Legacy - May 2014 by Jim Wilcox

Cover Design by Richard Mayer/Flyfishersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Arte

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

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 – Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, nononsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their 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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Contents WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook _________________________________________________________ 9 Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk __________________________________________________ 10  Leanne Hodges ______________________________________________________________________________________ 10

Editorial Opinion _________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Special __________________________________________________________________________________________ 12  The Thin Green Line __________________________________________________________________________________ 12  Is Canada Tarring Itself? ______________________________________________________________________________ 13

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 16      

Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:___________________________________________ 10 American Foods that are Banned in Other Countries _________________________________________________ Target Eliminates Farmed Salmon From All Target Stores _______________________________________________ Health Food Face-off: Wild Salmon vs Farmed Salmon __________________________________________________ Congratulations Overwaitea Food Group: Sustainable Seafood Policy ___________________________________ Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here _________________________________________________________

16 17 19 22 26 27

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected __________________________________________________________ 28     

Denny Heck: Increased tanker traffic, open pen salmon feedlots _________________________________________ Nancy Greene Raine __________________________________________________________________________________ Gail Shea ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Christy Clark _________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Michael Rubino ___________________________________________________________________________________

29 29 30 31 32

Responses to Wild Game Fish Conservation International __________________________________________ 33  City of Burnaby ______________________________________________________________________________________ 33

Community Activism, Education and Outreach: ____________________________________________________ 34  Never Give UP! _______________________________________________________________________________________ 36  Fracking Crimes in Alberta (USA and others) ___________________________________________________________ 38  Ta'Kaiya Blaney Environmental Activism Presentation __________________________________________________ 41  Chief Bob Chamberlin – Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans ___________________________ 42  Province preparing injunction against Unist'ot'en pipeline resistance camp: ______________________________ 43  Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott Rally _________________________________________________________________ 44  Real Canadian Superstore: Public Health Risk Associated with Sale of Ocean-based Feedlot Salmon – “Organic” or otherwise _______________________________________________________________________________  Viewpoint: Public spending contradictions cause concern ______________________________________________  Wall of Women stands opposed to Kinder Morgan in West Vancouver ___________________________________  Kitimat mayor flash mobbed by 'No Enbridge' protesters at Haisla basketball game (VIDEOS) _____________

45 50 52 54

 Enbridge presents: Kool-Aid Man! _____________________________________________________________________ 58  Stop Kinder-Morgan Pipeline Expansion Rally – Burnaby, British Columbia ______________________________ 59  FG candidate says ‘too many unanswered questions’ remain over fish farm ______________________________ 60  Don Stanford: Five Fundamental Flaws of Sea Cage Salmon Farming ____________________________________ 61  Salmon Confidential – Historic State Theater – Olympia, Washington ____________________________________ 63  Save the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas! _____________________________________________ 65  Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________ 67  Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives _________________________________________________________ 68

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Ocean-based salmon feedlots (aka: weapons of mass destruction) __________________________________ 69  Alex Talks: Time is Running Out ______________________________________________________________________ 72  NOW IN BC! _________________________________________________________________________________________ 75  Confiscated salmon from Marine Harvest’s centres _____________________________________________________ 76  Coveney confirms Ireland’s largest ever salmon farm escape ___________________________________________ 78  Salmonopoly ________________________________________________________________________________________ 81  Some 120,000 salmon escape after fire in Norway farm _________________________________________________ 82  Thousands of salmon escape cages in Norway _________________________________________________________ 83  A heralded disaster (translated from Norwegian) _______________________________________________________ 84  Farm salmon pose clear reproductive threat to wild gene pools__________________________________________ 86  THE NO-GUILT, DELICIOUS SALMON OF THE FUTURE _________________________________________________ 88  The Future Of Clean, Green Fish Farming Could Be Indoor Factories_____________________________________ 94    

