Legacy - December 2015

Legacy

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eMagazine of Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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Cover: Mandy Sanasie’s personal best - Male steelhead caught (and released) on a fly rod with an Egg-Sucking Woolly Bugger while fishing the Salmon River - Pulaski, NY (November 2015) Photo Credit: Torrey Collins

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Legacy Wild Game Fish Conservation International Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI): Established in 2011 to advocate for wild game fish, their fragile ecosystems and the cultures and economies that rely on their robust populations.

LEGACY – Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, nononsense, 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 unparalleled 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 – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Contents Breaking News ____________________________________________________________________________________ 7  FDA Has Determined That the AquAdvantage Salmon is as Safe to Eat as Non-GE Salmon _________________ 7  Three scientists on the research they couldn’t discuss with media under Harper ___________________________ 9

Opinion __________________________________________________________________________________________ 11  Concrete steps needed for forestry and climate change _________________________________________________ 11  Preliminary examination of contaminant loadings in farmed salmon, wild salmon and commercial salmon feed _________________________________________________________________________________________ 11  2015 Grays Harbor Salmon Season – What Happened? _________________________________________________ 12  Stop Kicking the Can Down the Road __________________________________________________________________ 14  Despite PacRim's claims, Alaskans will lose Chuitna salmon if coal mine gains approval __________________ 15  Opinion: B.C. government gambling with health of river, salmon_________________________________________ 17  Chehalis flood control is endless money pit ____________________________________________________________ 19

Special ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 20  MINISTER OF FISHERIES, OCEANS AND THE CANADIAN COAST GUARD MANDATE LETTER _____________ 20  U.S. retailers begin taking farmed fish off their shelves as antibiotic overuse destroys fish farming industry _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 25  B.C.’s iconic Adams River salmon run off to a ‘grim’ start _______________________________________________ 27

Community Activism, Education and Outreach ______________________________________________________ 29  Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register _________________________________________________________ 29  Give Marine Harvest Canada the Boot _________________________________________________________________ 30  Booted B.C. teen 'not going to apologize' for opposing team sponsor ____________________________________ 31  Rally: Get Fish Farms Out of Our Ocean – Walmart (Mission, BC) ________________________________________ 32  Enbridge Go Home, Stop Kinder Morgan _______________________________________________________________ 33  Portland City Council adopts position against expanded oil shipments by train, delays fossil fuel export ban ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 34  Petition: Show support for a new Washington state steelhead license plate ______________________________ 37

Climate___________________________________________________________________________________________ 39  Predictions Put Some Of South Florida Under Water by 2025 ____________________________________________ 39

Habitat ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 41       

Feds Eye Refuges for Cold-Water Species in Five States ________________________________________________ Agency floats recovery plan for Oregon coho salmon ___________________________________________________ Ahousaht logging moratorium ________________________________________________________________________ Quinault Nation Proposes New Approach to Flood Protection in Chehalis Basin __________________________ Aberdeen, Hoquiam officials to tackle Harbor-wide flood plan ___________________________________________ Groups call for ‘clear, enforceable’ mine waste-dam laws _______________________________________________ TU CEO Chris Wood's testimony on need for mine cleanup reform _______________________________________

41 43 45 47 49 51 54

Harvest __________________________________________________________________________________________ 58  Quinault Nation Closes Fisheries to Protect Wild Coho _________________________________________________ 58

Legislation / Legal Actions ________________________________________________________________________ 59  Court denies latest appeal on oil projects ______________________________________________________________ 59  Wild Fish Conservancy sues to stop commercial salmon farms in Puget Sound __________________________ 60

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots  Kids Sue Over Climate Change And A Judge In Wash. State Is Listening _________________________________ 62  Canadians deserve to know if genetically modified salmon is masquerading as Atlantic salmon ___________ 64

Salmon feedlots __________________________________________________________________________________ 65  What’s in Farmed Salmon? ___________________________________________________________________________ 66  Salmon Fraud: What's Wrong With America's Favorite Fish - Especially In Restaurants ___________________ 67  Diners Who Order 'Wild' Salmon Often Get Cheaper Substitute, Study Finds______________________________ 69  Salmon Farm Video shorts inspired by Angela Koch: ___________________________________________________ 71 1. Your Coast…. Your Responsibility_____________________________________________________________________ 71 2. Salmon Farms… The Toilets of our Coast ______________________________________________________________ 71  Video: Fish farm news evictions, fraud, jail, lice outbreaks..._____________________________________________ 72  Wild salmon NGO: Grieg, OCI venture should undergo full environmental assessment ____________________ 73  Norwegian district nearly emptied of farmed fish over sealice crisis______________________________________ 75  Moving salmon pens from Port Angeles Harbor into Strait considered in light of Navy pier plan ____________ 77    

WGFCI Response: Moving Icicle Seafoods’ salmon farms from Port Angeles harbor` ______________________ Fish farms threaten Great Lakes_______________________________________________________________________ Escaped salmon in Ørsta river came from Marine Harvest _______________________________________________ Salmon farmed on land brought to market _____________________________________________________________

79 80 83 84

   

Environmental groups challenge approval of genetically modified salmon eggs __________________________ Study Blows Company's Bogus Claim About GMO Salmon Out of the Water ______________________________ Massive death in Russian salmon farms _______________________________________________________________ Appeal: salmon farm extension ‘would stress marine life’ _______________________________________________

85 87 91 93

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind _______________ 96 Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked _________________________________________________________ 97  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen ________________________________ 97  Victory: Keystone XL is Dead! _________________________________________________________________________ 98  TransCanada's request to pause Keystone XL review rejected by U.S. ___________________________________ 99  Audit finds railroad safety lacking during high oil traffic________________________________________________ 101  Crews cleaning up after two trains derail in Wisconsin, spilling crude oil, ethanol ________________________ 103  Petition: Tell Your Lawmakers: The Oil Export Ban Must Stand _________________________________________ 105  Burnaby mayor irritated by Kinder Morgan pipeline exposure __________________________________________ 106  Oil Spill After Two Tankers Collide off Japanese Coast _________________________________________________ 108  What could go wrong?_______________________________________________________________________________ 110  The Federal Government Says Billions of Animals Died From the BP Disaster ___________________________ 111  Comment period on oil extended to Nov. 30 ___________________________________________________________ 114 Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 116      

Save the Chuitna ____________________________________________________________________________________ The oil boom in one slick infographic _________________________________________________________________ Petition: Orcas can't defend themselves from coal, but YOU CAN! ______________________________________ Video: Chinese Coexist With Coal ____________________________________________________________________ Washington tribal leaders, in D.C., protest proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point _______________________ Panel recommends shutting Sundarbans waterways for cargo vessels after Pashur shipwreck ___________

116 116 117 119 120 123

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Hydropower / Water Retention __________________________________________________________________________ 125  Critics of Washington's Snake River dams say it's time to remove them _________________________________ 125  Peace River: Site C hydropower dam construction destroying valuable agriculture land and wildlife habitat _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 128  Report: Fish also fought warm water at dams along Columbia this summer _____________________________ 129 Natural Gas ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 131  500 million to 1 billion young salmon use the Skeena River estuary each year – unacceptable for Liquified Natural Gas export facilities _________________________________________________________________ 131 Solar _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 132  The World’s Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Electricity ____________________________________________ 132

Wind ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 134  Remote Alaskan villages move from diesel to wind power ______________________________________________ 134

Fishing Pictures _________________________________________________________________________________ 136  Rod Toth (Bentrod's Guiding, and Fishing Co.) with a magnificent Harrison River coho salmon ___________ 136

Forward The December 2015 issue of “Legacy” (Volume 5, Issue 2) marks fifty consecutive months of our complimentary eMagazine; the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published and distributed by Wild Game Fish Conservation International.

Conservation of wild game fish 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 to our generation for safekeeping.

Please read then share/forward “Legacy” with others who care deeply about the future of wild game fish and all that rely on them.

Sincerely,

Bruce Treichler James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Bovine Excrement

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Breaking News

 FDA

Has Determined That the AquAdvantage Salmon is as Safe to Eat as Non-GE Salmon November 19, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots After an exhaustive and rigorous scientific review, FDA has arrived at the decision that AquAdvantage salmon is as safe to eat as any non-genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon, and also as nutritious.

FDA’s Review of the GE Salmon

Editorial Comment: Likely comparing GE Atlantic salmon with feedlot Atlantic salmon with known health and environmental risks.

Like comparing chewed tobacco with smoked!

The FDA scientists rigorously evaluated extensive data submitted by the manufacturer, AquaBounty Technologies, and other peer-reviewed data, to assess whether AquAdvantage salmon met the criteria for approval established by law; namely, safety and effectiveness. The data demonstrated that the inserted genes remained stable over several generations of fish, that food from the GE salmon is safe to eat by humans and animals, that the genetic engineering is safe for the fish, and the salmon meets the sponsor’s claim about faster growth.

In addition, FDA assessed the environmental impacts of approving this application and found that the approval would not have a significant impact on the environment of the United States. That’s because the multiple containment measures the company will use in the land-based facilities in Panama and Canada make it extremely unlikely that the fish could escape and establish themselves in the wild.

Labeling Food Containing Ingredients Derived from Genetically Engineered Sources At the same time, many consumers also want to know whether their food or any ingredients in their food is derived from genetically engineered sources. Although the law does not require food containing ingredients derived from these salmon to be labeled as GE, FDA recognizes that many consumers are interested in this information, and some food manufacturers will want to make the distinction.

FDA is releasing two guidance documents detailing the agency’s current thinking on labeling—a draft guidance for labeling of food derived from Atlantic salmon that has or has not been genetically engineered and a final guidance for labeling of food that has or has not been derived from GE plants—to help those manufacturers who wish to voluntarily make the distinction on the labeling of their food products.

“Both guidance documents explain FDA’s best thinking on how to make it easy for consumers to know whether a food was produced using genetic engineering or not,” says Felicia Billingslea, B.S., M.S., director of FDA’s Division of Food Labeling and Standards.

The public is invited to provide comments on this draft guidance (see box below). Consumers can also learn more about how a food is produced by contacting the manufacturer, Billingslea says.

How to Comment on the Draft Guidance To comment on the draft guidance on voluntary labeling indicating whether food has or has not been derived from GE Atlantic salmon: 

Read the Draft Guidance.



Starting Monday, November 23, submit comments on the draft guidance on Regulations.gov.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Three

scientists on the research they couldn’t discuss with media under

Harper November 10, 2015 Kristi Miller, molecular geneticist in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans When Kristi Miller testified in 2011 at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, she was accompanied by an earpiece-wearing security guard and a communications specialist. The message was clear: There would be no chatting with reporters.

Four years later, Dr. Miller looks back and describes the moment as a “surreal experience.”

“To be that controlled, it almost made you nervous,” she said. “They were almost trying to make you afraid of the public, and afraid of the media.”

Dr. Miller also recalls having to get several levels of approval if she wanted to participate in workshops where the media might be present. Most of these requests were denied. In the rare instances they were approved, a media handler was assigned to accompany her.

“It felt like being treated like a child, to be perfectly honest,” Dr. Miller said. “I found it quite irritating that I wasn’t trusted to communicate the messages from my own work, that the only person who could effectively communicate the messages from my work was a communications expert.”

A four-year-long study led by Dr. Miller had found that there was a specific genomic signature present in salmon that was predictive of whether they would survive the journey to the spawning grounds.

“That was really the first time that we had demonstrated that freshwater environment alone is not a complete explanation for the massive die-offs that were occurring,” she said. “There was something about the condition of the salmon before they entered the river that was exacerbating [conditions for mortality] in the river.”

That mortality-related signature was consistent with a viral infection – which could have posed a threat to the aquaculture industry.

“That’s really what made the government nervous: not the genomics or the precondition, but the hypothesis that that precondition was a disease,” Dr. Miller said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Miller and her team have developed a platform that can screen for dozens of diseasecausing microbes – viruses, bacteria, micro-parasites – at once.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “Basically, the full range of microbes that are associated with diseases in salmon worldwide, we can detect them – and we can detect them incredibly quickly,” Dr. Miller said.

“What’s exciting about this is that we are ahead of the curve, even of the human world. You can’t go into a human diagnostic lab and in 24 hours be tested for 45 different pathogens. This is the first time in my career in genomics that I have been ahead of the curve when it comes to human medicine.”

READ ENTIRE GLOBE and MAIL Article HERE

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Opinion

 Concrete steps needed for forestry and climate change

by Wyatt Golding It is heartening to read state Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark’s guest editorial, in which he emphasizes the connection between Washington’s forests and climate change. Indeed, intact Washington forests provide some of the best carbon sinks in the world.

Washingtonians should know, however, that the Department of Natural Resources does not manage forests in a manner intended to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In fact, DNR currently logs under a regime designed to maximize revenue without regard to climate. To make a real difference, Commissioner Goldmark could do the following: 

Recognize the overwhelming scientific consensus that growing older trees stores more carbon than the short-term, industrial forestry often practiced in Washington.



Adopt a science-based long-term conservation strategy for the imperiled marbled murrelet.

Every tree saved for nesting marbled murrelets will also help to provide clean water and to serve as a sponge for carbon.



Amend the 2006 Policy for Sustainable Forests to address climate change, including protection for all old-growth trees and stands.



When setting timber harvest levels, recognize that intact forests deliver substantial financial value through carbon storage and water protection.



Quit clearcutting and salvage logging eastside forests and turning them into plantations. It is a lose-lose-lose proposition: Dense plantations fuel future forest fires, which risk public safety and emit carbon.



With more rain than snow forecast, eliminate logging roads that dump sediment into streams and exacerbate flooding.

Adopting these measures would move DNR into its rightful place as a national leader on climate change.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 2015 Grays Harbor Salmon Season – What Happened?

Dave Hamilton As the dust settles on the closure of the fall salmon season both WDF&W and the QIN have put out their press releases and rational for what happened. For WDF&W's part it was a bit self serving as it was worded to say something and avoid any responsibility which is pretty much the same for the QIN. Now I am sure you are all shocked and appalled that this was the approach. That WDF&W failed to comply with the GH Management Policy is a given. That the QIN blew right through the numbers available for harvest is undeniable ( after the reduced run size estimate ) but remember the state side pig piled right on so folks they are BOTH guilty as sin.

Now about the preseason forecast that was little more than a pipe dream one has to wonder just how did they mess up that bad. Good question but below and with this link: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/fe/estuarine/oeip/index.cfm you can see that NOAA was saying ocean conditions were not going to support the forecast. I will attach the graph also.

NOAA ON PDO: Many of the ecosystem indicators for 2014 point towards this being a relatively poor year for salmon survival. The summer PDO values were strongly positive (warm), coinciding with a ‘warm blob’ of water centered in the Gulf of Alaska. El Niño conditions were ‘neutral’, sea surface temperatures were warmer than usual, and the upwelling season started late and ended early. The biological indicators featured a high abundance of large, lipid-rich zooplankton, but a low abundance of winter fish larvae that develop into salmon prey in the spring, and moderate catches of juvenile spring Chinook salmon during the June survey off Washington and Oregon. Overall, juvenile salmon entering the ocean in 2014 encountered below average ocean conditions off Oregon and Washington likely leading to below average returns of adult coho salmon in 2015 and Chinook salmon in 2016. Our annual summary of ecosystem indicators during 2014 is here, and our "stoplight" rankings and predictions are shown below in Table SF-01, Table SF-02, and Figure SF-01.

So we had the WDF&W / Tribal preseason forecast and NOAA with totally opposite projections and the winner is .......... NOAA. So we and the fish loose. To be honest the ocean PDO is but one indicator be it a rather important one and THE CAUTION LIGHT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON. Instead it was full speed ahead on harvest from the ocean in until it was so obvious even the co- managers could not deny it. From the get go one local Rec ( JC ) was bringing the PDO issue forward but it was pretty much ignored by all in the NOF process including myself. I think JC thought we were all nuts but remember NOF is about "all paper fish must die " so hair straight back at a dead run we all went into the kill mode. But ( you knew that was coming didn't you ) some of us tried to unravel this thing but until the season started you do not get a feel for it. Still from the ocean in from the start the run appeared short and it was only a matter of how much short it would be. To make matters worse you cannot get the policy level WDF&W & QIN folks to manage the harvest in a cooperative manner.

Sure the technical staffs proof out numbers and they do a reasonable job at it. That does little when the policy level ( those who make the final decisions ) just cannot get past this ( insert word of choice ) thing they have been doing for the last ten years. I have objected to this continuously and in April even took the issue to the Commission and I will attach the letter.

Then this. NOAA thoughts outlined above are for Chinook to tank in 2016. Add to this NOAA's tracking of the Pacific has identified the El Nino will return and with a vengeance.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots In fact fears are it will surpass the 1997 event ( the worse in recent history ) and maybe even set a record for El Nino resulting in very low Salmon productivity. In a word folks odds are the good times of the past few years are about to go the way of the Dodo bird!

Add to that nearly ALL our fisheries in Grays Harbor are shall we say a bit dishonest as to the actual impacts of the harvest. Take the commercial drift nets both Non Treaty & QIN. They are modeled with a 5% drop out rate which includes Pinniped losses. For years this might have been accurate but not so in recent years. With the recent arrival of large numbers of Sea Lions it has just went ballistic!

Setting on the wall at Wal-Mart you can watch the bow picker put out its net followed by the Sea Lions racing upstream and getting fish in front of or out of the net. It is rather easy to see when with all the commotion when they get one as the Seagulls race in to get their share. Then when they reel in the net you can count the number of fish coming over the bow. I witnessed this year as numbers as large as one to one and as low as one for the Sea Lions to seven in the boat. So 5%? Oh I doubt it in fact it ended up around 20 to 25%. So if the QIN got 10000 plus Coho another 2000 plus died be it by the Sea Lions not into the boat and they are not counted in the impacts. The Rec fisheries are similar but I think while problematic our mortality rates drop out and release are OK but ( again don't you just hate the but thing ) it does not take in effort. When the bay fishery was mostly locals and some traveling fishers OK but now it is much, much greater number of fishers coming from all over and the harvest model does not reflect EFFORT. Inriver Rec the same / not much difference so drop the finger pointing.

So as the next year’s process of season setting starts in we cannot afford anymore silliness in the preseason forecast that we had from the co-managers this year. No longer can we set harvest with a wink and nod knowing full well it does not reflect the true impact of any fishery. The good ole days just left folks and reality is about to set in. It is what it is but it should be something to watch play out between the co-managers and all the harvesters. Finally remember this, the fish have no vote.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Stop Kicking the Can Down the Road Open letter to the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission Bill Osborn September 30, 2014 was WDFW Commission directed dead line set to have a plan in place for use of $2.4 million dollars, mitigation funds, from Tacoma City Light. There were a few meetings, not much got done, and at this time no salmon or steelhead have been placed in the Wynoochee River from the current funding.

Joe Durham, Dave Hamilton and myself, (Bill Osborn) are tired of the Wynoochee mitigation getting placed on the “slow track” or if you will “the back burner”. Twenty two+ years is completely out of reason and a slam in the face for sportsmen that might enjoy a chance to harvest additional hatchery salmon and steelhead.

Heck, if WDFW was doing what the mitigation called for…..the Wynoochee might not need to have a complete closure, as is taking place at this time. The Wynoochee River is 27+ miles of beautiful, prime fishing water……closed to all fishing.

My career choice was public education, my students understood what it meant to be “on task until an assignment was complete”………WDFW doesn’t even, after 22+ years, have a plan and time line to start, put into effect, and follow to the end, that plan.

The “can” is still being kicked down the road. We don’t need to hear excuses, just tell us when mitigation hatchery salmon and steelhead will be placed IN THE Wynoochee River.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Despite

PacRim's claims, Alaskans will lose Chuitna salmon if coal mine gains approval November 4, 2015

As a kid growing up, my parents taught me a basic truth: sometimes you can’t have it both ways.

