Legacy - March 2014

Issue 29

March 2014

Legacy Š Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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

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

Oh Canada‌ Wake up!

Because your natural resources are being sold to the highest foreign bidder with no regard for your people and total disrespect for your land, air, water, fish and wildlife, many will spend their vacation money elsewhere in 2014.

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

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

LEGACY – The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, no-nonsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their contributions to society and the varied and complex issues impacting them and those who rely on their sustainability.

LEGACY exposes impacts to wild game fish while featuring wild game fish conservation projects, fishing adventures, wildlife art, accommodations, equipment and more. Your photos and articles featuring wild game fish from around planet earth are welcome for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of LEGACY. E-mail them with captions and credits to Jim (wilcoxj@katewwdb.com).

Successful wild game fish conservation efforts around planet earth will ensure existence of these precious natural resources and their ecosystems for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY.

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Founders

Bruce Treichler

Jim Wilcox

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

Contents WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook ________________________________________________________ 10 Editorial Opinion _________________________________________________________________________________ 12  Letter of the Week: Is the federal government trying to kill our salmon? __________________________________ 13  Anglers are our allies against unsustainable industrial fishing ___________________________________________ 15

Commentary: ____________________________________________________________________________________ 17  Jim Wilcox___________________________________________________________________________________________ 17  Eddie Gardner _______________________________________________________________________________________ 18

Special __________________________________________________________________________________________ 19  Pacific Salmon Foundation: Where have the Coho and Chinook Salmon in Georgia Straight gone? ________ 19

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 20  Enjoy seasonal wild Pacific salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:____________________________________ 20  Open pen salmon feedlot industry: Shameful, unethical, irresponsible ___________________________________ 21  Farm salmon linked to cancer chemicals _______________________________________________________________ 22  Landmark Restaurant – Bergen, Norway: Removes smoked Atlantic salmon from menu due to public health risks __________________________________________________________________________________________  Congratulations Overwaitea Food Group: Sustainable Seafood Policy ___________________________________  PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges __________________________________  Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here _________________________________________________________  Avoid most Atlantic salmon - Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood Watch __________________________________  Petitioning Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark – Sign Petition HERE ______________________________  Toxin in seafood causes kidney damage in mice at levels considered safe for consumption _______________  12 Fish You Should Never Eat _________________________________________________________________________  FDA Safety Recall – Smoked Atlantic Salmon: Listeria Contamination____________________________________

24 25 26 27 28 30 31 33 34

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected __________________________________________________________ 38  Barak Obama, re. Alberta dilbit ________________________________________________________________________ 38  Maria Cantwell, re. BC salmon feedlot expansion _______________________________________________________ 38       

The Honorable Gail Shea, re. BC salmon feedlot expansion _____________________________________________ Arnie Roblan, re, wild salmonid recovery ______________________________________________________________ Real Canadian Superstore, re. Remove Atlantic salmon from stores _____________________________________ Tim Sheldon, re. Enhancing the safety of the transportation of oil________________________________________ Maria Cantwell, re. logging road pollution ______________________________________________________________ Karen Wristen, re. whales or oil ships__________________________________________________________________ Drew MacEwen, re. flood damage reduction ____________________________________________________________

39 39 42 42 43 44 45

Responses to WGFCI: ____________________________________________________________________________ 47  Kathy Haigh, re. Salish Sea oil spills ___________________________________________________________________ 47  Drew MacEwen ______________________________________________________________________________________ 47  The Honourable John McKay, re. approval to manufacture GE salmon eggs ______________________________ 48  Lisa Johnston, re. Protection of Scotland’s wild salmon and sea trout ___________________________________ 49  Barak Obama, re. Climate Change, Fossil Fuels ________________________________________________________ 50  Barak Obama, re. reduced dependence on foreign oil ___________________________________________________ 51  Denny Heck, re.TPP __________________________________________________________________________________ 52

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

 City of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada _____________________________________________________________ 53  Denny Heck, re. Trans Pacific Partnership _____________________________________________________________ 54

Community Activism, Education and Outreach: ____________________________________________________ 55  Leave this world better than when you found it _________________________________________________________ 55  The Activist __________________________________________________________________________________________ 57  Wild Salmon Solidarity Rally: Outrage over expanding salmon feedlots __________________________________ 59  Locking Arms for Wild Salmon ________________________________________________________________________ 61  FEDS BROKE SPECIES AT RISK LAW, COURT RULES __________________________________________________ 62  Court dismisses activist’s appeal attempt ______________________________________________________________ 65  Salmon Activist rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada ______________________________________________ 67  Supreme Court rules against "fair comment" ___________________________________________________________ 69  137 Species Rely on Pacific Salmon ___________________________________________________________________ 72    

WDFW KEY DECISIONS FOR 2014 _____________________________________________________________________ Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy _______________________________________________ Salmon Confidential – Historic State Theater – Olympia, Washington ____________________________________ Going for the gold in the Winter Games: A-okay ________________________________________________________

74 75 76 77

           

I’m Not a Terrorist! … I Just Want Clean Water _________________________________________________________ Bitumen isn’t oil, it’s ASPHALT! _______________________________________________________________________ “Coal Train Blues”: Coal Exports Through Columbia River Gorge________________________________________ Neil Young: “Mother Earth” (Live) _____________________________________________________________________ Students at UBC, SFU, and UVic vote for endowment funds to divest from fossil fuels ____________________ Open pen salmon feedlots kill wild salmon, wild trout ___________________________________________________ Chief sees major salmon farm expansion on horizon – issues urgent plea to “lock arms” _________________ Petition by Alexandra Morton: Restore wild salmon, Ban salmon feedlots in BC __________________________ Doing nothing is not an option90 ______________________________________________________________________ Wolverines don't let friends eat escaped farmed salmon. ________________________________________________ Chief Bob Chamberlin: Open pen salmon feedlot expansion _____________________________________________ Farmed salmon boycott intensifies ____________________________________________________________________

78 79 81 82 84 86 87 89 90 91 92 93

 Sacred Catch: Before Salmon was King, Before Salmon was Greed ______________________________________ 95  Scotland: Salmon Farming Moratorium Urged __________________________________________________________ 96  Idle No More Revolution ______________________________________________________________________________ 97  First Nation Launches Court Challenge to Enbridge Northern Gateway Environmental Assessment; Says Review Was Unlawful ___________________________________________________________________________ 98  Oglala Sioux vow to stop Keystone XL on the ground if Obama won't say no ____________________________ 100       

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation pulls out of Alberta-federal oilsands monitoring program _____________ The Final Keystone XL Public Comment Period Has Officially Started ___________________________________ “Suckers” – Keystone Truth _________________________________________________________________________ Majority of British Columbians oppose Northern Gateway pipeline: poll _________________________________ First Nation blockades water intake construction over salmon impacts__________________________________ Canada says enough - No More Fish Feedlots! ________________________________________________________ Idle No More British Columbia – January 18, 2014 _____________________________________________________

103 106 107 108 110 112 114

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

 Atlantic Salmon Boycott: Superstores across Canada _________________________________________________ 118  Superstore management: “No video recording in store – Final warning!” ________________________________ 121  Organic, Fresh, Farmed Atlantic Salmon Fillet - NOT! __________________________________________________ 122  Idle No More protestors take their message to unique venue ___________________________________________ 123  Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings_______________________________________ 124

Open pen salmon and trout feedlots ______________________________________________________________ 125  Justice Cohen Gets Tough on Fish Farms – Inquiry Report Released ___________________________________ 125  Alexandra Morton: Expansion of BC’s open pen salmon feedlot industry ________________________________ 125  New Website by Angela Koch: Salmon Farms Exposed ________________________________________________ 127  Chemical war on sea lice attacked ____________________________________________________________________ 128  Fish farms are destroying wild Scottish salmon, says leading environmentalist __________________________ 131  CALL FOR FISH FARM ESCAPE DETAILS _____________________________________________________________ 133    

Open Net Pen versus Progressive Aquaculture ________________________________________________________ BC expansion causes fish farming fury _______________________________________________________________ Atlantic Salmon Farm-Tonnes of garbage _____________________________________________________________ Sea lice ‘threaten Scottish wild salmon’ _______________________________________________________________

135 137 139 141

 Harvesting of fish halted at Ireland’s largest salmon farming company __________________________________ 143

Climate Change _________________________________________________________________________________ 145  Pollution from China harming air quality on West Coast: study _________________________________________ 145  California drought threatens coho salmon with extinction ______________________________________________ 148  Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules _______________________________________________ 151

Energy production : Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Wind ___________________ 155  Adios Shell! ________________________________________________________________________________________  Rail vs Pipeline: “The Question Isn’t About Whether to Use Rail or Pipelines” ___________________________ Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked ________________________________________________________  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen _______________________________  Oilsands air pollutants underestimated, researchers find ______________________________________________  Satellite data sound alarm on safety of bitumen extraction _____________________________________________

156 158 160 160 161 163

 Tarsands “Megaloads”: Umatilla, Oregon to Edmonton, Alberta ________________________________________ 166  Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk _____________________________________ 167  Oil field fumes so painful, Alberta families forced to move _____________________________________________ 168  U.S. study warns of risks and unknowns in shipment of Alberta oilsands products ______________________ 171  B.C. coast, St. Lawrence estuary most at risk for major marine oil spill: report ___________________________ 174  BREAKING: Oil leak on massive pipeline pushing tar sands through the Great Lakes ____________________ 176       

Keystone XL pipeline: New report raises no major environmental objections ____________________________ Pollution From Koch-Funded Petcoke Piles Not An ‘Emergency,’ Illinois Regulators Rule ________________ Oil tanker off course when it ran aground in Nunavut __________________________________________________ Kinder Morgan says enhanced spill-response will increase oil recovery at sea, but opponents skeptical ___ Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Tarsands Pipeline through Fraser River Watershed ______________________ B.C. groups ask court to block approval of Northern Gateway pipeline __________________________________ Will US lose access to Canadian pipeline oil? _________________________________________________________

178 181 184 186 189 190 193

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

 BREAKING NEWS: Oil train carrying Canadian crude derails in Pennsylvania ____________________________ 194  Train Derails on Bridge Over Schuylkill River __________________________________________________________ 196  CN Rail train carrying fuel oil derails, spills in Mississippi ______________________________________________ 198  Legislature considers bill regulating oil transport ______________________________________________________ 199  Railroad tank-car safety woes date decades before crude oil concerns __________________________________ 202  If oil hits the beach, it’ll be here in B.C. _______________________________________________________________ 206  Appeals over crude oil permit decision _______________________________________________________________ 208 Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 210  Don’t Sell Cheap U.S. Coal to Asia ____________________________________________________________________ 210  Duke Energy Issues Apology for NC Coal Ash Spill ____________________________________________________ 212  Opinion: What are health risks of expanded coal exports? _____________________________________________ 214  Trucking only option for mine ________________________________________________________________________ 216 Geothermal ___________________________________________________________________________________________  Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia ________________________________ Hydropower ___________________________________________________________________________________________  DeBolt Bill Requests $1.5 Billion for Flooding _________________________________________________________

218 218 219 219

 ‘Horror shows’ on B.C. rivers: Government given an ‘F’ for handling of run-of-river power projects _______  Risk to B.C. salmon 'minimal' from run-of-river projects ________________________________________________  “Damnation” ________________________________________________________________________________________  GOP-Sponsored Bill For More Delta Water To Farmers Passes House; No Chance In Senate ______________ Liquefied Natural Gas __________________________________________________________________________________  A Big Fracking Lie __________________________________________________________________________________  Pipeline explosion forces home evacuations in Otterburne _____________________________________________  Just a fracking well exploding into flames — nothing to see here! ______________________________________  VIDEO: Gas Pipeline Ruptures Underneath Raritan River, Shooting Water Into The Air ___________________  Second LNG Agreement reached for Grassy Point with Woodside ______________________________________ Solar _________________________________________________________________________________________________  Buy vs. Lease: Solar Panels on Your Home ___________________________________________________________

220 223 226 227 229 229 231 233 235 237 239 240

Forest Management _____________________________________________________________________________ 244  Kilmer, Murray to introduce new version of Wild Olympics bill today ____________________________________ 246  Conservation groups, timber companies reach deal to protect more of Great Bear Rainforest _____________ 250  Herrera Beutler’s bill on forest roads included in Farm Bill compromise _________________________________ 252  Major landslide causes property and environmental damage in Great Bear Rainforest ____________________ 253

Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon ______________________________________ 255      

Super salmon or 'Frankenfish'? ______________________________________________________________________ Eco Groups Challenge Canadian Government in Court over GM Salmon ________________________________ HEALTH & FITNESS 2013 – Fish As Drugs ____________________________________________________________ Fishing for Justice __________________________________________________________________________________ FDA and GE fish – the danger of rubber-stamp approval _______________________________________________ FDA: We don’t want FrankenSalmon! _________________________________________________________________

255 257 259 262 265 267

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

 Health Canada: we don’t want FrankenSalmon on our dinner plates_____________________________________ 268  'GMO products cause cancer and obesity' - food safety expert _________________________________________ 270

Government action/inaction______________________________________________________________________ 271  I have to stop saying “How stupid can you be” ________________________________________________________ 271  State signs off on Jefferson County’s shoreline master program after three years of work ________________ 273  Borough, City Approve Fisheries Analyst Contract ____________________________________________________ 275  Here's Why Your Weed Habit Is Bad for California's Salmon ____________________________________________ 276  Federal Science Hobbled By Cuts And Policies, Poll Says ______________________________________________ 278  Keystone: The Pipeline to Disaster ___________________________________________________________________ 281  Pipeline rupture report raises questions about TransCanada inspections _______________________________ 284  Win! Hamilton passes resolution against hydraulic fracking ____________________________________________ 289  NUU-CHAH-NULTH FISHING RIGHTS UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT ___________________________________ 291    

Ottawa opens door to fish farm expansion, and applications flood in____________________________________ Salmon farms net more tax dollars from Harper Govt to grow exports ___________________________________ Oil Transportation and Safety Act bill introduced in state Legislature ___________________________________ Waste facility location ‘fraught with risk’ ______________________________________________________________

293 296 297 300

   

Fisheries Critic questions habitat protection handover for pipelines ____________________________________ B.C. First Nations warns Premier Clark to consult aboriginals on LNG development ______________________ Capacity crowd greets FEMA_________________________________________________________________________ Agency builds small-boat access site on Chehalis _____________________________________________________

303 306 308 311

Greenwashing (aka: Pure Bovine Excrement) _____________________________________________________ 312  Harper Government Takes Further Steps to Ensure a Sustainable and Prosperous Aquaculture Sector in Canada __________________________________________________________________________________________ 312  Enbridge claims environmental poll wording about Northern Gateway is misleading (with video)__________ 313

Mining __________________________________________________________________________________________ 315  Mr. President, Protect Bristol Bay. ____________________________________________________________________ 315  EPA: Huge Alaska mine ‘poses risks’ to Bristol Bay salmon ____________________________________________ 316  Endako mine effluent affecting aquatic environment in north-central B.C. _______________________________ 319  Yukon Government Opens Vast Wilderness to Mining _________________________________________________ 322

Wild fish management ___________________________________________________________________________ 325  Boldt Decision on tribal fishing still resonates after 40 years ___________________________________________ 325  Wild Fish Group Says It Plans To Sue WDFW Over Puget Sound Hatchery Steelhead _____________________ 330  Feds Declare Salmon Fishery Disaster For Washington Tribes _________________________________________ 332  CDFW Puts Closures in Effect on Some Rivers, Recommends Further Changes to the Fish and Game Commission __________________________________________________________________________________ 334  Fisheries managers deliver upbeat salmon forecast __________________________________________________________ 336

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses __________________________ 337    

TMkey Film/Research ________________________________________________________________________________ Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 _________________________________________________________________ Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors_______________________________ Cabo Sails – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico ________________________________________________________________

337 338 339 340

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

 Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing _________________________________________________ 341  Great NW Rivers Guide Service ______________________________________________________________________ 342  Viviana’s SportFishing – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico _____________________________________________________ 343  April Vokey - Fly Gal Ventures________________________________________________________________________ 344  Mat Rompin Boat Charters on Facebook ______________________________________________________________ 345  The Himalayan Outback _____________________________________________________________________________ 346

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners _________________________________________________ 348 WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: _____________________________________________________ 348 Featured Artists: ________________________________________________________________________________ 349  Diane Michelin: Fly Fishing Fine Art __________________________________________________________________ 350  Gary Haggquist: "#30, Sunnyside Series" _____________________________________________________________ 351  Sara Stevenson _____________________________________________________________________________________ 352

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk _________________________________________________ 353  Kim Malcom - Owner, Guide: Riverman Guide Service _________________________________________________ 353

Featured Fishing Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny: ____________________________________________ 354  Svend Erik Albertsen: Soča River – very fishy! ________________________________________________________ 354      

Bryanna Zimmerman: Another Amazing Winter Steelhead ______________________________________________ Julius with his amazing Hog Snapper (Lachnolaimus maximus) ________________________________________ Kyle McClelland: Michigan Steelheading ______________________________________________________________ Amber Serbin: “Aggressive Cold Lake, Alberta trout” __________________________________________________ Himalayan Golden Mahseer __________________________________________________________________________ Martine Bouchard ___________________________________________________________________________________

355 356 357 358 360 361

 Thousands line up for the world's biggest ice fishing contest in temperatures of minus 40 degrees – Brainerd, Minnesota _________________________________________________________________________________ 362  Outdoorsman makes final journey by boat instead of a hearse__________________________________________ 365

Recommended Reading _________________________________________________________________________ 366  “Wild Steelhead—The Lure and Lore of a Pacific Northwest Icon” by Sean M. Gallagher __________________ 366  Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales” Watch orcas up close HERE ________________________________ 367  Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat" - with a chapter on the "environmental catastrophe" of factory fish farming! _________________________________________________________________________________ 368  Terry Wiest: Float Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead __________________________________________________ 369

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish ____________________________________________________ 370 Final Thoughts: _________________________________________________________________________________ 371  Truth _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 371

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

Legacy Forward The March 2014 issue of Legacy marks twenty nine consecutive months of our webbased magazine, the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published by Wild Game Fish Conservation International.

Legacy is published each month to expose risks to the future of wild game fish and their ecosystems around planet earth to our growing audience. Legacy is also utilized to promote the many benefits of healthy populations of wild game fish. Please share this uniquely comprehensive publication with others far and wide as it includes something of interest and importance for everyone.

Our hope is that those who read Legacy will come to understand that what is good for wild game fish is also good for humans. Similarly, what is bad for our planet’s wild game fish is really bad for humans!

A growing number of recreational anglers and others around planet earth are passionate about conserving wild game fish and their continued availability for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. Additionally, growing numbers of consumers and retailers are paying close attention to the impacts each of us have on global resources through our daily activities and purchases.

We continue to urge our readers to speak out passionately and to demonstrate peacefully for wild game fish and their ecosystems; ecosystems that we are but one small component of.

As recreational fishermen, conservation of wild game fish for future generations is our passion. Publishing “Legacy” each month is our self imposed responsibility to help ensure the future of these precious gifts that have been entrusted for safekeeping to our generation.

Bruce Treichler

James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

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

ook friends

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

While spending a few hundred hours preparing Legacy each month, it sometimes seems as though we are like Little Red Hen with her unending warning: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

As with the duckling pictured above, Wild Game Fish Conservation International is not Little Red Hen, nor is the sky truly falling.

Our planet is fortunate to have those who care deeply about her health and are willing to do whatever it takes to conserve her limited resources for future generations.

There is no free lunch; there is no Plan B! We’re all in this together!

Take ownership of issues within your grasp! Do your part!

What are you waiting for? The sky to fall???

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

Editorial Opinion

Alexandra Morton How could Canada and Norway heap this abuse on such a generous place? There is madness afoot.

A place that makes clean air, water and food has become the dumpsite for tonnes per day of fecal waste and disease so that people on the other side of the world can be rich.

This is not about jobs. We are not fools. The communities living among these Norwegian feedlots are not thriving. We are damaged, and poor. This was the traditional territory of a whale we called Eve and her family until they were displaced by the high amplitude acoustic harassment devices used on salmon farms... and that was just the beginning.

Everyone who buys farmed salmon threatens their own health, the health of the coast of British Columbia and robs our children of a world they might have thrived in.

I did not believe in evil but I do now.

I am in mourning for this place I love. I could not stop this.

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

 Letter of the Week: Is the federal government trying to kill our salmon?

January 19, 2014

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

What is the matter with the politicians back east?

I’m seriously beginning to believe that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford isn’t the only person in Ontario smoking crack!

Have they not been keeping up with what is happening in British Columbia?

A year ago, the $26-million Cohen Commission issued a comprehensive, 1,200-page report and provided 75 recommendations to deal with the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.

Since then, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government have done nothing to protect our valuable resource!

The gist of Cohen’s recommendations are that we do a whole lot more research around the consequences of fish farming to the wild stock.

So what are Harper and his gang doing? They are accepting more applications for expanded or new fish farms! Are they deliberately attempting to engineer the collapse of our wild salmon stock?

They must understand how catastrophic that would be to everything on the coast, right?

Or are they hoping that fish farms will do the job so we have no further objections to oil tankers?

Stop the insanity!

Cheryl Baron, Maple Ridge

Editorial Comment: Worst Case Scenario:

         

Open pen salmon feedlot industry will expand in British Columbia FrankenSalmon will be approved for human consumption FrankenSalmon will replace Atlantic salmon in open pen feedlots Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan dilbit pipelines will be constructed Dilbit tanker traffic in Salish Sea will be significantly increased Catastrophic dilbit and condensate spills will occur All marine life (including in salmon feedlots) will be significantly impacted Salmon feedlot industry will be reimbursed by Canada for their financial loss North America’s fishing and ecotourism industries will be devastated Dilbit will continue to be flow

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

Fishermen on Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire during the fishing season.

 Anglers are our allies against unsustainable industrial fishing British anglers and sport fishers bring more benefits to the economy, but a flawed policy alienates them completely January 24, 2014 Here are some figures that should be highly disruptive to the way that governments make decisions about how they treat our seas.

Total value of landings by commercial fishing fleets in the UK as a whole:£770m.

Total spending by sea anglers (recreational rod and line fishers) in England alone: £831m.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Yes, surprising as it seems, fishing for a hobby appears to generate more value than fishing commercially.

The same report, produced for the Westminster government last year, found that sea angling in England directly generates 10,400 jobs: in charter boats, tackle shops, bed and breakfasts, restaurants and the rest.

Editorial Comment: Imagine the positive economic impact from tourism if there were viable wild salmon and sea trout fisheries.

Commercial fishing directly employs 12,450 people across the UK. The report on angling doesn't provide figures for the whole of the UK, but if the jobs generated are proportional to the number of anglers, then the total for England, Scotland and Wales is 12,690.

(There must also be a few hundred in Northern Ireland, for which I don't have any figures). So, in terms of direct employment, rod and line fishing appears to generate more jobs than net and pot fishing.

This is complicated by the issue of indirect employment: jobs for people further along the supply chains. It's a slippery measure, which changes dramatically according to where you draw the line: there are lies, damn lies, statistics and indirect employment statistics. In 2008 I asked a researcher to investigate the claims made in the newspapers about jobs being generated by major industries.

We discovered that if the claims were correct and representative, there should be 218 million people employed in the UK: three and a half times the total population.

But, taking the figures provided in different reports at face value, commercial fishing generates more indirect employment than angling: it has a "multiplier" (the ratio of direct to indirect jobs) of 3.5, as opposed to 2.3 for sport fishing.

Broadly speaking, we're looking at two industries of roughly comparable size, which exist in direct competition with each other. One – commercial fishing – constrains the income and employment generated by the other. The government survey found that the factor above all others that would encourage participation is "better fish stocks". The anglers it questioned reported sharply diminished catches over the past 20 or 30 years; which is unsurprising in view of the depletion caused by commercial overfishing and the habitat destruction inflicted by trawlers and scallop dredgers.

It's hard to see how employment in the commercial sector could rise very much, even with higher fish stocks, as a few very large and efficient boats now take the majority of the catch. 69% of the tonnage of fish landed in the UK is taken by just 4% of the boats: vessels of over 24 metres.

This concentration, alongside technological change, is largely responsible for the rapid decline in employment in commercial fishing. Between 1938 and 1980 the number of jobs halved (48,000 to 23,000). Between 1980 and 2012 they halved again.

READ ENTIRE GUARDIAN ARTICLE HERE

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

Commentary:

 Jim Wilcox As wild game fish conservationists, nearly all we do to recover and protect these magnificent species and their fragile ecosystems has far reaching and long lasting ramifications. Most projects proposed to make life better for us really only benefit heads of corporations and governments - while adversely impacting individuals, our lifestyles and the natural resources we truly respect and appreciate.

One such effort involves the export of diluted bitumen from the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada to Asian markets. If allowed to be constructed, these pipelines would fill several hundred very large crude carrier (VLCC) class oil tankers every year with this highly toxic material. Many in the impacted First Nation communities as well as concerned conservationists around the world have grave concerns regarding this project that is sure to experience catastrophic leaks within the pipelines and spills during shipping. Both of these have serious and irreversible consequences.

In an idealistic world with no oil leaks or spills, there are still significant risks to marine mammals that rely on sonar for communication, navigation and hunting. The sonar from the vast number of ships and their support vessels will surely impact these marine mammals - they simply are unable to tolerate these foreign, artificial signals as the US Navy recently was informed via litigation.

Our society is at a crossroads - development with the enrichment of a few and the promise of a better lifestyle (economic, education) for others or natural resources conservation for the betterment of all.

Are we and our natural resources at a tipping point? Should we totally and blindly submit to unbridled commercial development or are we ready to get serious about conserving energy available from current technology while working together to develop sustainable renewable energy?

Why not us? Why not now?

This is the article that led to the above concerns, questions and comments: http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Alberta+working+group+sands+pipelines+ agrees/9437226/story.html Also read: Living Oceans:”Justified in the Circumstances: Whales or Supertankers”

or

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

 Eddie Gardner The Coastal Fish Farm Expansion Creates Expansion of A Robust Boycott Expansion!

Yesterday, I went to Superstore, went to the customer services desk and asked for the "feedback form." I went home and filled it out asking the store manager to stop selling farmed Atlantic salmon to help protect wild salmon and protect human health.

Today, I will bring it back to the store. One simple action like this can make a powerful difference when thousands of customers do the same. It takes little time to do this.

Each person can get this accomplished on the next shopping trip to Superstore, Walmart or Costco where they sell coastal farmed fish that supports putting on the market a contaminated product red-listed to AVOID.

         



Tell your friends and family about SeaChoice, Oceanwise and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch doing their science and research that brings them to issue warnings to human health when people buy and consume farmed Atlantic salmon.

People are more conscious of their health and pay attention. There are better choices.

The coastal fish farm industry is now being challenged by emerging land based aquaculture technology that will make them obsolete. Let's support them!

Let's promote the net-pen farmed salmon boycott until the demand for this inferior product is so low that they will be driven to closing down.

Keep hope alive! Do the everyday small things that make an accumulated powerful difference!

Wild Salmon need us!

We are not the only ones who love wild salmon, many species in the natural world love and depend on wild salmon as well. Salmon are sacred!

A lucrative economy is supported by this most generous gift to this part of the world.

Let's continue to mobilize to protect precious wild salmon! Boycott Net-Pen Farmed Salmon wherever it is sold!

Boycott rally across BC and the east coast set for Saturday, February 22 from noon to 1:00 pm! It's time to regenerate and move forward!

Have a terrific day and don't forget to fill out a feedback form and give it to the store manager the next time you go shopping! OCM

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

Special

 Pacific

Salmon Foundation: Where have the Coho and Chinook Salmon in Georgia Straight gone?

Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

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

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

 Open pen salmon feedlot industry: Shameful, unethical, irresponsible Similar government-enabled marketing tactics as those employed by Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Pharmaceuticals…

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

 Farm salmon linked to cancer chemicals The Food Standards Agency has urged people to keep eating Scottish farmed salmon after a scientific report claimed it is so full of pollutant chemicals it should only be eaten a maximum of three times a year.

Levels of 14 toxins were significantly higher in both European and North American farm-raised salmon than in fish caught in the wild.

The pollutants, which come under the banner of organochlorines, included chemicals which persist in the environment and are potential cancer triggers.

Four of the most hazardous - PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin and toxaphene were used to calculate consumption safety guidelines.

The researchers recommended that only a half to one meal - defined as eight ounces of uncooked meat - of farmed salmon bought from supermarkets in London and Edinburgh should be eaten per month.

This was the maximum amount that could be consumed before boosting the risk of cancer by at least one case in 100,000.

The same guidance applied to salmon bought from Frankfurt, Paris, Oslo, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto.

The most contaminated fish came from farms in Scotland and the Faroe Islands, Denmark. For these, the monthly limit was a mere quarter of a serving, equating to three servings per year.

Wild salmon, on the other hand, could be consumed at levels as high as eight meals per month.

But the Food Standards Agency pointed out that the dioxins and PCBs found in the study were within safety levels set by the World Health Organisation and European Commission.

FSA chairman Sir John Krebs said: "This study shows that the levels of dioxins and PCBs in salmon are within internationally recognised safety limits and confirms previous studies by the FSA. Our advice is that people should consume at least two portions of fish a week - one of which should be oily like salmon. There is good evidence that eating oily fish reduces the risk of death from recurrent heart attacks and that there is a similar effect in relation to first heart attacks."

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

Why is farmed salmon so contaminated? Two reasons.





PCBs and dioxins exist throughout the foodchain. Farmed salmon eat pellets made of fish meal and grains that are soaked in fish oils. Since these toxins bind to fat, the oils in farmed salmon feed can contribute considerable toxin loads. Wild salmon do not eat rendered fish oils and so do not get this extra exposure.

The second source of toxins in farmed salmon is the grain used to replace fish meal which is becoming too expensive as it becomes scarce. Endosulfan is a pesticide that many countries stopped using when the Stockholm Convention recommended a worldwide ban in 2010 due to its bad impact on human health. Farm salmon feed companies, however, can but grains from countries that are ignoring this ban. Perhaps this grain is cheaper. While Norway is a forward-thinking nation in some ways, in 2013 they actually lobbied the European Union to allow 10 times more endosulfan in farmed salmon feed. It appears from the EU decision document that this was done to make farmed salmon feed cheaper and salmon farming more profitable. (See section 6). Kind of shocking, what about the babies of moms eating this?

Here is a list of scientific papers and popular articles on the toxins in farmed salmon: Download

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

 Landmark

Restaurant – Bergen, Norway: Removes smoked Atlantic salmon from menu due to public health risks

Alexandra Morton:



 

“This is ground-breaking! Thank you to the Landmark restaurant in Bergen, Norway for making a public statement on Facebook that they have removed Norwegian farmed salmon from their menu because Norway keeps raising the toxin limits in their salmon product. FYI,

Landmark Bergen:

 

Norway also farms salmon in British Columbia and Chile. 98% of the salmon farms in BC are Norwegian-owned.



If Norway wants to tell the world their product is only toxic in Norway, that they only risk the health of Norwegians and it is somehow cleaner in North America – let’s hear it.”



Smoked salmon is taken off the menu as a result of recent studies of health safety issues in regards to Norwegian farmed salmon.

With the food safety department increasing the legal poison threshold with yet another ten times we decided better safe than sorry.

This is not a political statement and we will try to replace it with a more eco friendly healthy alternative.

Maneuvering through the jungle of food safety advice is no simple task, but this seemed easy enough.

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

 Congratulations Overwaitea Food Group: Sustainable Seafood Policy

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

 PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges

Editorial Comment: When making your next dining reservations for yourself, you and your loved one or a party, please be sure to look first at the restaurants that do not offer open pen feedlot salmon on their menu.

This is a simple way that we can thank these businesses for their significant dedication and commitment to our iconic wild Pacific salmon.

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

 Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here

Eddie Gardner: BAD CHOICE! So called “Fresh Farmed Atlantic Salmon Steak Tip" is very fatty and this absorbs high concentrations of PCBs. For your health and for the well being of the marine habitat, do not purchase this product.

Nikki Lamarre: They couldn't pay me to eat that!

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

 Avoid most Atlantic salmon - Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood Watch

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

FARMED ATLANTIC SALMON There are many environmental problems related to farming Atlantic salmon, which means most are ranked "Avoid." However, efforts to reduce some of these environmental impacts have been successful.

Consumer Note The majority of salmon farmed today are Atlantic salmon. A small quantity of Pacific salmon Chinook and coho - is also farmed. Salmon is known as sake when prepared for sushi.

Health Alert

Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for farmed salmon due to high levels of PCBs. Summary One of the biggest concerns is the amount of food required to raise farmed salmon. It generally takes three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon. The environmental impact of salmon farming is still increasing as global production continues to rise.

Most salmon are farmed in open pens and cages in coastal waters. Waste from these farms is released directly into the ocean. Parasites and diseases from farmed salmon can spread to wild fish swimming near the farms and escaping farmed salmon can harm wild populations. As a result, most salmon farmed in ocean net pens get an "Avoid" ranking. However, some salmon farmers are making changes to improve their practices.

Look for wild-caught salmon, clearly labeled U.S.-farmed freshwater coho salmon or Verlasso® salmon.

For now, "Avoid" most farmed Atlantic salmon.

Recipe Alternatives Seafood Watch recommends wild-caught salmon from Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, as well as U.S. coho (silver) salmon farmed in inland tanks and Verlasso® salmon.

Editorial Comment: You can do your part:

 

Frequent markets and restaurants that refuse to offer Atlantic salmon to their customers Support businesses that conserve sustainable populations of wild game fish

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

 Petitioning Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark – Sign Petition HERE Refuse to expand the salmon farming industry in BC

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

 Toxin in seafood causes kidney damage in mice at levels considered safe for consumption February 7, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Summary: Domoic acid accumulates in seafood and is toxic to the brain. Research indicates that the toxin damages kidneys at concentrations that are 100 times lower than what causes neurological effects.

A chemical that can accumulate in seafood and is known to cause brain damage is also toxic to the kidneys, but at much lower concentrations.

The findings, which come from a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), suggest that officials may need to reconsider what levels of the toxin are safe for human consumption.

The world's oceans contain algae that produce certain chemicals that can be harmful to humans and other living creatures. Many of these chemicals are considered neurotoxins because they cause damage to the brain. The neurotoxin domoic acid, also called "Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning," is a very stable, heat resistant toxin that is becoming more prominent in coastal regions, likely due to environmental changes.

It can accumulate in mussels, clams, scallops, and fish, and the FDA has set a legal limit of domoic acid in seafood based primarily on its adverse neurological effects.

Because domoic acid is cleared from the body by the kidneys, P. Darwin Bell, PhD, Jason Funk, PhD (Medical University of South Carolina), and their colleagues looked to see if the toxin might also have detrimental effects on these organs.

By giving mice varying doses of domoic acid and the assessing animals' kidney health, the team found that the kidney is much more sensitive to this toxin than the brain.

"We have found that domoic acid damages kidneys at concentrations that are 100 times lower than what causes neurological effects," said Dr. Bell. "This means that humans who consume seafood may be at an increased risk of kidney damage possibly leading to kidney failure and dialysis." While the findings need to be verified in humans, the researchers would like to see increased awareness and monitoring of domoic acid levels in all seafood.

They say that the FDA may also need to reconsider the legal limit of domoic acid in food due to its kidney toxicity.

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

FISH TO AVOID

 12 Fish You Should Never Eat Sometimes the easiest way to decipher seafood guidelines is in knowing what NOT to eat.

Atlantic Salmon (both wild-caught and farmed) Why It's Bad: It's actually illegal to capture wild Atlantic salmon because the fish stocks are so low, and they're low, in part, because of farmed salmon. Salmon farming is very polluting: Thousands of fish are crammed into pens, which leads to the growth of diseases and parasites that require antibiotics and pesticides. Often, the fish escape and compete with native fish for food, leading to declines in native populations.

Adding to our salmon woes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with approving genetically engineered salmon to be sold, unlabeled, to unsuspecting seafood lovers. That salmon would be farmed off the coast of Panama, and it's unclear how it would be labeled. Currently, all fish labeled "Atlantic salmon" come from fish farms.

Eat This Instead: Opt for wild Alaskan salmon now, and in the event that GE salmon is officially approved.

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

 FDA Safety Recall – Smoked Atlantic Salmon: Listeria Contamination

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

Recall -- Firm Press Release

FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.

Lochiel Enterprises Limited Recalls St Mary’s River Smokehouses Oven Smoked Salmon Stix, Chili Mango Flavor Because of Possible Health Risk Contact Consumer: 1-902-522-2005 Media: Margaret L. Harpell 902-522-2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 22, 2014 - Lochiel Enterprises Limited of Sherbrooke, NS is voluntarily recalling 56 lbs of ST MARY’S RIVER SMOKEHOUSES OVEN SMOKED ATLANTIC SALMON STIX, CHILI MANGO FLAVOR, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only shortterm symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and still births among pregnant women.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

St Mary’s River Smokehouses Oven Smoked Atlantic Salmon Stix, Chili Mango Flavor was distributed in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and New York through retail stores.

The product comes in a 4oz, black Styrofoam tray with an outer sleeve bearing the UPC Code 6 2642510092 9. The recall is specific to product marked with the production code 347 31## on a sticker on the end of the styrofoam tray.

The recall was the result of a routine sampling program by FDA which revealed that samples of the finished products contained the bacteria. Lochiel Enterprises Limited has voluntarily initiated the recall and is continuing its investigation.

Consumers who have purchased the product are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1 902 522-2005.

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

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

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

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected

 Barak Obama, re. Alberta dilbit President United States of America Regarding Keystone XL and other pipeline projects to transport bitumen and condensate from Alberta, Canada.

Your continued leadership to oppose these irresponsible, unethical, greed-driven projects must continue as we work to break our reliance on fossil fuels.

A few points to ponder:



     

The product coming from Canada is not crude oil as we know it - it's a "heavy oil" that requires the addition of condensate and chemicals to allow it to move through pipelines - very toxic and impossible to clean up.

All of the Canadian bitumen (heavy oil) will be exported to Asian markets and others willing to pay top dollar.

Barak Obama

There are four major pipeline projects proposed to transport the bitumen out of Alberta (Keystone XL, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Expansion, Line 9 reversal) Tremendous opposition from environmental organizations, first nations, agriculture community and others.

Oil by rail is being considered as an alternate - not proving very safe.

Transporting diluted bitumen (dilbit) via large oil tankers along North America's often treacherous coastlines is extremely problematic Adequate spill response resources are not in place to handle expected catastrophic spills.

 Maria Cantwell, re. BC salmon feedlot expansion US Senator Representing Washington State Your effective leadership in Congress is needed now more than ever if we are to recover and conserve wild Pacific salmon.

According to the news today, Canada is permitting a significant expansion of the number and size of open pen salmon feedlots sited on wild Pacific salmon migration routes in British Columbia's marine waters.

Maria Cantwell

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems You are fully aware that this action could likely be catastrophic to wild Pacific salmon (Canada and USA origin).

Here's the news article for your reference: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Canadian+federal+government+opens+door+mo re+fish+farms/9392417/story.html We respectfully request that you, through the US Congress and US State Department, take immediate steps to put a stop to this madness; a madness that impacts public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies..

 The Honorable Gail Shea, re. BC salmon feedlot expansion Minister Fisheries and Oceans, Canada Wild Game Fish Conservation International, on behalf of our associates around planet earth, is shocked by today's news from your office that expansion of the open pen salmon feedlot industry in British Columbia is moving forward.

This is especially disconcerting given the results recommendations from the Cohen Commission and increasing evidence that processes associated with problematic industry are linked to risks to public health, ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

and the this wild Gail Shea

We join others in Canada and around planet earth, Minister Shea, to respectfully request that you and your professional staff reconsider this expansion before it is implemented as it would surely result in dire consequences for North America's wild Pacific salmon.

 Arnie Roblan, re, wild salmonid recovery Senator Oregon Legislature Wild Game Fish Conservation International is concerned that the current draft of the Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan will not protect wild, native salmon, cutthroat and steelhead along coastal Oregon.

Wild, native coastal salmonid populations are an important part of the unique heritage of Oregon. Long-term protection of these species is critical to the health and survival of these fish and the businesses that depend on them.

Arnie Roblan

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems We support ODFW’s effort to develop a comprehensive conservation plan that is in line with Oregon’s Conservation Strategy and Native Fish Conservation Policy; however, I do not support the CMP in its current draft.

Two independent scientific reviews of the plan, the Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team (IMST) and the Independent Science Review Panel (Panel), have come to the same conclusion: this plan lacks the necessary scientific credentials to be confident it will help prevent the depletion of any of the species, and should not be considered a conservation plan.

We support the recommendations of these two reviews, which state that the draft CMP needs to better incorporate fundamental elements of accepted scientific convention. In reference to these omissions, the Panel states, “ effective, explicit, and integrated monitoring and evaluation protocol is probably the most important single product of any conservation plan” yet, this essential monitoring and evaluation program is absent in the draft CMP. Both the IMST and Panel reviews found that the current draft of the CMP fails to deliver a conservation plan grounded in the best-available science and is inconsistent with what is known about the limiting factors for habitat, harvest, and hatchery pressures facing coastal salmonids. For example, the draft CMP assumes hatchery fish pose a general risk to wild salmon and steelhead, but lacks discussion about the fundamental tradeoffs between hatchery and wild populations and makes no justification that the full use of existing capacity of hatchery fish production is amenable with the goal of fish conservation.

We urge you to refer to the extensive scientific evidence over the last 30 years providing proof that hatchery fish are harmful and reduce performance and fitness to wild fish, and make adjustments to the CMP that will reduce these risks to wild populations.

We support the concept of wild fish emphasis (WFE) areas as a positive action towards protecting wild populations. However, there are several problems with the current CMP and the WFEs, which if left unresolved will be futile for protecting wild fish. The draft CMP has weak alignment between the WFE areas and the highest habitat integrity areas that have previously been recognized by ODFW. The CMP would be improved if there was a broader ecological approach to designating WFE areas, and that these were correlated to the department’s extensive coastal stream habitat data. To achieve the greatest benefit, ODFW must provide clear conservation directions for other land managers that will guide their habitat protection and restoration work to be in alignment with the WFE areas. Of particular concern is the lack of a detailed ODFW monitoring plan that will prevent interaction between hatchery and wild fish in these areas, and how the plan will minimize the impacts of strayed hatchery fish on wild populations.

Two unique populations of summer steelhead exist within the CMP’s coverage, in the Siletz and North Umpqua basins, and these fish warrant additional protections. In particular, the impacts of hatchery fish from straying and interbreeding pose significant threats to the viability of these unique populations. For example, under the Siletz River Basin Hatchery and Genetic Management Plan, hatchery steelhead spawning in the wild should be kept at 10% or less in natural habitats, but limited observations in tributaries of the Siletz River have indicated a substantial portion of hatchery summer steelhead are spawning in wild winter steelhead habitats.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Given the ten year average run of 500 adult wild summer steelhead (which is short of ODFW objectives for a 700 wild fish average) and combined with the observed straying of hatchery summer steelhead, it would be advisable to eliminate the summer steelhead hatchery releases on the Siletz or provide rationale for how ODFW plans to protect wild summer and winter steelhead from ecological completion below the falls and meet its 700 wild summer steelhead target while maintaining existing release numbers. This is but one example of how vulnerable populations, such as spring chinook, summer steelhead and chum salmon, would benefit from a CMP that explicitly states how the risks of straying, ecological competition and interbreeding will be minimized from hatchery and wild fish interaction.

The draft CMP contains no scientific justification to suggest a proposed “modest”• harvest of wild winter steelhead will assist in conservation of native fish.

We do not support any harvest of wild steelhead when critical questions on minimum escapement requirements, harvest impacts, and spawner abundance are left unanswered and unmonitored. Wild steelhead harvest on any population in which the health and productivity of its wild stocks remain unknown poses immediate and unnecessary risks. A conservation plan with this glaring omission seems disingenuous considering the fact that of the 15 distinct populations of steelhead on the west coast, 12 are listed as threatened or endangered, and not one has been recovered or de-listed from the ESA. Furthermore, a recent NOAA assessment on the status of coastal steelhead found that they face the likelihood of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future.

Predicted changes in population growth and the climate pose significant risk to coastal salmonids, but these issues only receive cursory attention in the draft CMP. As stated in the Panel’s review, “An earnest conservation plan will have guidelines for managing fish populations and their habitats by accounting for what is known about future climate change, and explicitly identify preemptive strategies to combat potential climate related habitat and fish population losses.”• Furthermore, at risk populations such as chum salmon and early-run Chinook salmon are arbitrarily dismissed in the CMP from a scientific assessment putting these wild populations at even more risk. These examples are some of the numerous omissions of prudent scientific convention that were left out of the draft CMP. We respectfully request that you consider the shared conclusions from the IMST and Panel review, and incorporate their recommendations in the final CMP. Why not take the necessary precautions when drafting a plan that affects so many populations of wild salmonids along Oregon’s coast? The accepted scientific conventions are known, but have not been faithfully applied to the current draft of the CMP. Consequently, the current plan increases risks for all of Oregon’s coastal fisheries and the economies that depend on the long-term viability of the fish. Unless these issues are remedied, it is unlikely this draft plan will help prevent depletion of these species and ensure these populations are viable into the future.

