunter Creek and Pistol River watersheds are home to wild, native SONCC Chinook salmon, Klamath Mountain Province (KMP) steelhead trout, coastal cutthroat trout, and white sturgeon.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency the metal mining industry is the largest toxic polluter in the United States, and development of this mine will threaten efforts currently underway to restore the vulnerable population of ESA threatened Coho salmon. Similarly, a nickel mine in this watershed would be a major limiting factor for these fish, whose free flowing freshwater habitat has already been greatly altered by a history of anthropogenic disturbances including logging, urbanization, and mining that has yet to be reclaimed.

We are writing to ask that the Forest Service prepare an environmental assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act to analyze and determine the cumulative effects of the past mining claim block, including but not limited to bulk sampling, construction of a pilot processing plant and full scale mining if appropriate. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest must prepare an EA because of the extraordinary circumstances with the presence and probable impacts to threatened native fish populations, fragile soils, rare plants and rare plant wetlands and springs in the Red Flat area.

In order to provide long-term protection of the rich botanical values and native fish populations near Red Flat, I am also asking that you establish the 7,172 acre Red Flat Botanical Area through a forest plan amendment that was initially proposed in the 1989 Siskiyou National Forest Land Management Plan, and submit an application to withdraw the area from mining under the 1872 Mining Law. The lasting effects of nickel mining can be devastating and irreversible. I am asking that you make the future of the coastal communities based on the protection of its public lands and preservation of its unique plant and wildlife, and not based on the short-term limited gains from laterite nickel mining.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on the RF 38 Preliminary Categorical Exclusion.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Whole Foods Market Ongoing, open pen salmon feedlot practices in Norway don't come close to meeting the Whole Foods Market seafood standard presented at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story/newresponsibly-farmed-seafood-logo, yet Whole Foods Market continues to offer feedlot-raised Atlantic salmon from Norway.

Given the risks of open pen salmon feedlots and their products to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies, we will advise our associates to avoid shopping at Whole Foods Market until we have assurance that your stores no longer offer salmon raised in open pen feedlots.

 Billy Frank, Jr. Chairman Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Thank you so very much for your editorial opinion published December 6, 2013 in The Chronicle regarding the ongoing efforts associated with the proposed dam on the Chehalis River and the disrespect to the Quinault Indian Nation repeatedly demonstrated

by Washington state.

We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International have repeatedly raised these same concerns to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, key state legislators, Washington governors Gregoire and Inslee, Washington's US Congressional delegation and others for years with no avail.

Billy Frank, Jr. Hopefully your words of wisdom will sink in sooner than later as we continue to work to recover and conserve the Chehalis River basin's wild salmon, trout and other important fish and wildlife species.

 Maria Cantwell Senator (Washington State) US Congress The link below to the nine-minute video by Alexandra Morton (Marine Biologist) summarizes the ongoing risks of open pen salmon feedlots to public health and wild ecosystems. https://vimeo.com/80672625 Clearly, the open pen salmon feedlot industry and their products impact Washington state's wild salmon and anadromous trout, including steelhead, as well as the health of those living in and visiting Washington state who consume impacted fish.

Maria Cantwell

Your leadership to correct this growing problem is respectfully requested and will be appreciated.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 David Boulet Fisheries and Aquaculture Management Officer Fisheries and Oceans Canada I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International regarding Canada's proposed changes to aquaculture license fees, specifically those directly associated with the open pen salmon feedlot industry.

Clearly, the open pen salmon feedlot industry is controversial, at the very least. Its risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies are well documented - As such, this industry must be transitioned to land-based facilities where thier risks would be significantly minimized.

In the mean time, this controversial industry should no longer be subsidized by Canada's hard working taxpayers - the industry must be responsible for paying all costs associated with its continuation in Canada via adequate license fees The cost of open pen salmon feedlots to Canada are tremendous - some of these include the irreplaceable loss of wild ecosystems and cultures that rely on them - all due to irresponsible and unethical practices associated with open pen salmon feedlots.

As other countries around the world recognize, the open pen salmon feedlot industry is expensive.

There are no free lunches - License fees and fines must at least match ALL costs associated with the open pen salmon feedlot industry - Canada and her citizens deserve this accountability.

 Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray US Senators (Washington State) The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of our nation's most effective and important environmental laws. Passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, the ESA represents a commitment by the American people to work together to protect and restore our most vulnerable fellow species.

Unfortunately, just at a time when we celebrate four decades of success with the ESA, some members of Congress are pushing to weaken or even gut this vital law.

Maria Cantwell

Patty Murray

For example, a bill recently filed in both the Senate and House (S. 1731 / H.R. 3533) would obliterate many of the key components of the ESA. This bill would harm imperiled species by:

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered.

Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered.

Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.

Please OPPOSE this bill, S. 1731/H.R. 3533, and all other efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Responses to WGFCI:

 Yngve Torgersen - re. sea lice Deputy Director General Royal Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Eddie Gardner: “They need to realize that fighting parasites with any chemicals approved by veterinarians or fish biologists is a losing effort as the lice build up their immunity and they will eventually need stronger chemicals from what I understand.

The Norwegian government needs to simply remove open net pen feedlots and transition them onto land and out of the coastal waters.

This would bring about a permanent solution to the sea lice problem and diseases/viruses plague that threatens wild salmon, all without the use of antibiotics and chemicals.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 The

Honourable Leona Aglukkaq - re. New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project Minister of the Environment, Canada

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Sebastien Houle re: EcoCert Certification Directeur adjoint-responsable qualité / Assistant director-quality manager EcoCert

Thank you in bringing this situation to our attention. make some investigation and I will get back to you.

I will

Regards.

Sebastien Houle Directeur adjoint-responsable qualité / Assistant director-quality manager

 Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. – re. Genetically Modified salmon Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands Leader of the Green Party of Canada Thank you for your email regarding genetically modified salmon and their potential threat they pose to our health.

I promise to continue to be a voice for green ways of life.

Ecological wisdom and sustainability are, of course, two of the Green Party’s most important founding values, which underlie all of our policy making and political activism.

The Green Party of Canada not only recently called for increased transparency on the approval of GMO salmon, but also urged Environment Canada to seriously consider the future environmental and health effects of producing genetically modified salmon eggs.

Elizabeth May

We know from experience that fish have a habit of escaping and the use of GMO salmon would be a significant threat to the wild salmon populations, which are already in serious peril.

Environment Canada has yet to release information to the public on their negotiations with Aqua Bounty, the company responsible for manufacturing the GMO salmon eggs, nor have they conducted any public risk assessments.

Thank you for your dedication and I encourage you to continue drawing attention to this important issue, because without public attention, (it) may continue on without proper evaluation.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Vickie Raines – re. Chehalis River basin flood issues Chair Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority Washington State Thank you for your email regarding Chehalis Basin flood issues. I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.

You begin by sharing your view that the processes are getting murkier.

Vickie Raines

I have the opposite view. Construction of projects to protect vital local infrastructure are underway across the basin. In addition, almost every week now, new data and information is being learned about the basin and its hydrology, fishery, geology, and weather patterns. We are learning more about options for reducing flood damages and for enhancing our fishery habitat and resource.

Almost as fast as this information is being gathered, it is being shared with the public. I believe we could both agree that there is a lot of information and it’s hard for anyone, including me, to process all of it at once. But, I don’t agree that the process is murky. The process is very transparent.

As Chair of the Flood Authority, I have reached out to the Quinault’s many, many times and have offered to meet, share information and open more consistent lines of communication. I am pleased that a tribal representative attended a recent policy workshop and I very much hope that the Quinault Indian Nation will continue to engage.

The Flood Authority has a responsibility to explore measures to reduce flood damage in the basin.

Since the creation of the Governor’s Work Group, the Flood Authority has focused most of its efforts on identifying and developing local projects to reduce flood damage. The Flood Authority is still free to comment and make recommendations about any basin wide flood issues.

The state legislature is going to consider a transportation funding package. WSDOT has estimated that protecting I-5 from flooding in the basin is worth an expenditure of at least $100 million of state transportation funding. We asked that this amount be included in the transportation package, while making clear that we do not support an I-5 only plan but rather that protection of the freeway, along with Highway 6 and 12, should be part of a basin wide approach to flood damage reduction.

The charge of the Governors Work Group is to specifically evaluate protection of I-5 both with and without retention in the upper Chehalis.

Last, you ask when work will begin on I-5 and availability of federal funds? The Work Group is charged with presenting its recommendations to the Governor a year from now. It is too soon to know whether we recommend water retention as a part of protecting I-5 or not. Likewise, it is too soon to know when I-5 protection work could begin. It may well be that an I-5 only protection plan or a plan that protects both I-5 and communities in the basin could qualify for federal funds, but, again, we don’t yet know what steps will be recommended and we have not yet extensively explored federal funding options.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Vince Panesko – re. Proposed Chehalis River dam Lewis County property owner Thank you for your efforts to stop the crazy idea of politicians in Chehalis, Centralia, and Lewis County to build a dam only 2 scant miles above PeEll. Recent studies performed on my property at the dam site have shown about 50 percent of the fish population spawn above the proposed dam site.

The politicians in Chehalis etc. have no understanding of science or any understanding of the fish ecosystem in the Chehalis River. And they do not care.

These un-educated idiots are running our government, yet they know little of how a dam would greatly impede the tremendous dynamics of gravel/silt movement through the dam site. This movement of gravel/silt is most noticeable on my property where dramatic changes occur every year during high water events lasting a couple of days each. This movement of gravel/silt is important for maintaining the spawning grounds below the dam site, yet the un-educated buffoons in Chehalis do not have a clue of the importance of an unrestricted river flow above PeEll to the health of the river ecosystem.

I approach opposition to the dam in another way.

Iunderstand the soil conditions on my property and the Weyerhaeuser property to the north. There is solid rock, but it is under 30-40-50 feet of loose soil that has to be removed before the dam could be built.

The benefit/cost estimates for the dam, which are barely favorable at 1.2, did not include the removal of that soil.

Upper Chehalis River near proposed dam site.

300’ deep reservoir would inundate this prime salmon and trout spawning and rearing habitat. (photo credit: Jim Wilcox)

Therefore, the benefit/cost ratio is faulty and cannot be used to promote further consideration of the dam.

The flood authority promises a new benefit/cost ratio in their next study. If the study is properly done, the benefit/cost ratio will be below one and the dam project should be considered a lost cause.

I have another objection in that the dam is too close toPeEll. The risk of dam failure puts the lives of 300 school kids and 700people in PeEll on the table as an acceptable loss to protect Walmart in Chehalis. I find this trade-off as morally unacceptable.

If properly presented to the voters of LewisCounty, all the elected officials would be voted out of office.

Thank you for your effort insomuch as you are able to provide a different slant to objecting to the building of a dam. I enjoy your ideas and look forward to a mutual effort in the future to stop a silly idea from harming the Chehalis River basin ecosystem.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Community Activism, Education and Outreach:  Leave this world better than when you found it

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Sign the petition to Northern Dynasty Minerals

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Help Wild Steelhead Coalition return wild steelhead to our rivers

Skagit River (photo credit: Emerald Water Anglers) Driving to a Skagit Watershed Council meeting I found myself thinking of what it used to be like fishing the Skagit and Sauk in the Spring. With the sun shining off Sauk Mountain I might find a fish or two to provide a good grab, throw a deep bend into my rod and make Mr. Hardy sing...but now our ‘S’ rivers are closed in the Spring, as are many other rivers around the state.

Your donation of $50 or more will help the Wild Steelhead Coalition return wild steelhead to our rivers.

Thanks to a number of key supporters, we have the opportunity to match your donation up to $3500. Please donate to our efforts to save wild steelhead!

Other than the Olympic Peninsula, all Washington wild steelhead are listed under the Endangered Species Act and their populations are approximately 2% of historic run size.

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Attempts to compensate for overfishing, dam construction and habitat degradation with unfit hatchery fish have directly contributed to the demise of our wild steelhead.

In 2000, after the long-term failure of hatcheries to aid wild fish recovery, Congress funded the Hatchery Reform Project, but the 12 years since are the worst ever for wild steelhead.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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Policies ignore both the scientific studies showing negative impacts of hatchery fish and the spontaneous, even dramatic, wild fish recovery when hatcheries have been removed.

All these efforts so that a few anglers could harvest only 160 hatchery steelhead last winter on the mighty Skagit River. In my lifetime, the Skagit often produced winter harvests of 15,000-20,000 steelhead!

To help wild steelhead recover to sustainable levels, the WSC is focused on creating Wild Steelhead Management Zones (WSMZs)—rivers where steelhead hatcheries are removed—required by the 2008 WA Statewide Steelhead Management Plan and managed by the WA Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW).

Recent accomplishments of the WSC:

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Implemented an annual evaluation of the WDFW’s progress on the creation of WSMZs. The Sol Duc River is now a WSMZ due to the WSC’s efforts Organized steelhead conservation groups, guides, angling clubs and fishery enhancement groups to participate with WDFW to select a Lower Columbia WSMZ Provided comments to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council regarding hatchery programs in the Columbia Basin, as well as urged them to keep hydro projects off rivers like the SF Skykomish Continued in the lawsuit to keep the Elwha free of hatchery steelhead

Upcoming Activities:

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The WSC will be reviewing the proposed steelhead Hatchery Genetic Management Plans and NOAA’s upcoming Puget Sound Steelhead Recovery Plan to ensure the best interests of wild steelhead.

The WSC will convene scientists, agencies, tribes and fish conservation groups in a two day Steelhead Summit focusing on WSMZs.

Help us increase the return of wild steelhead to the waters of the West Coast!

While recovery will take some time and patience, this is not something that has to take generations to achieve as long as we act NOW. Thank you to those who have already donated to support the WSC's work to save wild steelhead.

I look forward to the day when I write suggesting that you buy your children steelhead rods for the holidays.

Sincerely, Bob Margulis Executive Director Wild Steelhead Coalition

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Oceana: Aquaculture Overview

Open ocean aquaculture, without strict environmental regulation, poses a serious threat to marine life, fisheries, and the health of the oceans in general.

Aquaculture facilities can be significant sources of pollution, including excess feed, fish waste and dead fish. This waste can spur excess algae growth, clouding coastal waters and altering seafloor ecosystems.

The high densities of fish in net pens used by fish farming facilities lead to disease outbreaks and a higher prevalence of disease overall. Captive fish often escape into the environment, where they can spread disease and compete with, or even prey on, wild fish populations. As a result of the disease outbreaks, many of the farmed fish are treated with antibiotics, reducing effectiveness of the same drugs for human diseases.

In addition, aquaculture is increasingly the cause of the overfishing of prey species. Salmon, tuna and other high-value captive fish are among the fastest growing seafood products in the world. Being carnivorous, farmed salmon require huge quantities of fish oil and fishmeal, making them heavily dependent on wild fisheries.

Oceana works in the U.S., South America and Europe to promote responsible aquaculture practices.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 salmonALERT.org

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Eddie Gardner: Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycotts at Superstores Across BC, Saturday, January 18, 2014 2013 (40 photos) On Saturday, January 18, 2014, there will be boycotts at Superstores in Chilliwack, Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Nanaimo, and Duncan. Last year, the boycotts took place at these same 7 locations. Plans are in place to expand this movement to other locations in BC, as well as in the Atlantic provinces.

We will be developing new tools to help Superstore customers make informed decisions, and choose not to buy contaminated net-pen farmed salmon.

This has become a health serious health concern, so last year, we sent a request to the Director of Sustainability at Loblaws, which oversees Superstores to have net-pen farmed salmon removed from their stores. So far, we have not received a response or even an acknowledgment. This is why we are intensifying our boycott action at their stores.

We are looking at an increase in the numbers of people joining this robust boycott movement. People are concerned, not only about what the open-net feedlot aquaculture industry is doing to the marine environment and wild salmon, but also the potential harm to human health, especially children and pregnant mothers.

Spread the word! Mobilize more people to join the boycott! Everyday is a boycott day, so the next time you shop at any Superstore, ask for the manager and request that net-pen farmed salmon, otherwise known as Atlantic Farmed Salmon, be removed from their coolers. Tell the store manager you will not buy this product over health concerns.

For information on the issues, please go to www.salmonAlert.org.

Let's see a good turnout at the Superstores across BC on January 18, 2014!

Eddie Gardner Boycott Coordinator singingbear@shaw.ca 604-792-0867

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Farmed

Salmon Boycott Rally: Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada – November 19, 2013 Special thanks to Gary Haggquist for this documentary

Wayne Froese: Gary Haggquist's excellent just-out video recaps what we are trying to do with the Farmed Salmon Boycott - take it to where we can get RESULTS! While Alexandra Morton has championed for years the NUMEROUS threats posed by salmon farms in B.C. waters:

    

huge proliferation of sea lice, in locations where wild salmon are immature and unable to survive the onslaught a losing battle of increasing pesticides and chemicals - including illegal ones - further compounded by farmed salmon developing immunity to "Slice" (mankind NEVER wins this kind of battle, in this fashion) up to 18 kg. of farmed Atlantic salmon per cu. metre - conditions ANY veterinarian will tell you is a breeding ground for bacteria, viruses and disease (in this case: SAv, ISAv, IHN, PRV, HSMI) entire stocks of farmed salmon culled numerous times due to ISA epidemics in Eastern Canada, resulting in $100 million of payouts by Canadian taxpayers during 1996-2012 salmon farm corporations trying to stem the disease tide by flooding the pens with antibiotics adding to the pollution and destruction of benthic zones around the pens (underwater deserts)

______________

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems While all of that has gone on, the response from Aquaculture in Canada has always been the same:

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Deny: putting forth an argument of "you can't prove it" over and over again, as if that is proof that these issues don't exist; meanwhile the fact farm corporations refuse to allow publicly-available testing, and cling to secrecy in their dealings with our government’s (secretive memos, confidentiality agreements, gag orders on public scientists) is more than suggestive that all the scientific and empirical evidence they deny is TRUE Distract: when a fish farm in the Maritimes was convicted of use of a banned pesticide (and fined $500,000), THEY got to vet how the decision was worded - so as to distract from the fact they flagrantly broke the law in a desperate attempt to stem a sea lice epidemic among their Sliceresistant fish; running-dog media pieces continue to herald all the "advances" the industry has made, poo-poohing criticisms as being "outdated" - while the biggest "advance" the industry has produced was importing virus-infected Atlantic salmon eggs 25 years ago (Atlantic more easily domesticated, more tolerate of crowding) - a profit-rich, sustainability-bankrupt measure typical of a greedy global industry Delay: one year after gov't-appointed inquiry revealed serious issues and issued detailed recommendations, our gov't (a captive agency to the industry due to corporate ownership swindles called "trade deals") has done nothing but cherry-pick a couple of the most innocuous recommendations in the list - in effect delaying any meaningful action until it is forgotten (and then too late)

______________ So now, we are bypassing the immoral corporations and our corrupted governments and taking the message to the public: DON'T BUY IT!

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Don't Buy the Message.

Aquaculture is dirty, inhumane, and unsustainable in its current form, a far cry from the "certified sustainable" "best practices" industry it paints itself to be Don't Buy the Product.

Tainted with sea lice and viruses (CFIA determined 200,000 ISA-culled fish suitable for release to Canadians, while USA refused them); PCB, Dioxin and other lethal contaminants at levels sufficient to warrant advisories from EPA et al. of only one or two meals per month of farmed salmon; containing insecticides, flame retardants, and GMO feed byproducts; even the traditional heart-smart benefits of fish are greatly diminished in this omega-three-poor and omega-six-rich (pro-inflammatory) fish product

________________ Along with the big "DON'T" message, is a DO message:

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move aquaculture to on-land, closed-containment systems - already demonstrated viable by SweetSpring in Washington state, Sustainable Blue in Nova Scotia, and a number of development and pilot projects across North America vastly improve farm practices: use innovations like Suzuki's insect-larvae concept to make feed channels sustainable (currently aquaculture only converts lower-level fish stocks to high-profit fish without contributing any net gain in overall stocks); water filtration and other sustainable disease management techniques.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Wayne Froese: The FARMED SALMON BOYCOTT RALLY objective to find a NEW means to get results - via the consumer - is in no way meant to take anything away from what Alexandra Morton has done and continues to do. Alex and many other dedicated, courageous, amazing fighters have succeeded in ways no one would have expected - for Alexandra, getting the farms to stop using AHD's was only the beginning.

However a very high-placed financier made the comment: "Forget about the Internet - the investment opportunity of the 21st century is in aquaculture". We have perhaps seen only the tip of the iceberg. I believe its crucial that we "end-run" the stonewalling from the industry and our governments (backed by very deep pockets) and as quickly as we can, take it to the marketplace.

So everyone, everywhere that agrees with Alexandra that we must save Wild Salmon from becoming yet another casualty of corporate greed:

START A FARMED SALMON BOYCOTT IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

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Start recruiting a few people, make a few plans. ~ all you need is a clipboard, a camera and some signs and brochures (already available);

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Make arrangements right away - so that in the new year we can have a Coordinated Boycott Rally of FIFTY locations instead of just eight (or one... ). The media will take notice, the lucky store that we all rally at will notice - and oh! will the public notice!!

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Open-net farmed salmon boycott set to expand November 18, 2013 A national boycott of open-net farmed salmon that kicked off earlier this year in Chilliwack at a local store parking lot, is expanding on Nov. 19 to more communities.

Boycott rallies are slated simultaneously for the lunch hour Tuesday at eight Superstore locations across B.C. — including the one on Luckakuck Way in Chilliwack.

The ultimate goal of the coordinated rallies is to get stores to remove the product from their shelves and have open-net pens removed from the migration routes of wild salmon.

The national boycott was launched locally in early 2013.

"The peaceful rallies at all locations will have pamphlets, signs, posters and other tools to help consumers make informed decisions to protect their health, especially children and pregnant women," said local boycott coordinator Eddie Gardner, a First Nations elder.

Concerns have been raised about health alerts that have been issued, including SeaChoice seafood guidelines, which "red-list" net-pen farmed salmon, cautioning some to avoid it.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "This movement is growing and we plan to expand the boycott of net-pen farmed salmon to the U.S," he said.

Open-net aquaculture is "a flawed technology," Gardner said, since it is not known the extent of the damage to wild salmon stocks and habitat caused by open net pens on the migration routes of wild salmon.

No figures are available yet on the impact the boycott has had to date on open-net farmed salmon sales after the campaign launched in January.

An aquaculture industry rep told the Progress in an email that readers should be reminded that fish farmers are farmers as well, who care about their product.

"Debate and discussion about the food we eat and how it's grown should be encouraged, and in a farming community like Chilliwack, where I grew up, I would hope the voice of the farmers would be considered with respect," said Grant Warkentin, spokesman for Mainstream Canada.

"Unfortunately, the information presented to the public by the protestors is short on facts and full of fear.

"We are open and transparent about how we produce healthy, safe farmed salmon, grown in B.C. by B.C. farmers."

Editorial Comment: Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth are excited to partner with Mr. Gardner and others to remove Atlantic salmon from store shelves and their open pen feedlots from the world’s oceans.

These weapons of mass destruction have no value in our society as they irresponsibly risk public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

We look forward to international days of action involving Walmart and Costco among others early in 2014.

The insanity of unsustainable, open pen salmon feedlots must end.

Alexandra Morton: “It is very important for the consumer to know that they are responsible for this dirty, unsustainable Norwegian industry that has affected communities coastwide.

Luring us with "jobs" what we actually end up with is very different. Norwegian doctors put out a warning this year about the high toxicity of this product to unborn babies because these toxins build up in women and pass to their children. They are associated with autism, reduced brain-size and cancers. Feedlots belong on land in closed systems. These Norwegian companies are using the BC coast to dump tons of manure daily, they are a disgrace. Please stop buying farmed salmon, and farmed salmon sushi for your health and the health of the place you call home.”

Chilliwack will be a boycott location, as well as stores in Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo, Metrotown in Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, and Surrey.

President’s Choice products are sold exclusively at a number of Loblaw’s sites, including Superstores.

"We applaud Superstore for selling President’s Choice’s Free From brand of beef, pork and chicken that are farmed without the use of antibiotics and hormones.

"In keeping with this consumer protection standard, Superstores would do well to remove net-pen farmed salmon, as they contain dangerous levels of chemicals like PCBs that can cause cancer, immune system dysfunction and nervous system damage," said Elaine Willis, Coquitlam boycott coordinator.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

WGFCI response to the previous article:

“Grant Warkentin, like other industry-paid marketing professionals is spinning the message as directed by his leadership - Unfortunately this message could not be further from the truth when it comes to the undeniable risks directly associated with open pen salmon feedlots; public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

For Grant Warkentin to say that salmon farmers care for their products like other farmers do is really stretching the truth. Ranchers certainly don't crowd their animals into disease-laden, parasite-infested cages where they live in a cocktail mix of feces, excess feed and chemicals. Those who care about their products don't feed them PCB-laden wild animals, chicken feathers and GMO plants.

Like the open pen salmon feedlot industry and the government that enables it, Grant Warkentin is guilty of significant harm to public health and our wild ecosystems. (ed. This statement was retracted after its publication) We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International are calling for the immediate and permanent removal of open pen salmon feedlots from wild salmon migration routes as wild salmon and the open pen salmon feedlot industry are not compatible - they simply cannot coexist.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Day of Action for Wild Salmon and Public Health Against: Real Canadian Superstore November 19, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Atlantic Farmed Salmon Boycott, Real Canadian Superstore  “We don’t want your open net fish farms”  “Wild Salmon are Forever”  Watch, Listen Learn HERE  Get Involved Today HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Supermarkets: Stop sourcing salmon from Wester Ross Fisheries Limited December 12, 2013 THE Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) (S&TA(S)) has asked Asda to stop sourcing salmon from Wester Ross Fisheries Limited.

The angling group alleges that the salmon producer has an "appalling sea-lice record", which poses a serious threat to wild salmon and sea trout.

The very latest quarterly sea lice report (for July to September 2013) published by the salmon farming industry reveals that in the 'Kennart to Gruinard' region of the north-west Highlands, where there are seven farms operated by two companies, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited and Scottish Sea Farms Limited, adult female sea-lice numbers were way over the industry's own threshold for all three months. In September, the monthly lice count on farms in this area was over nine times the threshold. Those levels have been over that threshold for each of the nine months to September.

According to S&TA(S), "the production of huge number of juvenile sea lice by these farms presents an unacceptable threat to the conservation of wild salmon and sea trout".

Hugh Campbell Adamson, Chairman of S&TA(S), said: "The sea lice numbers in the region where Wester Ross Fisheries have all their marine farms are shocking and the salmon farmers in these areas have lost all control. We call on Asda to make a stand and end its relationship with Wester Ross Fisheries Limited in the interests of the conservation of Scotland's iconic wild salmon and sea trout.

"Nor is this message just for Asda. All supermarkets must stop hiding behind opaque certification schemes that mean little in practice. They need to take an honest look at their producers and where they are found wanting, where they are causing damage to wild fish conservation, those producers should be dropped".

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Say No to Scotland’s Yes Ministers!

Read entire expose’ HERE December 1, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Supermarket Scamon - Farmed Salmon Belongs in the Trash Bin! Watch video HERE

The reason the open pen salmon feedlot industry is fighting the logical move to land-based feedlots – they could no longer claim to raise their products in the ocean.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Supermarket Scamon Protest in London (November 19, 3013)

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Diseased feedlot salmon offered in Denmark by shipping, oil and gas giant Maersk

Svend Erik Albertsen:  “It's here in Denmark and it's named NETTO. Owned by a huge corporation "Dansk Supermarket" which again and in the end is owned by the World largest Shipping fleet "Maersk".

 P. Moeller Maersk is the largest corporation in Denmark.  BIG BOYS DONT GIVE A SHI* about viruses.  You might have heard about Maersk Oil and Shipping.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 BBC Countryfile on Salmon Farming - Complaint by Protect Wild Scotland Watch video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Protestors urge farmed salmon boycott outside Good Food Ireland awards November 20, 2013 Environmental groups protested outside the Good Food Ireland awards and called on the food and tourism sector to boycott farmed salmon this Christmas.

The groups which included Friends of the Irish Environment, Save Bantry Bay and Save Galway Bay were protesting against the building of two large organic salmon farms in Cork and Galway.

The Department of Agriculture, Marine, and Food has yet to decide whether to give the green light to the two farms. One is a private commercial concern in Bantry Bay, and the other, off Inis Oirr, is being developed by state agency Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).

In an open letter to the Good Food Ireland Annual Conference, the Irish Friends of the Environment called on those in attendance to boycott farmed salmon and arrange for substitutions by products "less harmful to the environment, to wild fish — and, indeed, to the consumer’s health".

"Many arguments — such as the impact of farmed salmon lice on wild salmon mortalities — have been well known and documented by eminent scientists here in Ireland, across Europe, and in Canada. They have been the subject of ignored scientific recommendations to separate farmed salmon from wild salmon since 1994," read the letter.

It stated the group was not against salmon farming or aquaculture but was against "open net pen salmon farms in our bays that are on the migratory path of the wild salmon".

Chairman of the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers (FISSTA) Paul Lawton said the protest was peaceful and that protesters had spoken to a number of people attending the awards.

"We asked them to boycott farmed salmon and pointed out that this mega fish farm in Galway Bay needs to be stopped. If it gets the go-ahead, it will ruin the West of Ireland — and all for a quick buck."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Welcome to Reality Watch video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Petition: Health Canada: we don’t want FrankenSalmon on our dinner plates

There is one last step before Canada becomes a live laboratory for the first GMO animal grown for human consumption.

Environment Canada let AquaBounty clear a crucial hurdle last month when it allowed the American company to produce genetically-modified salmon eggs on a commercial scale. Now, there is only one step left before mutant fish hits our dinner plates -- approval from Health Canada to allow GMO salmon for Canadian consumption.

You can bet that AquaBounty will now use all its resources to push for the sale of an organism that US agencies have refused to approve for Americans to consume for the last 18 years. If Health Canada approves GMO salmon, a new breed of farmed fish will soon be at your local grocer or seafood restaurant without you even recognizing it. Let’s tell Health Canada to reject mutant fish for human consumption in our country.