Now as an adult, I’ve learned in the case of large-scale mining operations, sometimes salmon and mining can’t coexist.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots There’s no doubt that Delaware-based PacRim Coal’s proposed open-pit coal strip mine in upper Cook Inlet would have severe impacts to the Chuitna watershed and the healthy salmon runs it supports.

PacRim’s own draft mine plan calls for completely removing miles and miles of salmon streams in Middle Creek, a tributary to the Chuitna River. It also calls for draining hundreds of acres of surrounding wetlands and discharging 7,000,000 gallons of mine wastewater back into the Chuitna River every day.

PacRim Coal wants Alaskans -- and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game -- to believe there will be no adverse impacts to fish in the Chuitna watershed. They want us to believe they can build a new salmon stream after they mine down 350 feet through it. Restoration at that scale has never been done before anywhere on the planet, and scientific experts say it cannot be done.

The Chuitna coal mine is a clear case where mining and salmon can’t coexist. It’s a choice between one resource or another: wild Alaskan salmon or cheap coal to China. Because of the undeniable impacts to salmon, our local group of Alaskans, which includes property owners, hunters, fisherman and small business owners, spent over seven years and tens of thousands of dollars to file three applications to keep enough water in Middle Creek -- the stream PacRim intends to remove -to support spawning and rearing habitat for salmon so we can continue to fish the Chuitna.

Last month, the Department of Natural Resources granted us one in-stream water reservation, for the stretch of Middle Creek that falls outside of the proposed mine area, but it denied our two reservations inside the mine area. Nonetheless, the one water reservation gave us hope that our agencies would work with us to protect the river and salmon we depend on. But a who’s who list of corporations that profit off Alaska’s public resources appealed the decision, and are making the argument that everyday Alaskans shouldn’t be allowed to keep water in our wild salmon streams.

Why are they so afraid? The water reservation DNR granted us is not even in the mine area and in no way stops PacRim from seeking permits from relevant state and federal agencies.

In reading the industry appeals, much of their argument focuses on the fact that we are a nongovernmental group and, according to private industry groups like PacRim Coal, we should not be allowed to keep water in our salmon streams.

The hypocrisy is astounding. Private industry groups, including those from Outside such as PacRim, hold water rights as a regular part of their day-to-day business. In fact, PacRim has filed applications for private water rights to take 100 percent of the water out of Middle Creek so it can mine completely through the stream. A key difference here is that industry water rights seek to take water out of our fish streams, making them unavailable to Alaskans and the resources we rely on. Our in-stream flow rights, on the other hand, simply look to keep water flowing through our fish streams for the benefit of all Alaskans.

PacRim Coal and its corporate allies want it both ways. They want to hold exclusive, private out-ofstream water rights, but they don’t want Alaskans to be allowed to keep water in our streams for fish and wildlife. They want Outside corporations to be counted as “people” in the permitting process, but they don’t want regular everyday Alaskans like me to have the same rights they do.

Something smells fishy. And it’s not the salmon in my freezer.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Opinion: B.C. government gambling with health of river, salmon The B.C. environment ministry recently allowed Taseko’s Gibraltar Mine to increase its discharge of tailings into the Fraser River.

November 2, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Little more than a year after the catastrophic collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine, where 17 million cubic metres of tailings water and more than seven million cubic metres of slurry poured into Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, what have we learned? Because now we see the B.C. government is rolling the dice on an even larger threat.

The Gibraltar Mine near Williams Lake is Canada’s second-largest open-pit copper mine, with a tailings dam that holds back more than triple the amount of mining effluent released in the Mount Polley disaster. After the Mount Polley, the province ordered a “desktop review” of all tailings facilities in B.C. This simply involves going over documents: no independent due-diligence assessment has been undertaken to ensure that any of the tailings-management plans have been appropriately implemented. Gibraltar recently more than doubled in size and output and is already permitted to discharge mine effluent into the Fraser, although there has never been a comprehensive environmental effects assessment.

Now the B.C. environment ministry has given Gibraltar permission to increase its discharge of tailings into the Fraser River. The increase is more than 50 per cent — 5.4 million cubic metres from 3.5 million cubic metres. Local residents are faced with a choice that is neither palatable nor sustainable — they can live with it or they can face the growing risk of another tailings-pond disaster that would make Mount Polley look like a practice exercise.

This is a difficult situation for everyone. Yes, the mine brings important economic benefits for many area residents and families, and there are revenue opportunities for communities such as Williams Lake. But what about those who rely on the water for agricultural purposes, those who depend on salmon from the Fraser River, and the health of the Fraser River as a whole? The area downstream from the discharge pipe is a traditional fishing area for the people of the ?Esdilagh First Nation, but now our people have to travel over 200 kilometres to fish elsewhere. Quite simply, they no longer trust the safety of the salmon for eating.

This affects not only our daily lives, but also the lives and cultures of other communities. Salmon are cherished across B.C. and are also important for our international neighbours. Gibraltar has been dumping tailings effluent into the river for more than two years, but there is no integrated management plan for the Fraser River system or any understanding of how much it can handle and when we reach the point of no return.

But there is a third option: a water-treatment plant. If this were a new mine, a water-treatment facility for discharged mine effluent would be a requirement for obtaining a permit. So why not for Gibraltar?

Taseko, which operates the mine, even suggested such a measure to investors this summer in its bid for approval for the proposed New Prosperity gold-copper mine southeast of Williams Lake, but with this decision it seems the province has not raised its standards to meet the growing challenge.

Taseko recently approved $300 million in mine improvements for Gibraltar. At an estimated cost of $10 million, a water-treatment plant for the discharge would be slightly more than three per cent of that amount. We need Gibraltar to create a water-treatment facility now — the mine is still operating — to ensure our province’s safety and security when the mine shuts down in the future, as well as avoiding the public costs incurred in cleanups like that of the old Britannia Mine on Howe Sound.

The salmon runs in Howe Sound are starting to recover, and, if we have learned anything the past, we need to ask ourselves what the value of the salmon is to British Columbia, and the value of our way of life. Today, both are at risk. Esdilagh is not opposed to mining and its role in the provincial economy, but increased discharge from Gibraltar will harm the quality of the river water and heighten risks to all who depend on it.

In the wake of Mount Polley, I would expect both the public and government would demand a new standard for water treatment. Safety within mining operations is clearly mandated, but safety does not end at the minehead: truly sustainable economic development for all communities demands that this policy of environmental gambling be stopped. It’s time for Taseko and the B.C. government to truly commit to being the best in the world when it comes to extractive-sector performance.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR NOVEMBER 2, 2015

 Chehalis flood control is endless money pit Jim Wilcox Eighty years of taxpayer-funded studies and consultants to identify and implement effective flood damage reduction projects throughout the large, complex Chehalis River basin have proven to be an utter waste of time and money.

Irresponsible logging in local forests and tree farms, short-sighted development in the vast Chehalis River floodway and changing weather patterns will result in increased damage with each major storm.

Now, after millions of dollars and countless hours, we are told that the Chehalis River basin is comprised of multiple habitats that support multiple aquatic species. We’re also told that the headwaters of the Chehalis River are prime habitats for highly-prized salmon and steelhead – no kidding!

Of course, these spawning and rearing habitats will be under hundreds of feet of water if the massive Chehalis River dam is constructed south of Pe Ell as proposed. This proposed dam will not be close to cost effective nor will it be constructed for many years, if at all!

In the meantime, there will be more irresponsible land practices, more and larger storms, more storm damage and more multi-million dollar studies with little to show for them.

Resolutions by Wild Game Fish Conservation International regarding irresponsible land practices throughout the Chehalis River basin continue to be ignored as the preferred alternative appears to be status quo with the addition of the proposed cost-ineffective Chehalis River dam. Truly shameful and absolutely irresponsible!

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Special

 MINISTER

OF FISHERIES, OCEANS AND THE CANADIAN COAST GUARD MANDATE LETTER

Dear Mr. Tootoo: I am honoured that you have agreed to serve Canadians as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

We have promised Canadians a government that will bring real change – in both what we do and how we do it. Canadians sent a clear message in this election, and our platform offered a new, ambitious plan for a strong and growing middle class. Canadians expect us to fulfill our commitments, and it is my expectation that you will do your part in delivering on those promises to Canadians.

We made a commitment to invest in growing our economy, strengthening the middle class, and helping those working hard to join it. We committed to provide more direct help to those who need it by giving less to those who do not. We committed to public investment as the best way to spur economic growth, job creation, and broad-based prosperity. We committed to a responsible, transparent fiscal plan for challenging economic times.

I expect Canadians to hold us accountable for delivering these commitments, and I expect all ministers to do their part – individually and collectively – to improve economic opportunity and security for Canadians.

It is my expectation that we will deliver real results and professional government to Canadians. To ensure that we have a strong focus on results, I will expect Cabinet committees and individual ministers to: track and report on the progress of our commitments; assess the effectiveness of our work; and align our resources with priorities, in order to get the results we want and Canadians deserve.

If we are to tackle the real challenges we face as a country – from a struggling middle class to the threat of climate change – Canadians need to have faith in their government’s honesty and willingness to listen. I expect that our work will be informed by performance measurement, evidence, and feedback from Canadians. We will direct our resources to those initiatives that are having the greatest, positive impact on the lives of Canadians, and that will allow us to meet our commitments to them. I expect you to report regularly on your progress toward fulfilling our commitments and to help develop effective measures that assess the impact of the organizations for which you are answerable.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots I made a personal commitment to bring new leadership and a new tone to Ottawa. We made a commitment to Canadians to pursue our goals with a renewed sense of collaboration. Improved partnerships with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments are essential to deliver the real, positive change that we promised Canadians. No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples. It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.

We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government. It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves. Government and its information should be open by default. If we want Canadians to trust their government, we need a government that trusts Canadians. It is important that we acknowledge mistakes when we make them. Canadians do not expect us to be perfect – they expect us to be honest, open, and sincere in our efforts to serve the public interest.

Our platform guides our government. Over the course of our four-year mandate, I expect us to deliver on all of our commitments. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we fulfill our promises, while living within our fiscal plan. Other issues will arise or will be brought to our attention

by Canadians, stakeholders, and the public service. It is my expectation that you will engage constructively and thoughtfully and add priorities to your agenda when appropriate.

As Minister, you will be held accountable for our commitment to bring a different style of leadership to government. This will include: close collaboration with your colleagues; meaningful engagement with Opposition Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Committees and the public service; constructive dialogue with Canadians, civil society, and stakeholders, including business, organized labour, the broader public sector, and the not-for-profit and charitable sectors; and identifying ways to find solutions and avoid escalating conflicts unnecessarily. As well, members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, indeed all journalists in Canada and abroad, are professionals who, by asking necessary questions, contribute in an important way to the democratic process. Your professionalism and engagement with them is essential.

Canadians expect us, in our work, to reflect the values we all embrace: inclusion, honesty, hard work, fiscal prudence, and generosity of spirit. We will be a government that governs for all Canadians, and I expect you, in your work, to bring Canadians together.

You are expected to do your part to fulfill our government’s commitment to transparent, merit-based appointments, to help ensure gender parity and that Indigenous Canadians and minority groups are better reflected in positions of leadership.

As Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, your overarching goal will be to protect our three oceans, coasts, waterways and fisheries and ensure that they remain healthy for future generations. Canada is uniquely blessed with an abundance of freshwater and marine and coastal areas that are ecologically diverse and economically significant. Canada has a responsibility to the world to steward our resources with care.

In particular, I will expect you to work with your colleagues and through established legislative, regulatory, and Cabinet processes to deliver on your top priorities:

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots 

Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to increase the proportion of Canada’s marine and coastal areas that are protected – to five percent by 2017, and ten percent by 2020 – supported by new investments in community consultation and science.



Restore annual federal funding for freshwater research, and make new investments in Canada’s Experimental Lakes Area.



Restore funding to support federal ocean science and monitoring programs, to protect the health of fish stocks, to monitor contaminants and pollution in the oceans, and to support responsible and sustainable aquaculture industries on Canada’s coasts.

Editorial Comment: Ocean-based salmon feedlots are neither responsible nor sustainable.



Use scientific evidence and the precautionary principle, and take into account climate change, when making decisions affecting fish stocks and ecosystem management.



Work with the provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, and other stakeholders to better comanage our three oceans.



Support the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to renew our commitment to protect the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River Basin, and the Lake Winnipeg Basin.



Act on recommendations of the Cohen Commission on restoring sockeye salmon stocks in the Fraser River.



Work with the Minister of Transport to review the previous government’s changes to the Fisheries and Navigable Waters Protection Acts, restore lost protections, and incorporate modern safeguards.



Work with the Ministers of Transport, Natural Resources and Environment and Climate Change to formalize the moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast, including the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound.



Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Natural Resources, to immediately review Canada’s environmental assessment processes and introduce new, fair processes that will: 

restore robust oversight and thorough environmental assessments of areas under federal jurisdiction, while also working with provinces and territories to avoid duplication;



ensure that decisions are based on science, facts, and evidence, and serve the public interest;



provide ways for Canadians to express their views and opportunities for experts to meaningfully participate; and



require project advocates to choose the best technologies available to reduce environmental impacts.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots 

Re-open the Maritime Rescue Sub-centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland and the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base in Vancouver.



Work with the Minister of Public Services and Procurement to meet the commitments that were made for new Coast Guard vessels as part of the National Shipbuilding and Procurement Strategy.



Work with the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to improve marine safety.



Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Science to examine the implications of climate change on Arctic marine ecosystems.

These priorities draw heavily from our election platform commitments. The government’s agenda will be further articulated through Cabinet discussions and in the Speech from the Throne when Parliament opens.

I expect you to work closely with your Deputy Minister and his or her senior officials to ensure that the ongoing work of your department is undertaken in a professional manner and that decisions are made in the public interest. Your Deputy Minister will brief you on issues your department may be facing that may require decisions to be made quickly. It is my expectation that you will apply our values and principles to these decisions, so that issues facing your department are dealt with in a timely and responsible manner, and in a way that is consistent with the overall direction of our government.

Our ability, as a government, to successfully implement our platform depends on our ability to thoughtfully consider the professional, non-partisan advice of public servants. Each and every time a government employee comes to work, they do so in service to Canada, with a goal of improving our country and the lives of all Canadians. I expect you to establish a collaborative working relationship with your Deputy Minister, whose role, and the role of public servants under his or her direction, is to support you in the performance of your responsibilities.

In the coming weeks, the Privy Council Office (PCO) will be contacting you to set up a meeting with PCO officials, your Deputy Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office to further discuss your plans, commitments and priorities.

We have committed to an open, honest government that is accountable to Canadians, lives up to the highest ethical standards, and applies the utmost care and prudence in the handling of public funds.

I expect you to embody these values in your work and observe the highest ethical standards in everything you do. When dealing with our Cabinet colleagues, Parliament, stakeholders, or the public, it is important that your behaviour and decisions meet Canadians’ well-founded expectations of our government. I want Canadians to look on their own government with pride and trust.

As Minister, you must ensure that you are aware of and fully compliant with the Conflict of Interest Act and Treasury Board policies and guidelines. You will be provided with a copy of Open and Accountable Government to assist you as you undertake your responsibilities. I ask that you carefully read it and ensure that your staff does so as well. I draw your attention in particular to the Ethical Guidelines set out in Annex A of that document, which apply to you and your staff.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots As noted in the Guidelines, you must uphold the highest standards of honesty and impartiality, and both the performance of your official duties and the arrangement of your private affairs should bear the closest public scrutiny. This is an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law. Please also review the areas of Open and Accountable Government that we have expanded or strengthened, including the guidance on non-partisan use of departmental communications resources and the new code of conduct for exempt staff.

I know I can count on you to fulfill the important responsibilities entrusted in you. In turn, please know that you can count on me to support you every day in your role as Minister.

I am deeply grateful to have this opportunity to serve with you as we build an even greater country.

Together, we will work tirelessly to honour the trust Canadians have given us.

Yours sincerely,

Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 U.S. retailers begin taking farmed fish off their shelves as antibiotic overuse destroys fish farming industry November 18, 2015 The biggest seller of organic foods has decided to greatly reduce the number of antibiotic-treated salmon it purchases from Chile, a move that's expected to a deliver a huge financial blow to the aquaculture industry.

Costco recently announced that they will no longer be buying the majority of its salmon from Chile, the world's second largest producer of the fish, following an increase in consumer awareness regarding the dangers associated with the widespread use of antibiotics.

The extensive use of human drugs on farmed animals, including fish, is contributing to an increase in superbugs, or microorganisms that have grown resistant to antibiotics, posing a severe threat to humans, as these types of infectious diseases are more difficult to treat.

Costco drastically cuts farmed salmon purchases from Chile

Editorial Comments: 

No brainer by Costco marketing team to no longer source feedlot salmon from Chile



Supermarkets need to insist on farmed salmon from land-based feedlots to eliminate risks of: 

wildlife becoming infested with diseasecarrying, life-threatening lice



ocean pollution (excess feed, salmon feces, chemical cocktail mixes)



escapes leading to competition with, and diseases passed to, wild fish



marine mammal entanglement/death



navigation hazards (commercial, tribal, recreational)

Previously purchasing about 90 percent of its salmon from Chile, the membership-only warehouse says it will now buy just 40 percent from the South American exporter as they look to Norway (the world's largest salmon producer) to supply the majority of their demand.

Over the last few years, Wal-Mart, Wegmans and Safeway have also reduced purchases of Chilean salmon.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots For eight years, Chile has been struggling to contain the spread of a virus that is killing millions of fish; in response to this and widespread bacterial disease, Chilean farmers have turned to antibiotics in order to keep their fish stock alive despite unsanitary conditions. In 2008, Chile used nearly 350 times more antibiotics on its farmed salmon than Norway, its chief competitor.

Industry officials say this is because Norway has developed vaccines to protect their salmon against illnesses, a development that Chile has been unable to achieve due to a lack of funding.

Under a new "information access law," Chile's government, for the first time, revealed information detailing its use of antibiotics in salmon production following a request by the environmental group Oceana.

While the high usage of drugs raised alarm, the industry defended its practices, claiming that the antibiotics are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is the only method available to fight fish-borne illnesses including rickettsia.

Several years ago, however, three Chilean salmon-farming companies were caught using a number of drugs not approved by the FDA, some of which include the antibiotic flumequine, oxolinic acid and the pesticide emamectin benzoate, according to Grist.org.

The illness plaguing millions of salmon, rickettsia, is caused by a parasitic bacteria known as SRS which is carried by sea lice that causes skin lesions and hemorrhaging in infected fish, resulting in the swelling of their kidneys and spleen, which eventually kills them. The disease was first reported in Chile in 1989.

Environmental groups blame unsanitary conditions and cramped pens as "super lice" infect marine life The environmental group Food & Water Watch says[PDF] ocean aquaculture, "the mass production of fish in large, floating net pens or cages in the sea — has often led to environmental and other disasters in the countries where it has been practiced commercially."

When farmed fish escape into wild, it's a major cause for concern as they pose an enormous threat to wild fish due to the diseases they carry.

Unsanitary and cramped living conditions allow disease to run rampant among farmed fish (similar to factory farms on land), making them more susceptible to pancreatic and amoebic gill disease, infectious salmon anemia (ISA) and an increase in sea lice, a destructive parasite commonly found in highly stocked net pens.

Sea lice has also become resistant to pesticides, allowing them to morph into "super lice," killing both captive and wild fish.

Despite assurances that farmed fish wouldn't survive in the wild, they've been identified in more than 80 rivers in British Columbia. More than 500,000 farmed fish escapes occurred in 2009, according to Norwegian farming statistics, including cod, halibut, salmon and trout.

It's also feared that farmed fish, which have minimal genetic diversity due to inbreeding, may mate with wild fish and over time cause them to lose "natural traits that help them survive in the wild."