We are asking that completion of the Coastal Management Plan be suspended to give the department, as well as the public, time to carefully consider the shared conclusions from the IMST and the Independent Science Panel.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A successful CMP will be consistent with conservation goals, establish an explicit monitoring and evaluation protocol, discuss reasonable alternatives to safeguard unique species and take the necessary precautions in order to protect Oregon’s coastal salmonid populations into the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this draft of the Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan.

 Real Canadian Superstore, re. Remove Atlantic salmon from stores Wild Game Fish Conservation International appreciates your permission for wild salmon advocates across British Columbia to share the risks of farm raised salmon with Superstore customers; most of whom don't eat this product because of its risk to public health and wild ecosystems.

We, on behalf of those who care deeply for wild salmon and their ecosystems, respectfully urge that Real Canadian Superstore markets across Canada immediately and permanently remove open pen feedlot salmon from your stores.

 Tim Sheldon, re. Enhancing the safety of the transportation of oil Senator (35th Legislative District) Washington State Legislature I’m writing as one of your concerned constituents regarding proposals to transport increased volumes of hazardous material (oil, Liquefied Natural Gas, coal, and others) via Washington’s waters, rails, highways and via pipelines that cross our ecologically-sensitive state.

Washington’s aging infrastructure of rails, highways and pipelines along with our inadequate spill prevention and response capabilities will only exacerbate the known and unknown risks of expected incidents

Tim Sheldon

Specifically, I’m writing regarding House Bill 2347 and Senate Bill 6262: “Enhancing the safety of the transportation of oil” to share the following points of concern with you:  Much of the oil that could potentially be transported through Washington State via pipelines, oil tankers, trains and trucks will be diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the Tar Sands in Alberta Canada.  Dilbit is a pressurized, highly toxic cocktail of bitumen (oil and sand), condensate and assorted chemicals.  As planned, Dilbit will be transported from British Columbia ports via several hundred very large crude carrier (VLCC) class oil tankers per year to Asia and California refineries.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems  The tankers bound for California will traverse the Strait of Juan de Fuca before turning south thus risking Washington’s entire coastline.  Additional shipping traffic will utilize the Strait of Juan de Fuca to import condensate from Asia to Canadian ports and to export Canadian Liquefied Natural Gas (LGN) and American thermal coal from Canada and the USA to China.  This significant increase in shipping of hazardous material will result in irreversible, catastrophic scenarios for those living in British Columbia and Washington State as well as for all taxpayers in Canada and the USA.  The scenarios for transporting these hazardous materials via pipelines, rails and trucks are equally dire.  Major spills of crude oil are impossible to clean up (ie. Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon…)  Dilbit does not evaporate; it sinks – therefore, it is far worse than crude oil on any level.

I respectfully request that you and your colleagues in the Senate and House employ the Precautionary Principle while you consider the:  risks associated with transporting this hazardous material through Washington State  resources required to implement this legislation to regulate the transportation of oil through Washington and to effectively respond to expected catastrophic accidents.

 Maria Cantwell, re. logging road pollution Senator (Washington State) US Congress Wild Game Fish Conservation International learned today that language that would spare timberland owners from what they say are expensive and onerous federal regulations for forest roads has been included in a House-Senate compromise version of the federal Farm Bill.

If approved, this compromise language would transfer responsibility of mitigating costly and often irreversible ecological impacts directly associated with construction and maintenance of logging roads from the companies that own them to taxpayers.

Maria Cantwell

Protection of the public-owned natural resources potentially impacted during and after timber management practices is the responsibility of the property owner and/or those contracted to do the work.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems As it often happens in the steep forest lands of the Pacific Northwest, forest management practices lead to pollution of public waters thus impacting the fish and wildlife that rely on them. This pollution is often in the form of siltation from the steep slopes following timber management practices and from road construction and maintenance.

The cost of effectively mitigating this pollution should be the responsibility of the timber owner/contractor; either through adequate permitting fees or realistic fines - this cost of doing business in ecologically sensitive areas should not be the burden of taxpayers.

We rely on your leadership and continued fight for Washington's sustainable natural resources to ensure that these resources are effectively protected from the impacts of corporate pollution.

 Karen Wristen, re. whales or oil ships Executive Director] Living Oceans .

We see that Living Oceans came to the same conclusion that we at Wild Game Fish Conservation International reached: We must choose between whales and increased shipping into and out of British Columbia.

Your report on this topic at: http://livingoceanssociety.cmail1.com/t/r-l-pjjiytyghtjdtdw-p/ discusses proposed increased shipments of diluted bitumen from Kitimat via Douglas Channel and Vancouver via Burrard Inlet and the noise, collision and spill impacts this increased shipping will have on this sensitive region's whales.

There will also be significant increases in export of Liquefied Natural Gas and coal (Canada and USA-origin) as well as increased import of condensate into Kitimat. These increased tanker trips will have similar impacts to the region's whales.

Additionally, and of at least equal concern throughout this important region, are the impacts associated with increased sonar signals from these ships and their escort vessels. As has been expected for decades and recently confirmed, sonar signals from ships adversely impact the ability of marine mammals to communicate, navigate and forage.

In closing, a choice must be made (if it has not already been made for us), to pursue increased export of fossil fuels at the expense of life as we know it, or are we morally obligated to recover and protect our ecosystem through conservation?

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

ď ś Drew MacEwen, re. flood damage reduction Representative (35th Legislative District) Washington State Legislature Thank you for providing a forum this evening for your constituents in Washington's 35th Legislative District to better understand the local and statewide issues you support or oppose.

As a reminder I asked your position on continued funding of the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and your position regarding the proposed Chehalis River dam (near Pe Ell).

Clearly, you support continued funding for the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority.

Drew Macewen

This is truly unfortunate given the millions of taxpayer dollars over the past five years that have resulted in no meaningful, basinwide projects to reduce flood-related damage. The only thing that has resulted in this ongoing drain on taxpayers is more studies that have no definite results - of course, many contractors and consultants have enhanced their bank accounts during what was sold to taxpayers as a one year effort - now, there is no end in sight.

In the meantime, irresponsible landuse practices including floodway development and steep slope clearcut logging continues unchecked. Without effectively addressing these issues, the taxpayer funded projects will only serve as band aides at best - like the studies, they will prove to be no better than flushing tax dollars down the proverbial toilet - Washington's budget and those who fund it deserve better accountability and resource stewardship than we are getting with the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority.

Unfortunately, you did not share your position regarding the proposed Chehalis River dam. Clearly, any and all support for this misguided project should cease. As you no doubt understand, this proposed dam is opposed by the Quinault Indian Nation and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, conservation organizations, certain landowners and more. This proposed dam would put residents and businesses downstream in harm's way. Additionally, it would destroy wild game fish and cultures and economies that rely on them. The big game (elk, deer, bear) that rely on this basin would be negatively impacted.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and a whole host of state and federal agencies will oppose this proposed dam given its expected impacts on ESA listed fish, wildlife and plants.

During your response you also indicated that you support Representative DeBolt's proposed legislation to generate funding ($1.5 Billion) with $300 Million dedicated to Chehalis River flood damage reduction. Given that the proposed Chehalis River Dam will likely never be constructed, and other flood prone areas also are the result of foolishly developing in floodways, it is doubtful that this funding will be supported by voters - there simply are many other worthy efforts in Washington where these funds would be cost effective.

Hopefully, you and your colleagues will serve wisely as stewards of Washington's uniquely precious and irreplaceable resources

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

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

Responses to WGFCI:

 Kathy Haigh, re. Salish Sea oil spills Representative (35th Legislative District) Washington State Legislature Thank you for contacting my office. I appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns about the safety of Washington’s waterways.

One of Washington's greatest assets are the beautiful rivers and lakes that span the landscape.

Americans are drawn from across the country to view the breathtaking water features our state has to offer. Too often we see this natural beauty destroyed by accidental oil spills. These spills damage people, property and wildlife. As a resident of the area, I could not imagine how devastating it would be if our landscape were damaged in any way by a preventable oil spill. I want Washington’s waters to be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come.

Should any legislation come to my attention regulating oil transport safety in Washington State, I will be sure to keep your comments in mind when making my decision. Please feel free to contact me in the future concerning this, or any other issue.

 Drew MacEwen Representative (35th Legislative District) Washington State Legislature Thank you for your email.

I appreciate your input regarding the flood authority.

I am not as fully up to speed on the issues you raised and as such will look into this further and reevaluate my position.

Please keep in touch and let’s find ways to work together to solve the issues involved.

Kindest Regards.

Drew MacEwen State Representative

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

 The Honourable John McKay, re. approval to manufacture GE salmon eggs House of Commons Canada

The Honourable John McKay P.C., M.P. Thank you for taking the time to contact my office with your opposition to the Government’s decision to allow the production of genetically modified (GM) fish eggs in Prince Edward Island and concerns about the commercial introduction and sale of genetically modified organisms. This issue is of significant shared concern.

Liberals believe that the approval of new food products, whether GMO, non-GMO or organic must conform to both the highest quality evaluation and safety standards, so that Canadians are assured that they are protected and can have confidence in the safety of our food supply.

Moreover, the introduction of GMOs cannot be allowed to endanger the livelihoods of other farmers and producers who have chosen a different method of growing.

It is the federal government - particularly the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - in conjunction with Health Canada, who are responsible to monitor and review the sound science behind our food safety system. Yet, with continuing cuts to resources available to the CFIA and the Government's refusal to audit the human resources of the CFIA to determine its adequacy, our concern has become heightened.

Both the Liberal Party and industry are alarmed by the ongoing reduction in frontline food safety workers and in particular, researchers and scientists who are tasked with evaluating food products.

This places you and the rest of the Canadian public at greater risk – as we have already seen with outbreaks like E. coli from the XL Foods plant in Alberta late last year.

It is also the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that adequate plans are put in place for the safe production, transport and necessary protection from cross-contamination.

We stand for strong, evidence-based scrutiny of our food supply chain and agree that the Government of Canada must always act to protect consumers and farmers when making these decisions.

Thank you again for sharing your concerns,

Hon. John McKay, MP Scarborough-Guildwood

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

 Lisa Johnston, re. Protection of Scotland’s wild salmon and sea trout Aquaculture Policy Officer Marine Scotland – Performance and Aquaculture Scottish Government Thank you for your email of 4 November to Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Environment and Climate Change expressing your concerns about the perceived effects of open pen salmon farms on wild salmon. I have been asked to respond.

The Scottish Government want to see salmon aquaculture and recreational fisheries thrive. Both are key to the development of Scotland’s rural and coastal areas – helping to underpin sustainable economic growth particularly in Scotland’s rural and coastal communities and with significant potential to contribute further to provide long term and quality jobs. We have a regulatory framework in place that is appropriate and gives the right balance between growing the sector and protecting the marine environment.

Scotland’s aquaculture stocks are internationally recognised as having a high health status. All fish farming businesses are authorised by Marine Scotland under the Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009. MS Fish Health Inspectorate carry out assessments for disease control, sea lice management and containment measures.

All fish farms in Scotland also have to meet strict environmental guidelines, monitored by SEPA with the aim of ensuring that the environmental impacts from the industry are assessed and managed safely. Before operator’s can make discharges of any kind (including medicines) they must apply for and attain a Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR) licence from SEPA. In addition to regulatory regimes, the accredited industry Code of Good Practice for Finfish Aquaculture aims to ensure adherence by industry to the standards set down within the Code.

A Ministerial Group for Sustainable Aquaculture (MGSA) chaired by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and comprising industry and other stakeholders has also been established to facilitate industry to achieve their sustainable growth targets (finfish production sustainably to 210,000 tonnes and shellfish, particularly mussels, to 13,000 tonnes) – with due regard to the marine environment - by 2020 as set out in the Scottish Marine Plan consultation in 2013 through seven focused working groups.

Furthermore, the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2013 was commenced in September 2013 to ensure farmed and wild fisheries – and their interactions – continue to be managed effectively, maximizing their combined contribution to supporting sustainable economic growth with due regard to the wider marine environment. The Act builds on the existing robust and world renowned regulatory framework in place in Scotland to maintain our pristine Scottish waters – on which both sectors depend.

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

 Barak Obama, re. Climate Change, Fossil Fuels President United States of Ameriaca

Thank you for writing. When it comes to protecting our planet, we have a responsibility to make smart, forward-thinking decisions that put our children’s future first. I appreciate your thoughts on how we can help do that.

One of the most important ways we can take action is by confronting climate change. Today, we are setting standards for power plants so they can no longer dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free. We are also investing aggressively in renewables and energy efficiency that will drive America’s transition to a low-carbon, clean energy economy.

Of course, we cannot complete that transition overnight, which means we will continue to rely partly on fossil fuels. That includes oil we can produce here at home, as well as natural gas and cleaner coal that can power our economy with less carbon pollution. But safety must be our first priority, which is why we will keep working to make sure these resources do not put our communities at risk.

Investing in American energy technology will grow our economy and protect our environment at the same time. So will investing in America’s great outdoors. Since I took office, we have set aside more than 2 million acres of wilderness, established 9 new National Monuments, and launched a 21st-century conservation strategy that responds to the priorities of the American people. Steps like these are putting Americans back to work in tourism and recreation, and preserving our natural heritage for future generations.

Thank you, again, for writing. Building a cleaner, safer world for our kids to grow up in takes work from all of us, and voices like yours are sparking the conversation that will help get us where we need to be. I encourage you to stay engaged and learn more about my commitment to the environment at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Environment.

Sincerely, Barack Obama

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

 Barak Obama, re. reduced dependence on foreign oil President United States of Ameriaca

Thank you for writing. Every day, I hear from people who are concerned about energy issues—from the price they pay at the pump today to the energy portfolio we build for tomorrow. I am glad you took the time to share your thoughts.

One thing almost everyone can agree on is the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And I am proud to say that after years of talk, America is finally making headway.

Thanks to public investment and private ingenuity, we generate more renewable energy today than ever before. We produce more natural gas than anyone in the world. And for the first time in nearly two decades, we produce more of our own oil here at home than we buy from other countries.

These steps are good for our economy and our security. They are also good for families—because producing more American energy creates more American jobs and lowers energy bills for nearly everybody.

Wasting less energy helps us even more. We set new fuel standards for cars and trucks that will double their mileage and give drivers more bang for their buck at the pump. We also launched initiatives to put people to work making our homes, businesses, and factories more energy efficient.

That will save businesses money on energy bills that they can use to hire more workers.

And because we are using more clean energy and wasting less, our emissions of dangerous carbon pollution are actually falling while our economy continues to grow.

This is the way forward: good jobs, cheaper and cleaner energy, and a secure future for our kids. To keep making progress, we need to double down on low-carbon energy—from wind and solar to nuclear and biofuels. We should increase responsible natural gas production that boosts our businesses and keeps costs down for families. And we should keep investing in American technologies that grow our economy while protecting our planet for generations to come.

Thank you, again, for writing. To learn more about my plan to secure America’s energy future, visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/Energy.

Sincerely, Barack Obama

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

ď ś Denny Heck, re.TPP Representative, 10th Congressional District US Congress

Thank you for contacting me about Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). I appreciate your thoughts and welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, Trade Promotion Authority has been the method typically used by Congress to consider trade agreements since the 1970s. It provides guarantees that Congress will consider legislation implementing trade agreements in an expeditious manner and that those agreements will not be subject to amendment. In order to be subject to these special procedures, however, the provisions of any trade agreement must broadly comply with negotiating objectives defined by Congress in the legislation granting TPA. In addition, the President and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) are subject to notification requirements designed to ensure that Congress remains abreast of the progress of trade negotiations.

Technically, TPA is not necessary to begin or even conclude trade negotiations, but it has become a commonly-used practice because it allows our own diplomats and our negotiating partners to have confidence that any deal that they negotiate will be subject to an up-or-down vote on the pact's merits.

One of the important ways that Congress has ensured that it continues to have a strong voice in trade policy is by putting sunset provisions in legislation granting TPA. As you may know, the most recent reauthorization of TPA was passed in 2002 and expired in 2007.

In anticipation of completing negotiations of major trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the chairs of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees introduced the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 on January 9, 2014.

I have been listening closely to the concerns some have raised about TPA, particularly since, in the process of seeking to reduce "non-tariff" barriers to trade, these agreements often touch on many important regulatory standards. During my time in Congress, I have strongly supported labor rights, consumer protections, and the environment, and please be assured those principles will continue to guide me as Congress considers this legislation.

Washington State is one of the most trade-impacted states in the nation, with one in three jobs supported by foreign trade.

Because this is such a critical issue for our community, and because this is my first time considering it as a Member of Congress, it's personally important to me that I learn as much as I can about this issue and where my constituents stand.

For that reason, I particularly appreciate your taking the time to share your perspective, and I hope you will continue to do so throughout Congressional deliberations on this issue.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I hope you will do so again if I can be of assistance in the future.

Sincerely,

Denny Heck Member of Congress

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

 City of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Subject: Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion

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

 Denny Heck, re. Trans Pacific Partnership Representative US Congress

Dear Mr. Wilcox,

Thank you for contacting me about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that is currently in negotiations.

As you know, the TPP is a proposed trade agreement among the United States and 11 other countries.

If agreed to, it would be the largest Foreign Trade Agreement ever negotiated by the US. Since the agreements are still being negotiated we do not have a text of the TPP. As these negotiations continue and as Congress continues to monitor and eventually vote on the provisions of the TPP, I will work to ensure that high standards to protect the American workforce are embedded within the draft. Issues such as worker's rights, intellectual property rights, protections for pharmaceuticals and investor rights must be addressed and kept at the highest of standards.

As always, I am here to listen to your thoughts about issues of our international trade policy. Should you have any additional thoughts regarding this or any other matter, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Denny Heck Member of Congress

Editorial Comment: “…protections for pharmaceuticals and investor rights must be addressed and kept at the highest of standards” are some of the concerns many have regarding the fast tracking of the Trans Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements guarantee returns on foreign investments.

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

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

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

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

 The Activist

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

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

 Wild Salmon Solidarity Rally: Outrage over expanding salmon feedlots Department of Fisheries and Oceans office – Vancouver, BC February 17, 2014

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

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

 Locking Arms for Wild Salmon Eddie Gardner February 17, 2014, people from all over BC gathered to lock arms for wild salmon!

Chief Bob Chamberlain was unable to join us as he was needed by his family and community!

Alexandra Morton, Chief Judy Wilson and I shared some words with the press about a change in direction that needs to take place - instead of coastal fish farm expansion, the precautionary principle needs to kick in and fish leases need to be suspended until the science studies are completed as recommended by the $26 million dollar Cohen Commission.

In the meantime, we need to expand and intensify the net-pen farmed salmon boycott. If people don't buy this product, they won't have a sustainable business, and their operations will have to shut down.

This is where their bottom line is really.

The power of consumers is very real, and collectively we can do this, not only for the preservation of wild salmon and a cleaner marine environment, but also for the health and well being of humans.OCM

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

 FEDS BROKE SPECIES AT RISK LAW, COURT RULES February 14, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OTTAWA - A Federal Court judge has ruled that the environment minister and the fisheries minister both broke the law by failing to enforce the Species at Risk Act. In a case covering four species that Justice Anne Mactavish calls "the tip of the iceberg," the court found there's a major systemic problem in the two ministries charged with protecting endangered and threatened wildlife.

The 47-page ruling released Friday states that "public officials are not above the law. If an official acts contrary to a statute, the courts are entitled to so declare."

At issue was a challenge brought by five environmental organizations, who asked the court to enforce provisions under the Species at Risk Act. The groups cited four particular species: the nechako white sturgeon, the pacific humpback whale, the marbled murrelet and the southern mountain woodland caribou.

In every case, the government had failed to propose recovery strategies after the species were formally identified, missing statutory deadlines by up to six and half years.

"It is simply not acceptable for the responsible ministers to continue to miss the mandatory deadlines that have been established by Parliament," Mactavish wrote.

A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq responded to the judgment by acknowledging that recovery strategies or management plans are currently required for 192 species, of which 163 are overdue.

"Environment Canada has significantly accelerated its progress in recent years and has published 85 strategies and plans in the last three years," Jennifer Kennedy said in an email.

"It is also finalizing a posting plan to ensure transparency with respect to upcoming recovery documents and progress in reducing the number of overdue recovery documents over the next few years."

The judgment cited evidence those recovery plans could have an impact on the approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which will affect all four of the species cited in the case.

As Mactavish ruled, "the absence of posted recovery strategies deprives the ministers of considerable leverage in dealing with the impact of industrial development on species at risk."

The judgment found the government did not contest the evidence — "although they do deny that recovery strategies have been intentionally delayed in order to facilitate industrial development."

Stewart Elgie, a professor of environmental law at the University of Ottawa, characterized the judgment as "a stern wake-up call to the government."

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems In an interview, Elgie likened species on the list to critical-care patients at a hospital emergency ward.

"If we don't act quickly, some of them face real risk of extinction, so this kind of delay — five years or more — threatens the very survival of some Canadian wildlife species."

He said when the legislation came into force in 2003, some 200 threatened species required protection plans and created an immediate backlog. A one-time injection of serious funding could help Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans catch up, and Elgie argues it would be money well spent.

"The cost of doing that is cheap compared to the cost of what it will take to bring these species back if we let them get to the brink of extinction," he said.

In her judgment, Mactavish pointedly noted that lack of resources for the government departments came up time and again in testimony.

Yet the Conservative government counsel, she wrote, "advised the court that he had been specifically instructed not to raise a lack of resources as a justification for the delay in posting proposed recovery strategies for the four species."

Mactavish ruled "there is clearly an enormous systemic problem within the relevant ministries."

There is no penalty for the government missing its deadlines under the Species at Risk Act, but the court did award costs of $22,500 to the five groups that brought the suit.

The groups that challenged the government include the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of British Columbia, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Wildsight.

They issued a statement on Friday declaring victory and expressed hope the federal government would act to protect at risk species.

"The Canadian government now needs to ramp up its efforts to finalize recovery strategies for the more than 160 other species at risk that need protection,” Gwen Barlee, a spokesperson for the Wilderness committee, said in the statement.

Editorial Comment:

  

Truly shameful, especially given recent spending of hundreds of millions of dollars by Canada to establish the problematic open pen salmon feedlot industry, promote sub-par Atlantic salmon and compensate the industry for failed feedlot practices.

The species at risk recovery strategies, especially regarding marine life, must effectively address the risks associated with increased shipping of diluted bitumen, condensate, liquefied natural gas, coal and other hazardous material.

Species at risk recovery strategies must be adequately resourced and effectively enforced

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

 Court dismisses activist’s appeal attempt February 13, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear the appeal of an activist found liable for defamation by the BC Court of Appeal. The order to pay damages and stop publishing defamatory materials about Cermaq Canada will stand.

“We are glad to see today’s ruling, which vindicates Cermaq’s reputation as a producer of nutritious salmon. We welcome public debate, but it should be based on facts, and critics should be held accountable for their public commentary,” said Laurie Jensen, Cermaq Canada’s Communications and Corporate Sustainability Manager.

Don Stanford: “Shocking but not surprising that Cermaq is attempting to twist the terms of the injunction (the plaintiff in the case and the name on the injunction is Mainstream NOT Cermaq)!”

Listen HERE to CBC Radio interview of Don Stanford.- NO HOLDS BARRED

Cermaq Canada (which changed names from Mainstream Canada in November, 2013) originally took anti-salmon farming activist Don Staniford to court from January 16 to February 10, 2012. The legal action was in response to a prolonged, malicious, and unfounded attack by Staniford on the company and its employees.

“It affected our employees, their families, our suppliers and our partners. The heart of our company is our employees, and we need to stand up for them and defend them against malicious and defamatory attacks, and against cyber bullying,” Jensen said.

In the original trial, the judge concluded that Mainstream was a responsible corporate citizen, pointing out that “They are conscious of the need to operate the business in a manner consistent with producing a product that is safe to consume and contributes to a healthy and nutritious diet.”

The trial judge found that the activist’s comments were defamatory and were motivated by express malice toward Mainstream. She described the language in his publications as “extreme, inflammatory, sensationalized, extravagant and violent,” but accepted his fair comment defense.

On July 22, 2013, The BC Court of Appeal overturned the trial judge and ruled that Staniford was not eligible for protection under a fair comment defence because he failed to adequately provide facts to back up his claims. The appeal judgment also awarded Mainstream Canada special costs because of Staniford’s “reprehensible conduct” during the litigation.

“We are proud to produce top-quality, healthy fish for our customers, and we are glad this issue is finally concluded,” Jensen said.

100% Bovine Excrement

Cermaq Canada farms Atlantic salmon in 27 sea sites on the west and east coasts of Vancouver Island, operates four land-based hatcheries and two processing plants (one under contract). The company holds seven third-party certifications in environmental sustainability, food safety, quality control, worker safety, including the internationally-recognized Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices certification.

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

 Salmon Activist rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada He was convicted in Canada for defamation against Norwegian Cermaq. Now activist Don Staniford's appeal rejected by the Canadian Supreme Court.

February 17, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Don Staniford is one of the world's best known campaigners against the farming industry and for the protection of wild salmon. Among other things, the Norwegian organization Save the wild salmon supported Staniford as one of the world's largest breeding companies, Norwegian state-owned Cermaq, filed a lawsuit against him for defamation in 2012.

"Salmon kills" Staniford then had for many years been at loggerheads Mainstream, which Cermaq called in Canada before. The conflict came to a head including when Staniford had crafted images of cigarette packages with text like "Salmon Farming Kills" and images of the Norwegian coat of arms and flag.

Extreme language In summer upheld the High Court ruling against Staniford, where Cermaq was successful in that it operates properly and produce safe food.

Staniford was convicted of libel and received by the court characterized the use of language as its extreme, provocative, sensationalist and violent. He was also ordered to pay costs.

Staniford appealed to the Supreme Court, now therefore have dismissed the appeal.

Ga 60,000 million The organization Save the wild salmon, which is part of the foundation of the North Atlantic Wild Salmon Fund Norway and cooperates with the Icelandic wild salmon campaigner Orri Vigfusson, supported Staniford 60 000 for the trial. Save the wild salmon while urging others to do the same to support freedom of expression and showed that Cermaq Asked by Canada's third largest law firm and ten witnesses, while Staniford was represented by a small semi-firm.

Cermaq is the world's largest aquaculture company with operations in Norway, Chile and Canada, and the Norwegian government as majority shareholder. The company has 4,500 employees, produces 200,000 tonnes a year and has a global market share of six per cent. In 2012, Cermaq had revenue of 3.3 billion.

Staniford has served as an anti aquaculture activists not only in Canada but in Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and the United States.

Watch, listen, learn: "Healthy", "Nutritious" Farmed Salmon?!

HERE

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

 Supreme Court rules against "fair comment" February 16, 2014 In Mainstream v. Staniford, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the BC Supreme Court’s decision to find anti-salmon-farming activist Don Staniford guilty of slander and now prohibited from saying “Salmon Farming Kills,” or “Salmon Farming Spreads Disease.”

In the hopes of quashing a ruling that muzzles activists, and proving that “salmon farming really does kill,” Don Staniford appealed the BC Supreme Court decision of July 2012 that left him liable for slander and damages to Mainstream, a Norwegian salmon farming company operating dozens of farms on the BC coast. On February 13, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) affirmed the provincial court ruling and denied Staniford leave to appeal the decision against him.

Staniford’s legal defense against Mainstream’s charges was largely “fair comment.” His campaign to expose the dangers of industrial-scale farming of European Atlantic salmon in BC, home to Pacific salmon, was dynamic and long. But this foreign-owned company eventually found a way to fire back legally – since they had no intelligible response to the charges of environmental degradation and spreading disease among wild salmon which Staniford had publicly levelled, and which are well documented by biologists around the world.

READ ENTIRE VMC ARTICLE HERE

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

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



  



 

98% of B.C.’s approximately 150 salmon farm licenses are owned by three Norwegian multinationals: Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg, represented respectively by the pink, orange and green dots on this map.

Approximately 85% of the farmed salmon is shipped to the U.S. after minimal processing.

Salmon feedlots kill Wild Salmon.

For years British Columbians have tried to persuade this Norwegian industry to respect our Wild Fish, even offering to fund their transition to closed tanks, but they just keep expanding.

5000 people stood at the BC legislature telling government to get salmon feedlots out of the ocean, away from our Wild Salmon, but they did not hear us.

Join the Voices for Wild Salmon to stand for the fish that brings life to our coast at Salmon Are Sacred: https://www.facebook.com/groups/11 1365508874859/

Salmon feedlots must GET OUT of our ocean.

NORWAY: GO HOME!

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

 137 Species Rely on Pacific Salmon Isn’t time you put your carcass to work?

Read entire list and more HERE

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

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

OLYMPIA CHAPTER OF TROUT UNLIMITED February 26, 2014 7:00PM NORTH OLYMPIA FIRE STATION 5046 BOSTON HARBOR ROAD NE

 WDFW KEY DECISIONS FOR 2014

Program: The public is invited to the February 26, 2014 meeting of the Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a presentation by the Deputy Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Joe Stohr. His color slide presentation will cover up-to-date information on new issues and new programs concerning our fisheries resources. Be on hand to ask questions about management plans directed by the Washington State Legislature; WDFW Commission sponsored programs and new programs being carried forward from 2013.. Information on the WDFW budget as it relates to 2014 will also be discussed.

Light refreshments will be provided and all attending can participate in the fishing equipment raffle.

Bio: Joe Stohr is from Yakima, Washington and has a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Master of Science in Health Physics/Radiological Sciences from the University of Washington. He spent the early part of his career with State Department of Health and Department of Ecology as staff lead studying health impacts to the public associated with historic Hanford operations followed by management of state regulatory programs during the Hanford transition from nuclear weapons production to environmental cleanup. He served as the Department of Ecology Programs Manager for Oil/Hazardous Substance Spill Prevention and Response; managed the state Water Rights Program and served as water policy advisor for Department of Ecology Directors Fitzsimmons and Manning. He has been the Deputy Director of the WDFW since 2007.

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

 Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy June 22-28, 2014. Mark your calendars!

2014 Applications Applications for the 2014 Academy will be accepted starting January 1, 2014.

ACADEMY FEATURES:

      

Co-educational, ages 12 – 16.

Curriculum focuses on conservation, natural resource stewardship, and fly fishing essentials.

Fly fishing classes include fly casting, fly tying, knot tying, reading water, and water safety.

Morning and evening fly fishing activities on Nisqually Pond and Deschutes River.

On-the-water aquatic macro invertebrate sampling activity.

Career discovery opportunities.

Faculty and staff include wildlife resource professionals, northwest fly fishing and fly tying professionals and enthusiasts, and local fishing club volunteers.

Cost, including food and lodging: $275

Application deadline: April 15, 2014

2014 Application 2014 Academy Features

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

 Salmon Confidential – Historic State Theater – Olympia, Washington Single Show: October 5, 2014 at 7:30 PM – Entry by donation (suggested $10.00) Sponsored by friends of Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Salmon Confidential

2013 Vancouver International Film Festival Most Popular Environmental Documentary Film award

State Theater October 5, 2014 Doors open: 7:00 PM

202 4th Ave E Olympia, Washington

Salmon Confidential:, the award winning film by Twyla Roscovich on the government cover up of what is killing British Columbia’s wild salmon.

When biologist Alexandra Morton discovers BC's wild salmon are testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide, a chain of events is set off by government to suppress the findings.

Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms, into British Columbia's most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants.

The film documents Morton's journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC's wild salmon.

The film provides surprising insight into the inner workings of government agencies, as well as rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with managing our fish and the safety of our food supply.

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

 Going for the gold in the Winter Games: A-okay Going for the gold near Bristol Bay: No way!

Help make sure that Pebble Mine never has an opening ceremony.

Ask the EPA to use its power to protect Bristol Bay http://bit.ly/189xtdG

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

 I’m Not a Terrorist! … I Just Want Clean Water

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

 Bitumen isn’t oil, it’s ASPHALT!

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

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

 “Coal Train Blues”: Coal Exports Through Columbia River Gorge Watch and Listen to the “Real Fake” Johnny Cash HERE

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

 Neil Young: “Mother Earth” (Live) Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

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

An international network of student environmentalists called 350.org is helping coordinate divestment campaigns at universities around the world.

 Students

at UBC, SFU, and UVic vote for endowment funds to divest from fossil fuels February 5, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems LAST WEEK, STUDENTS at two of the Lower Mainland’s largest universities took steps to see those institutions divest themselves of financial interests in the fossil-fuel industry. Now, their counterparts at the University of Victoria have followed suit.

During the period January 27 to 31, University of British Columbia students voted for the Alma Mater Society to urge the administration to shift money out of companies that harm the environment via contributions to climate change.

According to Molly Henry, campaign manager for UBCC350, the group credited with getting the question to a referendum, the vote was 77 percent in favour of divestment.

“It is now the official policy of the AMS to lobby for fossil-fuel divestment at the university,” Henry told the Straight.

According to the UBC Investment Management Trust’s 2013 annual report, the university’s endowment fund is worth more than $1 billion, with 12 percent of public-equity holdings in the energy sector.

Henry said the next step is for the AMS to take the call for divestment to UBC’s board of governors and begin an awareness campaign informing alumni about where their investments are going.

The same week as the UBC vote, the Simon Fraser Student Society approved a recommendation that it write a letter to SFU’s board of directors voicing students’ support for fossil-fuel divestment.

In a telephone interview, SFSS president Humza Khan told the Straight that the decision is about aligning SFU’s investment practices with its stated commitment to sustainability and with its research record on climate change.

According to SFU’s latest financial report, the university’s endowment fund stood at $235 million in 2012.

This week, on February 3, the University of Victoria Students’ Society board of directors passed a motion calling on the UVic Foundation to freeze any new investments in businesses that focus on fossil fuels and to draft a three-year plan to divest from the industry.

“Investments in fossil fuels condone the environmental and human rights abuses associated with resource extraction based industries,” said UVSS chairperson Kelsey Mech quoted in a media release. “By continuing to invest in fossil fuels, we ensure that our futures are entrenched in the status quo rather than alternative and renewable options.”

Cameron Fenton, national director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, described the student decisions as “an acknowledgment of the role that universities play as thought leaders and early adopters”.

He said that with these and other successes at postsecondary institutions, the CYCC plans to take its divestment campaigns to cities and pension and retirement funds.

“Those are some of the biggest pools of money in Canada,” Fenton added. “They’re also some of the things that are at the highest risk of the carbon bubble and some of the economic risks of fossil-fuel investments.”

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

 Open pen salmon feedlots kill wild salmon, wild trout

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

 Chief sees major salmon farm expansion on horizon

– issues urgent plea to

“lock arms” January 27, 2014 The chief of a coastal First Nation issued an urgent plea via youtube yesterday for public support in blocking plans for a major expansion of open-net pen salmon farms in his territory.

“We’re all aware of the oil and gas pipelines and the potential this has to lay waste to the environment,” says Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwaw-ah-mish First Nation in BC’s Broughton Archipelago, noting that the wild salmon upon which his people depend have been severely depleted in recent decades.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems ”We also need to be aware of the railroads and if this is going to be a greater avenue for the export of oil to Asia…[and] of the hydroelectrical visions of the provincial government – of course I’m talking about Site C Dam…” …But the part that I’m most troubled with as the leader of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwaw-ah-mish First Nation is fish farms.

DFO letters suggest major salmon farm expansion in the offing Chamberlin, who is also the Vice-President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, references a letter his nation received from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) last week, notifying them that an aquaculture company operating in their territory wishes to ramp up production from 10 tonnes to 460 tonnes.

This was further confirmed by an email from [DFO], subsequent to the letter we received, where it let us know that our First Nation will be receiving, this coming week, four more letters regarding four additional fish farm expansion applications which are now coming to light.

Chamberlin questions the expansion in his territory in light of the recommendations of the Cohen Commission into collapsing Fraser River sockeye, which argued for a moratorium on new farms in the Discovery Islands region, south of Chamberlin’s territory. The chief notes that expanding farms just beyond that region could still have a significant negative impact on migrating wild fish. “[The outward migrating salmon smolts] which are being respected through the Cohen recommendations…must pass the Broughton Archipelago and the northern tip of Vancouver Island, where all of these expansions of the aquaculture industry are coming to light,” Chamberlin underlines.

“I want to lock arms with all of you” Chamberlin notes that the Cohen Commission called for more scientific study into disease transfer from fish farms to wild salmon, calling for the Precautionary Principle to be implemented.

“It’s time for us to hold this government to account. This is an urgent message to all the people who rely upon wild salmon in BC,” he says. “They are now facing a threat which is in complete defiance of Cohen and it is yet another example of the Stephen Harper Government laying waste to democracy – and in doing so, putting at risk aboriginal rights for First Nations people on the coast of BC and right up to the headwaters of the Fraser and other rivers.”

So I urge all of you to take a stand, to start writing letters to the editors, for First Nations people to start demanding that your chief and council stand up and do what’s right for wild salmon.

We cannot sit back idly and hope something gets done. It’s up to you, it’s up to me. I want to lock arms with all of you and do what’s necessary to save wild salmon.

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

 Petition

by Alexandra Morton: Restore wild salmon, Ban salmon feedlots in

BC Petitioning Green Party Leader Jane Sterk Despite over 80,000 signatures, the government of British Columbia does not understand that they are threatening the coastal economy of BC by allowing Norway to raise Atlantic salmon in the most important wild salmon migration routes.

If you are concerned about European viruses spreading from Atlantic farmed salmon to wild salmon, please sign and share this petition. The 3 Norwegian companies that own 98% of the salmon farms in BC have money to lobby and advertise, we do not so if you want wild salmon it is up to us.

Thank you, Alexandra Morton www.alexandramorton.typepad.com

Watch, Learn Listen HERE

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

 Doing nothing is not an option

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

 Wolverines don't let friends eat escaped farmed salmon.

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

 Chief Bob Chamberlin: Open pen salmon feedlot expansion Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

 Farmed salmon boycott intensifies January 29,2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Halifax outlets targeted Opponents of ocean-based salmon and trout farms are intensifying a campaign to have consumers boycott the fish raised in the pens, which they call "feedlots."

Boycott campaign spokesperson Wendy Watson Smith said in a news release that "once armed with the facts, consumers will reject salmon laced with pesticides, antibiotics, sea lice, and infectious salmon anemia." Many people, she says, are also concerned with the environmental impact of ocean-based finfish farms.

"A boycott initiated in British Columbia has been very successful, and we can learn from their experience. We have already distributed information to consumers at the Halifax Farmers Market and Sobeys Stores, and will expand this campaign to other retail outlets, restaurants, and food events where farmed salmon is being promoted."

The boycott group plans to use a "Taste of Nova Scotia" event at the Delta Halifax Hotel on Friday evening to "communicate with consumers, chefs, restaurant owners, and food distributers."

"Nova Scotia seafood products should not only taste good," said the release, "they should be safe to eat, good for one's health, come from a sustainable source, and not threaten the environment and other fisheries such as our important lobster industry."

The group plans to distribute a leaflet explaining the negative effects of ocean based finfish farms, also randomly selecting grocery outlets throughout the province.

In Halifax, the unnamed group intends to be at the Barrington Street Atlantic Super Store at 1:00 pm to talk to consumers about their concerns and healthy seafood choices.

"We believe that taxpayers in the Atlantic Region are disgusted with the way our provincial and federal government have been subsidizing "feedlots", the release said."To date over 100 million dollars has be paid out for diseased salmon alone.

These operations have resulted in tons of diseased and dying salmon being dumped in to landfill sites. As long as fish farm operators are being compensated for these destroyed salmon, there is no incentive for them to change their practices."

"We know from the British Columbia Boycott Campaign that change will not come overnight," Watson Smith said. "We have lots of patience and are in this fight for the long haul and believe that as consumers become more aware they will join our campaign."

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

 Sacred Catch: Before Salmon was King, Before Salmon was Greed Read, Listen, Learn HERE

Fish traps would haul in salmon by the barge-load. Whole salmon and parts discarded from the canneries were processed for fertilizer, paint and leather. Left: Lifting salmon from the fish trap, from the Carlisle Packing Co., 1917. Right: Fifty thousand sockeye salmon at the Carlisle cannery, photo

by Corbett, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University.

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

 Scotland: Salmon Farming Moratorium Urged “In view of the deteriorating state of salmon farming in Scotland, we urge Scottish Ministers to curb expansion by instituting an immediate moratorium. Far from expanding salmon farming production as planned by 50% by 2020, the Scottish Government ought to heed the warnings and pledge to reduce production accordingly. To increase salmon farming production further beyond Scotland's carrying capacity will only exacerbate the problems of sea louse infestation, infectious diseases, chemical pollution and escapes.“

READ ENTIRE PROTECT WILD SCOTLAND LETTER HERE

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

 Idle No More Revolution

Living and working in harmony to protect what needs protected

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

Gitga'at First Nation

January 22, 2014 13:26 ET

 First

Nation Launches Court Challenge to Enbridge Northern Gateway Environmental Assessment; Says Review Was Unlawful

Judicial review challenge alleges Enbridge Joint Review Panel breached the honour of the crown in its dealings with the Gitga'at First Nation VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 22, 2014) - The Federal government cannot proceed directly to approve the Northern Gateway pipeline because a recent Joint Review Panel assessment did not meet its constitutional obligations to First Nations, according to a judicial review application filed with the Federal Court of Appeal.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems VIDEO - Watch Gitga'at testimony to the Joint Review Panel: http://ow.ly/sPWXD The application was filed by lawyers for the Gitga'at First Nation who say the Joint Review Panel erred in law, including by failing to properly consider all evidence provided by the Gitga'at, whose culture and way of life would be severely threatened by supertanker traffic, shipping bitumen from Alberta and importing condensate from Asia and elsewhere.

VIDEO - Watch Gitga'at women harvesting seaweed: http://ow.ly/sPTHU "The JRP came to our community and we bared our souls to them," says Arnold Clifton, Chief Councilor for the Gitga'at First Nation.

"We gave testimony and shared an important feast with them to demonstrate our connection with our territory through food. Clearly they didn't listen to us. It's like they were never here."

Gitga'at traditional lands and waters encompass 7,500 square kilometres, including all approach routes for ships transiting to and from the Port of Kitimat. The Gitga'at have never surrendered their aboriginal rights or title.

"Today we're fighting an unlawful environmental assessment and review process that failed to meet its constitutional obligations to First Nations," said Clifton. "We owe it to our children to defend our rights, our coastal communities and our way of life from the dangers of oil tanker traffic."

VIDEO - Watch a Gitga'at father and son fishing for halibut: http://ow.ly/sPTNE The application states that while the Gitga'at are resilient, they are also highly vulnerable to threats to their local ecosystems and community wellbeing from impacts cause by increased tanker traffic.

The negative impacts to Gitga'at society, culture, identity, health, and economy will only increase in the event of an oil spill, with the impacts increasing with the size and consequences of the spill.

Traditional foods harvested from the sea comprise the largest portion of the Gitga'at diet.

High Definition B-roll footage available upon request.

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

Chief Phil Lane Jr. (left) participates in the Vancouver signing of the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred From Tar Sands Projects.

 Oglala Sioux vow to stop Keystone XL on the ground if Obama won't say no Indigenous group has been touring United States and Canada offering direct action training to nations committed to standing with the Sioux.

February 6, 2014

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

In the latest in a series of announcements escalating resistance to oil and gas development in North America, the Oglala Sioux nation and its allies have committed to stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on their territory if Obama approves the project.

In response to the US State Department’s environmental report that says Keystone wouldn’t increase the country’s carbon emissions Oglala Sioux president Bryan Brewer, along with organizations Honour the Earth, Owe Aku and Protect the Sacred, released a statement declaring they will stand with the Lakota people to block the pipeline. The statement, seen by many as a significant step toward approval, sparked solidarity action across the US on Monday.

Moccasins on the Ground is a grassroots direct action training organization, and trainer Debra White Plum of the Lakota Sioux nation said the group has been working toward this moment, giving nations the skills they need to defend their land, for years now.

The training is available to anyone who invites the group onto their land, and it consists of four days of training in areas such as knowing your rights, blockading and self-defence, first aid and social media. White Plume said a large part of the impetus for offering the training is the size of the territory at risk. Tribes can be several hundred kilometres away from each other, often making quick help hard to come by.

“This way a community can do whatever they need to do when threatened and they’ll have the skills right here, and that’s really important out here where we live,” she said. “We want this non-violent, direct way that everybody engaging in across the country to be successful,” she said. “But if it’s not and if the final door is closed, then that’s why we’re doing the training.”

The organization has toured the United States and has received requests for training from several nations in Canada. She said the political process has left the people with little choice.

“Every door has been closed through this process. Court decisions have been made that favoured the corporations and there are a few cases here and there where the landowners are still asserting their rights under American law.” But if the government can’t be counted on to uphold its own laws, she said, there’s nothing to stop them violating indigenous treaty rights.

“As red nations people we have seen the federal government violate treaties clear to this day.”