Why Greenpeace can't - and won't - endorse farmed salmon ____________________________________________ 98 Confirms the infectious salmon anemia _______________________________________________________________ 101 Containment fish farm near Port McNeill ready for harvest _____________________________________________ 102 Responsibility for the removal of escaped farmed salmon in the wild (translated via Bing) ________________ 104

Climate Change _________________________________________________________________________________ 105  Groundbreaking UN Report Warns Climate Change a Threat to Global Security and Mankind _____________ 105  Keystone PipeLIES Exposed: New Film from Center for Media and Democracy __________________________ 108

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind ______________ 110 Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked ________________________________________________________  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen _______________________________  Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk _____________________________________  Gerald Amos Interview on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project ______________________________________  Northern Gateway could be B.C.’s Exxon Valdez, experts warn _________________________________________  OIL SPILL COST TO TOP $40 BILLION. AND THAT’S FOR STARTERS. __________________________________  Trans Mountain pipeline hearings set for January 2015 ________________________________________________  Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez _________________________________________________________

113 113 115 118 119 121 126 128

 25 years after Exxon Valdez, some damage heals, some effects linger in Prince William Sound ___________ 129  Guest: Promises broken by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, 25 years later ____________________________________ 132  Four years on, animals dying in record numbers from BP spill _________________________________________ 134  Oil spill product of barge, ship collision in Texas City Dike _____________________________________________ 136  Oil Spill Paralyzes Houston Port ______________________________________________________________________ 138  UPDATE 4-Sunoco oil pipeline leaks in Ohio nature preserve ___________________________________________ 140       

Hiland Crude Pipeline Spills Oil Near Alexander, ND ___________________________________________________ BP Confirms Oil Spill into Lake Michigan From Whiting Refinery________________________________________ Commentary: Tar sands expansion poses risk to Great Lakes __________________________________________ Oil spill chemicals cause heart defects in tuna ________________________________________________________ CN Rail striving to improve safety record _____________________________________________________________ Permitting process under way for third crude oil shipping terminal _____________________________________ Communities not prepared for risks of crude oil train derailments, Congress told ________________________

141 143 146 149 152 154 158

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 160  Germany's clean energy drive fails to curb 'dirty' coal power ___________________________________________ 160 Geothermal ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 163  Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia ________________________________ 163  Geothermal power exploration to start south of Terrace this spring _____________________________________ 164 Hydropower ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 166  “Damnation” ________________________________________________________________________________________ 166  B.C. Farmland Could Be Flooded for Site C Megadam if Changes to Agricultural Land Reserve Proceed ___ 167  Healthy Salmon Go With The Flow ____________________________________________________________________ 170  Fish Experts Plan A Salmon Water Slide On Cracked Wanapum Dam ___________________________________ 171  Fixes should let migrating Columbia River salmon clear the cracked Wanapum Dam _____________________ 173 Liquefied Natural Gas __________________________________________________________________________________ 175    

Ohio finds probable link between fracking, quakes ____________________________________________________ Up To 1,000 Times More Methane Released At Gas Wells Than EPA Estimates, Study Finds ______________ ANR Pipeline: Introducing TransCanada's Keystone XL for Fracking ____________________________________ Environmental agency seeks public comments on proposed LNG plant in B.C. __________________________

176 178 180 184

 Environmental Assessment of the Proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG Project - Public Comment Period and Information Sessions ____________________________________________________________________________  Natural Gas Pipeline Fire in Copano Bay ______________________________________________________________  British Columbia rushes to approve LNG regime as global competition heats up_________________________ Solar _________________________________________________________________________________________________  Solar Cheaper Than LNG in Asia Power Generation, Bernstein Says ____________________________________  Latin America's largest solar power plant goes online in Mexico ________________________________________ Tidal __________________________________________________________________________________________________  Puget Sound Tidal Energy Project Approved By Feds __________________________________________________  Blue Is The New Green: How Oceans Could Power The Future __________________________________________ Wind__________________________________________________________________________________________________