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 B.C.’s iconic Adams River salmon run off to a ‘grim’ start November 4, 2015 British Columbia’s iconic Adams River salmon run, a spectacular natural event that has become an international magnet for tourism drawing up to 250,000 visitors a year, appears to have collapsed.

Instead of 1.2 million fish, as was hoped for in preseason forecasts, only about 3,000 sockeye have returned to the river, which flows into Shuswap Lake, about 75 kilometres northeast of Kamloops.

Lara Sloan, communications adviser for the department of Fisheries and Oceans, said DFO is reluctant to answer questions about the situation on the Adams River.

“We don’t want to speculate or provide early observations – we need to wait until all of the data is in to provide a complete picture,” she said in an e-mail.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots But Jim Cooperman, president of the Shuswap Environmental Action Society, said the spawning beds, many of which have viewing platforms where visitors can usually take pictures of massive schools of bright-red salmon, are empty this fall. The run peaks in mid-October and it is unlikely more fish will arrive now.

“It’s pretty grim here at the Adams River,” he said on Wednesday. “We’re supposed to have quite a few salmon. It’s supposed to be the next largest run [in the cycle] and only 3,000 salmon showed up.

There were quite a few Chinook, but, I mean, it’s sockeye that are our iconic species, and it’s quite depressing here really.”

Sockeye spawn every year, then die. Because the fish mature at four years of age, the runs are on a cycle, which means each one usually reflects the progenitor run that occurred four years before.

Last year, about four million fish were expected (after 3.8 million spawned four years earlier) but only 700,000 returned. This year’s run was expected to number at least 200,000 based on 2011 returns, and early forecasts predicted as many as 1.2 million fish. At 3,000 spawners, it is the worst return ever on that cycle; the next lowest year was 1939, when 16,000 fish came back.

Mr. Cooperman said the small return represents “a very frightening crash,” and two successive poor years should set off alarm bells.

“Could salmon being going the way of Atlantic cod under the leadership of Fisheries and Oceans Canada? Is that where we are headed?” he asked.

Mr. Cooperman said it is not clear what has happened to the salmon, but B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, who in 2012 completed an investigation into the collapse of sockeye in the Fraser River system, which includes the Adams River, pointed to an array of problems and made 75 recommendations.

“It could be climate change, it could be fish farms. The Cohen commission recommended all kinds of things but [none were acted on

by Ottawa]. Of course, now we have a government that might pay attention, but it could be too late,” Mr. Cooperman said.

Greg Taylor of FishFirst Consulting Ltd., said concerns are also being raised about sockeye returning to B.C. rivers on the north coast because the fish have been so small.

“The Nass River sockeye came in relatively good [numbers] … however, they came in about one pound lighter [on average]. So there’s something going on in the ocean … they are normally about six pounds there, but they were coming in at five pounds. This is unheard of. We’ve never seen those sockeye that size,” he said.

Mr. Taylor said one theory is that hatcheries in Alaska are pumping out so many fish that by the time B.C. sockeye migrate into the Gulf of Alaska, where they feed during early life stages, food is running short.

“Some feel these small fish we are seeing and the poor runs [to the Adams River] … could be found in that cause,” he said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Community Activism, Education and Outreach

 Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Give Marine Harvest Canada the Boot

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Booted B.C. teen 'not going to apologize' for opposing team sponsor November 2, 2015 After her vocal opposition got her kicked off an elite soccer team, B.C. teen Freyja Reed says she is not sorry for speaking out against its sponsor Marine Harvest.

“I’m not going to apologize for standing up for what I believe in,” Reed told CTV’s Canada AM Monday.

Reed, who moved to Comox, B.C., to play with Vancouver Island’s Upper island Riptide soccer team last year, opposes Marine Harvest’s open-net salmon farms because, she says, they threaten wild salmon populations in the area.

“It’s a breeding ground for disease,” she said. “Everywhere that salmon farms go, wild salmon goes into decline—and I love wild salmon. And I don’t like salmon farms.”

On its website, Marine Harvest says it produces 40,000 tonnes of sustainable farm-raised Atlantic salmon each year.

"Our salmon are four-star certified to the Global Aquaculture Alliance Best Aquaculture Practices and we are the first company in North America to have a farm certified to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council salmon standard," it states.

In addition, the company says it does not seek to influence its donation recipients: “Marine Harvest’s donations to community groups have not, and will not, and will never, restrict a recipient’s right to voice their opinions or their ability to speak freely.”

While Reed wasn’t forced to wear corporate logos, or attend fundraising events, she says the team was told not to discuss their opinions about the sponsor.

The stern warning didn’t stop Reed from voicing her opinion. She has been a long-time opponent of fish farming and her advocacy for the preservation of wild salmon started well before she became a member of the team.

“I’ve grown up on the coast, standing up for wild salmon for as long as I can remember,” Reed said.

While Reed says she feels “stressed” and “overwhelmed” for not having a team to train with, she hopes to get back on the field soon. A group of B.C. fisherman have set up a trust fund for Reed to pay for her training.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Rally: Get Fish Farms Out of Our Ocean – Walmart (Mission, BC)

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Enbridge Go Home, Stop Kinder Morgan

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

A couple hundred people rallied before Wednesday's City Council meeting in support of a pair of resolutions against fossil fuel exports and oil shipments by train.

 Portland

City Council adopts position against expanded oil shipments by train, delays fossil fuel export ban November 4, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The Portland (Oregon) City Council voted 4-0 Wednesday on a resolution opposing increased crude oil shipments by train through the city, as several hundred supportive Portlanders looked on from the council chambers and multiple spillover rooms.

The resolution also expresses City Council opposition to Tesoro’s proposed oil terminal across the river in Vancouver, which could bring a massive increase in oil trains through the Columbia River Gorge.

A companion measure to bar new fossil fuel export facilities in Portland — which figures to have much more impact — proved more controversial. The council ran out of time to debate proposed amendments and put off a final vote until next Thursday, Nov. 12. From the tenor of Wednesday’s debate, though, that resolution looks likely to pass as well.

“It’s not just symbolic” to oppose more oil trains, said Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who spearheaded that resolution. “This is about the future.”

The City Council previously came out against proposed coal export facilities that would send open-air trains filled with coal through the Columbia River Gorge and then Portland, Fritz recalled. “Here we are to do it again.”

As oil drilling booms in North Dakota and elsewhere in the U.S., there’s been a flurry of proposals to transport the oil to the West Coast, essentially using mile-long trains as moving pipelines.

City officials recognize that trains are regulated by the federal government, but they hope the city will inspire other jurisdictions and politicians to take similar actions, thus putting pressure on federal leaders.

It’s the city’s job to address public safety, said Mayor Charlie Hales, and the city fire chief says there is little the city can do to protect against the kind of train derailments that caused massive death and destruction in recent months in Quebec and in U.S. cities.

Hales, while out sailing with his wife, recalled a time when a railroad bridge over the Columbia River got stuck, impeding traffic on the river and the rail line. A worker came out with a sledge hammer and banged the track until the rails were aligned so a train could pass, Hales said. That didn’t make him feel secure about the nation’s antiquated rail system.

The oil trains allowed by U.S. regulators could puncture in a derailment of a train going as slow as 12 miles an hour, said Michael Lang, conservation director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge. “It’s inherently unsafe.”

“We’re playing Russian Roulette essentially, every time an oil train goes down the Columbia River,” said Dan Serres, conservation director for the Columbia Riverkeeper.

The council also heard from Eric LaBrant, who won election to the Vancouver Port Commission on Tuesday on a platform opposed to the Tesoro terminal at that port.

The regional economy relies heavily on the Columbia River, LaBrant said, but fossil fuels represent the economy of the last century, not the future.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Commissioner Nick Fish, while supporting the resolution, concluded it is “largely symbolic.”

However, the second resolution figures to have more teeth, perhaps barring proposals such as Pembina Pipeline Corp.’s proposed $500 million propane export terminal at the Port of Portland.

Mia Reback, the newly hired staffer for 350.PDX, said time is running out to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels around the world, to avert major climate disruption. At the current rate, she said, “We have at best 15 years before we blow through the world’s carbon budget.”

Mayor Hales, the chief proponent of the fossil fuel export ban, recalled his recent meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on the pope’s encyclical about climate change.

“We have to leave much of the fossil fuel that we’ve already discovered in the ground,” Hales said, echoing the pope. “There is very little time and we must act now.”

Bill McKibben, cofounder of the international 350.org group that is crusading to minimize climate change, addressed the council from Washington D.C., where he spent part of the day working on a bill with Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Portland.

It is no longer a “quixotic” quest to shift the world to renewable energy sources, McKibben said. If the fossil fuel export ban passes, he said, “Portland will go down as an absolute leader among all jurisdictions, cities, counties, states, and nations if it does this.”

Olivia Miller, an 8th-grader at Sunnyside Environmental School, was one of several youth to testify.

“Today you are setting an example for the rest of the world, and right now that is exactly what we need,” she said.

But a handful of business and labor representatives urged the City Council to give the fossil fuel export ban a bit more study.

The rushed process to conceive the resolution was “lackluster,” said Marion Haynes, vice president for government affairs at the Portland Business Alliance.

Willie Myers, executive secretary treasurer for the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, said the resolution would have a “devastating” impact on middle class job prospects in Portland. He might have been referring to jobs from the Pembina project, as well as others.

City Commissioners Nick Fish and Steve Novick proposed amendments to the fossil fuel export resolution, but the council didn’t have a chance to discuss those.

That is slated to occur starting at 2 p.m. next Thursday.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Petition: Show support for a new Washington state steelhead license plate The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing a special license plate featuring a wild steelhead to generate revenue that would help support activities critical to conserving native populations of these fish.

In much of Washington, native steelhead are listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. WDFW is currently taking several actions to restore those populations to sustainable levels, including measures that guide fisheries management, hatchery operations and habitat-restoration programs.

To maintain and improve these key conservation and recovery activities, WDFW is looking to establish consistent funding sources dedicated to restoring wild steelhead populations in Washington.

As part of that effort, WDFW is proposing the new plate that would raise an estimated $200,000 each year to:  Apply new techniques to improve estimates of the number of wild steelhead on the spawning grounds, and ensure that the population numbers are consistent with the productivity of the river.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Bolster efforts to monitor interactions between wild and hatchery steelhead to help ensure future hatchery steelhead production and management actions support the recovery of wild stocks.  Increase creel surveys to improve estimates for the number of wild steelhead harvested in fisheries and the number of wild steelhead caught and released by anglers.

Before the state Legislature can consider the proposal, state law requires WDFW to show that people intend to purchase at least 3,500 plates, which would be available for cars, motorcycles and trailers.

Show Your Support - Sign the Petition!

In order to create the steelhead license plate we need to provide documentation to the Washington State Department of Licensing that 3,500 plates are intended to be purchased.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Climate

 Predictions Put Some Of South Florida Under Water by 2025 October 15, 2015 MIAMI — With the ever-encroaching threat of climate change, some prognosticators have recommended that South Floridians better learn to swim.

According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, Miami and Hollywood are two of the dozens of coastal cities in the U.S. predicted to be washed away by rising sea levels this century.

“Some cities appear to be already lost,” study lead author Benjamin Strauss told CBS News.

Miami is one of those. Like New Orleans, the findings consider both cities past the point of no return.

“For New Orleans, there are levees, it’s possible to build levees higher and stronger for some time, but that’s not necessarily safe or sustainable in the long run. We’ve already seen what can happen when levees break, when the sea level gets higher, the bigger the tragedy can be.”

Research suggests that at the current pace, carbon emissions could increase the sea level at least 14 feet by the year 2100. That puts 1,800 municipalities along the coast in danger, including 21 cities with populations of more than 100,000 residents.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Strauss’ data has calculated the “lock-in date” for these cities, or the year at which carbon emission levels have essentially sealed a city’s fate and would put them under water.

Hollywood has a lock-in date of 2025. New York City is at 2095.

But for cities with the more distant lock-in dates like Wilmington, N.C., and Bridgeport, Conn., there’s still hope. The findings also indicate that “aggressive carbon cuts” could have an impact in slowing down coastal flooding decimation.

“We are not talking about a sea level rise happening tomorrow,” Strauss reiterated to CBS News.

“Instead, we are talking about what could happen if the genie we let out of the bottle continues to grow. We are talking about what could happen if we continue to emit this much carbon into the atmosphere.”

Although the carbon emissions issue is one of climate policy, Strauss stressed that the findings from these kinds of studies should continue to offer a wake-up call about our energy consumption.

“In the long run, each gallon (of gasoline) we burn eventually ads 400 gallons of water to the ocean,” Strauss noted.

However, he added that not only does the U.S. have the ways and means of reversing these trends, the country could even profit by helping others reduce their coastal flooding impact.

“We have a lot of resources, a lot of money compared to most places at risk. I think we have an opportunity to invest, to find an economic opportunity and reduce the pain of loss,” he said. “We can pioneer those kinds of measures that could become an expertise we could export to the world. It could be a service.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Habitat

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Forest Service shows a bull trout in the Little Lost River in Idaho. Scientists are developing what they’re calling a Cold Water Climate Shield in five western states containing streams that could support viable populations of native species if the region continues its warming trend.

 Feds Eye Refuges for Cold-Water Species in Five States BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal scientists using new technologies have mapped what is being called a Cold Water Climate Shield, an area spanning five western states that could support viable populations of native species if the region continues its warming trend.

Mapping the cold-water refuges for cutthroat trout, a favored sport fish among anglers, and threatened bull trout could help resource managers make decisions aimed at preserving populations of those and other cold-water native species in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Wyoming.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Scientists say streams in the region have warmed up about a degree over the last three decades and are getting hotter.

"One of the things we're seeing is that the colder areas are typically in the headwaters," said Dan Isaak, a research fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Boise. "Those are warming up a lot more slowly than streams at lower elevations."

The mapped area contains streams with temperatures preferred by cutthroat trout and bull trout but are too cold for non-native species, particularly brown trout and brook trout, thus forming the climate shield. The climate shield has practical applications, Isaak said.

"Rather than spending money to build artificial barriers on streams to prevent the upstream advance of invasive species (which is very expensive and commonly done in some areas), the climate refugia streams we're highlighting are so cold that you wouldn't need to build a barrier to preserve the native community," Isaak said in an email to The Associated Press.

Within this climate shield, scientists say some areas will remain capable of supporting bull trout even if the more extreme future climate models turn out accurate.

"It's quite possible much of the habitat for bull trout will become too warm," and it will disappear from those areas, said Mike Young, a research fisheries biologist for the U.S. Forest Service based in Missoula, Montana, also working on the climate shield. "But we think that even under extreme climate scenarios bull trout will persist in the lower 48."

Advances in stream temperature sensors and environmental DNA sampling, a new way to find out what species inhabit a stream, have provided a flood of information and allowed scientists to create the climate shield map.

Temperature sensors are glued to underwater rocks and can store hourly temperature recordings for a year. About 4,000 of the sensors are in streams in the five states. Isaak said there are about 16,000 more unique sites recording information less frequently plus information going back even further.

In total, he said, scientists have about 50 million hourly temperature recordings.

The other part of the Cold Water Climate Shield involves environmental DNA sampling. That began about eight years ago and has radically changed how scientists survey streams. Rather than electroshocking stream sections and seeing what floats to the top, scientists can take a water sample and check it to see if a particular species is present.

"It's not only better, but it costs less," Young said. "You can suddenly afford to go places and sample very broadly."

The result is that entire river basins can be sampled, meaning streams that have never been sampled have now been analyzed or soon will be, Young said. That information could then be used for making decisions about where biologists should try to remove non-native brook trout, for example.

"Being able to make wise conservation investments is one of the most important things that we can do when protecting the biodiversity that we have," Young said.

Isaak said the Cold Water Climate Shield idea is being taken up in other western states as well, but is mostly just getting started in those areas.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Adult coho salmon spawn in the Tillamook State Forest. The National Marine Fisheries Service released its blueprint this week for recovering wild runs of Oregon Coast coho salmon

 Agency floats recovery plan for Oregon coho salmon October 14, 2015 A federal agency has released a road map for the recovery of threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon.

The draft plan from the National Marine Fisheries Service focuses on protecting and restoring freshwater and habitats that have a mixture of freshwater and saltwater, including streams, lakes and wetlands.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The plan also calls on the state to strengthen regulations on activities such as agriculture and logging to protect water quality and habitat.

The Oregon Coast coho was first listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1998. It was later taken off that list, but litigation forced the government to grant it federal protection again in 2008.

The listing was retained in 2011, and in 2015 a federal review found that while aspects of the species' status have improved, the species still needs protection.

In July, two environmental groups sued the federal agency over its failure to write the recovery plan in a timely manner.

Between 1 million and 2 million coho salmon once returned annually to Oregon's coast, but the number plummeted to about 20,000 in the 1990s because of over-fishing, the loss of habitat and the effects of hatchery fish, among other factors.

In recent years, improvements have led to increased coho numbers: annual returns now range from 100,000 to 350,000 fish.

But federal biologists say poor ocean conditions and climate change could pose a challenge to the coho. The main threats to overcoming that challenge, according to the plan, are degraded habitat and inadequate state rules.

The loss of stream habitat for the rearing of juvenile coho salmon is a big concern. This habitat, according to the plan, is critical to produce enough surviving juveniles to sustain the coho population, especially during poor ocean conditions. Stream habitat includes large wood, pools, connections to side channels and off-channel alcoves, wetlands and backwater areas.

A large part of the land with critical coho habitat lies on private land, including farmland and timber land. Because the plan is only a blueprint, its implementation will rely on the efforts of local jurisdictions, farmers, timber companies and other private citizens.

State agencies such as the Board of Forestry, which regulates logging buffers near streams, and the Department of Agriculture, which regulates pesticide spraying, will also play a large role, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the two groups that sued this summer.

"We need bigger buffers around streams where chemicals aren't sprayed. We need larger logging buffers," Greenwald said.

Greenwald praised the plan for its focus on habitat restoration and strengthening laws to protect that habitat. The big concern, he said, is "whether the state of Oregon will step up and do what's necessary to have healthy salmon."

NOAA Fisheries estimates the cost of recovery at about $55 million over the next five years and about $110 million to achieve full recovery, depending on the effectiveness of improvements to the coho salmon's habitat and the strength of laws protecting that habitat.

The draft plan is open to public comment for 60 days. The agency plans to issue a final recovery plan in 2016.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Ahousaht logging moratorium October 29, 2015 On October 28, the ʔaahuusʔatḥ ḥawiiḥ (hereditary chiefs of Ahousaht) announced a moratorium on industrial scale logging in their ḥaaḥuułi (traditional territory), effective immediately.

There are two main Tree Farm Licenses in the area, TFL 54 and 57. Over the past 20 years the logging of ancient rainforests within these TFLs has often created conflicts with Ahousaht traditional values, and with recognized conservation interests. Tyee Ḥawiiḥ Maquinna (Lewis George) announced that “the end has come to the large scale logging operations of the past that leave much to be desired in the way of long lasting environmental footprint and very little community benefit”.

Over 90% of Vancouver Island has been clearcut, leaving Clayoquot Sound as the Last Great Rainforest. It is the southernmost big rainforest left on the Pacific coast. There is a large area of old growth forest in the backcountry, the area known as iiḥmis (pristine valleys)—places like Sydney Valley, Pretty Girl Cove, Ursus River, and Flores Island.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots These unprotected valleys are contiguous with the Megin and Moyeha River, which are protected.

Part of what makes Clayoquot Sound unique is not just the size of the rainforest, but the presence of valleys which have never seen industrial logging or road-building. These watersheds are hydrologically intact, and continue to function the way they were designed to by Nature. They provide critical habitat for large animals such as timber wolves and Roosevelt Elk, who need room to roam.