The violation of the treaties—in the case of Keystone it’s primarily the Fort Laramie Treaty between the American government and the Oglala Sioux—is the key reason Phil Lane says it’s unfair to call direct action by indigenous people civil disobedience.

“It is not civil disobedience. This is simply acting out of an aboriginal legal order to stand up for what is right. It is standing up for an ancient aboriginal legal order that has never been extinguished.”

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Just as the US and Canada and any other sovereign nation has the right to enter into legally binding treaties, so do First Nations. When a treaty such as the one between the Sioux and the American government is broken by one of the parties bound by it, Lane said a third legal party is required to resolve the situation. Because the governments of the United States and Canada are handling the administration of the treaties they themselves have broken, Lane said it’s impossible to expect justice from them.

What direct action resistance against Keystone looks like will ultimately be up to the Obama administration.

“What's going to happen if he chooses to give in to the oil companies and their allies is he’s going to empower the rising of indigenous people everywhere on Mother Earth,” he said. “This will be another final violation people aren’t ready to take.”

Ottawa-based Idle No More organizer Clayton Thomas-Muller added that it’s crucial to remember that opposition to Keystone XL was initiated and pushed forward by indigenous people. And what’s more, that much of the progress made has been thanks to the indigenous peoples who have demanded recognition of their rights, namely consultation.

In December of 2011 at the annual White House Tribal Leaders Summit, indigenous leaders, including former president of the Rosebud Sioux nation Rodney Bordeaux, presented President Obama with Mother Earth Accord, a document stating indigenous opposition to Keystone XL. The document was endorsed by numerous nations from both sides of the border, NGOs, landowners and the NDP party. Thomas-Muller said it’s the only such document that was delivered into Obama’s hands directly.

“It was only through native rights-based framework being used by indigenous organizations and networks that provide that unparalleled access to the state department and White House,” he said.

He traveled to New York City on Monday night to speak at one of more than 300 actions across 44 states this week. He read a statement written by Debra White Plume and spoke on behalf of Idle No More in Canada.

So many people have been preparing for this moment, he said, and are now coming together for a final push.

“Moving forward, we have a very short timeline. Within the next couple of months we will see a variety of very direct messages like the one we heard from Bryan Brewer of Oglala Sioux nation.”

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

 Athabasca

Chipewyan First Nation pulls out of Alberta-federal oilsands monitoring program January 25, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – The First Nation that was the main focus of Neil Young’s recent concert tour about Alberta’s oilsands has withdrawn from a government environmental panel.

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation announced Friday that it is pulling out of the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring program.

The program is the showpiece of federal-provincial efforts to monitor environmental change in the oilsands region.

A spokesman for the First Nation says it made the move because the program lacks meaningful input from aboriginals and doesn’t deal with concerns about treaty rights.

Last year the Fort McKay First Nation north of Fort McMurray pulled out of the program.

Bruce Maclean, a spokesman for the Athabasca Chipewyan, says the Alberta and federal governments aren’t serious about keeping tabs on the oilsands industry.

“It appears that the Alberta government and Environment Canada see the monitoring program as a way to assure Canadian and foreign investors that the oilsands are being developed in a sustainable way,” Maclean said.

Officials at Alberta Environment and Environment Canada were not immediately available for comment.

The First Nation said monitoring programs should include clear directives to address their concerns about land use and the environment, especially how the oilsands affect air, water and wildlife.

Maclean said the monitoring program did not include enough government money to allow First Nations to have an effective role.

Earlier this month Young played concerts in four Canadian cities to raise more than $500,000 to help the Athabasca Chipewyan band pay for a legal attempt to protect its traditional land north of Fort McMurray.

Young played in Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary, and drew fire from politicians and industry over his comments likening the oilsands to Hiroshima.

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

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

 The Final Keystone XL Public Comment Period Has Officially Started Sign petition HERE

The State Department has just begun a public comment period on the "National Interest Determination" phase of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. They are accepting comments for 30 days only. We need to make our voices heard as loudly as possible that Keystone XL is most definitely NOT in our national interest.

Secretary Kerry and President Obama have for a long time spoken about the dangers of climate change and the imperative to act. Despite the oily State Department process that led to the final environmental review, the report made it clear that Keystone XL does not fit in any climate-safe scenario. The only question that remains is, will they live up to their own words by rejecting this pipeline once and for all?

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

 “Suckers” – Keystone Truth Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

 Majority of British Columbians oppose Northern Gateway pipeline: poll Results not surprising in survey commissioned by environmental groups February 5, 2014 Nearly two thirds of British Columbians are opposed to the $6.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline and the tankers it will bring to the northern coast, according to a poll commissioned by environmental groups.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Conducted between Jan. 13-19, the Justason Market Intelligence poll of 600 people also found that 64 per cent (the same number that are opposed) believe the project will definitely or probably be built. The margin of error of the combined telephone and online poll is plus or minus four per cent.

The survey showed that 92 per cent were aware of the project, which will carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat for transport by tanker overseas to open up Asian markets.

The poll was commissioned by the Dogwood Initiative, ForestEthics Advocacy, Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research and West Coast Environmental Law. The Enbridge pipeline project received approval last month from a joint panel federal review of the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Several First Nations and environmental groups have already launched court action against the panel decision.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has until the middle of this year to grant approval.

The findings showed that four times as many of those surveyed “strongly” oppose the project (50 per cent) than who “strongly” support the project (12 per cent). Another 17 per cent somewhat support the project.

The majority-opposition finding is not an unusual for a poll commissioned by environmental groups, which generally highlight in their questions the introduction of super tankers and the possibility of oil spills.

Dogwood Initiative executive director Will Horter said opposition is always stronger in polls when tankers are mentioned as part of the Northern Gateway project.

“People have very strong concerns about oil pipelines, but have deep, deep concerns about the oil tankers,” said Horter.

Business and industry-commissioned polls, which tend to highlight the economic benefits of Northern Gateway, usually find higher support for the project.

A B.C. Chamber of Commerce-commissioned poll released in December found nearly 50 per cent support for Northern Gateway.

The Justason poll also found that 51 per cent distrust the joint review panel process, while 32 per cent trusted it.

If Premier Christy Clark’s five conditions for supporting heavy oil being transported through B.C. are met, 49 per cent said they would be a lot or a little bit more supportive of the project.

The B.C. Chamber poll had found that should the project meet the five conditions, support increased to 63 per cent.

Clark’s conditions include the passing of an environmental review, creating world-leading marine and land spill prevention and recovery systems, addressing First Nations’ rights and receiving a fair share of economic benefits.

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

Cayoose Creek, where construction of a municipal water intake may be harming salmon habitat (Jim Upton)

 First Nation blockades water intake construction over salmon impacts January 17, 2014 Chief Michelle Edwards & George Vanderwolf - Watch, Learn, Listen HERE

January 22, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems LILLOOET, B.C. – Members of a First Nation in Lillooet, B.C., have set up a blockade near that Fraser River district to protest work they believe is destroying fish habitat on disputed land.

Sekw’el’was Chief Michelle Edwards says the blockade on Cayoose Creek (a.k.a Seton River), on Lillooet’s southern outskirts, began at 7 a.m. Friday.

There’s no indication when it could be removed, but Edwards says traffic on nearby Highway 99 is not affected and members are only halting hired contractors at the work site.

She says the District of Lillooet has fast-tracked construction of a water intake on land claimed by the Sekw’el’was, although it knows the project will be appealed to the provincial Environmental Appeal Board.

Edwards says damage is not yet irreversible, but warns the work has the potential to wipe out spawning beds and incubating eggs in a section of Cayoose Creek used by coho, steelhead, chinook, pink, sockeye and bull trout.

She says many First Nations along the Seton and Fraser rivers rely on those salmon runs and, as caretakers of the watershed, the Sekw’el’was must protect the fish.

Early construction of a water intake on Cayoose Creek Thursday (Michelle Edwards)

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

 Canada says enough - No More Fish Feedlots!

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

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

 Idle No More British Columbia – January 18, 2014 Watch video HERE

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

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

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

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

 Atlantic Salmon Boycott: Superstores across Canada January 18, 2014

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

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

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

 Superstore management: “No video recording in store – Final warning!”

Stop Farmed Salmon video HERE

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

 Organic, Fresh, Farmed Atlantic Salmon Fillet - NOT!

Matt Moisley: “Does anyone actually buy this crap?

Shame on you Superstore!”

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

An Idle No More rally took place in Burnaby, B.C. over the weekend.

 Idle No More protestors take their message to unique venue January 21, 2014 Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings “Streaming like wild Pacific salmon” January 21, 2014: Trophy Grizzly Hunting in BC, GMO Salmon in Canada January 28, 2014: Coast Salish Wood Carving, Fish Passage, Food Sovereignty February 4, 2014: Community Advocacy, Open Pen Salmon Feedlots, Kinder-Morgan February 11, 2014: Ancient Forest Alliance,

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

Open pen salmon and trout feedlots

 Justice Cohen Gets Tough on Fish Farms – Inquiry Report Released Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

 Alexandra Morton: Expansion of BC’s open pen salmon feedlot industry Listen and Learn Podcast Editorial Comment:

DFO, with its mandate to protect the health of Canada’s wild fish, should not also be mandated to promote open pen salmon feedlots and their products.

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

Some say that the Open pen salmon feedlot industry Is analogous with the Parasites incubated in the industry’s pens

The industry and its parasites suck every bit of life out of their unsuspecting hosts

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

 New Website by Angela Koch: Salmon Farms Exposed

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

 Chemical war on sea lice attacked Activists say fish farmers are losing the battle with disease February 16, 2014

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

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

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

 Fish

farms are environmentalist

destroying

wild

Scottish

salmon,

says

leading

Founder of influential conservation body accuses Holyrood of contributing to catastrophic decline in salmon stocks on rivers February 16, 2014 One of the world's most influential conservation bodies has accused the Scottish government of ruining the country's lucrative salmon-fishing industry.

In a strongly worded letter to all of Scotland's MSPs, Orri Vigfusson, chairman and founder of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF), accuses Holyrood of contributing to a catastrophic decline in salmon stocks on Scottish rivers.

Vigfusson, who is lauded in Iceland for his work in salmon conservation, writes: "Your country encourages and supports the proliferation and expansion of unsustainable fin fish farms. You overfish your fish stocks and you encourage interceptory mixed-stock salmon fisheries that target the fish we have protected while they feed in our waters.

"We have given these salmon safe passage in the belief that they will be allowed to spawn and help restore Scottish rivers. Instead, far from being rebuilt, your salmon abundance has declined by 8090% in recent decades. This is principally due to the failure of your authorities to manage them properly."

The letter, which is supported by organisations representing Faroese and Icelandic fishermen, contains the strongest criticism yet of Scotland's management of its fisheries. It also overshadows the announcement last month by Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, of an independent review into how Scotland's wild fisheries are managed. The industry is worth around £200m a year to the Scottish economy.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The unprecedented warning encapsulates fears long expressed by stakeholders in the industry. The proliferation of salmon farms off Scotland's west coast has led to fears about contamination of the species through sea lice. Meanwhile, the indiscriminate netting of mixed stocks off the north-east of Scotland and the Northumberland and Yorkshire coasts has prevented mature salmon from returning to spawn in rivers that are already running low.

An editorial in the current issue of Country Life warns of the disastrous effects of intensive farming to meet an insatiable demand from China: "As the pesticides used by aquaculture to battle the sea lice grow ever stronger, wild salmon are exposed to infestations as their migratory routes take them through sea lochs bursting with farmed fish. Setting up more of these highly-intensive farms is looking increasingly unsustainable, as both wild and farmed fish will suffer."

Salmond stands accused of overheating production of Scottish farmed salmon to meet China's insatiable demand for sushi in return for its loan of two pandas to Edinburgh Zoo. On the River Tay last week, the chief ghillie of the Tay Salmon Fisheries Company described his craft as he urged help for the industry. David Godfrey has been working his beat for 10 years, teaching the art of freshwater fishing in the world's wildest and oldest open-air school. His only competition comes from ospreys, which in springtime will occasionally swoop within 10 feet of him to deprive a client of his silver prize. "You don't do this to get rich," said Godfrey, "but to watch a soul catch his first salmon is to witness pure contentment."

The Tay is the pre-eminent salmon fishing river in Scotland, ahead of the Tweed, Spey and Dee. Godfrey described the life-cycle of a salmon in reverential tones. After two years or so on the river of its birth, it turns to silver and heads out into the Atlantic to feed for another three years before returning to its birth-river to spawn. "Farmed salmon, on the other hand," said Godfrey, "can complete that process in just 18 months."

The process by which they do that can be seen moldering at the bottom of cages off Scotland's west coast and it turns Godfrey's stomach. "There can be a place for them if they are better regulated and brought inland in closed-off waters. This way they don't pose a danger to our wild Atlantic Scottish salmon. But there are about 85 of these off the east coast or on sea lochs."

The veteran Tay ghillie also believes the government could do more to help the industry. "If the Greenlanders start using nets again in their waters it will prevent multitudes of Scottish salmon returning to their rivers. But now they are questioning why they are tying up their nets when the Scottish government is encouraging interceptor mixed stock fisheries off its own east coast."

The Scottish government points to recent agreements to show that it is not dragging its feet. "We operate a robust, internationally recognised regulatory system which the Aquaculture & Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2013 will enhance," said a spokesman. "We are already taking action to improve sea lice control on marine fish farms, including measures to require all operators to enter into farm management agreements which set out arrangements for managing fish health and parasites."

The fisheries review process starts next month. At stake is the survival of the precious silver beneath its running waters.

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

 CALL FOR FISH FARM ESCAPE DETAILS February 9, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Save Bantry Bay has called for a local salmon farming company to come clean on the number of fish that escaped in a storm over a week ago.

The group, which was formed two years ago to oppose further salmon farming in the area, released a statement saying that they ‘had been monitoring the situation since a storm on Saturday, 1 February.’

They say they are ‘surprised that the company has made no announcement.’

‘According to reports we have received, one of the four cages at Gerahies, Bantry Bay dragged its anchor, upending into another cage.

This led to an immediate escape of between 60,000 and 80,000 one year old fish as well as an undetermined number of smaller fish.’

‘We are particularly concerned because of the very real likelihood of further escapees. The protective nets have been stripped by the gales and the seas are overtopping the cages, allowing salmon to escape and predators like seals to enter.’

‘Their licence requires that they report all escapes to the Department of Agriculture without delay and this information should be available to us all through the local media.’

The company must tell the public what is going on, even if they are unable to undertake a detailed survey of the remaining fish because of the unsettled weather. We need to know what measures the company is taking to prevent their further escapes.

Disaster The statement went on to explain that ‘The escape of farmed salmon is a potential disaster for our native wild stock.

‘These escaped fish interbreed and compete with wild salmon, transmitting disease and parasites to them. Farmed salmon compete with native stock for scarce food and irreversibly weaken the genetic makeup and survival of wild salmon if they reproduce with them.

‘Contained systems on land are the only way to protect the environment and raise salmon. It is clear now that the proposed expansion by Marine Harvest in Bantry Bay can not be defended’, the statement from the local group concluded.

Scaremongering The escape comes after a statement last month from BIM that the ‘storm event has actually provided robust evidence’ of the safety of salmon farms and allegations that opponents of farm salmon were scaremongering over the potential for escapees in the recent stormy conditions.

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

 Open Net Pen versus Progressive Aquaculture February 6, 2014 The issue of open net pen aquaculture has been raging on the airwaves and in coastal communities for years . There are those that favour it ( the previous Dexter Government most notably – they were prepared to promote it and subsidize it to the tune of multiple millions ), and there are those that are vehemently opposed.

Many Nova Scotians are now asking themselves: The Government has changed, but has anything else ?

Quite frankly, it is a work in progress.

The current folks have been suspiciously quiet.

They say they are waiting for the results of the Regulatory Review Panel, but that report is not due for another 12-18 months. Meanwhile Rome is burning, and precisely who is paying attention?

Shoreline contamination in Jordan Bay. Is a nearby open-net pen salmon farm responsible?

That may be a question for our new Premier.

He is all too familiar with this issue, and he may not be quite as anxious to compensate disease, waste and failure as was Mr Dexter.

But we’ll let him answer on that one himself …

In the meanwhile, if you repeat something over and over again, does that mean it is true? The feedlot community likes to say to anybody who will listen that on-land, closed containment, business models don’t work.

Too costly is the party line!

Clearly the Government have bought this fibbery, because they now repeat it themselves.

Apparently we have to use the oceans as our septic in order to give open net pen aquaculture operators a fighting chance.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Poor fellas. God help us they have their talking points. And they repeat them over and over and over again…

But there are companies and individuals throughout Atlantic Canada which say this is just toxic baloney. Better yet, they have embraced the challenge and they are doing things differently.

Responsible individuals from any walk of life quickly discover that open net pen aquaculture is simply not sustainable.

The feed conversion rate is disgraceful, the pollution from a typical mega fish farm in a typical production cycle is monstrous, the risk of escapes from the pens is frightening, the usage of pesticides to treat lice conditions is unconscionable, the willingness of business and government to feed ISA infected sick fish to an unsuspecting public is borderline criminal.

Should we go on with the threats and the risks associated with this business model?

Will the conspiracy of silence last forever?

Will someone in government actually speak out and acknowledge there is indeed a better way?

Did the change of government on October 8th alter anything whatsoever on this issue?

These questions are all timely food for thought.

Clearly we have to look at the alternatives.

On-land, closed-containment, progressive aquaculture changes the dynamic overnight. Consumers could still have their salmon and their trout. Companies could still be in the business of selling protein, only these versions would be sustainable. Coastal communities could obtain the employment benefits from an active aquaculture sector.

Governments would get tax revenues from the activity created.

But all of a sudden we would be smarter and wiser and embrace the 21st century technologies.

When will we acknowledge that open-net pen is yesterday’s bad news?

Mr Premier?

The ball is in your court…

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

 BC expansion causes fish farming fury SFU professor Rick Routledge claims BC’s aquaculture is fishy business February 3, 2013 Recently, several letters to local First Nations groups announced that the federal government will be accepting applications to expand fish farming in the BC area.

The decision is highly controversial and critics claim it represents a lack of transparency in the federal government. Yet, according to an irate Green party, the government has already accepted twelve applications for farming in environmentally sensitive areas.

BC Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Gail Shea is under particular scrutiny. When asked whether Shea had previously spoken publicly or issued any statements about the moratorium being lifted, a spokesperson claimed via email that the minister “talked about it openly” but was unable to provide evidence of a press release, a statement, or a quote according to the Vancouver Sun.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Further contention surrounds the possible impact on wild salmon populations if the expansion goes through. Applications for expansion from all areas of BC have been accepted, with the exception of those from the Discovery Island archipelago located near Campbell River on Vancouver Island — this area was deemed especially fragile in the 2012 Cohen report, which called for a moratorium on fish farm expansion after the collapse of the Fraser River salmon population in 2009.

Shea has assured the public that the government is making “major investments in research” to “bolster . . . environmental protection in the aquaculture sector through science, enhanced regulatory regime, and improved reporting.”

According to the Vancouver Sun, Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokeswoman Melanie Carkner said, “All applications . . . will continue to be evaluated through the lens of environmental sustainability and engagement with First Nations and other stakeholders.”

In response, SFU professor of statistics and director of the undergraduate environmental science program, Rick Routledge, said, “The federal government’s claim that such decisions will be made ‘through the lens of environmental sustainability’ is not credible.”

Routledge told The Peak that the federal government has shown no signs of paying attention to environmental impacts on wild salmon populations in the past; in fact, “in the past they have hidden away evidence [of this],” he said.

According to Routledge, in the fall of 2011, his research demonstrated positive readings for ISAv disease in local wild salmon. ISAv (or infectious salmon anemia) is a viral disease affecting Atlantic salmon populations in Canadian fish farms.

Routledge proceeded to alert the media in a press conference, and it was later revealed that Canadian government labs had found similar evidence of disease in 2002 and 2003.

However the information had not come forward and was never supplied to Cohen as information for his report, even though some of the positive testing samples had been sockeye salmon.

When asked about the effects this expansion will have on local wild salmon populations, Routledge explained, “There’s very little evidence of direct impact on wild salmon, but lot’s of evidence on ISAv and other diseases are turning up.”

These diseases are related to fish farm prevalence, and over-farming.

“In my opinion, conservation of wild salmon takes priority, period,” said Routledge.

Routledge continued we “vigorously explore land facilities” as an alternative solution. Land facilities would eliminate any interaction between farmed and wild salmon, and a more controlled environment would lower infection risks. The Save Our Salmon Initiative is currently working with the Namgis First Nations community in testing one such facility, to see whether it is a viable option.

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

 Atlantic Salmon Farm-Tonnes of garbage HUGE UNDERESTIMATE! More like 50 tonnes of garbage and counting. There is more collection today Jan. 23, 2014. Interesting how you can square killing wild fish third world countries would eat as a staple, to feed the salmon, that will feed the starving, that will never afford the salmon, that will survive the myth that Cooke built.

Watch the “mort tote” numbers add up, Listen, Learn HERE

Editorial Comment:

   

Canadian taxpayer compensation to Cooke Aquaculture for these 50+ tons of diseased Atlantic salmon will be at least several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The 200+ tons of wild forage fish harvested to make fish feed for these dead salmon was wasted The pollution created by these dead salmon adversely impacted the marine ecosystem The european salmon diseases and parasites grown in these affected open pen salmon feedlots adversely wild salmon, trout and other species.

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

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

 Sea lice ‘threaten Scottish wild salmon’ Scotland’s wild salmon could be threatened by the creatures February 3, 2014 Wild salmon will become as rare in Scotland as the giant pandas in Edinburgh Zoo because they are being threatened by sea lice, according to magazine Country Life.

The magazine said the expansion of Scottish fish farms to meet the demand in China and elsewhere “threatens the future of the majestic wild fish”.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Scottish Government plans to increase salmon farming production by 50 per cent by 2020, despite concerns that sea lice from fish farms are threatening the health of wild fish, including wild salmon.

The publication writes in its latest edition: “As the pesticides used by aquaculture to battle the sea lice grow ever stronger, wild salmon are exposed to infestations as their migratory routes take them through sea lochs bursting with farmed fish.”

“Setting up more of these highly intensive farms is looking increasingly unsustainable as both wild and farmed fish will suffer in the attempt to meet China’s massive demand.

“If such blinkered thinking on this issue continues, we may see the wild salmon become as rare as the pandas in Edinburgh Zoo.” At the end of last year, almost two-thirds of Scotland’s salmon farming companies publicly backed the new Aquaculture Steward Council’s “responsible farming” labelling scheme, and pledged to operate more sustainably and reduce their impacts on the environment.

Lang Banks, director of wildlife charity WWF Scotland, said the salmon farming industry in Scotland needed to focus on quality rather than quantity.

“It’s very hard to see how the rapid expansion in farmed salmon production being expected by ministers can realistically be met without the industry having to backtrack on their pledges, under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council scheme, to reduce their impact on the environment,” he said.

“There is a real danger that this particular government target could drive Scotland’s salmon farmers to become less sustainable, not more.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There are a number of influences on wild salmon numbers, such as management of local fishery activity and fishing in marine environment, river water quality and acidity levels, and impacts of climate change, as well as disease and parasite impacts.

“We are already taking action to improve sea lice control on marine fish farms including measures to require all operators to enter into Farm Management Agreements.

“These set out arrangements for managing fish health and parasites, and enhanced powers of sampling.

“Implementation of the act is overseen by the ministerial group for sustainable aquaculture, involving conservationists, scientists, regulators and the industry.

“In addition, the Scottish Government has provided £500,000 of funding – to be matched by the aquaculture industry – for research which includes a study to explore any impact of sea lice from fish farming in Scotland.”

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

 Harvesting of fish halted at Ireland’s largest salmon farming company Weather and jellyfish key factors, company says February 7, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Ireland’s largest salmon farming company has attributed bad weather, warmer sea temperatures and jellyfish to its decision to halt harvesting of fish temporarily.

Marine Harvest, in its latest quarterly report, says it halted harvesting of salmon in January and February “in an effort to grow the fish”.

Editorial Comment:



The report described Irish conditions as “very challenging”, and said severe storms had affected feeding and the ability to treat for sea lice and disease.

It said two sites were affected by pancreas disease and amoebic gill disease, and high occurrences of jellyfish were reported.

Accumulated losses amounted to over €4 million last year, according to the company.

 

How does one “grow the fish” if you are not able to monitor feeding, remove dead and dying fish, maintain predator control, maintain pens?

How does one protect the wild ecosystem if unable to treat for parasites and disease?

100% Bovine Excrement!

In hot water In a statement, the company’s technical manager Catherine McManus said weather conditions were a factor.

“December 2013 to date has been the most consistently stormy period since Marine Harvest Ireland began farming in Ireland in 1979 and this did restrict our staff from getting out to our sites, ”she said.

“High sea temperatures in the summer restricted freshwater treatment of some fish as under these conditions, movement of fish can lead to stress,”she said.

“Like the weather, the natural invasion of jellyfish was something out of our control and while it did occur in other countries, the impact was bigger here due to our small production base,” she said, adding that the company intended to resume harvesting by February 17th, weather permitting.

The company employs over 270 people in Ireland at sites along the Atlantic seaboard.

Closed containment Friends of the Irish Environment said the company’s difficulties were “further evidence that closed containment systems, which are now coming into production around the world, are the only way forward”.

“By separating the farmed fish from the natural environment, disease and parasites can be controlled without adverse effects on other species and the effluent recycled rather than polluting local waters,” it said.

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

Climate Change

Less than five per cent of Metro Vancouver’s air pollutants on average comes from offshore, although that can increase to 25 per cent on certain days, says Michael Brauer of UBC’s School of Population and Public Health.

 Pollution from China harming air quality on West Coast: study Western consumers partly to blame for buying products manufactured there, says UBC prof January 22, 2014 Editorial Comment: A new international study showing that pollutants from China are affecting air quality on the west coast of North America is partly payback for western consumers having their goods manufactured there, a University of B.C. professor said Wednesday.

Why is North America increasing its export of fossil fuels to Asia only to have the Pacific Ocean, the air we breathe, the water we drink and our land irreversibly poisoned by this cocktail mix of toxic chemicals – this madness must end!

“Why are they having these high emissions?” asked Michael Brauer of the school of population and public health. “Part of it is the stuff they’re producing for us. Some of it is coming back to bite us ... through our consumption.”

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems As more manufacturing has gone offshore over the years, so has the pollution. And some of that is wafting back here on the air currents.

“In a sense, we’ve outsourced the problem to somebody else,” Brauer said in an interview. “We can’t just point a finger at China and say, ‘you guys clean up your act. You have this horrible pollution.’ We are actually part of the problem because we’re buying their goods.”

West Coast residents should respond to the study findings by taking greater action to reduce pollutants in their own back yard, he said. “When we see the global background increasing ... we have to be that much more careful about our own contribution. That’s what we can control.”

Brauer said the human health impacts are “pretty minor” with less than five per cent of Metro Vancouver’s air pollutants on average coming from offshore, although that can increase to 25 per cent on certain days.

Events such as dust storms in the Gobi Desert and forest fires in Siberia can especially impact local air quality, he said.

Matt Dodd, an environmental analytical chemist at Royal Roads University in Victoria, explained that under a “grasshopper effect,” pollutants get into the atmosphere then fall to earth when they hit colder weather. When conditions warm, they rise up again. Eventually, they settle in the Arctic and concentrate in the food chain, he said.

Dodd said that federal funding for monitoring of such pollutants dried up around 2010, quashing the university’s efforts to monitor for offshore air pollutants on Vancouver Island.

Danny Kingsberry, spokesman for Environment Canada, said it is estimated more than 95 per cent of the anthropogenic deposition of mercury in Canada is from foreign sources, with the East Asian contribution estimated at 40 per cent.

“Detecting the effect of the recent pollution episodes very much depends upon the weather conditions over Asia and the jet stream pattern from there to North America,” he said. “Without assessing such conditions using computer models, it is not possible to provide a definitive answer.”

The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to quantify pollution reaching the west coast from the Chinese manufacturing sector that produces everything from mobile phones to televisions for global export, according to a statement about the study from the University of California, Irvine, where one of the authors is based.

Los Angeles sees at least one extra day a year of smog that exceeds federal limits because of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emitted by Chinese factories producing for export, the analysis found. China’s economic ascent has been accompanied by a surge in pollution and the World Bank estimates that the Asian nation has 16 of the 20 most-polluted cities globally.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” Steven Davis, a co-author of the study and an earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine, said in the statement. “Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.”

Winds called the “westerlies” can drive airborne chemicals across the ocean and lead to dangerous spikes in contaminants, according to the university’s statement. Dust, ozone and carbon may collect in valleys in California and other Western states, it said, while noting that China still isn’t responsible for the lion’s share of pollution in the U.S. Jintai Lin of Beijing’s Peking University was the lead on the study and joined by experts at several global universities as co-authors.

In China, President Xi Jinping has pledged to tackle pollution amid rising public concern that smog and environmental degradation are affecting the nation’s health and the economy. The Ministry of Environmental Protection this month told all provinces and municipalities to cut air pollutants by as much as one quarter.

The Asian nation is the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollutants, according to the paper, with a fraction of its emissions caused by the manufacture of goods for foreign consumption.

Anthropogenic pollutants typically refer to those originating from human activity.

In 2006, 36 per cent of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide, 27 per cent of nitrogen oxides, 22 per cent of carbon monoxide, and 17 per cent of black carbon emitted in China were associated with production of goods for export, according to the paper. For each of these pollutants, about 21 per cent of exportrelated Chinese emissions could be traced to U.S.-related exports, the paper said.

Black carbon, linked to conditions including asthma and cancer, is a “particular problem,” according to the University of California statement.

On some days, the export-related Chinese pollution contributed to as much as 24 per cent of sulphate concentrations over the western U.S., according to the study.

More than 600 million people were affected in China by a “globally unprecedented” outbreak of smog in the country that started last January and spread across dozens of provinces, lasting several months, Ma Jun, the founder and director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, told reporters on Jan. 15.

“Air pollution doesn’t have boundaries,” said Zhi Ning, an assistant professor at City University of Hong Kong’s School of Energy and Environment, who isn’t connected to the latest study. “It can come from China to the U.S., but it can also go the other way.”

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

San Geronimo Creek in West Marin County is generally a popular spot to find coho salmon jumping their way upstream - but not this drought-parched winter.

 California drought threatens coho salmon with extinction January 26, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The lack of rain this winter could eventually be disastrous for thirsty California, but the drought may have already ravaged some of the most storied salmon runs on the West Coast.

The coho salmon of Central California, which swim up the rivers and creeks during the first winter rains, are stranded in the ocean waiting for the surge of water that signals the beginning of their annual migration, but it may never come.

All the creeks between the Golden Gate and Monterey Bay are blocked by sand bars because of the lack of rain, making it impossible for the masses of salmon to reach their native streams and create the next generation of coho.

The endangered coho could go extinct over much of their range if they do not spawn this year, according to biologists.

"It may already be too late," said Stafford Lehr, chief of fisheries for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "The Central Coast coho could be gone south of the Golden Gate."

The situation is bad even in the one place fish can get upstream, in West Marin County. Very few coho have been seen in Lagunitas Creek, long considered a bellwether of salmon health in the region, according to Eric Ettlinger, the aquatic ecologist for the Marin Municipal Water District.

Attempt to lure the coho The dire situation prompted the district to release 29 million gallons of valuable drinking water from Kent Lake early this month in an effort to lure the coho into the watershed, which winds 33 miles through the redwood- and oak-studded San Geronimo Valley on the northwest side of Mount Tamalpais.

Watershed biologists in Marin have counted only 57 coho redds, the word scientists use for the clusters of pink eggs that salmon lay in the gravel. That's "exceptionally low for mid-January," Ettlinger wrote in his weekly spawning update. More than 100 redds were counted last January in Lagunitas Creek, where hundreds of thousands of fish once spawned until seven dams were built in the watershed to supply Marin with drinking water.

Lagunitas Creek run It is still the largest run of wild coho - many of the fish in other areas are raised in hatcheries - and a model for fisheries restoration throughout the state.

"This lack of rainfall is a disaster," said Jonathan Ambrose, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. "When you have very few individuals left, every fish is precious."

Coho, also known as silver salmon, are born in cold freshwater rivers and streams, where they live for a year before swimming to the ocean. They typically return at age 3 to where they were born to lay eggs and fertilize them. The drying creek beds are also a problem for juvenile salmon.

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

Steelheads also waiting "The adults are having trouble getting in and the juveniles that hatched last year are trapped in streams that are drying up," Ambrose said.

"Fish need water. If they don't have water, they can't go walk somewhere else. So we are in somewhat of a crisis mode right now, and we don't have a whole lot of options."

Steelhead trout, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, are also waiting offshore at the same streams, but they are more resilient - unlike coho, they can often wait a year to spawn. Still, an extended drought could further reduce their population, Lehr said.

"The question is, can they respond once the drought is over?" Lehr said. "Are populations so depressed that they're not able to rebound?"

The Scott Creek hatchery in Santa Cruz may end up being the only hope for coho and steelhead south of San Francisco. Ambrose said the species are being bred at the hatchery in an attempt to keep their genetic line going.

The problem is that almost all salmonid species in California, from chinook to steelhead trout, are under some level of federal or state protection.

"If the drought continues there are going to be dead fish," said Tom Stokely, water policy analyst for the nonprofit California Water Impact Network, which advocates for environmentally sensitive use of California water. "Depending on what the runs are like, it could pale in comparison to anything we've seen in recent history."

Fishermen in jeopardy A collapse of the fall run of chinook, which is the only viable fishery left in Central California, would put hundreds of commercial fishermen and marine-related businesses out of work. Such a scenario would require drastic measures, such as rescues of fish stranded in dried-up pools in creeks and rivers, Lehr said.

"For our sensitive aquatic fish, it is not looking good," Lehr said. "We are developing contingency plans as we speak, putting the challenge out there that we may have to explore some options that we may not have considered historically. We are facing uncharted waters both literally and figuratively."

Online Learn more about the drought at www.sfgate.com/drought.

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

Goats grazing near wind turbines in Fantanele and Cogealac villages, Romania.

 Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules January 22, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems LONDON — For years, Europe has tried to set the global standard for climate-change regulation, creating tough rules on emissions, mandating more use of renewable energy sources and arguably sacrificing some economic growth in the name of saving the planet.

But now even Europe seems to be hitting its environmentalist limits.

High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation.

On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. Instead, it substituted an overall European goal that is likely to be much harder to enforce.

It also decided against proposing laws on environmental damage and safety during the extraction of shale gas by a controversial drilling process known as fracking. It opted instead for a series of minimum principles it said it would monitor.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the executive arm of the European Union, and Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action, on Wednesday in Brussels.

Europe pressed ahead on other fronts, aiming for a cut of 40 percent in Europe’s carbon emissions by 2030, double the current target of 20 percent by 2020. Officials said the new proposals were not evidence of diminished commitment to environmental discipline but reflected the complicated reality of bringing the 28 countries of the European Union together behind a policy.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “It will require a lot from Europe,” said Connie Hedegaard, European commissioner for climate action.

“If all other big economies followed our example, the world would be a better place.”

But the proposals were seen as a substantial backtrack by environmental groups, and evidence that economic factors were starting to influence the climate debate in ways they previously had not in Europe.

Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, described the proposals as “totally inadequate” and “off the radar of what climate science tells us to do in Europe to avoid climate catastrophe.”

Wednesday’s proposals came from the European Commission, the Brussels-based executive arm of the bloc, and would next require approval by the group’s member states and the European Parliament.

The energy and climate debate, which is playing out across Europe, reflects similar trade-offs being made around the world on mending economic problems today or addressing the environmental problems of tomorrow.

The political and policy response to climate change has failed to keep pace with increasingly dire warnings from scientists about the cascading effects of increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants in the atmosphere.

What progress has been made has come largely from cost efficiencies adopted by businesses and consumers primarily for financial reasons — the switch from coal to cheaper natural gas for electricity generation in the United States, for example, and the cumulative effect of years of increasing efficiency in buildings, vehicles, appliances and manufacturing around the globe.

In Britain, despite public protests, the government is pressing ahead on proposals for fracking, which has helped the United States drive down its energy costs. Germany’s plans to shift away from nuclear power by 2022 and to encourage the development of alternative sources are running into complications including higher energy costs for industry and consumers.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, defended the new proposals as a hard-fought compromise and proof that it “is possible to make a marriage between industry and climate action.”

He said the measures showed that Europe was still playing a global leadership role in reducing carbon emissions.

That drew a tart response from Friends of the Earth, which accused the commission of putting the immediate interests of industry ahead of Europe’s broader welfare.

“Barroso and his commissioners seem to have fallen for the old-think industry spin that there must be a trade-off between climate action and economic recovery,” Brook Riley, the group’s climate and energy campaigner, said in a statement. “This position completely ignores the huge financial cost of dealing with the impacts of climate change and the 500 billion euros the E.U. is spending every year on oil and gas imports.”

The British government, a frequent critic of what it sees as moves by the European Union that inhibit economic performance, welcomed the proposals.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems It singled out for praise the scrapping of national targets for renewable energy in favor of an overall goal of producing 27 percent of Europe’s energy from renewables by 2030, an approach that will leave countries battling among themselves over who should do more.

“If you set rigid, inflexible targets, that is likely to result in greater costs,” said Edward Davey, Britain’s secretary of state for energy and climate change. “We believe our existing approach will enable us to meet these objectives without having to take more action, but we believe other countries will have to take more action.”

Before Wednesday’s announcement, business groups lobbied hard against more stringent targets that they worried could endanger Europe’s still very feeble economic recovery and slow the job creation needed to bring down an overall unemployment rate of nearly 11 percent.

In a letter sent to the European Commission this month, 14 executives at large companies called for “one single, realistic target” and warned that “the high-cost of noncompetitive technologies to decarbonise the power sector” will strain businesses already hit by Europe’s high energy prices, particularly for electricity, which costs twice what it does in the United States.

Ms. Hedegaard on Wednesday acknowledged that Europe needed to bring down its energy prices but said that the shift to renewable sources played a “negligible” part in the problem. But she also took a swipe at what she suggested were unrealistic demands by environmental activists, noting that “we are trying to do something that is achievable, that is doable and practical for 28 governments to back.”

Greenpeace has called for a 55 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and activists argue that Europe could and should have gone further than the 40 percent carbon emissions proposal because the bloc is already well on track to meet existing objectives.

In 2007 the European Union said it wanted to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent in 2020 and was even prepared to reduce them by 30 percent by the same date if other big economies also took significant action. It also set national targets for adopting renewable energy.

According to the commission, total greenhouse gas emissions from the 28 members had by 2011 fallen to 16.9 percent below the 1990 level, and to 18 percent lower by 2012. That suggests that the 40 percent reduction target by 2030 should be attainable.

But the 2011 and 2012 reductions partly reflect the drop in industrial output in Europe after the financial crisis, which plunged almost all of the bloc’s nations into recession — something policy makers are desperate to reverse.

Europeans have also been disappointed that other big polluters have failed to follow the lead they set in 2007.

“The European Union said it wanted to lead globally, but it quickly discovered that other countries were not willing to engage in a race to the top,” said Andrew Jordan, a professor at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, part of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

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

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

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

 Adios Shell!

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

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

 Rail vs Pipeline: “The Question Isn’t About Whether to Use Rail or Pipelines” “It’s About How to Reduce our Need for Both” – David Suzuki



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

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

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked

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

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

 Oilsands air pollutants underestimated, researchers find University of Toronto study finds release of carcinogenic compounds greater than believed February 3, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The emission levels of some toxic air pollutants in the Alberta oilsands have been greatly underestimated, according to University of Toronto researchers.

“When dealing with chemicals that have such great potential to harm people and animals, it is absolutely vital that we truly understand how, and how much they are being released into the environment,” Abha Parajulee, lead author of a paper on oilsands pollution, said in a news release.

The U of T study used a model to predict emission levels of a group of atmospheric pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which can be highly carcinogenic.

While previous models assessed the PAHs released directly into the atmosphere during extraction of bitumen from oilsands – numbers that tend to fall within acceptable regulatory levels – this study included indirect pathways for the pollutants to enter the air, such as evaporation from tailing ponds.

“Tailing ponds are not the end of the journey for the pollutants they contain. PAHs are highly volatile, meaning they escape into the air much more than many people think,” Parajulee said.

The model also factored in additional PAHs released during the transport and storage of other waste materials from oilsands operations.

The researches said the higher levels of PAHs predicted by the model are consistent with levels measured in samples taken from areas near and in the Athabasca oilsands region.

Andrew Read, a researcher with Pembina Institute, an environmental watchdog, is a member of the joint oilsands monitoring program rolled out two years ago by the federal and provincial governments.

He doesn't believe there is enough funding to appropriately monitor emissions.

"We are not at the world-class level to really be championing that," he said. "There is a concern there that we are not doing the effective monitoring that is necessary to really understand the full impact on the environment."

Results of the U of T study were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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

 Satellite data sound alarm on safety of bitumen extraction February 2, 2014 OTTAWA — Satellite imagery used by the federal government to review a major bitumen leak last year in Alberta has found the project’s steam-based extraction caused “measurable levels of ground deformation in the area of the leak” at a rate 10 times faster than other oilsands operations.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The data obtained from satellite observations — and presented to senior officials at Natural Resources Canada last fall — are sparking new questions about the incident at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) operation in northeast Alberta and the safety of bitumen extraction.

The information is also sounding more alarm bells for the nearby Cold Lake First Nations, who are worried various oilsands operations in the area are contaminating local groundwater and damaging their traditional lands.

Briefing materials prepared for the deputy minister of Natural Resources Canada, and obtained by Postmedia News under access-to-information legislation, show the federal government used satellite imagery from RADARSAT-2 to study the extent of ground deformation — caused by steam-based extraction — in the vicinity of a major bitumen leak in June 2013 at CNRL’s Primrose operation approximately 45 kilometres northwest of Cold Lake, Alta.

The CNRL project is a thermal in situ operation that sees high-pressure steam injected into the ground down a wellbore to reduce the viscosity of the oilsands product and allow the bitumen to be pumped to the surface (in what’s called cyclic steam stimulation).

After the bitumen emulsion leak was reported by the Alberta Energy Regulator on June 24, 2013, the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO, which is located within Natural Resources Canada) used what are called earth observation techniques to assess the bitumen leak, and discovered subsidence and uplift of the land over several years.

“Results obtained using imagery from Canada’s RADARSAT-2 (satellite) indicate that steam-based extraction caused measurable levels of ground deformation in the area of the leak, within the 20092013 period,” say September 2013 briefing notes prepared for NRCan’s deputy minister, who reports to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.

The satellite data found that between 2009 and 2013, the values of ground deformation (both subsidence and uplift) at the CNRL operation were often in the range of 10-30 centimetres over various sampled 24-day periods.

“Preliminary analysis also shows that the rate of ground deformation is approximately 10 times faster than changes observed by CCMEO in the Fort McMurray area, which uses the lower-pressure steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) method,” say the briefing notes.

“While the deformation rates observed here are high relative to the SAGD steam-based operations, we cannot at this point indicate that these are atypical of this process in this region and/or are related to the bitumen leak.”

More than one million litres of bitumen has seeped to the surface from the major leak, which still continues several months later, albeit very slowly during the winter months.

There have been at least three other separate, much smaller, leaks to the surface reported at different locations in CNRL’s Primrose operations. As of Jan. 10, 69,700 tons of impacted soil and vegetation had been removed from all the leak sites.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Alberta Energy Regulator, which was informed of the satellite data and associated findings last fall, is still conducting its investigation into the major leak.

The regulator is trying to determine whether the bitumen leaked through cracks in the rock above the deposit and was driven to the surface by the high-pressure steam pumped underground in the extraction process.

CNRL has since been ordered to halt its steaming operations at the site of the leaks.

The company blames the major leak on a well failure and is spending $40 million to clean it up. It was ordered to drain a small lake on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range to find a way to contain bitumen that was seeping into the water.

The Alberta Energy Regulator, however, said earlier this month it doesn’t necessarily share CNRL’s view that a well failure is solely to blame, although its investigation continues. The regulator’s data show there are at least eight different cyclic steam stimulation bitumen operations throughout the Cold Lake, Athabasca and Peace River oilsands formations in northern Alberta.

The nearby Cold Lake First Nations says details about the land deformation — and it occurring at a much faster rate than other oilsands operations — have not been shared with them.

Cold Lake First Nations Councillor Sally Scanie said council members have done a fly-over of the major leak but have not been allowed on the land to see it up-close. They remain worried the oilsands operations could be contaminating their ground water, and irrevocably damaging the land and future hunting.

“It has always been a concern for Cold Lake First Nations,” Scanie said. “Continuous abuse of the Mother Earth is just coming to the surface now, and it could get worse. Do we anticipate it to get worse?

Of course we do, and that’s why we’re raising concerns.”

A spokesperson for CNRL said the cyclic steam stimulation extraction technique has been used in the Cold Lake area for more than 30 years, with the surface deformation having been measured since the 1980s and satellite data used since the 1990s.