186 187 188 191 193 194 195 195 196 203

Forest Management _____________________________________________________________________________ 205  Washington state used outdated data to allow logging on slope ________________________________________ 207  China replanting forests to fight pollution _____________________________________________________________ 210  Canfor, West Fraser overcut a million cubic meters of BC timber _______________________________________ 212

Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon ______________________________________ 214  GE fish is losing the PR war__________________________________________________________________________ 215  ISA virus confirmed in AquaBounty’s genetically-engineered salmon ___________________________________ 216  Engineered salmon may be a tough sell_______________________________________________________________ 217

Government action ______________________________________________________________________________ 220    

I have to stop saying “How stupid can you be” ________________________________________________________ Still in Bed Together: BC Salmon Farmers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans _____________________ St’at’imc: We have exclusive jurisdiction______________________________________________________________ Burnaby Mayor against Kinder Morgan pipeline _______________________________________________________

220 222 224 226

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Hello two new open-net salmon farms and a 100% increase in production by 2025? Goodbye public process and transparency ___________________________________________________________________________ 227  No oilsands ad campaign, Conservatives say _________________________________________________________ 229  Diamond agrees on call for end to public bailouts for salmon feedlots __________________________________ 231  Environment Canada cuts enforcement, marine pollution and emergency budgets _______________________ 234  Kitimat residents vote no on Northern Gateway _______________________________________________________ 237  Kinder Morgan pipeline project bedeviling governments at every level __________________________________ 240  Washington State Flood Insurance Premiums to Rise __________________________________________________ 242  Mudslide: Could It Happen in Lewis County? __________________________________________________________ 244  Aquaculture projects offer 'huge' opportunity _________________________________________________________ 248  BCSF'S Dunn says 20,000 jobs possible with Aquaculture Act __________________________________________ 249  The side of Marine Harvest that escapes the radar _____________________________________________________ 251  First Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment for Sea Lice in Canada a Success __________________________________ 253  Vegas Chef Rick Moonen: Vancouver is Always Impressive ____________________________________________ 255

Mining __________________________________________________________________________________________ 258  Rio Tinto Ditches Pebble Mine _______________________________________________________________________ 260  Taseko asks Federal Court to quash minister's decision on rejected B.C. gold mine______________________ 261

Wild fish management ___________________________________________________________________________ 262  New Report Reveals U.S. Fisheries Killing Thousands of Protected and Endangered Species _____________ 262  Ottawa's Move to Allow Overfishing of Salmon Draws United Condemnation from First Nations, Fishermen, and Conservationists_____________________________________________________________________  Federal judges deny request for emergency injunction against steelhead planting in Elwha River _________  Guidelines for Anglers that suspect they have recaptured an escaped Farmed Salmon ___________________  Something fishy in B.C. ______________________________________________________________________________  DFO backs down from commercial fishery banned by Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation _______________________  Nine Dirty Fisheries (based on data published by the National Marine Fisheries Service): _________________

264 266 268 269 271 274

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses __________________________ 275  Fishing Guide Arek Kotecki - Iceland _________________________________________________________________ 275  Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” ________________________________________________________________ 276  CHALLHUAQUEN Fishing Lodge – Patagonia, Argentina _______________________________________________ 277  Churchill Fly-fishing – Camden, Maine ________________________________________________________________ 278  April Vokey’s Fly Gal Adventures _____________________________________________________________________ 279  Fly Fishing in Slovenia ______________________________________________________________________________ 280  TMkey Film/Research ________________________________________________________________________________ 281      

Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 _________________________________________________________________ Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors_______________________________ Cabo Sails – Cabo San Lucas Sailing, Tours and Activities _____________________________________________ Westcoast Fishing Adventures _______________________________________________________________________ Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing _________________________________________________ Great River Fishing Adventures ______________________________________________________________________

282 283 284 285 286 287

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners _________________________________________________ 289