Wild salmon habitat These wild rivers create spawning and rearing habitat for wild salmon, which in turn provide the nitrogen missing in the shallow, post-glacial soils. The salmon are spread through the forest by over a hundred species, collectively known as the salmon guild. Wildlife such as bears, eagles and even tiny wrens are all part of the salmon guild. This marine-based nitrogen is the secret ingredient which causes the monumental cedars to grow so big.

The Ahousaht Nation has recently launched a community Land Use Visioning process which intends to produce a set of management values designed to protect a traditional way of life while supporting a continued transition to a modern diversified sustainable economy. Ḥawiiḥ Tlaakiishwia, John Keitlah, stated “We must now sit down with all levels of government and find a solution that creates a truly prosperous sustainable future for our people”.

In these times of climate crisis, protecting ancient forests is an excellent way to store carbon over the long term. Logging accomplishes the exact opposite, releasing large amounts of carbon quickly. One can only hope that world leaders at the Paris climate summit in November will be as forward-thinking as the Ahousaht people.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Quinault

Nation Proposes New Approach to Flood Protection in Chehalis

Basin DETAILS NECESSARY: Ecology Is Seeking More Information on Alternative October 22, 2015 Three main options have been under consideration to provide protection from flooding and restore habitat in the Chehalis River Basin. 

The first alternative is to do nothing.

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The second is a dam that would be only used for flood water storage.

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The last option is a larger dam that would keep a reservoir and augment summer river flows with cooler water.

But another alternative may be added to the list as well.

Before the comment period for the environmental impact statement closed on Monday, the Quinault Indian Nation proposed a fourth alternative, a “restorative flood protection approach.”

The first three options, along with other flood protection and habitat restoration projects including levees and raising homes, will be reviewed in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement currently underway.

Ecology has asked the Quinault Nation for more information before considering adding it to the EIS for further study.

The approach consists of reconnecting channels by putting wood and sediment in the waterways to reduce stress in the channel, create pools and raise water levels.

“This process increases that inundation frequency and retention time of overbank flows, in addition to increasing the extent and quality of salmonid spawning and refugia habitat,” according to the Quinault’s proposal.

The proposal states that research shows the work can increase flood storage, reduce flood peak flow rates and downstream discharge and decrease flood stage.

Brenden McFarland, environmental review section manager for Ecology, said he first heard about the Quinault Nation’s proposal a couple weeks ago.

“The very simple version is they’re looking at restoring natural processes in part for their flood retention benefits, so they’re pushing restoration with the idea that it has flood benefits,” McFarland said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots He said Ecology hopes to receive additional information and details about the alternative by early November to consider incorporating it in the EIS. “We’ve already been able to get as far as thinking that the alternative is worthy of consideration in the Programmatic EIS,” he said.

The proposal argues that studies show the proposed dam would inhibit or block fish passage and could also create new floodplain.

The dam is currently proposed to be constructed on the Chehalis River near Pe Ell; the Quinaults’ approach would require work in a larger area.

The proposal acknowledges that both types of dam and the Quinaults’ alternative all require significant initial costs, but says costs and liabilities differ after completion.

The Quinaults’ plan after work is completed is to let natural processes including reforestation, wood recruitment and beaver modifications take place.

The restorative approach, according to the tribe, would achieve objectives of the Chehalis Basin Work Group, including: increasing aquatic species habitat, restoring salmonid spawning, rearing and sheltering habitat, enhancing human water supplies and improving water temperatures during the summer.

Areas in the floodplain would experience shallow inundation more frequently and some structures would need to be adapted or moved to handle the change.

According to the preliminary scope provided, data collection, field documentation, modeling, private property coordination, final reporting and meetings would cost $2.63 million.

McFarland said Ecology is still gathering and reviewing all comments made during the recent comment period for the EIS. Calls to the Quinault Nation were not returned by The Chronicle’s deadline.

The tribe has treaty rights on the river, and has opposed flood protection efforts in the past, insisting construction stop in the floodplain.

In 2013, the tribe penned a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee imploring him not to fund efforts by the Chehalis Basin Work Group and the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority.

“We have repeatedly expressed our opposition to such projects in the past and continue to do so now,” Quinault President Fawn Sharp, the tribe’s former managing attorney, said in her letter dated Feb. 26, 2013. “As a co-manager of the Chehalis Basin’s resources with federally-protected treaty rights, the Quinault Indian Nation must be substantively involved in decision-making regarding flood relief measures.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Aberdeen, Hoquiam officials to tackle Harbor-wide flood plan November 3, 2015 As far as Hoquiam Mayor Jack Durney’s concerned, addressing the Harborwide flood problem is the most important work today’s local officials will do.

Durney didn’t mince words when he implored members of his council to attend the workshop scheduled for this Thursday to talk with Aberdeen officials about a possible flood retention plan that would encompass both Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

“You have to take the day off — if you work evenings, you have to arrange a trade — you have to be there,” Durney said about the workshop at last week’s Hoquiam City Council meeting. “There is nothing more important that any of us will ever work on in our political careers than this issue of solving the flooding.”

The workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Grays Harbor Public Utility District’s Nichols Building.

The Harbor’s flooding problem, perhaps brought to the forefront nearly a year ago with record rainfall that led to disastrous landslides last January, has been a talking point for candidates campaigning for office, and will now see traction with Thursday’s workshop.

Editorial Comment: The citizens of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, Washington are demonstrating irrational behavior when it comes to their unique lifestyles. Their homes are sited on Grays Harbor, the estuary of the Chehalis River and others. 

These folks have routinely opposed dikes to protect Interstate 5 from flooding as more floodwater would be diverted downstream to them – yet, they are OK diverting floodwaters to protect their property while adding to the flood impacts to their downstream neighbors.

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These same folks oppose expansion of crude export facilities partly due to environmental risks – yet they are OK with additional siltation in their uniquely valuable estuary.

Dikes, as history has taught us, are not a panacea. They come bundled with their own set of risks including environmental degradation, false sense of security and ongoing maintenance

Among those scheduled to attend are the councils and mayors from both cities, Nicholas Carr, a Seattle area-based representative from Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office and Jordan Rash, conservation director with Forterra, a Seattle-based consulting agency whose focus includes restoration and land management.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Attendees will work to craft a master plan for a project that could include a dike system that encompasses both cities, a series of parks that double as retention ponds and the restoration of Fry Creek to allow for more efficient water flow. The result, officials hope, would be lowering the risk of flooding and the high flood insurance rates imposed on homeowners while at the same time raising home values.

Rash will lead the presentation, beginning with a brief overview of Forterra and its mission before leading a discussion to answer several key questions.

“The first piece is this master plan to say, ‘This is how we want our community to be, this is what we want it to look like,’” Rash said before asking the rhetorical question that the meeting aims to answer: “How do we then take that and mesh that with a flood-risk reduction plan?”

Rash said he jumped aboard the project about six months ago following outreach from Carr. Forterra, Rash added, will act as a partner to both cities to solidify the project’s master plan and find funding for the project.

Topping the list of potential funding sources, Rash said, is Floodplains by Design, an organization that has helped fund flood-management projects across the state.

Rash said projects like the one aimed at the Harbor’s flooding issue fall directly in line with Forterra’s Olympic Agenda.

“When we look at projects on the Olympic Peninsula, it’s about community, economy and environment,” he said. “What better than this project to cover all of that? It addresses all those things.”

Durney’s not the only official who recognizes the project’s significance.

“I think it’s very, very important — we have people who can’t afford a house because they can’t afford flood insurance,” Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson said. “It’s good that we can sit down with Hoquiam and put this together.”

The project’s implications aren’t lost on officials at the federal level, either, with Kilmer lending full support of the plan.

“To soften the blow of insurance and to keep rising tides at bay, the communities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen have come together to take action,” Kilmer said in a statement. “I’m proud to join with local stakeholders to work together to develop a plan that will address these water issues through innovative projects and resources that will protect our community while creating new economic opportunities.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Environmental groups are calling for an end to industry self-regulation of tailing ponds as a provincial committee continues it work of studying mining laws after last year’s failure of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine

 Groups call for ‘clear, enforceable’ mine waste-dam laws Environmental coalition calls on B.C. government to phase out industry self-regulation November 3, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The B.C. government should phase out industry self-regulation to ensure dams that hold back waste and water at mines are safe and sustainable, says a joint submission by environmental groups.

The Fair Mining Collaborative, Mining Watch Canada and Northern Confluence (an arm of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign) are also calling for the province’s review of mining rules to be broadened by examining all laws that regulate mining, including the Mines Act, Environmental Management Act and Water Act, not just the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines.

Their submission is the first look at the type of changes that are being called for by outside groups as the B.C. government responds to Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley catastrophic tailings dam collapse last year and recommendations from an expert geotechnical engineering panel it commissioned.

In a 111-page submission, the Fair Mining group called for the province to phase out industry selfregulation by integrating clear, enforceable language in legislation, and by creating an independent review board to oversee the management of all mine waste (also called tailings) storage facilities in British Columbia.

While the province retains an inspection and oversight role, it chiefly relies on the professional judgment and sign-off by engineers on mine dam design and maintenance.

The Fair Mining group’s submission was among 10 from environmental groups which did not get a seat on the review panel set up by he province.

The Fair Mining group also wants the province to move “drastically” away from storing mine waste underwater behind earth and rock dams and use methods that keep the tailings dry.

Fair Mining executive director Amy Crook said she hopes their recommendations will be taken seriously, particularly since environmental groups were barred from participating on the committee.

“We really tried to put forth suggestions and ideas that would help the public interest based on what we’ve heard around many, many tables and many communities downstream of the many facilities in B.C.,” said Crook.

There were 49 submissions that made the Oct. 16 deadline, including from the Canadian Red Cross, the First Nations Energy and Mining Council and the Likely Chamber of Commerce.

Only one mining company made a submission: Seabridge Gold.

The Fair Mining group also says tailings technical advisory committees should be created at individual mines that would include First Nations, environmental groups and community representatives.

And they say the province should require new securities for emergencies and accidents, and companies’ be required to undertake a full-cost analysis of potential tailings dam failures at a project’s outset.

B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the environmental group’s submissions will be taken seriously.

“I don’t care who the good ideas come from that help improve how we do mining in B.C. — if it’s a good idea, it’s going to be picked up,” Bennett said in an interview.

And he said he did not disagree that a broad approach was a good idea: that the province does not want to fix one set of rules and leave a hole in others.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The issue of creating more prescriptive rules is being tackled, he said.

Bennet noted the government-appointed engineering panel has also recommended the province create more prescriptive B.C. government tailings dam design and construction rules that go beyond the Canadian Dam Safety guidelines used in existing B.C. laws.

Bennett said he was not surprised that only one mining company made a submission as they already have representatives on the committee.

The mines ministry expects to meet a deadline of completing the code review and having new laws in place by mid-2016.

A poll commissioned by the environmental group SkeenaWild Conservation Trust released last month found 75 per cent of respondents were concerned about a tailings break, and 54 per cent felt B.C. mining posed real risks to people’s health, the environment and local tourism and fishing industries. The poll found 39 per cent said the jobs and economic benefits of mining outweigh those risks.

The survey of 805 British Columbians by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research is subject to a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 TU CEO Chris Wood's testimony on need for mine cleanup reform October 21, 2015 The following is the abbreviated testimony of Trout Unlimited President and CEO Chris Wood before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. Wood spoke to the committee on the need for Good Samaritan legislation that would allow organizations like Trout Unlimited to clean up abandoned mines in order prevent disasters like last summer's blow-out at the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado: Chairman Gibbs, Ranking Member Napolitano, and Subcommittee Members: My name is Chris Wood. I am the President and CEO of Trout Unlimited. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on this important issue.

I offer the following testimony on behalf of Trout Unlimited and its 155,000 members nationwide. My testimony will focus on the cleanup of abandoned mine lands, specifically the need to facilitate abandoned mine cleanups by Good Samaritans—those who have no legal obligation to take on an abandoned mine cleanup, but wish to do so in order to improve water quality.

TU’s mission is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s trout and salmon fisheries and the watersheds they depend on. In pursuit of this mission, TU has worked to restore streams and rivers damaged by pollution from abandoned mines from the Appalachian coal fields in Pennsylvania to the hardrock mining areas of the Rocky Mountain States, and my testimony is based upon these experiences.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Two century’s worth of problems and solutions – A Short Summary

Slide 1 (above): By now this image is emblazoned in everyone’s mind. The three million gallon spill in August of polluted water from the Gold King mine near Silverton Colorado drew national attention.

Slide 2 (right): Less well-known are the thousands of similar, smaller scale abandoned mines that pollute our rivers and streams every day. The lesson from Gold King is not that an EPA contractor screwed up, it is that we need a much greater sense of urgency about addressing the problem of pollution from abandoned mines all over the nation.

Abandoned hard rock mines affect 40 percent of headwaters in the western United States.

The lack of dedicated funding sources and burdensome liability risk for would-be Good Samaritans stalls efforts to clean-up abandoned hardrock mines.

In the East, pollution from abandoned coal mines continues to damage over 10,000 miles of stream in Pennsylvania and West Virginia alone.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The east, however, should consider itself fortunate. The production of coal is taxed in this country.

Part of that funding supports an Abandoned Mineland Fund (AML Fund). Since 1977, more than $8 billion has been put to good use cleaning up and making safe abandoned coal mines. Unfortunately, no similar fund exists to clean up the legacy of hardrock mining, particularly in the western U.S. We know how to clean up abandoned mines. In Pennsylvania, aided by state-based Good Samaritan policy, Trout Unlimited is working with State agencies, watershed groups and other partners, to conduct more than 250 abandoned coal mine pollution projects.

Slide 3 (above): In places such as Kerber Creek in Colorado, TU and its partners restored over 80 acres of mine tailings, improved 8 miles of stream, and installed over 340 instream structures that are now home to a reproducing brook trout population. Volunteers logged over 13,000 hours of work in the watershed over the past three years. The restoration received awards from the BLM, the State of Colorado, the Forest Service, and the Public Lands Foundation.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Notwithstanding what happened at Gold King, we know how to clean up abandoned mines in the East and the West. Two things would dramatically accelerate the scope and the scale of our efforts to make our water cleaner and our rivers more swimmable and fishable.

First, as is the case with coal, a dedicated funding source is needed for cleaning up abandoned hard rock mines. Almost every commodity developed off public lands--coal, wood fiber, oil, gas, and forage— has dedicated funding for restoration. The only commodity that lacks such a dedicated fund is hard rock minerals. It is time that changed.

Second, local communities, private interests, and groups such as TU need protection from the liability associated with cleaning up abandoned mines. The Clean Water Act and CERCLA have been tremendously effective at cleaning our rivers and holding polluters accountable for their actions. They are not, however, laws that lend themselves to permitting cleaning up abandoned mines. My written testimony provides recommendations for tailored changes that would fix the problem.

Thank you for considering our views, and thank you for working with us on this important matter.

We strongly urge you to work together to develop and introduce a strong, bipartisan bill to help us clean up abandoned mines. We stand ready to work with you to get such a bill introduced and on a track to move through Congress so that affected communities around the country will again have clean, fishable waters.

Read Wood's complete testimony here.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Harvest

 Quinault Nation Closes Fisheries to Protect Wild Coho TAHOLAH, WA (10/29/15)-- The Quinault Indian Nation has announced that it is closing all its fisheries in Grays Harbor and Queets River due to concerns about low returns of wild coho salmon and declaring a disaster due to economic hardship to its fishermen and their families, according to Quinault President Fawn Sharp.

“Closing the fisheries was a tough decision. The closure will have serious consequences and substantial financial losses for our community, but it's the right thing to do as stewards for future generations,” said President Sharp. “We will be seeking economic relief for our fishermen and their families, as well as providing what support we can through the Tribe,” she said.

“As we do every year, we participated fully in all pre-season planning with our state and federal comanagers, through the North of Falcon and Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission processes,” said Quinault Fisheries Policy Spokesperson Ed Johnstone. “After analyzing all available data, we concluded that the actual run sizes of wild coho returning to the Queets River and Grays Harbor are so far below expectations that closure was warranted. The closure will hurt our fishermen and reduce opportunity to harvest hatchery coho and other species but the situation was so dire that Quinault Nation felt that even incidental impacts to wild coho need to be avoided at this point in the season."

The Quinault Nation is working with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to determine how to approach management of fisheries directed at other salmon and steelhead. WDFW has indicated that it has closed non-treaty fisheries in Grays Harbor and the Chehalis River and its tributaries. WDFW and the National Park Service have not announced decisions regarding sport fishing on the Queets River and its tributaries.

As for a cause for a diminished return of the wild coho, Johnstone pointed to the "Godzilla" El Nino and blob of warm water off the coast. These conditions are expected to linger for the next few months. With forecasts of drought and continuation of adverse ocean conditions expected to severely impact food chains, we are extremely concerned about the ability of the fish that are in the ocean now and those produced from this year's escapement to survive. The fish returning this year are not only low in numbers, but in poor physical shape. There's a lot at stake. We want to minimize the potential to dig ourselves in a hole that will be hard to get out of. The condition of wild coho stocks from the Queets and Grays Harbor will affect future Quinault and ocean fisheries for years to come."

“People need to understand that these fish need a healthy ocean and we are facing severe challenges in the Pacific, ranging from acidification and sea level rise to storm events. We worry about the uncertainty of climate change impacts and developments like dams and oil terminals that could have disastrous consequences for the environment. We care about the Earth and the fish, wildlife, bugs, water, air and soil. These are not resources that can be wantonly exploited, but rather our relations that must be treated with honor and respect. Their future as well as ours have been entrusted to our care. It's not an easy job, but it’s one we must undertake, not only for Quinaults but everyone,” said President Sharp.

For now, we have to take responsible action here in our waters. It’s time to shut down,” she said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Legislation / Legal Actions

 Court denies latest appeal on oil projects The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied an appeal by the Quinault Indian Nation and other groups opposed to crude oil storage projects proposed for Grays Harbor. The appeal sought to require the companies handling the oil to prove they could pay for cleanup of a major spill.

The Quinault Indian Nation, along with Friends of Grays Harbor, the Grays Harbor Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and Citizens for a Clean Harbor, appealed a decision by the state Shoreline Hearings Board that said Westway Terminals and Imperium Renewables were not responsible for proving they could cover the cost of a major spill.

“We reject Quinault’s arguments and hold that RCW 88.40.025 does not require permit applicants to demonstrate financial responsibility prior to permitting, and (the Ocean Resources Management Act) does not apply to the Westway or the Imperium terminal development projects,” Chief Judge Jill Johanson’s opinion reads.

The rejection from the court comes more than two years after the City of Hoquiam and the Department of Ecology issued the permits and deemed the projects not environmentally significant.

The environmental groups appealed the permits, which were rescinded when the Shoreline Hearings Board agreed with them.

That approved appeal kicked off the environmental impact statement process, which is now in its public comment period.

The Department of Ecology on Monday extended that comment period by 30 days, and it will now run until Nov. 30.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Wild

Fish Conservancy sues to stop commercial salmon farms in Puget Sound November 4, 2015 SEATTLE — The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit Wednesday against federal environmental and fisheries managers for allowing commercial salmon farms in Puget Sound.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle claims that infectious viruses in salmon farms are threatening wild fish in the region.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2011 that commercial salmon farms are not likely to have an adverse effect on wild salmon, the lawsuit said.

But the following year, it said, there was an infectious virus outbreak at a commercial salmon farm at the south end of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound.

The outbreak occurred while wild juvenile salmon were migrating through the area and likely had a significant impact on the wild fish, the group said.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would force federal officials to reconsider commercial salmon farms in Puget Sound in light of the outbreak.

A spokeswoman with the EPA did not immediately have a comment on the lawsuit.

Katherine Brogan, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, fisheries division, said in an email that the agency does not discuss ongoing litigation.