“Canadian Natural is committed to continuous improvement. We have been using this valuable (satellite) data to effectively calibrate our models and optimize our steaming operation since 2002,” CNRL spokesperson Zoe Addington said in an email.

The company is undertaking a comprehensive review to determine the cause of the bitumen flowing to the surface, she said.

To date, “all the evidence and data collected” suggest the bitumen can only leak to the surface by a failed or partially failed wellbore, she said.

Darin Barter, spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator, said it’s “premature” to discuss the AER’s scientific assessments of the satellite data and other information because the investigation continues.

He notes, though, the AER has not deemed the incident ‘over.’

“Until the investigation is complete, we cannot speculate on regulatory changes that may or may not occur,” Barter said in an email.

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

 Tarsands “Megaloads”: Umatilla, Oregon to Edmonton, Alberta Map source

Front Rear

376 feet

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

 Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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

 Oil field fumes so painful, Alberta families forced to move Severe headaches, dizziness, rashes and loss of memory: all symptoms reported to a new hearing examining health effects of Alberta's rapidly expanding heavy oil industry January 26, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Northwest Alberta grain farmer Alain Labrecque recalls the first winter in 2011 when the fumes from oil tanks near his home in the Peace River area seemed to trigger terrible health effects for himself, his wife and two small children.

"I started getting massive headaches. My eyes twitched. I got dizzy spells. I often felt like I was going to pass out."

“Next thing I knew, my [3-year-old] girl had trouble walking. She had no balance. She would sit at the table, and she would just fall off her chair."

"My [4-year-old] son - he was really black under his eyes all the time, and had big time constipation.”

“Then my wife fell down the stairs while carrying a laundry basket."

“We want through a weird winter like that," Labrecque told the Vancouver Observer by phone Sunday.

Labrecque, his family, and neighbours are part of a group of rural home owners now giving testimony to an unprecedented Alberta hearing, examining the health effects of the odour and emissions from bitumen extraction. About 75 people packed the conference centre, each day of the first week of proceedings.

Homes abandoned due to oil fumes At least six families have abandoned their homes, citing health concerns from heavy oil emissions from the Reno field, about 500 km northwest of Edmonton.

The hearing is also examining odour and emission concerns for the rapidly growing heavy oil industry in the wider Peace River area, which includes operators Shell Oil, Penn West, Murphy Oil, and Husky Oil. The Reno operation consists of 86 bitumen oil storage tanks, run by Calgary-based Baytex Energy.

On Friday, Alain, his wife Karla, and Alain's uncle gave emotional testimony to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) forum on how this field has torn their lives a part. The AER is an industryfunded oversight agency.

A pad of four of heavy oil tanks is just 500 metres from Labrecque's home. Another 16 tanks are another 1,000 metres further.

The tanks release a toxic, flammable and aromatic vapour that includes volatile organic compounds, benzene, toulene and sulfur, an engineer testified.

The hearing revealed that Baytex did not initially install vapour recovery systems.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "In 2010, the facility and tank design in use at 4 Baytex sites did not capture emissions from tank tops," Baytex's Alberta and BC business unit VP Rick Ramsay admitted in his testimony.

Kids waking up soaked in chemicals Labrecque says his small children Alec and Candace would often wake up soaked, trying to "sweat the chemicals" out, resulting in rashes and burns.

Fed up and terrified, he eventually moved his family to Smithers, B.C., even though he was enjoying his best income ever as a farmer in Alberta.

"I grossed a million dollars. But I just couldn’t stay there,” said Labrecque.

He prays his children have not suffered long term, but says many in his family continue to suffer memory loss, reduced sense of smell, and extreme chemical sensitivities.

“We’ve all become so sensitive now. My uncle can’t even fuel his truck. Any emissions give him a headache right away." "[My wife] can’t go into a pool with chlorine. If she does, it will trigger a huge headache, and won’t be able to function for a day. Windshield fluid is the same thing. She can’t use it."

“Then recently, we tried snowmobiling. She tried it for five minutes, and she was bed-ridden until the next day," said Labrecque.

Expert toxicology testimony given at the hearing suggested sulphur from the tanks may be the main health concern.

An industry expert disputed this, suggesting the problem has to do with the terrible odour alone, and the effects are not as bad as reported by families.

A Baytex commissioned air study showed that concentrations of the chemicals of concern found downwind from the tanks were below guidelines.

Following complaints, Baytex executives said they took proactive measures to control the emissions, and the company is "committed to operating in a safe, environmentally responsible manner."

The Alberta hearing continues this week until Friday.

Editorial Comment:

 

 

Of course industry “experts” will claim that “the effects are not as bad as reported by families”.

Evidently, guidelines associated with “concentrations of the chemicals of concern found downwind from the tanks” need to be revisited, modified and enforced.

“Proactive measures”…Really???

“Committed to operating in a safe, environmentally responsible manner”…

Really???

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

U.S. scientists are warning that there are environmental risks, regulatory holes and serious unknowns regarding the shipment of Alberta oilsands products by pipeline, rail and tanker.

 U.S.

study warns of risks and unknowns in shipment of Alberta oilsands products January 26, 2014

VANCOUVER - U.S. scientists are warning that there are environmental risks, regulatory holes and serious unknowns regarding the shipment of Alberta oilsands products by pipeline, rail and tanker.

The findings are in a 153-page report from last September by the emergency response division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The unit has expertise in preparing for, evaluating and responding to oil and chemical spills in coastal environments.

Enbridge (TSX:ENB), the company behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the British Columbia coast, counters that most of the concerns raised in the report are out-of-date, overstated or being resolved.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The study examined the different ways to transport Alberta's bitumen, a molasses-like crude oil, over U.S. land and water. Those included rail, the proposed Kinder-Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline to Vancouver, the Keystone XL line to Texas from Alberta, and Northern Gateway.

"Most oilsands products are transported to market via existing and proposed pipelines; however, a sharp increase in the use of rail and marine transport can be expected while new pipelines are constructed to match the increased production of oilsands products," the report says.

It was written by six experts at the University of Washington and supervised by Prof. Robert Pavia of the university's School of Marine and Environmental Affairs.

"While there are many arguments about the level of risk, no one believes the risk is zero," Pavia told The Canadian Press, adding that he was speaking personally. "In my mind it's not a question of whether a spill will occur, but how well-prepared we are for a spill once it does occur."

In the case of Northern Gateway, not only might there be potential to harm Washington state shores, there could be hazards from tankers leaving Kitimat, B.C., to travel through the waters of Alaska, near the Aleutian Islands to Asia. The proposed 1,177-kilometre-long pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels of bitumen daily from Alberta to the northern B.C. port.

Both Canada and the United States need to renew and expand efforts to reduce any risks, Pavia said.

Last December, a federal joint review panel supported the project — providing Enbridge meets 209 conditions. The final decision rests with the federal cabinet.

The U.S. report notes there are information gaps about the transport of bitumen.

"Little research is currently available regarding the behaviour of oilsands products spilled into water, and how they weather in the environment," the report says.

"Most tests have been conducted in the laboratory, so predicting the actual behaviour of oilsands products for a range of spills is difficult." The risks associated with carrying oilsands products over water "are not well-defined."

The study does point out that only a handful of spills have occurred in the U.S. and Canada.

Enbridge communications manager Ivan Giesbrecht said that's a positive thing.

"This further supports that these products do not pose increased risk for transmission pipeline corrosion," he said in an interview.

In 2007, a neighbourhood in Burnaby, B.C., was covered in synthetic crude when excavation equipment ruptured a pipeline. In 2010, a pipeline leaked 20,000 barrels of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

Last September's report also points out that anyone responding to an oilsands spill could face both oil that is light and floating or heavier oil that could sink.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "This could impact fish and birds that move between water and air, such as those that may inhale toxic fumes, or become coated by oil. Sinking oil could move into the water column and harm fish larvae.

"Current capabilities to detect and recover oil when it sinks or is suspended in the water column are poor."

Giesbrecht said each spill is unique and depends on where and when it occurs. He said it is also "an incorrect assumption," one not supported by studies or observations, that diluted bitumen in water would split into two portions of floating and sinking oil.

A Canadian government study released earlier this month shows that diluted bitumen does sink in salt water when battered by waves and mixed with sediment. If the bitumen is free of sediment, the crude floats even after evaporation and exposure to light.

The U.S. study says research is needed into the public health impacts of oil spills, weathering effects and biodegradation, and there should be more testing with a wider variety of oilsands products.

Giesbrecht said that Enbridge plans to join, with government and industry, a committee of technical experts to research spill behaviour and response. He also said the industry has already started to conduct such research.

Giesbrecht said Enbridge doesn't agree with the findings of the U.S. study. He said the company is committed to applying industry best practices and to developing leak-detection technologies.

The report also noted "regulator shortcomings," including that oilsands products aren't subject to the U.S. excise tax that provides funds for spill cleanup, and that there was scant product information provided by the facilities that transport the oil they're handling.

"There are additional gaps in policies and regulations that warrant scrutiny as transport of oilsands products and other unconventional oils increases," the report said.

Federal and state railway regulators have played a minor role in oil spill planning, but given recent high-profile accidents, like the deadly crash and explosion in Lac-Megantic, Que., the report suggests more regulatory oversight over rail transport should be considered.

Rail

Ship

Pipeline

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

Douglas Channel, the proposed shipping route for oil tanker ships in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, is pictured in an aerial view just south of Kitimat, B.C., on January 10, 2012. Councillors in Kitimat, the proposed western terminus of the Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline, say they could support the refinery plan floated by media mogul David Black, if the development meets certain conditions.

 B.C. coast, St. Lawrence estuary most at risk for major marine oil spill: report January 29, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OTTAWA - A government-commissioned risk analysis says the coast of southern British Columbia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence are the Canadian areas most vulnerable marine oil spills and among the most likely for a major spill to occur.

The findings will add to the debate over several pipeline proposals - including two in B.C. that the report says will substantially increase marine risks.

The 256-page study, delivered this month to Transport Canada, looks at the risks associated with marine oil spills south of the 60th parallel under current shipping volumes.

It identifies the southern tip of Vancouver Island, the Cabot Strait off Newfoundland, the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island and the Gulf of St. Lawrence as the most probable areas for a major oil spill.

But the study also assesses the potential impact of four proposed pipeline projects, including the Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitimat and Kinder Morgan's plan to almost triple its Trans Mountain line into Vancouver.

The report says the Kinder Morgan proposal would essentially double oil traffic in an already vulnerable marine environment - with a corresponding increase in spill frequency - while the Northern Gateway marine route would turn what are currently very low, nearshore risks into very high risks.

The study found that reversing Enbridge's Line 9 to carry Western Canadian crude to refineries in Montreal and Quebec City would actually lower marine spill risks, as it would reduce oil imports through the sensitive Gulf of St. Lawrence.

And the study found that the proposed Energy East Pipeline to St. John, N.B., would likely be a wash, reducing shipping imports but increasing oil exports to leave the overall marine risk about where it is now.

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

 BREAKING:

Oil leak on massive pipeline pushing tar sands through the

Great Lakes January 19, 2014 Enbridge Energy has just reported that their Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline is being shut down because they have spilled over 5,000 gallons of oil. The spill happened in Saskatchewan, Canada, and it is not yet clear what has caused the leak. Enbridge has reported that the spill occurred at one of their pumping stations but some of the oil has sprayed onto nearby private property.

This latest spill is yet another example on why Enbridge should focus a lot more time on pipeline safety instead of rushing and pushing through massive amounts of pipeline expansion projects throughout Canada and the US.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems In fact, Enbridge is currently trying to gain approval in both Canada and the US to expand the Alberta Clipper pipeline. They want to increase pressure on this pipeline from 450,000 barrels per day to 880,000 barrels per day!

The Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline is the beginning point for all the Enbridge expansions throughout the Great Lakes, which will make the largest freshwater system, in the world, a super highway for transporting and refining tar sands. Enbridge is even one of the companies behind the recent proposal to ship tar sands, via tankers, throughout the Great Lakes.

All of these expansions are being rushed through despite the fact that Enbridge still has no idea how to clean up tar sands and Enbridge definitely doesn’t want you to realize that US regulators, PHMSA, still has a corrective action order out on the Lakehead System, which is the entire pipeline system that transports tar sands throughout the Great Lakes. This corrective action order says: “The Original CAO noted that the history of failures on Respondent’s Lakehead Pipeline system, the defects originally discovered during construction of Line 14, a 2007 failure on Line 14, and the July 2010 failure on Line 6B in Marshall, Michigan, and additional failures throughout all parts of the Lakehead System indicate that Respondent’s integrity management program may be inadequate. PHMSA has communicated its longstanding concerns about this pattern of failures with Respondent over the past several years. Given the nature, circumstances, and gravity of this pattern of accidents, additional corrective measures are warranted.”

Despite this unprecedented corrective action order, and several failures since, PHMSA is still allowing Enbridge to expand many pipelines along the Lakehead system, including a 60-year-old pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac.

There are several easy online action tools that allow you to reach out to the decision makers behind these proposals. Please consider taking a few moments to fill these out to show your opposition to the major risk Enbridge continues to build in the Great Lakes.

  

Contact the Department of State and let them know that Enbridge should not be allowed to increase pressure on the Alberta Clipper pipeline.

Also, please contact your US Senator and let them know that Enbridge should never be allowed to increase pressure on a 60-year-old pipeline that runs through the heart of the Great Lakes.

UPDATE: This spill has been confirmed to be heavy tar sands and Enbridge has restarted the pipeline. No information has been released regarding the cause of the leak. You can no view photos of the spill by JOHN W. MURRAY HERE.

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

 Keystone XL pipeline: New report raises no major environmental objections The finding is likely to be welcomed by Republicans and some oil- and gas-producing states but is sure to further rankle environmentalists January 31, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems WASHINGTON — The long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada moved a significant step toward completion Friday as the State Department raised no major environmental objections to its construction.

The finding is likely to be welcomed by Republicans and some oil- and gas-producing states but is sure to further rankle environmentalists already at odds with President Barack Obama over his energy policy.

The department report stops short of recommending approval of the $7 billion pipeline, which has become a major symbol of the political debate over climate change. But the review gives Obama political cover if he chooses to endorse the pipeline in spite of opposition from many Democrats and environmental groups.

Foes say the pipeline would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. They also worry about a spill.

Republicans and business and labour groups have urged Obama to approve the pipeline to create thousands of jobs and move toward North American energy independence. The pipeline is also strongly supported by Democrats in oil and gas-producing states, including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. All face re-election this year and could be politically damaged by rejection of the pipeline. Republican Mitt Romney carried all three states in the 2012 presidential election.

The 1,179-mile pipeline would travel through the heart of the United States, carrying oil derived from tar sands in western Canada to a hub in Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries in Texas.

A State Department official said Canadian tar sands are likely to be developed regardless of U.S. action on the pipeline, adding that other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries — including rail, trucks and barges — would be worse for climate change. A news conference was set for later Friday.

State Department approval is needed because the pipeline crosses a U.S. border. The Environmental Protection Agency and other departments will have 90 days to comment before State makes a recommendation to Obama on whether the project is in the national interest. A final decision by the government is not expected before summer.

The new report comes only days after Obama's State of the Union address, in which he reiterated his support for an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that embraces a wide range of sources, from oil and natural gas to renewables such as wind and solar power. The remarks were a rebuff to some of his environmental allies who argued that Obama's support of expanded oil and gas production doesn't make sense for a president who wants to reduce pollution linked to global warming.

"We believe that continued reliance on an 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy would be fundamentally at odds with your goal of cutting carbon pollution," the environmentalists wrote in a letter to Obama.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline in January 2012, saying he did not have enough time for a fair review before a looming deadline forced on him by congressional Republicans. That delayed the choice for him until after his re-election.

Obama's initial rejection of the pipeline went over badly in Canada, which relies on the U.S. for 97 per cent of its energy exports. The pipeline is critical to Canada, which needs infrastructure in place to export its growing oil sands production. The northern Alberta region has the world's third largest oil reserves, with 170 billion barrels of proven reserves.

In a bid to smooth over relations with Canada and other pipeline supporters, Obama quickly suggested development of an Oklahoma-to-Texas line to alleviate an oil bottleneck at a Cushing, Okla., storage hub. Oil began moving on that segment of the pipeline last week.

The 485-mile southern section of the pipeline operated by Calgary-based TransCanada did not require presidential approval because it does not cross a U.S. border.

The latest environmental review, the fifth released on the project since 2010 — acknowledges that development of tar sands in Alberta would create greenhouse gases, a State Department official said. But the report makes clear that other methods of transporting the oil — including rail, trucks and barges — would release more greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming than the pipeline.

U.S. and Canadian accident investigators warned last week about the dangers of oil trains that transport crude oil from North Dakota and other states to refineries in the U.S. and Canada. The officials urged new safety rules, cautioning that a "major loss of life" could result from an accident involving the increasing use of trains to transport large amounts of crude oil.

Several high-profile accidents involving crude oil shipments — including a fiery explosion in North Dakota and an explosion that killed 47 people in Canada last year — have raised alarms.

Keystone XL would travel through Montana and South Dakota before reaching Nebraska. An existing spur runs through Kansas and Oklahoma to Texas.

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

This Aug. 30, 2013 cell phone image provided by Anthony Martinez, shows a dust cloud rising from piles of petroleum coke during a storm near residences on the southeast side of Chicago. Petcoke is a grainy black byproduct of oil refining that has been piling up along Midwest shipping channels and sparking a new wave of environmental concerns.

 Pollution

From Koch-Funded Petcoke Piles Not An ‘Emergency,’ Illinois Regulators Rule January 24, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The large mountains of petroleum coke, or petcoke, that line Chicago’s Calumet River won’t be going anywhere soon, despite residents’ concerns that the piles are blowing toxic dust into the air and negatively affecting their health.

In a 4-0 vote, the Illinois Pollution Control Board ruled on Thursday that there is no imminent threat to public health and safety from petcoke — a byproduct of refining heavy tar sands oil that is generally sold overseas — on Chicago’s southeast side, rejecting state Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed emergency rules to control the piles.

“The Board is not convinced an “emergency” exists,” the ruling read. “The Board is convinced that improperly controlled emissions could be a nuisance … However, this record provides evidence petcoke dust poses low risk to human health.”

Many residents disagree, citing dark, smelly clouds containing petcoke dust that have swirled over their heads during storms. Since the piles appeared, community members havecomplained of respiratory problems.

Chicago’s Department of Public Health has found that the piles have violated dust and debris provisions of municipal environmental ordinances. City officials also claimed the issue was of “special concern,” the ruling said, “because the facilities are located in a densely populated area of the city.”

“Anyone who has seen the dust storm photos or tasted the air next to the piles on the Chicago’s Southeast Side knows that petcoke in our neighborhoods is indeed an emergency,” Josh Mogerman at the Natural Resources Defense Council said, adding the decision represented “a failure to recognize the imminent danger of particulate matter sweeping over Illinois communities.”

Gov. Quinn’s proposed emergency rules would have required immediate measures including road paving, dust suppression systems, containment of stormwater to prevent groundwater pollution, and disposal of petcoke that had been on site for more than one year.

Though residents exposed to pollution from petcoke piles across the country have complained of health problems, the industry that produces it has worked hard to debunk the claims. Type “petcoke” into Google, and the first result that comes up is sponsored site called www.aboutpetcoke.com, headlined with the words “Why Petcoke Is Safe” and underscored by the statement that “petcoke is highly stable and not considered hazardous to people.” The site is run by KCBX Terminals Inc., a company owned by the wealthy ultra-conservative Koch Brothers, high-profile funders of climate denial.

Indeed, the Chicago piles of petcoke are part of the business empire of the Koch brothers, earning the nickname “PetKoch.” The Koch Brothers were also responsible for a large black cloud that floated above the Detroit River last summer, which was caught on camera by residents across the border in Windsor.

Though petcoke is not a coal product, the Illinois Pollution Control Board nonetheless took into consideration comments from Arch Coal, Inc., the second largest U.S. coal producer, which has coal mining operations in Illinois. The company told the Board that the emergency rules would “have severe, adverse consequences for our operations in Illinois” by “constraining” operations at shipping terminals.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “While Arch Coal acknowledges that the proposed emergency rulemaking may not apply directly to coal mining operations, it objects to the emergent nature of the rulemaking, arguing that there is no emergency, severe public health emergency, or threat to the public interest,” the board wrote.

The Board also received comments from Kinder Morgan Inc., which owns three bulk coal terminals in Illinois, and ArcelorMittal USA, a supplier and customer of coal and coke and the largest integrated iron and steel company in the world. Both companies argued that the piles did not need more regulation.

“ArcelorMittal objects to the emergency rulemaking on the basis that there is no emergency,” the ruling said.

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

 Oil tanker off course when it ran aground in Nunavut Ship changed course to pass other tanker but then never corrected its path February 4, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems An oil tanker that ran aground in Nunavut waters in 2012 did so because it didn't follow its charted course, says the Transportation Safety Board The TSB released its report Tuesday on the Oct. 25, 2012 incident involving the MV Nanny.

The MV Nanny was leaving Baker Lake and carrying oil products when it spent two days grounded in Chesterfield Narrows. The area is marked by unlit beacons and allows for little margin of error.

The TSB found that the ship ran aground because it had deviated from its charted route.

The MV Nanny, seen here, ran aground near Baker Lake in 2012. ((Canadian Coast Guard)) The ship had to steer off-course to pass another tanker, but then was never returned to its proper path. It instead proceeded on a parallel route, about a nautical mile off-course.

"The vessel was steered a bit too much to the east and to the north and eventually it was grounded," said Pierre Murray with the TSB's Atlantic bureau.

The TSB says a lack of communication between the bridge officers was a factor in the grounding.

No injuries or pollution were reported. The double-hulled ship was badly damaged on its hull and rudder but not the tanks.

It was the second time the Nanny had run aground in Nunavut waters. In September 2010 the Nanny was lodged in Simpson Strait near GjoaHaven while carrying more than 9 million litres of diesel.

The TSB says Coastal Shipping Limited, the MV Nanny's owner, has since created a "confined waters policy," a checklist of procedures to follow when entering narrow waterways.

The board also says lighted beacons in Chesterfield Narrows would help ships travel safely through at night.

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

 Kinder Morgan says enhanced spill-response will increase oil recovery at sea, but opponents skeptical Environmentalists dispute application, say it misses key issue of sediments binding with, sinking oil January 14, 2014 Nearly two-thirds of the oil in a major tanker spill would be recovered in the Gulf Islands area within four days, according to computer modelling carried out for Trans Mountain $5.4-billion pipeline expansion.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems That’s far greater than the figures cited by the tanker industry’s own organization, and more than twice as much as the best recovery estimate in a recent B.C. government-commissioned study.

The scenario, outlined in Kinder Morgan’s 15,000-page project application filed last month with the National Energy Board, is meant to show potential cleanup results for its proposed increased spillresponse capacity. It is based on a major spill of 104,000 barrels of oil — about 40 per cent the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill on the Alaska coast.

The findings, however, provide few assurances to environmentalists, who doubt that volume of oil could be recovered.

In response to the sixfold increase in annual tanker return trips to 408 in B.C. waters from its pipeline project, Kinder Morgan is recommending the industry-funded Western Canadian Marine Response Corp. (WCMRC) add new staging bases, which will require a tripling of staff to 90 and new purposebuilt boats at a cost of up to $100 million.

That would cut in half the time for a full response effort, to 36 hours, and see the first responders arrive within six hours anywhere along the tanker route from the Burrard Inlet to the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The increase in bases and equipment would also increase the WCMRC’s capacity to handle a spill to 169,000 barrels of oil in southern B.C. waters, larger than the most likely spill if two compartments of the Aframax-sized tankers that dock at Burnaby’s Westridge Terminal were punctured.

Kinder Morgan has calculated that the probability of a major spill is once in about 2,400 years.

“Through the modelling and other work we did, what we found is the effectiveness of the spill response increased quite significantly the sooner you can get there and the sooner equipment is deployed,” says Michael Davies, Kinder Morgan’s director of marine development.

The computer modelling, carried out by EBA Engineering Consultants for Kinder Morgan, simulated a grounding at 8 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2012 at Arachne Reef at the southern tip of the Gulf Islands.

EBA concluded that 44.5 per cent of the spilled oil would be recovered at sea and 18.6 per cent recovered within booms around the ship. After four days, nearly 16 per cent of oil would end up on shore, and nine per cent would remain on the ocean. About seven per cent was estimated to evaporate, and about three per cent to dissolve.

Kinder Morgan’s estimates are based, in part, on testing it conducted on diluted bitumen in purposemade tanks west of Edmonton, which showed it would remain floating after 10 days.

However, a federal government study released Tuesday raises serious questions about that conclusion.

The study found that diluted bitumen — also to be transported by the Northern Gateway pipeline — sinks in sea water when battered by waves and mixed with sediments.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Salish Sea, which encompasses the Kinder Morgan tanker route, is considered to have high concentrations of sediments. Davies said the testing simulated ocean conditions but acknowledged Kinder Morgan did not use sediments in its testing.

Living Oceans executive director Karen Wristen said it’s a key concern because sediments would make the diluted bitumen heavier than sea water, causing it to sink below the ocean surface and making it next to impossible to recover.

Wristen noted Canadian authorities were unaware oil was headed their way following the Nestucca barge spill in 1988 in Washington state water because it had submerged. A week later, oil washed up on Vancouver Island shores.

“It would be impossible with conventional booms and skimmers: You simply could not corral it to keep it still to recover that much,” Wristen said of Kinder Morgan’s estimate it could recover nearly two-thirds of oil spilled.

Oil-spill expert Dr. Gerald Graham, who helped write a 1990 federal oil tanker report, said he couldn’t dispute Kinder Morgan’s figures but noted the company is relying on the diluted bitumen floating on the surface in their recovery estimates. Certainly, there are scientists that believe diluted bitumen will sink, said Graham, who provided expert advice to Living Oceans and Coastal First Nations on Enbridges’s $6.5-billion Northern Gateway project spill prevention and response plans.

“But even if they’re right and get two-thirds of the oil recovered, I’m worried about the other one third.

One third of 104,000 barrels, that’s a heck of lot of oil,” said Graham, head of Victoria-based Worldocean Consulting, an oil-spill response and planning firm.

Additional spill findings also cast doubts on Kinder Morgan’s spill-recovery estimates.

According to the London-based International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, even in ideal conditions in oceans around the world, only 10-15 per cent of oil is likely to be recovered.

A recent B.C. government-commissioned study by U.S.-based marine consulting firm Nuka Research & Planning Group LLC estimated that between nine and 31 per cent of a 70,000-barrel spill would be recovered after five days under several scenarios and seasons in southern B.C. waters.

Under Kinder Morgan’s proposals, five new spill-response bases would be established, including in the Roberts Banks area, Saanich peninsula and Nanaimo area. Two to three of the bases would be staffed 24 hours a day. WCMRC already has a base in Burnaby.

The WCMRC would need to increase full-time staffing to 90 from 30, increasing its $30-million annual operating budget, said WCMRC spokesman Michael Lowery. “It’s significant,” he said of the proposed capacity increases.

Several vessels would need to be constructed, including mini-barges and a high-speed skimming boat that is expected to take four to five years to construct.

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

 Kinder

Morgan Trans Mountain Tarsands Pipeline through Fraser River Watershed

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

 B.C. groups ask court to block approval of Northern Gateway pipeline Environmental groups and First Nations argue review panel made decision on “insufficient” evidence January 17, 2014

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

OTTAWA — A long-expected stampede to the courts has begun as environmental groups and First Nations seek to block Enbridge Inc's proposed $7.9-billion Northern Gateway megaproject.

Four similar actions filed in the Federal Court of Appeal in Vancouver on Friday ask the court to block Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government from approving Enbridge's application to construct a pipeline from northern Alberta to Kitimat on the B.C. coast.

One action was filed by ForestEthics Advocacy, Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation Foundation, three B.C.-based groups that participated in the 18-month review by the Joint Review Panel. Similar actions were filed by the Haisla Nation, the Gitxaala Nation and by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria on behalf of B.C. Nature and Nature Canada.

The panel, representing both the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, concluded in its Dec. 19 report that the project is unlikely to have significant environmental effects except on certain woodland caribou and grizzly bear populations. The panel made 209 recommendations aimed at reducing the risk of environmental damage.

The federal cabinet has 180 days to consider the recommendation.

The panel process, however, has long been seen as only one component of what is expected to be a drawn-out battle over Northern Gateway.

Many critics assumed — correctly as it turned out — that the panel would come down on the side of industry.

Public protests and court actions, by both environmental groups and especially First Nations, are viewed by many as potentially more troublesome for Enbridge and the Harper government than the panel's work.

The court action alleges that the panel based its decision on insufficient evidence and that the panel did not meet the statutory requirements of the federal review process.

"The JRP did not have enough evidence to support its conclusion that the Northern Gateway pipeline would not have significant adverse effects on certain aspects of the environment," Ecojustice lawyer Karen Campbell said in a statement.

"The panel made its recommendation despite known gaps in the evidence, particularly missing information about the risk of geohazards along the pipeline route and what happens to diluted bitumen when it is spilled in the marine environment."

An Enbridge spokesman said the company expected court actions, but said such efforts are "premature" until the federal government makes a decision. Northern Gateway, the limited partnership set up by Enbridge to finance the pipeline, "is confident in the integrity of the Joint Review Panel process and report," said Ivan Giesbrecht.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "Its recommendations and conditions are based on science and the input of experts." He added that the company doesn't anticipate the court action will "necessarily delay" the government's decision.

The panel had always insisted that climate change questions were outside its mandate, and, in its report, the panelists also argued there wasn't a clear connection between Gateway and the booming oilsands.

"We did not consider that there was a sufficiently direct connection between the project and any particular existing or proposed oilsands development or other oil production activities to warrant consideration of the effects of these activities," they wrote.

The panelists cited, as evidence to back up this assertion, that the pipeline proponent didn't signal an intention to develop oilsands resources. They also noted that the pipeline starting point at Bruderheim, near Edmonton, "would not be located near oilsands developments and could receive oil from a variety of sources."

Yet in the same report, panelists cited testimony from project advocates directly linking Northern Gateway to the oilsands industry in order to back up their argument that the project was in Canada's economic self-interest.

"Those arguing in favour of the project said bitumen production was growing faster than upgrading capacity in Canada. . . . To obtain full value, they said, bitumen would need to reach complex refineries beyond those currently served in the North-Central and Gulf Coast regions of the United States. The next-nearest concentration of complex refineries is in East Asia, mainly in China.

"They said Northern Gateway would provide a relatively short and direct route to East Asia as well as access to other refining markets such as India and California."

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

 Will US lose access to Canadian pipeline oil?

Watch FOX News interview HERE

Editorial Comment: A few points to ponder:

      

The product coming from Canada is not crude oil as we know it - it's a "heavy oil" that requires the addition of condensate and chemicals to allow it to move through pipelines - very toxic and impossible to clean up.

All of the Canadian bitumen (heavy oil) will be exported to Asian markets and others willing to pay top dollar.

There are four major pipeline projects proposed to transport the bitumen out of Alberta (Keystone XL, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Expansion, Line 9 reversal) Tremendous opposition from environmental organizations, first nations, agriculture community and others.

Oil by rail is being considered as an alternate - not proving very safe.

Transporting diluted bitumen (dilbit) via large oil tankers along North America's often treacherous coastlines is extremely problematic Adequate spill response resources are not in place to handle expected catastrophic spills.

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

 BREAKING NEWS: Oil train carrying Canadian crude derails in Pennsylvania February 13, 2014 Yet another crude-oil train derailed today -- this time crashing in western Pennsylvania, only one kilometre from dozens of small town homes.

"We do have a lot of homes in close proximity. It could've been very tragic," said Dan Stevens, a local public safety spokesman on Thursday.

"If it would've happened in a borough, we could've had a totally different situation."

A 120-car Norfolk Southern train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed this morning near the town of Vandergrift, company officials confirmed Thursday.

A total of 21 train cars came off the track, including 19 crude oil cars, and two propane cars, a Pennsylvania municipal official told the Vancouver Observer.

Four cars leaked 11,000 - 15,000 litres of Canadian crude oil, according to Norfolk Southern.

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

There are no injuries reported. The train also crashed into a local metals processing building, near the Kiskiminetas River.

Train officials declined to say where in Canada the oil originated.

“I just can’t release all the information about origins, destinations and customers,” said Susan Terpay with Norfolk Southern.

The oil-by-train derailment is just the latest in a string of accidents in North America in the last year.

Most dramatically, a train carrying Bakken oil from North Dakota last July exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 victims.

Closer to home, on Jan.11, seven cars of a 152-car coal train moving along CN Rail tracks through Burnaby derailed.

Oil by train is increasing in popularity, as oil companies struggle to get their product out of Alberta, with existing major pipelines.

Kinder Morgan's CEO Rich Kinder told analysts recently: “We’re primarily a pipeline company of course… but there are reasons why pipelines don’t satisfy everybody’s needs. An outgrowth of that is obviously crude by rail," said Kinder, from Houston, Texas.

Kinder Morgan and Imperial Oil are now building a crude-oil rail terminal in Edmonton, to load trains with up to 250,000 barrels per day.

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

 Train Derails on Bridge Over Schuylkill River January 21, 2014 A train derailment left a tanker car and boxcar leaning off a Philadelphia bridge early Monday morning.

Police and firefighters responded to the train derailment near the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), between South and 34th Streets, around 12:30 a.m.

According to CSX spokesman Gary Sease, the 101-car freight train was headed from Chicago to Philadelphia when seven cars derailed on the Schuylkill Arsenal Railroad Bridge where it crosses over the Schuylkill Expressway and River from University City to Grays Ferry -- just south of the South Street Bridge. It is not yet known what caused the derailment.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Six cars carried crude oil, but no leaking was reported. Another car contained sand, according to CSX. A sand car and an oil tanker remained tipped over on the span of the bridge nearly 12 hours later.

No injuries were reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard brought in a 25-foot response boat from its Philadelphia station to enforce a safety zone in the river just south of the bridge and another team that monitors for pollution also responded to the scene. Local police firefighters and emergency personnel also responded to the scene as part of the city's emergency plan.

"CSX would like to thank Philadelphia emergency first responders who arrived at the scene quickly and took prompt precautionary action," said a statement from CSX. Both directions of the Schuylkill Expressway were closed shortly after the derailment as crews worked to stabilize the cars. By 2:30 a.m. traffic began to move eastbound -- it would take another hour for the westbound lanes to reopen. There were intermittent lane closures during the day as well.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead it appeared that some of the rails below the teetering train cars had broken. The cars that stayed on the track were removed as the leaning cars remained for hours.

In the aftermath of the derailment, city councilman Kenyatta Johnson is demanding answers regarding what caused the accident.

"This is unacceptable," he said. "Very unacceptable."

Johnson says he's received numerous complaints regarding the aging bridge where the derailment occurred. The bridge was built around the turn of the 20th Century and has since carried rail traffic for more than a century.

"They sent out a representative to one of our meetings and they acted like they were open to addressing some of the issues," Johnson said. "But to date they haven't come back to us to address any of those issues."

CSX officials say they are investigating the condition of the tracks, condition of the cars and how the train was operated. A spokesman also says any concerns from the public or a councilman receive high priority and that the company is more than willing to have a local rep meet with them. Johnson says he wants answers from CSX in order to protect Philadelphia residents.

"We're going to be calling for hearings in the city of Philadelphia asking specifically for CSX to tell the city of Philadelphia how they are maintaining their bridges, and how they are maintaining their railways," Johnson said. "They should assure the city of Philadelphia that their infrastructure is safe."

Another CSX spokesperson says the removal of all the cars could take up to two days.

"The safe removal of six of the cars will involved the careful and environmentally responsible transfer of oil to other tank cars or tanker trucks," the spokesperson wrote. "It also will require the removal of sand carried in one of the cars. These operations should begin this evening and continue until complete in the next 24-48 hours. These plans have been shared with public agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Philadelphia Fire Department."

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

 CN Rail train carrying fuel oil derails, spills in Mississippi No one injured in incident involving at least 18 rail cars January 31, 2014 A CN Rail train carrying fuel oil and other hazardous materials derailed this morning and is leaking in southeast Mississippi, forcing the evacuation of nearby homes, officials said.

No one was injured in the incident which involved the derailment of at least 18 rail cars, some of which were carrying methanol, a CN spokesman said. Patrick Waldron, U.S. public affairs manager for CN, told CBC News the derailment happened at about 9 a.m. local time Friday.

At least eight cars have spilled but there is no fire, Waldron said.

The incident occurred in the city limits of New Augusta in Perry County, near a mobile-home park, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). The derailment is near a four-lane divided highway.

"It's not a huge city but there are a good number of folks in that area," a MEMA spokesman said.

Emergency services are at the scene, local officials said.

The incident follows a string of derailments of trains carrying crude oil over the past year, raising questions about the safety of certain older tank cars.

Federal regulators have been studying rail car design and other issues after the string of explosive derailments, including one last month when a 106-car BNSF Railway Co. train carrying crude east crashed into a derailed westbound BNSF grain train near Casselton, N.D. Last July, a runaway oil train derailed and exploded in the centre of the Quebec town of LacMégantic, killing 47 people.

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

 Legislature considers bill regulating oil transport January 25, 2014 Bills proposed in the Legislature could impose stricter regulations on crude oil shipping on Grays Harbor, the Columbia River, Willapa Bay and Puget Sound, with state officials expecting a large increase in the amount of oil being shipped out of local ports.

The measures would also add to reporting requirements for companies transporting the substance by rail, and call for a study of the state’s capacity to respond to oil train accidents.

Rep. Jessyn Farrell, D-Seattle, introduced House Bill 2347, which received a public hearing in the House Environment Committee on Jan. 22. Bainbridge Island Democratic Sen. Christine Rolfes introduced the companion bill, Senate Bill 6262.

Hoquiam Sen. Jim Hargrove, a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, said the legislation is designed to give Department of Ecology officials the same authority to regulate oil shipping on Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay and the Columbia River that they already have in the Puget Sound.

Grays Harbor and the Columbia River could soon be home to oil shipping facilities, while ports in the Puget Sound have been shipping the commodity for decades.

“The system is working very well in Puget Sound,” Hargrove said. “It will make sure that the Columbia River and the Harbor are awarded the same opportunities to prevent oil spills.”



If passed, the legislation would require that all oil-laden tankers larger than 5,000 gross tons be escorted by at least one tug when traveling in the Puget Sound, within two miles of Grays Harbor or Willapa Bay, within three miles of the mouth of the Columbia River or on any inland portion of the Columbia River.



Oil tankers larger than 125,000 deadweight tons would be prohibited from entering the Puget Sound. Laden, single-hulled oil tankers 5,000 gross tons or larger would need two tug escorts when entering Puget Sound.

The volume of enclosed spaces on a ship is measured in gross tons, with one gross ton equaling 100 cubic feet. Deadweight tonnage is the measurement of the total mass of cargo and fuel that will bring a ship down to its loadline marks.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The state Department of Ecology would be given the authority to adopt supplemental escort tug rules, as they see fit.

House bill co-sponsor Rep. Steve Tharinger, a Sequim Democrat and member of the Environment Committee, said he’s glad the bill calls for additional tug support on Grays Harbor, but he’s concerned about the additional boats creating congestion on the water.

He said he’d also like to see a provision requiring an additional person in the oil tankers’ wheelhouses, helping to navigate the ships through the Harbor.

“You can always use one more set of eyes,” Tharinger said.

David Byers, Ecology’s spill response supervisor, testified at the House Environment Committee hearing, and explained that the legislation isn’t intended to fix oil spills.

Rather, it would pre-empt oil traffic through Washington, the effect of drilling in North Dakota and the new Kinder Morgan oil pipeline through Canada.

“That means this risk picture is changing dramatically,” Byers said.

The state’s current oil spill prevention program works well, Byers said, so it should be expanded to cover other areas.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a big spill in Washington state,” Byers said. “You really have to go back to the ’80s or ’90s to find a time we’ve had a 90,000 or 100,000 gallon spill.”

The measure would also increase fees for oil spilled by barges towed by tugs. If barge owners or operators are found to be reckless or negligent, they would be required to pay triple the assessed damage to natural resources if oil is spilled in Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, the Columbia River or near the mouth of the Columbia River.

“It doesn’t matter your political views or background, I think we can all agree that an oil spill would be devastating for Grays Harbor.

Editorial Comments:  Much of the oil that could potentially be transported through Washington State via pipelines, oil tankers, trains and trucks will be diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the Tar Sands in Alberta Canada.  Dilbit is a pressurized, highly toxic cocktail of bitumen (oil and sand), condensate and assorted chemicals.  As planned, Dilbit will be transported from British Columbia ports via several hundred very large crude carrier (VLCC) class oil tankers per year to Asia and California refineries.  The tankers bound for California will traverse the Strait of Juan de Fuca before turning south thus risking Washington’s entire coastline.  Additional shipping traffic will utilize the Strait of Juan de Fuca to import condensate from Asia to Canadian ports and to export Canadian Liquefied Natural Gas (LGN) and American thermal coal from Canada and the USA to China.  This significant increase in shipping of hazardous material will result in irreversible, catastrophic scenarios for those living in British Columbia and Washington State as well as for all taxpayers in Canada and the USA.  The scenarios for transporting these hazardous materials via pipelines, rails and trucks is equally dire.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Hopefully we’ll never have a spill, but if we do, we should have the resources to clean it up.” said bill co-sponsor Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.

“We’ve got a really beautiful coastline in my district and we should do what we can to protect it,” he added.

Editorial Comment:  Major spills of crude oil are impossible to clean up (ie. Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon, Kalamazoo River…)  Dilbit sinks – far worse than crude oil

However, the state doesn’t have the same regulatory control for oil transported by rail. Much of the responsibility instead falls to the federal government. But lawmakers are hoping to learn more about oil transportation — both on land and on water — through a quarterly reporting system.

The Department of Ecology would be required to publish a quarterly oil transportation report based on information collected through existing state and federal programs. Oil refineries, as well as oil storage and handling facilities, would also be required to submit information: the number of tank vessels and rail cars that delivered or transferred oil each week, the volume and type of oil delivered to the facility, the mode of transportation and the route taken.

Both Frank Holmes, of the Western States Petroleum Association, and Johan Hellman, of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, testified at the Jan. 22 hearing, expressing concerns with the bill’s reporting requirements.

Hellman said the reports could cause public safety and homeland security threats if members of the public are given access to the information. Both men asked that the committee add privacy provisions to the measure.

Tharinger said the rail provisions are a good start, but he would eventually like to see more, given recent oil train derailments and explosions.

“This Bakken oil is really flammable, and the rails run right through Aberdeen and Hoquiam,” Tharinger said.

The bill also calls for an emergency preparedness study from the state Office of Financial Management to determine whether the state has the resources to respond to an accident involving rail cars transporting oil.

Even though the Senate bill hasn’t yet received a hearing, Hargrove said it has a decent chance of passage. If the House bill passes a floor vote, it would be sent to the Senate — and Hargrove said senators have shown a decent amount of interest in the measure.

He said the measure won’t hinder state commerce, so it should gain support from Republicans and Democrats alike.

“This is a big mouthful to bite off in a short session, so I can’t promise it’s going to go through,” Hargrove said. “But I do think that it’s something that’s noncontroversial and supported on both sides.”

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

 Railroad tank-car safety woes date decades before crude oil concerns January 27, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems WASHINGTON — Long before crude oil and ethanol were transported by railroads in large quantities in minimally reinforced tank cars, other flammable and poisonous materials were riding around the country in the same cars, threatening major cities and waterways.

Federal regulators might be weeks away from issuing new safety guidelines for tank cars carrying flammable liquids, after a series of frightening rail accidents over the past six months.

But the type of general-service tank car involved in recent incidents with crude oil trains in Quebec, Alabama and North Dakota – the DOT-111-A – has a poor safety record with hazardous cargoes that goes back decades, raising questions about why it took so long for the railroad industry and its federal regulators to address a problem they knew how to fix.

Other, more specialized types of tank cars received safety upgrades in the 1980s, and the industry’s own research shows they were effective at reducing the severity of accidents.

Tank car manufacturers have built new DOT-111A cars to a higher standard since 2011, but the improvements haven’t caught up to tens of thousands of older cars.

To be sure, improper railroad operations or defective track cause many accidents involving tank cars.

But the National Transportation Safety Board, which makes recommendations but has no regulatory authority, has cited the DOT111A’s deficiencies many times over the years for making accidents worse than they could have been.

“Moving as quickly as possible to upgrade the tank cars is critical,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the NTSB who’s now a transportation safety consultant. “No one wants to see it happen again.”

A review of federal reports and documents going back four decades shows that the DOT-111A tank car factored into a wide range of calamities, including: A 1981 rail yard accident that shut down a portion of Newark International Airport and blocked traffic from reaching the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan until a punctured tank car finally burned out its contents of flammable ethylene oxide after 40 hours.

A 1983 rail yard accident that triggered the evacuation of 9,000 people in Denver when corrosive nitric acid escaped through a puncture in a tank car, forming a large vapor cloud.

A 1991 derailment – the worst chemical spill in California history – that sent a tank car loaded with a toxic pesticide tumbling into the Sacramento River, poisoning a 40-mile stretch of one of the state’s most important water supplies and fishing areas.