Tell Health Canada to listen to what Canadians have been saying for years: we don’t want GMO fish in our stores and restaurants.

Mutant fish is a danger to our fish stock. Decades of commercial fish farming have shown that no matter how salmon is raised, they will escape. And when the GMO salmon gets out in the wild, it will have considerable risks to our native fish population as well as our coastal economies.

Health Canada needs to reject GMO salmon now, to ensure these GMO salmon don't imperil our wild fish stock.

Once these GMO fish are in our grocery stores, consumers won't be able to avoid the genetically modified organism -- because corporations have fought tooth and nail against GMO labelling rules, pouring billions of dollars in lobbying in recent years. This is why we need to fight to stop GMO salmon from hitting stores in the first place.

There's still so much we don't know about GMO salmon. Community concern means that the American government has rejected mutant fish for the last 18 years. Canadians should not be the world's first guinea pigs for the first GMO animal grown for human consumption.

Environment Canada’s approval process of AquaBounty’s commercial production of salmon eggs was done without consultation. Let's send a message to Health Canada so it can hear Canadians opposition to being the world’s first guinea pigs for mutant fish.

Health Canada: do not approve the sale of mutant fish that could harm Canadian wild fish stock.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Even Mr. Burns won't eat mutant fish

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

The Sea 2 Source expedition paddles with youngsters on the middle reaches of the Columbia River.

 Landers: Canoeists paddle way of Columbia salmon November 21, 2013 Among the scientists and officials at the Lake Roosevelt Forum’s 2013 Conference this week were three young men with notably strong arms.

Agency and tribal representatives convened at the Davenport Hotel to outline a variety of complicated and high-price-tag issues facing the Columbia River – fish consumption rates, contamination, water management, invasive species and climate change, to name a few.

But none of the expert speakers had experienced the river as entirely or intimately as the three men who’d recently paddled the river on a pauper’s budget.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The official presentations were full of numbers and details.

The canoeists offered a simple vision of reintroducing salmon to the Columbia upstream from Grand Coulee Dam. “We showed some of our slides and people stood and clapped,” said Adam Wicks-Arshack. “We got respect from the people who do the research and make the policies; for us it as an honor.”

The “ Sea to Source” expedition left Astoria, Ore., on Aug. 1 for a 1,243-mile upstream voyage in five hand-made dugout canoes. The expedition, boiled down to one boat, reached the source of the Columbia River at Canal Flats, British Columbia, on Oct. 28.

Along the way they were joined by helpers including a salmon fisherman they met when a rogue wave washed a canoe out of control and into his line.

“We started without enough funds to finish, but we picked up support all along the way,” he said. “We went a month and a half in one stretch without cooking because people were bringing us food.”

Their goal is to connect more people to the river and ultimately find a way to build a fish ladder at Grand Coulee.

The 1964 Treaty failed to consult with tribes, Wicks-Arshack said. “The Treaty contains only the two purposes of hydropower and flood control. Tribes and conservationists want a third purpose added to the Treaty: restoring the Columbia River to ecological health including bringing salmon home to waters blocked by dams.”

It’s sobering that the backbone of this expedition isn’t made up of Northwest adventurers or fishermen. Wicks-Arshack and John Zinser are long-time friends from New York City who met Xander Demetrios of Los Angeles when they were enrolled at Evergreen State College in Olympia.

They started as rafting guides before launching Voyages of Rediscovery, a canoe guiding and environmental education service, connecting with Columbia.

“I’m not a fisherman,” Wicks-Arshack said. “I came into this wondering why people would want to kill a salmon. I’ve learned fishing is integral to the culture.”

The five dugout canoes were carved at various schools over the past year. The Salmon Savior, a 21-foot ponderosa pine, was carved at the Wellpinit Middle and High School on the Spokane Reservation. The Crying Salmon, a 33-foot cedar canoe, was carved by the students of Inchelium School on the Colville Reservation.

Students were later invited to help the guides power the crafts upstream for a day or more. “One girl counted every stroke, going 2,000 in a row before taking a break,” Wicks-Arshack said.

“It was so cool to be in a canoe that so many kids had invested themselves in.”

The paddlers breezed through the first leg of the trip. Lashing their boats together and raising 20 foot masts to harness the Columbia Gorge winds, they sailed the first 325 miles upstream in two weeks.

During a break at Hood River, they were asked on the spot to give a presentation to a conference of climbing guides.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “It was an eye-opener that people were interested,” he said.

In the Hanford Reach they began linking eddies to paddle upstream in the free-flowing current.

The Wanapum Indians took them in at their tiny village below their namesake dam. Then they paddled a double-dam day, portaging past Wanapum and Priest Rapids.

With hearts as heavy as their canoes, they arrived after 545 miles at Chief Joseph Dam, the first dam on the Columbia without a fish ladder.

A few days later they were at Grand Coulee, which was the beginning of the end for upstream salmon.

Facing swifter water in Canada, they held up in Kettle Falls to build a lighter cedar-strip canoe similar to what fur trader David Thompson used to pioneer the river.

“We went from 1,000-pound dugouts to a 150-pound, 21-foot canoe we made from $3,000 worth of beautiful clear cedar boards donated by Columbia Cedar,” Wicks-Arshack said. “It would carry 2,000 pounds and still have a foot of freeboard.”

In the final weeks they were on the water by 5 a.m., making as much as 45 miles a day. “The notorious winds of Kinbasket Lake eased for our passage as though the river knew what our message was and wanted it to happen,” he said.

They lined their boat through braided channels that had perfect gravels for salmon spawning.

Overall, they gave presentations to more than 2,000 students who also followed the posts and videos on the expedition blog during their journey.

“When we started, the river was industrial and 10 miles wide,” he said. “As we neared the source, it was a creek.”

First Nations groups drummed and danced for them in Invermere. Snow fell on Oct. 26.

Two days later, they reached a wetland with springs bubbling into the source of the Columbia.

“Next year we’d like to do it again, build five more canoes and connect more kids to the fish and the river, this time in Canada,” he said.

“Our next vision would be to connect the kids The Columbia River is but a small creek near Fairmont Hot from the two countries. The story doesn’t Springs, British Columbia, where three guides who paddled three months from the Sea 2 Source — from left, John Zinser, end here.”

Adam Wicks-Arshack, Xander Demetrios — are joined by Jay Callahan to push off on their last cold morning on Oct. 28, 2013, to the source of the Columbia at Canal Flats.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Northern Gateway Too Risky - There is no PLAN B

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 NO PIPELINES

Bridge to Unist'ot'en Camp

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 British Columbia Opposed to Exporting US Thermal Coal Sign Petition HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 No Coal Ports for British Columbia – Members of Parliament, Peter Julian and Fin Donnelly Watch video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings “Streaming like a wild fish”

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November 26, 2013 (GMO salmon, Adams River sockeye return (2013) December 3, 2013 (Fukushima – west coast impact, Adams River salmon) December 10, 2013 (Ho Ho Ho – No GMO)

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Impacts of open pen salmon and trout feedlots

"The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk People have inhabited the Broughton Archipelago for thousands of years. We consider it our garden; it has nourished us for as long as we have been here. But that has changed with the arrival of salmon farms. We, the First Peoples of this land, have had direct experiences with the Atlantic salmon farms and have witnessed the negative impact they have on the environment ...

Despite our many documented objections to fish farms in our traditional territories, the industry and governments continue to place farms where they are not wanted. This blatant disrespect of First Nations values is posing a threat to the health of all in the Broughton Archipelago . . . We believe that if this industry stays here without making sweeping changes, they will eventually wipe out all wild stocks, destroy the environment and the people that rely on the food and resources as a means of survival. (McIvor & Wadhams, 2004)"

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Alexandra Morton: Salmon farming - looking dodgy on many fronts Watch video HERE November 29, 2013 This is udated below following six months of Ms. Morton’s efforts to get to the truth

The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) can't answer a basic question, Norway pushes EU for higher toxin limits for farmed salmon, while promoting that children eat it, the Cohen Commission is disappeared and Canada moves towards allowing farmed salmon to be the first GMO animal for human food.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 It is Official - the CFIA never retested my samples December 6, 2013 After 6 months of asking the CFIA to confirm whether they retested my ISA virus samples or not - I got an answer from the Ministry of Health.

This unforgivable situation risks the wild salmon economy of the North Pacific and Canada's reputation as a trade partner.

Dear Minister Ambrose Thank you for prompting the CFIA to finally answer my question; did they retest the samples I sent to the Kibenge lab for ISA virus testing or not?

Dr. D. Ian Alexander (CFIA) says in his letter to me that my samples were never retested.

Download Ltr to Alexandra Morton re ISA BC Salmon.pdf (439.9K) This is highly significant and something is very wrong here.

I accept that the CFIA has its reasons for not re-testing my samples, however they took my samples from the lab and went to lengths to inform the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE) that the ISA virus results by the Kibenge lab were "non-repeatable".

Download CFIA (Evans) Letter (00627482).PDF (414.2K) The Kibenge lab was one of only two labs in the world designated by the OIE as an ISA virus reference lab. That is why I chose to use this lab. The CFIA recommended the lab be suspended, the OIE complied, but will not state why. The word "non-repeatable" suggests the CFIA repeated the tests with different results. But clearly that was not the case.

The CFIA needs to report to you why they told the OIE that the Kibenge results were "nonrepeatable." Who exactly repeated tests on my samples taken from the Kibenge lab and where is that data?

In one of Canada's biggest newspapers, the CFIA urged the OIE to suspend the Kibenge lab because "government labs couldn’t replicate his results."

The Kibenge lab is not alone it its findings. Several Canadian government labs submitted test results to the Cohen Commission that were positive for sequences of the ISA virus in BC (exhibits 2040, 2053-136a, 2055, 2043, 2060, 2051, 2052). As well, Dr. Are Nylund, University of Bergen, testified at the inquiry that he got results positive for ISA virus sequence in BC. ISA virus is an internationally reportable virus for all members of the World Organization for Animal Health.

"Mr. Warkentin [Cermaq, owned largely by the Norwegian government] said the aquaculture industry, which raises about 32-million fish a year in B.C., 91 per cent of which are Atlantic salmon, is holding its breath while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency investigates the ISA positive findings made by Fred Kibenge, at the University of Prince Edward Island, Atlantic Veterinary College."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The CFIA testified at the Cohen Commission that if ISA virus is in BC - borders would close to BC farmed salmon. It appears as if the industry held its breath and the CFIA compromised its integrity.

When ISA virus repeats its grimly inevitable global pattern and mutates into a virulent outbreak in British Columbia, risking the wild salmon economy of the North Pacific, and Canada's reputation as a responsible member of the world trade community, the record will show results from a top Canadian lab could have been used to contain the virus. Look at what is underway in Eastern Canada. The CFIA allows ISA-positive farmed salmon to remain in the water and approved them for sale to the public. New variants of ISA are now spreading along the coast of eastern Canada. ISA is not something that can remain hidden.

Minister Ambrose, you were given oversight of the CFIA last month because Stephen Harper can see there are serious problems with the CFIA and this is one of them This goes beyond the CFIA. I also attach a "confidential" memo wherein the BC government veterinarian briefed a provincial minister that ISA virus is not a threat to BC because live Atlantic salmon eggs have never been imported to BC. In fact, nearly 30 million live Atlantic salmon eggs had been imported when Dr. Sheppard wrote that and he was the man in charge of their health. Dr. Sheppard now works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada - still in charge of farmed salmon health. This further erodes confidence in Canada's response to this virus.

Download ISA Confidential BCP1001938 exhibit 1679.pdf (491.4K) All I ask is that you do what you can to allow the Kibenge lab to continue its work without further harassment. There is a reason the OIE chose this lab in the first place. The Kibenge lab diagnosed the ISA epidemic before it hit Chile with a $2 billion bill. Norway has used this lab, the industry has used this lab. They are on the leading edge of scientific publication on the ISA virus. There was never an issue with the Kibenge lab until it reported ISA virus sequence in BC, which apparently threatens trade in BC farm salmon.

Again, thank you Minister Rona Ambrose, I have been asking the CFIA to confirm whether they retested my samples or not for 6 months, one letter to you and I get the answer. Prime Minister Harper was right to appoint you to oversee the CFIA. Respectfully, Alexandra Morton

Alexandra Morton: “What is so fascinating is that no media has touched this story.

I am guessing it is OK with everyone that the CFIA told Canadians and the World Health Organisation that they retested my samples and could not find ISA, but now under the Minister of Health they had to come clean and tell us all they did not test.

That means the lab results stand, sequences of ISA virus are floating around BC, and we should expect ISA to do here what it has done everywhere else - go viral, kill salmon, damage the local economy, but help the industry consolidate and make a higher profit in the other regions they are using to do their dirty business.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Offloading ISA-infected, Newfoundland feedlot salmon Associated comments on next page

Dead, Diseased Open Pen Feedlot Atlantic Salmon Ordered Destroyed

by CFIA

?

Protective tarps Haz-mat protective suits

Totes full of dead, diseased Atlantic salmon – Buried in landfill

Salmon morts transferred from open pen feedlots to totes

Salmon morts transferred to special purpose garbage trucks

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Editorial Comments:

 

The comments below associated with the photos above are believed to be true.

We will not publish the names of those responsible for these comments in order to avoid harm to them.

    

what the ****! is this morts? yup they are all dead That's the ISA fish Ewww anyone know where Crosbie's hauled those morts and when?  They hauled them to Norris Arm and was buried. That was in June of this year. This was all done under the supervision of CFIA.

Norris Arm - Central Waste Management Authority Newfoundland, Canada

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Norwegian Owned Salmon Farming Kills Sea Floor Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 15 – 20 young eagles caught in the cages – no response!



Claudette Bethune: “Wow, the blatant slaughter and disposal of endangered birds that gets no response from regulators is just shameful.”



Don Jackman “I cannot believe how the companies involved in this industry are wagging the government and the enforcement agencies around. I have seen forestry projects halted because of a bird's nest in a tree. Now this is serious and how much of this is going on. I have told Cooke's about this over two years ago along with the slaughtered tuna fish, escaped salmon in the hundreds of thousands and so on but they said it was all lies.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Editorial Comment:

 Apparently

open pen salmon feedlots in British Columbia are not always sited in calm, protected waters.

 Siting

open pen salmon feedlots in unsettled waters like these often results in massive escapes from open pen salmon feedlots

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 ISA confirmed in Chile’s Aysen region December 5, 2013 Chilean national fisheries and aquaculture authority Sernapesa has confirmed an outbreak of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) at a salmon farm belonging to Southern Cross Seafood in northern Aysen, near Melinka in Chile.

The ISA presence, of type HPR 7A, was confirmed in the site — in the Arbolito center, in ACS 18B, macrozone 6 — after having been cordoned off to carry out tests.

Sernapesca national director, Juan Luis Ansoleaga, said actions under the Chilean ISA control program have been taken, and salmon from the cage affected will be slaughtered within the next 24 hours.

Sernapesca has also activated an enhanced surveillance protocol in other farms of the Macrozone 6 located in the northern area of Aysen.

Inspectors could corroborate that biosecurity measures established by the company comply with the current regulations on management of mortalities and silage systems, according to Sernapesca.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Loosen regulatory net, fish farmers say Sector wants out of Fisheries Act December 3, 2013 Fish farmers are asking Parliament to remove them from the Fisheries Act.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The aquaculture industry says the environmental and conservation rules of the act are so onerous, they prevent new projects from going ahead.

Alexandra Morton: They’re asking for a new Aquaculture Act to be designed “What a bold (and offensive) request specifically for their business. under the Constitution of Canada no “Our industry is regulated by the Fisheries Act, which is a one is allowed to own fish in the wildlife management act that was never intended for an ocean or privatize ocean spaces. This innovative food production centre,” said Ruth Salmon, the industry would rather change Canada appropriately named executive director of the Canadian than itself to continue the dirty practice Aquaculture Industry Alliance. of dumping all its raw feedlot sewage straight into the fishing grounds of “This is a piece of legislation that dates back to people on both coasts threatening Confederation, when commercial aquaculture in Canada did Canada's largest fishery, lobster and not exist.” also wild salmon.”

The industry’s proposal is controversial.

During the roughly 35-year history of fish farming in Canada, various local governments have passed their own rules to govern it.

The industry contends this has caused a “reactive and inefficient” patchwork of regulations.

But some ecologists and fisheries groups oppose the expansion of aquaculture.

They fear that fish farms can hurt the local ecology and damage nearby fisheries.

Eugene O’Leary, president of the Eastern Fishermen’s Federation of Grand Manan, N.B., said he thinks there’s a place for fish farms but he’s opposed to removing the industry from the oversight of the Fisheries Act. “As harvesters, we’ve been fighting for years to ensure the environmental studies and everything else is done properly,” he said.

“We wouldn’t want someone to get away with not having to meet those same regulations.”

O’Leary also said it is difficult and complicated for residents to launch complaints against a fish farm.

The federal government has said it has no immediate plans to create an Aquaculture Act but is looking at merging and streamlining regulations.

In its most recent federal budget, the government announced $57.5 million over five years to reform the aquaculture regulatory regime. It said it is open to all options in the long term.

Salmon appeared Tuesday in Ottawa at the House of Commons Committee on International Trade, which is studying the effects of the Canada-Europe free trade agreement.

She said the deal will not have a great effect on the aquaculture industry, at least for now, because fish farms are already selling everything they produce.

The number of fish farms in Canada grew steadily in the 1980s and ’90s but has stalled since then.

Most major aquaculture players are international companies that are choosing to invest in countries other than Canada because of Canada’s strict regulations, Salmon argued.

She said loosening the rules could stoke new investment and give the industry the capability of selling more product to Europe.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Fish-farm firm still focused on Atlantic salmon in B.C. despite shift in Chile November 30, 2013 VANCOUVER - One of the world's largest aquaculture companies is betting future economic growth in Chile on a "robust" species of salmon native to the Pacific but will continue to raise the controversial Atlantic salmon on its British Columbia farms.

Norwegian-based Cermaq has released plans for its economic growth in the South American country, saying coho salmon will become a key component of future growth.

The Chilean industry's Atlantic salmon farms have suffered significant losses due to a strain of infectious salmon anaemia in recent years, and the company said in a news release that coho are robust, less affected by disease and sea lice than their Atlantic cousins or trout, and as a result cost less to farm.

But the company's farms along B.C.'s West Coast will continue to raise Atlantic salmon despite criticism — from environmentalists and in a report on the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye fishery — about the negative impact the Atlantic salmon farms have on wild Pacific fish.

"We're licensed to grow Atlantic salmon," said Grant Warkentin, a spokesman for Cermaq Canada. "That's what the customers want and that's what the company will keep doing."

Editorial Comment: Consumers are becoming aware of the public health and environmental risks associated with raising and consuming salmon raised in open pen feedlots.

Cermaq operates 27 ocean and three fresh-water sites in B.C. waters.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Statistics published by the Environment Ministry in B.C. say the province exported $291 million of farmed Atlantic salmon in 2012, down from $320 million in 2010 and nearly $314 million in 2011.

In comparison, the ministry said B.C. exported $11.2 million of farmed chinook in 2012, and $1.1 million of farmed coho that year.

Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, said the United States is the main market for Atlantic salmon, although the domestic market remains strong and is growing, and companies are selling fish to China, Japan and Korea.

Editorial Comment: Public health and environmental risks are far more critical than providing a subpar product with “milder flavor”

"It's got a milder flavour, so it has broad appeal in the marketplace," she said.

Karen Wristen, executive director of the Living Oceans Society, said she suspects the problem Cermaq is experiencing worldwide is that Atlantic salmon have been treated for sea lice infection for so long that the lice are now resistant to treatment.

"So if they can find fish that are resistant to sea lice then they escape the problem for a period of time, until the sea lice begin to attack the coho as well."

Wristen said the society's focus remains on protecting wild salmon, and that closed-containment systems are the only way to effectively isolate wastes and parasites produced on the farms.

Jay Ritchlin, a spokesman for the David Suzuki Foundation, said sea lice and Atlantic salmon have been a problem in B.C. He said the concern is that farms amplify sea lice in places where young juvenile wild salmon don't normally find them, the lice are too much for the young salmon and, as a result, impact their populations.

Ritchlin said while the farms have become a little better at managing lice lately, companies are also more dependent on chemicals to contain the problem.

Justice Bruce Cohen found in his report on the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run in 2009 that the fish faced a "likelihood of harm" from disease and pathogens on farms, especially in the Discovery Islands northeast of Campbell River, between Vancouver Island and the province's mainland.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association, however, has provided regular updates on sea lice numbers for the Okisollo/Hoskyn channels in the Discovery Islands.

The association said in June that of the nine farm sites in the two channels, three were operational the previous month, and one site owned by Marine Harvest Canada at Cyrus Rocks was harvested.

The "treatment threshold" was three lice per fish, and at Cyrus Rocks the count was less than one per fish, the association said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 EU to reopen salmon farm inquiry Request for ‘redress for maladministration’ filed against Department of Agriculture November 25, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems An EU inquiry into the prevalence of sea lice around salmon farms and their impact on wild salmon, which was closed in September 2012, is to be reopened.

The reopening of the inquiry follows complaints that information from State agency Inland Fisheries Ireland on the scale of damage caused to wild fish from lice associated with salmon farms, was withheld by the Department of Agriculture.

The EU initially sought information on the scale of the sea lice issue from Ireland as part of a larger EU study as far back as 2009.

Friends of the Irish Environment complained to the EU that a key report from the Inland Fisheries Ireland had been “suppressed” by the Department of Agriculture, which handled Ireland’s response to the Commission.

Friends of the Irish Environment said the Inland Fisheries Ireland report was critical of the effect of salmon farms on the prevalence of sea lice and the failure of Ireland’s programme to control the spread of sea lice.

This evidence was not included in the Department of Agriculture’s final submission in 2011, which preferred other evidence from the Marine Institute.

The Marine Institute claimed wild salmon suffered only a 1 per cent mortality rate from sea lice.

In 2012 the EU closed its investigation.

Friends of the Irish Environment subsequently submitted a complaint for “redress for maladministration” to the Office of the Ombudsman, which launched an investigation. The Friends also complained to the EU and to the EU Ombudsman’s Office.

The Friends said the Department of Agriculture may have a conflict of interest, as it is currently the licensing authority for and promoter of a large scale salmon farm in Galway Bay. The controversial 456 hectare site project ear-marked for the lee of the Aran Islands, is being opposed by a coalition of game anglers.

In addition to the reopening of the initial EU inquiry, the EU Ombudsman’s office has also said it is investigating the events, as is the Ombudsman’s Office in Ireland.

A comment was not immediately available from the Department of Agriculture this morning.

Ireland has until the January 15th to reply to the Commission.

Environmental and angling groups last week launched a Boycott Farmed Salmon for Christmas campaign at the Good Food Ireland awards in Dublin.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Rolls-Royce Builds a Salmon Tanker November 27, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A boat built for fish would seem to be a technology whose time will never come. But Rolls-Royce is designing one. for salmon, to be specific.

The vessel, a “live fish carrier,” is a boxy 250-foot boat with a high-wave-piercing bow, to be built for Bakkafrost, a Danish salmon producer. The ship will carry salmon—and enough water for them to swim in—from the open-ocean fish farms where they grow up to the factories where they will be turned

“it sounds like a luxury cruise, but with death and dismemberment at the end”

into fillets and steaks.

Live fish carriers are not a new technology, but as fish farming spreads, the ships are getting more common—and bigger and more technologically advanced. The fjorded coasts of Scandinavia increasingly are lined with salmon farms, many of them in remote locations far from processing plants, and keeping the fish alive in transit ensures freshness far better than killing and freezing them.

Monrad Hide, a vice president of customer management at Rolls-Royce based in Aalesund, Norway, estimates that there are 30 to 35 live transport ships plying the waters around Norway. Bakkafrost’s operations are in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago belonging to Denmark but located halfway to Greenland.

Bakkafrost is paying Rolls-Royce $9.4 million to design and equip the ship, which will be built at the Tersan shipyard in Turkey and delivered in May 2015. The vessel will be among the largest of its kind ever built. Inside are three holds that together can hold 3,000 cubic meters of water. That’s enough, Rolls-Royce says, to comfortably transport 450 metric tons of fish. The salmon are sucked up into the ship through giant crane-borne plastic hoses 60cm in diameter, and offloaded the same way. Inside the holds, the water is steadily circulated and filtered and oxygenated, and each fish will have room to swim about.

The gilled passengers, Hide says, need to be comfortable, or else the quality of the resulting flesh suffers and much of the advantage of transporting them live disappears: “You don’t want to stress the fish, you want to have a very calm fish before you process it.” The way he describes it, it sounds like a luxury cruise, but with death and dismemberment at the end.

Editorial Comment: This design, with circulating sea water, seems like a great way to distribute salmon diseases and sea lice to wild salmon and trout along this ship’s route.

100 % Bovine Excrement

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Climate Change

The international community is unimpressed with Canada's environmental record, which for some includes the oilsands industry in Alberta.

 Canada’s real international shame — and it’s not Ford: Burman Canada has become the target of unprecedented international condemnation as one of the world’s worst polluters.

November 23, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems When will this horrid scandal end? Can someone please turn the channel? Shamed on the world stage and ridiculed by many, Canada has been exposed in recent days as a country with political leadership that is greedy, self-indulgent, incompetent and dismissive of our children, as well as woefully captive of special interests.

And I’m not referring to Rob Ford. His 15 seconds of fame — as “The Crack-smoking Mayor Who Knocked Down Granny,” as London’s tabloids described him — will end one day. Just keep breathing deeply.

I mean, in tabloid terms, another story: “The Short-Sighted Canadian Government That Robbed Our Children.” And, sadly, its legacy may never end.

What makes it worse is that this comes at a time when the government of Stephen Harper faces criticism for blackening Canada’s reputation in foreign policy in other areas as well.

Although it hasn’t received the media attention of the Ford soap opera, Canada in the past week has been the target of unprecedented international condemnation as one of the world’s worst polluters.

These reports have coincided with a major UN climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland.

One after another, accusations have been directed at the Harper government for being an international deadbeat when it comes to climate change and the environment.

The Washington-based Center for Global Development ranked Canada dead last among the 27 wealthy nations it assessed in terms of environmental protection. Every other country has made progress except Canada, according to the group.

A report issued this week by the Europe-based German watch and Climate Action Network placed Canada at the bottom of an international list of countries in tackling greenhouse-gas emissions, ahead of only Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.

By any measurement, this is not how most Canadians want their country to be seen internationally in an area so crucial to Canada as the environment. This challenges the conventional wisdom — often reflected in current political debate and media coverage — that Canadians have tired of the environment and climate change as public policy issues.

According to a new survey released last Monday, Canadians increasingly believe — six in 10 — that climate change is real and caused by human activity, which is the highest level since 2007. But they are losing faith in government to address the issue. The survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research and the David Suzuki Foundation.

These results were broadly consistent with another national survey released in early November that showed that three out of four Canadians were concerned about climate change but many were critical of how the federal government handled the issue. The poll was sponsored by the Canada 2020 think tank and the University of Montreal, and was conducted by Leger Marketing.

The Canadian government’s handling of climate change is part of a pattern. Domestic political calculations here in Canada — rather than any high-minded sense of Canada’s international obligations — seem to drive the Harper government’s foreign policy decisions.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems How else to explain Canada’s unquestioning support of the Israeli government? The price of that has been to relegate Canada to irrelevance in the Middle East.

How else to explain Canada’s abrupt decision a year ago to pull its embassy out of Iran? The price of that has been to eliminate any possibility Canada can be a factor in the current nuclear negotiations.

Even Britain is now taking steps to reconcile with Iran.

How else to explain Harper’s decision to boycott the recent Commonwealth conference in Sri Lanka in response to pressure from Canada’s Tamil community? The price of that was to sideline Canada from the human rights debate at the conference. In contrast, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who attended the conference, was able to challenge directly the Sri Lankan government for its handling of the Tamil minority.

The Rob Ford scandal has been a genuine black eye for Canada. His continuing presence on the political scene is as mystifying to foreigners as it is embarrassing to Canadians. But one day, thankfully, Ford will be gone.

In a variety of areas including climate change, the damage being done by the Harper government to Canada’s global reputation is a stain that will stay with us for much longer.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Energy production : Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Wind

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands

 ALL the tarsands money and all the tarsands men

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Toxic Lakes From Tar-Sand Projects Planned for Alberta November 22, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Canada is blessed with 3 million lakes, more than any country on Earth -- and it may soon start manufacturing new ones. They’re just not the kind that will attract anglers or tourists.

The oil sands industry is in the throes of a major expansion, powered by C$20 billion ($19 billion) a year in investments. Companies including Syncrude Canada Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. affiliate Imperial Oil Ltd. are running out of room to store the contaminated water that is a byproduct of the process used to turn bitumen -- a highly viscous form of petroleum -- into diesel and other fuels.

By 2022 they will be producing so much of the stuff that a month’s output of wastewater could turn an area the size of New York’s Central Park into a toxic reservoir 11 feet (3.4 meters) deep, according to the Pembina Institute, a nonprofit in Calgary that promotes sustainable energy.

To tackle the problem, energy companies have drawn up plans that would transform northern Alberta into the largest man-made lake district on Earth. Several firms have obtained permission from provincial authorities to flood abandoned tar sand mines with a mix of tailings and fresh water.

Syncrude began work this summer on Base Mine Lake, which when complete will measure 2,000 acres. It says the reservoir will eventually replicate a natural habitat, complete with fish and waterfowl. As many as 30 so-called end-pit lakes are planned, according to Alberta’s Cumulative Environment Management Association, a private-public partnership.

‘All Guesswork’ Green groups are alarmed. The industry’s spotty environmental record drew global attention in 2008 when some 1,600 ducks died in a tailings pond belonging to Syncrude. Provincial authorities introduced regulations the next year governing the storage of fluid waste from oil sands. A June report from Alberta’s energy regulator, though, said several companies aren’t meeting the more stringent targets.

“There’s no way to tell how the ecology of these lakes will evolve over time,” says Jennifer Grant, director of oil sands at Pembina. “It’s all guesswork at this point. It’s reckless.”