The Puget Sound Chinook salmon and the Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon are listed as endangered species and federal fisheries managers have designated critical habitat for these species, the group said.

Commercial salmon farms keep fish in floating net pens. At present, eight Atlantic salmon net pen facilities are operating in Puget Sound.

They produce more than 10 million pounds of salmon annually, the lawsuit said.

Three are located near Deepwater Bay of Cypress Island north of Anacortes; three are south of Bainbridge Island; one is northeast of Port Angeles Harbor and one is in Skagit Bay. The facilities are considered “point sources of pollution” under the Clean Water Act, and therefore require permits to operate.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots All eight of the Puget Sound farms have secured these permits.

The farms are operated by Icicle Seafoods.

The company declined to comment on the lawsuit.

On its website, the company says: “We pay careful attention to feeding efficiency, site security and fish health and use no hormones of any kind.”

The EPA updated its water quality standards for the salmon farms in 2010, saying the facilities are not likely to harm the endangered species or their habitat.

The marine fisheries agency agreed in 2011.

But the conservancy group claims the two agencies relied on outdated reports that suggest the farms pose low risks to the Puget Sound salmon.

In 2012, there was an outbreak of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, or IHNV, in three of the farms — the Orchard Rocks, Fort Ward and Clam Bay facilities, the group said.

While the virus likely arose from wild salmon, the high densities in the net pens artificially elevated the outbreak.

The three infected pens are located in wild salmon habitat, and the outbreak occurred in April and May, when juvenile Chinook salmon emigration neared its peak.

The conservancy group is asking the court to find that the agencies’ findings were unlawful and seeks an injunction requiring the agencies to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Kids filled the benches of King County Superior Court before Judge Hollis R. Hill to hear oral arguments about climate change, on November 3rd, 2015

 Kids Sue Over Climate Change And A Judge In Wash. State Is Listening November 3, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Kids packed a courtroom in Seattle on Tuesday to hear oral arguments in a case about their future.

Eight young teenagers are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state Department of Ecology. They want to force action on climate change.

“It just feels like there’s not enough people who care about, like, animals and other things that can’t talk for themselves – babies who haven’t been born yet, people from the future, basically,” said 13year-old Lara Fain.

She’s one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which says the State Department of Ecology isn’t doing enough to limit the carbon pollution that causes global warming. 15-year-old Aji Piper agrees.

“It is my future,” he said. “You know, there’s these things that you just – you lose them and then it’s really hard to get them back.”

Their arguments are part of the lawsuit filed in Washington, one of dozens of suits filed and actions taken in every state and against the federal government, by a non-profit called Our Children’s Trust.

Julia Olsen is the group’s Executive Director. She says Washington state is obligated by its constitution to protect shared resources such as clean air. They are asking the court to take action to enforce that law.

“That these young people have the right to a healthful environment.

And … how you protect that right depends on the science and what scientists are telling us is happening to our climate system,” Olsen said.

Specifically, she says that means the state’s policy needs to return the level of carbon in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million by the end of this century.

King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill heard oral arguments in the case, on its merits. Our Children’s Trust says that is more than they have achieved in many states so far.

Kay Shirey, the state attorney general representing the Department of Ecology says the agency recognizes that climate change is one of the most important issues of the day, “and they are working very hard to adopt a rule to address climate change, as required by Governor Inslee’s directive,” Shirey said.

But she said the court is not where this policy should be decided.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Canadians

deserve to know if genetically modified salmon is masquerading as Atlantic salmon October 30, 2015

SeaChoice member organizations, Living Oceans Society and the Ecology Action Centre, have teamed up for a court challenge of the federal government’s approval of genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon. The case is scheduled to be heard on November 17 and 18, 2015.In a process cloaked in secrecy, Environment Canada approved the production of a GM salmon in late 2013.

Health Canada, who has not yet approved GM salmon for human consumption in Canada, is the last barrier to the large scale development of the fish. Canada is the first country to provide such an approval. The GM AquAdvantage salmon, created by AquaBounty, are currently being produced on Prince Edward Island. If approved for consumption, there is concern that this GM salmon will enter into the Canadian and United States markets, making this the first genetically-modified animal for human consumption in the world.

In addition to lack of information about human health impacts, there are grave issues for the environment.

“Wild Atlantic salmon are already an endangered species due to historic overfishing and habitat loss,” said Catharine Grant, Marine Policy Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.“ GM Atlantic salmon grow faster than natural salmon. If they were to ever escape, they would add pressure to the wild salmon by out-competing them for food. Even worse, interbreeding could occur, and the genetics of wild Atlantic salmon risk being changed forever.”

Ecojustice lawyers, who are representing Living Oceans and Ecology Action Centre, will argue that the approval is unlawful because it failed to assess whether GM salmon could become invasive, potentially putting ecosystems and species such as wild salmon at risk. SeaChoice members are calling on Canadians to voice their concern against GM Atlantic salmon being raised in Canada, and asking seafood businesses to publically commit to not ever sell GM salmon. The GM AquAdvantage salmon was engineered by introducing a growth hormone gene from Pacific Chinook salmon and genetic material from ocean pout (an eel-like species) into the eggs of Atlantic salmon. AquaBounty claims that it grows faster than other farmed or wild salmon. AquaBounty plans to grow the genetically modified salmon eggs in P.E.I. and then transport them to Panama, where they will grow to full size.

However, the approval would also allow the manufacture and grow out of the genetically modified salmon elsewhere in Canada under certain conditions.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Salmon feedlots

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 What’s in Farmed Salmon?

Watch slideshow HERE

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Wild caught Copper River Salmon.

 Salmon

Fraud: What's Wrong With America's Favorite Fish - Especially In Restaurants October 29, 2015

Two years ago salmon passed tuna to become the most popular fish in the United States. Like so many other popular and pricey foods, from olive oil to shrimp, there is a lot of money to be made ripping off consumers – and that is exactly what is happening.

The good news is that American fishermen, mostly in Alaska – which has among the cleanest and highest quality salmon on earth – catch nearly enough wild salmon to satisfy our demand. The bad news is that 70% of this catch is exported. We then import mostly farmed salmon, which has a lot of problems – the biggest being that is it is often fraudulently labeled and sold as higher priced wild salmon.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Aquaculture is a necessary part of food production, and with some seafood, especially catfish, mussels and oysters, it is very beneficial. But not so much for salmon. There are a handful of boutique producers who produce top quality farmed salmon without dyes and drugs, but they are exceptions.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is the world’s most respected source of information on seafood sustainability and fishing, and publishes the annual Seafood Watch lists of good and bad choices.

Ken Peterson, the Aquarium’s spokesman, told me that, “Across the board not all aquaculture is bad.

The problem is when you have carnivores like salmon. Then you are extracting wild fish from the ocean to feed to farmed fish, so you are still taking a lot of fish right out of the ocean, even with farming. And the conversion rates are poor: it might take 10 pounds of wild caught fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon.

It’s a feedlot just like cattle and they use antibiotics. Salmon and shrimp farming are by far the worst.”

Fish farm feeds typically don’t include krill, the part of salmon’s natural diet that gives the fish its distinctive color, so many farmed salmon are dyed chemically to look like wild caught salmon, which contain neither dyes nor antibiotics. When cooking farmed salmon in the pan, you can sometimes actually see the fake color leaching out of the fish Oceana, the nonprofit ocean protection group that has pioneered so many other fish fraud studies uncovering widespread counterfeiting of tuna, red snapper and grouper, just released its latest study – on salmon labeling. This is the largest salmon mislabeling study ever done in this country.

They bought samples from retail stores and restaurants across the country and then DNA tested them to compare the reality with the claim. During the winter, when wild caught salmon are not in season, in restaurants almost two thirds (63%) of what was sold as “wild salmon” was not. Only one in five (20%) store samples tested was fake, but that’s still a lot. So if you want to avoid eating unnecessary antibiotics and dyes and pay a premium when eating out to do so, you are more than likely getting ripped off. To make it worse, restaurants are largely excluded from the labeling laws that cover store bought foods, so they can make outlandish menu claims without fear of legal reprisal – and often do.

Seafood substitution, where one cheap species is swapped for a more expensive one, is extremely common in this country. You can read my story “The Fake Fish on Your Plate” here. It is much less common with salmon because salmon is more distinctive looking. Nonetheless it happens, and the study also found that instead of farmed salmon masquerading as wild salmon, some of the “salmon” sold wasn’t salmon at all, but rainbow trout.

Unfortunately when you are eating out there is not much you can do except to ask questions and be less trusting. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that restaurants sometimes make untrue claims about foods being organic, fresh, imported, or otherwise better than it actually is. As readers of this column may recall, high priced Kobe beef, which appears on hundreds if not thousands of restaurant menus across the nation, is almost always utterly fake. You can read the sad truth about Kobe beef fraud here.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Sockeye salmon swim in Bristol Bay, Alaska

 Diners Who Order 'Wild' Salmon Often Get Cheaper Substitute, Study Finds October 28, 2015 That wild Alaskan salmon you ordered the last time you ate out might not be wild — or even from Alaska.

That's the finding of a study by the conservation group Oceana, which says nearly half of the country's favorite fish may be mislabeled and priced too high in restaurants and stores when it's out of season.

Researchers performed DNA testing on 82 salmon samples collected in Virginia, Washington, Chicago and New York in the winter of 2013-2014.

They found 43 percent of the samples were mislabeled. The most common switch — accounting for two-thirds of the cases — was selling farmed Atlantic salmon as the more expensive wild-caught product.

A similar study by Oceana during the summertime commercial fishing season, when wild salmon is plentiful, found only 7 percent was mislabeled, suggesting supply-and-demand fuels the phenomenon.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Most of the mislabeled fish was found in restaurants, not stores — probably because large supermarkets are required to provide more robust information about the fish they are selling, the group said.

Dr. Kimberly Warner, senior scientist for Oceana, said that while the study focused on deception taking place at the retail level, the FDA has found wholesalers mislabeling fish, and processors have been implicated in the past as well.

"We know it happens at all steps," she said.

While Oceana is calling for new regulations that would allow seafood to be traced through the supply chain, an industry group said better enforcement of existing laws is what's really needed.

Salmon with risotto.

"Let's be clear, fraud is fraud," said Gavin Gibbons, vice president of communications for the National Fisheries Institute. "If wild salmon is what's advertised that's what you should get. There's no question about it.

"If there is evidence of fraudulent mislabeling, law enforcement should be involved. Cracking down on these types of practices is the only practical way to stop them."

Warner said that consumers can also protect themselves: by ordering wild salmon only when it's in season. The rest of the year, she said, fans of Alaskan can buy it flash frozen.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Salmon Farm Video shorts inspired by Angela Koch: 1. Your Coast…. Your Responsibility

2. Salmon Farms… The Toilets of our Coast

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Video: Fish farm news evictions, fraud, jail, lice outbreaks...

A quick tour of fish farm news in BC, Chile and Norway reveals a troubled, dirty, desperate industry that seems unwilling to invest in its own future and yet they want us to give up our clean coast, our fisheries and our food security.

Alexandra Morton, Independent Marine Biologist November 3, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Wild

salmon NGO: Grieg, OCI venture should undergo full environmental assessment November 10, 2015

Canadian wild salmon NGO the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is questioning why a newly proposed salmon aquaculture project on the south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is not receiving a full environmental assessment by the provincial government.

According to a memorandum of understanding, the proposed project for Marystown and Placentia Bay, a joint venture between Norway's Grieg family and Canada's Ocean Choice International (OCI), will include a new hatchery, 11 open-net sea pens and the importation of salmon eggs from European strains not native to Newfoundland waters, "yet only the hatchery component has been registered for an environmental assessment", said ASF. ASF has sent a letter to Bas Cleary, director of environmental assessment with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Environment and Conservation.

The letter states that ASF has significant concerns about the potential impacts of the proposed sea cage operations on wild Atlantic salmon populations, such as sea lice infestation, disease, and escapes that lead to interbreeding and dilution of the wild gene pool.

Don Ivany, ASF’s director of programs for Newfoundland and Labrador, said the group wants to see the entire project go through the assessment process, including public consultation.

“Eleven sea cages are going to be placed in Placentia Bay where no other sea cages exist,” said Ivany.

“Located on the south coast, Placentia Bay is an area that has 19 scheduled salmon rivers where populations are already in a fragile state and designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)," he said.

"COSEWIC has identified salmon aquaculture as a significant threat to the salmon populations of southern Newfoundland. Introducing a large open-net pen salmon operation in the vicinity of already threatened populations could prove to be devastating to wild Atlantic salmon and the socio economic benefits they provide," said Ivany.

ASF is recommending that Cleary and his department register the entire project, including the 11 open-net sea cages and importation of salmon eggs from European strains, for an environment assessment.

ASF isn’t asking anything that isn’t already included in the province’s own legislation, he said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Greig, OCI plans Norway-based Grieg Group, which owns Grieg Seafood, and Canadian wild catch harvester OCI announced the plans for the salmon hatchery and farm in Newfoundland and Labrador, eastern Canada, on Oct. 26.

The companies expect the project will cost approximately CAD 250 million, of which up to CAD 45m will be invested by the provincial government, in exchange for preferred shares.

The hatchery will have a capacity of 7m smolt a year and should be completed in 2017, said the companies in separate press releases.

The venture will include 11 sea cage aquaculture sites in Placentia Bay, with the capacity to harvest 33,000 metric tons of salmon a year.

Sales and processing should start in 2018, with 100% of the production would be processed in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Grieg will undertake the project through a local subsidiary, Grieg Newfoundland.

In July, Undercurrent News reported that Grieg Seafood chairman Per Grieg Jr. was launching a salmon farming company in eastern Canada. Called Grieg Seafarms, the operation will run as a separate entity to the Norwegian salmon farming firm, Grieg Seafood’s CEO Andreas Kvame told Undercurrent at the time.

The project is the result of discussions between Grieg and the government of Newfoundland and Labrador to seek to develop a major new salmon farming operation in the region, said Grieg in its press release.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Norwegian district nearly emptied of farmed fish over sealice crisis November 16, 2015 An entire district in Norway is being nearly emptied of its farmed fish due to critical sea lice levels.

Last week, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA, or Mattilsynet), requested that 17 of the 27 farming sites in Nordmore -- a district in mid-western Norway -- be emptied due to critical lice levels.

Some have already started slaughtering, whereas others have until the week of the end to comply.

The affected sites -- which include four sites belonging to Leroy Seafood -- are prohibited to release fish at sea until March next year.

Nordmore, which is located in the northern part of the Norwegian county of More og Romsdal (see map), is experiencing the most serious sea lice situation ever, said NFSA, explaining its order.

Editorial Comment: We wonder where these chemically-treated, lice-infested, disease-ridden Atlantic salmon are being sold to unsuspecting consumers.

Surely the labels inform potential customers of health and environmental risks associated with ocean-based feedlot salmon…

Three other sites in the area voluntarily harvested their fish, meaning only seven of the 27 farms still hold fish in the sea, reported the national broadcaster NRK.

NOT!

Aud Skrudland, a veterinary at the NFSA, said asking producers to harvest is the last resort that the agency uses to address lice levels.

Editorial Comment: Atlantic salmon raised in ocean-based salmon feedlot.

Extreme sea lice infestation treated by bathing fish in hydrogen peroxide to kill the lice – how is this humane?

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Map of Norway with the county of More og Romsdal highlighted in red.

"We first try delousing. If that does not work, we ask for the fish to be harvested. Thereafter we assess whether the farmer must reduce the amount of fish they are allowed to release at sea. This is something we have now done for four sites in Nordmore this year," said Skrudland.

Those four sites are owned by Leroy Seafood. As reported last week, the NFSA ordered that the allowed biomass at four Leroy sites, all located in Nordmore, would be capped by 50% from Jan. 1, 2016 to the end of 2017.

Ordering to cut farmers' allowed biomass by 50% is a new enforcement strategy introduced by the NFSA at the start of this year to help fight lice levels.

The first three farms ordered to cut their biomass under the new scheme belonged to Bremnes Seashore and Nova Sea, which is partly backed by Marine Harvest.

The move is part of tough new measures introduced by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to fight sealice.

Asked by NRK how efficient the actions in Nordmore are likely to be, Skrudland said they meant that the lice pressure would be low in March, when new fish is put out to sea. "From experience, we can expect a new flourishing in the summer of 2017, when the fish has grown large, and new infection pressure has built up," she told NRK. "We will see in 2017 which way it's going. It's key that all precautions are taken by farmers during this period."

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Editorial Comment: The proposed site is: 1. In migration routes of all Pacific salmon species, steelhead and other marine fish 2. Feeding grounds for Pacific halibut and other bottom-dwelling fish 3. hunting grounds for marine mammals 4. hunting grounds for seabirds 5. navigational hazard for fishermen, recreational boaters, US Coast Guard 6. home to Dungeness crabs and other shellfish Atlantic salmon net pens operated by Icicle Seafoods.

 Moving salmon pens from Port Angeles Harbor into Strait considered in light of Navy pier plan November 17, 2015 PORT ANGELES — A seafood company is proposing to move its Atlantic salmon fish farm operations out of Port Angeles Harbor and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca by 2017 because of plans for a Navy pier.

The current fish pens, just south of Ediz Hook, are too close to a proposed U.S. Navy pier to be located at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, Alan Cook, vice president of aquaculture for Icicle Seafoods Inc. of Seattle, told about 40 members of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The Navy has proposed building the pier to accommodate as many as seven escort vessels that guard submarines travelling between Port Angeles Harbor and Naval Submarine Base Bangor in Hood Canal.

The proposed Navy pier would be built 2,000 feet east of the Puget Sound Pilots’ station just outside the field office entrance and 1,600 feet from the underwater riprap reef known as “the rock pile,” a popular scuba-diving attraction.

The current proposed location was offered to address concerns expressed by the Puget Sound Pilots over three other locations at the Coast Guard base considered earlier.

Port of Port Angeles commissioners proposed a secure pier for the Navy boats on existing commercial piers, but the Navy declined.

Cook said he believes the proposed pier will be completed, though the full planning process is not yet complete.

“The Navy is going to do what the Navy does,” he said.

The pier’s location would have the high-powered escort vessels passing within 50 feet of the net farm’s two floating pens, which contain as many as 820,000 salmon, Cook said.

He said the Navy’s escort boats are highly maneuverable, but an eventual incident is inevitable, and moving to a new location makes sense for the company.

Powerful engines on those boats could disrupt the thousands of salmon living in the pens, and the nets could be sucked into the propellers, loosing thousands of Atlantic salmon into the environment.

He said moving the operation would also have other benefits, as the fish waste would no longer be in the harbor and would depart an area designated as being sensitive for native aquatic species.

Icicle Seafoods’ proposed new location is two miles east of the harbor mouth, off of Green Point.

Cook said the new location offers better water flow to keep the pens clear of fish waste, and would allow the expansion to 1.1 million salmon, using plastic pens in place of the current nets.

The plastic pens are used in the Atlantic, where the seas are considerably higher than the 14-foot swells that are a 100-year high for that portion of the Strait, he said.

It would be located far enough out in the Strait so that it would only be a line on the horizon from the bluffs, he said, but not in the shipping lanes.

A map of ecologically sensitive areas shows the new location is not in an identified sensitive aquatic habitat.

The Port Angeles Coast Guard has been contacted regarding the new location, and the company was told it would not obstruct operations, but the Coast Guard in Seattle will make the final decision, he said.

There are also local, state and federal permits that need to be obtained before the move can be made, he said.

Cook said the salmon currently in the pens are maturing and scheduled to be harvested in 2016, so ideally the new pens would be stocked with new young salmon.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 WGFCI

Response: Moving Icicle Seafoods’ salmon farms from Port Angeles harbor`

It's a benefit to Port Angeles harbor's sensitive aquatic habitat to remove Icicle Seafoods' Atlantic salmon feedlots from the harbor; the sooner, the better. The unsustainable experiment to rear Atlantic salmon in ocean-based feedlots has resulted in significant impacts to marine ecosystems, cultural traditions and human health around the world.