A 1992 spill near Superior, Wis., that resulted in the release of benzene into the Nemadji River, leading to the evacuation of 40,000 people in Superior and nearby Duluth, Minn., and the deaths of 16 species of wild animals near the accident site.

A 2001 derailment midway through a 1.7-mile, century-old rail tunnel beneath downtown Baltimore in which a punctured tank car carrying flammable tripropylene fed a raging fire that burned for five days, ruptured a 40-inch water main and prompted the evacuation of the Camden Yards baseball park.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Many tank cars that were built starting in the 1960s were designed to carry as much cargo as possible, which meant thin shells that could easily puncture or rupture in a derailment. While economical, the designs proved disastrous in a number of horrific incidents involving toxic and flammable gases.

The deaths of numerous railroad workers and emergency responders in the 1970s spurred regulators and the industry to improve the safety of the pressurized tank cars used to transport “all kinds of exotic materials that cause battlefield-like damage,” NTSB official Edward Slattery told The Associated Press in 1978.

Six weeks after 16 people were killed in Waverly, Tenn., including the town’s police and fire chiefs, when a tank car filled with propane exploded following a train derailment, the NTSB convened an emergency hearing in Washington. Nearly 50 witnesses testified, including mayors, emergency responders, railroad executives, private citizens and a young state attorney general from Arkansas named Bill Clinton.

“Every month in which unprotected tank cars ride the rails increases the chances of another catastrophic hazardous-materials accident,” said James King, then the NTSB’s chairman, in opening the hearing on April 4, 1978.

By the early 1980s, pressurized cars were equipped with puncture-resistant shields, fire-resistant thermal insulation and devices to help the cars stay coupled in derailments, reducing the risk that they could strike and puncture each other.

An industry study found that the retrofits made a big difference within six years. Punctures of the car’s heads – the round shields at each end of the car – fell by 94 percent. Punctures in the car’s shell – its cylindrical body – fell 67 percent. Ruptures due to fire exposure fell by 93 percent.

Additional changes in railroad operating practices, track maintenance and training for emergency response personnel reduced the frequency and severity of accidents.

The non-pressurized DOT-111A, however, was left mostly unaltered. Upgrades probably weren’t necessary when the cars were carrying benign products such as corn syrup or vegetable oils, but regulators also allowed the cars to transport flammable and corrosive materials.

In accident after accident over the next three decades, the NTSB repeatedly referred to the cars’ shortcomings.

“The inadequacy of the protection provided by DOT-111A tank cars for certain dangerous products has been evident for many years,” the NTSB wrote the Federal Railroad Administration in a letter dated July 1, 1991.

Two weeks later, a Southern Pacific train came off the tracks in a sharp curve at Cantara Loop, near Dunsmuir, Calif. A DOT-111A tank car leaked 19,000 gallons of metam sodium into the Sacramento River from a relatively small puncture. That outcome could possibly been improved by installing a half-inch-thick shield over each car’s end, or head, a location vulnerable to punctures.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems In 1994, the railroad paid a $38 million settlement for a spill from just one tank car.

A decade later, the DOT-111A fleet began hauling vast quantities of ethanol as a federal renewablefuel standard, mandated in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, began to take effect.

The cars’ vulnerability became evident more once, this time with a highly flammable liquid. The 2006 derailment of a Norfolk Southern ethanol train in New Brighton, Pa., about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, got the attention of the NTSB again on tank car safety.

The ethanol boom took its toll in several other derailments, including a 2009 accident in Cherry Valley, Ill., near Rockford, that took the life of a motorist who was waiting for a train at a road crossing. Nine other people, including two firefighters, were injured. The NTSB, in its 2012 report on the accident, again cited the deficiencies of the DOT-111A. “If enhanced tank head and shell puncture-resistance systems such as head shields, tank jackets and increased shell thicknesses had been features of the DOT-111 tank cars involved in this accident,” the agency wrote, “the release of hazardous materials likely would have been significantly reduced, mitigating the severity of the accident.”

Now Bakken crude oil, extracted from shale rock through hydraulic fracturing, has factored in at least three catastrophic derailments since July, including one that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

Another large crude-oil fire erupted near Aliceville, Ala., in November, when a train left the tracks in an unpopulated wetland area. Nearly 750,000 gallons were spilled in that incident, according to federal data.

In a preliminary report from its investigation of the December derailment of a BNSF crude oil train in Casselton, N.D., the NTSB said 18 of the 20 DOT-111A tank cars that derailed sustained punctures.

The crash ignited a fire that billowed hundreds of feet into the frigid air, keeping two-thirds of the town’s 2,400 residents away from their homes for a day. The NTSB estimates that more than 400,000 gallons of crude oil spilled.

“When it starts to become a pattern, it becomes a problem,” said Larry Kaufman, a retired railroadindustry public relations official who worked for BNSF predecessor Burlington Northern, as well as Southern Pacific, which has since merged into Union Pacific.

In his budget plan this month, Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown modified the state’s oil-spill response plan to anticipate the increased risk of an inland incident involving crude oil transported by train, including any near rivers and streams that supply the state with water.

Steve Evans, who coordinates the wild and scenic rivers program at Friends of the River, a group in Sacramento, Calif., was involved in settlement talks after the 1991 California spill.

“We’re bound to have a disaster sooner or later,” he said.

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

B.C. Ferries' Queen of North hit the rocks and sank in 2006

 If oil hits the beach, it’ll be here in B.C. December 20, 2013 Let’s start with the assumption — and I may be going out on a limb here — that no one actually wants an oil spill, and that it’s in everyone’s interest to keep Alberta bitumen out of the waters off B.C.’s coast.

What’s still up for debate is how much chance there is of that happening, should the Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat be built, and at what point it’s worth the risk.

This week, the National Energy Board’s joint review panel tilted in Enbridge’s favour, finding that even if there were a large spill from a tanker spill — an event it said was highly unlikely — permanent, widespread damage to the environment would not occur.

That conclusion will be a hard sell up the coast, where they like to point out that improbable doesn’t mean impossible.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems As the panel heard time and again, the Queen of the North plied its route with metronomic regularity for 26 years, doing so perfectly safely right up until the day in 2006 when it hit the rocks and sank, right where Northern Gateway’s supertankers would emerge from Douglas Channel.

Critics think it’s nuts to add up to 250 oil tankers a year to the inside coastal waters from which such vessels have long been effectively, if not officially, banned under the “voluntary exclusion zone” that keeps loaded Alaska oil tankers west of Vancouver Island until they reach Juan de Fuca Strait.

To that, proponents can reply that while the Alaska tankers (the ones that regularly sail past Victoria en route to Puget Sound) might be shunned from B.C.’s inner coast, another 1,500 tankers of various description have safely gone down Douglas Channel to Kitimat since 1978. They say all manner of shipping safely works the inner coast without the kind of extra safety measures that would be required of Northern Gateway traffic: double-hulled vessels, tethered escort tugs, extra navigational aids, a vetting process to ensure tankers are seaworthy.

“Northern Gateway said that over one million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products are safely shipped into and out of Canadian ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts each day,” the panel noted in a report that sprawled across two volumes and 493 pages.

The report discounted concerns about the challenges of navigating the area. “A letter from the Pacific Pilotage Authority noted that tankers already call on the terminal in Burnaby and pass through Vancouver’s Second Narrows, which is less than one-tenth as wide as the narrowest place in the proposed sea routes to Kitimat. The Pacific Pilotage Authority, a Crown corporation providing pilots for British Columbia ports, said the weather conditions in the routes to Kitimat were no worse than what tankers currently encounter at Canadian East Coast ports.”

While the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster was frequently invoked by those testifying before the panel, much has changed since then, including the phase-in of double-hulled tankers. “Northern Gateway said that every large spill dating from 1970 has been from a single-hull tanker,” the report noted.

Enbridge’s opponents remain unconvinced. How can the panel possibly conclude that a spill would have no lasting effects when, at the same time, the report acknowledges that no one really knows what a spill of diluted bitumen would be like?

Critics dismiss all the talk of a “world-class oil spill response system” as window dressing. Might as well call for world-class gravediggers.

And while a spill itself might be statistically improbable, those who work on the water can rhyme off the close calls — from a bulk carrier that smashed its bow on the side of Douglas Channel in 2009 to the U.S. nuclear submarine whose captain was fired in 2011 for almost hitting a freighter in Juan de Fuca Strait.

That’s the thing about risk-benefit analyses: The outcome depends on who takes the risk and who gets the benefit.

If there is a spill, unlikely as that may be, the oil will hit the beach at Hartley Bay, not Calgary or Beijing or Ottawa.

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

 Appeals over crude oil permit decision Though both sides claimed some victories when the state Shorelines Hearings Board stalled crude oil shipping proposals last year, both are now appealing the board’s ruling.

The Quinault Indian Nation and Imperium Terminal Services have both filed petitions for judicial review in Thurston County Superior Court. The Quinaults have also taken the first step to having the case skip directly to the state Court of Appeals.

The tribe argues the crude oil shipping proposals should fall under the Ocean Resources Management Act and therefore merit further review; Imperium argues that the consideration of its permits shouldn’t have to include the impacts of a potential project proposed by U.S. Development that hasn’t reached the permitting stage.

Quinaults appeal The Quinault Indian Nation and a coalition of environmental groups — Friends of Grays Harbor, the Grays Harbor Audubon Society, Citizens for a Clean Harbor, the Surfrider Foundation and the Sierra Club — each filed appeals with the state after the City of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology issued what is called a mitigated determination of non-significance (MDNS) for crude-by-rail projects proposed by Westway Terminal Co. and Imperium.

The MDNS was issued because the co-lead agencies believed the companies’ plans did enough to mitigate potential environmental impacts under the State Environmental Policy Act. By itself, the MDNS doesn’t permit the companies to do anything, but it would have streamlined the permitting process.

The Shorelines Hearings Board ultimately disagreed with the co-lead agencies in its November ruling, rejecting the MDNS, invalidating the shorelines permits and sending the whole project back to the city for further review. The ruling also ordered the companies complete rail and vessel traffic analyses before moving forward. The companies will have to re-apply for their shorelines permits.

The Quinaults are challenging the decision the board made on the Ocean Resources Management Act. The tribe asserted the oil projects should fall under ORMA’s review process because they would “adversely affect the environment.”

The board concluded that the projects should not be under ORMA because they’re not extracting the oil from Washington waters.

The intent section of the act references restrictions on oil or gas exploration, development or production on tidal or submerged lands.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “The board’s decision authorizes regulatory agencies to forego ORMA’s review criteria except in certain narrow situations involving oil extraction and development,” the tribe’s attorneys with Earthjustice wrote in their filing.

The tribe has requested a certificate of appealability from the board, the document which would allow them to take their appeal directly to the state Court of Appeals. In its court documents, the tribe argues that’s important because no court in Washington has considered ORMA’s scope in the specific context of crude-by-rail projects like the ones proposed on Grays Harbor. “… The ruling in this case will be the first judicial word on the applicability of ORMA to ocean transportation of crude oil in Washington — a phenomenon of growing importance in the state,” the tribe’s filing states.

Imperium appeal Imperium’s petition for review takes issue with a different aspect of the board’s decision. When Hoquiam and Ecology decided to issue permits to Imperium and Westway, they didn’t consider the impacts of a third project in an earlier phase of development because U.S. Development had not applied for any permits or submitted detailed information.

The board, however, concluded both agencies had enough information to reasonably include the third terminal in their overall analysis, and ordered that they do so when re-considering the permits for Westway and Imperium.

“They know its location on Grays Harbor … They know its purpose, which is the same as the Westway and Imperium expansions, is to receive multiple grades of crude-by-rail, store it in terminals, and transfer it to vessels. They know its maximum capacity of proposed liquid storage, along with the daily maximum capacity of liquids it can handle. They know the number of anticipated rail unit trains and vessels visiting the planned new facility. This information is sufficient to merit its inclusion in the consideration of cumulative impacts from all three projects,” the decision reads.

U.S. Development has a lease option with the Port of Grays Harbor, but no more official progress.

The Port said Tuesday the company expects to have its permit applications filed by the end of the first fiscal quarter of 2014.

In its petition, Imperium argues the board’s decision incorrectly applies environmental law and its own precedents.

“The board’s conclusion is also in willful disregard of relevant, controlling case law and, therefore, arbitrary and capricious,” the filing states.

The company notes in its court documents that although it doesn’t agree with the board’s order to perform its vessel and rail traffic analyses before getting its MDNS, it has elected to comply.

“Imperium has chosen to appeal only the cumulative impacts described herein, without conceding the correctness of other aspects of the board’s order,” the company’s lawyers with Seattle law firm Van Ness Feldman wrote.

No hearing dates have yet been scheduled. The board will respond to the Quinaults’ request this month.

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

Coal

 Don’t Sell Cheap U.S. Coal to Asia February 12, 2014 EASTSOUND, Wash. — FROM where I live on Orcas Island in Puget Sound, north of Seattle, I can see Cherry Point across the wind-whipped waters of the Salish Sea. This sandy promontory jutting into Georgia Strait has become the focus of heated debate here in the Pacific Northwest.

Peabody Energy, Carrix and other corporations hope to build a shipping terminal at Cherry Point to export nearly 50 million metric tons of coal to Asia annually.

They ballyhoo the jobs the terminal may bring to our region but say nothing about the profits they will reap from selling subsidized coal.

Opponents decry the prospect of the dirty, smelly, noisy trains blocking railroad crossings all across Washington State as they transport coal here from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. They also warn that coal dust from the terminal will pollute nearby waters and harm our dwindling populations of herring, threatened Chinook salmon and endangered killer whales.

But much larger issues of national and global concern are at stake. The low-sulfur Western coal, strip-mined from federal lands, is valuable public property. The federal government’s leasing of these lands at low cost to strip miners made some sense a few decades ago when the United States needed low-sulfur coal to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide that was being emitted by coal-burning power plants and causing acid rain. But today, as utilities convert to cheap natural gas and American coal use declines, mining companies are seeking customers in China, Japan and Korea.

Shipping this subsidized coal to Asian countries to help them power their factories, which undercut American manufacturers, makes little sense.

Yes, this coal will help those countries produce cheap consumer goods for sale in stores across the United States. But it will also promote the continued transfer of industrial work to Asia, especially if the Trans-Pacific Partnership goes through. Is that good for American workers?

The coal is extracted from federal lands so cheaply that taxpayers should be outraged. A 2012 study by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that the government’s failure to obtain fair market value for coal mined in the Powder River Basin had deprived taxpayers of almost $1 billion annually over the past 30 years. Last year, the Interior Department’s inspector general similarly reported that the agency was failing to collect sufficient lease payments.

And last week, the Government Accountability Office concluded that the coal leasing program run by the Bureau of Land Management operates without sufficient oversight to ensure that fair lease prices are being paid and does not fully account for export sales in evaluating these fees.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Taxpayers are likely losing out so that coal companies can reap a windfall and export that coal overseas, where it is burned, worsening climate change,” said Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, who requested the study.

When coal companies can strip mine Western coal for less than $10 a ton and sell it in Asia for nearly 10 times as much, lucrative profits can be banked all along the global supply chain. No wonder the Australian coal company Ambre Energy is planning to build two coal terminals on the Columbia River. In all, those terminals and the one proposed for Cherry Point could ship 100 million metric tons of coal to Asia annually.

Asian nations hungry for energy have much looser pollution regulations and will pay dearly for coal, despite its noxious impacts on health and the environment. The health impact of coal emissions has recently become obvious in China, where this pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, according to the Global Burden of Disease study, published in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

And this pollution is unfortunately not confined to Asia.

Wafted aloft on winds blowing across the Pacific, it reaches North America, depositing fine particles, mercury and other toxins on land and in water. Carbon dioxide emitted by burning coal adds inexorably to the global overburden of greenhouse gases warming the planet.

Projected exports from Cherry Point alone could result in over 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The gas has already begun to boost the acidity of near-shore waters, threatening Washington’s shellfish industry.

The billions of tons of coal burned in Asia every year contribute markedly to global warming. Should the United States be selling them subsidized coal and encouraging this impending disaster?

Our nation needs a new, transparent, clean-energy policy that no longer turns a blind eye to the many negative impacts of coal burning — or to companies trying to sell coal to other nations playing catch-up in the global economy.

A cornerstone of this policy must be the rational use of our vast reserves of Western coal as we ramp down the overuse of what is, by far, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Is our economy to become a resource economy like Australia’s, exporting mineral wealth to Asia in return for mining and shipping jobs, plus cheap consumer goods? Should we support this Faustian bargain by selling our coal so inexpensively? What kinds of jobs and living conditions do we really want to foster, and where? These are questions a rational and much-needed, 21st-century energy policy would address.

A great and growing plume of carbon dioxide continues to rise over Asia as transnational corporations are shifting manufacturing operations overseas. We can take a resolute stand at Cherry Point and begin to halt this boondoggle. A good first step would be one Senator Markey advocates: a moratorium on new coal leases.

Michael Riordan, a physicist, is the author of “The Hunting of the Quark.”

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

 Duke Energy Issues Apology for NC Coal Ash Spill February 8, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A top executive at Duke Energy has apologized for the company's massive coal ash spill in North Carolina and pledged to clean up its toxic waste from the Dan River.

Paul Newton, president for the company's North Carolina operations, made the apology Friday as he visited with residents in the affected towns of Eden, N.C., and Danville, Va. The company says it is developing a long-term clean-up plan for the river in consultation with state and federal environmental regulators.

"We apologize and will use all available resources to take care of the river," Newton said. "We will do the right thing for the river and surrounding communities. We are accountable."

The company said engineers at its Dan River Steam Station have designed a containment system that is capturing nearly all of the toxic runoff and pumping it back into a storage basin. However, the company said it cannot yet declare the spill fully contained.

The nation's largest electricity provider said up to 82,000 tons of coal ash mixed with 27 million gallons of contaminated water have escaped since a drainage pipe running under a 27-acre waste pond collapsed Feb. 2, turning the river gray for miles. It ranks as the third largest such coal ash spill in the nation's history.

State environmental officials released test results from the river this week that showed readings for arsenic, lead and other toxic contaminates linked to coal ash, but said they were within safety limits for both people and fish.

However, state regulators had taken those samples two miles downstream from the plant, rather than closer to the spill site where two environmental groups reported readings far exceeding safety standards.

Officials 20 miles downstream in Danville say they are successfully filtering arsenic, lead and other toxins from the drinking water supplied to the city's 43,000 residents.

Duke University geochemistry professor Avner Vengosh warned it could take years before the full impacts of the spill work their way through the Dan River's ecosystem.

Vengosh has studied coal-ash contamination in lakes and rivers throughout North Carolina. He also studied the long-term impact of a huge 2008 coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn.

Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium and other deadly chemicals that will negatively affect the health of fish and other animals, he said.

"What we found in our study is that the coal ash is going to be deposited on the bottom of the river, and is going to generate a kind of toxicity," as it dissolves into the sediment, Vengosh said.

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

 Opinion: What are health risks of expanded coal exports?

Strong health impact assessment would benefit all February 12, 2014 Although we are fortunate to live in one of the cleanest, greenest metropolitan areas in the world, our research continues to demonstrate that air pollution has substantial effects on our health.

As efforts have begun to further improve our air quality, it is also important to evaluate whether new developments in our region work against this shared goal.

The recent proposals to expand coal exports in B.C. will require more trains, barges, ships and handling equipment operating in our communities and our waters, yet the potential impacts this may have on our health have not been evaluated nor have concerns of the public been adequately addressed.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems This was evident in the more than 3,400 comments submitted to Port Metro Vancouver in response to its environmental impact assessment of the Fraser Surrey Docks direct transfer coal facility in December. In our review of this assessment, we concluded it only superficially addressed health concerns of the public and our concerns regarding the potential health impacts related to increased emissions of diesel exhaust and coal dust.

We therefore support the call of the chief medical officers of Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health for a health impact assessment related to this project.

Although it has not been routinely applied in B.C., health impact assessment is a collaborative process in which health impacts, both positive and negative, that arise from non-health decisions, projects or policies can be evaluated. Importantly, health impact assessment is not about deciding whether a project should proceed or not, but rather aims to ensure that a given project minimizes negative health impacts while also evaluating the potential for a project to achieve health benefits.

HIA is increasingly being used in communities across the globe. Washington State, just to the south of us, will conduct an HIA as part of its process to assess the proposed coal port at Cherry Point near Bellingham.

We wonder why the residents of the more densely populated Lower Mainland should accept anything less. HIAs begin with screening and scoping phases by which, through community consultation the key health issues and public concerns, the geography of potential impacts, and whether and how cumulative effects might be considered.

Although to date the port authority has not heeded the calls to conduct an HIA, it still has time to make the right decision and require one. The provincial government also has the power to ensure an HIA is completed. Either way, it is important to be clear about the features of a proper HIA:

  

Independent. Although a project’s proponent should take responsibility for costs associated with assessment, an HIA must be conducted by an independent third party to be objective and credible.

Democratic. The public, community groups and public agencies should participate in the HIA process, starting with determining the scope of the assessment, in a collaborative and iterative process.

Transparent. The proceedings of conducting the HIA, studies and documentation pertaining to the HIA and all citations should be transparently published and made available throughout the process. All conclusions, recommendations and findings should be evidence-based and fully cited.

As it is not a legal requirement, it is reasonable to ask why the Port would go down this road. We encourage Port Metro Vancouver to see HIA as a good business decision as it will allow for transparency, provide the public with a process to raise its concerns within a publicly-defined scope and, most important, reduce discord and controversy, increasing the chances of developing a project that meets the goals of the Port while reducing community impacts.

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

 Trucking only option for mine Company behind the Raven coal mine estimates railway transport to Valley would cost $300 million January 22, 2014 The proposed Raven coal mine would increase traffic through Cathedral Grove by three loaded trucks an hour, but bring 70 jobs to the Alberni Valley, says the mining company's vice-president.

This detail is part of the application Compliance Energy plans to submit to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office by the end of March. Compliance was rejected by the provincial regulator last May, but is putting together another application, which it said addresses all deficiencies in last year's 12,000-page submission to the environmental assessment office.

"They said that we need to address some more First Nations consultations, some more public consultation," said Stephen Ellis, vice-president of operations for Compliance Energy. "We believe that information was in there but wasn't found."

Ellis said the new application focuses on making the necessary information more readily available, including feedback from 3,000 responses the mining company received during a public information period in 2011. Provincial regulators required consultations with 20 aboriginal groups, and Compliance has so far met with 18.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "First Nation consultation is never complete, so it's an ongoing process," Ellis added.

The Raven Underground Coal Project would be developed in the Comox Valley, producing 1 million tonnes of coal annually over 16 years. The coal is metallurgical - used for making steel - and would be shipped oversees to markets in Japan and South Korea, via Port Alberni.

Compliance, which was specifically formed to develop the Raven mine, expects the development will create approximately 70 jobs in the Alberni Valley, including 20 at the port facilities and 50 involved in transporting coal to Port Alberni.

Compliance plans to move the mine's product by trucks along Highway 4 through MacMillan Park with three eight-axle trucks an hour, measuring approximately 40 metres each. The company previously stated on its website that "transporting by rail is still an option if the community prefers it and it is cost competitive to trucking." But recent information from firms Compliance consulted show upgrading the railway line running from the Comox Valley to Port Alberni would cost $300 million, making the mine unfeasible.

"The latest estimates, in terms of getting that rail system open and operational, would rule out any project," Ellis said. "We can't partake in that."

The Raven coal mine has met considerable public opposition, including safety concerns from having more than 70 coal-filled trucks on Cathedral Groves' winding roads each day.

"Just that increase is going to cause some congestion. It's going to cause some safety concerns, especially in winter months," said Alberni Valley resident Chris Alemany.

Alemany still believes that rail transportation is the only option for the tonnage that would come from the mine.

"You're just going to end up with trucks that are backed up and people that are backed up behind them."

Ellis estimates the trucks needed to transport from the mine would increase Highway 4 traffic by five per cent, bringing volume closer to previous levels when industry was busier in the Alberni Valley.

"If you think of the decrease of industry in Port Alberni in logging, paper and so on over the last few years, then that will probably replace the traffic that's been lost in the last 10, 15 years," he said.

"The trucks will be covered, there will be no dust coming off them, they will be newer trucks, they will have no exhaust brakes."

Compliance Energy expects that it will take regulators most of the year to reach a decision on the next application. This includes a 50-day period for public input and open information sessions to address questions and concerns with the proposed mine.

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

Geothermal

 Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia

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

Hydropower

 DeBolt Bill Requests $1.5 Billion for Flooding STATEWIDE: Portion Allocated to Chehalis Basin, Rest Open to Flood Prone Areas Throughout the State January 23, 2014 Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, is asking Washington state to help reduce catastrophic flooding by providing approximately $1.515 billion to entities throughout the state.

DeBolt’s legislation privileges the Chehalis River Basin as the only jurisdiction to receive automatic, guaranteed money — specifically, $300 million.

Labeled the Flood Hazard Reduction Act of 2014, the legislation is intended to further flood control, prevention, protection and mitigation in areas of the state vulnerable to flooding.

Editorial Comment: Here's another money grab attempt to build a dam on the Chehalis River - Just so happens that the $300 million earmarked for the Chehalis River basin equals the low bid for the proposed dam (without fish passage, more geology and hydrology studies, etc.).

This is being bundled with money for other flood prone areas to give it a better chance for statewide support - truly a shameful waste of tax dollars given the continued poor land use practices in these floodways and their watersheds.

It authorizes the state finance committee to issue $1.515 billion in general obligation bonds to be appropriated in phases over the next five biennia, starting in the 2015-2017 biennium.

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

 ‘Horror shows’ on B.C. rivers: Government given an ‘F’ for handling of run-ofriver power projects January 29, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The majority of run-of-the-river power projects in B.C.’s South Coast region are not being operated in a satisfactory environmental manner, according to Freedom of Information documents provided to The Province.

“We were told these things were going to be green, we were told they were going to be the next-best thing since sliced bread,” said Marvin Rosenau, who worked as a freshwater biologist in the Ministry of Environment in the 1990s and 2000s and now is a fisheries instructor at BCIT. .

“And the reality is that it’s a bit of a mess right now. Some of them are just absolutely horror shows.”

For years, environmentalists have been raising alarms about these hydroelectric power projects, which divert river water flows through turbines to generate power.

The main fear is the impact they have on fish, both upstream and downstream.

Details of the ongoing problems are highlighted by internal government documents recently obtained by the Wilderness Committee through a Freedom of Information request and reviewed by The Province.

The documents come from a July 2012 government workshop held at the Environmental Assessment Office in Victoria. The workshop was aimed at tidying up an industry that has had highly publicized issues with non-compliance.

According to the workshop documents, at that time only four of 22 run-of-river projects in the South Coast region had satisfactory operational parameters and procedures in place.

To get an updated picture, The Province asked the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations how many projects currently have satisfactory ratings.

As of this month, there were two new projects in operation, but still a total of 18 of 24 with unsatisfactory operating procedures, according to an email to The Province from a ministry spokesman.

For Gwen Barlee, Wilderness Committee policy director and long-time critic of run-of-river projects, this progress in the year and a half since the workshop “just doesn’t cut it.”

“I’d give them a solid F,” said Barlee, who added she had to “fight and plead” to get the government documents through her FOI request.

“It says to me the government doesn’t have the capacity or doesn’t take this issue seriously.”

Barlee noted that when these water power projects have compliance problems and divert water improperly, it can endanger fish populations.

The 2012 workshop documents show that at least three of the projects have had “fish kills,” but adds the problem “may be happening on more projects, (though) there is a lack of data.”

Barlee said the lack of progress on compliance is especially frustrating after the provincial government had said repeatedly since the 2012 workshop that monitoring of water power projects would be a “priority” issue.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Ministry representatives said monitoring was “an identified priority of the province” in May 2013 after another FOI request from Barlee revealed that 90 per cent of projects as of September 2011 had incidents and didn’t comply with environmental requirements.

This month, Barlee said: “If this is a priority issue for them, I’d hate to see what a non-priority issue looks like.”

She said the new data shows that “this is an industry incapable of policing itself and we have government staff that are so thin on the ground that they can’t do their job.”

Representatives of the Independent Power Producers industry say the run-of-river projects are still relatively low impact compared with other resource industries in B.C. “The industry is doing what it can,” said Paul Kariya, executive director of Clean Energy B.C., the industry trade association advocating for clean energy project developers, including run-of-river projects.

“I can’t speak for government, but on the industry’s side, we’re doing everything we can to make sure we’re being as light as possible on the landscape.”

To that end, Kariya pointed to an independent review of run-of-river projects, expected to be released within the next week.

The study, managed by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and funded in part by Clean Energy B.C., will examine impacts of run-of-river projects on fish populations.

The review was commissioned three months after the July 2012 compliance workshop that produced the documents in Barlee’s FOI request.

According to the Pacific Salmon Foundation, this will be the first study of its kind in B.C., and one of very few done anywhere in the world. The final report is to include a set of recommendations based on findings of the study.

“This study, it won’t answer everything, but it will deal with the central part of some of the questions,” Kariya said.

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

 Risk to B.C. salmon 'minimal' from run-of-river projects An independent review inconclusively finds the hydro projects will have no impact on river salmon January 30, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems An independent review of B.C.'s run-of-river projects has tentatively concluded that most of the hydro plants have had no impact on salmon species in the rivers used to generate electricity.

The review was conducted by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, a salmon and watershed conservation group, on behalf of Clean Energy BC representing independent power producers in the province.

Pacific Salmon Foundation's independent review of Run-of-River projects in B.C. found hydro-electric plants like the Miller Creek project, pictured above, pose minimal risk to salmon species. (EPCOR) "From what we see at this point in time there have been incidents of harm that people see in pictures," said Pacific Salmon Foundation CEO Dr. Brian Riddell, referring to publicity around fish kills from mistakes and failures at the plants.

The foundation found that while it is likely individual fish are killed at a number of facilities after getting caught or stranded by diverted water flows, there is little evidence that there has been harm to the fish populations as a whole.

"Of the places we can monitor, 21 of 26 of the sites we compare for this question are not showing any change in abundance or change in species composition," said Riddell.

18 plants without records But the foundation's report highlights a series of caveats that go along with the findings.

The study's authors were only able to judge impacts based on industry-supplied monitoring data from 26 sites. For the remaining 18 generating plants, monitoring records simply do not exist.

'The lack of independent review and analysis is a serious deficiency in environmental oversight.'Pacific Salmon Foundation report Riddell said he was not aware of this when the foundation began the study.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems "I don't know [if I was] surprised. It definitely was not something we had anticipated."

Riddell suggested the missing data relates to older facilities built before the year 2000. He said environmental monitoring may not have been part of their licenses.

The foundation also found fault with the data it did get to see. The companies that collected it never subjected it to any impartial scrutiny.

"The lack of independent review and analysis is a serious deficiency in environmental oversight," reads the foundation's report. "Without this step, the public cannot be assured of responsible development."

Despite the admonishment, and the potential that tapping B.C.'s rivers and streams poses a risk to salmon that's not clearly understood, Riddell isn't concerned.

"At this point in time, the information we have would say the harm is minimal," he said.

Study sought to hold industry to 'highest standard possible' The study marks the first time impacts on salmon species have been independently examined since privately run turbines began popping up on B.C.’s streams and rivers nearly 30 years ago.

Paul Kariya, the executive director of Clean Energy BC, said discovering the industry's shortcomings was part of the reason why his group commissioned the $350,000 study.

"The ethic and approach getting into this was to make sure our industry is held to the highest standard possible," said Kariya.

As for why so many of the facilities failed to produce monitoring data, Kariya says they were built in less enlightened times.

"The standards we have today for all developments across the board are certainly infinitely better than they were 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago." Kariya said.

"That's no different for our sector."

The member companies of Clean Energy BC agreed to open their records to the Pacific Salmon Foundation for the study, on condition that the foundation keeps site-specific details secret.

"There are jobs, there are peoples' careers on the line here. Many of these companies are publicly traded. I mean, the worst thing that can happen for some of them is — fairly or unfairly — they inadvertently end up being on the pointy end of the stick," said Kariya, explaining the need for the confidentiality agreement.

Kariya said the foundation gave him reports for each of the sites, and he has commitments from the companies involved to fix any problems — provided they are not cost-prohibitive.

As for the foundation’s recommendations, which include calls for more rigorous data collection and oversight, Kariya says the association embraces them, but he cannot say whether individual producers will.

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

 “Damnation” Watch movie trailer HERE

Sam Mace Inland Northwest Director Save Our Wild Salmon “Congratulations. I am so excited for this film!”

Editorial Comment: “Congratulations. Thanks to Patagonia and project partners for Damnation”

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

 GOP-Sponsored

Bill For More Delta Water To Farmers Passes House; No Chance In Senate February 6, 2013

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems WASHINGTON, D.C. (KCBS) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a water bill on Wednesday addressing California’s ongoing drought but the measure is likely to go no further because of a White House veto threat and opposition from the state’s Democratic Senators.

The federal water bill, passed mostly along party line 229-191, loosens environmental restrictions to pump more water from the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley.

Listen HERE House Republicans Respond To California Drought With Bill Targeting Water Rules

“It does not create one gallon of water. It simply steals what little water there is available from some and gives it to another,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) said on the House floor.

Gov. Jerry Brown calls the measure an “unwelcome intrusion” but Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) said California has to stop putting fish over farmers by flushing the Delta water out to sea to help the smelt and salmon.

“When the forefathers built this state, including the governor’s own father, they weren’t idiots at the time. Suddenly we’ve all become idiots” he said.

“Remember what this water is being dumped for. It’s being dumped for what I call phantom salmon because there are no fish and the fish aren’t coming back; they’ve been gone 100 years.”

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) said the bill is an effort to politicize the drought, calling it “political poppycock.”

“We’d be better off if every member of Congress joined in a rain dance on the floor that would have more benefit to California than this bill,” he said.

The House bill—called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act—was sponsored by all 15 California GOP congressmen and has no chance to Senate. California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and have said they will introduce their own measure which will maintain environmental restrictions while maximizing water delivery.

President Obama has stated that he would not sign the House version of the bill.

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

Liquefied Natural Gas

 A Big Fracking Lie If you want to know just how bad an idea it is for America to ship “fracked” natural gas to overseas

markets, travel the 65 miles from the White House to a place called Cove Point in southern Maryland.

There, right on the Chesapeake Bay, the Obama administration wants to give fast-track approval to a $3.8 billion facility (12 times the cost of the NFL Ravens stadium) to liquefy gas from all across Appalachia. The new plant, proposed by Virginia-based Dominion Resources, would somehow be built right between a coveted state park and a stretch of sleepy beach communities, with a smattering of Little League baseball fields just down the road. Along the Chesapeake itself, endangered tiger beetles cling to the shore while Maryland “watermen” hunt crabs and oysters in age-old fashion.

Right here, Dominion wants build a utility-scale power plant (130 megawatts) just to power the enormous “liquefaction” process for the fracked gas. The company will then build an industrial-scale compressor, a massive refrigeration system and an adjacent, surreal six-story-tall “sound wall” to protect humans and wildlife from the thunderous noise.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The facility as a whole would chill the gas—extracted from fracking wells as far away as New York— to 260 degrees below zero so it can be poured onto huge tankers (with Coast Guard escort due to terrorism risks) and then shipped more than 6,000 miles to India and Japan.

Sound good yet? There’s more: The Cove Point plant in Maryland is just one of more than 20 such “liquefaction” plants now proposed—but not yet built—for coastal areas nationwide. They are intended, as an emerging facet of U.S. energy policy, to double down on the highly controversial hydraulic fracturing drilling boom across the country. But like the Keystone XL pipeline for tar sands oil and the proposed export of dirty-burning coal through new terminals in the Pacific Northwest, this liquefied gas plan is bad in almost every way.

Simply put, this gas needs to stay in the ground. If it’s dug up and exported, it will directly harm just about everyone in the U.S. economy while simultaneously making global warming worse. How much worse? Imagine adding the equivalent of more than 100 coal plants to U.S. pollution output or putting 78 million more cars on our roads. Yes, supporters say, but this gas would be replacing a lot of coal use overseas. And they’d be right. The only problem is we’d be replacing that coal with aggregate “life-cycle” emissions from gas that are almost certainly worse than coal, creating new net damage for the global atmosphere (more on this later).

Ironically, a recent sea-level rise report commissioned by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, reportedly a presidential hopeful, shows that climate change could soon wipe out the peninsula of Cove Point itself. The very point of land next to Dominion’s proposed facility—the whitewashed lighthouse, the country roads and homes and forests—would all drown if the world continues to combust oil, coal and natural gas at current rates, according to the Maryland report.

The “inconvenient truths” on liquefied gas also come—in different forms—from the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and elsewhere. On the economic side, a study commissioned by the DOE last spring found that exporting U.S. gas would raise the fuel’s price here at home. It’s basic supply and demand. More buyers overseas will drive up our domestic price by as much as 27 percent, according to the DOE. And that increase will reduce incomes for virtually every sector of the U.S. economy, from agriculture to manufacturing to services to transportation. No wonder manufacturers like Dow and Alcoa are resisting this emerging U.S. export policy for gas, forming a coalition called “America’s Energy Advantage” to push back.

The DOE found that only one economic sector wins from gas exports. You guessed it: the gas industry! This one special interest wins so big—hundreds of billions in profits—that the DOE now basically argues that it offsets the pain for everyone else, creating a perverse and tiny net bump in the nation’s GDP. If you’re a farmer or wage-earner, too bad. Dominion’s profits at Cove Point are more important than the financial lives of already-struggling average Americans.

The gas export calculations grow even more insane when you factor in climate change. The industry bombards the public with ads saying natural gas is 50 percent cleaner than coal. But the claim is totally false. Gas is cleaner only at the point of combustion. If you calculate the greenhouse gas pollution emitted at every stage of the production process— drilling, piping, compression—it’s essentially just coal by another name. Indeed, the methane (the key ingredient in natural gas) that constantly and inevitably leaks from wells and pipelines is 84 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20-year period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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

 Pipeline explosion forces home evacuations in Otterburne January 25, 2014 Emergency crews evacuated five homes near Otterburne after a natural gas pipeline exploded, sending a massive fireball hurtling into the air early Saturday morning.

Now, homes in several surrounding communities could be without gas services for up to several days while repairs are made.

The Trans-Canada natural gas pipeline in the RM of De Salaberry, about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg, exploded around 1:05 a.m.

Leanne Hodges 25 oil spills in Alberta over the past month.... 2 reported by media...... and a massive LNG explosion in Manitoba, that sounded like a jet airplane and releasing more pollutants into our atmosphere..... a show Harper would like BC to support....

Stop Clark and Harper, think and support change.

Emergency crews were still on the scene Saturday morning as the fire continued to burn itself off.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems TransCanada says it has shut down the Emerson Lateral portion of the Canadian Mainline natural gas pipeline system due to the explosion and that it has been venting the remaining gas. The line provides natural gas to several communities in the area.

There are no reports of any injuries and no damage to private property.

Trans-Canada spokesperson Davis Sheremata the fire was extinguished as of 2:00 p.m.

Witness 'felt the wave' Marc LaBossier lives about three kilometres away from the site of the explosion. He was sitting in his house Skyping with his girlfriend when he heard a loud boom, he said.

“I looked in the kitchen and there was a glow, so not knowing what was happening, I thought something was on fire in the kitchen,” he said. “I jumped out of the chair. When I got to the back sliding doors, I actually felt the wave, or whatever, from this thing, and I could see it raging in the background.”

Initially, the flames reached 500 to 600 feet into the air, LaBossier said. Police soon came and told LaBossier he needed to leave.

He loaded his dogs into his car and waited on the highway, along with several other cars. He was allowed to return to his house shortly after 3:00 a.m.

The explosion briefly knocked out power to LaBossier’s house. The lights came back on by about 3:50 a.m., he said.

Towns without natural gas service Manitoba Hydro said in a press release approximately 4,000 homes in the RMs of Hanover, Richot, and De Salaberry will be affected by the natural gas shutoff. It says it doesn't have an estimate on how long the interruptions will last.

Specific affected communities include New Bothwell, Niverville, Otterburne, Kleefeld, St-Pierre-Jolys, Grunthal, St. Malo, Dufrost, and Ste. Agathe.

Niverville Mayor John Funk said gas service to the town was shut off Saturday afternoon. Residents are advised to use electric heaters, but to minimize their use as much as possible to avoid putting too much strain on the electric grid.

The temperature in Niverville on Saturday afternoon was -18 C and Environment Canada was calling for even colder temperatures on Sunday and Monday.

Funk said he is receiving calls from residents who don't own electric heaters. He said the stores in town are all sold out.

"I think people will go to stores in the surrounding area in the next couple of hours." he said.

Trans-Canada Pipeline officials said they have isolated the pipe and the burning gas is non-toxic.

The evacuation order will remain in place until police determine it is safe to return.

St. Pierre-Jolys RCMP, along with the Office of the Fire Commissioner and Trans-Canada Pipeline, are looking into the cause of the explosion. It’s not known if the cause is accidental or deliberate.

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

 Just a fracking well exploding into flames — nothing to see here!

February 14, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Early on Tuesday morning, a Chevron-owned natural gas well in Greene County, Pa., burst into flames – and more than 72 hours later, it’s still burning. One contractor for Chevron is missing and presumed dead, and another was injured in the explosion.

Chevron has flown in experts from Houston’s Wild Well Control to put out the fire, and crews spent yesterday removing overheated pieces of metal that kept reigniting. Today, they await heavy-duty water tanks to extinguish the blaze, which could be delayed by the winter storms afflicting the region.

Last year, five surface well blowouts with fires were “wild” enough to require the expertise of Wild Well Control.

An energy industry employee who had been in the area at the time of the explosion told Pittsburgh’s WTAE that he heard “there was a large propane truck that was parked near the actual well, which would have been a no-no.” No-no, indeed, sir! However, the cause of the explosion remains unknown.

The well lies on the Marcellus Shale, which is not just the only geological formation we know of that could plausibly share a name with a human, but also the No. 1 source of natural gas in the United States. Another gas well fire on the shale in Indiana Township, Pa., killed two people in July 2010. Yet another, also in the same region, caused three more deaths in February 2011.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) has been a consistent advocate for fracking in the state. He’s refused to levy significant taxes on gas companies and is pushing for the reversal of both a state Supreme Court ruling and former Gov. Ed Rendell’s (D) executive order that protect many regions of the state, including parks, from drilling. In spite of the supersized natural gas bonfire in his backyard, Corbett continues to laud the safety of the fracking industry.

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

 VIDEO: Gas Pipeline Ruptures Underneath Raritan River, Shooting Water Into The Air The Smell of Gas Is Spreading Throughout Highland Park and Beyond February 14, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ--A gas pipeline owned by PSE&G ruptured today under the Raritan River, causing two geysers of natural gas to erupt near the Northeast Corridor rail bridge.

The ruptured line has sent strong odors of natural gas wafting through the area, with complaints of the smell coming from as far away as Highland Park High School.

The New Brunswick Fire Department and PSE&G are currently working on the broken line. Parts of Johnson Drive are closed so crews could access the leak site.

Trains do not seem to have been delayed by the breakage. Train 3841, running southbound from Secaucus and scheduled to depart there at 12:16 PM, was delayed 25 minutes; however, NJ Transit has officially blamed "a mechanical problem".

A gas line was seen leaking natural gas near the site of today's rupture on November 16, 2013.

Muckgers reported on that line failure, saying a kayaker talked about it to the New Brunswick Fire Department, which relayed the information to PSE&G. PSE&G spokeswoman Kristine Lloyd said at the time, via email, that the leak was not dangerous to either the environment or the public, and she also said that the breakage was being investigated, with plans to repair this rupture in the works.

NJ Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Lawrence Hajna, had declined to get involved unless water or air quality were affected Both affected municipalities had been silent, with New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill's office referring information requests to PSE&G and Highland Park not responding to phone calls.

Activists say this is yet another reason for New Jersey to avoid building more gas pipelines.

City-based activist Jim Walsh, the NJ Director of Food & Water Watch, told New Brunswick Today, "With increased reliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels, our communities will be subject to ever more leaks, spills and potentially catastrophic explosions and fires."

"This incident serves as a stark reminder that we need to turn away from hazardous fossil fuels and toward a clean, safe, renewable energy future."

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

 Second LNG Agreement reached for Grassy Point with Woodside January 16, 2014 VICTORIA - The southern parcel of Grassy Point near Prince Rupert could have a new liquefiednatural-gas (LNG) export facility, thanks to an agreement between the Government of British Columbia and Woodside.

"Grassy Point is an ideal site for LNG development, and this is the second agreement we've signed," said Premier Christy Clark. "Every step forward brings us closer to realizing the opportunity presented by LNG, bringing billions in investment and 100,000 new jobs throughout the province."

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Province and Woodside signed a sole proponent agreement, which provides the company with the exclusive right to negotiate a long-term tenure for an LNG facility at the south site of Grassy Point.

"British Columbia is building a strong, competitive new industry," said Minister of Natural Gas Development, Rich Coleman. "This agreement with Woodside is another promising LNG proposal for our province which will create jobs and economic activity."