One big concern surrounding end-pit lakes is that the contaminated water will spread through the boreal ecosystem, the tract of trees and marshland that stretches around the top of the world from Canada to Russia and Scandinavia. Boreal forests store almost twice as much carbon as tropical forests.

‘Russian Roulette’ In October communities bordering Canada’s Athabasca River were cautioned not to drink from the waterway after a breach in a coal tailings storage pond dumped 1 billion liters (264 million gallons) of contaminated water into an area west of Edmonton.

“We’re playing Russian roulette with a big part of an important ecosystem,” says David Schindler, an ecology professor at the University of Alberta.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Nothing is going to grow in that soup of toxic elements except perhaps a few hydrosulfide bacteria.

And all of the unforeseen events are being downplayed.”

This summer, Syncrude began filling in a mine 30 miles north of Fort McMurray. Toxic slurry is being topped with fresh water from a dam to a depth of 16 feet, the level required to force tailings particles to remain at the bottom, according to Cheryl Robb, a company spokeswoman.

She says that in trials involving test ponds, Syncrude’s scientists discovered naturally occurring microbes in tailings that help break down some of the pollutants. The reservoirs eventually developed ecosystems, including insects, amphibians and fish. But the largest test pond was 4 hectares -roughly 1/200th the size of Syncrude’s lake.

‘We’re Confident’ “The big question we have is how long will it take before the water is clean, how long is it going to take before the littoral zones develop and the shoreline vegetation builds up?” Robb says. “But we’re confident in the technology.”

One need not look far to see what could go wrong with this containment strategy. Some 400 miles south of Calgary lies the Berkeley Pit, a 900-foot-deep lake in Montana that began forming after copper mining ceased in 1982 and groundwater began filling the gaping hole.

The water, loaded with heavy metals and as acidic as lemon juice, now threatens to spill over into local river basins, according to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.

Reclamation Strategy Canada boasts the world’s third-largest reserves of bitumen after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. So any effort to mitigate the pollution that results from mining the fossil fuel must by necessity be grand in scope, says Dan Wicklum, chief executive of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, an industry group based in Calgary.

“Large-scale issues require large-scale approaches,” he says, adding that Cosia has encouraged technology-sharing with the goal of improving the industry’s environmental record. “Companies are working together in ways the world hasn’t seen.”

That’s precisely what’s bothering one money manager.

“I’m alarmed that these companies are relying on this for a reclamation strategy,” says Jamie Bonham, who’s in charge of extractives research at NEI Investments in Vancouver.

“We’re putting a lot of eggs in one basket. Imagine the costs if it doesn’t work.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Oh Canada….

Syncrude's oil sands upgrader facility located north of Fort McMurray, Alberta

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Oil: Leave it in the ground

 Science Says: Stop Tar Sands and Arctic Drilling Now December 11, 2013 The scientific community widely agrees that increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will increase average global temperatures. And in order to avoid a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius, the majority of “proved reserves,” need to stay in the ground, according to a report by researchers with the University College London Institute for Sustainable Resources.

Researchers found that “The widespread development of unconventional oil resources is incompatible with a de-carbonized energy system.”

This means that risky, unconventional hydrocarbons and the processes by which they are extracted, including US shale oil, Canadian tar sands, Venezuela’s heavy crude, and Brazil’s pre-salt oil reserves, are not the solution to the world’s future energy needs, as the oil and gas industry and its proponents would suggest.

The report, Un-burnable Oil: An Examination of Oil Resource Utilisation in a Decarbonised Energy System, is set to be published in the journal Energy Policy in January. In the paper, researchers examine the volumes of oil that we cannot afford to use up during the transition to a low-carbon global energy system. Researchers concluded that “the large volumes of oil currently considered to be reserves cannot be produced before 2035” if there is to be a chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, A large disconnect appears to exist between policies permitting exploration in new areas, particularly in Arctic and deepwater areas, and pledges to restrict temperature rises to 2°C.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The continued licensing of new areas for oil exploration is only consistent with declared intentions to limit CO2 emissions and climate change if the majority of fields that are discovered remain undeveloped, which fatally undermines the economic rationale for their discovery in the first place.

In other words, we can continue being beholden to the oil and gas industry and continue to “explore” dirty energy sources, but there is no point in doing so in light of the global commitment to limit the average global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, a target agreed upon in Copenhagen in 2009.

Researchers examined two scenarios, one that incorporated a hypothetical “widespread and rapid adoption of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in both the electricity and industry sectors,” and one in which no CCS existed.

Aside from reserves, the paper examines four other key types of oil resources. In all cases examined, CCS made little difference on the amount of resources that could be exploited in keeping with the global average temperature rise limit.

Key Points of the Paper: Overview: Globally, 600 Gb of oil reserves “must remain unused by 2035” in a scenario where CCS is unavailable. That is equal to about 45 percent of available reserves. Even in a hypothetical scenario where “widespread and rapid adoption” of CCS occurs, 500 Gb would still have to remain unused by 2035 in order for there to be a chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to 2°C. Arctic oil: “The development of Arctic regions is largely inconsistent” with the global average temperature rise limit of 2°C, even with CCS. Arctic oil could play only “minor role” even in a scenario with widespread and rapid adoption of CCS. The report also states that “it may be reasonable to classify Arctic resources as ‘un-burnable.’”

Light tight/shale oil: Though called a potential “game-changer” by some in the industry, research shows that “light tight oil does not rise nearly as rapidly as currently projected by some sources.”

Although the paper does not directly address the debate over whether shale oil extraction, also known as horizontal drilling/fracking, researchers state their “results suggest that any parallel ‘shale oil’ revolution would not be at all helpful in the transition to a low-carbon energy system.”

Deepwater resources: On a global scale, 40 percent of deepwater resources “that are yet to be found must remain undeveloped, which rises to 55% if CCS is not available.” As with Arctic oil, the paper questions the rationale of ongoing exploration into deepwater resources, the majority of which could not be burned even if they were discovered.

Researchers point out that “without CCS there are next to no new natural bitumen or extra heavy oil capacity additions,” and with CSS, production of bitumen and extra heavy oil could only increase from current levels if there was a hypothetical “rapid de-carbonization of the energy input required for their production.”

The paper also points out that the cumulative production of both Canadian bitumen and Venezuelan heavy crude are “significantly below” their estimated reserves; however, if the “declared ‘proved’ reserves of these countries were to be believed, then 80% Canadian reserves and 92% Venezuelan reserves must remain in the ground.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Megaloads Coming To Eastern Oregon Roads November 21, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems On Nov. 24 massive loads of tar sands equipment — some as long as a football field — will hit the roads of rural Eastern Oregon, traveling from Umatilla through the small towns of Prairie City and John Day to Homedale, Idaho. Activists, Native Americans, rural dwellers and more have been fighting the so-called megaload shipments for three years now in Idaho and Montana, and now the fight has come to Oregon.

A press release from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) warning Thanksgiving-week travelers that roads will be held up for 20 minutes at a time says the megaloads are of “water purification equipment and parts.”

According to the Blue Mountain Eagle, Oregon-based shipping company Omega Morgan confirmed that “the shipments would be parts of giant evaporators, equipment used in power generation and oil sands refinery processes.” The route goes from the Port of Umatilla, east to Pendleton, then south on Hwy. 395 to Mount Vernon and east through John Day and Prairie City on Hwy. 26.

The Canadian tar sands are massive open pit mines that opponents say destroy forests and poison land, water and people in the oil-extraction process. The controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship the dirty tar sands crude across the U.S., and a recent increase in oil-by-rail and oil export proposals in the Northwest are related to climate change-inducing tar sands mining.

In August, the Nez Perce Tribal Council was arrested protesting the megaloads through their lands.

Local Native American climate change activist Kayla Godowa Tufti says, “All four Columbia River Treaty Tribes, Umatilla, Yakama, Warm Springs and Nez Perce, issued a resolution opposing the development of the Canadian tar sands oil and the ‘megaloads’ of equipment they require, in August of this year.” She adds, “Though Omega Morgan maintains these evaporators are destined for Nevada, it’s obvious to many of us that this is a blatant lie. From extraction to export, we do not want this destructive industry in our homelands, nor our river. No compromise, no question.”

Holly Zander, a press representative for Omega Morgan, says the company reached out to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, but the route does not cross tribal lands. It does go through national forest lands. Zander says the loads will not move on the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to ODOT, the first load of water purification equipment and its transport vehicle will be 380 feet long, 23 feet wide and 19 feet tall. The height means the loads cannot be transported on most major highways as they won’t fit under overpasses.

Trish Weber of All Against the Haul, which successfully fought megaloads in Montana, says, “This plan exemplifies the arrogance of Big Oil in thinking that Oregonians will subsidize their transportation costs after they were turned back in Idaho.” She says that Oregonians will “pick up the tab in the form of inconvenience at best and risks to safety and infrastructure at worst.” Weber points out that it was an oversized load carrying housing for drilling equipment that knocked down the I-5 bridge over Washington’s Skagit River last year.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The transport company in that instance was Mullen Trucking, a frequent shipper of tar sands equipment. “All other industries build their equipment to fit on our highways, and there is no reason Big Oil shouldn’t either — their desire for profits doesn’t put them above the rules,” she says.

The current load of General Electric water evaporating equipment is scheduled to begin moving Nov. 24, and Christy Jordan, ODOT’s permit manager and freight mobility coordinator, says a permit will not be issued before Nov. 22. Weber says, “ODOT needs to refrain from issuing permits until these applications have undergone a thorough review process, including input from the public.”

Tom Strandberg of ODOT tells EW, “My understanding is that three loads will be part of this permit.

There may be requests to begin moving additional loads in the future.” He says some fixtures along the route will have to be moved to allow the loads to pass.

Strandberg says representatives of Omega Morgan have been invited to answer questions at the regularly scheduled South East Area Commission on Transportation meeting in Ontario, Ore., on Nov. 25, and an earlier meeting was held in Grant County Nov. 18.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide, which has been protesting and documenting megaloads, is planning “six days of direct action” against the Oregon loads. The group will be joined by 350 Corvallis, Portland Rising Tide and other members of an anti-Keystone XL and anti-fossil fuel infrastructure coalition. For more information go to wildidahorisingtide.org.

Update: The Blue Mountain Eagle is reporting that the loads have hit a snag. The paper is reporting that "Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) says industrial hauler Omega Morgan may have to wait at least two weeks for line work that’s needed before it can begin its controversial megaload transport through Eastern Oregon."

Update 2: Loads appear to be under way after all.

Dianne Hunchuk:

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This load is a 900,000 lb. water purifier bound for the Alberta Tar Sands. It will be making its way through Oregon, into Idaho, Montana and Alberta Omega Morgan is a shipping company based near Portland, OR and is profiting greatly off the tar sands. They have been working to establish a viable route from the Columbia River to the tar sands in order to import equipment built overseas.

This is an opportunity to confront the tar sands expansion on our home turf and as climate justice activists we must take the opportunity.

The company and state have either not or only nominally consulted the Umatilla and Warm Springs Tribes and Oregon citizens in rushed decisions about this colossal venture that could degrade public infrastructure and establish a “high and wide” corridor for industrial shipments to the most destructive and outmoded, fossil fuel extraction undertaking on Earth: Alberta tar sands mining.

The Umatilla Tribe has officially stated that they oppose the shipment.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 This Is What Happens When a Pipeline Bursts in Your Town Watch Video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Creeks and vegetations devastated as a result of spills from oil thieves in the Niger Delta

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Nigeria Oil Spill Coats River As Hundreds Of Yearly Leaks Continue To Devastate Ecosystem December 2, 2013 YENAGOA, Nigeria - A large oil spill near Nigeria's Brass facility, run by ENI, has spread through the sea and swamps of the oil producing Niger Delta region, local residents and the company said on Monday.

ENI said it was not yet possible to determine the cause of the spill.

There are hundreds of leaks every year from pipelines that pass through the delta's creeks, damaging the environment and the profits of oil companies including ENI and Royal Dutch Shell , especially when production has to be deferred.

Vast stretches of the delta's unique mangrove swamps are blackened and dead from oil pollution.

"During loading operations on a tanker on Nov. 27, an oil spill in the sea was seen. Operations were immediately suspended and resumed only after it was verified that the vessel's structures were not damaged and were not leaking," the company said in an emailed statement.

Nigerian legislators are considering a law to impose new fines on operators responsible for oil spills, a measure that could land major foreign companies with penalties running into tens of millions of dollars a year.

Francis Clinton Tubo Ikagi, chairman of the Odioama fishing community in Bayelsa, where a large part of the Niger River fans out through creeks into the Atlantic, told journalists on the scene that he saw a large oil slick on Nov. 20.

"I saw a very thick layer of crude oil on the river," he said. "The community is affected seriously. Our women and men whose main livelihood source is fishing are complaining bitterly to us that the whole river is full of oil."

Many oil spills are caused by theft and pipeline sabotage, a crime committed daily in the Niger Delta, where millions live in poverty. A number of spills are also caused by loading accidents or decrepit infrastructure.

Oil companies are required to fund the clean-up of each spill and usually pay compensation to local communities affected, if it was clearly the company's fault.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

A worker cleans up after China’s 2010 Dalian oil spill.

 Oil Pipeline Explodes In China, Killing 35 And Setting The Ocean On Fire November 22, 2013 An oil pipeline exploded in Qingdao in China on Friday, killing 35 people and injuring 166 by the latest count. The explosion spilled oil into the ocean, and temporarily shut down one of China’s largest crude import terminals.

The pipeline is owned by Sinopec Corp, China’s largest oil refiner, and connects Huangdao to Weifang in the northeastern province of Shandong. It began leaking oil into Qingdao’s streets and port early Friday morning. The pipeline was shut off about 15 minutes after the leak began, and workers began repairs. Then, around 10:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. Thursday EST) the oil caught fire and exploded in two locations.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

The underground pipeline’s explosion opened a hole in the road that swallowed at least one truck, according to Reuters, and oil seeped into utility pipes under Qingdao. Gas and oil exploded and caught fire over the sea, according to the Qingdao Environmental Protection Bureau, and barriers were set up to keep it from spreading further than the 32,000 square feet already contaminated.

It is as yet unclear how Sinopec’s Qingdao refinery, which processes 240,000 barrels per day of imported crude, would be affected.

China’s last major oil spill occurred in 2010 in Dalian, another northeastern port, when two pipelines exploded, spilling between 18 and 27 million gallons of oil into the Yellow Sea, at least as much as the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Deadly Sinopec pipeline blast in China raises questions in BC November 29, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems When Chinese energy giant Sinopec's leaking oil pipeline exploded and killed 55 people in Qingdao last Friday, the accident hit a nerve for some BC residents.

Sinopec has invested billions in Alberta's tar sands and holds a five per cent stake in the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. The Chinese state-owned company is also discussing investments in Kitimat LNG projects with Apache and Chevron and has plans to expand its shale gas operations in BC. Gerry Hummel, a member of Douglas Channel Watch, a group of residents who came together during the 2012 Enbridge hearings, said Kitimat would stand no chance if an accident like the blast in Qingdao took place near his community.

“If an oil spill happened further down our valley and the pipeline caught on fire, we'd be trapped," he said. "There's only one road out of here.”

He said he didn't know about Sinopec's safety standards in China, but that Enbridge's safety record is "pathetic".

"Sinopec's track record at home and abroad is less than desirable when it comes to pipeline safety," said Lake Cowichan resident Kevin Logan, who was a ministerial assistant to former premier and Minister of Energy Mines and Northern Development Dan Miller.

Sinopec has a checkered track record in Canada. In 2007, two Chinese temporary foreign workers brought to work in Alberta’s oil sands by Sinopec were killed when a tank’s structure collapsed on them.

The company pleaded guilty to three out of an unprecedented 53 charges laid by the Alberta government for breaching safety measures. Two years later, Sinopec was fined $1.5 million for the deaths.

Harvard University divested holdings in Sinopec stock in 2006 after finding that the company was complicit in genocide in Darfur and found to have violated human rights as it acquired assets in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The latest pipeline explosion in Qingdao adds to its bad record. Police detained nine Sinopec employees after the pipeline erupted.

But Sinopec is hoping to be a key gas player in Canada, with annual capacity targets of 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas by around 2020 to help feed China's growing demand for the cleaner fuel. It has also worked closely with ENN Canada Corp, a subsidiary of a Chinese gas company that is working to build LNG plants in Vancouver and Edmonton.

"There are few other pairs of countries like Canada and China that complement each other," said Feng Zhiqiang, chairman of Sinopec's main acquisition vehicle in North America, in an interview with Business News Network. Premier Christy Clark announced meanwhile that "Sinopec is now seriously pursuing investment for one or more projects in our province."

To facilitate more foreign investment, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has signed a signed a trade agreement with China known as the China-Canada Foreign Investment and Protection Agreement (FIPA). Although not yet ratified, Logan thinks the agreement could lead to less accountability to Chinese-owned companies working in Canada.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Vancouver asks for thorough oil-terminal study City wants state to consider more than 100 possible effects of terminal December 10, 2013 Vancouver (Washington) neighborhoods cut off from fire and police protection by increased train traffic. A highly volatile commodity traveling near homes. An industrial area prone to liquefying in an earthquake.

Those are among more than 100 areas of concern the city of Vancouver wants state regulators to include in their examination of the environmental impacts of a proposed oil-by-rail operation at the Port of Vancouver.

City officials on Monday presented to the City Council a draft 12-page document outlining Vancouver’s concerns about the proposal by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies to run a facility capable of handling as much as 380,000 barrels of crude per day for eventual conversion into transportation fuels. It would be the largest such operation in the Northwest.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The city will send its concerns to the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, as part of the council’s scoping process to decide what should be included in the environmental review of the project. The deadline for submitting remarks is Dec. 18.

Senior Planner Jon Wagner told city councilors that thousands of people have submitted comments to EFSEC. “I feel confident the project will be thoroughly reviewed,” he said.

Project opponents want the city to request a comprehensive environmental review and to oppose the project. They include Jim Eversaul, a Vancouver resident and retired U.S. Coast Guard chief engineer, who was among 11 people who spoke to city councilors last month. “It’s just not that many jobs for the price,” he said of the oil-handling facility.

The city’s concerns reflect many of those raised by opponents, including potential oil spills, detrimental impacts to the city’s waterfront redevelopment plan and climate change. But the city isn’t taking a position on the oil terminal, according to its scoping comments. Instead, the city “encourages EFSEC to require a full and comprehensive analysis of the probable, significant adverse environmental impacts of the entire project.”

In an email to The Columbian, Rebecca Boucher, a spokeswoman for Savage, said the company and Tesoro declined to comment for this story.

‘Entirely cut off’ The city’s scoping comments mark the latest step in what’s likely to be a yearlong regulatory process.

The EFSEC will make a recommendation to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has the final say over whether the oil terminal gets built.

In its comments, the city asks for an analysis of the “entire range” of impacts, not only of the oil terminal site itself but also of moving “the commodity to the port by rail and the shipping by oceangoing tanker on the Columbia River.”

Under the Tesoro-Savage plan, oil would be hauled to the port by train from North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation, where crude is extracted by hydraulic fracturing. The oil would be stored at the port and transferred to ships headed to U.S. refineries. The companies say the project’s benefits include about 250 temporary construction jobs, 120 full-time jobs and a significant boost to local and state tax revenues.

Noting the possibility of increased train traffic through Vancouver, the city asks state regulators to examine the cumulative impacts of the Tesoro-Savage plan, two other oil-by-rail proposals in Grays Harbor, a potash-by-rail export facility planned at the Port of Vancouver, and two coal-export proposals in Longview and near Bellingham, all of which involve more trains.

The city also asks state regulators to assess risks tied to the oil terminal and to analyze whether the effects on everything from neighborhoods and transportation to air, land and water will increase the need for public services.

“Some residential areas along the Columbia River could be entirely cut off from emergency services for extended periods of time and increased frequency due to the length of the unit trains and slow speeds of the trains in city limits, or from trains stopped waiting for other trains to move,” according to the city. “Emergency responders may have no alternative but to access these areas by boat. But such a response would be clearly inadequate for fire response or responses to criminal activity.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Bakken oil ‘highly volatile’ State regulators also should identify the potential risks of an oil-train explosion “and if and how those can be mitigated to nonsignificant levels,” the city says. Regulators also should review the federal government’s investigation into concerns surrounding the shipment of Bakken crude by train.

“Bakken crude oil is recognized as being highly volatile,” the city says. “The disaster at Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in which 47 lives were lost, demonstrates beyond question the danger posed by shipping this commodity through population centers.”

The city also says the oil terminal would be built “in an area identified to have a high risk of liquefaction in the event of an earthquake. The analysis needs to address this risk and its potential impacts.”

And state regulators should conduct “a full study” of the effects on the public of toxic air emissions from the oil terminal, the city says, including impacts “to those in poor health.”

The city points to its investments in a larger plan to redevelop Vancouver’s waterfront, including $45 million in transportation improvements. Noting that rail tracks border the waterfront site, the city asks state regulators to identify the oilterminal’s effects on the redevelopment plan, which calls for 3,300 residential units and 1 million square feet of commercial space on 32 acres of riverfront property.

In its comments about climate change, the city quotes Tesoro and Savage from their oil-terminal application. The companies say that while most scientists agree human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the climate, there are no analytical tools “or established procedures for evaluating climate impacts from individual projects.”

The city sees it differently, remarking that “although there is some controversy with this concept,” EFSEC’s environmental-impact review “should address the potential impacts to climate” of the oil terminal.

In a phone interview, Wagner, the senior planner, said the city thinks “the state ought to see if there is a way to measure it.” He added, “We want the state to define it.”

Fire department weighs in The city’s remarks to EFSEC include a section devoted to an extensive list of concerns and requests from the Vancouver Fire Department. The department’s requests include:

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An analysis of the “fire and life safety risk and probability of error based on volume of crude oil and transport type,” including risks to homes and businesses along the rail system and Columbia River.

An examination of the impacts on the fire department’s ability to respond to emergencies and an identification of “deficiencies and needed mitigations such as training or equipment.”

An evaluation of the proposed fire and spill protection systems for the proposed oil facilities.

An analysis of the design and construction of the oil storage tanks “in terms of the 2012 International Fire Code.”

Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said Tuesday she expects to seek outside expertise to help the fire department assess the proposed oil terminal’s impacts as part of the environmental review.

That’s not an unusual step, she said, given the complexity of the oil-handling facility. “It’s such a large project,” she said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Retired fisheries scientist Otto Langer and MLA Vicki Huntington take on Fraser River jet fuel plan

 MLA, Mayor turn up heat on Fraser River jet fuel, tanker plan November 27, 2013 A group of BC politicians and community leaders held an emergency meeting near the mouth of the Fraser River, in the Richmond community of Steveston, to voice their concerns about the plan to build a jet fuel terminal, tank farm and pipeline on the banks of Canada’s largest salmon river.

Independent MLA for nearby Delta South, Vicki Huntington, a vocal critic of the project in the Legislature, was joined by Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, retired DFO scientist Otto Langer, and the community group VAPOR in a final plea for the B.C. government to reject the Vancouver Airport Fuel Delivery Project.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Fraser River jet fuel project would mean tankers in salmon river The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office has been reviewing a $100 million proposal by the Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation (VAFCC) to build an 80-million-litre fuel terminal and tank farm on the South Arm of the Fraser River in Richmond and run a 15-kilometre pipeline to Vancouver International Airport. A decision is expected soon from the Ministry of Environment. Critics of the jet fuel project are concerned about the consequences of a spill into critical salmon habitat and the health risks to residents.

Said Brodie at the Tuesday press conference, “These are tankers that are 950 feet in length — that’s like three football fields long.”

They’re going to be loaded with jet fuel. They’re going to be regularly coming up the river, introducing an unnecessary risk to the people and to the city of Richmond.

The $100 million proposal from the Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation (VAFFC) involves an 80-million-litre fuel terminal and tank farm on the South Arm of the Fraser, connected to a new 15kilometre pipeline to pump fuel to the nearby Vancouver International Airport. It would supplement or replace a current pipeline from Chevron’s Burrard Inlet refinery and the use of tanker trucks. Chevron has seen its crude supply from the Trans Mountain Pipeline dwindle as owner Kinder Morgan moves to export more and more of its Alberta oil to other markets – something Chevron complained about to the National Energy Board last year.

The irony is that YVR is now seeking to import jet fuel from Asia, while Kinder Morgan exports unrefined oil to Asia.

Decision expected soon A decision on the project, which has stalled at various points over the past several years, is expected from BC Liberal Environment Minister Mary Polak by December 24. Huntington and other critics say alternatives to the plan have not been properly explored. Huntington charges: Unfortunately, our rubber-stamp EAO process has presented the Environment Minister with a Faustian bargain: By Christmas she must decide whether to trade catastrophic environmental risk for tanker access to the Asia-Pacific jet fuel markets.

The terminal, tank farm and pipeline would directly impact the local community, posing health risks and “introducing catastrophic risk to the globally-recognized Fraser River estuary,” says Huntington.

After several delays following its 2011 introduction, the proposal cleared a major hurdle with the October release of a pair of reports by the Ministry of Environment outlining best practices and industry standards and presenting the province’s marine spill response framework.

“The marine report is already in the news for raising red flags about B.C.’s spill response capacity,” says Huntington.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Yet even if B.C. surpasses world-class standards, our government knows no procedure in the galaxy could fully contain a large jet fuel spill in heart of the fragile Fraser River estuary. It would be a disaster…Just one gallon of jet fuel can spread up to 300 feet on the water’s surface. The Vancouver Airport Fuel Delivery Project would feature Panamax-class fuel tankers carrying over 10,000 gallons of fuel.

A pipeline or terminal incident would also threaten vital habitat from 5 million migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway, Huntington notes.

A jet fuel spill in the Slocan Valley this summer served to heighten concerns about the risks of this proposal for the Fraser.

An abandoned tanker carrying jet fuel for forestry helicopters battling summer fires lays overturned, leaking 33,000 litres of toxic fuel into the Slocan Valley’s Lemon Creek

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Fracking and Earthquakes December 9, 2013 There have been a number of studies linking earthquakes to fracking, which has boomed in the last six years. Like this most recent one by SMU in Texas. Or this one in Ohio. Or this one in the UK. Even Canada.

I am not a scientist, and maybe I am missing something here, but looking at earthquake activity in several states over the last decade yields an interesting result.

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In the last ten years there have been 162 earthquakes in Texas: 153 in the last six years.

In the last ten years there have been 691 earthquakes in Oklahoma: 669 in the last six years.

In the last ten years there have been 424 earthquakes in Arkansas: 407 in the last six years.

In the last ten years there have been 208 earthquakes in Colorado: 139 in the last six years.

In the last ten years there have been 43 earthquakes in Ohio: 27 in the last six years.

In the last ten years there have been 26 earthquakes in Pennsylvania: 19 in the last six years.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Can you guess which states have seen the biggest of the boom? I bet you can.

Again, I am not a scientist, so take this with a grain of salt. But, I am not aware of any other elephant in the room which could possibly explain this dramatic increase in seismic activity. It should be no surprise that studies are making the link anymore than energy companies are trying to deny or play it down.

UPDATE: In the last six years 60% of the earthquakes in Texas have been here in North Texas.

While www.earthquaketrack.com goes back 38 years, between 7-38 years ago there were no earthquakes here. None. Nada. Zilch. Zero. In fact, from 11-38 years ago there were only 61 earthquakes in all of Texas. In a six year span there were 50% more earthquakes here in North Texas than that 28 year period! Such a comforting fact to know as I gaze across the street from my home and look at a well.

Amazing Bird’s Eye View Of Texas Fracking

Amy Youngs: “Saw these strange new human-made landscapes on my flight from Sacramento to Houston.

Not farming, not subdivisions, but many miles of rectangular patches etched out of the earth, some with pools next to them, all with roads to them.

I doubt that people see these when driving on major roads – I never have – but they were very visible from a plane.

Welcome to your new landscape!”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Fracking the American Dream: Drilling Decreases Property Value November 13, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Drilling conflicts are almost always described in the context of their impacts on air, water and health.

But increasingly, as the drilling boom sweeps the country, another part of the drilling story is starting to bubble up in drilling hotspots like Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York, Wyoming and Texas.

Increasingly, oil and gas development is butting up against, and often trampling, the bedrock American principles of property rights and the value of one’s home. The map above shows all the shale gas in play in North America.

Industry estimates peg the number new wells that will be drilled across the U.S. over the next decade at more than 200,000. In this rush to tap once unreachable deposits, oil and gas development is pushing the boundaries of drilling. Innovations like fracking and horizontal drilling mean nothing is out of reach. Once the province of wide open spaces, drilling rigs now regularly inch up and even into communities that never anticipated having to address problems like round-the-clock noise, storage tanks, drums of toxic chemicals, noxious fumes, and pipelines near homes, schools, playgrounds and parks.

This clash of large-scale industrial activity and communities has surfaced a deep rift in the American landscape, where the legal doctrine of split estates allows one party to own mineral rights and someone else to hold the rights to soil and surface. With the oil and gas industry showing little selfrestraint in where drilling happens, and almost no regulatory or legal precedents to protect them from having industrial activity in their back yards, communities are fighting back. Increased truck traffic, chemicals, lights, noise, heavy equipment, noxious air emissions and water contamination are liabilities for landowners, to the point that communities in Colorado, New York and other states have taken matters into their own hands.

Feeling unprotected by weak state and oil and gas regulations—most of which were developed never contemplating drilling in urban and suburban landscapes—towns, cities and counties are instituting moratoria and bans on drilling within their borders. There are frackingrelated ballot measures in at least four Colorado communities this year.

But it’s not just “not-in-my-back-yard”-ism driving this reactive opposition.

The financial risks posed by drilling are real and substantial enough, for example, that banks and insurers are adopting guidelines that forbid mortgage loans or insurance coverage on properties affected by drilling. It’s a battle between oil and gas and the nest egg of countless Americans.

READ ENTIRE ECONEWS ARTICLE HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Coal

 Chuck Chiang: China’s new cap on coal use could hurt viability of proposed local coal terminals November 24, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The proposed construction of a new coal terminal at Fraser Surrey Docks is drawing the ire of environmental group Greenpeace.