Now is the time to move these pens and their pollution to land based facilities where their diseases and waste would be contained and managed without further harming our internationally-important wild Pacific salmon and all that rely on them.

Given recent efforts to restore Puget Sound/Salish Sea salmon, steelhead, orca whales and other marine life (Elwha River restoration, Kilmer and Heck Puget Sound Protection Bill, Wild Fish Conservancy fish farm litigation) it seems unlikely that federal and state agencies as well as Washington's Treaty Tribes (salmon co-managers) would support placing these known weapons of mass destruction in the highly productive salmon migration routes of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Of course, siting these pens with an excess of one million Atlantic salmon in them in the strait will lead to additional escapes of these invasive species, entanglement of whales, other marine mammals and seabirds, The navigational challenges these pens present will impact fishermen (commercial, tribal, recreational) and other boaters (commercial and recreational.

As these plastic nets are destroyed by storms and tide changes, they will sink and present further dangers to boaters as they continue to entangle and kill valuable marine life.

There is no place in the Salish Sea for these ocean based salmon feedlots. They must be moved to land and follow similar regulations as other farmers and ranchers. This failed experiment is over.

Existing 820,000

Icicle Seafoods Atlantic Salmon Feedlots Proposed 1,100,000

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Fish farms threaten Great Lakes September 28, 2015 LUDINGTON — The Lake Michigan waves are tossing us like popcorn. Although the waves — 3-to 5-feet high — exhilarate me, they terrify my companion. We move back to the bay, and it's all sunshine and peace.

The sweet inevitability of a screaming line and salmon rising for battle is the reason we're in Ludington. This promise also draws billions of dollars in business to the area.

Salmon are the unlikely miracle that occurred when biologist Howard Tanner thought out of the box to solve a stinking alewife problem. The invasive alewives reeked and plugged up waterways with their rotting flesh.

In the 1960s, Tanner brought in ocean-running chinook from the Pacific Northwest to eat the alewives. They thrived, and their arrival built business and fish tales. All anyone needed was a pole and a patch of shoreline to catch a "king," Today, that kingdom is under threat.

It has all been very hush-hush. Proposals to bring cage fishing culture to the Great Lakes are being considered by the state, and a panel comprised of plenty of pro-cage farming "experts" has been assembled to come up with recommendations.

Already the Department of Environmental Quality has approved a permit for a flow through a fish farm, which will put out hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish feces into the Au Sable River, a blueribbon trout stream providing thousands of jobs to the area.

Cages to house millions of fish in the open water are being endorsed by the generally neutral Michigan Sea Grant. Their parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, believes in developing sustainable aquaculture. They offer promises of a billion dollars in revenue, and a guilt trip few could ignore; the need to meet the food needs of the growing planet.

The problem is that it's all a bunch of lies. These proposed projects won't be feeding the world — they'll be feeding high-end Chicago restaurants rainbow trout that take more fish product to grow than they return.

"You have to feed and 6 million or 7 million pounds of food made out of fish to produce 3 million-4 million pounds of trout. Farming trout is not about sustainable development, and it won't help feed the world," said Bryan Burroughs, Trout Unlimited's executive director. "And sustainable aquaculture doesn't have to bring risk to existing fisheries."

Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, is introducing a bipartisan bill this week to stop all types of aquaculture that could potentially harm the great lakes.

“Concentrated fish poo is just not Pure Michigan.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge "Concentrated fish poo is just not Pure Michigan," Jones said. "A typical 200,000-fish operation creates as much waste as a city of 65,000 people, which would make the Great Lakes a giant toilet bowl.

"The waste in a commercial fish farm would stay where Michigan families enjoy swimming, boating, fishing and paddling. Unlike ocean fish farms, where tides flush away the waste, it will stay in the coastal region of the Great Lakes."

Editorial Comment: Ocean fish farms’ waste is not flushed away with the tides – it accumulates with excess feed and a chemical cocktail under each pen.

Jones is not alone in his opposition.

"Every single environmental organization and every single sporting group we have spoken to is unanimously opposed," Burroughs said.

The tides do distribute deadly salmon lice and diseases far and wide from these farms.

"There is a right way, a good way to raise fish. And it's not in an open system where fish and fish disease can escape. It's by using a closed system that won't ruin the rest of the fishery.

Related:One that didn't get away: State-record fish caught "If they really wanted to do this, to bring business to Michigan, they could do it. There is no shortage of inland ponds, pole barns and abandoned buildings for fish farmers to use, where they could destroy the waste properly. It would be a boon to the state, and we do not oppose it."

The problem is that less risk means more expense to set up the operation. Filtering water and removing waste are work. Fish farms would prefer to just dump them into public waterways without repercussions, and this is exactly what the cage culture permits would allow corporations to do.

"Regardless of how many safeguards are put in place, there is always some threat that will be unaccounted for, and one mistake here can threaten the entire Great Lakes economy," Jones said.

"Asian Carp are just one horror story for the Great Lakes. They're a great example of the unintended consequences of aquaculture.

"These invasive fish were originally brought in to clean aquaculture and wastewater ponds. All it took was a flood and they established themselves as the greatest threat the Great Lakes has ever seen.

We don't need to introduce these fish farms for something else to go wrong."

Jones said crowded fish cages are breeding grounds for disease that can spread to our wild fish population. In 2007, a virus wiped out 70% of the fish in Chile's huge salmon farming industry. Unlike Chile, Michigan has wild salmon.

"Imagine what could happen to our wild salmon population if such a virus was introduced into our waters. They'd be gone," Jones said.

Jones said that inevitably farm fish will escape. He is right. The Grayling Fish Hatchery already has had fish escape. After an angler noticed, the state investigated and the hatchery "self-reported" the event.

"They will escape," Jones said, "and when they do, they will destroy our Great Lakes fishery. British Columbia reports 400,000 fish escaping their nets and another 300,000 in Scotland.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots These fugitive fish compete with wild fish for food, disrupt their natural reproduction and interfere with their genetic diversity, ultimately making it very difficult for the wild fish to survive."

So who supports this? The defenders will surely come crawling out of the woodwork, appealing to the need to feed a starving world. They're just looking for a handout on the public dime. Don't believe a word of it.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Escaped salmon in Ørsta river came from Marine Harvest The results for DNA testing of fish caught in Ørsta river and collected reference samples from farms in question show that a majority of the fish originated from Marine Harvest's plant at Vålneset on Gurskøy.

October 30, 2015 Marine Harvest has previously announced escapes from this facility. It is so far removed 68 salmon in Ørsta river and 48 of these are farmed salmon, which in all probability stems from the plant by Vålneset, according Fisheries.

Sampling in other areas It is during the week 44 collected reference samples from three current sources in Romsdal, with five different smolt groups. There are still two reference samples obtained are planned early next week.

When all reference samples from Romsdal is obtained, it will be collected reference samples from plants at Nordmøre in Tingvollfjord in connection with fish taken in Driva.

We expect that we will have taken all the samples from the plants during this and next week. Samples from these, together with samples from the rivers that we have received fish from, be sent IMR for DNA analysis, says section manager Ole-Einar Jakobsen of Fisheries Region Møre og Romsdal in a statement.

Low estimate may prevent necessary measures Fisheries urges farmers to report suspected escapes and actually escape as quickly as possible. In addition, it is very important that the number of fish that can be escaped not be underestimated.

In some cases we have seen that farmers will report very little fish when in reality has escaped significantly more. For low estimates could lead to that we put into action quickly enough and thus damage the escape causing greater than it would in principle have been, says Head of Section Henrik Hareide by Audit Section of the Directorate of Fisheries.

Tracking and analysis Tracing escaped farmed fish is demanding. If the fish in the plant concerned is either harvested or are under harvest makes this work even more difficult. It is chosen to use DNA analysis as tracking method, and this work is relatively extensive and time-consuming. It may therefore take some time before the results are ready.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Salmon farmed on land brought to market September 16, 2015 A CANADIAN company that has spent eight years developing a system to farm fish in large tanks on land says it is ready to bring its Atlantic salmon to market, CBC News reported.

The Nova Scotia company, Sustainable Fish Farming, has a facility that works on a closed containment system. All saltwater in the salmon tanks is recycled, while waste is drawn out and used as fertiliser.

The salmon are fed organic fish food, and since the farm carefully controls any contaminants that enter the tanks, it is not necessary to give the fish antibiotics.

The salmon are marketed under the brand name Sustainable Blue, and the fish and their waste do not have any contact with the ocean.

‘Next week we begin to sell our first Atlantic salmon to the market, and that really marks the start of continuous production,’ said Kirk Havercroft, CEO of Sustainable Fish Farming, which has a farm close to the Bay of Fundy in Centre Burlington.

Havercroft said salmon will be sold to restaurants and fish brokers in Nova Scotia, and to a small broker in Toronto that specialises in sustainable products.

Sustainable Fish Farming has been developing the closed containment technology since 2007.

‘It feels like finally, all of that effort is being rewarded,’ Havercroft said.

In March 2014, Sustainable Blue suffered a serious setback. Due to an electrical power failure in the night, the entire crop of nearly mature salmon died.

At the time the farm was preparing to send fish to market. The company considered the possibility of sabotage, but never found an adequate reason for the power failure, and decided to re-stock with another batch of fish.

‘We were determined to get there, so this is a really exciting time,’ said Havercroft. ‘It feels extremely rewarding now to see our product finally go to market.’

The Sustainable Blue site is currently capable of producing 100 tonnes of salmon per year. There are already additions underway to allow the site to produce 165 tonnes per year.

Havercroft said next year the company plans to build another 500-tonne production unit on land it owns beside the existing facility.

Sustainable Fish Farming intends to license the new unit to another farm. It will use the same technology developed by Havercroft’s company.

The first place to serve up Sustainable Blue salmon was Halifax based Chives Restaurant, which prizes local and sustainable ingredients, and placed an order for four fish to test.

‘It went over very well,’ said Craig Flinn, the head chef and owner of Chives. ‘One thing I like about it, is the fish at the size they currently are, they’re leaner and the flesh is quite firm and has a good colour.

‘In my opinion, it’s a fish that has a lot of the qualities of a wild salmon — smaller fillets, leaner fish, but still has that sustainable stamp on it which makes it very appealing to our market.’

Flinn estimates the cost per pound was roughly 10 to 15 per cent higher than other salmon on the market, but said the fish are still good value. He said he will continue to serve the salmon as it enters the market.

‘There’s a little bit more cost associated with it, but the quality is very high and it’s very enjoyable,’ he said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Environmental

groups challenge approval of genetically modified salmon

eggs November 15, 2015 HALIFAX -- Ecological groups will argue in Federal Court this week that a decision by Environment Canada to approve the production of genetically modified salmon eggs should be overturned, saying the process was cloaked in secrecy and could set a dangerous precedent.

The Ecology Action Centre and Living Oceans Society contend that the federal department did not follow its own legislated rules and conduct a full risk assessment before clearing a U.S. company to produce the eggs in Prince Edward Island.

Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax said the risk is that if the genetically modified salmon escape from land-based tanks, they could mix with wild stocks with unknown consequences.

"Once that fish breeds with another wild salmon, you can never put the genie back in the box," he said before leaving for the two-day hearing in Ottawa.

"This technology slightly increases the growth rates of fish, so they get to market faster. Compare that benefit to the risk to wild stocks. If genetic contamination did occur, it would have a huge impact on the recreational fishery."

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Boston-based AquaBounty Technologies says it has developed a way to make Atlantic salmon grow twice as fast as normal by modifying (Atlantic salmon) eggs with genes from chinook salmon and an eel-like fish called the ocean pout.

It has been seeking regulatory approval in the United States since 1995. And while neither Canada nor the U.S. has approved the fish for human consumption, Environment Canada's decision to greenlight the manufacture of eggs in Souris, P.E.I., is seen as a significant milestone.

Kaitlyn Mitchell, a lawyer with Ecojustice who is arguing on behalf of the groups, says they are making a unique legal argument under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act dealing with animate products of biotechnology.

"This is significant because we're talking about potentially the first genetically modified food animal in the world," she said. "It's important that the government gets it right from the beginning."

Butler said he hoped the case would be a chance for the newly elected federal government to change course on the approval, saying that because the Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appear to be "taking a new approach to climate change, they might also take a new approach to this decision."

A spokeswoman for Environment Canada said she couldn't discuss the case because it was before the courts, but maintained that a thorough risk assessment of the salmon was done.

"This risk assessment concluded that there were no concerns identified to the environment or to the indirect health of Canadians due to the contained production of these GM fish eggs," Maria Ivancic said in an emailed statement.

The suit contends the government failed to take into account information required by legislation, including test data on toxicity, invasiveness and pathogenicity.

AquaBounty's plan is for the genetically modified fish to be grown in Panama and then later in other facilities, pending approval by U.S. authorities.

Ron Stotish, the company's CEO, said in a statement that, "AquaBounty is confident the Government of Canada will prevail in this action, and we believe the case brought by the two non-governmental organizations is completely without merit."

In a November release, AquaBounty said Environment Canada's approval was based on a close study of its hatchery facility in P.E.I., and the opinion of a panel of independent scientific experts through the department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Editorial Comment: Our concern is that once approved by the USA and Canada for human consumption, modified Atlantic salmon will be raised in ocean-based salmon feedlots where a significant percentage will escape each and every year.

Once escaped, these fish will compete for food and space with wild salmon. Their diseases and genes will impact wild salmon and trout.

The controlled environment of AquaBounty’s land-based hatchery facility on Prince Edwards Island is not the concern; instead it’s the problematic Panama facilities and ocean-based salmon feedlots where these modified fish will be fed until harvest.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Study Blows Company's Bogus Claim About GMO Salmon Out of the Water According to the Canadian government, AquaBounty doesn’t have a shred of evidence supporting their claim that GMO salmon grows faster than normal salmon.

October 21, 2015 For those of you who have read the Mary Shelley novel “Frankenstein,” you remember that the name refers to the scientist Victor Frankenstein, not the monster he constructed from body parts found in the local cemetery. The story has captured the public’s imagination for nearly 200 years, and “franken” has become a common prefix — and a pejorative — for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are made with cut-and-pasted genetic material from different species of plants, animals and microorganisms.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots GMO salmon — or franken-fish, as it is sometimes called — is an Atlantic salmon whose DNA has been re-engineered with a “growth-hormone gene construct” made from genetic material of other fish. One of these fish, the ocean pout, is only as closely related to Atlantic salmon, taxonomically speaking, as a human is related to a porcupine or a platypus. This recombination of genetic material would never happen in nature.

Protest march opposing FDA approval of GMO salmon, Market Street, San Francisco, February 9, 2013 Beyond being designed and engineered by humans and created in a laboratory, GMO salmon and Frankenstein’s monster may also share another defining feature — larger-than-normal proportions.

AquaBounty Technologies, the company behind GMO salmon, has always insisted that its fish grow much faster than normal Atlantic salmon — but not larger. This is one of the most frequent claims the company makes — to journalists and even to financial regulators at the Securities Exchange Commission.

But, according to a recently released scientific review from the Canadian government, AquaBounty doesn’t have a shred of evidence supporting this claim. This is more than a little odd because AquaBounty calls GMO salmon the “most studied fish in the world.”

If it turns out that GMO salmon do grow larger than normal salmon, it would almost certainly provoke even further consumer opposition to the fish while also compromising the company’s pending risk assessment with the FDA. As Canadian government scientists note, a larger-than-normal Atlantic salmon would be able to eat larger-than-normal prey fish, and this expanded diet could expand the environmental impact of escaped GMO salmon.

Other important risk-assessment questions also emerge: What happens to the health of a GMO salmon that reaches ever-large proportions? What happens to the nutritional content of the fish for consumers? What happens to the hormone levels of this fish, which is engineered with a growthhormone gene construct?

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Again, we don’t know if GMO salmon do grow larger than normal salmon, but given AquaBounty’s track record of questionable claims, it needs to be checked out. The company’s claims about GMO salmon’s fast growth-rate have turned out to be bogus, as the preponderance of evidence indicates GMO salmon probably grow slower than conventional farmed salmon. Likewise, the company has long trumpeted its safe, biosecure production of GMO salmon, but independent sleuthing has revealed “lost” salmon, a major accidental disease outbreak and a $9,500 fine for failing to comply with environmental regulations.

If approved by the FDA, AquaBounty’s salmon will be the first GMO animal to enter the food supply anywhere in the world, so it’s scary to realize how little the world knows about the basic biology of this fish — a situation that is unlikely to be addressed if the FDA continues to ignore its role as a science-based regulator.

While there are sizable gaps in what we know about this fish, there is still plenty of evidence showing that AquaBounty’s salmon is totally unnecessary for our food system, presenting substantial risks to the environment and consumers but no benefits.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage GMO salmon is currently pending approval by the FDA. But the company is facing increasing rejection of its GMO salmon by the public, retailers and environmental and consumer advocacy groups. A campaign by Friends of the Earth and its allies has led to more than 60 retailers, including Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Kroger, representing more than 9,000 grocery stores across the country, to make commitments to not sell AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage GMO salmon. Tell the FDA: Don't approve AquaBounty's GMO salmon.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Aquaculture farms in the Kola Peninsula experience massive fish death

 Massive death in Russian salmon farms Cage nets dimensioned for 80 thousand fish are filled with 200 thousand, people close to the Murmansk aquaculture industry say.

September 14, 2015 The aquaculture companies in the Kola Peninsula are under increasing pressure as more information about industry practice indicates serious irregularities.

According to sources close to the company Russian Aquaculture, major bacteria infections have broken out in over-filled net cages. In cages dimensioned for 80 thousand fish, there are as many as 200 thousands,Bloger51.com reports.

In addition, big numbers of cage nets have been placed close to each other. Satellite pictures from the Pechenga Bay reveal almost 150 cage nets over a minor area of sea.

Some of the dead fish has been dumped near Molochny, a village outside Murmansk City.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Only last week, as much as 1000 tons of dead fish was transported out of the aquaculture facilities in Ura guba, a regional fjord, an anonymous source says to Bloger51. Much of the fish is transported to Teriberka, the fishery village in the Kola Bay, the source adds.

The company Russian Aquaculture operates two fish farms in the region and has licenses for another 12.

The reason for the fish death is numerous violations of farming procedures, experts say. The companies have acquired advanced equipment from neighboring Norway, along with smolt and feeding stuff. However, as previously reported, there has been little cooperation between the Russians and Norwegians with regards to management and security.

Following massive fish death in one of its net cages, the company Russian Aquaculture in spring 2015 decided to cut loose parts of the cage bottom in order to ease the weight pressure. That resulting in the escape of a major number of farm fish into the local fjord.

Russian Aquaculture has ambitions to boost regional output to more than 20 million tons of salmon by year 2020, a four-time increase compared with the years 2014-2015.

In the first half of 2015, the company recorded losses of 325,5 million rubles (€4.2 million).

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Appeal: salmon farm extension ‘would stress marine life’ October 20, 2015 An environmental group has lodged an appeal against the expansion of a salmon farming operation in Bantry Bay, claiming that it would place too much stress on the marine environment.

Friends of the Irish Environment, which is based in Bantry, lodged the appeal against the expansion of the salmon farming operation in Bantry Bay by Marine Harvest, an international group with Irish offices in Donegal.

Marine Harvest already operates out of two sites in Bantry Bay, at Ahabeg and Roancarrig, as well as other sites off nearby Kenmare and along the western seaboard.

It also applied for a new salmon farm site at Shot Head, Bantry Bay, in what the company said would be a €3.5m investment.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Last month, the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine granted approval for aquaculture and foreshore licences for the Shot Head site following a four-year application and appeals process which faced strong local resistance.