"Woodside looks forward to working with the Government of British Columbia, the First Nations and the community as we assess the feasibility of an LNG development at Grassy Point," said Peter Coleman, Woodside CEO and managing director.

LNG development at Grassy Point is subject to various regulatory approvals and an investment decision by the proponent. According to the agreement Woodside must meet several milestones, including applying for an export permit from the National Energy Board and submitting project descriptions with British Columbia and Canada to successfully complete the environmental assessment process.

Woodside joins an expansive list of industry proposals making strides in the province, many of which are already investing in B.C.'s naturalgas sector and boosting local economies. There are currently more than 10 LNG project proposals in British Columbia.

The Province will continue to work with industry, First Nations and communities to ensure lasting benefits are achieved as the industry develops.

Map of Grassy Point: http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/downloads/Grassy_Point_Map_January_16_14.pdf Quick Facts:

   

Woodside is the largest independent operator of oil and gas in Australia, where the company has an extensive network of LNG operations.

Today's agreement is the result of a Request for Expression of Interest initiated by the Province in February 2013.

The first sole proponent agreement was reached in November 2013 with Aurora LNG for an adjacent, northern parcel of land.

Assuming five LNG plants and the supporting pipelines are built, more than 39,000 annual jobs will be created over a nine-year construction period and 75,000 jobs once these plants are fully operational.

Learn More: Woodside: http://www.woodside.com.au British Columbia's Liquefied Natural Gas Strategy: http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/LNGreport_web_130627.pdf

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

Solar

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

 Buy vs. Lease: Solar Panels on Your Home January 29, 2014 Falling prices and advancements of home solar power is leading many consumers to consider adding them to their homes. And while prices have fallen dramatically over the last decade, residential systems can still be costly, which is why some owners turn to leasing their systems.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Installing solar on your home is cheaper and easier than ever – whether buying or leasing,” says Tom Kimbis, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) vice president of executive affairs. “The average price of a solar system has dropped by more than 50% since 2010, and the new financing models are giving access to more and more Americans.”

Experts say the leasing process of a solar panel system is similar to leasing a car or even getting cable service. Most don’t require a down payment, but will lock in a rate homeowners will pay each month for as long as 20 years. The rate may be fixed over the contract period or it may rise on an annualized basis. Either way, experts say the savings compared to consumers’ current and future electricity rates will be greater during the life of the contract. The solar panel company or installer is responsible for any panel maintenance or repairs.

Another option is a fully pre-paid lease where the homeowner pays upfront at a lower cost and doesn’t have to deal with maintaining or repairing the panels.

Homeowners who opt to lease will pay an interest rate similar to what they pay on a credit card, according to Vikram Aggarwal, founder and CEO of online solar panel marketplace EnergySage .

Those who choose to purchase the panels outright either via a home equity loan or secured loan will pay rates in the 6% range while those who use an unsecured loan will probably pay rates around 10%, says Aggarwal. “If homeowners are interested in maximizing the savings and other financial benefits such as rebates, tax credits or other incentives, then we recommend they buy the system outright. It’s going to be cheaper than leasing, but there are a lot of benefits to solar leases.”

He adds that leasing means consumers don’t have to pay anything up front and they don’t have to worry about managing the solar panels. “It’s a one-stop shop. Someone shows up at your door, you sign a document and the company will install the solar panels and give you a discount on your current rate, which may be 15% to 30% less than what you are paying.”

Homeowners who chose to own the solar panels not only get the best price but they can also benefit from city and state tax breaks depending on where they live. According to Kimbis, homeowners may be able to get city, county, state, utility district and federal incentives that bring significant cost savings.

“Just like other tax rates or incentives, these programs vary significantly by geography,” says Kimbis, noting that any good installer will be able to walk homeowners through available tax incentives in their state.

While the homeowner has to maintain and fix the solar panels, the likelihood that something will go wrong frequently is slim, says Aggarwal. “Solar panel systems are highly durable, don’t break and don’t need annual servicing since there is no mechanical moving parts,” he say. Most panels come with a 20 or 25-year warranty, he adds.

Whether you choose to lease or buy, experts’ caution you shouldn’t go with the first offer you get in the mail.

Whether home owners decide to lease or buy, they shouldn’t go with the first offer they come across.

“All homeowners should get multiple bids for solar panel installation, as they would with any other home improvement project,” says Kimbis.

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

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

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

Forest Management

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

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

 Kilmer, Murray to introduce new version of Wild Olympics bill today

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A new version of Wild Olympics legislation will be introduced today by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

The Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 2014, also known as Wild Olympics legislation, contains wilderness protection measures that were jointly introduced in 2012 by Murray, D-Bothell, and former U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, Kilmer's 6th Congressional District predecessor.

In 2013, it was introduced by Murray alone.

Kilmer said then that he wanted to consult more with timber industry and environmental groups before making a decision.

The new legislation, like the original bill, would ban logging on 126,554 acres of the 633,000-acre Olympic National Forest.

Kilmer said in a statement released Thursday that he is convinced the proposal will not have an impact on the national forest's timber harvest.

“After conversations with the Forest Service and timber industry, I'm convinced that nearly all Forest Service land proposed for wilderness would never be commercially harvested and that these designations won't harm the timber industry,” said Kilmer, a Port Angeles native and Gig Harbor Democrat whose district includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.

“That said, I also understand the views of those concerned that more needs to be done to responsibly increase harvest in our federal forests. I agree.”

In a telephone interview Thursday, Kilmer cited the following changes compared with earlier proposed legislation:

    

Language in the bill makes it clear that the wilderness designation will not result in additional road closures.

All forest system roads are excluded from the designation.

Wilderness and wild-and-scenic-rivers designations will not affect private landowners' rights to manage their property “in any way.”

Wilderness and wild-and-scenic-rivers designations cannot be expanded administratively by the Forest Service.

Language was added to ensure that the U.S. Forest Service's ability to fight forest fires and insect infestations is not diminished.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The legislation also designates 19 rivers and seven tributaries in Olympic National Forest, Olympic National Park and state Department of Natural Resources land as wild and scenic.

The benefits of the legislation include protection of forests, rivers, scenery, drinking-water sources, salmon and steelhead habitat and shellfish-dependent rivers and streams, according to a fact sheet issued by Kilmer's office.

An additional 5,346 acres of the national forest can become wilderness if the Forest Service restores the land under existing management plans.

Murray spokesman Sean Coit said the legislation refines rather than revises the 2012 and 2013 bills.

Ever since he first ran for office in 2012, Kilmer has held back from taking a position on the legislation.

As late as a Nov. 1 open house at the Guy Cole Convention Center, he urged a balance between protection and production.

In December, he announced the formation of the Olympic Peninsula Collaborative, a coalition of 16 forestry and environmental groups whose goal is to increase timber harvest in the national forest consistent with the Northwest Forest Plan in response, he said, to concerns that the harvest must be increased.

“For me, revitalizing the economy and protecting the environment have been and will be an ongoing discussion, and frankly, introducing the bill does not end the conversation, either,” Kilmer said Thursday in a telephone interview.

The proposal “supports the foundation of conservation developed over generations,” Murray said in a statement.

“This legislation is a step in the right direction to protect our most treasured places for our kids and grandkids, and I look forward to working with Congressman Kilmer to pass this bill into law.”

Fewer than 800 acres, or less than 1 percent, of the proposed wilderness area are viable harvest areas, according to a summary of the proposal issued by Kilmer's office.

The timber industry has been opposed to the elimination of any working forests.

Carol Johnson, executive director of the industry-oriented North Olympic Timber Action Committee, would not comment on the bill.

“If they made changes in it, I think it's fair to look at the changes before I make a comment,” Johnson said.

“It's a little surprising it came forward early this year,” she added. “That tells me he's been working on this for a while.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “I would not have expected that just as he was getting the collaborative going that he would make an announcement like that.”

The collaborative has met once, with no other meetings of the full committee scheduled, though subcommittee meetings are planned, Kilmer spokesman Stephen Carter said Thursday.

Wild Olympics Campaign Chairwoman Connie Gallant of Quilcene added that she was “thrilled” about its reintroduction.

“I think this is going to benefit everyone, and I'm just thrilled because Kilmer has been incredibly diligent on not only doing his research but on the outreach to everyone on the Peninsula, from opponents to supporters to business people to elected officials.”

Kilmer said he has spoken about the bill to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Spokane.

“He is very focused on the harvest side of the conversation,” Kilmer said.

“I told him that's an interest in our community as well.”

Gallant predicted it had little chance of passage this year, an election year for House members.

“As much as I'd like to be incredibly optimistic about it passing this session, I don't see that happening, but who knows?” she said.

Kilmer, too, was not optimistic, framing the bill's chances in a broad context.

“We've just come off the least-productive Congress in modern history,” he said.

“There's not a lot of legislation, period, that is moving through Congress right now.”

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

Numbering only in the hundreds, the spirit bear is one of the rarest creatures in the world.

 Conservation groups, timber companies reach deal to protect

more of Great

Bear Rainforest January 29, 2014 Conservation groups and forest companies have reached final agreement on how they want to increase old-growth protection in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Their recommendations have been delivered to the B.C. government and First Nations who have the final say on changes.

The joint industry-environmental group announcement Wednesday brings to a close a 14-year collaborative effort, which had ended a bitter fight by environmentalists in the 90s to preserve one of the world's largest intact temperate rainforest which was home to the so-called white spirit bear.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The agreement -- which will preserve another 500,000 hectares of old growth -- increases forest protection to nearly 70 per cent in the mid-coast region from the 50 per cent level protected in 2009.

Despite an expected decrease in the amount of timber available for logging, industry says the recommendations will maintain thousands of mill, logging and silviculture jobs.

ForestEthics senior campaigner Valerie Langer said this is the final step in protecting the Great Bear Rainforest. "There's never been any conservation of this scale achieved. To do this in a collaborative way with unlikely allies over an area the size of some countries, and to both protect the forest and maintain viability of an industry, is a great achievement," said Langer.

She said she's now on "pins and needles" in anticipation of the province and first nations' response to the recommendations.

Conservation groups that signed on to the recommendations also include Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club BC. Companies that signed on include Interfor, Western Forest Products, Catalyst Paper and Howe Sound Pulp & Paper.

Interfor vice-president and chief forester Ric Slaco said the agreement was a remarkable achievement given the level of conflict that existed in the early days between forest companies and environmental groups.

"This has been a long time coming. It was not just done in the last week, or last month," said Slaco.

"This looks to be the final chapter. That's a big deal."

B.C. Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Steve Thomson on Wednesday congratulated the forest companies and environmental groups for their "continued cooperation in finding solutions."

Forest ministry staff will review the recommendations to see how they will impact legislation and revenue to the province, as well as for implications to other resource users.

The province said it is committed to working with First Nations to conclude its review in a timely manner.

First Nations also welcomed the recommendations, which they said they will review.

Coastal First Nations executive director Art Sterritt said they don't expect to call for massive changes, but do expect to request some in their discussions with the B.C. government.

He noted that First Nations, who have held timber tenures since the early 2000s in the mid-coast area, both seek to protect the forest eco-system but also to participate in logging.

Sterritt said he expected there will be some circumstances where the areas that First Nations want to protect and where they will want to log will conflict with industry's wishes.

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

 Herrera Beutler’s bill on forest roads included in Farm Bill compromise January 28, 2014 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Language that would spare timberland owners from what they say are expensive and onerous federal regulations for forest roads has been included in a House-Senate compromise version of the federal Farm Bill expected to come up for a vote on Wednesday.

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler has been pushing for inclusion of the language and says it helps preserve thousands of wood products industry jobs.

Herrera Beutler led the effort to include her “forest roads” bill in the House-passed version of the Farm Bill last July. It was absent in the Senate’s Farm Bill, but made it in the final compromise.

In 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned nearly 40 years of EPA regulatory policy by requiring forest roads to go through a more stringent process. It would cost the forest and forest product-related industries in the Northwest up to $883 million per year and be impractical for the Forest Service to administer, the congresswoman said.

Herrera Beutler introduced the Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act with lead cosponsor Kurt Schrader, D-Ore. “In a resource-rich region like Southwest Washington, maintaining working forests is critical to providing good family-wage jobs for thousands of moms and dads,” said Herrera Beutler. “By keeping in place four decades of science-based approach to our forests, we take a giant step forward to make sure these jobs are protected from burdensome red tape and costly litigation. I am thankful for the hard work of Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas and my colleagues in the Senate to include this permanent, bipartisan job protecting initiative in the Farm Bill.”

“The passing of this bill will be a blessing for jobs in the forest industry,” said Dean Rudolf, Western Regional Director of the Pulp and Paper Resource Council. “It will save forest land owners thousands of dollars in permits, which they would of been required to obtain just to remove timber from their own land. The housing and paper industries rely heavily on this system to sustain thousands of forest products jobs, and they have always worked hard to watch over our environment.”

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

 Major

landslide causes property and environmental damage in Great Bear Rainforest Province says ‘natural event’ started 400 metres above logging operation January 16, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A major landslide has caused property and ecological damage in an area of the Great Bear Rainforest where environmentalists have long said industrial logging should not be permitted.

The slide occurred Monday in the Johnston Creek drainage of Rivers Inlet, but is just coming to light now after being reported to The Vancouver Sun. “Those are naturally unstable slopes with thin soil,” responded Ian McAllister of the environmental group Pacific Wild. “It’s an area that shouldn’t have clearcuts and large logging roads. It’s one of the best salmon producing systems in Rivers Inlet.”

Vivian Thomas, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said the slide began about 400 metres above the site of a Kvamua logging operation and appears to be a natural event.

“A bridge was washed out and sections of road were damaged,” she said.

“A yarder is trapped in the debris, and two other pieces of heavy equipment are stranded on the other side of the bridge.”

Logging had been suspended at the time due to weather conditions, and no one was injured.

The event has been reported to the federal fisheries department due to the potential for destruction of fish habitat. And a geotechnical consultant is investigating the event.

Thomas said that severe wet weather is blamed on the slide, noting a series of storms delivered 58 millimetres of precipitation on Jan. 11, 72 millimetres on Jan. 12, and 82 millimetres on Jan. 13, accompanied by strong winds.

Kvamua is a forestry company of the Wuikinuxv First Nation.

Interfor holds a shared licence in the drainage with the Wuikinuxv and logging had been contracted to Ironside Contracting of Campbell River.

Ric Slaco, vice-president and chief forester for Interfor, said that the “natural slide triggered by a heavy rain on snow event” also took out a bridge.

McAllister said environmentalists have protested logging plans in the area dating back to the mid1990s and that film crews from BBC and CNN have visited the area to report on the “war of the woods” leading to eco-logging agreements on the Great Bear Rainforest.

“Unfortunately, there were casualties such as Johnston Creek that did not get protected and now we’re suffering the aftermath,” he said.

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

Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon

 Super salmon or 'Frankenfish'?

A Massachusetts company wants to market a genetically engineered version of Atlantic salmon, and regulators are weighing the request. If approval is given, it would be the first time the government allowed such modified animals to join the foods that go onto the nation's dinner tables.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Ron Stotish, chief executive of AquaBounty, said at Monday's first of two days of hearings that his company's fish product is safe and environmentally sustainable.

Food and Drug Administration officials have largely agreed with him, saying that the salmon, which grows twice as fast as its conventional "sisters," is as safe to eat as the traditional variety. But they have not yet decided whether to approve the request.

Critics call the modified salmon a "frankenfish" that could cause allergies in humans and the eventual decimation of the wild salmon population. An FDA advisory committee is reviewing the science of the genetically engineered fish this week and hearing such criticisms as the agency ponders approval.

Whether the public will have an appetite for it is another matter. Genetic engineering is already widely used for crops, but the government until now has not considered allowing the consumption of modified animals. Although the potential benefits — and profits — are huge, many people have qualms about manipulating the genetic code of other living creatures.

Part of the hearing is focusing on labeling of the fish.

It is possible that if the modified salmon is approved, consumers would not even know they were eating it. Current FDA regulations require modified foods to be labeled as such only if the food is substantially different from the conventional version, and the agency has said that the modified salmon is essentially the same as the Atlantic salmon. (ed. NOT!) If approved, the fish could be in grocery stores in two years, the company estimates.

Approval would open the door for a variety of other genetically engineered animals, including a pig that is being developed in Canada or cattle that are resistant to mad cow disease. Each would have to be individually approved by the FDA. "For future applications out there the sky's the limit," said David Edwards of the Biotechnology Industry Association. "If you can imagine it, scientists can try to do it."

AquaBounty says it would be the first in the world to market genetically engineered fish. The company submitted its first application for FDA approval in 1995, but the agency did not decide until two years ago to consider applications for genetically engineered animals — a move seen as a breakthrough by the biotechnology industry.

Critics have two main concerns: The safety of the food to humans and the salmon's effect on the environment.

Because the altered fish has never been eaten before, they say, it could include dangerous allergens, especially because seafood is highly allergenic. They also worry that the fish will escape and intermingle with the wild salmon population, which is already endangered. They would grow fast and consume more food to the detriment of the conventional wild salmon, the critics fear.

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

 Eco Groups Challenge Canadian Government in Court over GM Salmon January 20, 2014 “Canadians expect their government to implement, not ignore, the laws that protect our ecosystems from harm,” said Tanya Nayler, one of the Ecojustice lawyers representing Ecology Action Centre and Living Oceans Society.

“By granting approval for this genetically modified species without obtaining all the legally required information, the government has once again failed the environment and Canadians.”

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The groups assert the approval is unlawful because it failed to assess whether genetically modified salmon could become invasive, potentially putting ecosystems and species such as wild salmon at risk. Both groups are asking the court to set aside the government’s assessment and require the government to comply with the law before permitting the manufacture of these genetically modified organisms.

Genetic material from Chinook salmon and the eel-like species ocean pout were inserted into Atlantic salmon eggs to create AquAdvantage salmon. According to the fish manufacturer, AquaBounty Canada Inc., the genetically modified salmon grows to market size faster than conventional salmon.

“The Atlantic salmon has evolved over millions of years and is found in cold-water rivers from Maine to Russia,” said Susanna Fuller of the Ecology Action Centre. “The move to commercial production of GM Atlantic salmon puts this magnificent wild fish at risk of irreversible genetic contamination.”

The lawsuit challenges decisions made by the Minister of the Environment, Leona Aglukkaq, and the Minister of Health, Rona Ambrose. Ecojustice lawyers filed a judicial review with the Federal Court on Dec. 23, 2013, and have now served notice of the lawsuit on all parties, including the fish manufacturer.

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.

Another worrying aspect of this case is the lack of transparency and public consultation in the decision-making process, something that concerns Karen Wristen, Executive Director of the Living Oceans Society in B.C. “This is the world’s first genetically modified food animal to go into production,” Wristen said. “This was done without any public debate at all and under circumstances that look like a deliberate attempt to prevent public comment. Canadians have a right to know about decisions like this in advance of them being made.”

The main legal arguments of the case are based on the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. They include:

  

That the federal Ministers acted unlawfully in purporting to complete an assessment of whether AquAdvantage salmon is toxic or capable of becoming toxic without obtaining all information required by the law; That the Minister of the Environment had no jurisdiction to publish a notice setting out permitted uses, based on an incomplete toxicity assessment of AquAdvantage salmon; Alternatively, the Minister of the Environment failed in her legal duties by permitting unassessed uses of AquAdvantage salmon, such as its grow out in Canada, to proceed.

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

Here’s the Catch: Considerations of super salmon outcomes have yet to include what escaped fish would do to wild populations like Monterey’s - and local fish lovers (including Mark Margrave, above).

 HEALTH & FITNESS 2013 – Fish As Drugs Genetically modified super salmon tries to swim through a hole in the regulatory net.

May 16, 2013

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems If you want to bury an unsavory news story, the afternoon before Christmas vacation is a good time to break it. The FDA chose Dec. 21 to release its long awaited Environmental Assessment (EA) of the genetically modified “AquAdvantage” salmon. This move quietly slid the fish closer to making history as the first GM animal approved for human consumption. The public was given 60 days to comment on a farmed salmon that salmon farmers won’t be allowed to raise in the U.S., but Americans would be allowed to eat.

If the timing suggests the FDA wants the application to flow smoothly, also consider that it has been 17 years since AquaBounty first applied for permission to sell its recombinant Atlantic salmon in the U.S. The company has paid a heavy regulatory price for trying to be first.

Under Bush II, the FDA announced it would regulate AquAdvantage salmon as an animal drug rather than food, perhaps in hopes of expediting the process.

Its application in bureaucratic purgatory for decades, AquaBounty leaked money, sold assets, was often without a clear idea of where the process was going, and flirted with bankruptcy. The tide began turning in November 2012, when biotech giant Intrexon began acquiring AquaBounty shares, triggering what has become a 400 percent run-up.

Meanwhile, many are still wondering how a salmon steak could be considered a drug. According to FDA logic, the drug per se is AquaBounty’s patented genetic construct, made of genes from two other fish inserted into Atlantic salmon DNA. The company claims this cluster of genes, aka the drug, makes AquAdvantage salmon grow faster than its non-GM counterparts, and it hopes to sell that claim – and lots of AquAdvantage salmon eggs – to fish farmers everywhere.

But unlike most other so-called animal drugs, this one inhabits an animal that can do very well for itself in the wild. It can swim across oceans, up rivers, mate with wild fish and pass along its genes/drugs to the next generation.

Given that precedent will be set in approving the first GM animal for human consumption, it’s understandable that the review might take some time. Unfortunately, the FDA has spent most of its time figuring out how to avoid asking questions.

The Christmas EA predicts “an extremely low likelihood” that AquAdvantage salmon will affect “the environment of the United States.” This conclusion spares the FDA and AquaBounty from conducting an Environmental Impact Statement, which would include a comprehensive failure analysis investigating the possible outcomes of worst-case scenarios.

AquAdvantage eggs are to be produced in a facility on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and shipped to a facility in Panama to be raised in tanks to marketable size. In the future, AquaBounty hopes to ship eggs worldwide from Prince Edward Island – but not to the U.S., or any other country, apparently, with sturdy environmental laws.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A key step in the AquAdvantage approval process came in September 2010, when FDA held a public meeting of its Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee (VMAC) to review what was then the draft EA. Purdue biologist Bill Muir has looked extensively at risk associated with GM fish. He believes AquAdvantage salmon don’t pose much of an ecological threat, and commented at the VMAC. Nonetheless, as he explained to the New York Times, “Shit always happens. If shit happens and they end up somehow in the ocean… .maybe it’s hypothetical to the FDA, but people would like to know what happens.”

In fact, shit did happen at AquaBounty’s Panama location in 2008, when a storm swamped the facility. As AquaBounty reported to investors, the largest batch of salmon in company history was lost (and presumed dead).

Dartmouth sustainability science professor Anne Kapuscinski addressed the committee as well. Like the rest of the public, Kapuscinski had barely two weeks to review the hundreds of pages of documents released Friday before Labor Day. Dr. Kapuscinski recently led a team of 53 scientists in writing a book about how to conduct a scientifically credible risk assessment of genetically modified fish. Kapuscinski was one of the most qualified people in the room, VMAC members included, to comment on the ecological risks posed by AquAdvantage. “The Environmental Assessment does not adequately consider the growing body of research on genetic and ecological risks of transgenic fish,” she said.

The EA, she added, lacked the basic information necessary to verify its conclusions. The statistical methods were outdated, and sample sizes too small or not reported. Kapuscinski called for “a transparent Environmental Impact Statement that completes genetic and ecological risk assessment.”

Kapuscinski advised the FDA to “require a quantitative failure mode analysis for all the confinement methods. Failure mode analysis is standard practice for technology assessment.”

The Christmas EA, in explaining its decision to not follow Kapuscinski’s recommendations, cited her work 14 times.

An EIS would be a sensible, if less convenient alternative to approving an EA that depends on exporting fish farming to other people’s backyards, and sending U.S. agents to the ends of the earth to inspect the facilities of fish farms that want to raise AquAdvantage salmon and sell it to the U.S. To claim that AquAdvantage salmon is safe, while at the same time circumventing the process of regulating its production at home, sends a mixed message to consumers, environmentalists and industry. It also reeks of colonialism, and serves as a reminder of why “animal drug” might not be the most meaningful way to describe this fish.

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

AquaBounty's "AquaAdvantage Salmon" are made by inserting genetic material from Chinook salmon (pictured) and the eel-like species ocean pout into Atlantic salmon eggs. Aquabounty says their GM salmon grows to market size faster than natural salmon

 Fishing for Justice EAC risks financial security in court challenge against GM salmon February 3, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems K'JIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) - The Ecology Action Centre, a Halifax-based NGO, has only been to court twice in its forty-three year history. When Environment Canada approved the manufacturing of genetically modified salmon late last year, however, they decided it was time to take the federal government to court again, says Susanna Fuller, Marine Conservation Coordinator for the organization.

“Going to court is never something that we want to do,” says Fuller. “But it's the only recourse [we have] in this case.”

In November, 2013, Canada became the first government in the world to give genetically modified (GM) salmon any kind of regulatory approval, making it the world’s first GM food animal to go into production.

AquaBounty, an American biotechnology company, which describes itself as “dedicated to the improvement of productivity in aquaculture,” is now growing the GM salmon eggs in P.E.I., and will transport them to Panama, where they will grow to full size.

The approval also allows the manufacture and grow-out of the GM salmon elsewhere in Canada, under certain conditions.

The Ecology Action Centre (EAC) asserts the federal government violated the Environmental Protection Act because it failed to assess whether GM salmon could become invasive, potentially putting ecosystems and wild salmon at risk. The EAC also takes issue with the lack of transparency and public consultation in the decision-making process.

“The process to approve this GM fish was secret in the extreme,” says Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN). “Not only was the process itself secret, but the fact that the process was happening at all was in fact secret.”

CBAN explicitly asked both the Minister of Environment and Minister of Health if they were assessing a request from AquaBounty to approve GM salmon and the departments refused to answer, saying it was confidential business information.

“So, until November, when Environment Canada approved the GM fish, Canadians didn't even know if the GM fish was being assessed,” says Sharratt. “And if they asked Environment Canada, they wouldn't have been given an answer.”

“Somebody has to speak out on this. It is a global precedent,” says Fuller. “How do these things get approved? What is the public consultation process? I think if we don't challenge that in Canada, we have abdicated our civic duties.”

On December 23, 2013, after much internal discussion, the EAC made the decision to take the federal government to court.

The first time the EAC took the federal government to court was in 1991 over the proposed Point Aconi Power Plant. The organization lost that case and "lost everything," according to Fuller, “We went from a fully staffed organization to nobody.”

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The EAC was awarded costs in the case, which meant they had to foot the government’s legal bill.

This left them with a debt to pay and the organization’s morale took a hit.

Since then, however, the EAC has managed to rebuild itself to being one of the largest environmental organizations in Atlantic Canada, making it one of the only organizations that could even consider taking on a case like this.

“Other organizations were either not incorporated or didn't have the capacity to do it,” says Fuller.

“When it comes to difficult issues, [taking on cases like this] should be one of the roles of the EAC.” That said, Fuller also emphasizes that the case will be a financial stretch for the organization. “We have no resources or staff for [the court challenge],” she says. “We know court costs could be at least $40,000, just going into it.” If they lose the case, the EAC also risks being awarded courts costs again, possibly resulting in another financial crisis.

“When organizations take on a legal case it's an extremely serious decision,” says Sharratt, who applauds the EAC for taking the risk and stepping up to the plate.

"It's an incredibly important court challenge," she says. “It refuses to take genetic engineering as a foregone conclusion. It asks the government to provide information to make sure they follow their own laws."

"I think [the government's approval of GM salmon] was a good wake-up call," says Fuller, who believes it’s important for organizations like the EAC not to get too comfortable and to continue taking risks. "This is something we need to take on because it's the right thing to do."

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

 FDA and GE fish – the danger of rubber-stamp approval January 31, 2014 American consumers may soon be eating an unlabeled, genetically engineered (GE) salmon created by the company Aquabounty. If approved, it would be the first GE animal in history allowed for human consumption. The biotech industry claims that the GE fish is safe; after all they couldn’t sell it without permission from the U.S. government. But when you understand the complicated bureaucracy twisted to review this unprecedented product, you understand that their assurances of safety aren’t very reassuring.

In the United States, there is no law specifically intended to regulate the products of genetic engineering. Rather, GE products are reviewed and “approved” through a variety of pre-existing, outdated laws never intended for regulating biotechnology. The FDA, EPA and USDA all have different roles for different processes.

Without a comprehensive regulatory framework, there are major oversight gaps. For example, FDA classifies GE animals, like the GE salmon, as an “animal drug.” The Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (of 1938) defines a “drug” as essentially something that affects the structure or function of the animal. According to the FDA, the engineered genetic code in the salmon is thus a “drug.”

The FDA only reviews that drug in the context of the health of the animal and the human consumer, ignoring any resulting environmental or economic impacts.

The possibility that a GE animal might become an invasive species and destroy the natural ecosystem is ignored by FDA. And if approved, the GE salmon will very likely have major effects on native salmon populations. These GE salmon are grown using genes from two other types of fish in order to speed its growth, and if escaped, could outcompete native species. One study found that if just sixty GE fish escape, it could result in the extinction of 60,000 native fish in less than forty fish generations.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Recognizing both the potential profit and the grave environmental concerns presented by its GE animal product, Aquabounty developed a smokescreen to pacify public outrage and scientific alarm.

The company managed to crack open the door of regulatory approval by proposing a highly specific production plan, producing the GE salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and then flying the eggs to a guarded facility in Panama to be grown to market size and butchered. From Panama, the fish would be shipped by truck to American dinner tables. FDA swallowed Aquabounty’s bait, reviewing only those two facilities in Canada and Panama.

These facilities, by themselves, do have significant inherent risks.

Just recently an environmental organization filed an administrative complaint in Panama, alleging that the Aquabounty facility violated numerous Panamanian environmental laws and lacked even basic monitoring and reporting requirements for wastewater disposal. And last week, three groups in Canada filed a lawsuit against their government for failing to consider the GE fish as an invasive threat.

Despite the FDA’s ongoing review of Aquabounty’s current operations, no company actually farms salmon in this manner. It doesn’t take an economist to know that flying salmon from research-sized facilities in two different countries thousands of miles apart is not a viable business plan. Rather, salmon are farmed in crowded, industrial net pens on the open ocean, exposed to the elements, which cause millions to escape every year. Aquabounty even knows this. It has plans to expand its operations globally once approval is given. In fact, documents obtained from Freedom of Information Act requests show that applications for permits to grow the fish elsewhere in the U.S. have already been filed.

In plain language, Aquabounty has asked the FDA to review two small research facilities.

Aquabounty will claim that this limited approval means the product is safe and ramp up production.

Meanwhile, no meaningful review of the long term health or environmental implications will be conducted.

Perhaps most shameful, FDA is a willing participant in this ruse. Nearly two million people demanded FDA reject the GE salmon application for commercial approval. It is yet to be seen if Aquabounty will succeed in their plans or what the impacts might be.

The one thing that is certain: if approved, the fish will escape. As the Fish and Wildlife Service (.PDF) stated, “history dictates that fish held in aquaculture facilities either land- or water-based, escape.”

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

 FDA: We don’t want FrankenSalmon!

Wild salmon are a keystone species, which means that the entire ecosystem depends on their survival. Would you threaten wild populations just for GMO Salmon? Please share!

Tell the FDA: No GMO Frankenfish! :http://orgcns.org/19kUlXk

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

 Health Canada: we don’t want FrankenSalmon on our dinner plates Sign petition HERE

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems There is one last step before Canada becomes a live laboratory for the first GMO animal grown for human consumption.

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

You can bet that AquaBounty will now use all its resources to push for the sale of an organism that US agencies have refused to approve for Americans to consume for the last 18 years.

If Health Canada approves GMO salmon, a new breed of farmed fish will soon be at your local grocer or seafood restaurant without you even recognizing it. Let’s tell Health Canada to reject mutant fish for human consumption in our country.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health Canada: do not approve the sale of mutant fish that could harm Canadian wild fish stock. ********** More Information: Genetically Engineered Salmon. Ocean Conservancy.

Genetically modified salmon eggs approved commercially . CBC, November 25th, 2013.

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

 'GMO products cause cancer and obesity' - food safety expert February 14, 2014 Russia is firm: no genetically modified organisms in food production, the head of Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov stated at the All-Russian Meeting of Agrarians. GMOfoods controversies between scientists, ecologists and producers have a long history.

Russia, which is now going organic, has faced these problems just recently.

The battle is being waged by two camps: while scientists lack arguments and evidence that GMO is harmful, huge and powerful production corporation have resources and political links. Scientists say they will need another couple of decades for a comprehensive research, but some threats are obvious already now, says Biology Professor and international expert on eco and food safety Dr. Irina Ermakova: "These organisms are all dangerous because the very technology of their production is far from being perfect – it features pathogenic bacteria and viruses. When scientists tested the aftermath of GMOproduce on animals, they were horrified with the results – cancer and obesity. So the best things would be to ban such foods at all, as European countries do".

Today Russia is one of the largest global manufacturers of GMO-free grain. This agricultural year, its grain exports can account for 20 million tons. Environmentally friendly production can become Russia’s qualitative advantage in the world market. However, the share of such production is still insignificant, experts say, so it’s rather about the country’s agricultural potential. It can be used at full capacity after changes in the legislation, believes the editor-in-chief of the Agrarian Review magazine Konstantin Lysenko: "We have no legislation which defines organic production. And potentially Russia can flood the planet with such foods, as GMO-farming is banned in the country. But the reality is that, practically, all soy cultivated in the world is genetically modified as well as some 20% of corn ".

Meanwhile the Russian government suggested to manage the use of GMOs cultures. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered to probe if Russia has any such crops and compile a database of all imports. Then a legislative decision will follow.

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

Government action/inaction

 I have to stop saying “How stupid can you be”

Sabra Woodworth EXPANSION OF BC'S SALMON FEEDLOTS: Be advised that neither the Harper Government nor the Minister of Fisheries will speak of SUSTAINABLE SALMON FARMING: neither the word salmon nor "salmon farming" appear in their announcement.

Instead, obscuring and confusing meaning, the term SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE is used, which is wholly MISLEADING. SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE refers to oysters, scallops, clams, mussels, lobsters, tilapia, carp, and all species farmed in closed system aquaculture (seaweeds, shellfish, crustaceans, and other invertebrate species as well as finfish -- Arctic char, Atlantic halibut, barramundi, seabream and sea bass, eel, catfish, trout, and turbot). Total world aquaculture, with China producing 60+%, is in the vicinity of 60 million tonnes (including 25 million tons of carp, 4 1/2 tons of oysters, million of tons of tilapia, crab, clams, mussels, scallops. Additionally, even 20 million tons of farmed aquatic plants count as AQUACULTURE, quite likely SUSTAINABLE. Salmon feedlots produce under 2 million tonnes world-wide, 108,000 tonnes in Canada.

SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE no doubt will help feed the world, but to speak of SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE and farmed salmon in the same breath is outright contradiction. They are not to be equated, and are falsely referred to as one-and-the-same matter. Clarity is everything: adopt this clarifying motto: "Sustainable Aquaculture? Of Course! NOT Farmed Salmon"

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

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

 State

signs off on Jefferson County’s shoreline master program after three years of work February 13, 2014

PORT TOWNSEND — After more than three years of debate, the state has approved Jefferson County’s shoreline master program, which sets rules for the development of land adjacent to the county’s shoreline areas.

“This is exciting news at the end of this l-o-n-g journey,” Associate Planner Michelle McConnell wrote in an email that was sent to a distribution list of interested parties Wednesday.

“Thanks to everyone for your interest, input and patience along the way.”

The state Department of Ecology approval, announced Tuesday, will go into effect Feb. 21.

“This plan that is designed to protect our shoreline and our water has taken us a good many years to accomplish,” said County Commissioner John Austin.

“It has taken a lot of patience and perseverance, especially by Michelle McConnell, as she dealt with numerous changes throughout the process.”

The plan oversees development on about 250 miles of marine shorelines including Hood Canal and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as about 600 miles of river shorelines, including portions of the Quinault, Hoh, Elwha and Dungeness rivers and the shores of several lakes and streams.

The sticking point for the update to the shoreline master program, which began in 2010, was fin-fish aquaculture.

The version of the plan sent to Ecology in February 2011 contained a ban on fin-fish aquaculture, or net-pens, which raises non-native species such as Atlantic salmon in pens.

The county commissioners felt the process was hazardous to local marine life.

Ecology officials said the county had no right to ban the practice.

Ecology approved the rest of the plan, but it could not go into effect until the net-pen aspect was resolved.

No businesses have requested placing fin-fish aquaculture in Jefferson County.

Instead of a ban, commissioners proposed a rigorous permitting process, establishing stringent conditional-use guidelines.

The conditional-use permit process allows the county to evaluate proposals based on site-specific concerns and to require mitigation or use other measures to offset impacts.

Any permit application also would trigger an environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act, according to Ecology.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Net pens will not be allowed within 1,500 feet of the boundaries of the Protection Island Aquatic Reserve, in Discovery Bay, within the South Port Townsend Bay Mooring Buoy Management Plan area or in Hood Canal, south of the line from Tala Point to Foulweather Bluff, due to water quality concerns, the plan states.

Possible siting locations are in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Glen Cove, Mats Mats and Port Ludlow.

“Fin-fish aquaculture that uses or releases herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, nonindigenous species, parasites, genetically modified organisms or feed into surrounding waters must demonstrate all significant impacts have been mitigated,” according to the plan.

“All this does is kick it down to the permit level and deal with net pens on a case-by-case basis instead of having it be on the program level, but anyone who wants to put in a net pen will have to meet all of the conditions,” Commissioner David Sullivan said in October.

While all three county commissioners supported the ban, Commissioner Phil Johnson was the most vocal opponent and has said he is still uncomfortable with the process.

In December, he said he remained convinced that net pens are a bad idea and have a significant adverse ecological impact.

Austin said the program could be challenged and those actions would be addressed on a case-bycase basis.

“A lot of times, people say they intend to challenge a plan during its development but change their minds after it is approved,” he said.

To view the complete county shoreline master program, visit: http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Shoreline.

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

 Borough, City Approve Fisheries Analyst Contract February 7, 2014 The city and borough entered the New Year without a fisheries advisor, but they won’t be without one much longer. During its regular meeting last night the borough assembly approved a contract with Heather McCarty of McCarty and Associates for fisheries analyst consulting services.

The contract is split between the city and the borough and will send McCarty to various fisheries meetings, including those held by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and Board of Fisheries. Borough Manager Bud Cassidy said he’s pleased with the hiring process so far.

“RFP was done correctly. It was advertised the proper amount of time. Responses were timely received, opened and rated. The fisheries work group had a logical approach in interviewing Mrs. McCarty. The references were checked, business license was received. I’m pretty comfortable with the process.”

The contract is for 2 years and includes $5,000 a month plus reimbursable fees associated with travel. Cassidy said there is a 30 day out clause in the contract if there is some sort of break in the relationship.

Assemblywoman Chris Lynch co chairs the Fisheries Work Group and was part of the subcommittee that made the hiring recommendation.

“I just want to say that this is our third year operating and the fisheries work group statewide has elevated themselves just due to our due diligence in keeping informed and following the issues that are required to keep our fishing community on the cutting edge and able make good decisions and good representation decisions. It’s imperative that we keep that up by hiring this caliber of an analyst.”During a joint work session last week between the city council and borough assembly, a handful of community members raised concerns about McCarty having a possible conflict of interest with certain fisheries issues. McCarty has a lengthy background in various fish-related sectors, including commercial salmon fishing, aquaculture work and time as a lobbyist for the trawl industry. But Assemblyman Dave Kaplan said he supported the hire of McCarty and felt that anyone with ample knowledge of fish issues would have some sort of bias here and there.

“Mrs. McCarty was professionally vetted both on levels of her qualifications and levels on transparency. We can go on and on and on and on, two years, five years, ten years – we’re not going to get a candidate that won’t be perceived as being biased in one way or another. That’s human nature. What we have right now is we need this position filled. We are one of the largest fishing ports in the nation. It would be negligent, in my opinion, at this point in time if we didn’t have a qualified fisheries analyst.”

The assembly approved the contract with McCarty five to one with Assemblyman Mel Stephens voting against it. Stephens said he did not like the manner in which the contract came forward and felt it was irregularly dealt with.

The city council also approved the joint contract with McCarty during its special meeting on Tuesday.

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

 Here's Why Your Weed Habit Is Bad for California's Salmon February 6, 2014 An increasingly stark problem is facing California, a state in the middle of a historic and crippling drought: salmon or weed?

For all its happy, laid-back, live-and-let-live connotations, marijuana isn’t so benign when it comes to the environment, at least when we’re talking about its cultivation.

Nowhere, it seems, is that more apparent than in the “Emerald Triangle” of Northern California—the counties of Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt—which comprise what experts believe is the largest pot-growing region in the United States.

As Jefferson Public Radio, the NPR affiliate out of Southern Oregon University, reports: “As the hills have sprouted thousands of new grow operations, haphazard cultivation is threatening the recovery of endangered West Coast salmon and steelhead populations.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems ” Overfishing and industrial impacts of logging and farming have dramatically reduced salmon stocks in California waterways such as the Eel River, which runs through the Emerald Triangle.

Although new conservation efforts have helped populations to rebound—30,000 salmon and steelhead swam up the Eel to spawn in 2012, up from 3,500 two years before—the new, booming industry is hurting the nascent recovery. In part that’s because growing marijuana requires a lot of water, some three to six gallons per plant.

“It’s possible that in some watersheds, marijuana cultivation is consuming all the water available for fish,” one salmon recovery expert with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife tells the radio station.

Humboldt County, for example, can ill afford to spare the water right now: The U.S. Drought Monitor last week declared the entire county is suffering extreme drought conditions.

It’s not just pot growers’ unquenchable thirst that’s causing problems for salmon recovery, though.

There's also the pesticide and fertilizer run-off, the severe erosion—the kind of industrial-scale impacts you see with industrial-scale agriculture. In places like Humboldt County, weed farming increasingly resembles the chemical- and resource-intensive monocrop approach practiced with corn and soybeans in the Midwest.

In the almost 20 years since California legalized the sale of medicinal marijuana, thousands of new growers have set up shop. An aerial tour using Google Earth created in 2011 by Anthony Silvaggio, an environmental sociologist with Humboldt State University, and posted by Mother Jones, shows some of the devastating impact, with large swaths of forest mowed down to make room for illicit grow operations.

This goes on pretty much entirely unchecked. “The fact that it’s unregulated is a real problem,” Silvaggio says in the video. “Talking with agricultural commissioners of different counties, they report to me that it’s difficult for them to help growers that want to do the right thing because they can’t talk about it because it’s federally prohibited, and they get federal dollars.”

Yes, that’s right: In yet another bizarre consequence of the country’s schizophrenic position on pot, even as states like California allow medicinal marijuana to be sold—and quasi-legally grown—the feds don't, leading to another nonsensical “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation (and we all know how well that worked with gays in the military).

“There’s just this tremendously complicated legal environment which makes it really hard for farmers who would like to come into compliance, who would like to use best practices on their farms, to make progress,” Hezekiah Allen, an environmental consultant and third-generation Humboldt County resident, tells Jefferson Public Radio. Allen, however, has helped to develop a “manual of best practices” for growers, which details how they can minimize the environmental impact of their operations.

“There’s probably no such thing as a perfect, zero-impact farm,” Allen tells the radio station. “But if we give people the information and the knowledge they need, they will make improvements.”

The salmon sure hope so.

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

 Federal Science Hobbled By Cuts And Policies, Poll Says February 6, 2014 The government's cuts to federal science budgets and its changes to policy are damaging scientists' ability to serve and protect the public, according to a new survey.

The survey was commissioned by the union representing federal scientists.

As well, the Conservative government's shift in federal science priorities under Prime Minister Stephen Harper toward supporting industry is out of step with the public's view that health, safety and the protection of the environment should be the government's top science priorities, says the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. (PIPSC) The survey conducted by Environics Canada last June and released Thursday included responses from over 4,000 federal scientists, researchers and engineers. It found:

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems - 91 per cent think cuts to federal science budgets will have a detrimental impact on the federal government's ability to serve the public and 51 per cent think the impact will be "very detrimental."

- 69 per cent of 690 respondents at Environment Canada think Canada is doing a worse job of environmental protection than five years ago.

- 86 per cent of 343 respondents from the Fisheries and Oceans Canada think recent changes to the Fisheries Act will hamper Canada's ability to protect fish and fish habitat.

- 80 per cent of 268 respondents from the National Research Council think Canada has done a worse job over the past five years of advancing our international standing in technology and innovation. The government 'refocused' the agency to service business in 2012.

As of 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Greg Rickford, minister of state for science and technology, had not responded to a request to comment on the survey.

The union sent surveys to over 15,000 of its members, who work for the government as scientists, researchers and engineers. Of those, 4,069 or 26 per cent responded between June 5 and 19, 2013. PIPSC says the results are considered accurate within plus or minus 1.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Thousands of scientists dismissed CBC's the fifth estate recently reported that over the past five years, the federal government has dismissed more than 2,000 scientists and drastically cut or shut down hundreds of federal programs and research facilities, including programs that monitored smoke stack emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality and climate change.