That’s not surprising. What is unexpected is the angle from which Greenpeace is taking aim at the Port Metro Vancouver facility.

It is not using the increase on global carbon emissions and health consequences as its main argument that the terminal should not go ahead. Rather, it is on the grounds for which the terminal was proposed in the first place: economics.

Calvin Quek, Greenpeace East Asia’s Head of Sustainable Finance Program, recently visited the Pacific Northwest region. During this trip, Quek took aim at both the Metro Vancouver terminal and a similar facility proposed for Longview, Wash.

Quek argues additional terminals with the goal of shipping more coal to East Asia may be a waste of time — and money — for those building the terminals.

The reason, Quek said, is market economics; specifically, the coal market in China.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems China’s dominant role in the global coal market has long been recognized. The country uses coalfired power plants to supply about 70 per cent of its massive energy demand, and the rapid rise of the Chinese economy in the past decade has accelerated industries hunger for coal.

Despite its own rich coal resources (it is the world’s largest coal producer, with production reaching 3.5 billion tones in 2011), rapid industrialization and construction development pushed Beijing to become a net importer in 2009.

Today, China is the world’s top coal importer. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China imports roughly 10 per cent of its coal, and the country accounts for about 47 per cent of global consumption — almost as much as the rest of the world combined.

But the tide against coal use in China appears to be changing, Quek said.

The heavy smog that often envelops China’s urban industrial regions has made headlines, and Beijing is working hard to reverse the trend of heavy-polluting power production as an integral part of its economic reformation.

“The air quality story took many observers by surprise,” said Quek, who is based in Beijing. “The issue has hit the forum of public consciousness (in China), and officials are under tremendous pressure to bring coal consumption down.”

Quek said China’s new federal energy plan now includes caps on coal use for future development.

The caps are concentrated in the country’s three main economic regions: Beijing/Hebei province, Shanghai and surrounding areas, and the Pearl River Delta in Southern China (near Hong Kong).

The plan is aimed at addressing the growing concerns of China’s growing middle class, whose calls for cleaner air have been on the rise in recent years.

The cap will limit primary energy consumption at four billion metric tons of standard coal by 2015, potentially reducing annual coal consumption by 83 million tons. And with ample resources already within its borders, Quek questions whether coal projects — such as the one in Surrey — aren’t facing a shrinking market before they are built.

“China’s new energy plan means that, sometime in 2013, the country will have seen a peak in coal demand,” he said, noting that projected consumption after the cap may be lower by as much as 500 million tonnes compared to original projections.

“I think you have to go back to the drawing board if you plan to sell more coal to China … putting the environmental question aside, the real question is whether it’s still economically viable.”

At the Communist party policies meeting earlier this month, Beijing committed to more harshly penalizing polluters, while at the same time granting free markets a more decisive role in determining how China will utilize natural resources and create a more sustainable economic model. This also means, potentially, that large Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) — who had been the backbone of China’s rapid growth — will face more scrutiny in its use of traditional energy sources like coal.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems But whether the caps and regulations will dramatically curb China’s coal consumption is still debatable.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, a transition of a power system heavily reliant on coal to one that is more diverse will take years. Importing gas is expensive, and significant domestic gas production is still a ways away. Nuclear power, meanwhile, is not supported by the public since the devastating Fukushima station accident in Japan after from the Sendai tsunami of 2011.

Most importantly, while the recently projected growth of coal consumption growth in China is now to be decreased, China’s overall energy demands continue to rise. That means coal consumption — in absolute terms — could still rise, despite the caps limiting its growth rate.

But Quek said coal is clearly on the downswing in the Chinese market, given Beijing’s willingness to create a domestic market for alternative energy such as solar power and its plan to eventually dominate the global sustainable energy industry. He added that the industries most affected by the coal cap — cement, steel and other heavy industries — are already dealing with overcapacity in recent years, and Beijing’s plan to cap coal consumption coincides with its plans to reign in the economy to a more sustainable, efficient level.

Which, he said, brings the question back to the coal terminals here in B.C. and Washington state.

“You really have to think about if it makes sense to have these terminals in place, and then China potentially not wanting it (foreign coal) anymore,” Quek said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

100 km long leak of coal mine sludge, making its way down the Athabasca River. This photo taken on Nov. 11 or 12, near the confluence of the Lesser Slave River. One billion litres of sludge leaked from the closed Obed Mountain Mine near Hinton on Oct. 31.

 Massive coal mine leak damaged fisheries, habitat Alberta Environment admits sediment poses risk to some species November 12, 2013 EDMONTON - Likely the largest spill of its kind in Canadian history, the massive leak of coal slurry into the Athabasca River near Hinton has caused damage to habitat and poses a risk to certain fish species.

Alberta Environment Thursday acknowledged the one-billion-litre spill has affected fish habitat.

Meanwhile, Fisheries and Oceans Canada biologists and conservation staff are inspecting a 25kilometre stretch from the point of the release into Apetowun Creek to the Athabasca River, a breeding area for Alberta’s only strain of native rainbow trout.

Federal officials have met with managers at Sherritt International to discuss cleanup and mitigation efforts. A spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans said the investigation is expected to take several months.

“The sediment release did result in impacts to the fisheries and habitats,” Jessica Potter, a spokeswoman for Alberta Environment, said Thursday.

“Our fisheries biologists have done a preliminary inspection, but a full assessment won’t be possible until spring because winter weather is settling in. A larger assessment is needed to determine the full scope and extent of impacts.”

The sediment release affected the Apetowun/Plante Drainage and Athabasca Rivers, Potter said, adding, “These are trout-producing waterways.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Provincial records show that bull trout, rainbow trout, brook trout and other species have been found in Apetowun Creek and other tributaries affected by the spill. The bull trout is designated as a species at risk in Canada, and in recent years biologists have sought protection from the province for the native strain of rainbow trout.

Alberta Environment officials are working with the company to determine how mine waste water full of clay, coal dust, dirt, sandstone and shale escaped from a containment pond at the Obed Mountain coal mine site on Oct. 31. Alberta Environment officials will not confirm if other contaminants were in the storage facility.

A Sheritt spokeswoman said no solvents are used in the water management process at the Obed mine. The company uses flocculents, a thickening agent, Paula Myson said.

The company is unable to provide the list of chemicals it uses as recorded on the Material Safety Data Sheet filed with Alberta Environment, she added.

Earlier this week, Alberta Environment began testing the Athabasca River to determine if heavy metals and cancer-contributing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons had been introduced by the leak.

The department said samples taken in the spill’s immediate wake posed no health risk, but then later warned communities downstream not to draw water from the Athabasca River. Farmers were likewise advised not to allow livestock to drink.

Late Friday, Alberta Environment spokeswoman Nikki Booth said testing continues on a daily basis, with results likely available next week.

“We are working with AHS on the water test results,” Booth, noting the department is still warning people not to use water from the river.

Two other waste water ponds on the mine site are not leaking and there is no concern about the integrity of those impoundments, she added.

The U.S.-based environment group, Waterkeepers Alliance, said the Obed leak, the equivalent of about 264 million gallons, would rank as the second-largest coal slurry spill in American history. The largest occurred in 2000, when 309 million gallons tainted a river in Kentucky, said Donna Lisenby of the Waterkeepers Alliance’s coal section in the U.S. The Obed leak also far surpasses a 1972 slurry spill of 132 million gallons in West Virginia which is considered the second biggest in U.S. history, Lisenby added. The national U.S. database, called the Coal Impoundment Location and Information System, is run by industry partners and government agencies. Lisenby said she was unable to find a similar Canadian database, but given its size and the U.S. comparisons, the Oct. 31 spill is likely the biggest in Canadian history, she said.

A spokesman for Alberta’s Energy Regulator said the agency keeps records of Alberta spills, but not by volume. For that reason, Bob Curran said he could not identify Alberta’s largest spills.

In the U.S., companies are required to file a Material Safety Data Sheet that lists chemicals used in the mining process, Lisenby said in a telephone call from Boone, N.C. “Each coal mine is unique” in the process it uses, she said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “It can be as simple as using just water but in modern times more chemicals are used — coagulants, solvents that might include heavy metals,” Lisenby said. “It’s critical that those water tests are made public.

“Folks downstream need to know.”

At mid-afternoon Friday, Booth said a murky ribbon of pollution 113 km long was drifting with the current in the Athabasca River. The head of the plume was approximately 45 km north of Smith, while the tail was 15 km upstream of the Highway 33 Bridge at Fort Assiniboine.

Carl Hunt, a fisheries biologist for the province for 33 years, said Wednesday that he suspected significant damage had occurred in Apetowun Creek and other tributaries of the Athabasca. Among other things, sediment can coat the bottom and kill invertebrates upon which trout and other species feed.

“This sediment spill will hopefully raise public awareness,” said Hunt, who is now retired.

A biologist with Trout Unlimited Canada, Brian Meagher petitioned then environment minister Frank Oberle in 2010 for protection for Alberta’s lone native strain of rainbow trout. Nothing ever became of the request.

“If a spawning stream was affected by this spill it could definitely be a major issue,” Meagher said. mklinkenberg@edmontonjournal.com WHAT IS SLURRY? Slurry is waste water that is derived when raw coal is washed after being pulled from the ground.

When coal is excavated, it comes with copious amounts of dirt, mud and rocks attached. They are removed with water, and solvents and chemicals called flocculents can also be used.

SPILL CHRONOLOGY

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Oct. 31: Sherritt International reports a massive leak from a containment pond at its remediated Obed Mountain coal mine site in west-central Alberta northeast of Hinton. A plume of coal dust, sand, dirt, shale and other materials pours into Apetowun Creek and travels through a watershed for 25 km before reaching the Athabasca River. A day later, Alberta Environment notified downstream communities about the spill.

Nov. 4: Alberta Environment warns 10 communities downstream of the 1-billion-litre spill not to draw water from the Athabasca River. Farmers are also advised not to allow livestock to drink the water.

Nov. 5: Fisheries & Oceans Canada announces it is investigating potential violations under the Fisheries Act; Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen says no wildlife or habitats have been harmed.

Nov. 7: Alberta Environment acknowledges damage has occurred to habitat and fisheries.

Nov. 8: Alberta Environment announces the ban on drawing water continues; as of midday Friday the plume of pollutants stretches 113 km down the river.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Hydropower and water retention

 Billy Frank Jr. Commentary: Chehalis River Dam Threatens Treaty Rights December 6, 2013 As removal of two fish-blocking dams on the Elwha River dams nears its end, I’m scratching my head. Why is a proposal to build a brand-new dam on the Chehalis River watershed in Lewis County receiving serious consideration? And why is the Quinault Indian Nation being left out of the discussion?

There is no question that terrible flooding has occurred on the Chehalis during recent decades.

People’s lives and homes have been damaged and destroyed. Interstate 5 has been closed for days.

But much of that damage has been caused by encouraging development in flood-prone areas and by the unwillingness of short-sighted politicians to enact proper floodplain management systems. While a few entities have taken steps to restrict development in harm’s way from flooding, others have not.

Editorial Comment: In 2010, Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI) co-founders, Treichler and Wilcox, formally submitted the following resolutions to the Flood Authority:

 Immediate and permanent moratorium steep slope, clear cut logging  Immediate and permanent moratorium

on on

floodplain development

Building more dams is not the answer. Condemning an entire ecosystem and subjecting everyone who lives in the WGFCI also indicated the high probability that a proposed Chehalis River dam would face long basin to the long-term effects of a dam is not the best or the and expensive litigation. only way to fix the problem.

I thought we had learned our lessons about dams by now.

All over the country dams are being taken out to try to undo the damage they have done to critical natural processes.

Time and again, dams have been proven to kill fish and destroy the natural functions of the watersheds after they’re built.

WGFCI also recommended to the Flood Authority that the Quinault Indian Nation be included in all actions that could impact one or more of their federally-guaranteed Treaty Rights.

The Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and the State of Washington have arrogantly and irresponsibly ignored this input for nearly four years.

We need to be looking forward when it comes to natural resources management. Building a flood control dam on the Chehalis is backward thinking that doesn’t contribute to sustainability of our natural world. We need to do whatever we can to avoid damage before it is done.

Flood control dams prevent the river’s natural floodplain from doing its job to help reduce the effects of flooding. While a dam may reduce how often floods occur, it can’t prevent the biggest, most damaging floods from happening.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Chehalis River basin — the second largest in the state — already is heavily damaged. More than 1,000 failing and undersized culverts block access to more than 1,500 miles of salmon spawning and rearing habitat. A huge network of poorly maintained logging roads is loading silt into the river and smothering salmon egg nests.

At the same time, forest cover in the basin is quickly disappearing, reducing shade needed to keep stream temperatures low for salmon A dam would only make things worse. The only thing it would be certain to do is harm salmon and steelhead at every stage of their life cycles and damage natural functions that are vital to every living thing in the Chehalis Basin.

Unfortunately, the state of Washington refuses to recognize that as a co-manager with treatyreserved property rights to fish, hunt and gather in the Chehalis basin, the Quinault Indian Nation must be directly engaged in government-to-government discussions about flood control and measures to protect the health of the Chehalis Basin.

It is painfully clear that the Quinault’s treaty rights will suffer severely if a new dam is built. Yet the Chehalis Basin Flood Control Authority, which is due to make its recommendations on flood control measures this time next year, flatly refused to even allow the Quinault Nation to sit at the table.

Ongoing loss and damage of salmon habitat threatens tribal treaty rights.

Through the tribal Treaty Rights at Risk initiative, we are asking the federal government to protect our rights and lead a more coordinated effort to recover and protect salmon in the region. One of our recommendations is a requirement that federal funding for state programs and projects be conditioned to ensure the efforts are consistent with state water quality standards and salmon recovery plan goals. That’s what should be done on the Chehalis. Preconditions should be established before allowing any federal funding to be spent to study or begin permit review processes.

Photo credit: Natural Settings

As a start, commitments must be made to fully protect the ability of the Quinault Nation to exercise its treaty-protected rights by addressing harmful impacts on fish, wildlife and ecological processes.

All governments in the Chehalis Basin must be required to ensure that future development in flood prone areas is not allowed.

Federal agencies, the state of Washington, and the Chehalis Flood Control Authority need to sit down with the Quinault Nation. Together, they need to address flooding issues while also meeting the needs of the natural resources and everyone in the Chehalis basin whose culture, food and livelihoods depend on those resources.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Enbridge plans major private power project on fish-bearing river November 24, 2013 A numbered company owned by Enbridge, proponent of the Northern Gateway pipeline project, wants to build a major run-of-river power project on the same fish-bearing B.C. river where an earlier such project was rejected on environmental grounds.

A report by Canadian Projects Ltd. for 8056587 Canada Inc. — owned by Calgary-based Enbridge — notes that the proposed 120-megawatt Clore River run-of-river project would be located about 60 kilometres southeast of Terrace.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The river would be diverted through a 6.4-kilometre tunnel and then through a penstock (water pipeline) for the remaining 1.1 kilometres to a powerhouse before being returned to the river. A new 47-kilometre 230kilovolt transmission line will be required to connect the project to the existing BC Hydro electrical grid.

The report, dated July 2012, notes that chinook salmon, Dolly Varden trout, rainbow trout, and mountain whitefish are thought to live in the Clore River. “Fish screens or other design considerations may be required in order to avoid entrainment or other impacts to fish should they exist.”

The plan is to have project approvals by mid-2014 and the project operational in 2016, the report said, noting the watershed is located within the traditional territory of the Haisla, Skin Tyee, and Kitselas first nations.

Pat Moss, coordinator of Friends of Wild Salmon in Smithers, said the involvement of Enbridge “goes to show that the risks they pose to this region are more than just oil spills and it further illustrates the lack of transparency we have come to expect from the company.”

Editorial Comment:

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It’s unlikely that the Enbridge-proposed, hydropower project on a valuable fish rearing river in northwestern British Columbia is a coincidence.

This proposed project would be sited near the Enbridge-proposed Northern Gateway pipelines

The Clore River has important fisheries values and is highly valued by northwest residents,” said Moss, adding: “I predict this proposal will be rejected too.”

The waterway was the subject of an earlier controversial run-of-river proposal by C-Free Power Corp.

The company officially withdrew its plan after learning that “productive fish habitat is present throughout the entire length of the Clore River and that no barriers to migration exist,” project manager Lillian Zaremba said in a Feb. 4, 2009, letter to the province and others.

“We believe in developing only environmentally and socially responsible projects and will not pursue projects that create negative impacts on the environment or communities.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Site

C dam: BC Hydro’s plan pits need for power against threat to farmland and wildlife Battle rages for a piece of the Peace River Valley Watch video and read entire Vancouver Sun article HERE December 6, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 First Nations split over BC Hydro's Site C dam megaproject (with video) Some want to fight it; others want to negotiate for compensation worth millions

December 8, 2013 Watch video HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems THE PEACE RIVER — BC Hydro’s planned $7.9-billion Site C dam has caused a split among Treaty 8 First Nations over whether to fight the mega-project tooth and nail or participate in negotiations leading to compensation settlements.

As a joint review panel begins an environmental review of Site C Monday on behalf of the provincial and federal governments, four First Nations communities have banded together to fight the project — Doig River, Halfway River, Prophet River, and West Moberly.

“We don’t want it,” Doig councillor Kelvin Davis told The Vancouver Sun during a tour of traditional sites along the Peace River. “The land is more valuable to us the way it is. For this to be under water is unthinkable.”

Three other Treaty 8 First Nations — Blueberry River, Saulteau, and McLeod Lake — have agreed to negotiate for compensation and have been offered “impact benefit agreements,” confirmed Dave Conway, BC Hydro community relations manager in Fort St. John.

“BC Hydro remains prepared to enter into discussions with the four remaining First Nations,” he said.

Liz Logan, Tribal Chief with the Treaty 8 Tribal Association, said in response: "Negotiating a benefits agreement for Site C is incomprehensible because this project and its impacts violate our treaty rights and you cannot attach a dollar value to that."

She said that impacts from existing dams on the Peace River have not been addressed and that BC Hydro's tactic is "disrespectful to the people and families that felt the impacts of the past projects."

Impact benefit agreements are for First Nations whose “treaty rights may be adversely affected by the project in ways that cannot be fully avoided or otherwise mitigated,” Conway added. Compensation could involve money, land, employment and contracting of work.

BC Hydro agreements in recent years with two other native groups over historic damages associated with the W.A.C. Bennett dam, built in 1967, and the Williston reservoir hint at the sort of settlements that might be possible downstream on the Peace River at Site C. In a 2009 agreement, the Tsay Keh Dene received a one-time payment of $20.9 million — most of which was to be placed in an endowment fund — and annual payments of about $2 million to support a wide range of social, cultural and governance programs.

Other benefits include “direct award contracting opportunities,” assurances regarding annual road maintenance and capacity funding to allow the community to engage in discussions regarding impacts of new BC Hydro projects on the community.

In 2008, the Kwadacha First Nation received a one-time payment of $15 million and annual payments of $1.6 million. In both cases, the settlements followed legal action by the First Nations.

With aboriginals holding a powerful position on resource development in B.C., are such payments an attempt to buy their support?

“If it’s all negative impact to them, I don’t think I’d be supporting the project either,” Bill Bennett, Minister of Energy and Mines, responded in an interview. “All we’re trying to do is put them in a position where because they’re going to be impacted, they’ll have an opportunity to derive benefits from the project.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems BC Hydro’s mandate is to make sure all communities affected — but particularly First Nations — are in some way compensated or get a share of the benefits, he said. “That’s something we’re working hard on with the Treaty 8 First Nations. What you hope for, over time, is that they see the project doesn’t have all the negative environmental impacts they think it might have.”

Among the compensation touted for non-native communities with the Peace River Regional District is a legacy fund that would pay the district $2.4 million per year, indexed to inflation over 70 years, once the dam starts generating electricity.

BC Hydro is seeking to build a 1,100-megawatt dam that would flood 83 kilometres of the Peace River from almost Fort St. John upriver to Hudson’s Hope. The dam would be 1,050 metres long and 60 metres high and would also flood 14 kilometres of the Halfway River and 10 kilometres of the Moberly River.

Natives in the Peace country were nomadic — unlike coastal First Nations with their longhouses — and gravesites are strewn throughout the valley. But there are also traditional sites such as Bear Flat where they came time and again in summer to hunt and harvest; once they had a food supply, including fattened black bears before hibernation, they would move back into the bush to their trapping areas.

The Doig reserve, with about 300 members, is located about an hour’s drive to the northwest but that does not mean they don’t use the Peace River. “We enjoy this valley every year,” said Davis, wearing a beaver hat to protect his head from -20 C weather. “We know this region and what’s best for it. Site C is the wrong option and not needed for B.C.” The Doig people host an elder and youth gathering at Bear Flat annually as a way to pass on cultural knowledge to the next generation, and the West Moberly also has an annual sweat lodge in the area.

On the banks of the Halfway River, near its confluence with the Peace, Robert Dominic, a member of the Doig elders’ council, pointed to some willows and noted that his people have traditionally harvested and dried the bark, then smoked it in rolling papers. “For your health,” he said, waving off any suggestion of hallucinogenic properties. “Pure medicinal tobacco.”

Davis looked up towards a grassy south-facing slope where the remains of Doig Chief Peter Attachie — one of the signatories to Treaty 8, which was negotiated in 1899 and included hunting rights — are buried on private farmland. “We still practice our rights, still hunt and gather in this valley. Nothing has changed in our culture and traditions.”

If the dam is approved, Davis said he is prepared to step in front of bulldozers to stop construction.

“We’ll have to do civil disobedience, I guess.”

Roland Willson, chief of the West Moberly First Nation, has also told The Sun, “We’ll go to court if we have to,” to protect one of the last best places in a region dominated by resource development.

A report by the David Suzuki Foundation and Global Forest Watch Canada one year ago calculated there are 28,587 kilometres of pipelines, 45,293 kilometres of roads, and 116,725 kilometres of seismic lines used for oil and gas exploration within the Peace region.

Laid end to end, all those roads, pipelines and seismic lines would circle the Earth nearly five times, the report found.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Downstream impact of B.C. dam proposal on fish, flooding concern Alberta December 11, 2013 FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. - The province of Alberta is concerned that a multibillion-dollar hydroelectric dam proposed in northeastern British Columbia could increase mercury levels in fish and escalate the risk of floods or drought along the Peace River that flows through its province.

Alberta's Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, which manages lands, forests, fish and wildlife in the province, has filed a 23-page submission setting out its concerns to the panel reviewing the massive project.

Environmental review hearings for the $7.9-billion Site C dam proposal by BC Hydro are underway in Fort St. John, B.C. Two existing dams on the Peace River in B.C. have already significantly altered the flow of the river into the neighbouring province, the Alberta submission said, and this has both positive and negative impacts in Alberta.

"Alberta is concerned that Site C will further exacerbate the negative impacts," said the document filed Nov. 29.

The Site C dam would flood an 83-kilometre stretch of the Peace River from approximately Fort St. John to just upstream of Hudson's Hope. It would be the third dam on the river, downstream from the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams.

The two existing dams already lower the river's natural flow from May to late July, and increase flow from mid-October to mid-April. There are benefits to the flow regulation from BC Hydro, such as a reduced risk of flooding, but there are also risks, Alberta said.

Among those risks is an expected increase in methylmercury levels in fish during construction of the dam.

"Alberta acknowledges that BC Hydro expects increases in MeHg levels in fish populations downstream of the Alberta-B.C. border to be temporary and within fish consumption guidelines," the submission said.

"However, it is unclear whether Albertans are aware of this increase, the amount of the increase, and the duration of the impact."

The Alberta government requested ongoing information from BC Hydro to enable the province to inform fishermen on the Peace River of changes to methylmercury levels in fish until concentrations return to pre-construction levels.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The impact of the dam on managing ice-related flooding and concern about minimum flow rates during construction were also singled out as concerns. Reduced peak flow affects the aquatic ecosystem on the Peace River, the Peace-Athabaska delta and other riparian wetlands, the document said.

Water fluctuations also cause mortality to fish and eggs by stranding, or indirectly through increased stress on fish, the report said.

There are also concerns about changes Site C will cause in water temperature downstream from the dam and reservoir, making the Peace River slower to warm in spring and slower to cool in summer.

"Such changes to water temperatures, though slight, may impact the current distribution and range of cold and cool water fish species within Alberta causing potential declines in some species and increases in others," the report said. "Temperature changes may also impact the timing of ice freezeup and break-up events."

That could result in changes to spawning runs, in egg incubation rates and access to spawning habitat, the submission stated.

The province is also concerned about the flow of fish in the river.

"Upstream and downstream movement of fish populations is necessary for gene flow and hence long term resiliency in those populations, as well as to allow access to spawning, rearing, feeding, and overwintering areas," the report said.

BC Hydro has told the neighbouring province that it is exploring options for fish passage, but as yet, "Site C could result in more restrictive fishing opportunities for species Albertans value more highly in the Peace River."

Parks Canada has also expressed concern about the cumulative effects another B.C. hydroelectric dam could have downstream, on Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace Athabasca Delta.

The federal agency said the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Métis Association, Little Red River Cree Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation share those concerns.

The Athabasca Cree, Dene Tha', Mikisew Cree and Deninu Kue First Nations, as well as the Metis Nation of Alberta Region 6, have registered to appear before the panel.

"It is Parks Canada’s view that assessment of the operational phase of Site C must include consideration of the impacts of sustained, ongoing operations of all three Peace River dams managed by BC Hydro to ensure adequate assessment and consideration of the cumulative effects of flow regulation," Parks Canada wrote to the panel.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Chinook Salmon Redds left High & Dry on the Sacramento River December 4, 2013 As expected, an almost 35 percent reduction in water releases from Lake Shasta into the upper Sacramento River during the prime salmon spawning month of November has left many salmon nests, or redds, high and dry. This likely killed millions of incubating salmon eggs which is certain to hurt salmon returns in future years.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation reduced water releases into the upper Sacramento River from 6000 cubic feet per second (CFS) on November 1 to 3750 CFS on November 25. Many fall run salmon built redds in October and early November in the shallows during higher water conditions.

The river shrunk as reservoir releases dropped leaving some redds full of dead eggs.

READ ENTIRE FISHWITHJD ARTICLE HERE

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Earthquakes prompt inspection of North Texas dams November 29, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Repeated earthquakes this month in North Texas have prompted officials to inspect dams for possible cracks or loosened foundations.

Eagle Mountain Lake’s dam (pictured above) is being inspected daily, and following a couple of Thanksgiving Day tremors in Palo Pinto County, Possum Kingdom Lake’s dam is expected to follow suit.

The Eagle Mountain Reservoir manager is conducting daily inspections for signs of distress, said Chad Lorance of Tarrant Regional Water District.

“Our

dam safety engineer is monitoring all instrumentation at the dam for any indication of changes in foundation or embankment activity; there has been none to date,” Lorance said in an email to the Star-Telegram. “Our engineering department will be on site early next week to perform a crest survey of the dams to look for any signs of changes from previous surveys.”

The latest earthquake to shake North Texas came at 12:14 a.m. Friday near Reno in Parker County, which at a 3.1-magnitude was the third strongest of 19 earthquakes to strike in November.

Morris Shepard Dam - Possum Kingdom Lake

Though no Reno residents clicked the Did You Feel It link on the U.S. Geological Survey’s website, nine people in Azle, four in Newark and three each in Springtown and Boyd reported sensing the quake. It’s not surprising that most people would sleep through the tremor; it takes at least a 4.5 to shake things up enough to cause damage, according to the USGS. A 3.6-magnitude quake struck at 1:58 a.m. Thursday about 10 miles north of Mineral Wells in Palo Pinto County, followed by a 2.8-magnitude tremor at 2:41 a.m. about 14 miles south-southwest of Jacksboro.

The Lake Country Sun reported that the Possum Kingdom Lake dam must be inspected following any earthquake centered within 50 miles of the lake. The two Thursday quakes were within that radius.

Determined to avoid problems, Tarrant Regional Water District has asked for advice from experts that include the Geological Survey’s seismologists and geophysicists, Lorance said.

“We will also be contacting the Railroad Commission so we stay up to date on any oilfield related activity,” Lorance said.

Some geological experts suspect a connection between injection wells and the outbreaks of earthquakes. Many of the recent earthquakes have occurred within a few miles of injection wells drilled to dispose of wastewater from natural gas wells in the Barnett Shale.

But linking tremors to injection wells would take years of study and even then not all scientists agree that the wells are causing quakes.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

A recent federal inspection has concluded that Oroville Dam, the tallest dam in the nation, needs a comprehensive earthquake safety assessment.

 Oroville Dam earthquake investigation may be needed November 29, 2013 A recent federal inspection has concluded that Oroville Dam, the tallest dam in the nation, needs a comprehensive earthquake safety assessment.

The dam on the Feather River is the primary storage facility for the State Water Project, the stateowned plumbing system that provides drinking water to more than 23million people across California.

Failure of the dam could inundate not only the city of Oroville but numerous other communities downstream, including Yuba City, Marysville and even West Sacramento.

The inspection was conducted in 2010 by consultants working for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees hydroelectric dams in the United States. It is the most recent inspection of its kind, which are conducted every five years.

No significant flaws were found in the dam itself. Inspectors recommended the earthquake safety assessment based on newer information about earthquake hazards in the vicinity of the dam. A copy of the inspection was reviewed by The Bee following a Public Records Act request.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Officials at the California Department of Water Resources, which manages the dam, say they don’t plan to conduct the recommended review because they don’t think the expense is justified. But they may be compelled to do it by state or federal regulators who are still considering the recommendation.

Oroville Dam, at 742feet high, was completed in 1968 and is the tallest dam in the United States. It stores 3.5million acre-feet of water, or enough to serve 7 million average households for a year. In California, only Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River stores more water.

State water officials say the dam is sufficiently strong. “Even with today’s understanding of seismicity and ground motions, Oroville still would meet the criteria that would be set today,” said David Panec, chief of dam safety at the DWR’s operations and maintenance division. “The dam is essentially overbuilt.”

Independent experts concur. Like Panec, they point to a 5.7-magnitude quake that occurred near the dam in 1975 that caused no damage to the structure. Subsequent investigations showed that the dam performed well and was not weakened by the quake.