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: _____________________________________________________ 289 Featured Artists: ________________________________________________________________________________ 290  Dan Wallace – Authentic cultural designs _____________________________________________________________ 291  Ta’Kaiya Blaney Sings Against Enbridge ______________________________________________________________ 292  Diane Michelin ______________________________________________________________________________________ 293  Richard Mayer’s Flyfishers’ Arte & Publishing _________________________________________________________ 294

Featured Fishing Adventures, Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny: ________________________________ 295  Fish for Peacock Bass on Brazil’s Aqua Boa River with host Camille Egdorf _____________________________ 295  Gašper Konkolič - Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia _______________________________________________________ 296  Krystal Jean May with her Fraser River white sturgeon _________________________________________________ 297  Kyle McClelland: XXL Chrome Chasing_______________________________________________________________ 298  Natasha Larson: Sheepshead (Jacksonville, FL) _______________________________________________________ 299    

Rhett Weber: Wolf Fish ______________________________________________________________________________ Sara Stevenson: “A Day at the Office” ________________________________________________________________ Idrijca River, Slovenia _______________________________________________________________________________ Adrian Armato: purple oscillated snakehead Mustad Asia and Oceania__________________________________

300 301 302 303

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It doesn’t get any better than this! ____________________________________________________________________ Lael Paul Johnson: “Thanks for the Memories” ________________________________________________________ Rosnani Bidin: Kuala Rompin, Malaysia _______________________________________________________________ Steven Callan: Badges, Bears, and Eagles ____________________________________________________________ “Wild Steelhead—The Lure and Lore of a Pacific Northwest Icon” by Sean M. Gallagher __________________ Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales” Watch orcas up close HERE ________________________________

304 305 306 312 313 314

 Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat" - with a chapter on the "environmental catastrophe" of factory fish farming! _________________________________________________________________________________ 315  Terry Wiest: Float Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead __________________________________________________ 316

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish ____________________________________________________ 317 Final Thoughts: _________________________________________________________________________________ 318  Inconvenient Truth __________________________________________________________________________________ 318

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy Forward The May 2014 issue of Legacy marks thirty one consecutive months of our web-based 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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

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

ook friends

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk

 Leanne Hodges

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Editorial Opinion

Mud slammed Saturday (3/22/2014) morning into homes near the Snohomish County town of Oso and cascaded over state Highway 530, into the Stillaguamish River, which is backed up by debris.

Editorial Comment: Today’s deadly landslide in Snohomish County (Washington State) is a stark reminder that the Pacific Northwest’s logged over, steep slopes, saturated by winter rains and snowfall are unstable. This is why Wild Game Fish Conservation International consistently opposes government-enabled, irresponsible, life-threatening land use practices :

  

steep slope clearcut logging and associated road construction floodplain development In-river water retention projects