PIPSC noted that so far, the government has cut $758 million of the $2.6 billion slated to be cut from 10 federal science-based department and agencies between the 2012/13 fiscal year and the 2015/15 fiscal year ending in April.

Public attitudes Peter Bleyer, the union's head of policy and communications, said his goal was to learn from the scientists how they were experiencing the cuts and whether the cuts were really "back office" cuts as the federal government has suggested.

What the survey found, he said, is "there has been a huge impact already, and this incredible fear over what's coming into the future and that these cuts will put Canadians' health safety and environment at risk."

He added, "You have to use a very twisted logic to try and define these cuts as being back office cuts when you hear about what is actually being lost in terms of science capacity and direct impact that will have on Canadians."

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Bleyer acknowledged that it was natural for scientists to feel cuts to their own department were having an impact on their work. He said that is one reason PIPSC also wanted to get a sense of whether the government cuts and shift in priorities was aligned with the perspective of Canadians, so it commissioned a second poll from Environics.

That one surveyed 1,003 Canadians last November on their attitudes toward government scientists, and the results are considered accurate plus or minutes 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

It found that: - 69 per cent of Canadians think cuts to federal science activities will have a negative impact on the government's ability to serve the interests of Canadians.

- 73 per cent of respondents, including 67 per cent of Conservative Party supporters, think the top priority for the government science should be protecting public health, safety and the environment.

Only 10 per cent though the top priority should be business innovation and resource development, and 14 per cent thought both priorities should be equal.

Bleyer acknowledged that a lot of the "cuts" are, in fact, a reprioritization of government science, and that some areas such as resource development are getting more money from the government than before.

"The problem is," he said, "they're out of sync with the priorities of Canadians."

Little faith in leadership Among the other findings of the survey of federal scientists was that 63 per cent are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the use of scientific evidence in policy development by the current government.

In Fisheries, Natural Resources, and Agricultural and Agri-Food Canada, more than 75 per cent were dissatisfied.

However, on the upside, 41 per cent of Health Canada scientists were very or somewhat satisfied – almost double the 24 per cent of federal scientists overall.

Some other findings were: - 57 per cent of respondents disagree that the leaders of their department or agency are making the right decisions for their organization.

- A majority of scientists are very concerned about their ability to collaborate with international colleagues (73 per cent) and academia (69 per cent), due to new policies on intellectual property and increased permissions required to publish their scientific results.

- A third are dissatisfied with their jobs, including 52 per cent of respondents at the National Research Council and 40 per cent at the Department of Defence. Seventy-three per cent of those who say there are dissatisfied are also considering retirement or leaving.

- 53 per cent would not recommend a job at their department to a young scientist.

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

 Keystone: The Pipeline to Disaster February 3, 2014 The new State Department Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone Pipeline does three things. First, it signals a greater likelihood that the pipeline project will be approved later this year by the administration. Second, it vividly illustrates the depth of confusion of US climate change policy. Third, it self-portrays the US Government as a helpless bystander to climate calamity.

According to the State Department report, we are trapped in the Big Oil Status Quo We Can Believe In. The proposed pipeline will complete a pipeline network running from Alberta, Canada to the US Gulf Coast, carrying petroleum produced from Alberta's oil sands to the Gulf refineries. The volumes will be enormous, roughly 830,000 barrels per day. The pipeline will thereby facilitate the mass extraction and use of Canada's enormous unconventional supplies. Therein lies the problem.

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that human-induced climate change is occurring; that the world is experiencing a rapidly rising frequency of extreme climate-related events such as heat waves; and that there is much worse to come unless we change course on the use of fossil fuels.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Specifically, with energy business as usual, the world is on a trajectory to raise the mean global temperature by at least 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F) by the end of century, and possibly far more, a climate disruption that most scientists regard as catastrophic. The world's governments have agreed to try to keep the temperature increase below 2-degrees C, yet until now they've done far too little to meet that target.

(Note that after decades of rapid temperature increases up to 1998, the rise in global mean temperatures slowed a bit after 1998. With the post-1998 Pacific Ocean tending towards La Nina conditions, the Pacific Ocean rather than the Earth's land area has been absorbing much of the excess thermal energy trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Yet once the Pacific Ocean swings back to the El Nino or neutral conditions that prevailed up to 1998, rapid global warming is likely to resume. Therefore the slight recent pause in the upward ascent of temperatures is only a short respite from the ongoing long-term process of rapid global warming.)

The economic implications of the climate science are clear. Either we keep some of the world's oil, gas, and coal reserves under the ground (rather than burning them in cars, factories, power plants, and buildings), or we wreck the planet.

The atmospheric CO2 concentration is determined by the cumulative combustion of fossil fuels.

We've already burned enough fossil fuels to raise the world's temperatures by around 1 degree C. Burning the rest of the proved reserves would cause humanity to overshoot the 2-degree target by several degrees.

The urgent planetary need is clear. The world has to wean itself from fossil fuel dependence in the coming 20-40 years. We simply can't go on drilling, excavating, and burning every ton of coal, oil, and gas the fossil fuel industry finds. If we do so, the basic "carbon arithmetic" of CO2 buildup spells disaster.

In the current market jargon, the world needs to strand some of its fossil fuel reserves, meaning that some must be left under the ground rather than extracted and burned. We must substitute these stranded fossil fuel reserves with low-carbon alternatives, including nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power. There are ample supplies of these low-carbon alternatives, but to build up the use of these alternatives will require considerable investments for several decades to come.

The most important single step is to keep most of the coal from being burned. The next is to avoid the temptation to develop every bit of "nonconventional" oil and gas that can be found. With new technologies, unconventional oil and gas like Canada's oil sands can now be developed at today's market prices, but at great peril for the planet.

Using climate science, it is possible to calculate the tolerable limits on total future fossil fuel use. The basic idea is the need for the world to adhere to a "carbon budget," meaning the total amount of fossil fuels that can be burned while avoiding global warming by more than 2-degrees C. (We should note that even the 2-degree C target, which we are now overshooting by a wide mark, would cause very damaging changes to the Earth's climate systems, and result in devastating famines, floods, heat waves, and other catastrophes.)

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Keystone pipeline is crucial to the global carbon budget. If the world deploys massive unconventional oil sources like Canada's oil sands we will exceed the carbon budget, unless there is a simultaneous strategy to offset that excess carbon some other way. But to do so would be using Canada's expensive, dirty, and CO2-intensive oil when cheaper, (relatively) cleaner, and lower-CO2 oil is available. Under any circumstances, to evaluate the Keystone Project properly, we need to judge it against the global carbon budget.

Herein lies the tragic, indeed fatal, flaw of the State Department review.

The State Department Environmental Impact Statement doesn't even ask the right question: How do the unconventional Canadian oil sands fit or not fit within the overall carbon budget?

Instead, the State Department simply assumes, without any irony or evident self-awareness, that the oil sands will be developed and used one way or another. For the State Department, the main issue therefore seems to be whether the oil will be shipped by pipeline or by rail. The State Department doesn't even raise the possibility that the pipeline should be stopped in order to keep a lid on the total amount of unconventional fossil fuels burned around the world.

The core assumption of the report is that the US Government has no role to play, either alone or in conjunction with Canada and other countries, to stay within an overall global carbon budget.

Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed Project, is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refiners in the United States based on expected oil prices, oil-sands supply costs, transport costs, and supply-demand scenarios. [ES-16] According to the State Department, in other words, the US Government is just a passive spectator to global climate change. Either the pipeline is built or the oil will be shipped by other means. Full stop.

The State Department doesn't even broach the idea that the pipeline discussion really needs to be about the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels, including the need to keep unconventional hydrocarbon reserves under the ground.

I can hear the skeptics scoffing: What would make Canada not develop these resources? And why shouldn't Americans profit from the oil sands? The answer should be the future survival and wellbeing of humanity, an idea admittedly of little apparent interest in Washington or Ottawa, centers of greed, cynicism, and shortsightedness. There is money to be made NOW, the future be damned.

But do not lose hope. The greed and incompetence on display in Washington and Ottawa is not a permanent reality, but a passing phase.

Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy were able to face down gilded interests for the greater good. Many oil companies, including leading companies in Europe and also some in North America, are already on side to stay within the global carbon budget. The vast majority of Americans want safety for themselves, their children, and the rest of humanity.

Our generation can still turn the tide against environmental disaster.

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

 Pipeline rupture report raises questions about TransCanada inspections 2011 report criticized TransCanada’s ‘inadequate’ inspections February 4, 2014 A CBC News investigation has unearthed a critical report that the federal regulator effectively buried for several years about a rupture on a trouble-prone TransCanada natural gas pipeline.

On July 20, 2009, the Peace River Mainline in northern Alberta exploded, sending 50-metre-tall flames into the air and razing a two-hectare wooded area.

Members of Dene Tha’ First Nations community of Chateh, about 50 kilometres away from the site of the blast, also want to know why the report was not released until now.

Few people ever learned of the rupture — one of the largest in the past decade — other than the Dene Tha’ First Nation, whose traditional territory it happened on.

In an early 2011 draft report about the incident, the National Energy Board criticized TransCanada, the operator of the line owned by its subsidiary NOVA Gas Transmission, for “inadequate” field inspections and “ineffective” management.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Final reports are typically published by the investigative bodies, either the NEB or the Transportation Safety Board, but this report wasn’t released until this January when the CBC obtained it through an access-to-information request as part of its ongoing pipelines investigation.

The NEB said the delay was caused by an “administrative error” when an employee left without transferring the file over.

In a written statement, TransCanada said there's a combination of construction, coating and soil factors that have required an "active pipe integrity program" on this pipeline. The company said it instituted new technologies and new approaches after the rupture that have since prevented a reoccurrence.

Asked in the House of Commons Tuesday why the report remained hidden for five years, Energy Minister Joe Oliver said he was "troubled" by the NEB's failure to release it.

"It's the obligation of the National Energy Board to do just that. There was an error on their part. We were not aware of it," Oliver said.

Oliver said the government has implemented new pipeline safety measures such as increased inspections, audits and fines.

Timing questioned Environmental policy expert Nathan Lemphers says he’s “deeply concerned” that the federal regulator kept the “fairly damning” report behind closed doors.

Interactive pipeline map: Have there been incidents near you? Enter HERE

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “It’s quite likely that there are other incidents like this that the public simply doesn’t know about,” said Lemphers, a former Pembina Institute analyst. “This one stands out simply because of its size and the timing and the company involved.”

Lemphers questions whether TransCanada’s contentious Keystone XL proposal, under environmental review in the U.S. at the same time, had a bearing on the regulator not publishing the Peace River Mainline draft report.

“It's hard to guess intentions,” said Lemphers. “It certainly seems fishy from the outside that this report was kept quiet due to an apparent administrative error. If the report came out it would have been, risen to immediate public attention.”

In January 2011, TransCanada was in the midst of negotiating dozens of U.S. safety requests on pipeline construction, operation and design on the controversial Keystone XL proposal. That was followed by several months of public comments in the States later that year.

The Keystone XL project, first proposed in 2008, is still in limbo. Acrucial assessment released last week said there are no major environmental objections to the $7-billion mega-project, but a 90-day comment period still remains.

‘Big ball of fire’ Members of Dene Tha’ First Nations community of Chateh, about 50 kilometres away from the site of the blast, also want to know why the report was not released until now.

“They should let the public know about these deficiencies that exist,” said Baptiste Metchooyeah, the former Dene Tha’ First Nation lands director. “We have to start saying something about these incidents, because the regulator is not there for us.”

According to the report, the pipeline spewed 1.45 million cubic metres of natural gas – equivalent to the volume of 580 Olympic-sized pools – over a period of hours before TransCanada stopped the flow and put out the fire.

Fabian Chonkolay, a local hunter who flew over the site, described the aftermath as looking like a “big ball of fire” had consumed the forest. “Just like when they drop a bomb,” he said.

Chateh residents fear that because the area is remote, it might be considered a low-risk area for pipeline operators, leading to fewer safety precautions. The pipeline runs under the community of Chateh, and hunters and trappers often travel in the area.

“It’s way in the bush, but there’s a lot of activities going on out there,” said Chonkolay.

High rate of ruptures The report reveals that the Peace River Mainline has a historically high rate of ruptures — six since the 1970s. The Alberta pipeline’s rupture rate is five times higher than Canada’s national rupture rate, reported in a 2004 study.

The pipeline had an uncommon problem: a bacteria that caused “particularly aggressive growth rates” of corrosion. But, as the NEB report notes, the bacteria was a known threat to the pipeline and caused a rupture in 2002.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The section of the pipeline that burst in 2009 was 95 per cent corroded. TransCanada’s own rules required that it physically inspect a pipeline when it reached 75 per cent corrosion, the report says.

The report notes the inline inspection tool failed to accurately assess the depth of the “corrosion within corrosion.”

Pipeline integrity experts say that given the pipeline’s high rate of ruptures and its known corrosion problems, the company ran along the “ragged edge” of the rules. Many operators use far lower thresholds, closer to 40 or 50 per cent corrosion, before inspecting.

The NEB says that since the incident, TransCanada changed criteria for identifying corrosion, while the NEB made changes to its management requirements for pipeline operators.

“The delay in publishing this report to our external website in no way compromised the safe operation of the Peace River Mainline,” said NEB spokeswoman Rebecca Taylor.

For the Dene Tha’ First Nations community that lives above the pipeline, the focus is on what happens in the future.

In 2010, TransCanada began signalling its intent to decommission a 266-kilometre southern section of the line, built in 1968. The NEB is holding public hearings soon to get input as it decides whether to approve the move and the conditions.

But the section under review for decommissioning doesn’t extend into the northern Alberta region where Chonkolay lives.

“It’s an old pipeline,” said Chonkolay. “Heaven knows how many more damage it’s going to do in the future. … How many more times is it going to rupture?”

How CBC obtained the report NEB's Taylor wrote in an email that the investigation closed Jan. 19, 2011.

The report on the 2009 rupture sat in draft stage for nearly three years, only coming to light when CBC obtained a copy this January as part ofits investigation into pipeline incidents and accidents across the country.

CBC asked for the report last October on at least four separate occasions. NEB refused to release the report to CBC News, saying that it could be requested through access-to-information.

When the report was released, the final report was dated November 2013. A 1½-page section on TransCanada’s field inspection was redacted in the 2011 draft and changed in the final report.

NEB says it asked CBC to request the document through access to information to meet “legal and confidentiality obligations associated with the release of the document.”

If you have information on this story, please email pipelines@cbc.ca.

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

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

 Win! Hamilton passes resolution against hydraulic fracking February 12, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! Win! Hamilton passes resolution against fracking >http://bit.ly/MeLuSs -The Council of Canadians "As a result of the resolute work of Hamilton Council of Canadians members, Hamilton City Council has passed an anti-fracking resolution. This resolution http://bit.ly/LWstDB (please take a moment to read it over) submitted by Ed Reece is an important first step in defending municipalities from fracking, laying the groundwork for bylaws/zoning protection and to send a clear message to other levels of government.

"Companies currently are arranging for shale gas pipeline and petro-chemical processing projects in Ontario. Some of this gas would come from fracking in neighbouring U.S. states. Companies with facilities in Sarnia-Lambton's Chemical Valley are seeking out shale gas from the northern U.S. However, it is possible that this shale gas could come directly from Ontario in the future."

The Council of Canadians opposes fracking because of its high water use, its high carbon emissions, its impacts on human health, the disruption it causes to wildlife, and the danger it poses to groundwater and local drinking water.

We are calling for a country-wide halt on fracking operations, and work with people in communities across Canada who are saying “No fracking way!”

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

View the original document HERE

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

 NUU-CHAH-NULTH FISHING RIGHTS UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT January 30, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Port Alberni - Nuu-chah-nulth Nations celebrated a major legal victory today when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Canada’s appeal in the Ahousaht et al. vs. Canada court case.

The country’s highest court issued its ruling early this morning, effectively ending more than a decade of legal proceedings between Canada and the five nations (Ahousaht, Ehattesaht/Chinekint, Hesquiaht, Mowachaht/ Muchalaht, and Tla-o-qui-aht) with a final affirmation of the Nations’ aboriginal economic fishing rights.

“The decision by the SCC affirms what Nuu-chah-nulth have always asserted and the BC courts have affirmed. Nuu-chah-nulth Nations are fishing people, dependent on our sea resources for our food and our economies. Canada must work with our nations to design fisheries that meet our community needs, using our preferred means to fish, and in our preferred fishing areas,” said Deb Foxcroft, President of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.

The case, which spanned the last decade, began in June of 2003 when Nuu chah-nulth Nations filed a Writ of Summons against Canada and British Columbia.

Today’s decision from the Supreme Court of Canada represents the second time Canada’s highest court has refused to hear Canada’s appeal in the case. It means that the declaration of the Nations’ aboriginal right, first made by the BC Supreme Court in 2009 and twice affirmed by the BC Court of Appeal, is final and constitutionally protected.

The decision comes after four years of unproductive negotiations between the Nations and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in which the Nations have been frustrated by Canada’s refusal to meaningfully engage and accommodate their aboriginal right.

“Now is the time for Canada to negotiate in a meaningful way. Together we can create fisheries that will benefit our coastal communities and all Canadians. The highest court in the land has spoken. Will the Canadian government get serious about negotiating with Nuu-chah-nulth Nations as the Courts have directed?” Foxcroft said.

For more information on the trial, visit http://uuathluk.ca/wordpress/litigation/fishingrights.

Original story The Supreme Court of Canada has denied Canada’s leave application.

The aboriginal rights of Ahousaht, Ehattesaht, Hesquiaht, Mowachaht/Muchalaht, and Tla-o-quiaht to fish and sell fish are once again confirmed in law by today’s SCC ruling.

DISMISSED WITH COSTS / REJETÉES AVEC DÉPENS Attorney General of Canada v. Ahousaht Indian Band and Ahousaht Nation, represented by Shawn Atleo on his own behalf and on behalf of the members of the Ahousaht Indian Band and the Ahousaht Nation et al. (B.C.) (Civil) (By Leave) (34387) (The application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs to the respondents.

Related: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2013-10-15/nuu-chah-nulth-nations-bringcanada%E2%80%99s-failure-fisheries-un

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

 Ottawa opens door to fish farm expansion, and applications flood in Critics say wild salmon at risk as 11 companies apply to expand or build new farms Listen to related January 16, 2014 “B. C. Almanac” podcast HERE January 15, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OTTAWA — The Harper government has quietly opened the door to a major expansion of B.C.’s controversial fish farm sector despite warnings by the 2012 Cohen Commission about the effects of net-based farms on wild salmon.

The decision, revealed to fish farmers by Fisheries Minister Gail Shea in October, was laid out in letters to several B.C. First Nations last week.

An official in Shea’s department said Wednesday that Ottawa has already received 13 applications for expansions or new farms.

Shea’s letter said applications will be accepted for everywhere except the Discovery Islands archipelago between Campbell River and the B.C. mainland.

Justice Bruce Cohen’s 2012 report on the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run urged Ottawa to maintain a ban on new farms in that archipelago.

Critics say the lifting of the 2011 moratorium violates the spirit of the Cohen report and could cause disaster for wild salmon stocks. And they condemned the lack of transparency by the government.

DFO spokeswoman Melanie Carkner said Wednesday the government is reviewing nine applications to expand production at existing sites and two new sites, for a total increase of 16,640 tonnes of capacity. Tonnage refers to the peak weight of fish a farm is allowed to have in the water.

“All applications … will continue to be evaluated through the lens of environmental sustainability and engagement with First Nations and other stakeholders,” said Carkner, who added that Canada has “some of the strictest regulations” in the world.

:

100% Pure Bovine Excrement!

The letter to First Nations last week refers to the first of the new applications.

Norwegian company Cermaq Canada Ltd. wants to dramatically expand capacity, to 460 tonnes from 10 tonnes, at its Cypress Harbour broodstock facility in the Broughton Archipelago, a fish farm-heavy area near the northeast end of Vancouver Island. Cypress Harbour provides eggs and sperm for fish farms and Cermaq says they want to move production to this site from other operations.

Shea’s letter said the government is not putting wild stocks at risk. “Our government is committed to protecting and conserving fish habitat in support of coastal and inland fisheries resources.”

:

100% Pure Bovine Excrement!

But critics said Wednesday Shea’s decision overlooks Cohen’s warning about the risks of fish farms, a warning that applies to all B.C. salmon stocks even though the judge was limited to making recommendations relating to the Fraser sockeye.

“The decision to expand destructive aquaculture practices anywhere along B.C.’s coast is a huge betrayal of the concerns raised in the Cohen inquiry,” said Watershed Watch Salmon Society executive director Craig Orr. “They’re not applying the principles in Cohen that led to that moratorium (for the Discovery Islands) to our territories,” said Chief Councillor Bob Chamberlain of the Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, based on Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Orr noted that coho and especially young pinks and chums are far less mature than the Fraser River sockeye when they pass by the area’s fish farms. He said the pinks and chums weigh on average “barely a gram” when they exit rivers to pass by fish farms and are a tenth the size of young Fraser sockeye facing the same challenges in the Discovery Islands area.

Critics also condemned the lack of transparency.

Ottawa has not issued a news release on the fish farm decision despite producing a flood of statements since October on everything from the naming of a new hovercraft in B.C. to the donation of an old Canadian Coast Guard vessel in Nunavut.

Shea’s only public comment was an October statement that the Discovery Islands moratorium will continue indefinitely. Asked when Shea spoke publicly or issued any statements about the moratorium being lifted elsewhere, a spokeswoman said in an email that the minister “talked about it openly.” However, she was unable to produce any news releases, statements or quotations in the B.C. media to back up that claim.

One critic said the government deliberately down-played last October’s decision to avoid controversy.

“There’s an issue about transparency,” said John Werring, a science policy adviser at the David Suzuki Foundation. “It shows clearly the direction the government is taking on aquaculture. They do not want any opposition to their plans and I suspect their reluctance to release this information to the public is to mute any kind of concern that might be expressed by people opposed to the expansion of the industry in British Columbia.”

In 2011, the federal government ordered a moratorium on new and expanded fish farms that “would result in a significant increase in environmental footprint,” while Cohen was holding his inquiry.

While Cohen concluded said there was no single “smoking gun” to blame for the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye, he expressed concern about the risk that ocean-net fish farms might jeopardize wild salmon through the spread of disease and sea lice.

“I accept the evidence that management practices taken within net pens are intended to reduce the risk of disease as much as possible and to keep both farmed and wild fish healthy,” Cohen concluded. “However, I cannot determine on the evidence before me whether those measures ensure that the risk of serious harm from disease and pathogen transfer is a minimal one.”

Cohen singled out Discovery Islands, where the moratorium remains, because that’s on the key route for the young sockeye exiting the Fraser River, and it has the largest concentration of fish farms.

Those fish are less mature and seen therefore as more vulnerable than those that later go through the Broughton.

Cohen called for more federal research into the effect of fish farms on wild stocks, and also said DFO is in a conflict of interest due to its dual role of protecting wild stocks and promoting fish farming.

While the Harper government ignored Cohen’s advice to end the promotional role, Shea did stress in its October statement that the government is making major investments in research. She cited the 2013 budget’s $57.5 million over five years to “bolster our environmental protection in the aquaculture sector through science, enhanced regulatory regime and improved reporting.”

The budget also included a program to support sport fishing conservation partnerships. The government also boosted the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s funding by $1 million annually.

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

Editorial Comments:



  

The foreign-owned, open pen salmon feedlot industry with operations sited in wild Pacific salmon migration routes in BC marine environments consistently claim that their standards are already world-leading The government-enabled, open pen salmon feedlot industry ignored the recommended science-based practices of the $26 million Cohen Commission Open pen salmon feedlot practices on a global scale are shameful, irresponsible, immoral and unethical – should not be incorporated in BC. The gift of $21,000 from Canada to BC salmon farmers to research best salmon farming practices around the world is another shameful, irresponsible waste of tax dollars.

 Salmon farms net more tax dollars from Harper Govt to grow exports February 4, 2014 CAMPBELL RIVER, Canada – The federal government is giving $21,000 to British Columbia salmon farmers to research best practices around the world, more than a year after a $26-million public inquiry made a litany of recommendations.

Conservative MP John Duncan says the funds will allow the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association to review international standards and practices in fish farming in order to identify potential improvements in the province.

The association will then develop a plan for the B.C.’s farmed salmon industry to maintain worldleading standards.

But critics says the federal government has done little to implement the measures already identified by the federal public inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye run in 2009.

The Cohen commission made 75 recommendations in its October 2012 report, which raised questions about the effects on wild salmon from salmon farming in nets in the open ocean.

Duncan says the funds will help the B.C. fish farming industry improve confidence in its products, attract investment and increase exports.

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

 Oil Transportation and Safety Act bill introduced in state Legislature January 23, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems OLYMPIA — Methods of moving crude oil to market are changing rapidly, and the state must respond just as deftly to protect sensitive water and upland habitats as well as people, according to state Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island.

Rolfes recently introduced a bill known as the Oil Transportation and Safety Act. If approved, the legislation would build upon existing regulations dealing with oil transport by tanker and barge. It also would launch important conversations about transport by rail and pipeline, she said.

“The tricky part to rail,” Rolfes said, “is that we have little regulatory authority at the state level.

Railroads are mostly regulated by the federal government.”

Nevertheless, she said, residents of the state have every right to know the amount and types of oil traveling through their communities — especially with increased shipments of the more explosive Bakken oil coming out of Montana and North Dakota and recent train derailments, some resulting in severe fires.

Rolfes’ bill, SB-6262. would require the owner of oil-shipment facilities to report information about oil transport. State officials would aggregate all the information and report quarterly figures. Armed with such information, communities could decide whether federal protections are adequate, she noted.

The bill also calls on the Washington Department of Ecology to evaluate emergency response plans, identify vulnerable areas and propose ideas to increase safety.

The bill also calls on Ecology to consider whether additional tug escorts are needed for large tankers in Puget Sound, where one tug currently is required. Consideration would be given for possible tug escorts on the Columbia River and in Grays Harbor, where tug-escort rules do not apply.

Alaska requires two tug escorts for tankers moving on Prince William Sound, according to officials testifying Wednesday on a companion bill in the House.

As proposed, the legislation would triple the penalties for spilling oil from a barge if the operator acted negligently. The operator would be excused from any negligence claims if at least two qualified people were posted on the bridge of the tug during the duration of the trip.

Rolfes’ bill and the companion House bill, HB-2347, have been declared the top priority this legislative session by the Environmental Priorities Coalition, made up of more than 20 environmental groups working together as a lobbying force.

“The bill doesn’t seek to have answers,” Clifford Traisman, lobbyist for the coalition, said during Wednesday’s hearing. “It seeks to ask questions. What jurisdictions do we have? What needs to be studied? What does not need to be studied? The bill raises lots of questions and sets up processes for the answers to come.”

Eric de Place, policy director for Sightline, a member of the coalition, said the state is not prepared for the expected increases in oil shipments by rail. News of train derailments and explosions adds new urgency to the problem, he said.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Frank Holmes of the Western States Petroleum Association said Washington already has some of the most stringent oil-spill regulations in the country. With no clear showing that more regulations are needed, the Legislature should delay action until studies of the risks, benefits and economic impacts are completed, he said.

Holmes also was concerned about the release of public information regarding oil transport. Some information could give one company a competitive advantage over another, he said. To protect proprietary information, California has passed a law that spells out what can and cannot be disclosed, he said. The law allows companies to challenge public disclosure in advance, he noted, urging Washington legislators to take a similar approach.

Denise Clifford, governmental relations director for Ecology, said the bill has some good ideas, but her agency cannot officially support it without funding — and none has been provided in the governor’s budget.

Rolfes said she would support some money for Ecology to begin the critical evaluation. Some discussions should include Canada, which is proposing increased tanker traffic through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, she said.

“I don’t believe they are as advanced as we are in preventing oil spills,” she said. “If they (oil tankers) stay in Canadian waters, they can avoid our regulations.”

Rolfes said the Legislature should support prevention of oil spills over cleanup after environmental damage has occurred.

“Every preventive measure we’ve ever taken has been a hard-fought battle,” she said. “A lot of the (existing) laws are really old. We need to talk about whether we need more protection for our waterways, given the huge increase in overwater traffic that is coming.”

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

Well known river advocate Mark Angelo speaks to a group of people at an information meeting Saturday, called over concern about a hazardous waste recycling and transfer facility approved for an industrial property on Cannor Road in Chilliwack.

 Waste facility location ‘fraught with risk’ January 21, 2014 The message from the jam-packed meeting was clear.

Find another location for the proposed waste recycling plant, far away from the edge of the Fraser River.

More than 150 people filled Evergreen Hall Saturday in Chilliwack, spilling out into the hall.

They came to hear river conservationist Mark Angelo and other river stewards, like First Nations, sport fishing and enviro reps, speak passionately about their concerns about PCBs and mercury being recycled and transferred at a site on Cattermole lands.

Reps from a total of 17 groups have come together to oppose the rezoning, said Rod Clapton of the B.C. Federation of Drift Fishers.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Some speakers asked about the prospect of legal action to stop the rezoning, while others wondered if Ministry of the Environment could step in.

Clapton said they support development, but with the proviso that it be done in an environmentally responsible way.

“We’re not opposed to the facility. We’re opposed to the location,” said Clapton.

He recommended that people “demand accountability” from their elected officials, in the form of a full environmental assessment before the project gets off the ground.

The problem is not the idea of hazardous waste being recycled by the applicant Aevitas Inc. It’s the riverside location of the proposed site on Cannor Road that is all wrong, said speaker after speaker, Saturday at the public forum in Evergreen Hall.

There’s too much at stake to site a hazardous waste recycling and transfer station on the banks of the greatest salmon producing river in the world, said celebrated river conservationist Mark Angelo during his talk.

A “precautionary” approach should prevail, he said, in a decision “fraught with risk, like this one,” where the plant would be a mere 100 to 200 metres from the water.

“This is an issue that is resonating with so many people,” he said. “Local populations are most often in the best position to protect waterways.”

As a teacher, writer, speaker and paddler, who knows the Fraser River better than most, Angelo was invited to be the afternoon’s keynote speaker.

“I’ve had a love for this part of the Fraser for a long time,” he said, which led to the birth of B.C. Rivers Day, and World Rivers Day. The topic Saturday afternoon at the public forum was the proposed rezoning of a property on Cannor Road for use as a waste recycling and transfer station for Aevitas Inc. The property on the Cattermole lands requires a rezoning to a special industrial zone, M6, for the facility to be allowed to operate.

The application has already received three readings and was unanimously approved by Chilliwack council. Some complained that they weren’t aware of the Dec. 3 public hearing on the rezoning, but city officials have reiterated that all the legislative requirements for the hearing process were met.

The volumes of toxic and hazardous materials, like PCBs and mercury, are “high,” Angelo said at the meeting. “It’s staggering if you think of it.”

Before the meeting, he shared some ideas with The Progress.

“A key concern about this proposal is that hazardous waste facilities like this have an environmental risk attached to them because of the materials they handle,” wrote Angelo in an email.

“Consequently, in terms of where they’re located, they should be placed a significant distance from any river and out of the floodplain.”

Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a similar plant sited near a river, let alone one like the Fraser, with its embarrassment of riches in terms of species of salmon and sturgeon.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Consequently, in terms of where they’re located, they should be placed a significant distance from any river and out of the floodplain,” he argued.

Even Aevitas’s other facilities are not built in such ecologically sensitive environments, Angelo noted.

“Given the exceptional values of the Fraser, I believe it’s essential that we take a precautionary approach – and find an alternative site farther away from the river.

“The current proposal for the plant is not consistent with such a precautionary approach.

Consequently, we’ll be asking council to hold back from any final decision, allow for additional consultation and input - and review alternative sites.

“And to Aevitas, I would say their interest in this particular site runs counter to what they’ve traditionally stood for and, if they were to build there, I think it would detract in many ways and for many years from the otherwise noble work they do,” said Angelo.

So approval by the province is by no means certain, he predicted.

“Also, I believe many will oppose and take issue with any proposal that claims the only location for a large toxic materials treatment plant happens to be on the banks of the great Fraser River.

“This amazing river is the heart and soul of our province and this proposal, in this location, is not consistent with any kind of plan to protect the river’s key natural values.

“For that reason, this issue is starting to resonate with a huge number of people and I think those numbers will continue to grow.

Also presenting were Sto:lo Grand Chief Clarence Pennier, Glen Thompson from Friends of the Chilliwack River Valley and more.

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

An oil pipeline crossing the Tanana River in Alaska

 Fisheries Critic questions habitat protection handover for pipelines January 17, 2014 The federal NDP’s BC-based deputy fisheries critic is questioning a quiet deal signed just before Christmas that saw the Department of Fisheries and Oceans hand over the protection of fish habitat and species at risk along energy pipelines to the National Energy Board.

“The Conservatives have gone too far,” says New Westminster–Coquitlam & Port Moody MP Fin Donnelly.

They have gutted the Fisheries Act, slashed DFO’s budget, launched an all-out attack on science, and now they have handed over the power to make decisions on the environment to a body whose mandate is to deal with pipeline and energy development.

The NEB lacks the knowledge to properly assess fisheries issues, says Donnelly. “The federal government is still the only body with the jurisdiction and sufficient expertise to assess potential damage to fisheries.”

Deal snuck by over holidays

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The deal slid under the radar amid an onslaught of major energy-related announcements involving the NEB over the holidays – including its conditional recommendation of the proposed Enbridge pipeline, its approval of four major liquefied natural gas (LNG) export licences, and receipt of Kinder Morgan’s formal application for a major oil pipeline expansion to Vancouver. All of these projects would experience a smoother ride with the watering down of DFO’s oversight of habitat alteration for pipeline construction.

Rather than making any legal changes to the Fisheries Act or Species at Risk Act, the deal came in the form of a “memorandum of understanding” between DFO and the NEB, making the Calgarybased energy regulator the point agency in determining whether aspects of a pipeline project could pose a risk to fish habitat or species at risk. Only then, in certain specific cases, would the NEB turn to DFO for what sounds very much like a rubber-stamped permit: The NEB will assess a project application and determine if mitigation strategies are needed to reduce or prevent impacts to fish or fish habitat. If the project could result in serious harm for fish then the NEB will inform DFO that a Fisheries Act authorization under paragraph 35(2)(b) is likely to be required. DFO will review and issue an authorization when appropriate, prior to project construction.

Authorizations issued by DFO would relate to those watercourses impacted, not the entire project.

“Streamlining” pipeline approvals The memo clearly states the reason for its creation – part of the Harper Government’s continued efforts to clear roadblocks to energy development: ”This MOU better integrates the Government of Canada’s initiative to streamline application processes by eliminating the requirement for duplicate reviews.”

“This clearly demonstrates the Conservative government’s complete lack of understanding of and regard for science in decision-making, and the importance of proper environmental assessment,” say the NDP’s Donnelly.

DFO: Nothing fishy about deal DFO issued a statement yesterday in response to concerns about the MOU, suggesting that the deal with the NEB is similar to previous collaborative agreements with provincial regulators. “Over the years, DFO has established similar arrangements with some Provinces and with Conservation Authorities. In all cases, the standards for fisheries protection are established by DFO and the Fisheries Act Authorizations continue to be done by DFO.” Yet the department strains belief in touting the NEB’s ability to protect fish habitat as well as DFO: Our collaborative arrangement builds on the decades of training, experience and expertise of NEB biologists in assessing the potential environmental impacts of development projects, including regarding fish and fish habitat…The National Energy Board is best placed to deliver regulatory review responsibilities under the Fisheries Act for activities relating to federally regulated energy infrastructure (such as pipelines).

Ecojustice Executive Director Devon Page sees this as the latest in a long line of coordinated attacks on Canada’s environmental laws by the Harper Government. Says Page, “Taking authority for assessing harm to fish and their waters from fisheries experts and granting it to a pipeline approving body, after having vastly weakened of our laws through omnibus bills, is pretty much the straw that breaks the environment’s back when it comes to appropriate stewardship of the thousands of lakes, rivers and streams that are proposed to be bisected by pipelines.”

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

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

 B.C.

First Nations warns Premier Clark to consult aboriginals on LNG development January 20, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A British Columbia First Nation says the provincial government is dragging its feet when it comes to consulting with aboriginal people about proposed liquefied natural gas developments, including revenue sharing.

The Wet'suwet'un First Nation warned Premier Christy Clark Monday in a statement that consultations must begin immediately or the First Nation will "pursue the steps necessary to ensure that the province fulfills its constitutional obligations."

Wet'suwet'un Chief Karen Ogen said her First Nation sent Clark a letter last August urging her to start consultations, but there's been no reply even though the government is meeting with the industry as it develops regulatory and taxation policies.

"Time is running out," said Ogen in a statement. "Taking First Nations support for granted and treating consultation with Wet'suwet'en First Nation as an inconvenient afterthought is not consultation in good faith."

Ogen could not be immediately reached for comment; she was attending a memorial service in B.C. for the families and victims of a January 2012 explosion at the Babine Forest Products sawmill that killed two people from Burns Lake and injured at least 20 others.

The Burns Lake area of north-central B.C. is part of the traditional territories of the Wet'suwet'un people.

Ogen said LNG development decisions have the potential to shape and impact aboriginal lands for several decades and First Nations want to be included in the process. She said governments are legally obligated to consult with First Nations on developments that could impact their territories.

At least three proposed natural gas pipelines leading to the proposed LNG terminals in northwest B.C. near Kitimat and Prince Rupert cross through Wet'suwet'un territory, said the First Nation.

"We have to get Crown consultation right on a new LNG Industry which will impact First Nations lands, including Wet'suwet'en aboriginal title lands, for the next 30-plus years," said Ogen.

"If Premier Clark fails to provide the information we have requested by January 31 and begin meaningful Crown consultation with Wet'suwet'en on the new LNG industry, then Wet'suwet'en First Nation will pursue the steps necessary to ensure that the province fulfills its constitutional obligations."

The statement does not elaborate on what steps the First Nation will take, but the Wet'suwet'un have never been shy from taking their issues to court.

The Wet'suwet'un were part of the landmark Delgamuukw Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1997 that said aboriginal title does exist in B.C. The ruling said governments must consult First Nations whose title rights are affected and they may have to compensate them.

Clark has said LNG development in B.C. is a $1-trillion opportunity that could create up to 100,000 jobs.

Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister John Rustad was not immediately available for comment.

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

From left, Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, and his wife, Deborah Thomas-Blake, look over a Cosmopolis flood map during Thursday night's FEMA meeting at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen (Washington)

 Capacity crowd greets FEMA February 8, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems A capacity crowd of more than 150 turned out at the Aberdeen Log Pavilion Thursday night for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s only public meeting in Grays Harbor County about new flood maps and regulations that have the potential to make flood insurance premiums soar for some property owners.

Hardest hit will be residents and businesses in low lying areas of Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Westport, FEMA and local officials said.

Many obtained new preliminary maps printed on the spot. Some got good news, some found they are still firmly in a zone deemed by FEMA to be high risk for flooding.

After hearing an overview, attendees were steered to tables where they could ask individual questions.

Specific FEMA numbers detailing which properties are affected are hard to come by. Of the 1,020 properties in Aberdeen, 84 percent are being affected by the reforms already triggered, FEMA insurance specialist Deborah Farmer said at a more detailed meeting Wednesday for real estate agents, bankers, insurance brokers and public officials. Some 95 percent of the properties in Hoquiam are affected, she said.

At that meeting, Farmer offered a spreadsheet to industry and government officials showing some of the impacts, but did not mention numbers at the meeting on Thursday. When asked for the details earlier, Farmer declined and referred a reporter to FEMA’s external affairs officials who handle the press. FEMA has yet to supply the numbers, first requested in December.

People lined up before the meeting to get copies of the new maps. Georgia Bravos, who lives near Hoquiam High School, said she has been told by real estate people that her property’s value has declined from an estimated $150,000 to $90,000 because new buyers likely wouldn’t be willing to pay a higher asking price as well as increased flood insurance premiums.

Don Nack of Westport, a builder, was afraid he is going to be hit hard by the reforms. Because of beach erosion Westport has more property in the high risk coastal zone, officials said.

Jean Murdoch who lives up the Wishkah River, said she moved her loan from one financial institution to another because the second does not require flood insurance.

Elynn Sturn got mixed news. She lives along the Satsop River in East County and owns a lot in Ocean Shores. The Ocean Shores lot, on South Sand Dune Avenue, is listed as above the base flood elevation level of 17 feet and is not in the high risk zone for the coast. “Good news,” she said as she looked at the map on the computer screen.

Her property along the Satsop is between 76 and 77 feet, flood base elevation and is in a high risk area, so she buys flood insurance and is happy to still do so, she said.

The flood insurance reform that was mandated by Congress in 2012 in part as an attempt to get property owners paying a so-called full-risk rate.

Also affected are people with new federally backed mortgages, lines of credit, those with income properties and those who want to sell their homes.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Some rates are ramping up in 25 percent increments until the “full-risk rate” is reached, others get hit right away if they renew after a lapse, buy a new property or get a new line of credit. Lending institutions are also now asking that the full value of the property is also insured up to the limit, or $250,000 for homeowners, $500,000 on businesses.

To make matters more complicated, Farmer announced that Section 207 of the new law has been put on hold indefinitely. The hold affects properties that are to be “grandfathered” out of lower, subsidized insurance rates they had if their homes conformed to prior flood insurance rates and regulations.

“Do not let your policy lapse,” she told property owners at the Thursday evening meeting.

The delays to the reform were passed last month by Congress in an amendment to an omnibus spending bill, according The Associated Press. Sticker shock from increases already triggered have also led to passage of a new bill in the Senate to reform the reforms. It now awaits action in the House where it is backed by Rep. Derek Kilmer, as well as the one of the original authors of the 2012 reform, Rep. Maxine Waters of Calif.

The reforms are aimed at making FEMA solvent by passing the cost of subsidies onto consumers. FEMA’s program is $27.4 billion in the hole, Farmer said Thursday night.

The 2012 bill also paid for new maps of the area. Most of the changes affect coastal areas, although pockets of the cities and rural areas have changed, officials said.

Preliminary maps are now available on county and FEMA’s website. Several times, officials blunted potential criticism by reminding the audience that Congress passed the reform and ordered FEMA to enact the changes.

Several people in the crowd asked questions about soaring rates and possible damage to the housing market during the meeting presentation on the mapping by Ted Perkins, regional engineer for Section X of FEMA. He politely referred them to Farmer and to other tables set up around the room.

The new maps are part of the first major mapping of the West Coast, where rates have been based in part on extrapolated data from the East and Gulf Coasts.

Appeals An appeal period of 90 days on the new flood maps has not yet been triggered. Flood elevation levels are difficult to appeal, officials said. Many property owners were urged to obtain an elevation certificate, which can cost from $400 to $1,500. Several attendees complained they cannot afford them. Appeal packets can be requested from FEMA or comment forms through flood plain managers in your area. No formal list was available. Property owners may call city or county government to obtain details.

Grayland resident Mike Reichenberger recommended checking to see if a survey has already been done in a particular area so one doesn’t have to pay for a new one. He appealed his FEMA set level in 2000 and won, he said. He is “on an island” of land in a low-lying area. “Fight it? Oh hell, yeah,” he said.

Call 1-877-FEMA-MAP or go to fema.gov for more information.

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

 Agency builds small-boat access site on Chehalis January 19, 2014 Chehalis River users will have a new small-boat access site just south of Montesano this week. The state Department of Natural Resources is building the river access site on Preachers Slough Road.

The road is closed while the work is being done, but the interpretive trail and parking near state Route 107 remain open.

Department managers expect the site to be open by Friday.

The project is located within the department-managed Chehalis River Surge Plain Natural Area Preserve.

The project will improve existing public access to the Chehalis in the natural area preserve. The access site will be suitable for small boats, canoes and kayaks. The new site also will help protect water quality and nearby wildlife habitat. The work also is intended improve the user experience at the site, said a department news release.

“This is something meant to provide access to the channels of the Chehalis in the surge plain,” said Birdie Davenport, natural areas manager for the Chehalis River Surge Plain.

The agency opted to make this a small-boat launch for multiple reasons, she said.

One is that there are existing motorized launches in the area, including one in Cosmopolis, the Mary’s River boat launch and one at Blue Slough.

“Those launches aren’t so great for launching small boats when you don’t want to be in the middle of all those motorized boats,” Davenport said.

“Also, a motorized boat launch requires a lot of space for parking, and we don’t have a lot of room at this site.”

The work is part of a three-year project to improve public access and habitat in the area. In May 2013, the department did road maintenance and made repairs to the parking area.

The department also built — with assistance from a state Department of Ecology and Washington Conservation Corps crew — most of a 1,900-foot shoreline trail that leads from the parking area to fishing spots along the river bank. Within the next six weeks, Davenport expects the final portions, including a wheelchair turnaround, to be completed.

Overall, the project will cost an estimated $270,000.

Funding for the launch project comes from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, which is a state grant program managed by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.