“We’ve seen these types of dams perform very well in earthquakes under very strong shaking,” said Ross Boulanger, a civil engineering professor at UC Davis and an expert on earthquake risk involving earthen and rockfill dams, like Oroville. Boulanger said he has done consulting work for the DWR, but not involving Oroville Dam. “And we know their behavior can be relatively insensitive to modest changes in the seismic hazard.”

Not everyone is confident. Ronald Stork, a senior policy advocate at Friends of the River, said the call for further study of Oroville Dam should not be taken lightly. In recent years, after modern studies, numerous other earthen dams in California have been shown to be vulnerable to earthquakes. For instance, Folsom Dam upstream of Sacramento is now undergoing millions of dollars in upgrades to withstand earthquakes. Similar work is planned at Lake Perris in Riverside County and San Luis Reservoir in Merced County, both also part of the State Water Project.

Stork noted Oroville is also considered a “classic case” for something known as reservoir-induced seismicity. In this phenomenon, the reservoir itself can cause earthquakes, because the enormous weight of water stored behind the dam is enough to shift the Earth’s crust. Studies have documented the phenomenon at Oroville.

“A dam with a whole lot of shaking going on … does seem to be something you need to be really careful about,” said Stork, who monitors dam regulation across the state. “You lose a 3.5million acrefoot reservoir – the tallest in the United States – and that could cause a whole mess of downstream trouble.”

As one piece of the State Water Project, Oroville Dam is part of a complex bureaucratic and political system. Water management at Oroville affects habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and water rates for millions of Californians who depend on that water, from Napa to San Diego.

Any repairs or problems at Oroville Dam are paid for by the 29 urban and agricultural water contractors that buy water from the State Water Project, which include the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Kern County Water Agency, Santa Clara Valley Water District and others.

These contractors, in turn, pass along their costs to ratepayers, including homeowners, business owners or farmers.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Those costs have been mounting at Oroville Dam after two expensive and high-profile accidents.

In 2009, five workers were injured when a steel bulkhead inside the dam blew out when two large river outlet valves were opened during a test. The valves have been inoperable ever since, and millions of dollars in repair costs are still looming. A subsequent investigation found that poor safety practices at the DWR contributed to the accident.

In 2012, a major fire occurred at the Thermalito Pumping-Generating Station, which is part of the hydroelectric system at the dam. The fire significantly reduced electric generating capacity at the dam and complete repair costs are still unknown. The DWR recently opened bids for a major cleanup project, the lowest of which was $11.9million. Additional work is needed to get the station operating again.

Negotiations are underway now between the DWR and its contractors to draft new terms for longterm water supply contracts. Among the key disagreements is how much the contractors will pay into a contingency fund so the department can respond more rapidly to emergencies.

The parties also are wrangling over other contract terms to finance two massive water diversion tunnels in the Delta. The $25billion project, supported by Gov. Jerry Brown, will be the most expensive water project ever undertaken in the state.

Leah Wills, a water consultant to Plumas County involved in the negotiations, said the contractors are reluctant to take on more expenses. Plumas County is a state water contractor, though often a contrarian in such negotiations because it is the only state contractor north of the Delta.

“There is no doubt in my mind this is all a big dance over how these new costs are going to be apportioned,” Wills said. “The contractors are kind of legitimately panicked. Somewhere there’s going to be this huge blank check that lands in their laps.”

The 1975 earthquake at Oroville revealed for the first time an active fault directly south of Lake Oroville. Known as the Cleveland Hills Fault, it was traced at the time to within just 1.4miles of Bidwell Canyon Saddle Dam, an earthen dyke that encloses part of the reservoir. Studies after the 1975 quake found no significant damage to the saddle dam or the main dam.

Federal inspectors in 2010 recommended a new seismic evaluation to consider the potential of two other earthquake sources in the vicinity: the Foothill Fault System and the Prairie Creek Fault. They recommended a “finite element analysis,” which involves extensive computer modeling to determine how the dam will perform in earthquake scenarios.

“That would not be uncommon for the consultant to recommend a very cautious and conservative approach,” said Boulanger, of UC Davis. Such studies can take months and cost several hundred thousand dollars, he said.

The DWR could be required to conduct the study, either by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or by California’s Division of Safety of Dams, a separate regulatory unit within the DWR. Dave Gutierrez, chief of the state’s dam safety division, said he expects his agency will decide in January whether to order further earthquake studies. Asked generally about the dam, he said, “Oroville is not one that keeps me up at night from a seismic stability standpoint.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 PacifiCorp looking to divest the leaky dam that creates Mirror Pond in Bend November 26, 2013 PacifiCorp said Monday that it hopes to divest operations of the leaky hydroelectric dam that creates Bend’s Mirror Pond as the facility is no longer cost effective for ratepayers.

The 100-year-old Nrewport Avenue dam has experienced a series of leaks during the last five years in the 13 wooden sections used to regulate water flow. The latest developed in October, prompting a broader review of the dam's operation.

The dam originally brought electricity to Central Oregon, though its operation and silt buildup in the pond have been under discussion for years. It a relatively small facility, with a generation capacity of 1 megawatt, but PacifiCorp says it typically only generates enough power for 300 to 400 homes.

The utility's review determined that the dam was safe, but it wouldn't be cost effective for customers to make the continuing investments necessary to operate it long term.

"We've known and have been candid with the community that the facility was reaching the end of its useful life as a generating facility for PacifiCorp's customers," Pat Egan, a PacifiCorp spokesman said in a news release. "That time is now here, accelerated by the recent new leak The company said it was in discussions with Bend Parks and Recreation District and theCity of Bend to see if it could transfer the dam to local control, which has implications for the future of Mirror Pond, while protecting ratepayers interests.

There’s little consensus in Bend about the dam or the pond it creates. Some want to preserve the pond, while others favor the dam's removal and restoration of the river. There are dams both up and downriver on the Deschutes.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Main Street dam’s days are numbered November 26, 2013 Demolition started yesterday on the 575-foot-long Main Street dam.

It’s the first step in a $35.5 million project to lower water levels on the Scioto River near Downtown and create more than 30 acres of new parkland, bike trails and pathways along a more-natural riverfront.

The Columbus Downtown Development Corp. is leading the project, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2015.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Liquefied Natural Gas

 Seizing the LNG “Opportunity”

"Christy Clark" shows off the Burning Blue Drop, the new symbol of BC's fracking industry, outside a Victoria Chamber of Commerce luncheon with Fracking Minister Rich Coleman on "Seizing the LNG Opportunity."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Pollution report on B.C. LNG projects raises alarm November 21, 2013 VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark says her government is paying close attention to the potential air and water pollution impacts of proposed liquefied natural gas projects in northwest British Columbia, but environmental groups say the Liberals are tacitly endorsing projects that will contribute to health and environmental problems in the Kitimat area.

Clark, who embarked on her fourth international trade mission to Asia to sell LNG overseas Thursday, said her government is in the process of developing an environmental policy for B.C.’s natural gas industry.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “We are paying close attention to the total greenhouse gas emissions, the total particulate emissions,” said Clark. “The impact on water, on all of those legitimate concerns that people have. We intend to have the cleanest LNG facilities in the world. I think we can get there.”

“cleanest LNG facilities in the world” – still a very dirty industry

The premier has boasted that the industry represents a trillion-dollar economic opportunity that could create up to 100,000 jobs.

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, a northwest B.C. environmental organization concerned about the area’s wild salmon ecosystem, released a report Thursday that estimated three proposed Kitimat LNG plants will burn 2.5 times more natural gas than is consumed in Metro Vancouver annually.

The report, Air Advisory: The Air Quality Impacts of Liquefied Natural Gas Operations Proposed for Kitimat, B.C., concluded LNG plants permitted to operate primarily with natural gas will collectively burn 60 per cent of all the natural gas burned annually in B.C. The report concluded nitrogen oxide emissions from the LNG plants would increase 500 per cent above existing levels. Nitrogen oxide emissions create acid rain, which harms waterways and fish and creates smog, which causes respiratory problems for children and the elderly, the report states.

The report also concluded natural gas driven LNG plants will increase emissions in the Kitimat area of volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.

“The LNG industry could adopt alternative designs and technologies to keep air emissions low while still producing fuel,” the report stated.

“From an air quality perspective, it would be difficult to objectively claim a given plant is the cleanest in the world unless it used (clean) technologies.”

SkeenaWild’s executive director Greg Knox said in an interview that British Columbians need to know more about the potential environmental and health impacts of natural gas-driven LNG plants.

“It’s really important for the public to understand that if the government allows industry to burn natural gas to create the energy to liquefy the gas then we’re going to be locked into these air emissions and greenhouse gas emissions for 30-plus years because it’s extremely costly and unlikely industry will switch out to cleaner technology at a later date,” said Knox.

Environment Minister Mary Polak said the government recently commissioned a $650,000 study to examine airshed quality issues in the Kitimat area, which is geographically described as a lengthy, but thin mountain-bordered tunnel that traps air for long periods of time.

The study, which will be complete by March 31, will forecast the ability of Kitimat’s airshed to handle emissions from the existing Rio Tinto Alcan aluminum smelter, three proposed liquefied natural gas terminals, a proposed oil refinery and a crude-oil export facility.

The Opposition New Democrats and Green party MLA Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist who helped the Liberals formulate their climate policies, both earlier welcomed the study, saying it was better late than never.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 China state-owned energy giant draws up plans for massive LNG project in B.C. November 29, 2013 China’s CNOOC Ltd. has sketched out designs for a massive new liquefied natural gas project on the British Columbia coast, cementing plans for an energy link between Canada and the fast-growing Pacific market roughly one year after its acquisition of struggling Nexen Inc. The Canadian subsidiary of the state-run giant is seeking permission from Canada’s National Energy Board to export 24 million tonnes of super-cooled gas per year, or just over three billion cubic feet a day over 25 years from a proposed terminal at Grassy Point on B.C.’s northern coast, it said in an application to the federal regulator. First cargoes would be in the 2021 to 2023 time frame, the company said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems CNOOC-owned Nexen secured exclusive rights with Japan’s Inpex Corp. and JGC Corp. to examine building an export plant on the isolated peninsula after paying the B.C. government a non-refundable $12-million deposit, edging out rival bids for the Crown land. Its export filing comes as state-owned China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec, eyes a possible stake in another Canadian LNG project led

by U.S. oil major Chevron Corp., according to two reports.

Related International energy giants are assessing partnerships to help secure markets and offset the enormous cost of building export infrastructure on B.C.’s rugged coast. Britain’s BG Group PLC is also holding discussions with potential partners, and Malaysia’s Petronas is shopping an equity stake in its proposed Pacific Northwest LNG plant at Lelu Island.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has championed the gas mega-projects as an economic opportunity equivalent to neighbouring Alberta’s oil sands, visiting China, Japan and Korea this month to drum up interest in the province’s emerging shale resources.

But uncertainties abound. None of the dozen or so proposals has been sanctioned by their corporate backers, and the B.C. government has delayed releasing long-awaited fiscal terms for the industry, including a potential tax on plant output, until next year amid difficulty agreeing on terms.

Green groups have also expressed concern the gas plants will run afoul of the province’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets. Ms. Clark insists B.C. exports would help combat global emissions – weaning China off coal, for example – even while raising them at home.

Beijing is seeking to cut reliance on the sooty fuel for electricity generation. Its latest five-year plan calls for 60 gigawatts of new gas-fired electricity capacity by 2015, which would generate about 50 billion cubic metres of gas demand, the International Energy Agency said this month.

“The widely shared concerns about air quality and local pollutants among China’s rapidly expanding urban population make a forceful case for gas, rather than coal, as the preferred fuel for powering the country’s cities,” the Paris-based group said in its annual World Energy Outlook.

CNOOC holds 300,000 acres in B.C.’s Liard, Horn River and Cordova shale gas basins. Its plans call for an initial two “train” facility with total capacity of 12 million tonnes per year, with potential to expand to four processing units. It said capital spending in the Liard basin alone could exceed $200 million this year.

“New pipeline capacity will be required to transport sourced gas to the Aurora LNG site,” the company said in a filing. It has entered into preliminary discussions with pipeline companies, it said without providing details.

CNOOC, via CNOOC Gas & Power Ltd., is the largest importer of LNG into China, with capacity of 12.3 million tonnes per year and an additional 8.5 million tonnes under construction.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Solar

 First Nations leading Earth's future generations

Lloyd Fournier: “If you do not like pipelines and the dirty tar sands mess, I am thinking that there is a great lesson to be learned from the T'Sou-ke First Nation on the south tip of Vancouver Island.

The 40 home Reserve is now energy independent by making use of solar panel arrays.

Chief Gordon Plances and the entire Souk community should be commended.

They are not only energy indepependent but are also producing the hot water needed for residents.

The 75 kilowatts produced on the Reserve are sufficient to export electricity to the British Columbia power grid.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Forest Management

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Bill aims to help timber counties Wyden measure would double harvest on U.S. lands in W. Oregon November 26, 2013 GRANTS PASS, Ore. — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Tuesday unveiled his longawaited bill to boost logging on federal lands in Western Oregon to help struggling timber counties.

The Oregon Democrat announced his Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2013 at the Capitol in Salem, saying it would double the timber harvest to more than 300 million board feet, while giving the first-ever legislative protection to old growth forests.

Still, the harvest would be less than half the logging needed to fill a $35 million annual funding gap caused by the expiration of a federal safety net, Wyden's office said.

Wyden's bill mirrors other legislation passed by the U.S. House that would split the O&C lands in two, with half managed for timber production and half for conservation of old growth forests, clean water and fish and wildlife habitat.

The key difference is that Wyden's bill leaves the lands under the control of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and federal environmental laws, offering a streamlined process for timber sale planning that would be less vulnerable to legal challenges.

The House bill would turn half the lands over to a trust to manage for higher timber production under Oregon's more lenient logging rules.

Jed Burns of Grayback Forestry thins timber in 2004 on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land outside Ruch, Ore. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced his long-awaited bill to boost logging on the so-called O&C federal timberlands in Western Oregon to help struggling timber counties

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The White House has threatened to veto the House bill.

Gov. John Kitzhaber, who joined Wyden in making the announcement, suggested the ultimate solution lies somewhere between Wyden's bill and the one approved in the House.

"I believe that with these two bills we are going to be able to build a bridge and find a compromise that works for all Oregonians and hopefully is signed by the president in 2014," Kitzhaber said.

Both bills cover the management of a patchwork of 2.1 million acres of federal lands in 18 Western Oregon counties that reverted to the federal government after the Oregon & California Railroad went bust.

Support for the bill among representatives of the timber industry and timber counties was split among those who want federal control and those who back management by a trust.

"Stability for the wood products industry in Oregon is access to a predictable and sustainable source of timber for our mills," said Andrew Miller of Stimson Lumber, who joined Wyden during the announcement. "I believe the senator's approach is the only one that will work politically."

Doug Robertson, a Douglas County commissioner and president of the O&C Counties Association, which represents the 18 counties that get a 50 percent share of federal logging revenue from local O&C lands, said he was not convinced that Wyden's effort to streamline timber sale planning and avoid lawsuits would be as effective as the House bill.

Wyden said he can't get a bill passed by the Senate and signed by the president if it follows the lead of the House on environmental protection.

"We tried that in the 1990s," he said of legislation known as the Salvage Rider that pushed to toss out environmental laws to promote old growth logging at the height of the conflict over logging in the Northwest. "There was blood all over the floor. Communities were divided like never before."

The conservation community was split, as well.

Nicole Cordan, public lands officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, praised Wyden's bill as "a constructive path forward that works to balance conservation gains with timber harvesting."

Randi Spivak, public lands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the bill would harm forests, watersheds, fish and wildlife, and undo the delicate compromise of the Northwest Forest Plan.

"If Sen. Wyden proceeds with the bill as drafted it could re-ignite the Pacific Northwest timber wars," Spivak said.

Wyden also pledged to restore a safety net that gave timber counties money to make up for a steep decline in federal revenue after logging was cut by 90 percent on national forests in 1994 by the Northwest Forest Plan to protect salmon and the northern spotted owl.

Counties that relied on federal timber revenue have struggled to pay for jails and sheriff's patrols as voters resisted tax increases. Meanwhile, timber industry jobs declined through a combination of the logging cutbacks and automation.

Unlike U.S. Forest Service lands that share 25 percent of revenue with counties for roads and schools, the O&C lands share 50 percent, with no restrictions.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Government action/inaction and wild game fish

 I have to stop saying “How stupid can you be”

Ron Stead: “I never realized that so much ignorance, arrogance and stupidity could exist in one body, but it does, and that body is in the regulatory agencies of the Canadian Government.

There was a time, not too long ago when it was illegal to intentionally pollute our environment, today, our Government seems to encourage it.

Fish farms, GMO farming, fracking, self regulating oil and gas exploration companies, tar sands, leaking oil lines, and now scientifically created Frankenfish. When will this insanity end?

In this world of madness, I find it amazing that there are people who would chose to not know what it is that they are feeding their children and themselves, that would be willing to chose not to have a choice in their selection of the foods they eat.

Do they not realize that the use of GMO products is poised to destroy our natural environment.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Tell the FDA: We Don’t Want Frankenfish

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Canada’s Approval of GM Fish Eggs Threatens Environment, Groups Say November 25, 2013 November 25, 2013. Ottawa. Canada’s approval of commercial production of genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon eggs is an alarming decision that sets Canada up to be the source of global environmental risk, says the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network and Islanders Say No to Frankenfish.

“We are extremely disappointed and alarmed that our government has approved the production of GM fish eggs. GM salmon egg production in Canada endangers the future of wild Atlantic salmon around the world,” said Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. “Its simply crazy that the world’s first GM fish eggs are now going to be coming from Canada.”

The Environment Canada approval, published on November 23 in the Canada Gazette, is the first government approval for the company AquaBounty. The company has asked for approval of the GM Atlantic salmon for human consumption in the U.S., based on a plan to produce the GM fish eggs in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada and ship them to Panama for grow-out and processing.

“We’re devastated that Prince Edward Island is now officially the home of the Frankenfish,” said Leo Broderick of the Prince Edward Island (PEI) group called Islanders Say No to Frankenfish, “We don’t want our Island to be the source of this dangerous living pollution.”

The PEI facility already produces GM salmon eggs for research, which are shipped to the company’s Panama location for further research and development. If fully approved for production and consumption, the GM salmon would be the first GM food animal in the world.

“Its unacceptable that this incredibly important decision was made in total secrecy and without any public consultation,” said Sharratt.

The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network has repeatedly asked Environment Canada, the Minister of the Environment, and AquaBounty to say if an assessment for approval of the GM fish eggs was underway. All parties refused to answer this question for public disclosure.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “This isn’t the international image we want for our beautiful Island,” said Broderick.

Just last week, on November 21, an environmental group in Panama filed a complaint alleging that AquaBounty’s research and development of the GM fish, using eggs sent from PEI, was not in compliance with national and international environmental regulations.

For more information: Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network; Leo Broderick, Islanders Say No to Frankenfish, 902 894 4874 The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) is a campaign coalition of 17 groups including farmer associations, environmental groups, regional coalitions of grassroots groups, and international development organizations, all of which have various concerns about genetic engineering in food and farming.

You can email the Minister of the Environment today!

A look at wild salmon eggs. A company that produces genetically modified salmon in Prince Edward Island says it has received federal approval to make eggs on a commercial scale.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

AquaBounty says once its genetically modified salmon is harvested, it cannot be distinguished from regular salmon

 GMO salmon criticisms 'don't merit comment' Genetically modified salmon facility highly scrutinized, says company CEO November 27, 2013 The CEO of an American company producing genetically modified salmon eggs in eastern Prince Edward Island is brushing off criticism from anti-GMO groups.

AquaBounty announced this week it had received approval from Environment Canada to produce the eggs on a commercial scale. It had been operating as a research facility.

Critics have complained the Canadian government's approval of its hatchery in Bay Fortune, P.E.I., was done in secret without public consultation.

CEO Ron Stotish doesn't understand why risk assessments in the U.S. and Canada haven't convinced critics the fast-growing salmon can be produced safely.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

"I think there's a simple choice here. Are you going to believe the professionals, the skilled scientists, or the people that are constantly beating the drum that there is some sort of conspiracy between the government and industry to somehow damage the environment?" asked Stotish.

"I think frankly their accusations don't merit comment."

Stotish said the P.E.I. hatchery won't scale up to commercial production unless AquaBounty gets approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its salmon there.

The salmon produced by AquaBounty grow at twice the rate of regular salmon, making them an attractive option for rearing in salmon farms.

Commercial production for the company would see ship the eggs from P.E.I. to Panama to be grown into adults and harvested there.

Editorial Comment: Those “beating the drum” in opposition to genetically engineered Atlantic salmon are often highly-educated citizens who care deeply for public health and environmental security.

Arrogant, uninformed comments like those in this article only add fuel to the fire regarding the distrust associated with governmentenabled, greed-driven corporations.

This article certainly generated several defensive and offensive comments from AquaBounty regarding criticism of their wisdom of genetic modification of God-created organisms, accusations according to Aquabounty that don’t merit comment.

Stotish said having Canada's approval moves the company one step closer, adding this decision came after a rigorous review.

"We are perhaps the most scrutinized facility in the history of fisheries. It's not just one or two visits for the purpose of this review," he said.

"We're visited on a continuing basis, and it's probably a dozen times a year between DFO, Environment Canada and other agencies. They examine all our procedures, they examine all of our records, they've examined the facility. And in fact, I think we may have set the standard for inspections of facilities of this type."

AquaBounty's genetically modified fish grow twice as quickly as regular salmon.

The latest review included a DFO risk assessment that found, with reasonable certainty, that operations at the hatchery pose a low risk to the P.E.I. environment.

The same report does note, however, that if procedures or activities change, and fish escape, that could pose a high hazard to the environment. Given that, any significant new developments at the hatchery would require another Environment Canada review.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

ď ś UPDATE 1-Canada must do more to engage aboriginals on pipelines - report December 5, 2013 Canada must do more to build trust with aboriginal communities to win their support for resource projects such as oil pipelines and natural gas terminals, a government report said on Thursday.

"There has not been a constructive dialogue about energy projects. Aboriginal leaders are prepared to engage and Canada will need to address issues on their agenda," Douglas Eyford, the federal government's special representative on west coast energy infrastructure, said in the 58-page report.

Eyford was appointed in March to look at ways of boosting energy exports while increasing aboriginal participation in the economy.

Canada has long had poor relations with its million-strong native Indian population, which is largely beset with poverty, poor housing and high unemployment.

Unhappiness is growing and, over the last year, aboriginal bands have blockaded roads and rail lines and barricaded entry to mining and energy projects.

Many aboriginal bands strongly dislike Enbridge Corp's plans for the Northern Gateway pipeline to take crude from the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and then on to Asian customers.

Some oppose the pipeline on environmental grounds, while others complain the government has long ignored laws that say they must be consulted on industrial development.

"Canada must take decisive steps to build trust with aboriginal Canadians, to foster their inclusion into the economy, and to advance the reconciliation of aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people," Eyford said.

Energy projects could provide training, jobs and business opportunities for aboriginal people in Alberta and British Columbia, the report said.

"Historically, aboriginal Canadians have not benefited from natural resource developments in their traditional territories to the same degree as non-aboriginal Canadians," wrote Eyford, who spent eight months consulting with aboriginal communities.

But while aboriginal leaders were aware of the potential benefits resource development could bring their people, the report found that environmental impact remains a major concern.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "Aboriginal Canadians view themselves as connected to the environment and as its stewards; this is an integral aspect of their culture. The projects, by their nature, create potential hazards in the terrestrial and marine environments," he wrote.

Speaking at the release of the report in Vancouver, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the government is listening to First Nation concerns and noted that economic interests would not outweigh safety on resource developments.

"We are determined to have world-class standards for the transport of our resources, whether it be by rail, pipeline or tanker," he said. "We will not approve any projects that are not safe for Canadians and safe for the environment."

Still, native leaders questioned government willingness to consult with them in a meaningful manner, especially if their views ultimately ran counter to Ottawa's interests.

"Within this report, there's some very clear recommendations to empower First Nations to participate and it can't just simply be a way to corral us toward an answer of 'yes,'" said Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

"There's no sense in going through the process if that's the only answer they're going to have ears to listen to."

NO PIPELINES At a separate event in Vancouver, members of the Yinka Dene Alliance, an aboriginal group, signed a solidarity accord with unions, environmental groups and a tourism trade association against Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline. Energy regulators are due to rule on the controversial proposal this month.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP has also proposed a new pipeline to carry oil from Alberta to the coast.

Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut'en Nation told reporters that transporting crude oil across British Columbia and along its coast is simply too risky.

"The most precious thing on earth is water and that's what we're trying to protect," he said, adding his alliance would take action to stop projects if they go ahead. "In trying to protect the future of our children, anybody would stand in the way of any development and that's what we're prepared to do."

Aboriginal groups worry about the impact a major spill, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska, would have on the province's salmon population and other wildlife.

In an effort to calm fears, the government on Tuesday released a report urging an overhaul of tanker safety plans and said it would address the recommendations ahead of any increase in traffic on Canadian waters.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Gateway project would put waters off Kitimat at 'very high' risk of oil spill, study concludes December 5, 2013 The B.C. southern coast, and part of the northern coast near Kitimat, will face a "very high" risk of crude oil spills if two oil pipeline proposals are approved, according to a study commissioned by the federal government.

However, a Transport Canada official cautioned Wednesday that the report's reference to "very high" risk is only in the context of Canada, where major oil spills are extremely rare.

The report by Genivar, a Montreal based professional services firm, was cited in an independent panel report released Tuesday that looked into Canada's ability to handle oil spills.

The waters outside of Kitimat (Douglas Channel) would see a high risk of an oil spill if Enbridge's pipeline proposal is approved, according to a new report. The pipeline would end in Kitimat.

Read But the panel report was based on current tanker traffic and didn't include Genivar's analysis of the more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Gateway+project+would+waters+Kitimat increase in risk associated with Enbridge Inc.'s proposed $6.5-billion pipeline to Kitimat and Kinder +very+high+risk+spill+study+concludes/9249609/story.html#ixzz2mduEw637 Morgan's proposed $5.4-billion expansion of its line to Burnaby. Together they would add 600 tanker visits to B.C. annually.

Kinder Morgan's plan to twin its current pipeline, tripling the 300,000-barrel-a-day oil flow from Edmonton to Burnaby, would dramatically increase the amount of crude being handled by Port Metro Vancouver, from 1.8 million tonnes annually to just under 33 million tonnes, according to the report.

The increase doesn't look "quite as dramatic when compared to total shipping" in the area, the Genivar report said.

Southern B.C., it noted, is already classified as one of Canada's highest risk areas because of the about 28 million tonnes of crude shipped to the Washington refineries annually.

The Kinder Morgan proposal would "essentially double" the amount of oil passing through the area.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Without Kinder Morgan, the risk of both light and major spills is considered "high" in the nearshore area and "very high" in the intermediate area. (Neither report defines "nearshore" and "intermediate.")

The risk of a deep sea spill is ranked as either "medium" or "high" for both large and small spills.

If Kinder Morgan's project proceeds, it would increase the spill risk assessment for major spills in all areas of southern B.C. to "very high," the report said.

The risk scenario changes most dramatically in northern B.C., classified as no-risk, if Enbridge's pipeline proceeds.

Including the 193,000 barrels of imported diluent being shipped from Kitimat-docked tankers to Alberta, to be mixed with the bitumen to be sent back, the port would handle 35 million tonnes of diluent and diluted bitumen a year. That spike would shift the nearshore spill risk from "very low" to"very high" in the coastal region near Kitimat.

Meanwhile, the risk for a major deep sea incident would shift from "low" to "medium" all along the B.C. coast north of the southern zone.

The report doesn't precisely define the significance of "very high" risk. The authors conclude elsewhere in the report that Canada faces the risk of a major tanker disaster of 10,000 tonnes or more - the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of the Alaskan coast was 44,000 tonnes - once every 242 years.

"This value must be understood in relative terms, such that the risk is considered high compared to the rest of the country only," said Transport Canada spokeswoman Jillian Glover.

"Canada enjoys a very low risk of a major oil spill, evidenced by the lack of Canadian historical spills in the larger categories. Additionally, this risk assessment is before any mitigation measures have been applied, so that is a theoretical number before additional prevention initiatives are taken."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Engineers poke holes in Enbridge tanker safety Watch video HERE

December 5, 2013 While the Harper Government reacts to this week’s release of a federal report containing 45 recommendations on improving oil spill response capabilities on BC’s coast, a group of professional engineers is launching a campaign to point out the flaws in Enbridge’s tanker safety plans.

Concerned Professional Engineers (CPE) is a BC-based group boasting “many decades of experience in the design, construction and operation of large projects for the extraction and transportation of natural resources like coal and oil.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Enbridge downplaying spill risks The group recently kicked off an online “crowd funding” campaign to help publicize its work, which has involved in-depth analysis of Enbridge’s tanker plans and detailed submissions by its members to the National Energy Board hearings on the project. They say Enbridge’s claim of a 10% oil spill risk from tankers connected to its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is far too low.

“We’ve performed our own, independent review and found Enbridge’s analysis to be lacking,” says CPE. “This is not good engineering.”

Some of the group’s key concerns are as follows:

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Enbridge provides no justification or documentation for the ‘scaling factors’ they used to calculate the 10% risk of a major spill.

Enbridge’s liability ends when the tankers leave the terminal. Who’s responsible for a spill along the narrow 300 km waterway from Kitimat to the open ocean?

Enbridge’s risk analysis planned for 220 tankers per year through Douglas Channel. New LNG projects will bring that number to over 600.

Federal scientists, testifying during the JRP hearings, say more research is needed on diluted bitumen before they can be sure a cleanup is even possible.

CPE also focuses on the proposed tanker route down BC’s treacherous coast: “The proposed route to the open ocean is nearly 300 km (186 miles) long through constrained channels, some of which are less than 1400 m (4600 ft) wide. This may seem large until you realize that the proposed ships are more than 300 m (1,000 ft) in length and can take several kilometers to slow down or stop. Furthermore, the route is on the northern BC coast, a place famous for its challenging weather, winds, waves, and heavy fog.”