According to the company’s website: “The investment at Shot Head would vastly improve the company’s existing Bantry Bay facilities, enabling improved rotation of the fish crop and creating a world-class operation in the Beara Peninsula which will secure the long-term future of the aquaculture industry in the area.”

The company, which employs some 270 staff around the country, said approval for the expansion would result in eight sustainable jobs post-construction.

However, Friends of the Irish Environment said there were concerns about overstocking, the possible environmental impact of any expansion of salmon farming in the area, and whether the company had, at all times, provided Department of Agriculture vets with information as part of an audit process.

The group’s spokesman, Tony Lowes, claimed Marine Harvest’s Castletownbere’s main site was overstocked in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

“If the licence is granted, it will increase the biomass of fish in the bay,” Mr Lowes said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “The stress on the environment, waste production by fish, nitrogen in the water — all these things are amplified enormously.”

The group also claimed that, in 2013, Marine Harvest had not initially provided information to the department as part of an audit process, but a spokesperson for the Marine Institute said that, having reviewed its documents, “there is nowhere that we can see in records for 2014 that show they [Marine Harvest] refused to release the data”.

The spokesman said that one part of the data for 2013 could be read as the company not releasing information for the purposes of the audit, but that a follow-up contact secured the information subsequently.

Friends of the Irish Environment also said that a close analysis of the environmental impact statement relating to the application demonstrated “fundamental errors”. The organisation added that the new site would worsen already significant levels of toxicity in the area.

Efforts to obtain a response from Marine Harvest were unsuccessful yesterday, while the Department of Agriculture said it would be inappropriate for it to comment pending any appeals lodged with the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board.

A spokesman for the department said it is open to any member of the public to appeal the minister’s decision to the appeals board.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked

 Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen Watch video HERE

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Victory: Keystone XL is Dead!

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

A depot used to store pipes for TransCanada Corp's planned Keystone XL oil pipeline in Gascoyne, North Dakota.

 TransCanada's request to pause Keystone XL review rejected by U.S. TransCanada says it respects State Department's decision November 4, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The U.S. State Department has rejected TransCanada's request to put the review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline on hold.

Spokesman John Kirby said the department wrote to TransCanada on Wednesday and "communicated our decision to continue our review."

Mark Cooper, a spokesman for TransCanada, said that the company respects the State Department's decision.

The State Department has jurisdiction over the pipeline because it crosses a U.S. border. The proposed pipeline would carry crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination, has urged President Barack Obama to reject the long-delayed pipeline before heading to Paris next month to finalize a global climate agreement.

The company sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, saying it believes there is precedent for making the request to pause the review.

TransCanada's letter had asked the U.S. government to delay its decision on a border-crossing permit, until after the resolution of a dispute in Nebraska over the route which could take another nine months to a year.

Most analysts believed the request was an attempt to forestall a veto of Keystone by Obama, who will be looking to build his environmental credentials ahead of the Paris climate summit.

Cooper said TransCanada's efforts will "continue to demonstrate that Keystone XL is in the national interest of the United States — just as five reports and 17,000 pages of State Department review have demonstrated over the past seven-plus years."

"We will continue to focus on building a pipeline that will put 2,200 Canadian construction workers and 9,000 in the United States to work, not to mention tens of thousands more on the full value chain that the State Department itself identified in its review," Cooper said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Audit finds railroad safety lacking during high oil traffic October 29, 2015 HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s oversight of railroad safety falls short at a time when volatile crude oil train traffic from the Bakken region, already high, is only expected to increase, a new audit found.

Montana has no active rail safety plan and employs only two inspectors to cover the vast state, the Montana Legislative Audit Division report released Wednesday said. In addition, there is a lack of statewide emergency planning and hazardous-material response capability should an oil spill occur, the report found.

That’s a potentially precarious situation with a new crude oil transfer station in North Dakota coming online that should boost oil traffic crossing Montana from about 10 trains a week to up to 15 trains per week. One out of every five Montanans lives in an evacuation zone for an oil-train derailment, which is within a half-mile of a rail line, the report said.

Trains carrying Bakken crude have been involved in fiery derailments in six states in recent years. In 2013, a runaway train hauling crude from the Bakken derailed and exploded in downtown LacMegantic, Quebec, killing 47 people.

More recently, a train hauling Bakken crude derailed and spilled 35,000 gallons near the remote northeastern Montana town of Culbertson in July. That area was highlighted in the audit for its lack of equipment and trained manpower to respond to a spill.

The audit focused its assessment on the efforts of the state’s Public Service Commission, Disaster and Emergency Services agency and Department of Transportation. It credited the transportation department with adequately managing highway rail-crossing safety, but it found problems with the other agencies.

The Public Service Commission is responsible for the supervision of railroads in partnership with the Federal Railroad Administration. The commission has not conducted a rail safety risk assessment and does not have enough inspectors to adequately cover the state, the auditors said.

“Aside from ensuring the minimally mandated number of rail safety inspections are being conducted on an annual basis, the PSC is not actively engaged, internally or externally with other stakeholders, in rail safety,” the report said.

Commission spokesman Eric Sell said Thursday the agency plans to introduce the issue next week for a possible investigation. He added that the state’s role in rail regulation is subservient to the U.S. government, and only the state Legislature can authorize hiring additional inspectors.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “This is really out of our control with the limited resources we have,” Sell said. “If the Legislature finds we should take a bigger role and provides more resources, we’d be happy to do that.”

The Montana Legislature’s next session isn’t until January 2017.

The audit suggested lawmakers take railroad oversight away from the Public Service Commission if it “is unwilling or unable to prioritize its railroad safety activities.” Sell said that would be the prerogative of the Legislature.

The review also faulted Disaster and Emergency Services for weaknesses in statewide emergency planning and in the ability to quickly respond to a hazardous material spill, particularly in northeastern Montana, where BNSF Railway’s main northern line crosses.

There aren’t enough properly trained and equipped firefighters for the area to have its own HAZMAT team, and no professional fire department to host one, the report found.

The nearest regional HAZMAT team is 300 miles away in Billings. Two rail companies have their own teams, but they are primarily meant to respond to spills in rail yards.

As a result, many local governments’ response plans to hazardous material spills entail forming a perimeter to keep people out until trained responders arrive, which could take 12 hours or more depending on the distance and the season, according to the audit.

Adjutant Gen. Matthew Quinn said in a written response that the jurisdiction of the Department of Military Affairs — the parent agency of Disaster and Emergency Services — is limited by state law, which gives local governments the responsibility for their own emergency preparedness and response.

The department plans to hold a railroad hazardous material exercise in 2017 and will advise and assist those local governments to the extent of its authority, Quinn said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Crews

cleaning up after two trains derail in Wisconsin, spilling crude oil, ethanol November 10, 2015

The Federal Railroad Administration has sent in six staff members to investigate the cause of Sunday’s train derailment in Watertown, Wisc., which resulted in a spill of crude oil and evacuation of 35 homes.

But as of Monday morning, authorities were not sure what caused the 110-car Canadian Pacific train to derail around 2 p.m., nor could they say when local residents might return to their homes.

No injuries or fires resulted from the derailment.

A total of 13 cars derailed, though a spokesman for Canadian Pacific said only one car was punctured, spilling less than 1,000 gallons of crude oil.

CP reported Sunday night that all of the spilled crude oil was contained and siphoned off. None reached waterways.

There was damage to the other derailed cars and to the tracks. The railroad company expressed regret for the accident and the inconvenience to residents.

“Our No. 1 concern has been and will continue to be the safety of the citizens of Watertown,” Mayor John David said at a news conference.

Spilled crude oil will be hauled away and disposed. In addition, the company will develop a soil remediation plan to handle any contaminated soil.

The derailment Sunday afternoon was the second of the weekend in Wisconsin.

A train derailed Saturday on the Mississippi River in western Wisconsin, spilling some ethanol. In that accident, 25 train cars derailed about two miles north of Alma in the western part of the state.

Thousands of gallons of ethanol were spilled, and cleanup dragged into Sunday.

BNSF Railway said no one was hurt and it expected service to return by Monday morning.

It was the third derailment on the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge in the last nine months, according to Citizens Acting for Rail Safety, a group focusing on rail safety and traffic. The group noted that Saturday’s derailment occurred during the middle of the waterfowl migration along the Mississippi Flyway, which includes one of the largest tundra and trumpeter swan fall viewing sites in the country.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The issue of trains filled with crude oil and the potential for explosions has emerged as a concern for residents who live in big cities and ports towns nationwide.

In Milwaukee, the tankers pass through downtown, lumbering over train trestles and brushing close to offices and condominiums. They share the same track as commuters heading to Chicago, the Journal Sentinel reported in April.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Petition: Tell Your Lawmakers: The Oil Export Ban Must Stand

The U.S. Senate could become even more crude in the coming weeks. That's because Oil Baroness Lisa Murkowski's bill to lift the ban on oil exports is inching towards the finish line. She promises that the bill will be voted on in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee next week. And, if this bill crosses the finish line, it could end the race to protect our climate, environment and economy.

Climate champion Elizabeth Warren pointed out that lifting the ban would increase global carbon emissions by more than 22 million metric tons annually. It's among the many reasons that she characterized the bill as "very dangerous" for our environment. Our friends at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) note that since Murkowski's bill requires drilling, public input and environmental due process would be eliminated. Murkowski's bill is the exact opposite of what we need to fight climate change, as we've been told by many scientists we must keep 80 percent of proven fossil fuel reserves in the ground to avert the worst effects of climate catastrophe.

Murkowski's bill now has 13 co-sponsors including Climate-Denier-in-Chief Senator James Inhofe. A recent count put her only five votes shy of attaining a senate super majority -- all but assuring passage. If we are going to stop this bill from unleashing its hydrocarbon havoc, we're going to have to take high octant action. Sign here to tell your Representative and Senators: The Ban Must Stand!

Dear Representative Heck and Senators Cantwell and Murray: I am writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to urge you to vote "No" on any bill or amendment to a bill that would lift the ban on exporting crude oil.

Lifting the ban would result in increased global warming emissions, put our land, water and air quality at risk and increase gas prices throughout the country.

This is no time to lift the ban.

James E Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Burnaby mayor irritated by Kinder Morgan pipeline exposure November 2, 2015 Burnaby’s mayor says a Kinder Morgan pipeline incident that drew citizen concern over the weekend highlights the dangers of operating high pressure oil pipelines in urban areas.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “These are the sorts of incidents that occur when pipelines are put near urban infrastructure,” said Mayor Derek Corrigan, “which is exactly why we are fighting so hard to ensure that Kinder Morgan’s proposed new pipeline never gets built in Burnaby."

The city’s engineering department said Monday its contractor was doing work on a culvert on Burnaby Mountain when the slope became unstable on Friday, following a rain event. That caused concern about an underlying Kinder Morgan petroleum pipeline.

The company was then brought in to further expose its own pipeline, and support it with crane cables, just in case more of the mountain came sliding down, said city engineer James Lota.

Some citizens worried the petroleum line was still flowing fuels at this point. Kinder Morgan did not answer a question about whether that was true.

The mayor said the Burnaby contractors were doing routine maintenance of a city culvert.

"These pipelines pose a continuing threat in urban neighbourhoods with no concurrent benefits for the people accepting the risks. It is particularly risky to be putting these lines through slopes vulnerable to weather events, which is exactly the problem with going through Burnaby Mountain," said Mayor Corrigan.

“In addition, Kinder Morgan expects us to constantly be anticipating any problems that might be caused to their lines, without any proper mapping and with all of the variables – including something as simple as heavy rainfall – that could lead to movement of the soil and pipeline. Local taxpayers bear that expense. And even with our best efforts, nature can be unpredictable,” he added.

Kinder Morgan and the city have been at loggerheads about the company's proposed $5.4-billion dollar pipeline for more than a year. The mayor, his council and fire department have long opposed the Edmonton-to-Burnaby pipeline expansion over safety concerns.

Meanwhile, the National Energy Board said they are not concerned by the exposed pipeline episode.

"The work at the site was planned, and by all reports, followed expected protocols and procedures. I understand Trans Mountain was onsite with the City of Burnaby as a proactive precautionary measure while the city completed its work around this portion of pipeline,” wrote spokesperson Tara O’Donovan in Calgary.

Some nearby citizens reported smelling petroleum in recent days. Kinder Morgan said they were not aware of that.

"There is no threat to the integrity of the pipeline and we have not received any odour complaints.

The safety of the public and protection of the environment is always our top priority. We continue to monitor conditions and work with the City of Burnaby as they resolve the slope stability issues," wrote spokesperson Ali Hounsell.

The National Energy Board will start hearing oral presentations from citizen intervenors about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion January 18-29 at a Burnaby casino and conference centre.

The incoming Trudeau federal government has pledged to overhaul Canada's process for the environmental review of pipelines.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Both tankers are said to have received significant damage from the collision.

 Oil Spill After Two Tankers Collide off Japanese Coast October 21, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots A cleanup operation is underway after a 14kmlong oil slick caused by a collision between two tankers, Japanese-flagged Wako Maru No 2 and Panamanian-flagged Sulphur Garland, 10 nautical miles off Shimonoseki, Japan, according to several media reports.

Both the 4,965 DWT Sulphur Garland, owned by Daiichi Tanker Co, Ltd., and the 3,394 DWT Wako Maru No. 2, owned by Heiwa Kaiun KK, are said to have sustained significant damage from the collision.

The estimated 13,000 litre oil spill is reported to have originated from a holed punched in Wako Maru No. 2's starboard side.

Upon arriving on the scene with 10 patrol boats, the Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) is said to have deployed a containment boom around Wako Maru No. 2 to prevent further oil from escaping, and administered oil dispersant to reduce the spill's expansion.

Wako Maru No 2 is reported to have been sent to a Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. shipyard for repairs, while the Sulphur Garland, which received "serious" bow damage during the collision, has been sent to Moji for repairs.

The JCG is said to be investigating the cause of the collision, and it has been noted that the incident did not affect local marine traffic.

Earlier this month, a Dutch-flagged freighter, Flinterstar, sunk after colliding with Marshall Islandflagged liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker Al-Oraiq 10 km off the Belgian Coast, resulting in oil leakage from the Flinterstar's tanks.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 What could go wrong?

Ingmar Lee: Here is the Olympic Tug and Barge Co. "Kestrel" towing the massive ATB-equipped barge, " Petro Mariner" past Bella Bella an hour ago. Quoting from their website: "...Olympic's primary focus is in bunkering and dirty petroleum transportation..."

Kiff Archer Mighty precarious stuff ...Tow lines brake, or in the wind engines fail, barges act like giant steel sided sails...Seldom along questionable route are emergency services stationed close enough to help these guys before this load is torn apart on the rocks and destroys another rare sensitive part.....

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 The Federal Government Says Billions of Animals Died From the BP Disaster October 15, 2015 

Tens of thousands of dead birds.



More than 170,000 turtles.



A billion newly hatched fish — and maybe as many as 8 billion oysters.

That's the federal government's estimated toll on wildlife from the undersea blowout that wracked the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In addition, as many as half of the dolphins that lived in Louisiana's Barataria Bay, the worst-hit part of the coast, may have died as a result — a loss "that will take decades to recover naturally," its report states.

The undersea gusher damaged the hearts of fish and the lungs of dolphins, fouled beaches where birds and turtles nest, and killed marsh plants that provide food and shelter for other animals. The figures are included among hundreds of pages of documents that detail a proposed settlement between the US government and BP, which owned the failed well at the heart of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

"All of the natural resources of the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem were threatened and many were injured, some severely, as a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded after five years of study. "These injuries caused significant adverse effects to the environment ... and to the economy of the region."

NOAA had been holding those conclusions close to the chest in anticipation of a court showdown with BP. Now they're being put out for public study and comment before a federal judge in New Orleans decides whether to approve the proposed deal, currently estimated at more than $20 billion.

The settlement proposal includes $8.1 billion for natural resource damage and another $700 million to address any yet-undiscovered losses, with much of it going to restore the Gulf's ecosystem.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots "What we have been saying, and what a lot of others have been saying for the last five years, is that the damage was extensive, and many, many, many resources — birds and mammals and turtles — were severely affected by the spill," said David Muth, the Gulf restoration program director for the National Wildlife Federation. "That's borne out by the fact that BP agreed to an $8 billion settlement, which is unprecedented."

NWF experts had heard rumors that the estimated toll would be high, "but we never knew what the final numbers would be," he added. "Because there was a pending court case, there was no real publicity about what the field teams were finding."

Related: BP Just Agreed to Pay $19 Billion in Damages for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster The estimated losses are based on a combination of on-site sampling, previously known populations of key species, laboratory studies of the toxicity of the oil and the dispersants used to break it up and the mathematical extrapolation of those results to put a number on the ecological damage to life far offshore and below the surface. Most of the deaths will never result in bodies washing ashore.

But Bethany Kraft, the Gulf restoration program director for Ocean Conservancy, said the damage is visible in high-profile species like dolphins.

"You see them very sick and more vulnerable," she said. More than 1,400 dolphins and other marine mammals have been found dead since the spill — a rate several times higher than the years before the spill.

"The ones that you find are indicative of probably many more that you don't find," Kraft said.

In the years since the spill, BP has pointed to a rebound of Gulf Coast fisheries and tourism and disputed studies linking its spill to the deaths of dolphins. It already has paid more than $30 billion in cleanup costs, compensation and fines and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of the 11 workers killed when the drill rig Deepwater Horizon blew up and sank off Louisiana.

In a statement to VICE News, chief BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the company was reserving judgment on the damage assessment.

"While BP fully supports the consent decree, BP had no role in developing, and at this time is taking no position on the damage assessment and restoration plan that was wholly prepared by the U.S. and Gulf States' Trustees," Morrell said.

In all, NOAA's report estimated that between 50,000 and 84,000 birds died as a result of the disaster.

Sea turtle losses were calculated at 4,900 to 7,600 larger sea turtles — and 56,000 to 166,000 small juveniles.

In Louisiana, the state's rich oyster beds were devastated not only by the spill but by the release of fresh water from the Mississippi River into the salty coastal waters where they grew. And the survivors are struggling to reproduce, "compromising the long-term sustainability of oyster reefs throughout the northern central Gulf of Mexico," NOAA concluded. The losses will likely amount to between 4 billion and 8.3 billion oysters — or up to half a billion pounds of oyster meat.

"Oyster populations in the north central Gulf of Mexico will likely require substantive restoration activities to overcome the population bottleneck created by the oil spill and associated response activities," the report states.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The toll also includes more than 4,300 square miles of sargassum — a nuisance to tourists on the Gulf's brilliant white sands, but a source of food and shelter for fish and young sea turtles — and trillions of tiny plankton. A billion fish larvae may have died in the spill as well.

Related: Five Years After BP Disaster, Gulf of Mexico's Fishing Industry Continues to Struggle Those are huge numbers, but ones that might represent barely a dent in a vast marine ecosystem, said Steve Murawski, a University of South Florida marine ecologist who has studied fish populations since the spill.

"For little things like plankton, trillions are trivial, given what we know about how abundant they are," Murawski said. A single fish may lay millions of eggs. But for species like oysters, the losses are "a very significant number."

The impact on other species is harder to judge because so few studies of the Gulf had been conducted before the blowout, he said. That's likely to change, as the settlement is expected to provide up to $2 billion for additional research over the next decade and a half.

"A lot of studies have continued in terms of what's going on, and those continuing studies are going to help us understand what's going on," Murawski said.

The public has until December 4 to comment on the settlement, NOAA spokesman Ben Sherman said. Once those comments are reviewed and any changes are made, the deal will go before a judge for approval and the trustees—four federal agencies and the five Gulf states — will start developing restoration projects, he said.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and local governments are reviewing not only the mortality numbers but the proposed restoration plans, which stretch into the 2030s.