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Special

 The Thin Green Line Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

British Columbia

Washington Oregon

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Is Canada Tarring Itself? March 31, 2014 START with the term “tar sands.” In Canada only fervent opponents of oil development in northern Alberta dare to use those words; the preferred phrase is the more reassuring “oil sands.” Never mind that the “oil” in the world’s third largest petroleum reserve is in fact bitumen, a substance with the consistency of peanut butter, so viscous that another fossil fuel must be used to dilute it enough to make it flow. Never mind, too, that the process that turns bitumen into consumable oil is very dirty, even by the oil industry’s standards. But say “tar sands” in Canada, and you’ll risk being labeled unpatriotic, radical, subversive. Performing language makeovers is perhaps the most innocuous indication of the Canadian government’s headlong embrace of the oil industry’s wishes. Soon after becoming prime minister in 2006, Stephen Harper declared Canada “an emerging energy superpower,” and nearly everything he’s done since has buttressed this ambition. Forget the idea of Canada as dull, responsible and environmentally minded: That is so 20th century. Now it’s a desperado, placing all its chips on a world-be-damned, climate-altering tar sands bet. Documents obtained by research institutions and environmental groups through freedom-ofinformation requests show a government bent on extracting as much tar sands oil as possible, as quickly as possible. From 2008 to 2012, oil industry representatives registered 2,733 communications with government officials, a number dwarfing those of other industries. The oil industry used these communications to recommend changes in legislation to facilitate tar sands and pipeline development. In the vast majority of instances, the government followed through. In the United States, the tar sands debate focuses on Keystone XL, the 1,200-mile pipeline that would link Alberta oil to the Gulf of Mexico. What is often overlooked is that Keystone XL is only one of 13 pipelines completed or proposed by the Harper government — they would extend for 10,000 miles, not just to the gulf, but to both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. After winning an outright parliamentary majority in 2011, Mr. Harper’s Conservative Party passed an omnibus bill that revoked or weakened 70 environmental laws, including protections for rivers and fisheries. As a result, one proposed pipeline, the Northern Gateway, which crosses a thousand rivers and streams between Alberta and the Pacific, no longer risked violating the law. The changes also eliminated federal environmental review requirements for thousands of proposed development projects.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters President Obama’s decision on Keystone XL, expected later this spring, is important not just because it will determine the pipeline’s fate, but because it will give momentum to one side or the other in the larger tar sands battle. Consequently, the Canadian government’s 2013-14 budget allocates nearly $22 million for pro-tar-sands promotional work outside Canada. It has used that money to buy ads and fund lobbyists in Washington and Europe, the latter as part of a continuing campaign against the European Union’s bitumen-discouraging Fuel Quality Directive. Beginning in 2006, Mr. Harper pledged to promulgate regulations to limit carbon emissions, but eight years later the regulations still have not been issued, and he recently hinted that they might not be introduced for another “couple of years.” Meanwhile, Canada became the only country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, in 2009 it signed the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord, which calls for Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 17 percent beneath its 2005 level by 2020. According to the government’s own projections, it won’t even come close to that level. Climate change’s impact on Canada is already substantial. Across Canada’s western prairie provinces, an area larger than Alaska, mean temperatures have risen several degrees over the last 40 years, causing releases of greenhouse gases from melting permafrost and drying wetlands. The higher temperatures have led to the spread of the mountain pine beetle, which has consumed millions of trees. The trees, in turn, have become fodder for increasingly extensive forest fires, which release still more greenhouse gases. Given that scientists now think the Northern Hemisphere’s boreal forests retain far more carbon than tropical rain forests like the Amazon, these developments are ominous. At least the Harper government has indirectly acknowledged climate change in one way: It has made a show of defending the Northwest Passage, an increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that winds through Canadian territory. Nevertheless, the Harper government has shown its disdain for scientists and environmental groups dealing with climate change and industrial pollution. The government has either drastically cut or entirely eliminated funding for many facilities conducting research in climate change and air and water pollution. It has placed tight restrictions on when its 23,000 scientists may speak publicly and has given power to some department managers to block publication of peer-reviewed research. It has closed or “consolidated” scientific libraries, sometimes thoughtlessly destroying invaluable collections in the process. And it has slashed funding for basic research, shifting allocations to applied research with potential payoffs for private companies. With a deft Orwellian touch, Canada’s national health agency even accused a doctor in Alberta, John O’Connor, of professional misconduct — raising “undue alarm” and promoting “a sense of mistrust” in government officials — after he reported in 2006 that an unusually high number of rare, apparently tar-sands-related cancers were showing up among residents of Fort Chipewyan, 150 miles downstream from the tar sands. A government review released in 2009 cautiously supported Dr. O’Connor’s claims, but officials have shown no interest in the residents’ health since then. Dr. O’Connor’s experience intimidated other doctors, according to Margaret Sears, a toxicologist hired by the quasi-independent Alberta Energy Regulator to study health impacts in another region near the tar sands operation. Dr. Sears reported that some doctors cited Dr. O’Connor’s case as a reason for declining to treat patients who suggested a link between their symptoms and tar sands emissions.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The pressure on environmentalists has been even more intense. Two years ago Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (who this month became finance minister) declared that some environmentalists “use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest” and “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda.” Canada’s National Energy Board, an ostensibly independent regulatory agency, coordinated with the nation’s intelligence service, police and oil companies to spy on environmentalists. And Canada’s taxcollecting agency recently introduced rigorous audits of at least seven prominent environmental groups, diverting the groups’ already strained resources from anti-tar-sands activities. Few Canadians advocate immediately shutting down the tar sands — indeed, any public figure espousing that idea risks political oblivion. The government could defuse much tar sands opposition simply by advocating a more measured approach to its development, using the proceeds to head the country away from fossil fuels and toward a low-carbon, renewables-based future. That, in fact, was the policy recommended by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a nonpartisan, eminently moderate independent research group founded by another right-leaning prime minister, Brian Mulroney, in 1988. The Harper government showed what it thought of the policy when it disbanded the Round Table last year.