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

Greenwashing (aka: Pure Bovine Excrement)

 Harper

Government Takes Further Steps to Ensure a Sustainable and Prosperous Aquaculture Sector in Canada February 14, 2014

Nanaimo, British Columbia - The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, along with Dr. James Lunney, MP for Nanaimo Alberni, today provided further details on the Government of Canada’s investment of $54 million over five years to continue Canada’s Sustainable Aquaculture Program, which focuses on scientific research and regulatory enhancements.

With its Sustainable Aquaculture Program, the Government of Canada is creating the conditions, with science as the foundation that will enable the Canadian aquaculture industry to be successful while operating in an ecologically sustainable manner. Under the renewed program, up to $27 million is being directed to further our scientific knowledge through research, operational analyses, risk assessment and scientific peer-reviewed advice. The two other pillars of this program are regulatory reform and improved reporting.

Quick Facts:

   

GREENWASHING 101

Aquaculture supplies approximately 50 percent of the fish and seafood consumed worldwide, and demand is steadily increasing. It is the world’s fastest growing food production system.

The Canadian aquaculture industry generates 174,000 tonnes of product and $2 billion annually in total economic activity. In 2012, aquaculture accounted for 16% of Canada’s total seafood production.

The sector supports over 14,000 jobs in rural areas, and increasingly more in Aboriginal communities. There are approximately 50 First Nations communities that are engaged in aquaculture or related industries.

Canada is recognized internationally as one of the best places in the world for sustainable aquaculture. It benefits from the world’s longest coastline and freshwater system, optimal growing conditions for key commercial aquaculture species and proximity to major markets.

Canada also has highly skilled managers and employees and world-class research capacity that supported early competitive advantages in aquaculture, such as vaccine development and animal husbandry research.

Quotes





“Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector worldwide and creates much needed jobs in rural areas and Aboriginal communities. Our Government’s investment of $54 million will help address the sector’s challenges to growth by reducing red tape, improving regulatory management and transparency; as well as increasing scientific knowledge and supporting science-based decision-making,” said Minister Shea.

“Through the renewal of the Sustainable Aquaculture Program and together with its partners, the Government of Canada continues its commitment to a sustainable and prosperous Canadian aquaculture sector,” said Minister Shea

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

 Enbridge

claims environmental poll wording about Northern Gateway is misleading (with video) Watch, Listen, Learn HERE February 8, 2014

Enbridge is fighting back after a poll earlier this week from environmental groups found a majority of British Columbians oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

The firm claims in a video released to The Vancouver Sun Saturday that the Dogwood Initiative, ForestEthics Advocacy, Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research and West Coast Environmental Law, misled respondents with some of the wording used in the questions. The video was scheduled to be released to the public Sunday morning.

Editorial Comment:







Whether the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) class super tankers carrying diluted bitumen from Kitimat via Douglas Channel opt to not utilize the inside passage is somewhat immaterial.

Each of the expected major oil spills in Douglas Channel and prior to entering the Pacific Ocean will have catastrophic, irreversible impacts along vast stretches of uniquely productive Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state coastlines These impacts will result in risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems For instance, one of the statements included in the poll was: “Up until now, crude oil supertankers have not entered B.C.’s inside passage. the federal government is now considering allowing crude oil supertankers in these waters.”

But the company argues it will not use the inside passage.

“We committed during the JRP process not to use the Grenville Channel and Laredo Sound, the inside passage. This commitment was made to the same activists who commissioned this poll,” the video states.

"When people make misleading statements about our project, it's our responsibility to correct the record. The poll released earlier this week by a group of environmental associations used misleading statements to generate a biased result, which we believe is irresponsible," said Northern gateway Pipelines communications manager Ivan Giesbrecht in an email statement to the Sun. Barb Justason, principal with Justason Market Intelligence, said the same poll was done in March with the same questions and Northern Gateway had never contacted her before about the language in the poll. She said she would look into the company’s claims and determine whether there were any inaccuracies. She said her firm would provide a further statement after she had reviewed the complaints with the environmental groups.

Another claim in the video is that the language suggests that the Northern Gateway hasn’t involved the public, but the company says the joint review process was the “most exhaustive and thorough pipeline review project in Canadian history.”

Northern Gateway is awaiting approval on a $6.5-billion pipeline project, which will carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat for transport by tanker overseas to open up Asian markets. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has until the middle of this year to make a decision.

On Thursday, the environmental groups released a poll that found that nearly two thirds of British Columbians are opposed to the pipeline and the tankers it will bring to the coast.

The findings showed that four times as many of those surveyed “strongly” oppose the project (50 per cent) than who “strongly” support the project (12 per cent). Another 17 per cent somewhat support the project.

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

Mining

 Mr. President, Protect Bristol Bay.

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

Aerial view of site for giant proposed Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay in Alaska. Frying Pan Lake, pictured here, would disappear beneath a giant pile of tailings. Bristol Bay is the world’s greatest salmon fishery.

 EPA: Huge Alaska mine ‘poses risks’ to Bristol Bay salmon January 15, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems An enormous open-pit copper and gold mine, proposed near headwaters of two salmon-rich rivers, “poses risks” to Bristol Bay’s half-billion-dollar sockeye salmon fishery, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a final assessment of the proposed project.

The proposed Pebble Mine has sent ripples of protest from native villages in Bristol Bay, to Puget Sound area fishing boat owners, to New York hedge fund managers who have urged divestment in the controversial project.

“EPA’s assessment is clear: The proposed Pebble Mine poses a direct threat to Bristol Bay salmon and the Pacific Northwest jobs that depend on them,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

Cantwell has opposed the project and urged EPA to stand behind its scientists.

“This report provides definitive evidence detailing the devastating impacts the Pebble Mine would have on the Northwest maritime economy,” Cantwell added.

The proposed mine has produced a head-on collision of a resource sustained by clean water and wild habitat, and the minerals that lie beneath.

The Bristol Bay fishery, as of 2009, was worth $485 million and sustained 14,000 full and part-time jobs, according to the EPA. The big Alaska watershed accounts for 46 percent of the world’s sockeye salmon catch..

Between 1990 and 2009, the average return to Bristol Bay rivers was 37.5 million sockeye salmon, with an average commercial harvest of 25.7 million. The salmon runs also sustain a large Native and sport fishery.

The mine project would be located near the headwaters of two of the most productive of those rivers, the Nushagak and the Kvichak.

“Approximately half of Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon production is from the Nushagak and Kvichak watersheds, the main area of focus for this assessment,” EPA reported.

The Vancouver-based firm Northern Dynasty, which is exploring the mine project, estimates the area contains 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107 million ounces of god, and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum.

The company has argued that the EPA should not have assessed impacts because there is not as yet any final proposal for the project.

“Publication of the final watershed assessment (by EPA) is really the final chapter in a very sad story . . . We believed the EPA set out to do a flawed analysis of the Pebble Project and they certainly succeeded,” Northern Dynasty President Ron Thiessen said in a statement.

Dennis McLerran, regional administrator for Seattle-based Region 10 of the EPA, outlined findings, saying:

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “Our report concludes that large scale mining poses risks to salmon and the tribal communities that have depended on them for thousands of years.” (Native villages in the Bristol Bay region asked the EPA to assess impacts.)

Specifically, the EPA found:

   

Construction and operation of the mine, depending on size, could impact 24 to 94 miles of salmon supporting streams and 1,300 to 5,300 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes. It could alter the stream flow in an additional 5 to 33 miles of rivers.

Extensive quantities of mine waste would need to be collected, stored, treated and managed long after the mine’s operation. The open pit mine could operate as a little as 25 years, or as long as 78 years.

The mine would require an extensive system to shield toxic tailings from salmon streams.

“Some failure of water collection and treatment systems” is likely during the operation of the Pebble Project, EPA concluded.

The mine would require construction of a lengthy haul road across streams and wetlands supplying the Bristol Bay fishery.

The risks are too great, Cantwell argued. “The future of Bristol Bay must be determined by science, not politics,” she said. “And the science clearly shows that the mine would damage up to 94 miles of salmon streams and up to 5,300 acres of wetlands.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., added: “The EPA’s assessment of the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay is unequivocal in its conclusions that the mine could devastate the region and have long lasting damaging consequences on Washington’s economy, the environment and the fishing industry.”

Bob Waldrop of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association argued that the project has cast a pall of uncertainty over the area.

“Fishermen from coast to coast understand how important Bristol Bay salmon are to our nation’s fisheries and economy,” he said. “The Bristol Bay fishermen are weary and exasperated by the economic cloud of uncertainty that Pebble brings to our world class fishery.”

The League of Conservation Voters, in Washington, D.C., urged EPA to “use its authority” under the federal Clean Water Act to “finally reject this dangerous project once and for all.”

McLerran was not going that far.

“The assessment is a technical resource for governments, tribes and the public as we consider how to address the challenge of large scale mining and ecological protection of the Bristol Bay watershed,” said the regional EPA chief.

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

 Endako mine effluent affecting aquatic environment in north-central B.C. Environment ministry wants ‘improved’ waste management February 16, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Ministry of Environment is re-evaluating the amount of waste water the Endako mine in northcentral B.C. is allowed to discharge because a review has found effluent is affecting the aquatic environment.

Although the waste water discharged from Thompson Creek Metals’ molybdenum mine does not exceed its permit limits, monitoring indicates that: effluent is affecting the aquatic environment in Francois Lake, the Endako River, and streams originating from the mine site, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun. The permit allows the mine to discharge up to 5.6 million cubic metres a year of seepage and run-off from tailings dams and the mine site — enough discharge to fill more than 2,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools a year. The effluent must meet permit limits for concentrations of metals such as copper, molybdenum and iron.

The large molybdenum mine, which started operating in 1965, is near the town of Fraser Lake and the traditional territories of the Nadleh Whut’en and Stellat’en First Nations.

In particular, monitoring indicates that “elevated levels of contaminants of concern” are reaching Francois Lake and influencing the physiology of the prickly sculpin, normally a bottom-feeding fish.

The sculpin is considered a sentinel species, which can provide advance warning of dangers to the environment.

“Significantly reduced gonad (reproductive organs) and liver size among fish provide scientific evidence of physiological changes in fish from exposure to mine effluent,” says an Oct. 22, 2013 memo.

The memo from a consulting biologist is addressed to Greg Tamblyn, an environmental quality section head in northern B.C. of the environment ministry.

In a Jan. 6, 2014 letter, environment ministry official Lisa Torunski told Thompson Creek Metals officials the ministry will be taking steps to re-evaluate the authorized discharge limits in Endako’s Environmental Management Act permit.

“The intention is to determine ways to reduce contaminant loading from the mine site to the receiving environment,” said the letter.

The ministry said enhanced monitoring and improved waste management will be necessary to mitigate the aquatic environmental effects.

The mine’s latest comprehensive monitoring report showed several B.C. water quality guidelines were exceeded at the Sweetnam Creek outlet in Francois Lake, just south of the mine operation. The exceedances were for sulphate, total phosphorus, total aluminum, total molybdenum and dissolved aluminum, according to the memo.

Federal guidelines were also exceeded for molybdenum, fluoride, aluminum and iron.

Water chemistry analysis also provided evidence of elevated contaminant levels from mine effluent in a pair of creeks and the Endako River, show the documents.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The ministry of environment declined to provide further details of its evaluation, including whether a farther-reaching examination of provincial effluent standards is needed.

Instead, in a brief email, environment ministry spokesman Dave Crebo said it is “actively involved in addressing water quality concerns” at the Endako site and has met with concerned First Nations.

Crebo noted the Endako Mine Review Committee — which includes representatives from the ministry, Thompson Creek Metals and First Nations — will be meeting in the fall to review the monitoring results and the company’s plans.

The Nadleh Whut’en First Nation — which leaked the ministry documents — says it is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the ongoing environmental effects from the Endako mine.

After a recent $500-million modernization and expansion, the mine has an expected life of about 17 years. It employs about 300 people, some from First Nations communities.

Nadleh Whut’en chief Martin Louie is particularly concerned the effluent could affect other fish species such as salmon and the endangered Nechako white sturgeon, and is calling for broader study.

“It seems like the government is allowing industry to pollute,” said Louie.

Thompson Creek Metals called the evaluation of the latest monitoring results preliminary.

A re-evaluation of its permit limits would be up for discussion as part of an ongoing analysis, including with Environment Canada, agreed David Bailey, director of environment for Thompson Creek Metals.

But Bailey said the company believes the current effluent limit in its permit is supported by good science. “We don’t necessarily want to see it just kind of (changed) without some additional study or analysis that says that is the appropriate regulatory path,” he said.

Bailey added he didn’t believe the effluent effects were adverse.

He noted the benthic invertebrate community is doing well in Sweetnam Creek. Benthic invertebrates are creatures with no backbones or internal skeletons such as mites, larvae of insects and crayfish that live at the bottom of lakes and rivers. They are important food for fish.

And while there was a finding of decreased gonad size, for example, monitoring didn’t show negative effects in population size or reproductive capacity, said Bailey.

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

The Peel watershed will be opened up to mining and mineral exploration.

 Yukon Government Opens Vast Wilderness to Mining Indigenous leaders, conservation groups vow legal challenge January 24, 2013

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Canada's Yukon Territory announced on Tuesday that it has opened one of the largest unbroken wilderness areas in North America to mining and mineral exploration.

The government's decree stunned indigenous leaders, who support a 2011 plan developed under Yukon land claims treaties that would have maintained the wilderness character of 80 percent of the area, which is known as the Peel watershed region. The government's new plan all but reverses that figure, opening some 71 percent of the watershed to mining.

The Yukon features some of Canada's highest peaks and largest glaciers, as well as tremendous expanses of lake-dotted tundra, boreal forests, and wetlands. (See "Yukon: Canada's Wild West" in the February issue of National Geographic magazine.) It's also rich in wildlife, with extreme seasonal shifts that beckon vast herds of caribou and other animals into motion. Larger than California but with only 37,000 inhabitants, the territory has been mostly empty of humans since the Klondike Stampede ended in the 1890s.

In recent years a new gold rush has brought a spike in population and prosperity to towns like Whitehorse and Dawson. But the rush to exploit the Yukon's minerals—which also include zinc, copper, iron, and uranium—has unearthed growing tensions between government and mining interests on the one hand, and conservation and indigenous First Nations interests on the other.

Peel Compromise of 2011 Among the territory's wildest quarters is the Peel watershed, a pristine, almost completely roadless wilderness that drains an area larger than Scotland.

"The Peel watershed is one of the few places left where you still have large, intact predator-prey ecosystems," says Karen Baltgailis of the Yukon Conservation Society. "From wolves and grizzlies and eagles on down, it's a wildlife habitat of global importance."

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Yukon's Peel First Nations have signed land claims agreements with the territorial and federal governments. The agreements, which lay out the procedure for land use planning, are embedded in Canada's constitution. "We spent seven years on a well-formed and democratic public planning process," says David Loeks, Peel Watershed Planning Commission chair.

Initially, First Nations leaders wanted the entire 26,000-square-mile (67,000-square-kilometer) Peel region to be off-limits to miners. "Every trickle of water that runs into the Peel watershed should be protected," said Jimmy Johnny, an elder in the Na-cho Nyak Dun nation. "Taking care of that area is a traditional value. [It's the source of] our food, our fruit, our traditional medicine. It's very important, not only for our future generations but for everybody."

The planning commission reached a compromise that would allow 20 percent of the area to be staked and mined. "Nobody got everything they asked for," says Loeks, "but we expected the agreement to be honored."

New Government, New Rules?

In the fall of 2011, elections brought the Yukon Party, which is heavily supported by mining interests, into power. Currie Dixon, a member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly who serves as Minister of Environment and Minister of Economic Development, said, "The vast majority of my colleagues and I indicated we weren't comfortable with the plan. The commission's process wasn't flawed, but the product produced by the commission was. And since we won a majority government, we felt a mandate to proceed in a manner that was the correct one."

The government's new plan sets aside only 29 percent of the Peel region as "protected lands." It prohibits new claim-staking in these areas, but allows miners to build roads to reach and develop existing mineral claims.

"How can they even call them 'protected lands,'" asks Baltgailis, "when the plan allows mines and allweather roads for industrial development right along rivers that are major tourism destinations? Given that most of the Yukon is already open for development, do they not see the need to protect some large, last great wilderness areas?"

"We don't feel it would be responsible to take [most of the Peel region] off the table for any mining activities at all," says Dixon. "Yukon protects more land base than any other province or territory in Canada. And that 29 percent is more than two Yellowstones."

First Nations and conservation groups contend that the government has violated the land claims treaties, and they plan a legal battle.

Thomas Berger, one of Canada's most renowned aboriginal rights lawyer, announced today that he will represent them.

"The government is not entitled to say, 'All that consultation was interesting, but it really means nothing and we're still allowed to do whatever we want to do,'" says Berger. "They can't open up the whole thing again."

Dixon disagrees, noting that the new plan officially opened the Peel region for development immediately following the government's announcement. "It came into effect," says Dixon, "at 12:01 on January 22."

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

Wild fish management .

 Boldt Decision on tribal fishing still resonates after 40 years Landmark 1974 ruling led to numerous changes in government-tribal interactions February 9, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems George Hugo Boldt was not a man anyone would mistake for a revolutionary.

He was a bespectacled and conservative Republican, a former Army officer who grew up in Montana and kept his close-sheared haircut intact throughout the turbulent ’60s and beyond.

Among his many conservative credentials, Boldt was known as the federal judge who in 1970 held a group of Vietnam War protesters called the Seattle Seven in contempt of court and sentenced them to prison for six months.

The only thing about Boldt that could be considered radical was his fondness for plaid sports jackets and bow ties.

And yet …

The court ruling Boldt handed down 40 years ago this week is a decision now recognized as one of the most sweeping documents of economic and social reform in Pacific Northwest history.

The central question in United States v. Washington concerned tribal fishing rights, but ripples from the decision went far and wide.

It changed the empty concept of “tribal sovereignty” into something that needed to be taken seriously — or else. And it transformed the way state and tribal governments interact.

For Washington Indian tribes, it marked the beginning of a renaissance, fueled by money, power and pride.

For four decades, the Boldt Decision has shaped political issues in Washington, from those that are purely tribal-based — gambling, tribal sales of cigarettes and gasoline, and tribal law enforcement, for example — to broadly based issues that involve environmental regulation and land use throughout the state.

The decision had consequences for native tribes not only in Western Washington but also throughout the United States — and to some extent for indigenous people around the world.

“People from New Zealand and Australia come to ask us, ‘How did you do this?’ ” said Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually fisherman made famous by the case. “How did you get the United States government to be on your side?”

The answer, said University of Washington fisheries professor Richard Whitney, who recently appeared with Frank for a filmed chat about the Boldt Decision in its 40th year, is that there was nothing radical about the ruling.

It was, in fact, a conservative reading, he said, a strict law-and-order interpretation entirely in keeping with Boldt’s character and his view of the law.

“It was one of the most significant decisions of the century,” Whitney said. “Not just because of the fishing situation, but because of the fact that a federal judge would look at the law and say, this is what the law requires, and everybody has to live up to it. Not just the tribes and not just the state, but everybody.

“That principle — that we are going to abide by the law — is what keeps this country alive,” Whitney said.

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

Armed law enforcement officers use tear gas and force to arrest tribal protesters in a fishing encampment on the Puyallup River in 1970.

Boldt’s tough reaction to the Seattle Seven — plus the fact he himself was a sport fisherman — gave tribes serious misgivings when it was announced in 1970 that he would be the judge to preside over the high-profile fishing case.

Hank Adams, who had served as the tribes’ unofficial tactician and political organizer through most of the 1960s, considered trying to have Boldt removed, but then thought better of it.

An Assiniboine-Sioux, Adams played a key role in elevating the fishing dispute on the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers to the national stage.

For years, state fisheries managers had restricted net fishing on Puget Sound rivers at certain times of the year to protect salmon runs. Indian fishermen routinely ignored the restrictions, arguing they had a treaty right to fish whenever and however they pleased. And they got arrested.

Beginning in 1964, Adams, Frank, Ramona Bennett and other Indian activists began turning the arrests into media events, organizing rallies and inviting Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory and other celebrities to the riverbanks to help sway public opinion.

The demonstrations sometimes erupted into brawls, with television cameras capturing the action for the national news.

“The timing was everything,” Bennett said Wednesday at a celebration of the Boldt Decision held at the Squaxin Island Tribe’s casino complex. “It was in the middle of the peace movement and the civil rights movement.

“There was a change going on,” she said, “and we got to be part of that change.”

At the anniversary celebration — attended by more than 1,000 tribal members from across the state — Bennett, Frank and Adams regaled the crowd with reminiscences of the Fish Wars, describing armed confrontations with police, beatings and repeated jailings.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems “We got dragged out of the river and into the jail,” Frank said. “We were willing to die for these rights, and we still are.”

STUNNING RULING In 1970, the federal government filed United States v. Washington on behalf of the tribes, arguing the state was denying tribes rights guaranteed in treaties signed in the 1850s.

The treaties confined the tribes to reservations but contained a phrase that became critical at trial: “The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, is further secured to said Indians, in common with all citizens of the territory.”

The 203-page decision Boldt delivered Feb. 12, 1974, is complex, but the part most shocking at the time was his formula for deciding how many of the salmon and steelhead should go to the tribes and how many to non-Indians.

Boldt interpreted the words “in common with” to mean the tribes were entitled to up to 50 percent of the harvestable catch, an almost inconceivable change considering tribal members made up less than 1 percent of the state population and non-Indian fishermen routinely were taking 95 percent of the fish.

It was hard to tell who was more stunned by Boldt’s ruling: the state or the tribes. Attorneys representing the tribes had floated the idea that the phrase “in common with” could mean 50 percent, but even they thought it was a stretch.

For thousands of sport and commercial fishermen, the ruling was a bombshell. It cut their catch in half and put most out of business.

Boldt was mocked on bumper stickers — “Can Judge Boldt, not Salmon;” “A dead Boldt is a good Boldt.” — and was hanged in effigy in front of federal courthouses.

AFTERSHOCKS Forty years later it is difficult to imagine the extent of the outrage and indignation the Boldt Decision caused.

Fawn Sharp, currently president of the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, had barely learned to walk when Boldt handed down his ruling.

She doesn’t remember the day of the decision, but she said she would never forget the anger and resentment she felt from white people for years afterward. Sharp recalls being afraid to go to the white fishing town of Westport because Indians had their tires slashed there.

“Westport was like a no-no place,” she said. “There was a lot of fear.”

Boldt also ruled that tribes had the right to regulate the fishing of their members, independent of state laws and regulations. That, in the eyes of many non-Indians, was an unacceptable and un-American position because it granted a small portion of the population “special rights” over others.

“You can’t have superior rights,” said Jack Metcalf, a state senator at the time and later a U.S. representative. “You can’t have a hereditary aristocracy that has more rights than other people.”

Many nonnative fishermen refused to obey federal bans on fishing, and the state refused to enforce them. Slade Gorton, the Washington State attorney general at the time, vowed to appeal the ruling (which he did without success) to make sure it was vacated.

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems James Johnson, then an assistant attorney general and now a member of the Washington State Supreme Court, called Boldt’s decision “an aberration” and said he was confident it would be overturned.

The state’s resistance led the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to compare Washington with states in the Deep South that refused to abide by federally mandated desegregation.

“Except for some segregation cases … the district court has faced the most concerted official and private efforts to frustrate a decree of a federal court witnessed in this century,” appellate court justices said of the Boldt Decision.

RULING’S MEANING The irony of the Boldt Decision is that the 50/50 allocation formula, which appeared to be the most revolutionary aspect, turned out to be largely meaningless, at least as it related to salmon.

A handful of well-financed Indian fishermen profited in the years immediately following the ruling, but by then the salmon fishery in Puget Sound was so nearly destroyed by development and logging there was little left to fight over. The tribes’ annual harvest is lower now than in 1974.

More significant was the extent to which Boldt’s decision reinforced the notion of tribal sovereignty and elevated the legal status of the treaties.

Boldt said the state and tribes should “co-manage” fishing resources off the reservations. Further readings of the case established that the state has an obligation to protect fish habitat, to ensure the tribes’ rights to fish in perpetuity.

That created a powerful legal incentive to protect the environment and include tribes in land-use decisions.

The Boldt Decision and its allocation formula were extended to include shellfish, including the multimillion-dollar geoduck harvest.

The legal status it gave the treaties and the concept of tribal sovereignty figured prominently in the Puyallup Land Claims Settlement and the state’s accords, which made possible the tribes’ highly profitable gaming operations.

BATTLE NEVER ENDS As the tribes celebrate the anniversary of the Boldt Decision this week, yet another federal court subproceeding is in the news — one that could cost the state an estimated $1.9 billion.

The treaty tribes argued that hundreds of culverts installed at road crossings by the state block fish from passing through them and therefore reduce the amount of harvest available to the tribes. Last year, a federal court judge gave the state a 17-year deadline to fix the fish-blocking culverts.

“We prefer to collaborate with the state,” said Frank, head of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission since it was founded immediately after Boldt. “However, the state’s unwillingness to work together and solve the problems of these salmon-blocking culverts in a timely manner left us with no alternative except the courts.”

“The fight never stops,” Frank said. “You fight for your culture, your way of life.”

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

SKYKOMISH RIVER WINTER-RUN HATCHERY STEELHEAD, LIKE THIS ONE HELD BY KAREN CHAPDELAINE, ARE A CHAMBERS CREEK FISH, ACCORDING TO THE WILD FISH CONSERVANCY, WHICH SAYS THEY’RE BEING RELEASED BY WDFW WITHOUT A PERMIT FROM NMFS.

 Wild

Fish Group Says It Plans To Sue WDFW Over Puget Sound Hatchery Steelhead January 24, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems Native fish proponents yesterday said they plan to sue the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife over its wide use of Chambers Creek steelhead for sport fisheries in Puget Sound, where Oncorhynchus mykiss was federally listed as threatened in 2007.

Terming the fish “highly domesticated,” the Wild Fish Conservancy of Duvall says releases of the stock violates the Endangered Species Act and harms listed wild steelhead, Chinook and bull trout through inbreeding and competition.

According to a PDF on the group’s website, some 1.3 million Chambers-origin steelhead smolts — mostly winter-runs — are produced and put into the Nooksack, Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Green, Puyallup and Dungeness systems annually. Thousands are hooked each season by tens of thousands of anglers, even this one on occasion.

They say that the stock was first collected in the 1920s from the Tacoma-area stream by a private hatchery and planted in several Central and South Sound streams. The idea was to create an earlytimed, early maturing fish. Eventually the old Department of Game purchased the facility.

The nut of the Wild Fish Conservancy’s complaint is its claim that WDFW is releasing Chambers smolts without a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“Unless the ongoing and imminent violations … are corrected within sixty days, Wild Fish Conservancy intends to file suit against WDFW to enforce the ESA,” the group says.

WDFW spokesman Craig Bartlett says his agency is meeting with NMFS this afternoon on the issue.

We will have any statements coming out of that meeting.

It follows on the heels of a recent court decision in Oregon where this spring’s releases of salmon and steelhead is now in flux after a federal judge ruled that “aspects of the Sandy Hatchery’s operations were arbitrary and unlawful and need to be based on better science to ensure the recovery of threatened salmon and steelhead,” according to The Oregonian.

Wrote reporter Rob Davis: The ruling came after the Oregon City-based Native Fish Society and Eugene-based McKenzie Fly Fishers sued the (National Marine Fisheries Service), which approves Oregon’s hatchery operation plans. The groups claim that hatchery fish are overwhelming the Sandy River and pushing wild salmon and steelhead closer to extinction.

The groups called the ruling the most significant decision to benefit wild fish in Oregon in more than a decade. They say they don’t want fishing shut down on the river but do want to see wild fish recover. …

Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, described the ruling as a “huge concern” because of the potential impacts on tackle shops and fishing guides if fish returns fall.

“That two-year period would be like a desert for the businesses that depend on the fisheries in that river,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know how any of us can go two years without revenues.”

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

A Native American takes part in a salmon ceremony. On Tuesday, the U.S. commerce secretary declared a fishery disaster for the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery in Washington. That could lead to aid to nine tribes and non-tribal fishers.

 Feds Declare Salmon Fishery Disaster For Washington Tribes January 28, 2014

Legacy – March 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Year of Healthy Marine Ecosystems The Fraser River empties out near Vancouver, British Columbia. The sockeye salmon from that river are a key resource for the state and tribal fishing industries in Washington.

The Fraser River sockeye salmon runs are worth more than $4 million each year, and they’ve been in decline for 30 years. The fishery was closed altogether in 2013.

Fisheries managers blame the decline on poor ocean conditions, warm river temperatures and habitat decline, among other things.

Tuesday’s disaster declaration empowers Congress to allocate money for fishermen and fishing communities that are affected by the crash.

“It makes that funding available to tribal members to help offset some of the impacts of this disaster,” said Tony Meyer of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which represents those nine tribes.

The Department of Commerce also declared the fishery a disaster in 2002, 2007 and 2008 for the Fraser sockeye fishery. In the past, the money has been divvied up between tribes and commercial fishermen. Congress has not yet allocated any funds and it’s unclear how quickly they will move on that.

The Fraser River salmon are also a key food source for the endangered orcas of Puget Sound.

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

 CDFW

Puts Closures in Effect on Some Rivers, Recommends Further Changes to the Fish and Game Commission January 2 2014 The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has closed some waters to fishing in order to protect native salmon and steelhead from low water flows in California streams and rivers that have been significantly impacted by drought.

CDFW is also recommending that the Fish and Game Commission adopt emergency regulations on other rivers.

“We fully understand the impact these closures will have on California anglers and the businesses related to fishing in California, and we really feel for them,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham.

“However the science is clear. Two-thirds of the wettest part of winter is now behind us and conditions are looking increasingly grim. Under these extreme drought conditions, it is prudent to conserve and protect as many adult fish as possible to help ensure the future of fishing in California.”

CDFW has the authority under Title 14, Article 4, Section 8.00(c) to close south central coast streams to fishing from December 1 through March 7 when it determines that stream flows are inadequate to provide fish passage for migrating steelhead trout and salmon. As a result, the following streams are closed to all fishing until stream flows are sufficient to allow fish passage for returning adult steelhead and salmon (CDFW will announce any lifting of the closures):

     

Pescadero Creek and all anadromous reaches of San Mateo County coastal streams normally open for fishing, from Elliot Creek through Milagro Creek.

The San Lorenzo River and all its tributaries, as well as all anadromous reaches of coastal streams normally open for fishing in Santa Cruz County from the San Lorenzo River on North through Waddell Creek.

Aptos and Soquel Creeks (Santa Cruz County).

The Pajaro River and Uvas, Llagas and Corralitos Creeks (Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara counties).

The Carmel River and those sections of San Jose, Gibson, Malpaso and Soberanes creeks west of Highway 1.

The Big Sur River and those Big Sur area streams from Granite Creek to Salmon Creek west of Highway 1.

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



The main stem of the Salinas River below its confluence with the Arroyo Seco River and the Arroyo Seco River (Monterey County).

In addition, CDFW has the authority under Title 14, Article 4, Section 8.00(a) to close north coast streams to fishing from September 1 (Mad River) and October 1 (all others) through January 31 when it determines that the flow at any of the designated gauging stations is less than minimum flows stated in regulation. As a result, the following streams are subject to low flow closures through January 31 (however, CDFW is requesting this be extended to April 30 as noted in the recommendations to the Fish and Game Commission below, recommendation #3):

      

The main stem Eel River from the paved junction of Fulmor Road with the Eel River to the South Fork Eel River.

The South Fork of the Eel River downstream from Rattlesnake Creek and the Middle Fork Eel River downstream from the Bar Creek.

The main stem Van Duzen River from its junction with the Eel River to the end of Golden Gate Drive near Bridgeville.

The main stem Mad River from the Hammond Trail Railroad Trestle to Cowan Creek.

The main stem of the Mattole River from the mouth to Honeydew Creek.

The main stem of Redwood Creek from the mouth to its confluence with Bond Creek.

The main stem Smith River from the mouth of Rowdy Creek to the mouth of Patrick Creek (tributary of the Middle Fork Smith River); the South Fork Smith River from the mouth upstream approximately 1,000 feet to the County Road (George Tyron) bridge and Craig’s Creek to its confluence with Jones Creek; and the North Fork Smith River from the mouth to its confluence with Stony Creek.

Further, CDFW is recommending that the Fish and Game Commission adopt the following emergency regulations at its February 5, 2014 meeting:

   

Closure of the American River from Nimbus Dam to the SMUD power line crossing at the southwest boundary of Ancil Hoffman Park until April 30.

Closure of the Russian River main stem below the confluence of the East Branch of the Russian River until April 30.

Extension of the low flow restrictions angling closures for the north coast and central coast areas (above San Francisco Bay) through April 30.

Close all portions of any coastal stream west of any Highway 1 bridge until April 30.

There are still plenty of opportunities for California anglers to catch fish in the state’s rivers and streams outside of the closures listed above. Additionally, California’s coast offers substantial ocean fishing. Both are subject to current regulations already in place. For more on fishing in California, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fishing/.

Current low stream flow conditions will prevent the movement of migrating anadromous fish, primarily wild steelhead trout. Stream flows in many systems are inadequate to allow passage of spawning adults, increasing their vulnerability to mortality from predation, physiological stress and angling.

Furthermore, survival of eggs and juvenile fish in these systems over the coming months is likely to be extremely low if the current drought conditions continue. These temporary angling closures on selected streams will increase survival of adult wild steelhead.

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

 Fisheries managers deliver upbeat salmon forecast February 15, 2014 SEATTLE — Washington state fishery managers unveiled surprisingly large Columbia River chinook forecasts Friday, yet another indication that there could be a landmark return of nearly 3 million chinook and coho.

“It is a mind-boggling forecast, and the largest fall chinook return since at least 1938,” said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. “We’ll see if this is a one-time deal or if more could happen in the future. For now, we’ll take what we’ve got on paper.”

The Columbia River fall chinook forecast is more than 1.6 million. The 2013 return of 1.2 million was nearly double the forecast of 686,900.

Most of the 2014 forecast is an upriver bright chinook forecast of 973,300. The majority of those fish are caught in-river, with some in the highly popular late-summer Buoy-10 fishery at the Columbia River mouth near Ilwaco.

The forecast includes 110,000 from the Lower Columbia hatchery, and 115,000 from the Bonneville Pool hatchery. Both are improvements over 2013 and are the driving forces in the sport ocean salmon fisheries.

The news comes on top of last week’s forecast of 1.2 million coho expected to arrive off the Washington Coast in 2014.

The 2013 runs were below forecasts, but Doug Milward, a state Fish and Wildlife coast-salmon manager, said larger predictions are more likely to be accurate.

“Our coho forecast was off last year, “Milward said of a run of 445,300 after a forecast of 716,400. “But usually when we have these bigger forecasts, we’re much closer to our prediction.”

This summer could rival the 2009 coho season, when about 1.05 million returned.

“The coho catch quota this summer will go up for sure from where it was last year,” Milward said. “We had a dandy catch quota in 2009, and the fish were pretty much everywhere in the ocean. Also, if you recall, they were pretty big in size.”

Of the 1.2 million coho forecast, about 526,600 are Columbia early-stock coho, and 427,500 are late stock.

The early coho run is the main source of the ocean and Buoy-10 fishery. The late stock usually enters in October and November, when sport-fishing interest starts to wane.

If the forecasts are accurate, the ocean-sport fishery quota will likely be much higher than the 80,000 hatchery-marked coho quota of the past several years.

All salmon stocks in recent years are still benefiting from upwelling of colder water from La Nina, which produces better ocean survival rates for the entire food chain.

More salmon forecasts, including the Puget Sound/Strait of Juan de Fuca region, will be announced March 3 at the state Fish and Wildlife public meeting in Olympia.

Final seasons will be decided April 5-10.

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

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

 TMkey Film/Research

TMkey Film/Research is dedicated to protecting our natural resources, using a modern technological approach for observational wildlife and habitat research.

   

High-definition, high-resolution, macro videography in low light conditions.

Robotic remotely controlled, waterborne GPS-enabled real-time underwater recording, in combination with sonar echo location and sidescan capability.

High-quality end product with both pre and post production processing.

Patents enhancing underwater photography and GPS mapping in both the United States and Canada.

With fully ADA-accessible equipment on our USCG inspected and approved boat, we proudly employ veterans and individuals with disabilities.

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

 Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 Kim Malcom – Owner, Operator Licensed and Insured Guide Quality Float Trips – Western Washington Rivers – Steelhead, Salmon, Trout

K Kiim mM Maallccoom m’’ss

Riverman Guide Service ((336600)) 445566--88442244

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

 Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors View our informational brochure HERE

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

 Cabo Sails – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Cabo Sails offers private sailing charters in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Enjoy Cabo sailing, snorkeling tours, sightseeing, whale watching excursions, sunset cruises and special occasions in this Land's End paradise.

Experience the finest private charter sailing aboard our beautiful and relaxing fleet of sailboats. We are the premier sailing company in Los Cabos offering 5 different sizes of sailboats for romantic getaways and fun adventures for the entire family.

We specialize in private cruises and providing the finest quality and service.

We accommodate private charters for 2-20 guests.

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

 Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing Booking Now for 2014 Montana: (406) 665-3489 Alaska: (907) 842-5480

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

 Great NW Rivers Guide Service

Book Now!!!

Paul Ambrose: (360) 823-3525

About your guide Meet Columbia River fishing guide Paul Ambrose. Fish with one of the best guides in the Northwest, where he will take you to secret fishing holes and teach you how to catch the Columbia River's most elusive trophy fish such as Salmon, Steelhead, Sturgeon, Kokanee and Shad.

Paul fell in love with fishing at age of 3 and has spent the past 27 years mastering his fishing technique and skills to ensure you have a fun, exciting, and safe fishing experience of a lifetime!

Whether you are a seasoned angler, or brand new to fishing, Paul's light-hearted, yet dedicated approach to fishing will ensure you have a great time on the water. Paul spends countless hours perfecting his craft and the hard earned "secrets' of the trade, he gladly passes along to you. Paul is the hardest working guide on the river. In fact, during the summer months he literally sleeps on his boat to ensure his clients get only the BEST spots to enjoy a day on the water!.

Along with being a hard worker, Paul believes in giving back and donates his time to various charities such as the Wounded Warriors Foundation, Youth Outdoors Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Paul is also is a huge supporter of our Active Duty Military, Veterans, and first responders ( Police, EMT, Fire Dept) and gives discounts to these highly respected individuals.

If you are looking for a fishing trip that is tailored to YOU, with top quality gear and bait, the hardest working guide on the river and guaranteed to be a good time, then you have came to the right fishing guide. Give Paul a call or shoot him a email and book your trip today!

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

 Viviana’s SportFishing – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Visit Viviana’s SportFishing on Facebook

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

 April Vokey - Fly Gal Ventures

Biography April Vokey lives in British Columbia and is an avid angler and steelhead/salmon guide.

Born with an unexplainable passion for fishing, as a young girl she coaxed her father into going fishing. By the age of sixteen, when she was old enough to drive, she was devoting all of her free time to her local rivers where she sought independence and strength through her ventures in the forest.

In 2007 she founded B.C. based guiding operation, Fly Gal Ventures, where she presently guides and instructs anglers on some of B.C.’s best steelhead destinations. Fly Gal’s trips and events can be found at www.flygal.ca

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

 Mat Rompin Boat Charters on Facebook

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

 The Himalayan Outback

The ultimate vision behind our work at The Himalayan Outback is to expose people both nationally and internationally to the natural and cultural treasures found only in India’s Himalayas. We strive to reconnect people to the stunning environment, the amazing flora, fauna, aquatic life, and inspiring communities that have inhabited this precious land for centuries.

By reconnecting to wild, untouched, and natural India – we hope to raise environmental awareness, assist in developing a deeper respect for the local cultures, and contribute to conservation efforts to protect the ancient lifestyles and ecosystems of this sacred region.

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

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

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners Many businesses around planet earth rely on robust populations of wild game fish.

This is true for fishing guide/charter services, resort and hotel owners, fishing tackle and boat retail stores, clothing stores, eco/photo tours, grocery stores, gas stations and many more. In fact, wild game fish are the backbone of a multi-billion dollar per year industry on a global scale.

This is why we at Wild Game Fish Conservation International offer complimentary space in each issue of “LEGACY” for business owners who rely on wild game fish populations to sustain your business. An article with one or more photos about your business and how it relies on wild game fish may be submitted for publication to LEGACY PUBLISHER. Please include your business website and contact information to be published with your business article. Selected submissions will be published each month.

Robust wild game fish populations and the opportunities to fish for them provide family wage jobs and balanced eco-systems while ensuring cultural values. They also provide a unique, natural resources-based lifestyle for those fortunate to have these magnificent creatures in our lives.

Conservationists working together with the business community effectively protect and restore planet earth’s wild game fish for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY. WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations:

 American Rivers  LightHawk  Native Fish Society  Salmon and Trout Restoration Association of Conception Bay Central, Inc  Save Our Salmon  Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter  Sportsman’s Alliance For Alaska  Steelhead Society of British Columbia  Wild Salmon First  Wild Salmon Forever

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

Featured Artists:

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

 Diane Michelin: Fly Fishing Fine Art Watch Koray Daǧci’s inspirational Fly Fishing Fine Art video HERE

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

 Gary Haggquist: "#30, Sunnyside Series" Acrylic on canvas, 24"x 36", 2014 Visit Gary Haggquist Visual Artist HERE

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

 Sara Stevenson Artist, Electrician, Fisher, Huntress…

See more of Sara’s art at: Sara Stevenson Fine Art

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

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk

 Kim Malcom - Owner, Guide: Riverman Guide Service

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

Featured Fishing Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny:

 Svend Erik Albertsen: Soča River – very fishy!

Fishing with Gašper Konkolič - Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia

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

 Bryanna Zimmerman: Another Amazing Winter Steelhead Steelhead Girls

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

 Julius with his amazing Hog Snapper (Lachnolaimus maximus) Whipray Caye, Belize

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

 Kyle McClelland: Michigan Steelheading XXL Chrome Chasing: Owner, Guide, Outdoor Film/Media Production

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

 Amber Serbin: “Aggressive Cold Lake, Alberta trout” Caught and released after a quick photo

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

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

 Himalayan Golden Mahseer Courtesy of Himalayan Outback

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

 Martine Bouchard

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

 Thousands line up for the world's biggest ice fishing contest in temperatures of minus 40 degrees – Brainerd, Minnesota

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

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

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

 Outdoorsman makes final journey by boat instead of a hearse

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

Recommended Reading

 “Wild Steelhead—The Lure and Lore of a Pacific Northwest Icon” by Sean M. Gallagher

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

 Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales”

Watch orcas up close HERE

In Listening to Whales, Alexandra Morton shares spellbinding stories about her career in whale and dolphin research and what she has learned from and about these magnificent mammals. In the late 1970s, while working at Marineland in California, Alexandra pioneered the recording of orca sounds by dropping a hydrophone into the tank of two killer whales.

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

 Farmageddon:

The True Cost of Cheap Meat" - with a chapter on the "environmental catastrophe" of factory fish farming!

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

 Terry Wiest: Float Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead

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

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish Aquaculture Piscine Reovirus in British Columbia: (14.36) Salmon Confidential: (69:15) The Fish Farm Fight; (6:51) Salmon Wars: Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities (6:07) The Facts on Fish Farms (60:00+) “Algae culture fish farm” (6:40) Vegetarian Fish? A New Solution for Aquaculture (7:32) Everyone Loves Wild Salmon – Don’t They? - Alexandra Morton (2:53) Atlantic salmon feedlots - impacts to Pacific salmon (13:53) Farmed Salmon Exposed (22:59) Salmon farm diseases and sockeye (13:53) Shame Below the Waves (12:37) Occupy Vancouver, BC - Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:18) Farming the Seas (Steve Cowen) (55:53) Farming the Seas (PBS) (26:45) Cohen Commission – Introduction (9:52) Deadly virus found in wild Pacific salmon (1:57) A tribute by Dr. Alexandra Morton (5:35) Green Interview with Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:06) Closed containment salmon farms (8:15) Don Staniford on 'Secrets of Salmon Farming' (7:50) Greed of Feed: what’s feeding our cheap farmed salmon (10:37) Land-based, Closed-containment Aquaculture (3:14) Hydropower Undamming Elwha (26:46) Salmon: Running the Gauntlet - Snake River dams (50:08) Mining Pebble Mine: “No Means No” (1:15) Locals Oppose Proposed Pebble Mine (7:23) Oil: Extraction and transportation Tar Sands Oil Extraction: The Dirty Truth (11:39) Tar Sands: Oil Industry Above the Law? (1:42) SPOIL – Protecting BC’s Great Bear Rainforest from oil tanker spills (44:00) H2oil - A documentary about the Canadian tar sand oil (3:20) From Tar Sands to Tankers – the Battle to Stop Enbridge (14:58) Risking it All - Oil on our Coast (13:16) To The Last Drop: Canada’s Dirty Oil (22:31) Seafood safety Is your favorite seafood toxic? (6:06)

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

Final Thoughts:

 Truth