Getting the word out The group, whose members were official interveners in the National Energy Board’s Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel, is seeking to raise $20,000 to produce and distribute educational media that goes into detail about the real risks posed by Enbridge’s plan. It is careful to point out that it is not opposed to development and trade, rather to unsafe practices: “We are not opposed to the development and export of natural resources, but we feel very strongly that these projects must be done in a safe and responsible manner, with a full accounting of the risks and visibility to the public.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems First Nations still unconvinced by safety measures

Proposed tanker routes for Enbridge project

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems First Nations leaders who attended a press conference held Tuesday in Vancouver by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt were also disappointed with the government’s reaction to the new federal report on tanker safety measures, compiled by a panel of three experts appointed by the government.

In particular, Coastal First Nations President Art Sterritt told me after the conference, “There were no new technological advancements in spill clean-up and no commitment from the government to follow the report’s recommendation of removing an oil spill liability cap for operators.”

As it stands, oil spill liability along the tanker route is capped at $161 million – something the federal report recommends changing – but Oliver and Raitt have shown no indication of acting on that point.

Federal departments question tanker safety The report follows the revelation that a number of federal departments – including Fisheries and Oceans and Transport Canada – concurred in a 2010 meeting that ”Enbridge had not submitted enough information on the pipeline route,” according to a 2012 Postmedia story drawing on Access to Information documents.

More risks coming down the pipeline It isn’t just oil tankers that are stirring up concerns with Enbridge’s proposal. Independent economist and former ICBC CEO Robyn Allan has also flagged the lack of safety with Enbridge’s proposed pipeline across northern BC, noting the province lags far behind other jurisdictions in terms of funding for oil spill preparedness – despite claims of “world-leading” safety. In a recent Tyee op-ed, Allan said neither Enbridge nor the province have made any real progress on meeting Premier Christy Clark’s pipeline safety condition – one of 5 for endorsing Northern Gateway.

Allan raised the increased risk of moving diluted bitumen by pipeline – a core concern for CPE with tankers in the marine environment – which the BC Liberal Government seized upon during its own submission to the Joint Review Panel, but seems to have subsequently forgotten: “The province also raised unique challenges posed by diluted bitumen when it sinks in fresh water. Enbridge consistently denied this at the hearings, despite its own spill experience with the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Enbridge did not include the results of the Kalamazoo spill in its statistics or analysis of spill risk. Enbridge aggressively resisted filing as evidence the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on how the company handled the spill at the hearings.”

The CPE campaign runs for another three weeks on the crowd funding website Indiegogo – which has become a popular grassroots fundraising tool in recent years.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Northern Gateway opponents gearing up for legal battle with feds Pipeline opponents say Cabinet plans on approving Enbridge’s megaproject, no matter what Joint Review Panel recommends.

December 3, 2013 Opponents of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project are preparing for a legal showdown with the federal government in 2014, even though the project’s Joint Review Panel has yet to make its final recommendations.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The project would run directly through the riding of NDP MP and Opposition House Leader Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.), an outspoken critic of the project and intervenor in the panel’s hearings.

Mr. Cullen said that he doesn’t have much faith in the panel’s forthcoming recommendations following the major revisions to the environmental assessment process in the 2012 federal budget. He said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) government has made the Joint Review Panel’s work “meaningless.”

“Mid-way through this whole process they brought in a law that retroactively changed the rules so that the panel no longer had final say,” Mr. Cullen told The Hill Times. “We thought we were engaging in one thing, and then found out that the Prime Minister was never actually interested in listening to anybody.”

The Conservatives’ spring 2012 budget bill made sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental assessment regime by imposing timelines on the public consultation process and weakening the authority of federal agencies tasked with conducting environmental assessments.

The panel has until Dec. 31 of this year to issue its final report recommending that the federal government either approve or block Northern Gateway.

The 1,177 km twin pipeline would have the capacity to deliver 525,000 barrels of diluted bitumen daily from Edmonton, Alta., to tankers at port facilities in Kitimat B.C., and import 193,000 barrels per day of condensate to help transport oil sands crude out of northern Alberta.

“I’m suspecting [the panel] will say, ‘Go ahead,’ with 200 or so conditions, and the government will then ignore most of them and the company will ignore the rest,” Mr. Cullen said. “That’s been the practice. Approve with conditions. The federal government then weighs in and says ‘No’ to a bunch of the conditions, the company pretends to agree to the rest of them, and then we move on.”

The project has sparked heated opposition throughout the province of British Columbia, where First Nations and environmental groups fear that the pipeline will put the province’s northern interior and coastline at risk of an oil spill.

The panel is responsible for assessing the adverse environmental impacts of the pipeline on behalf of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the National Energy Board. The panel’s final report will be a non-binding recommendation.

Ecojustice lawyer Barry Robinson, who represented a group of environmental organizations at the panel hearings, was less certain of the panel’s forthcoming decision to recommend the project’s approval or rejection.

Mr. Robinson said that he “wouldn’t complain” about the fairness of the panel’s hearings, but he did take issue with public statements made by Mr. Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) before the panel completed its hearings.

Prime Minister Harper – Trade talks in China

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Mr. Harper and Mr. Oliver both signaled their approval for the project well before hearings ended in June of this year. Early on in 2012, Mr. Oliver lashed out at “environmental and other radical groups” that threaten projects like the pipeline. He also called projects like Northern Gateway “an urgent matter of Canada’s national interest.”

The Prime Minister has also publicly stated his commitment to Northern Gateway. On a visit to China in February 2012, Mr. Harper reiterated that the project was “in the national interest” and said that his government was committed to putting in place the infrastructure to diversify Canadian export markets.

Then Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel accompanied the Prime Minister on that trip.

“There may be issues around Cabinet opinions expressed by Joe Oliver and Stephen Harper even before the panel began, as to whether that biases the process.

We’re continuing to look at that,” Mr. Robinson told The Hill Times in a phone interview from Ecojustice’s Calgary office last week. “My hope is that Cabinet will make an informed decision based on the panel report and recommendations, but I think it’s fairly obvious that some members of Cabinet have taken on the role of cheerleader rather than independent decision maker.”

The federal government changed its tone on the project in 2013, however. The government is now investing in an improved oil spill response regime and has raised the liability limits for pipeline operators. Mr. Oliver has also avoided making statements of certainty on Northern Gateway in recent months and has made several trips to B.C. to confer with First Nations in 2013.

Despite the government’s efforts to change the tone of debate around Northern Gateway, Mr. Cullen said that it’s too late.

“I think the well has been poisoned,” he said. “Obviously this is headed to court, because consultation has been an absolute and abject failure.”

The greatest challenge to the project, said Mr. Robinson, is B.C. First Nations’ opposition.

“The bigger, unresolved issue that’s still lurking in the background of this is the First Nations’ position on this,” he said.

One First Nations group that has opposed the project is the Coastal First Nations, an umbrella organization made up of indigenous communities along the B.C. coast and on the Haida Gwaii islands.

Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, said he’s anticipating that the panel will recommend that Northern Gateway be conditionally approved—an outcome that he says his organization is unwilling to accept.

“It just gives the federal government the opportunity to pretend that they’re actually meeting some of the conditions that are there,” said Mr. Sterritt. “I’d be surprised if Cabinet even looks at all the conditions. They’ve already told us what they’ve decided.”

Although Enbridge has claimed that there is First Nations support for the project, Mr. Sterritt said that majority of that support is among Alberta First Nations who are not assuming the risks of the project.

“We fully expect that we’re going to have to fight this on all fronts at the end of the day,” Mr. Sterritt said. “First Nations are willing to go to the wall on this one, and they will go to the wall.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Vermont: First state to ban fracking Governor Shumlin signs H.464 into law making Vermont the first state to ban fracking!

May 16, 2012

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Obama Approves Major Border-Crossing Fracked Gas Pipeline Used to Dilute Tar Sands November 26, 2013 Although TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has received the lion's share of media attention, another key border-crossing pipeline benefitting tar sands producers was approved on November 19 by the U.S. State Department.

Enter Cochin, Kinder Morgan's 1,900-mile proposed pipeline to transport gas produced via the controversial hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of the Eagle Ford Shale basin in Texas north through Kankakee, Illinois, and eventually into Alberta, Canada, the home of the tar sands.

Like Keystone XL, the pipeline proposal requires U.S. State Department approval because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border.

Unlike Keystone XL - which would carry diluted tar sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") south to the Gulf Coast - Kinder Morgan's Cochin pipeline would carry the gas condensate (diluent) used to dilute the bitumen north to the tar sands.

Barak Obama

"The decision allows Kinder Morgan Cochin LLC to proceed with a $260 million plan to reverse and expand an existing pipeline to carry an initial 95,000 barrels a day of condensate," the Financial Post wrote.

"The extra-thick oil is typically cut with 30% condensate so it can move in pipelines. By 2035, producers could require 893,000 barrels a day of the ultra-light oil, with imports making up 786,000 barrels of the total."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Increased demand for diluent among Alberta's tar sands producers has created a growing market for U.S. producers of natural gas liquids, particularly for fracked gas producers.

"Total US natural gasoline exports reached a record volume of 179,000 barrels per day in February as Canada's thirst for oil sand diluent ramped up," explained a May 2013 article appearing in Platts. "US natural gasoline production is forecast to increase to roughly 450,000 b/d by 2020."

Before Eagle Ford, Kinder Morgan Targeted Marcellus Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale basin was Kinder Morgan’s first choice pick for sourcing tar sands diluent for export to Alberta. It wasn't until that plan failed that the Eagle Ford Shale basin in Texas became Plan B. Known then as the Kinder Morgan Cochin Marcellus Lateral Project proposal, the project fell by the wayside in February 2012.

"The company’s Cochin Marcellus Lateral Pipeline would have started in Marshall County, West Virginia, and transported natural gas liquids from the Marcellus producing region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio," wrote the Mount Vernon News of the canned project. [It] would [then] carry the [natural gas] liquids to processing plants and other petrochemical facilities in Illinois and Canada."

"Kinder Magic": More to Come?

Industry market trends publication RBN Energy described Kinder Morgan's dominance of the tar sands diluent market as "Kinder Magic" in a January 2013 article.

"These are still early days for the developing condensate business in the Gulf Coast region," RBN Energy's Sandy Fielden wrote. "Plains All American and Kinder Morgan are developing the potential to deliver at least 170,000 barrels per day of Eagle Ford condensate as diluent to the Canadian tar sand fields in Alberta by the middle of 2014."

Fielden explained we could see many more of these projects arise in the coming years.

"We have a sense that before too long there will be many more condensate infrastructure projects showing up like 'magic' in midstream company presentations."

While the industry press coverage sounds optimistic, it doesn’t account for the concurrent rise of public opposition to dirty energy pipelines and expansion plans in the fracking and tar sands arenas, so only time will tell the fate of Cochin and its kin.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Trucks carry loads of oil-laden sand after being loaded by huge shovels at the Albian Sands oils sands project in Fort McMurray, Alberta

 Feds spend $40 million to pitch natural resources November 28, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OTTAWA—The Conservative government is spending $40 million this year to advertise Canada’s natural resource sector — principally oil and gas — at home and abroad.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver revealed the figure Wednesday as his department seeks another $12.9 million to augment an international campaign designed to portray Canada as a stable and environmentally responsible source of energy.

That will bring NRCan’s 2013-14 ad budget to about $40 million — $24 million for advertising abroad and $16.5 million for the domestic market.

“The government has a responsibility to provide Canadians with facts to assist them in making informed decisions,” Oliver, under opposition questioning, told a Commons committee.

“This engagement and outreach campaign will raise awareness in key international markets that Canada is an environmentally responsible and reliable supplier of natural resources.”

The entire federal government advertising budget last year was about $65 million, according to preliminary estimates, with $9 million allotted for Natural Resources.

In 2010-11, NRCan spent just $237,000 on advertising, according to the government figures.

Outside the committee room, Oliver justified the spending by linking it directly to winning over American public opinion in order to get approval of TransCanada’s controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The $5.4-billion project to carry Alberta bitumen to the Gulf Coast has become a lightning rod for environmental activists as it awaits a decision from U.S. President Barack Obama.

“Let’s understand what is at stake here,” Oliver said. “When we’re looking at Keystone, for example, we’re talking about tens of thousands of jobs.”

Asked to justify ad spending for one industrial sector that’s swallowing up almost two thirds of last year’s total government ad budget, Oliver was emphatic: “You justify it by what it’s going to achieve and there are billions, tens of billions of dollars, in play.”

Peter Julian, the NDP natural resources critic who teased out the ad spending at the committee, isn’t buying the government rationale.

“I don’t see how the Harper government can justify spending tens of millions of taxpayers’ money to do something that the private sector could choose to do,” Julian said after the hearing.

The New Democrat said the ads won’t work because the Conservatives, through their policy choices, have “killed the possibility of social licence” — getting public buy-in, essentially — for major resource projects.

He said that by slashing environmental assessments and limiting “meaningful public consultation” on pipeline proposals, the government has sparked a public backlash.

The backlash, Julian asserted, is “worldwide. Canada has a black eye. There’s no doubt.”

He cited the Obama administration, which has openly urged Canada to up its environmental game, and the European Union, which is targeting higher emissions from oilsands production.

Rather than millions on ads, said Julian, “the way the Harper government can start to gain back the social licence is by starting to make better decisions on the environment, on the economy and on the whole process of approving these new projects.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems To that end, the government is making an effort to establish a baseline of research on cutting edge oilsands technology.

Natural Resources has asked a panel of experts to help catalogue and chart a way forward for technologies that can help reduce the environmental footprint of oilsands development.

Oliver has asked the Council of Canadian Academies to turn its gaze on new and emerging technologies for extracting bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands.

A 13-member panel will study what’s currently working and has been asked to identify economic and regulatory hurdles that slow the spread of the most promising technologies.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric, there’s a lot of exaggeration,” Oliver said of the study.

“People can come to different conclusions based on the facts, but let’s start all together. We should all start with the facts.”

The council was created in 2005 with a 10-year, $30-million government grant and is designed to provide peer-reviewed, science-based assessments to help inform public policy.

Canada is not on track to reach its international pledges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020, but the Conservative government has frequently held out hope that technological breakthroughs will alter that trajectory.

A spokeswoman for the academy, a not-for-profit corporation, says expert panels typically take between 18 and 24 months to report and do not make policy recommendations — but instead provide a base of solid evidence to use in the policy mix.

The panel is to be co-chaired by Eric Newell, the former CEO of Syncrude Canada, and by the head of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Scott Vaughan.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Harper

government's extensive spying on anti-oilsands groups revealed in

FOIs November 19, 2013 The federal government has been vigorously spying on anti-oil sands activists and organizations in BC and across Canada since last December, documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show. Not only is the federal government subsidizing the energy industry in underwriting their costs, but deploying public safety resources as a de-facto 'insurance policy' to ensure that federal strategies on proposed pipeline projects are achieved, these documents indicate.

Before the National Energy Board's Joint Review Panel hearings on the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline, the NEB coordinated the gathering of intelligence on opponents to the oil sands.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The groups of interest are independent advocacy organizations that oppose the Harper government's policies and work for environmental protections and democratic rights, including Idle No More, ForestEthics, Sierra Club, EcoSociety, LeadNow, Dogwood Initiative, Council of Canadians and the People's Summit.

Mandated as an ‘independent federal agency’, the NEB directed the police protection of their board members and officials from Enbridge and TransCanada Corporation, 140 pages of emails from December 2012 through April 2013 show.

In the emails, Richard "Rick" Garber, the NEB's "Group Leader of Security", marshals security and intelligence operations between government agencies and private interests, and says in a January 31, 2013 email that the NEB "Security Team has consulted today with Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) at national and regional levels; RCMP at national, regional and local levels."

"The Security Team, together with our police and intelligence partners, will continue to monitor all sources of information and intelligence," he says.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The documents show the NEB working with CSIS and the RCMP to make "security plans" for the Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and Prince Rupert hearings and actively coordinating with officials from Enbridge and TransCanada Corporation and a private security contractor hired by the NEB. They also show Garber asking Sgt. Steinhammer of the Prince Rupert RCMP to provide a visible uniformed presence during the hearings there to deter "illegal activities."

Sustained opposition to pipelines noted, especially in BC On April 20, 2013, an email entitled "Security Concerns - National Energy Board" was sent to integrated security officials, and stressed the continued protection of NEB and private interests. The memo was from Tim O'Neil, Senior Criminal Intelligence Research Specialist with the RCMP, and then circulated to the NEB and associated stakeholders by Garber.

"There continues to be sustained opposition to the Canadian petroleum and pipeline industry," O'Neil said. "Opposition is most notable in British Columbia, with protests focused on the: Enbridge Northern Gateway; Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion; the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing, and proposed LNG facilities. Opponents have used a variety of protest actions (directed at the NEB and its members) to draw attention to the oil sands' negative environmental impact, with the ultimate goal of forcing the shutdown of the Canadian petroleum industry."

O'Neil then ordered the escalation of RCMP and CSIS intelligence measures following the opening of an SPROS/SIR database file. According to the Government of Canada, SPROS is the new National Security Program’s primary database for the electronic storage, retrieval and management of national security criminal investigations and information, and on a required basis, classified criminal intelligence and other sensitive cases.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "It is highly likely that the NEB may expect to receive threats to its hearings and its board members," O'Neil, said. However, in the same memo he states that there is "no intelligence indicating a criminal threat to the NEB or its members" and "I could not detect a direct or specific criminal threat."

In closing, O'Neill advises recipients to discuss their concerns with the security officials at the National Resources May 23rd classified briefing.

"What is particularly chilling about the Harper administration's approach is the conversion of government agencies to private spy agencies for private sector corporations," Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May said, upon learning about the emails. "What is unacceptable is the marginalization, demonizing, and threat of criminalization of healthy debate in a democracy."

On May 23, 2013, Natural Resources Canada hosted a 'Classified Briefing for Energy & Utilities Sector Stakeholders' in collaboration with CSIS and the RCMP at CSIS's headquarters in Ottawa.

The briefing has occurred twice annually since 2005 and its stated purpose is to discuss national security and criminal risks to critical energy infrastructure. Attendees include government officials, federal ministries, law enforcement agencies and energy stakeholders with high-level security clearances. These meetings have been described as an opportunity for government officials and companies to exchange information "off the record" and form "ongoing trusting relationships" in the protection of national energy infrastructure.

An agenda obtained by Tim Groves and Martin Lukacs in The Guardian last month revealed that breakfast, lunch and coffee was sponsored by Enbridge and a networking reception held at the Chateau Laurier was co-hosted by Bruce Power and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners.

Meetings during this conference included "challenges to energy projects by environmental groups."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Given proof of CSIS and RCMP intelligence resources being afforded to the NEB, and evidence of disclosure across the private sector, it is undetermined how much information is being provided to corporations such as Enbridge and TransCanada Corporation, and to what extent international entities such as CNOOC are also benefiting.

Since coming to power, Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, has used his government apparatus to serve a natural resources development agenda, the Guardian recently wrote, "while creating sweeping domestic surveillance programs that have kept close tabs on indigenous and environmental opposition and shared intelligence with companies.

"Harper has transformed Canada's foreign policy to offer full diplomatic backing to foreign mining and oil projects, tying aid pledges to their advancement and jointly funding ventures with companies throughout Africa, South America and Asia."

The National Energy Board has no spying mandate, according to its website, but serves to function as a regulatory agency over the gas and oil industry, answering to Parliament and the Canadian people.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Senate To Probe Fish Farms December 12, 2013 The Senate is commissioning an 18-month study of fish farming amid industry complaints a “patchwork” of regulations is hurting the trade.

Senators voted to conduct a national probe of aquaculture of all seafood and fish species currently regulated by the Fisheries Act. Editorial Comment: “We have heard from the industry they want a Once again, the government-enabled corporate separate, stand-alone Aquaculture Act and “tail” is wagging the public’s “dog”. there is some merit in that,” said Senator David Wells of Newfoundland & Labrador, a Who in their right mind would trust elected Conservative delegate to the Senate fisheries Canadian representatives serving greed-driven committee. corporations to do anything to protect wild ecosystems from the many risks associated with “We know the aquaculture industry does open pen salmon feedlots. answer to a number of departments – fisheries, agriculture, Health Canada – and there’s merit in considering whether to streamline those

This effort will prove to be more of a sham than the $26 million Cohen Commission.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems regulations,” Wells said in an interview. Regulation is an evolving science.”

A motion passed by the Senate would see the fisheries committee “examine and report on the regulation of aquaculture, current challenges and future prospects”, with a final report due by June 30, 2015.

The vote came as an industry group, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, blamed ad hoc regulations for stagnant sales.

“It is a farming industry; we’re not fishing,” said Ruth Salmon, executive director; “We happen to do it in the water but the activity is the same thing as any other terrestrial farming.”

Salmon, testifying before the Commons agriculture committee, estimated Canada’s share of the global farmed fish market has fallen 40 percent over the past decade: “Canada only now accounts for 0.2 percent of global aquaculture production and this stagnation has taken place while other producers in New Zealand, Norway, Scotland and Chile have raced ahead.”

“Why have we flat-lined?” Salmon continued.

“The principle challenge confronting our sector is the complicated set of regulations that restrict growth and limit investment”; “As a result of this patchwork approach, many of these policies and regulations are reactive and inefficient. Together they create an overarching policy framework that retards competitiveness, obscures certainty and stall growth.”

Fish and seafood farming is worth $2.1 billion annually with a payroll of 14,500 nationwide, by industry estimate.

Editorial Comments:

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It’s clear that the vast majority of those living in Canada demand stronger, effective regulations to protect, restore and conserve natural resources such as iconic wild salmon.

Raising invasive Atlantic salmon in open pen feedlots sited in wild salmon migration routes is not farming – it’s exploitation of public resources to fulfill government enabled corporate greed at the risk of public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

Canada’s open pen salmon feedlot industry has “flat-lined” because of the risks above in an educated society that cares deeply for their natural resources.

It’s society, not the “complicated regulations” that will control, if not eliminate, open pen salmon feedlots in Canada’s marine waters.

We do agree with the open pen salmon feedlot industry, “that changes to the Fisheries Act are needed” – they need to be effective and enforced.

MP Mark Eyking, a former Liberal parliamentary secretary for trade, told the committee he knew of constituents who faced difficulty in importing oyster seed from the United States due to conflicting regulations.

“It’s been just brutal, the regulations,” said Eyking, MP for Sydney-Victoria, N.S.; “It just doesn’t seem like the government is changing”; “It’s stuck in this rut with old regulations from way back.”

The Fisheries Act dates from Confederation-era legislation.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Canadian taxpayers bail out Norwegian fish farms for diseased fish The only thing keeping profits afloat for a number of Norwegian salmon farms in Canada is the hundreds of millions of dollars they net from taxpayers when their fish die of disease.

November 19, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems You might think the multi-billion dollar fish farm industry was a licence to print money. You’d be almost right, but not for the reason you might think. Norwegian aquaculture giants Marine Harvest, Cermaq Mainstream and Grieg Seafood comprise 90% of BC’s farmed salmon industry and Marine Harvest operates in 22 countries. What you don’t know is that taxpayers, meaning you and me, pay big money to them when their fish get diseases and have to be slaughtered.

Food safety regulator’s fishy business Once the Canadian Food Inspection Agency detects a reportable disease, it issues a slaughter order and the fish are destroyed. Then the CFIA sends a very large cheque to the fish farm. This taxpayer cheque compensates them for disposable items like infected nets, cost of transport and offloading, cost of sequestering diseased carcasses in perpetuity, and disinfecting all other items that came in contact with the fish, including the boat that transported them. In addition to all this, the commonly accepted extra payment for each fish is up to $30. This figure really comprises an average payment because of all the other costs mentioned.

You’d think the fish farms would have insurance for losses, but my conversations with a marine insurer tell me they have difficulty getting insurance because they lose so many ‘crops’ to – wait for it – disease. So why are we, the Canadian taxpayer paying these foreign, multi-billion dollar corporations?

Industry loses up to a half of its fish to disease Fish farms like to say their fish get diseases from wild salmon because the latter don’t get sick, as if that’s a justification for cash. Not so. A recent PHD dissertation from Norway showed that the problem with farmed fish is that they are stressed – the cages are overcrowded. This results in high output of the stress hormone cortisol and that weakens immune systems in farmed fish, thus they get disease. They actually change benign viruses into infectious killers.

How much product is lost to disease? One third to one half of all aquaculture products in the world are lost to disease every year, some $35 – $49 Billion (1). I started a Freedom of Information request to the CFIA and DFO to find out just how much we taxpayers in Canada pay to these billion dollar foreign corporations. I have been waiting 10 months now with no answer, so, let me give you a reasonable estimate.

Some fish farms only make money when their fish die Overall, my expectation is that the cross-Canada disease total will come in at several hundred million taxpayer dollars over the past decade for BC, NS, NB and recently NL. Here in BC, Cermaq Mainstream’s Dixon Point and Millar Channel 2012 IHN slaughters would have paid them, in my estimate, about $35 Million of our cash. That’s so much money that it moved this boom/bust business into positive earnings before interest and taxes (i.e., EBIT), when it lost money the year before – and only made money this year because of having disease. They’ve had a decade of problems before.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems See fis.com on November 8, 2013: Mainstream Canada reported an EBIT pre fair value and non-recurring items of NOK 43 million, an improvement from a loss of NOK 26 million the previous year, even though volumes sold declined from 5,600 tons to 4,400 tons. EBIT per kilo was 9.6 NOK. Good prices in the North American market and the IHN outbreak last year are the main factors behind the improved result.(2) So Mainstream lost money when they didn’t have disease and made money when they did have disease – because you and I paid them. And they shipped far less fish, even though a third farm,Bawden Point, posted a weak positive for IHN – they were quickly harvested and sent to humans to eat. This should not be the case. Do complain, as I did, to Gail Shea, Minister of DFO (Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca).

Fish Farms reel in another $400 million in Canadian subsidies On another aquaculture front, you may be even more unhappy to know Shea announced $400 Million in gifts to the aquaculture sector in Canada last week. That’s a lot of dead, diseased fish. I have asked her for $400 million be given to the commercial, sport and processing sectors in BC that provide 600% more in contribution to gross provincial product than fish farms. I’ll let you know.

Fish, profits turn to mush And fish farms in BC have been losing money. Mainstream lost money in 2012. Marine Harvest has lost money in the last few years, too, largely due to Kudoa, a fungal disease that cost them $12,000,000 in 2012 – and just prior, in 2011, things were so bad they laid off 60 employees – right before Christmas. Nice guys.

Kudoa results in myoliquifaction that makes farmed fish into mush. Would you buy salmon you had to put in a container with a spoon?

Grieg losing money, drowning sea lions Oh, and then there is Grieg. They got IHN too, last year, in their Cullodon site in Sechelt. Fortunately, we did not have to pay for that as well. Grieg is also the company that had to pay a fine of $100,000 for drowning 65 – 75 sea lions in their Skuna Bay nets in 2010 – they tarted up that site to sell to the unsuspecting in the USA as environmentally-sustainable, organic farmed salmon. Where is PETA when you need them?

Grieg has also been losing money: In Canada, the company cut losses, with a negative ebit [sic] before fair value adjustment of the biomass of NOK 2.71/kg, compared to a loss of NOK 8.22/kg in the same quarter of 2012.

And the kicker? Cermaq is owned 59.2% by the government and thus the people of Norway. Why do we give another government our money for their killing our fish in our ocean rather than raising their fish on land in closed containers? This does not make sense.

Ask Shea for BC’s $400 million. We can spend it on habitat restoration, something DFO has been sadly remiss about in BC for decades. This year’s total DFO habitat projects for BC is a measly $900,000, only 2.6% of our own money Ottawa sent to diseased fish farms in BC.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Cooke shuts down for about six months November 23, 2013 Bay management plan to be put in place after fish contract infectious salmon anemia The Cooke employees at the company’s processing operation in Harbour Breton were informed Nov. 7 that the plant could be down for at least six months.

The reason for the downtime goes back to June, when Cooke was informed that some of its fish in Hermitage Bay had contracted infectious salmon anemia (ISA).

Following strict protocols, and the direction of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the company got rid of the fish in two cages at the site, hoping the rest of the fish would escape the problem.

However, the company was informed recently that the rest of the several hundred thousand fish would have to be removed as well and will need to be sent to a rendering facility.

Nell Halse is a public relations official with Cooke Aqua Ltd. Halse said the removal order by the CFIA means the company has no market-ready salmon to process in Newfoundland, and the company had to make the difficult decision to lay off its employees on a temporary basis.

“Although this move will impact our employees, the bigger impact for us is that we have a break in our processing in Newfoundland,” Halse said.

“However, we have a number of farms and processing plants in other areas of Atlantic Canada and Maine, so we should be able to meet the market demands for our products.”

Atlantic Salmon

Maine aquaculturists have been raising salmon since the 1970s. Hatcheries throughout the state (some as far inland as Bingham and Frenchville) produce 31/2 million fish each year for net-pen operations along the coast.

Halse said the fish that will be depopulated represents less than three per cent of all of Cooke’s fish in Atlantic Canada and Maine.

Bay management plan Halse said a bay management plan needs to be established in the Newfoundland aquaculture industry similar to the one in place in New Brunswick.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “We know from experience that you need to have three distinct bay areas, you need to be able to rotate your crop and you need to have a fallow period for individual farms and also for an entire bay area at the same time,” she said.

“You need dedicated wharves for different activities and biosecurity protocols, and vessel traffic needs to be controlled. All of these things need to be put in place to secure a long-term future for the industry in Newfoundland.”

Halse said the company has not experienced an ISA case in New Brunswick since 2006 after a bay management plan was put in place.

The company has been working aggressively with the province of Newfoundland for the development and implementation of a bay management plan, Halse said.

“It’s certainly important for companies to adopt these protocols, and we do implement them even when there is no official regulation in place. However, there’s a really important role for the government to play in this because an official bay management plan that requires compliance by all companies is the only way these protocols are really going to work.