"All of that good work, all of that paper, is only as good as the trustees' implementation of projects that matter," Kraft said. "There's still a lot of work to do."

Watch the VICE News documentary Oil and Water here:

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Comment period on oil extended to Nov. 30 The Department of Ecology has extended the public comment period for two proposed crude oil terminals at the Port of Grays Harbor, according to a press release issued Monday.

The extension allows for an additional 30 days to collect comment from the public on the proposed facilities, and had to be approved by project applicants Westway Terminals and Renewable Energy Group, which bought out Imperium Renewables’ facility in August.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots The public comment session began on Aug. 31, when the department released the first drafts of the two projects’ environmental impact statements.

The comment period was originally slated for 60 days, ending on Oct. 29.

Since the comment period began, the department has been collecting comments through its website and mail.

Two open houses at the beginning of the month — one at the Satsop Business Park and the other a week later at the D&R Theatre in Aberdeen — collectively saw several hundred people voice concerns over the projects. The events garnered comments from people from as far away as Seattle, Spokane and Portland, many of whom voicing concern about the trains carrying crude oil passing through their areas.

Following the public comment period, the Department of Ecology will read and consider all of the collected comments, and may conduct further research if deemed necessary. Paula Ehlers, the department’s shorelands and environmental assistance manager for the southwest region, said earlier this month that the department was already drawing up a list of other areas to research to include in the final statement.

The final statement is expected sometime in 2016. Information for commenting on the projects can be found at www.ecy.wa.gov/geographic/graysharbor/terminals.html.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Coal

 Save the Chuitna

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Petition: Orcas can't defend themselves from coal, but YOU CAN! If built, the Gateway Pacific Terminal would send staggering quantities of dirty coal through Puget Sound, poisoning an entire marine ecosystem for decades. Endangered orcas would suffer. Huge quantities of toxic coal dust and fuel spills would wreak havoc on orca habitat, and tankers would likely strike these graceful mammals as they hunt and raise their young in the sound.

Advocates like you have beat back over a dozen of these damaging terminal proposals. Let’s do the same to Gateway Pacific Terminal near Bellingham, Wash.

It’s important that we act now, while the proposal in under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Washington.

Please stand up for orcas by signing this petition TODAY.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Representative Heck, Senators Cantwell and Murray, We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International strongly oppose construction of coal export terminals in the Northwest that would pollute the air and water, and threaten imperiled wildlife populations.

These projects will have significant regional impacts, including effects on public health from coal dust and diesel pollution; decreased water quality; degradation of crucial habitat and aquatic resources; effects on imperiled species of fish and wildlife; and an increase in accidents and noise from port expansions and rail traffic. Collectively, they will contribute enormously to global climate change.

The increased air pollution from these coal exports will also introduce tremendous amounts of mercury into the atmosphere that would come back to our shores.

Please expand your review to consider the impacts of rail vessel traffic, mining impacts and carbon pollution from coal combustion. Given the enormous impacts they will have on the region and the nation, we strongly urge you to deny permits for all proposed coal export terminals in the Northwest.

James E Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Video: Chinese Coexist With Coal Despite China’s pledge to cap and then reduce carbon emissions, coal production continues to grow, creating tough choices for those who work in and live near the mines.

November 3, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

A coal train passes an oil train in Magnolia during the summer of 2014, after three tanker cars had derailed. Oil and coal could become the Northwest’s “supreme shipping commodities” according to one recent study.

 Washington

tribal leaders, in D.C., protest proposed coal terminal at Cherry

Point November 5, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Tribal leaders from across Washington state say that their treaty rights require rejection of a giant coal export terminal, proposed for Cherry Point north of Bellingham and have taken their case to the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

“We’re taking a united stand against corporate interests that interfere with our treaty protected rights,” said Tim Ballew II, chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council. The Lummis’ reservation is just south of the Cherry Point industrial area, proposed as location for the Gateway Pacific terminal.

The tribes have taken an increasingly critical approach toward the approach of coal and oil trains to Northwest ports. The Swinomish have gone into federal court in a bid to block oil trains from crossing their reservation en route to Anacortes refineries.

Brian Cladoosby, chair of the Swinomish Tribal Community, is president of the National Congress of American Indians, and said Thursday: “For thousands of years, Washington tribes have fought to protect all that is important for those who call this great state home. We live in a pollution-based economy, and we can no longer allow industry and business to destroy our resources, water and land. No mitigation can pay for the magnitude of destruction to treaty resources for today and generations from now.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is completing environmental studies on the Cherry Point coal port.

Under an order that originated with President Clinton, the corps must take into account impacts of proposed projects on the culture and resources of Native Americans.

The Lummis, Swinomish, and Tulalip tribes, along with the Yakama Nation and Columbia River Intertribal Fisheries Commission, have provided the corps and elected officials with information on possible impacts to treaty fishing rights and the environment. The Lummis claim the Gateway Pacific terminal would be at the site of an ancient village occupied by the tribe for 3,500 years.

The tribes want the corps to reject Gateway Pacific based on treaty rights that cannot be mitigated.

Coal-state advocates of the Cherry Point project in Congress have lately put pressure on the corps not to make any early ruling based on the tribes’ appeal, but to complete a full environmental review of the project.

“I will not stand idly by as the Gateway Pacific Terminal becomes the next Keystone XL Pipeline,” U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., said in a recent statement. He described Gateway Pacific as a “must build project.”

And Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., argued: “I am deeply concerned that the corps is considering skipping critical steps of the review process for this proposal — in turn, jeopardizing the future of this job creating project: It’s critical that the corps maintains its commitment to completing a full and thorough review of this project and provide all stakeholders with the opportunity to make their voices heard.”

Sixteen Senate members and 17 House members have sent a letter to the Corps. It is signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, from coal-producing Kentucky, and senators from the coal states of West Virginia, Wyoming Utah and Alaska.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “Senator Daines and other members of Congress have attempted to interfere with the corps’ review of the shipping terminal’s impact on our treaty rights,” said Ballew. “This sets a dangerous precedent for all of Indian Country if members of Congress step back from their trust responsibility and threaten our rights by interfering with the corps’ review process.”

Exports from the Gateway Pacific project would supply coal-burning power plants in China. China leads the world in greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the burning of coal in North China.

Two Washington House members, GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., signed the pro-coal letter.

McMorris Rodgers and Newhouse are opposed, however, by tribes from their House districts.

“The past is the present, and the future is now: The treaty is their word, our people trusted that word. Now, it seems to be just words: Do they lack the honor and integrity of their ancestors?” asked Dave Brown Eagle, vice chair of the Spokane Tribal Business Council.

Spokane Tribe members are constituents of Rep. McMorris Rodgers.

And JoDe Goudy, chair of the Yakama Nation — and a Newhouse constituent — said: “We, too, are facing a coal invasion through our homelands. Whether it is a proposed terminal directly on the Columbia River, or coal trains traveling through our ancestral lands, we are being impacted.

“In the Yakama language, we have no word for ‘mitigation’ — no word to describe repairing lands and waters that have been degraded or destroyed. There is no price you can pay, no repair you can make, that would make our lands whole again once the coal companies have done their damage, collected their money and disappeared.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

The Department of Forest has sued the owner and master of MV GR Raj, that sank on Oct 27, for Tk 10 million in damages

 Panel

recommends shutting Sundarbans waterways for cargo vessels after Pashur shipwreck October 29, 2015

Investigators have faulted the pilot for the sinking of a cargo vessel carrying coal in the Pashur River near the Sundarbans.

They have also recommended shutting Sundarbans waterways for cargo vessels to avoid inflicting further damage on the fragile mangrove forest.

A world heritage site since 1997, Sundarbans is home to the endangered Royal Bengal Tigers and rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins. Much of its wildlife is unique to the region.

Investigators submitted their findings to Divisional Forest Officer Md Saidul Islam on Friday.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots MV GR Raj, shipping 510 tonnes of coal to Jessore, sank on Oct 27.

“The report has identified incompetency and negligence on the part of the vessel’s cargo master and engine driver as the accident’s cause,” Islam told bdnews24.com.

“It also recommended shutting river traffic in the restricted areas.”

Investigators noted that cargo vessel Raj was ‘old’ and questioned whether it was capable of carrying a 510-tonne load.

The Department of Forest has sued the vessel’s owner and master for Tk 10 million in damages.

Police arrested the vessel’s master Bulu Kazi after the Public Works Department filed a case at the Mongla Police Station.

Vessel owner Dil Khan had told bdnews24.com a private agency would begin salvage work on Thursday but it did not start until Friday afternoon.

One of the investigators, Gazi Motiar Rahman, said they had ordered Khan to remove the vessel and warned of legal steps in case of delay.

“The shipwreck site has been covered with a tent to prevent the coal from spreading,” he said.

“If the coal, imported from Indonesia, gets out, it will harm the ecology.”

Last week’s incident is a repeat of the sinking of another cargo vessel shipping furnace oil in Sundarbans Shela River last December, triggering environmental concerns.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan had rejected an permanently close Shela River route at the time.

environment

ministry recommendation to

The route was reopened to commercial traffic in January this year, ignoring calls from experts.

A UN team of experts in December suggested closing Sundarbans rivers to commercial traffic after a joint inspection.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Hydropower / Water Retention

 Critics of Washington's Snake River dams say it's time to remove them October 18, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots SPOKANE — The issue of breaching four giant dams on the Snake River to help endangered salmon runs has percolated in the Northwest for decades, but the idea has gained new momentum.

Following renewed political pressure to remove the dams, people who oppose the structures gathered Oct. 3 on the Snake River in up to 200 boats.

They unfurled a giant banner that said, “Free The Snake.”

“The groundswell that is occurring right now to remove the four dams is like nothing I've seen since 1998,” said Sam Mace, director of an anti-dam group called Save Our Wild Salmon.

The dams create vast reservoirs that make it possible for Lewiston, Idaho, 450 miles from the Pacific Ocean, to operate as the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast.

Farmers, shipping companies and other dam supporters fiercely defend the structures as key players in the region's economy.

Critics say the dams kill vast numbers of salmon and steelhead, and do not provide enough benefits to compensate for the losses of those iconic fish.

A coalition of environmentalists, Indian tribes and outdoor enthusiasts want Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor dams breached.

The dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s.

Migrating fish died by the thousands this summer because of higher-than-normal water temperatures in the reservoirs.

Remove the dams In January, a petition containing more than 70,000 signatures asking to remove the dams was delivered to the Obama administration, Mace said.

Those who want the dams removed argue that they harm fish and disrupt the food chain for larger species.

Young fish have trouble negotiating the reservoirs and can get lost and die.

Longer spawning journeys also leave fish exhausted and depleted when they finally reach the ocean.

Killer whales in the Pacific Ocean depend on chinook salmon as a mainstay of their diets and would be helped if the dams were breached, said Deborah Giles of the Southern Resident Killer Whale Chinook Salmon Initiative.

Meanwhile, central Idaho communities that depend on tourism would benefit if the dams were removed, as fishing seasons would expand, dam opponents say.

Opponents contend that the shipping traffic made possible by the dams is in sharp decline and that the hydropower produced by the dams can be replaced with alternative energy resources.

The effort to remove the dams was stymied during the administration of President George W. Bush, who visited Eastern Washington to declare that the dams would not be removed under his watch.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots “These dams were boondoggles when they were built and they are even more so today,” Mace said.

Save the dams The four dams have plenty of supporters, said Kristin Meira, director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association in Portland, Ore. In 2012, 10 percent of all U.S. wheat exports moved through the Snake River dams, she said.

“During the peak fall transportation season, barges and cruise ships can be seen alongside salmon fishermen throughout the Columbia and Snake River System,” David Doeringsfeld, manager of the Port of Lewiston, said.

Bill Flory, a wheat farmer in Lewiston, said the dams are a vital part of his business.

“The dams give me the ability to load my grain in Lewiston, and I know without question that four days later it will have been loaded on a ship in Portland, ready for export,” Flory said.

A tugboat pushing four barges is moving 400,000 to 480,000 bushels of wheat, dam supporters said.

It would take some 538 semi-trucks or 140 rail cars to move the same amount.

Dam supporters also contend that salmon runs are recovering.

The Snake River dams are equipped with sophisticated fish ladders that allow returning salmon to reach spawning grounds.

“We're seeing more salmon in the Columbia and Snake Rivers than before Bonneville Dam was put in place,” Meira said.

100% Bovine Excrement

In addition, the four dams produce enough electricity to power a city the size of Seattle, said Terry Flores of Northwest River Partners, a pro-dam group.

It would take two nuclear, three coal-fired or six gas-fired power plants to replace that power, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dams.

Lt. Col. Tim Vail, commander of the Walla Walla District of the corps, said the dams cost $62 million per year to operate, while producing more than $200 million worth of electricity.

“We will continue to ensure the Snake River dams provide outstanding value to the nation,” Vail said.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Peace

River: Site C hydropower dam construction destroying valuable agriculture land and wildlife habitat

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

 Report: Fish also fought warm water at dams along Columbia this summer November 17, 2015

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Hundreds of thousands of sockeye died in hot water on the Columbia River this summer, but a new report says the deadly conditions highlight long-standing problems with the hydropower system.

The June heat wave and the lower river flows from the drought only exacerbated the welldocumented problem that water backed up behind dams warms up, according to a report from the Portland-based Fish Passage Center.

So while the dying fish made headlines, the underlying issues and potential solutions didn’t get much attention this summer.

“The problem was this was being portrayed as some freakish combination of natural events, and the point is this is caused by the hydrosystem,” said Michele DeHart, director of the center, which provides technical services to the federal, state and tribal agencies that manage fish in the Columbia River.

“Over thousands of years, fish managed to survive through droughts and floods, but the development of hydrosystem takes that flexibility away,” she said.

Water temperatures above 68 degrees are understood to be unhealthy for salmon and sockeye, and it’s common for the lower and middle Columbia River to exceed that standard in late summer, but in 2015 the hot water problems began in June.

According to the report, water temperatures at dams in the middle Columbia were over 68 degrees for about 45 percent of the returning salmon season. During the past 10 years, an average of 25 percent of the season was too hot.

But it was this year’s combination of hot weather and low flows that pushed regular warm water problems into a disaster for sockeye, said state Department of Fish and Wildlife regional fish program Manager John Easterbrooks.

“Of course, compared to prior to construction of the mainstream dams, it’s not as good for fish because the pools slow water down and as it spreads out it warms up, but it’s more pronounced in a drought year,” he said.

Fish management plans have recognized the high temperatures — especially in fish ladders — present a barrier to upstream migration since the 1990s, DeHart said.

But in the years since, little has been done to address these wellknown problems, the report says.

DeHart said that is because temperature problems are really hard to solve.

“What people should understand is these problems are largely the effects of development, and we haven’t been able to successfully been able to mitigate them,” she said. “And climate change is just cranking up the stress on the system. So that’s a dilemma.”

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Natural Gas

 500 million to 1 billion young salmon use the Skeena River estuary each year – unacceptable for Liquified Natural Gas export facilities

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Solar

 The World’s Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Electricity October 14, 2015 Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is the world’s largest solar power plant. 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors, all at 7ft high and 10ft wide, are focused at the top of a 450ft tall tower.

The tower then turns water into steam to power turbines which produce energy.

This enormous solar plant, which is jointly owned by BrightSource Energy, Google, and NRG Energy, has been opened for business after a battle with legal tangles.

From the official news release: The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is now fully operational and able to supply California customers with electricity. The facility’s three 450ft towers will be able to produce up to 392 megawatts of solar power at its full capacity. This is enough electricity to supply 140,000 California homes with a sustainable, clean energy. Another plus to this is the 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is equal to 72,000 vehicles being removed from the roads.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots This facility is spread across 5 square miles of federal land, near the California-Nevada border, and is mesmerizing in a way.

Watch: “Ivanpah – The Facts” HERE

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Wind

 Remote Alaskan villages move from diesel to wind power October 21, 2015 Alaska may be home to much of the nation’s fuel resources, but that doesn’t mean power comes cheaply up there. This, however, could be changing … with a little help from the wind.

Currently, about 200 Arctic Alaskan communities use diesel fuel as their primary source of electricity and heat. The costs to transport diesel to the Far North are significant, and these rural villages pay more for power than anywhere else in the U.S. And it’s not just the financial costs that are high. As our very own advice columnist wrote many moons ago: It takes more oil to manufacture a gallon of diesel than a gallon of standard gasoline, and the production and refining processes for diesel produce more heat-trapping gases. … And the nasty rumors about diesel are true: It’s less refined than gasoline, aka dirtier. Diesel cars emit substantially more particulate matter and NOx, both of which are serious air pollutants and health hazards.

So there’s that.

But moving away from diesel isn’t easy in the Arctic. It’s cold there, as you may have heard, with harsh conditions and terrain, and few options for transport. Plus, the people are poor: Most villages in the Northwest Arctic Borough — a vast, frigid area occupied by the Inupiat people — have little to no outside income. But one community has turned to wind power, and, as ClimateWire reports, it’s working: Kotzebue was the first Arctic community in Alaska to build a wind farm. The city’s electric cooperative began installing turbines in 1997 and has steadily increased its capacity ever since. Last year, wind provided 20 percent of the town’s average electricity demand of 2.5 megawatts.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots As its wind capacity has increased, the Kotzebue electric cooperative has been able to cut the amount of fuel it barges into town to run its diesel engines. Last year wind displaced 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel and saved the community $900,000, according to Brad Reeves, general manager of Kotzebue Electric.

Now the Kotzebue microgrid system is looking to further reduce diesel imports by adding a lithium-ion battery unit to its electricity network. The battery, which is the roughly size of a large SUV, will store wind energy when demand is low and tap the power when the renewable resource fluctuates.

“It will be good for that period when we have bands of wind and we have our diesels running,” Reeves explained. “Normally when the winds go out, we’d shift to a bigger diesel unit. The battery will let you stay in that band and keep the smaller diesel on. That will save money.”

Kotzebue isn’t alone. The villages of Buckland and Deering have also invested in renewable energy, and Nome, a booming metropolis 200 miles to the south (population 4,000), erected their first turbines in 2008 (although regular operations didn’t begin until 2010). From ClimateWire: Last year, thanks to steady improvements and expansion, the wind farm provided 7 percent of Nome’s electricity. In the process, the 17-turbine operation, now owned by Nome Joint Utility System, managed to displace 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel and save its electricity customers about a half a million dollars.

That’s important in Nome, which made international headlines in 2012 when the community’s harbor iced up before its winter fuel delivery arrived. To bring needed diesel and gasoline to town, a U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker was called in to escort a Russian tanker into the Nome harbor.

This year, the Nome utility company is looking for ways to increase the amount of wind power flowing to its customers.

“We’ve recently made some adjustments to our system to allow wind to actually flow into the system at a higher rate,” explained John Handeland, manager of the Nome utility. “There are times when we’re getting 30 to 35 percent of our power from wind.”

The problem is that wind stops, and energy needs to be stored if villagers don’t want to burn diesel for heat. Temperatures in this part of the world reach minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not exactly a climate you want to lose power in.

The solution may lie in microgrids, which are often used during military operations and, increasingly, in natural disasters, as they allow users to distribute their own electricity through generators, batteries, or renewable sources like solar and wind power. Alaska already uses a lot of microgrids — half the Arctic’s population is powered by microgrids — but by connecting microgrids to renewable resources, Arctic populations will (hopefully) be able to lower their dependence on diesel fuel. The Northwest Arctic Borough certainly hopes so — they set a goal of replacing 25 percent of diesel usage with renewable energy by 2025.

Legacy – December2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2015 – Removing Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Fishing Pictures

 Rod

Toth (Bentrod's Guiding, and Fishing Co.) with a magnificent Harrison River coho salmon Photo credit: Kaitlyn Bogas (October 2015)