“We urgently need this program before we can really manage ISA in Newfoundland. We need to see this happen, and we will (not) be adjusting our stocking plans for the province until this is in place.”

Putting plan in place Keith Hutchings, the provincial minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, said a bay management plan should be place by the end of the year.

“We’ve been quite active in terms of the plan over the past year or so. After we completed our scientific work we went back and forth with the industry players who wanted some tweaks in the guidelines and we did that,” Hutchings said.

“The last time we talked with the industry players was back in mid-September, and we’re waiting to hear from them on this serious issue.

“This government is very supportive of the aquaculture industry, and we’re willing to sit down with the players to get this plan in place in moving the industry forward.”

Surprising news Mayor Roy Drake of Harbour Breton said the news of the down time at the Cooke operation came as a surprise to everyone in the community.

“As a council, we are very concerned about this matter, and we will be working with Cooke Aqua to see what they might need from the town in terms of help to prepare for the reopening next year,” Drake said.

“Hopefully, within the six-month time frame, the current stock will be market size and production can resume at the plant.

“We will be keeping in close contact with Cooke officials and Bill Barry to see what their long-term plans are for Harbour Breton.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission – Public Meeting Chehalis River Salmon Management Policy December 7, 2013 Meeting schedule and material available HERE

Photo credit: Kody Balderston Jim Wilcox, WGFCI

An overflow audience of citizens concerned about the management of Chehalis River basin wild salmon and steelhead packed the hearing room to provide thoughtful input into the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s current draft of the Chehalis River Salmon Management Strategy.

Although a few in the audience were non-treaty, commercial fishermen, the overwhelming majority were recreational fishermen who were passionate about the need to restore and conserve Chehalis River wild (natural spawning) salmon and steelhead.

Some of the recreational fishermen also recommended that harvest of “surplus” salmon be based in large part on greater economic returns associated with the recreational fishing industry.

Clearly, the recommendations made by recreational fishermen in attendance as well as those who commented via the Commission’s web-site would require significant management changes if accepted by the Fish and Wildlife Commission and implemented by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Several of those presenting testimony during this important meeting also rightfully indicated that if the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife fails to protect and conserve these special fish, the federal government will step in to do the job.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 WDFW Chehalis River Salmon Management Policy Entire PowerPoint presentation

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Editorial Comment: The following are a few questions and comments PowerPoint presentation from Saturday's Commission meeting:

 

after

reviewing

WDFW's

Keeping the focus on conservation (wise use) of Chehalis River basin salmon and steelhead is key Regarding the Chehalis River Fall Chinook graph: •

It seems as though the red line (Natural Spawners), not the blue line (Actual Runsize), should be regarded as the actual escapement - if so, there are very few years when the artificial escapement goal is achieved. In conservation-based management, this will need to be changed to have sustainable wild populations

•

Given the general inability year in and year out to achieve escapement, it seems: o Harvest should be curtailed in most years o Escapement goal should be increased to produce more wild chinook when opportunities arise



Regarding the Humptulips Fall Chinook graph: •



Appears that the escapement goal is being utilized as a goal for escapement to the hatchery and not a goal for natural spawners - even at that, there are years where natural `spawners don't meet the escapement goal

Regarding the graphs associated with the values for recreational and commercial Chehalis River salmon fisheries •

Although the administrative note says that these two values cannot be compared, it seems that WDFW managers and economists would greatly benefit from comparing apples and oranges when attempting to manage public resources for the greatest return on investment

•

Doing so would clearly document the financial benefit of viable recreational salmon fisheries over a outdated commercial fisheries

•

Continued maintenance and reliance of ineffective hatchery programs in support of questionable commercial fisheries in the Chehalis River makes no economic or environmental sense.

•

Restoring and conserving the Chehalis River basin's wild salmon is what will provide the greatest return on investment for Washington citizens.

Without a wild salmon conservation based mentality, Washington citizens are being shamefully lead down a very expensive, unsustainable garden path.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Fish Lake, near where Taseko proposes putting its New Prosperity mine, has long been at the heart of First Nations concerns with the mining proposal

 B.C. mines minister to lobby for New Prosperity project Environmental review found long list of concerns, but Bill Bennett says B.C. economy needs the mine December 10, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Mines Minister Bill Bennett is heading to Ottawa to support the contentious New Prosperity mine proposal in the Cariboo, the minister said Tuesday.

Bennett, speaking to project boosters brought together by the B.C. Chamber of Commerce in Vancouver, said he will go to the national capital Thursday to tell his federal counterparts that the province considers the $1.5-billion New Prosperity mine an important piece in its economic plan.

“I’m going to seek to influence the decision, of course,” Bennett said to reporters. “I want them to say yes because they can say yes. I want to make sure they have all the information to do that.”

A decision on whether the open-pit copper-gold mine goes ahead rests with federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq. She is studying a second review by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which concluded the mine would have significant environmental impacts.

Taseko Mines Ltd. is disputing a major element that went into that conclusion.

Taseko revised its initial proposal for the mine, 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, after its first proposal was rejected by the assessment agency in 2010.

Bennett said it wouldn’t be appropriate to meet with Aglukkaq because she is the statutory decision maker, but intends to press his point with others at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet table, including Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt and Labour Minister Kellie Leitch.

“What I want to do is provide information, I want to make sure the federal government understands that we do this in British Columbia,” Bennett said of open-pit mining.

“We have the technology and expertise to see that this is done,” in a responsible fashion, he said.

Bennett said the latest environmental review included 28 recommendations for addressing environmental concerns that could easily be made conditions of the mine’s approval.

His message to the federal ministers is that the project is important to the province in conjunction with Premier Christy Clark’s jobs plan, “and we need to build some things if we’re going to meet our targets in that plan.”

Bennett acknowledged that the mine faces opposition from the Tsihlqot’in First Nation, but he believes there is still an opportunity to answer its concerns and offer support through means such as sharing mineral royalties that would come from the mine.

B.C. Chamber of Commerce CEO John Winter said the intent of Tuesday’s event was to send a “consolidated message” to Ottawa “to make sure the federal government knows there’s strong support for the proposal.”

Supporters who spoke Tuesday included Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook, who said the mine is an important piece of the region’s economic diversification away from the troubled forest industry. Ervin Charleyboy, a former chief of the Alexis Creek Band, one of six communities in the Tsihlqot’in First Nation, said there is support for the mine among his people, but supporters are too intimidated to speak up in favour.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Chief Joe Alphonse, tribal chair of the Tsihlqot’in, said Tuesday the First Nation will challenge an approval of the New Prosperity mine in court.

Alphonse said it is the second time the project has received a negative environmental review and he believes the efforts to continue pushing it are getting in the way of developing other environmentally acceptable proposals in the region. ““Bill Bennett, go and lobby as hard as you can,” Alphonse said. “This issue will die in a federal courtroom. If that’s what it takes to protect our interests as Indian people, that’s what we’ll do.”

Bennett joined the rally in support of the New Prosperity mine a day after a B.C. Supreme Court judge quashed the province’s 2012 decision to reject mining firm Pacific Booker Minerals Inc.’s Morrison proposal for an open-pit mine 65 kilometres north of Smithers.

Judge Kenneth Affleck ruled that the rejection did not conform to “the requirements of procedural fairness,” and didn’t give Pacific Booker an opportunity to address the province’s last-minute concerns before making its decision.

Bennett wouldn’t take questions Tuesday on how the province will proceed in that case.

However, while Pacific Booker Minerals and representatives of the mining industry look for the Morrison mine’s application to be reopened for reconsideration, an interior First Nation will continue pushing for the mine’s rejection to be upheld.

The B.C. Supreme Court judgment was a disappointing outcome for Chief Wilf Adam of the Babine Lake First Nation, who was supported the rejection of Pacific Booker’s application for the mine.

“The decision that the province made was the right decision and I’m kind of disappointed that (Pacific Booker Minerals) wouldn’t take that decision,” Adam said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Sechelt (shíshálh) First Nation Opposes Hazardous American Coal Shipments December 6, 2013 Sechelt, BC A plan to transport coal by train from Wyoming to the top of Texada Island where it will be stored awaiting shipment by gigantic freighters to China has received strong opposition from the shíshálh Nation. The coal is proposed to move from the Port of Vancouver on barges through the Sabine channel, a sacred fishing area in shíshálh territory.

Proposed coal storage Texada Island

Chief Feschuk and Council stated, “What are they thinking, the Sabine Channel is a pristine fishing and environmentally sensitive area. It would be pure recklessness to proceed with this plan without proper consultation.

The shíshálh Nation has NOT been consulted although the huge barges will travel through our territory. No health or environmental impact studies have been done to properly assess the impact of shipping coal through our territory. We will not allow this reckless project to proceed without proper consultation and in-depth assessment of potential impacts to our Nation and the Sunshine Coast.”

The shíshálh Chief and Council echo the concerns raised by Powell River - Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the Sunshine Coast Regional District. A full Environmental Assessment, as well as a Health Impact Assessment, that includes consideration of coal dust transfer during barge transport, is required prior to any further consideration of this project. In addition, we required the development of the following plans: a Navigational Risk Assessment; an Environmental Management Plan; a Spill Response Plan; and, an Air Quality Management Plan. We have been in contact with the Provincial government and will be seeking prompt resolution to this serious breach of Provincial responsibility.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

“Greenwashing” (aka: Bovine Excrement)

Editorial Comment: Two short years ago, chinook salmon in the Creative Salmon feedlots were diagnosed with ISA-like symptoms, a known risk to wild Pacific salmon.

 Creative Salmon achieves organic certification Tofino, BC: Creative Salmon is the first farm-raised salmon producer in North America to achieve organic certification. The Canadian-owned company has been raising indigenous Pacific Chinook (King) salmon using sustainable methods for many years. Now it has achieved all the criteria set out in the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard.

Accredited certifying body Global Trust regularly audits Creative Salmon to verify compliance with the standard. Based in Tofino, British Columbia, in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Creative Salmon is a small company dedicated to quality, not quantity.

“We are thrilled to be a leader in organic aquaculture,” says Tim Rundle, Creative Salmon’s General Manager. “Consumers are looking for organic product. Creative Salmon is proud to offer an organic product backed by a made-in-Canada standard.”

The standard became official in May of 2012 when it was passed by the Canadian General Standards Board.

In order to meet the certification requirements, organic fish must have twice as much room to swim as conventional farm-raised fish.

“At Creative Salmon our fish have a low density environment occupying less than one per cent of the volume of their pen, even when fully grown,” says Rundle.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The organic standard also addresses chemicals, prohibiting antifoulants on nets. “At Creative Salmon we clean and maintain our sites and our nets by power washing with sea water or by exposing them to natural ultraviolet from the sun,” says Rundle.

As required by the organic standard, Creative Salmon’s market fish are free of antibiotics and genetically modified organisms.

“We raise a Pacific species in the Pacific Ocean so our fish are perfectly adapted to the sea conditions including a natural tolerance to sea lice which means our fish don't require treatment with pesticides,” says Rundle.

Our fish feed is composed of sustainably-sourced fish meal and fish oil. Ingredients also include certified organic wheat as a binder and a naturally sourced pigment derived from a yeast.

“Our fish are fed a diet as close to their natural one as possible in a farm setting,” says Rundle. “Our major supplier, Taplow Feeds, is a valued partner in our organic process and is also certified to the organic standard.”

Editorial Comment: So, how close to their natural diet in a wild setting is the feed at Creative Salmon?

We suspect it is not close at all.

The organic certification also applies to Creative Salmon’s Sea Spring Hatchery as well as Lions Gate Fisheries’ processing plants in both Tofino and Delta.

Approximately 50 per cent of seafood consumed world-wide is farm raised, making aquaculture a vital and growing industry. Creative Salmon is North America’s only major producer of Pacific Chinook salmon.

For more information please contact: Lisa Stewart, Creative Salmon Co. Ltd. Communications Officer Phone: 250.725.2884 Cell: 250-266-2124 Email: mailto:lisa.stewart@creativesalmon.com About the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard The Canadian General Standards Board published the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard in May 2012. A committee (including industry members, consumer advocates, regulators, and environmental organizations) developed the standard. The draft went through extensive public review before being published.

To learn more about the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard, visit the Government of Canada http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ongc-cgsb/publications/nouvelles-news/biologique-organiceng.html or the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Association http://www.aquaculture.ca/organic About Creative Salmon Company Ltd. Creative Salmon was founded in 1990. Despite being one of the smallest salmon farming companies in the world, Creative Salmon is fully integrated from producing our own brood stock and smolts to raising and harvesting the fish and processing them in a plant on a dock in Tofino. To learn more about Creative Salmon, visit www.creativesalmon.com.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Enbridge uses anonymity for new hydroelectric projects Pipeline proponent says numbered company needed in competitive ‘green’ sector December 12, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OTTAWA — Enbridge Inc., through an anonymous numbered company, is seeking to build an undisclosed number of hydroelectric projects — many on salmon-bearing rivers and creeks on traditional aboriginal territories — in B.C. and Alberta, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

Enbridge says they are part of the company’s green energy plans and are not being built to power pumps for the company’s proposed 1,177-kilometre Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.

But a spokesman indicated Enbridge’s motives are indirectly linked to the $6.5-billion pipeline. Ivan Giesbrecht said that during public consultations on the pipeline, the company heard many demands that it support green energy.

“It’s not unusual at all for Enbridge — one of Canada’s leading renewable energy suppliers — to be asked about renewable energy prospects in and around their communities.”

And Enbridge said there is nothing suspicious in its use of a numbered company.

Green energy is a growing sector, Giesbrecht said, so it’s prudent to avoid tipping off potential competitors.

The projects, if approved, are expected to be operational by mid-2016 and will feed power into the BC Hydro grid.

B.C. First Nations leaders and some opposition MPs said they’re skeptical.

“It’s kind of suspicious to me,” said Haisla Chief Coun. Ellis Ross, whose nation’s claimed territory is potentially affected by three Enbridge hydro projects.

“I personally don’t appreciate anybody doing business in our territory through a numbered company without notifying us about who they are and what their intentions are.”

SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, a Terrace-based environmental group, obtained and provided to The Vancouver Sun formal applications dated 2012, proposing four hydroelectric projects in the KitimatTerrace area. All are within 20 km of the pipeline route.

A spokesman for the independent power industry, Clean Energy BC executive director Paul Kariya, said the four projects are collectively “a significant undertaking” and would cost about $500 million to build.

Enbridge didn’t comment on that estimate.

SkeenaWild spokesman Greg Knox has also uncovered Enbridge applications for four other water power projects, as well as a proposal for an electric power line for the Omineca-Peace regions near Prince George area — again in an area to be traversed by the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Enbridge confirmed it is also planning “run-of-river” power projects in Alberta.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Enbridge has applied for and received an investigative licence to conduct preliminary assessment work at possible project sites in B.C. and Alberta,” Giesbrecht said. “This licence allows the company limited access to the area, and only so it can determine if the location is suitable for a ‘run-of-river’ type hydroelectric project.”

The company said it wouldn’t proceed without a “full environmental review” of the implications of the project on fish and fish habitat.

Kariya said it’s not unusual for companies at the “investigative stage” to operate anonymously. Some “are very careful (and) secretive for a host of reasons — competition, investors etc.,” he said in an email.

He also said companies take varied approaches with First Nations, though “the best ones start very early” in consulting aboriginal leaders.

Critics said Enbridge should be clearer about its plans, particularly since the company has been under scrutiny for not revealing details like the identities of the Northern Gateway investors and the names of First Nations groups that have taken equity stakes in the project.

“If a company is proud of what they’re doing, they usually put their name on it, right?” said New Democrat Nathan Cullen, MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding where four of the hydro projects would be located. “For a company that doesn’t have a lot of public faith, this doesn’t help them gain any more.”

Joe Bevan, chief councillor of the Kitselas First Nation, said neither he nor his staff have been approached by the proponents of the hydro project that would be partly in his nation’s territory.

Bevan, who said the Kitselas are open to joint ventures with private companies, speculated Enbridge is operating through a numbered company to avoid bad publicity for the projects.

“The word Enbridge is like a four-letter word anywhere on this continent because of the bad reputation they’re getting in the media.”

Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, said Enbridge is in the green energy business in order to obtain “social licence” to advance pipeline projects. “It may well be that they’re sincerely trying to demonstrate that they’re a renewable energy company,” he added.

But efforts to win public favour will backfire if the company is seen as “sneaking around” through a numbered company, especially if the projects involve salmon habitat, he said.

Green party leader Elizabeth May said Enbridge should be more upfront, given the outcry over past publicity efforts such as the removal of 1,000 square kilometres of islands from the Douglas Channel in a video that attempted to prove tankers weren’t at risk while sailing to and from Kitimat.

Enbridge has been “less than fully candid in its dealings with British Columbians and First Nations,” she said. “Deciding to go after some salmon-bearing streams for hydro projects using the ruse of a numbered company they run strikes me as another failed effort to keep British Columbians in the dark.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

From left are Jeff Nickerson - NS Saltwater Production Manager Cooke, Michael Szemerda - VP Saltwater Operations Cooke, Dr. Chris Moore - Dean of Science Dalhousie University, Dr. Martha Crago – VP Research Dalhousie University, Dr. Jon Grant – NSERC Cooke Industrial Research Chair, Dr. Richard Isenor - Atlantic Manager NSERC, Nell Halse – VP Communications Cooke, Andrew Lively – Director Marketing Cooke, Ross Butler – Senior VP Cooke

 Cooke Aquaculture partnering with Dalhousie December 11, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Cooke Aquaculture is partnering with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Dalhousie University and to create the new Cooke Industrial Research Chair in Sustainable Aquaculture.

The partnership is a five-year renewable program that will be led by Oceanographer Dr. Jon Grant.

Funding for the Chair position and associated research is provided by NSERC, Dalhousie University and Cooke Aquaculture.

The arrangement is so far the most significant industry-university-government partnership for aquaculture in Canada.

The aquaculture industry has had its problems.

Concerns about disease and waste management as well as its effects on commercial fisheries have led to controversy along coastal communities.

The research partnership aims to improve the industry.

Editorial Comment: For more than twenty years, the open pen salmon feedlot industry has claimed to have no risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

Now they admit to having problems: disease, waste management, effects on commercial fisheries…

This IRC will focus on: Simulation modeling for maintaining coastal ecosystem services; integrity of cages and moorings for biosecurity; waste management plans for environmental integrity; assessment of sediment habitat health; prevention of disease and management of fish health; and marine spatial planning of aquaculture and wild fisheries.

Proponents of the program say the NSERC IRC Chair in Sustainable Aquaculture at Dalhousie University will provide a “world-class” platform for the ecosystem based research and expertise that is required to grow a sustainable aquaculture sector in Nova Scotia.

NSERC’s Industrial Research Chairs (IRC) program is a five-year program to help universities build on existing science and research strengths of interest to industry; and enhance training for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Cooke Aquaculture will contribute $160,000 annually for five years, totaling $800,000 to match the NSERC contribution. Cooke will also contribute in-kind resources, specifically boat and diver costs toward the project. The company will also provide employment opportunities in the short term (co-op, summer) and in the longer term for graduates as they complete their research programs.

Dalhousie's capacity for aquaculture training of students will increase significantly as a result of this partnership. University and industry representatives say this will lead to a trained workforce for the aquaculture industry, and a new chapter in the practice of environmentally conscious fish farming.

"This partnership will add significant new capacity to research into sustainable aquaculture at Dalhousie University. Along with Professor Grant's expanded research program, next year there will be a new professor to provide additional research and training capacity. This growth will allow significantly more new research as well as additional training of the next generation of experts on sustainable aquaculture." – Dr. Chris Moore, Dean of Science, Dalhousie University

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Organic fresh salmon fillet Atlantic farmed

Angela Koch: “WTHeck? Organic farmed salmon...is there really such a thing???

Apparently this garbage was flown in thousands of miles from Norway to end up in the Campbell River Superstore....wow...talk about a humongous carbon footprint...certified by Dom international...I'd love to see their annual audits and certification by EcoCert Canada...wouldn't you?”

DOM ORGANICS Atlantic Salmon Portions and Fillets are from the pristine waters of the North Atlantic. Raised using all-natural, eco-friendly methods and certified organic, our fish are hand fed a diet of organic and sustainable ingredients, free of hormones or genetically modified organisms. Our Atlantic Salmon benefit from low stocking levels and forceful tides, leading to leaner, firmer, and tastier fish.

The DOM ORGANICS Difference •Environmentally friendly farming procedures, designed to work in harmony with existing ecosystems •Adherence to organic farming standards with annual audits and certification by EcoCert Canada •Fish pens are located in waters with high tidal exchanges, preventing waste build-up and ensuring cleaner, healthier waters •Fewer fish per cubic metre means more room to swim, leading to healthier salmon •Fish are hand fed an organic diet with no genetically modified ingredients •Fish meal is derived from by-products of open-sea fish caught for human consumption •Naturally occurring yeast (phaffia) is used in the feed to give the salmon its healthy red colouring The DOM ORGANICS Guarantee We guarantee that all of our products are free of chemicals, preservatives, antibiotics, and hormones.

DOM ORGANICS has a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Port Metro Vancouver President and CEO Robin Silvester

 Port Metro Vancouver CEO confident coal dust issue “thoroughly” reviewed November 26, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The president and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver says he’s satisfied that the issue of coal dust has been thoroughly examined in a recent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of a proposed coal transfer facility at the Fraser Surrey Docks. Environmental groups accuse the Port of making up their minds before the review process is complete.

In a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade this morning, Port Metro Vancouver president and CEO Robin Silvester said that "there has been a very thorough environmental review process” by one of the world’s leading toxicology experts and the Port is confident the coal dust levels are acceptable and safe.”

“It has been studied very substantially by people who are specific experts in this field who have said they do not see any risk to communities.”

Silvester says that the expert, Dr. Leonard Ritter, conducted a review of the potential coal dust effects on health within 10 meters of a rail line. Ritter concludes in his report that “coal dust associated with the (Fraser Surrey Dock) Project does not pose a risk of adverse health effects in neighbouring communities.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Port is considering approval of a direct-transfer coal facility at Fraser Surrey Docks that would handle two million tonnes of coal annually. That could increase to four million tonnes within five years.

The coal would then be barged to Texada Island to be shipped overseas. All the coal would need to be shipped from the mine site by rail to the Surrey dock, raising alarms among a number of municipal governments, environmental and civic groups and the Lower Mainland’s two health authorities.

The chief medical officers of both the Vancouver and Fraser Health Authorities have criticized the EIA for failing to properly assess health impacts of the proposed coal terminal. In particular, Dr. Paul Van Buynder of Fraser Health and Dr. Patricia Daly of Vancouver Health wrote to Port Metro Vancouver earlier this month pointing out that “the report does not meet even the most basic requirements of a health impact assessment.”

The Port has posted the EIA on its website and is inviting comments from the public until midDecember.

Laura Benson of the environmental group, Dogwood Initiative, says it’s disappointing that the CEO of Port Metro Vancouver is satisfied with the EIA when the 30-day public comment period is still ongoing.

“From our perspective, the fight is not over,” says Benson, director of Dogwood’s ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign. “But apparently it is from Robin Silvester’s perspective. What is shocking to me is that the CEO of the Port Authority appears to be satisfied with the environmental assessment before he’s had a chance to consider any public comment on the matter. The health authorities are not going to be the only ones weighing in, certainly the public and residents at large and other experts concerned about this issue, other agencies such as Metro Vancouver and municipal governments are all going to be weighing in and if he’s already made up his mind that this is a satisfactory assessment. What can that mean about the integrity of the public consultation process?"

Benson also notes that the health authority doctors are not satisfied with the health analysis by just one expert, who doesn’t live in the region.

“That’s one opinion, from a single expert, and this was pointed out by the health authority doctors.

You need more than that to have a robust health assessment study. It leaves out the fact that coal dust is not the only issue. In fact what may be even more significant from a health perspective is diesel particulate matter. The health officers have pointed out several ways in which that was not properly assessed in this EIA. So coal dust is not the only thing.”

Silvester says the Port has made extraordinary efforts to meet with and listen to concerns of communities, neighbourhoods and organizations. The EIA was carried out by SNC-Lavin and a number of consultants who received input from the two health authorities, Metro Vancouver, First Nations, municipalities and the public. The Port says it has responded to comments and “mitigation efforts have been implemented to effect a more robust management of potential environmental issues.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Northern Gateway Pipelines – A better spill response action plan Timothy Watson: “The so called escort tugs are actually to steer the tankers because they are physically too big to navigate these waters on their own.

Also why do they insist that a cleanup is even plausible because bitumen sinks. Douglas channel is over 3000 feet deep. Cleaning up a spill would be IMPOSSIBLE. Enbridge will not be responsible as it is not the shipper.

Harper just announced $95 million taxpayer dollars to clean up Lac Megantic. The railway and the insurance company are not responsible.

You and I are responsible. Thank you Steve for showing us how things really work when it comes to these far too frequent disasters.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Mining and wild game fish

Fish Lake, near the proposed “New Prosperity” Mine (British Columbia, Canada)

 Taseko wants judicial review into Prosperity Mine’s harsh assessment December 2, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems VANCOUVER – Taseko Mines Ltd. (TSX:TKO) has formally requested a judicial review of a critical environmental assessment for the proposed New Prosperity copper-gold mine in the B.C. Interior.

The company said Monday it has filed the request with the Federal Court in Vancouver to comply with a 30-day time limit.

Taseko has objected to parts of the assessment, saying the panel based its conclusions on faulty information — failing to account for a design feature intended to prevent seepage of contaminant material from a tailings storage facility. Said the company:

“Taseko is asking the court for a declaration that certain panel findings relating to seepage and water quality be set aside, and that the panel failed in certain respects to comply with principles of procedural fairness.”

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has said it is reviewing information provided by Taseko.

Last month, an agency panel released a report saying it didn’t believe Taseko’s design for the project could avoid contaminating nearby Fish Lake. The survival of the lake is at the centre of the dispute.

The assessment found the project would have “significant adverse environmental effects” on water quality, fish and fish habitat in the lake, on grizzly habitat and on First Nations traditional activities.

The final decision on allowing the mine to proceed is in the hands of federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

The review is a second attempt by the company to have the project approved.

The proposed mine has already been rejected once after an earlier assessment because the company proposed using the lake as the tailings pond.

“Taseko had no choice but to file this application in order to comply with a 30-day time limit,” Taseko president and CEO Russell Hallbauer said.

“But we remain of the view that the federal government should allow the project to proceed to the next stage of detailed permit-level examination and if so the judicial review would not need to proceed.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Salmon Hatcheries and Wild Salmon

A hatchery fish is found among wild fish returning to the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula this past spring. Wild fish advocates around the region have filed several lawsuits calling for restrictions on the use of hatcheries.

 Lawsuits Put NW Fish Hatcheries In The Crosshairs December 11, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A string of lawsuits around the region highlights a groundswell of opposition to the practice of raising salmon and steelhead in hatcheries to then be released into the wild. Wild fish supporters argue that hatcheries harm wild fish populations and that governmental agencies charged with protecting salmon and steelhead under the Endangered Species Act are in fact violating the Act in some instances by releasing hatchery-raised fish to intermingle with the wild ones.

Fish hatcheries date back to the late 1800s in the Northwest when new dams sprouted up around the region, stymieing wild salmon spawning migrations. Today state and federal agencies release millions of hatchery-raised fish into Northwest rivers each year.

But a growing body of research shows that these hatchery fish are not only semidomesticated and weaker than wild fish, they have also been shown to inter-breed with wild fish.

“We’re definitely seeing the beginning of a turning of the tide,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of the Wild Fish Conservancy.

Here’s a quick list of the lawsuits underway in the region:

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The Elwha River: The Wild Fish Conservancy is suing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. WFC alleges that NOAA did not fully consider the potentially negative impacts the two hatcheries on the Elwha could have on the recovery of wild fish there. A ruling is expected from the U.S. District Court in Seattle in the coming weeks. You can read more here and here.

The McKenzie River: McKenzie Flyfishers and the Steamboaters are suing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Army Corps of Engineers for violating the Endangered Species Act by releasing too many hatchery fish and not adequately preventing the interbreeding of hatchery spring Chinook with the wild run. The case was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

The Sandy River: The Native Fish Society is suing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA for failing to put in place plans to prevent hatchery fish from interbreeding with wild fish after two dams were removed on the Sandy in 2007. The case will be heard in U.S. District Court in Portland in January.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Port

Moody salmon hatchery burns 'to the ground,' destroying this year's stock December 12, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A longtime salmon hatchery in Port Moody has been destroyed and this year’s stock has been deemed a complete loss after a fire ravaged the facility late Wednesday evening.

The fire at the Mossom Creek Community Salmon Hatchery, located in the 300-block Ioco Road, began in the early evening hours.

A motion detector system activated the fire alarm, leading to the fire’s discovery.

George Assaf is vicepresident of the non-profit Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society, which operates the hatchery.

In a statement released Wednesday evening, Assaf said the facility had burned “to the ground.”

“The building and this year’s stocks are expected to be a total loss,” Assaf said.

Port Moody fire crews and vehicles also had difficulty accessing the hatchery due to icy road conditions.

Police were also at the scene of the incident, and said no injuries were sustained in the fire. There are no indications as to the cause of the fire, but an investigation is expected to take place.

The hatchery has been in operation for 38 years on the north shore of Port Moody, since it was started in 1976 by students from Centennial School in Coquitlam.

The hatchery releases about 100,000 Chum fry and between 5,000 and 10,000 Coho smolts into the surrounding area each year.

Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay says it was a horrible experience watching the facility burn, destroying not just the hatchery but mementoes such as scrapbooks and pictures.

But Clay says he's confident the hatchery will be rebuilt.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Wild fish management

 Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists Harper government shuts down 'world class' collection on freshwater science and protection.

December 9, 2013 The Harper government has dismantled one of the world's top aquatic and fishery libraries as part of its agenda to reduce government as well as limit the role of environmental science in policy decisionmaking.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Last week the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is closing five of its seven libraries, allowed scientists, consultants and members of the public to scavenge through what remained of Eric Marshall Library belonging to the Freshwater Institute at the University of Manitoba.

One woman showed up to pick up Christmas gifts for a son interested in environmental science.

Other material went into dumpsters. Consultants walked home with piles of "grey material" such as 30-year-old reports on Arctic gas drilling.

Nearly 40,000 books and papers were relocated to a federal library in Sidney, B.C. "It was a world class library with some of the finest environmental science and freshwater book collections in the world. It was certainly the best in Canada, but it's no more," said Burt Ayles, a 68year-old retired research scientist and former regional director general for freshwaters in central Canada and the Arctic.

Established in 1973, when foreign governments hailed Canada as a world leader in freshwater science and protection, the library housed tens of thousands of reports, maps, charts and books, including material dating back to the 1880s.

The library contained fishery reports on the decline of sturgeon fishing in Lake Winnipeg from the 1890s, said Ayles, and served as invaluable intellectual capital for public researchers at the Freshwater Institute and world famous Experimental Lakes Area.

"The loss of this library and its impact on fisheries and environmental science is equivalent to Rome destroying the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt. It's equal to that," said Ayles. At the time, Alexandria boasted the world's largest collection in the ancient world.

Closure 'makes us poorer as a nation': scientist Before Fisheries and Oceans hired a librarian to dispose of the library's contents, the collection duly reflected the importance of freshwater in the nation's geography, say scientists.

Canada holds more than 20 per cent of the surface freshwater in the world, and its rivers and streams annually transport almost 10 per cent of the world flow of freshwater. Canada is also one of the world's largest seafood-exporting nations.

"I was sickened," said one prominent research scientist who had worked for the federal government for 30 years, and who did not want to be identified. "All that intellectual capital is now gone. It's like a book burning. It's the destruction of our cultural heritage. It just makes us poorer as a nation."

"There are so many willing accomplices to what's going on," the scientist added. "All of our federal libraries and archives are being diminished. It's an ideological thing coming from a right-wing libertarian government."

Since 2012, the government has closed or consolidated more than a dozen federal libraries at Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Foreign Affairs, Citizenship and Immigration and Canadian Heritage (see sidebar).

"The government is either incompetent or malevolent or both," added Ayles.

No scientist interviewed by The Tyee thought digital libraries could replace what has been destroyed.

Digital libraries, for example, often don't include older material and journals and paradoxically reduce access to material due to payment schemes. They restrict rather than expand readership, say scientists.

"You don't get rid of intellectual capital because one day you might need it, and if you have squandered it then you must redo it," explained one researcher. "People are not being told the truth about what is happening in this country."

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Federal cuts by the Harper government have forced Fisheries and Oceans to lay off hundreds of researchers, as well as 700 Coast Guard workers; dismantle a marine contaminants program; and close the Kitsilano Coast Guard station, the first line of defence against oil spills. After dramatic cuts to the Canada Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research Centre at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, its director, Ken Lee, an oil spill expert, saw the writing on the wall and took a job in Australia.

Given that the Fisheries Act has been gutted in response to lobbying by energy companies (they found habitat protection "onerous" and it has been removed), government supporters say the infrastructure to protect fish and freshwater is no longer necessary.

The library's closing did not surprise retired water ecologist David Schindler. "In retrospect, I am not surprised at all to find them trashing scientific libraries," he said.

"Paranoid ideologues have burned books and records throughout human history to try to squelch dissenting visions that they view as heretical, and to anyone who worships the great God Economy monotheistically, environmental science is heresy."

Echoes of the Experimental Lakes The library's closure pours salt on another wound: the dismantling of the world-famous Experimental Lakes Area (ELA).

For nearly 50 years, scientists from around the world have used 58 lakes in northern Ontario for real, in-the-field experiments. These whole-lake studies led to groundbreaking insights on acid rain, mercury transport, gender-bending hormones and phosphate pollution. They also produced some of the longest running data on climate change's impact on water and fish.

The Harper government stopped funding the $2-million facility in 2012, saying its services were no longer needed or redundant. At the time, project scientists were planning to do experiments on bitumen pollutants and their impact on fish and other species.

Former science minister Gerry Goodyear defended the closure by arguing that whole-lake experiments like those performed at ELA could be replaced by smaller scale experiments in labs where they would not jeopardize the entire lake.

Jules Blais, president of the Society of Canadian Limnologists, replied in a May 6, 2013 letter that Goodyear's comments were not only misleading, but inaccurate. Scientists uniformly agree that whole-lake research offers the best evidence to guide policy, Blais wrote, while "small-scale experiments are inadequate to address issues related to ecosystem services, food web structure, land-water interactions, air-water interactions, shoreline communities, and migratory species."

Furthermore, "experiments at the ELA are carefully designed to simulate environmentally-relevant conditions, and are only performed if ecosystems will recover naturally from the manipulation," wrote Blais, a leading authority on mercury pollution.

The closure of the library, which served as a vital source for the ELA, will make it harder for Winnipeg's International Institute for Sustainable Development to rescue what remains of the team of scientists that ran the ELA. A last minute deal, supported by funding by the Ontario government, has been compromised by the federal government. The ELA's remaining researchers all received "surplus letters" last week, which makes it difficult to retain ELA staff.

Schindler, one of the first directors of the ELA, has long criticized the pace and scale of Canadian tar sands production. He co-authored two significant studies that showed the tar sands industry was responsible for significant pollution of waterways in the region. The studies forced Ottawa to develop a new monitoring program for the mega-project.

The ELA cost $2 million a year to maintain, but its research saved governments around the world billions of dollars by preventing water contamination, Schindler said.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Too many chum salmon to be processed Partial value realized from sale of eggs and carcasses Editorial Comment:  The following from Joseph Pavel, Director, Skokomish Department of Natural Resources, Skokomish Nation regarding the photo below of thousands of dead chum salmon is greatly appreciated.

Photographer apology:  “I apologize to all that saw my picture of the chum salmon on the Skokomish reservation dead and rotting. I didn’t realize that was a structured composting site. I have offended the Skokomish tribe with leading people to believe this was illegal dumping and for that i apologize. I was not the first poster of the picture nor was i the individual that called KIRO 7 news.”

“To interested individuals: An unfortunate situation has occurred whereby the usual fish markets where unable to handle the volume of fish harvested in Puget Sound chum salmon fisheries.

Hood Canal experienced an estimated record return of nearly 1.5 million adults. Other Puget Sound units also experienced strong chum salmon returns.

The non-treaty Purse Seine and Gillnet fleet harvested nearly 650,000 fish, the Tribal fishery harvested over 500,000 fish.

These fish are of hatchery origin, provided by the Hoodsport Hatchery, the George Adams/McKernan hatchery complex, and the Enetai hatchery. These are production units designed to provide fish for harvest and have no bearing on conservation or recovery efforts.

All units made their escapement and egg take goals.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

The non-treaty fleet is able to exert a massive harvest power, upwards of 200,000 fish a day and occurs prior to much of the tribal fishery. The non treaty fishery utilized an enormous amount of the fish buyer and processor capacity prior to the tribal fishery. Buyers were unable to take fish midway through a tribal fishery. Processors were able to catch up and opened up capacity and returned to buying fish "in the round".

The tribal fishery occurs in a terminal area (at or adjacent to the hatchery or river of origin) and fish have metamorphosed to spawning condition (dark). The primary market value of these fish is the roe.

Tribal members where able to market the roe, so that some value was recovered from the harvest that occurred while processor capacity was backed up.

The tribe arranged a disposal site so that resultant carcasses could be managed in an orderly fashion. An eyeball estimate of the number of carcasses at this site is less than 5,000. Less than 1% of the tribal harvest.

Food banks are not able to respond at a moment’s notice to pick up process and distribute this amount of fresh fish product. These dark chum salmon are not highly regarded for the dinner table.

Stream nutrient enhancement was practiced at one time on a limited basis. Disease control policies make this a non-viable option.

Once again these are hatchery origin fish, intended for harvest, not to supplement or mingle with native population production.

The tribe was able to contact a local yard and garden operation and initiated a composting operation.

Value will be realized from these carcasses.

The Skokomish Indian Tribe does not condone or encourage the practice of egging, but encountered a unique and challenging situation and has taken steps to deal with it in a proactive manner.”

Joseph Pavel, Director Skokomish Department of Natural Resources 80 North Tribal Center Road Skokomish Nation, WA 98584

KIRO 7 NEWS (Seattle) aired this report on this matter November 25, 2013. Some agree with the assertions in it. http://www.kirotv.com/videos/online/video-tribal-members-defending-decision-to-dump/vCJ5X8/

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Underutilized wild Pacific salmon

Jeremy Koch: “These pictures were taken by me back in August. These fish were netted before the Chambers creek hatchery in Steilacoom, WA and left on the bank to rot, with no shame, just 20ft from the boats and nets used to catch them. I've seen this year after year and I'm so tired of seeing similar pictures from so many other rivers and systems. Something needs to be done about the overfishing and the waste that is occurring on our rivers and the already limited fishing opportunity to sportsmen, that is becoming less and less each year. We have to start somewhere. Grays Harbor rivers are as good a place as any. I will see you in Olympia tomorrow (December 7, 2013) gentleman. Let's make sure we get back the 50% we are entitled to...and more importantly, let’s make someone open their eyes to what's happening”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Salmon shortages stressing out grizzlies November 28, 2013 When salmon runs dwindle on the B.C. coast, the stress levels in grizzlies climb, say researchers who examined hair samples collected from more than 70 bears.

And the bears, which gather along rivers in the fall to feed on spawning salmon, take those high stress levels with them into hibernation, perhaps affecting their long-term health, according to a science paper published Wednesday.

The study is expected to add weight to a growing argument that commercial salmon harvests on the West Coast should be managed not just for people, but also to reflect the needs of bears and other wildlife.

“Part of the reason bears might be experiencing stress is the fact we compete with them for food.

And we really need to think about our fisheries not only in terms of our needs as humans but also of the needs of other species,” said lead author, Heather Bryan, a Hakai postdoctoral researcher at University of Victoria and a biologist with Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

In 2010, federal department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists John Ford and Graeme Ellis linked killer-whale survival to the abundance of Chinook salmon, and called on the government to consider setting aside allocations of salmon for whales.

Chris Darimont, who co-authored the grizzlybear study, said it’s clear bears also need a share.

Editorial Comment: Conservationists continue to stress the importance of managing wild salmon fisheries to ensure enough adult fish return to sustain their species AND their ecosystems.

Setting escapement at artificially low levels guarantees the extinction of wild salmon and all that rely on them.

“Our findings highlight the importance of managing fisheries in a way that ensures enough salmon are allowed past fish nets to meet the needs of bears and other wildlife,” said Dr. Darimont, a UVic professor and the science director at Raincoast.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Dr. Bryan said the research showed the stress hormone, cortisol, was higher in bears that ate less salmon.

“That’s not surprising if you think about how stressful it would be to be going into a winter without enough food,” she said.

The long-term health implications for grizzlies haven’t been studied yet by Dr. Bryan, but other wildlife studies have shown that animals with high cortisol levels can have shortened life spans.

Dr. Bryan’s research was possible because of a network of 71 “hair snags” researchers have been monitoring for several years on a grid that covers 5,000 square kilometres on B.C.’s mainland coast.

The area stretches from near northern Vancouver Island to around Prince Rupert.

“We were interested in looking at the health effects of long-term salmon declines on bears. And how we did it is we took a few milligrams of bear hair [from each grizzly] and we used that to gain insights into the health of these several-hundred-kilogram animals,” said Dr. Bryan.

She said some of the hair came from the B.C. archives, where samples from bears killed by hunters are kept. But much of it came from the hair snags – barbed wire wrapped around trees marked with fermented fish oil.

“It’s a delicious odour for bears … they come and check it out … they usually only stay a few seconds but it’s usually long enough to leave behind a strand of hair,” said Dr. Bryan.

She said none of the field workers has ever had a dangerous encounter with the bears, despite spending weeks gathering hair samples in prime grizzly habitat.

Working with only a few strands of hair from each animal, Dr. Bryan said she was able to to both measure the level of cortisol and to determine how rich a bear’s salmon diet was.

The data showed that when salmon runs declined on B.C.’s Central Coast, in 2008 and 2009, stress levels increased. And when salmon runs increased, as they did in 2010, the stress levels declined.

In 2009, conservationists and ecotourism guides along the B.C. coast reported a huge drop in the number of bears they were seeing along rivers and they blamed the decline on two successive poor salmon runs. Bear watchers speculated many animals had died during hibernation and that others had stopped breeding because they were starving.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Wildlife officer spots salmon poachers using night-vision November 19, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems KITSAP COUNTY — Three men were arrested for salmon poaching Saturday at Chico Creek near Bremerton after a Department of Fish and Wildlife officer allegedly spotted them using salmon dip-nets to snatch as many as 50 salmon from the closed creek.

According to the Kitsap Sun, the officer was called to Chico Creek around 11:30 p.m. with the report of poaching. The officer used a night-vision scope to allegedly spot three men using headlamps while dip-netting salmon in the creek. The officer approached the men, who allegedly tossed salmon into the creek and tried to hide a bucket of fish eggs, or roe.

The officer allegedly found 41 dead salmon, more than 23 pounds of roe, metal rods and netting material used to trap the fish near the creek.

Edward Durham II, 54, David Wilson, 31, and Travis Sparr,41, were arrested for poaching.

Sparr, a double amputee, has been arrested previously for illegally fishing with a gill net in Curley Creek, the Kitsap Sun reported.

The men allegedly said they were going to treat the roe and use it as fish bait. However, the Sun noted that the roe sells for $6-$10 a pound for use as caviar.

The men were charged Monday in Kitsap County District Court with commercial fishing without a license and unlawfully fishing with a net. They each face a year in jail.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Ongoing Conservation Projects

 An

epic return: Chum returns show that years of hard work have restored habitat throughout peninsulas November 20, 2013

A decade after some runs of chum salmon were labeled extinct, rivers and tributaries throughout the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound are experiencing a flood of returning chum salmon this summer and fall.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) estimates historic numbers of chum in the Hood Canal area, giving agencies relief from historically low returns in recent years.

Estimates include nearly 800,000 salmon in the Puget Sound region, with 323,597 of those fish returning to Jefferson County and Hood Canal watersheds.

Fisheries officials and regional habitat managers take some credit for the run.

“Our goal is sustainable returns,” said Cheri Scalf, a scientific technician for the WDFW’s Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal chum salmon recovery efforts. “This year’s epic returns are way over what is needed for sustainable runs, which is a testament to the work being done in these watersheds.”

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS Scalf, who works alongside volunteer and tribal salmon recovery groups, noted that Jimmy Come Lately Creek, located along the southern edge of Sequim Bay, offers a great example. In 1999, Scalf said, only seven summer chum salmon returned to this creek, prompting large-scale recovery projects. Preliminary numbers for the 2013 summer run chum exceed 8,000 fish.

Chimacum Creek, near Irondale, is perhaps the best case study, said Scalf. Summer-run fish were extinct in the watershed in the late 1990s, but thanks to salmon fry supplementation from the nearby Salmon Creek run and a lot of volunteer work done on salmon habitat, preliminary numbers have surged to 3,000 fish in 2013.

The rising fall chum trend matches the increases in salmon runs in local watersheds, according to fisheries technicians. Summer runs have grown exponentially in recent years, following the salmon’s listing as “threatened” since the late 1990s under the terms of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

VOLUNTEERS PLAY ROLE Habitat enhancement in local watersheds is a result of volunteer efforts in vegetation management, fish monitoring and large-scale enhancement projects, said Miranda Berger, development manager with the North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC) in Port Hadlock.

The NOSC is one of 12 regional salmon enhancement groups receiving federal and state funding for projects, Berger said, but federal funding is being cut. Luckily, Berger said, $1 of every fishing license sold in Washington helps fund the fisheries programs.

“We are working on very large-scale restoration projects and small scale as well, so working with landowners on Chimacum Creek is very important to our success,” Berger said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has also played a role. NOAA prescribed changes to be made by state, tribal and national agencies in the early 2000s. The plans focus primarily on hatchery, habitat and harvest programs to boost chum salmon runs, said Rob Jones, NOAA fisheries program lead.

“There’s little doubt that the hatchery strategy that we have followed has worked,” Jones said. But, he warned, “If you’ve got a stream that’s sick, hatcheries are not going to cure that sickness. It can buy us some time. The hatchery can, in combination with fixed habitat, work to give the fish a shot in the arm.”

QUILCENE HATCHERY

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Hatcheries focus efforts on producing specific species for several generations of returning salmon, and then abruptly stop hatchery reproduction to allow natural spawning. The Quilcene National Fish Hatchery implemented this type of program for returning chum salmon runs about 12 years ago, and its chum salmon runs have bounced back from historic lows.

Ron Wong, Quilcene hatchery manager, said the fish returns in the region were down in the single digits in the late 1990s. Staff also discovered the chum returned very late to the Big Quilcene River each season, in comparison to other rivers in the region. According to Wong, market demands have altered the Quilcene hatchery’s chum salmon production. Once agency quota numbers were met, the hatchery shifted its focus to steelhead and coho salmon production.

Partitions cull out returning or lost fish that make their way upstream, Wong said. Late-returning chum salmon could carry infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), a virus that causes high mortality in juvenile fish populations. Salmon fry and eggs are routinely checked for infection to ensure that the virus is not spread to other salmon or steelhead species reared in the hatchery.

TWICE AS MANY FISH Three hatcheries in the Hood Canal region still produce chum salmon each year, said Jim Jenkins, WDFW fish hatchery specialist at the McKernan fish hatchery near Shelton.

“Right now we are seeing twice as many fish [chum salmon] as usual,” Jenkins said. “We have to close the fish traps each day to avoid overcrowding and oxygen depletion, because there are so many fish returning daily.”

Jenkins said the goal is not all about getting fish back to the hatchery, but to increase the fishery for sport anglers and commercial fishermen. Even the spawned-out hatchery fish are sold on contract for commercial usage, he said.

Right now, Jenkins said, the survivability of the hatchery chum salmon is higher than forecasted, leading to a longer harvest season.

“The hatchery typically handles a 3-plus percent return of chum,” Jenkins said, or about 30,00050,000 fish from the 11 million fry released each April. “We are well ahead of schedule this year.”

Volunteers and interagency assistance allow the McKernan hatchery to keep up with the load of fish.

Jenkins estimates between 10 and 15 volunteers assist in day-to-day fish collection during the peak run times.

Fisheries managers agree that run success is the product of both habitat and hatchery programs, and a bit of luck in the Pacific Ocean, where the salmon spend 90 percent of their lives.

The key, said Jenkins, is to ensure a high survival rate in the 10 percent of the fish’s lifecycle that takes place during the hatchery-rearing period.

Scalf, who routinely works alongside community organizations like NOSC, is hopeful for the future of each watershed.

“Locally, we’ve had recovery projects in our streams,” Scalf said, “and the salmon returns are a testament to all the work being done.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Summer Chum on Path to Recovery Fall 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Amazing return of coho to small Campbell River creek November 22, 2013

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems For 18 years the Storey Creek Streamkeepers (SCS) have been keeping a watchful eye on Woods Creek.

That watchful eye has also meant building a counting fence near its mouth and engineering and installing 11 weirs on the stream to help maintain flow levels in periods of little rain.

On Wednesday morning a small group had gathered at the Woods Creek counting fence and there were smiles all around.

Usually the return to the creek is from 40 to 70 coho salmon. But this year over 300 returned to the little stream that goes under the OId Island Highway and meanders up to its east and west branches and flows through Storey Creek Golf Course.

On that chilly morning volunteers Michael Swanston, Bob Tonkin and Frank Jamieson waded in the small chilly pool right below the counting fence trying to net the coho gathered there.

From there it was to the loading buckets with their prize where Swanston and Barry Allingham helped transfer fish from net to bucket.

Then the bucket was handed to Rick Buchanan and Bill Murray who took the salmon to Dave Cunning and his daughter Jamie for clipping, measuring and recording before being released upstream.

A few of the fish are of hatchery origin, from previous plantings, but all but two counted Wednesday were wild fish.

Not far to the south Black Creek, the key indicator stream for wild coho on the East Coast of Vancouver Island, also had a great return. As of Thursday, Department of Fisheries and Ocean figures show a preliminary return of over 9,000 fish. That’s well above the 2012 total of 5,317 and much better than the 2011 total of 3,433.

Returns to the Campbell Quinsam River systems were also at a five year high for coho with 12,750 returning this year.

Grant Erickson of the SCS said the main thing that has made a difference is available feed for outmigrating smolts.

He said feed availability out in Georgia Strait, especially herring, is vital for young coho when they first leave the stream.

He also said the work of all the volunteers and donations they get from businesses or service clubs helps out tremendously.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 State Awards $743,000 to Lewis County for Salmon Recovery Projects Fish Funds: Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board Gives $42 Million to Organizations in 30 Counties December 6, 2013 The Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership on Thursday announced the award of more than $42 million in grants for salmon recovery efforts, including $742,576 for six projects in Lewis County.

According to the Salmon Recovery Funding board, the grant money is to be used for projects that restore and protect salmon habitat, helping bring salmon back from the brink of extinction.

Funding for the grants came from the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund and the sale of state bonds.

Grant recipients will use the money to remove barriers that prevent salmon from migrating, reshape rivers and streams and replant riverbanks so there are more places for salmon to spawn, feed, rest, hide from predators and transition from freshwater to saltwater and back again, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board said in a news release.

“Salmon are an important part of both Washington’s culture and economy,” Gov. Jay Inslee said.

“Healthy salmon populations support thousands of jobs in fishing, hotels and restaurants, seafood processing, boat sales and repair, charter operations, environmental restoration and more. I am very pleased with the work of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and its efforts to fund projects that help our economy and assure future generations of Washingtonians can enjoy the return of wild salmon.”

“Restoring our lakes, streams, rivers and ecosystem isn’t just about saving salmon. A healthy ecosystem supports human health, our economy, our traditions, and our quality of life,” said Marc Daily, interim executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership, the state agency leading the recovery of Puget Sound. “These projects help to protect and perpetuate valuable resources today and for generations to come.”

Projects are selected by local watershed groups, called lead entities.

Lead entities are local consortiums that include tribes, local governments, nonprofits and citizens who work together to recruit and review project proposals and make decisions about which projects to forward to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for funding.

According to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, lead entities ensure that the projects are based on regional salmon recovery plans that were approved by the federal government.

Then regional salmon recovery organizations and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board review each project to ensure they will help recover salmon in the most cost-effective manner.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Projects in the Lewis County area: $742,576 Cowlitz Indian Tribe Grant Awarded: $114,400 Otter Creek Side Channel Design: The Cowlitz Indian Tribe will develop a design to enhance spawning and rearing habitat in a side channel of the lower Cowlitz River near Toledo for coho, chum and fall chinook salmon, and winter steelhead, all of which are listed as threatened with the risk of extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act. The tribe will produce a preliminary design and report that, when implemented, will ensure the side channel connects to the Cowlitz River at a range of flows, provides suitable rearing and pre-spawn holding cover, encourages gravel sorting and pool formation, and provides off-channel refuge during high flows.

Grant Awarded: $194,905 Lower Yellowjacket Creek Restoration: The Cowlitz Indian Tribe will develop a design to improve habitat in lower Yellowjacket Creek and lower Cispus River, southeast of Randle.

Yellowjacket Creek and the Cispus River are used by coho and chinook salmon, and winter steelhead. The tribe will partner with Forest Service staff to develop designs to form stable, vegetated islands and bars, side channels active at a range of flows, pools and tailouts forced by large logjams, and abundant streamside plantings. Yellowjacket Creek provides good habitat for salmon and steelhead populations, but rapid channel shifts and avulsions heavily impact production during years with high flow events.

Grant Awarded: $229,300 Restoring Lower Cispus River Side Channels: The Cowlitz Indian Tribe, in partnership with Gifford Pinchot National Forest, will enhance side-channel habitat at two sites near the lower Cispus River southeast of Randle. The tribe will create .2 mile of new side channel to intercept groundwater near the confluence of the North Fork Cispus and Cispus rivers, and deepen and enhance an existing side channel near the confluence of Yellowjacket Creek and the Cispus River. Both locations will provide excellent rearing habitat for juvenile coho, winter steelhead, and spring chinook salmon adult salmon and steelhead transported around the Cowlitz River hydropower system are planted near the project sites, ensuring use by their offspring. The tribe will contribute $42,500 in donations of labor and materials.

Lewis County Grant Awarded: $110,002 Removing a Fish Passage Barrier on a Bunker Creek Tributary: The Lewis County Public Works Department will replace a concrete culvert with a fish passable structure on Ceres Hill Road. This culvert, which is on a tributary to Bunker Creek, has too large of an outfall drop, making it a barrier to fish passage. Replacing the culvert will open 7.6 miles of habitat seasonally and 1.29 miles of habitat continuously for coho salmon and cutthroat trout. Lewis County will contribute $40,125 in staff labor and a federal grant.

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Lewis County Conservation District Grant Awarded: $54,969 Removing Barriers to Fish Passage in the Bunker Creek Watershed: The Lewis County Conservation District will remove a barrier to fish passage and open nearly 12 miles of habitat to fish in the Bunker Creek watershed. Bunker Creek is a tributary to the Chehalis River. This section of the stream has abundant rearing habitat, and high quality spawning grounds are several miles upstream of this site. It is important for juvenile fish to be able to move up and downstream to find food and escape predators. There are no fish blockages downstream of the project. The Bunker Creek watershed is used by coho salmon and cutthroat trout. The Lewis County Conservation District will contribute $29,000 from a federal grant.

Grant Awarded: $39,000 Removing Scammon Creek Barriers to Fish Passage: The Lewis County Conservation District will replace two culverts that are blocking fish passage with larger culverts on Scammon Creek, opening 3.6 miles of habitat to coho salmon and steelhead and cutthroat trout. The work will improve the road surface and drainage, reducing the amount of erosion into Scammon Creek. It also will eliminate the risk of catastrophic fill failure if the undersized culverts become plugged or cannot handle a 100-year storm flow. The Lewis County Conservation District will contribute $21,000 in donations of cash and labor.

Lewis County

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

  Anissa Reed Designs

Anissa Reed Designs

CCeelleebbrraattiinngg tthhee C Cooaasstt tthhrroouugghh A Arrtt aanndd D Deessiiggnn

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Gašper Konkolič: fly fishing guiding Slovenia Special offer for FF season 2014 for fishing guides!! I offer you guiding 3-4 rivers in one day (without fishing). I guide you on a best spots for fly fishing and on your wish i guide you at hidden spots of the rivers. Option 1: Sava, Sava Dolinka, Sava Bohinjka, Radovna. Option 2: Idrijca, Soča, tributaries to Soča and Idrijca random (Trebuščica, Tolminka, Učja, Lepena, Koritnica, Bača, Kanomljica...). If you are interested contact me on e-mail: gkonkolic@gmail.com. Season starts 1. of April 2014!

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Vital Choice – Wild Seafood and Organics

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Featured Artists:

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Jay Peachy: “Return” Artist and Owner: J Peachy Gallery

“This piece is dedicated to the 2010 Fraser River Sockeye. Almost 30 million Salmon returned to spawn this year, which is the highest in a century. Although we celebrate this return, there are still many questions to be answered in light of the collapse of the 2009 return. Many species and natural habitats are under siege and the migratory routes for the Fraser River Sockeye still pose a risk due to sea lice.

Salmon are more than about Ecology, it is part of the cultural history and economic means of the West Coast of Canada. Without Salmon, there would likely be no settlement on our rivers. Salmon celebrations were common place in this culture.

Many contemporary environmental issues can be connected through these magnificent fish. Whether it is Run of River power, Oil tankers on the North Coast, fish farms on natural migration routes or Gateway development destruction on local streams and tributaries. The salmon life cycle also contributes nutrition to our forests. Thus, Salmon are the gatekeepers to our sustenance and identity on the West Coast.

In the west, to preserve the Salmon is to preserve ourselves.”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Diane Michelin: “Team Work” (upper) – “On the Rock” (lower) 20” X 14” – Available at Diane Michelin Fly Fishing Fine Art

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Dan Wallace: Commissioned engraving – strict attention to detail

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Leanne Hodges - Tentative title: “Orca Celebrate Returning Chinook” Leanne’s art is available: West Coast Wild

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Gary Haggquist: "#5 Waterway Series", acrylic on canvas, 12"x 36", 2012

Inquire about this work

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Featured Conservationist – Walking the Talk

 Eddie Gardner: Heart and Soul of the International Feedlot Salmon Boycott Atlantic salmon: Unacceptable risk to public health and wild ecosystems

DON’T BUY IT! Learn more at SalmonALERT.org

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Featured Fishing Photos:

 Kyle McClelland: Late November wild coho salmon Owner, Guide, and Outdoor Film/Media Producer at XXL Chrome Chasing

If you are looking for a great fishing trip, great products, and great information then XXL Chrome Chasing is the right fit for you! XXL Chrome Chasing was created this past spring by 16 year old Kyle McClelland.

Kyle's passion runs deep for the sport and after joking around with the name XXL Chrome Chasing, he decided to take his passion and run with it by creating a Facebook page to share his fishing knowledge and information with fellow anglers. After 8 months of running the Facebook page, this is where XXL Chrome Chasing is today. Over the course of those 8 months, XXL Chrome Chasing has picked up hundreds of followers, many sponsors, knowledgeable members, and has soared way above planned goals and expectations.

We have the best fisherman for each method of fishing to provide you with the best information, and knowledge possible!! Our whole goal is to help you catch more fish, provide you with the best products, and give you a fishing trip you will never forget!!

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Clarissa Snyder and Bryanna Zimmerman

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Serena Malcom: Roosterfish, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Serena and her husband own and operate Cabo Sails: Sailing, Whale Watching, Sunset Cruises, Snorkeling Tours and Activities in Cabo San Lucas

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Denny Clemons: Fall Salmon Fishing on the “Home River”

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Rock Wyrsta: Napoleon Wrasse – Rainbow Beach Fishing Classic What a memory! My first Napoleon Wrasse. A testament to how healthy these reefs and atolls are...

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Black Marlin 1 – Fishermen 0 (Panama)

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Gone Fishing

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

 Terry Wiest: Float Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead

Legacy – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

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 – January 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Final Thoughts:

 Truth