Editorial Comment: Unfortunately, as we have shared in past issues of Legacy, the above concerns only address the very tip of the iceberg. The risks associated with extracting, transporting and burning tarsands to public health and wild ecosystems are too vast to even comprehend.

  

These risks are so very high that no civilizations are willing to permit new pipelines or rail lines to carry this hazardous material across precious lands and bodies of water. Opposition is gaining along North America’s west and east coasts to exporting this material. Coastal communities oppose shipping very dangerous dilbit for fear of vitally important shoreline ecosystem destruction.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

 Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 10 American Foods that are Banned in Other Countries Americans are slowly waking up to the sad fact that much of the food sold in the US is far inferior to the same foods sold in other nations. In fact, many of the foods you eat are BANNED in other countries. Here, I’ll review 10 American foods that are banned elsewhere. Seeing how the overall health of Americans is so much lower than other industrialized countries, you can’t help but wonder whether toxic foods such as these might play a role in our skyrocketing disease rates.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

BANNED FOODS #10: Farm-Raised Salmon

If you want to maximize health benefits from fish, you want to steer clear of farmed fish, particularly farmed salmon fed dangerous chemicals. Wild salmon gets its bright pinkish-red color from natural carotenoids in their diet. Farmed salmon, on the other hand, are raised on a wholly unnatural diet of grains (including genetically engineered varieties), plus a concoction of antibiotics and other drugs and chemicals not shown to be safe for humans. This diet leaves the fish with unappetizing grayish flesh so to compensate, they’re fed synthetic astaxanthin made from petrochemicals, which has not been approved for human consumption and has well known toxicities. According to the featured article, some studies suggest it can potentially damage your eyesight. More details are available in yesterday’s article.

Where it’s banned: Australia and New Zealand How can you tell whether a salmon is wild or farm-raised? The flesh of wild sockeye salmon is bright red, courtesy of its natural astaxanthin content. It’s also very lean, so the fat marks, those white stripes you see in the meat, are very thin. If the fish is pale pink with wide fat marks, the salmon is farmed. Avoid Atlantic salmon, as typically salmon labeled “Atlantic Salmon” currently comes from fish farms. The two designations you want to look for are: “Alaskan salmon,” and “sockeye salmon,” as Alaskan sockeye is not allowed to be farmed. Please realize that the vast majority of all salmon sold in restaurants is farm raised. So canned salmon labeled “Alaskan Salmon” is a good bet, and if you find sockeye salmon, it’s bound to be wild. Again, you can tell sockeye salmon from other salmon by its color; its flesh is bright red opposed to pink, courtesy of its superior astaxanthin content. Sockeye salmon actually has one of the highest concentrations of astaxanthin of any food.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Target Eliminates Farmed Salmon From All Target Stores Target Owned Food Brands Will Feature Only Wild-Caught Alaskan Salmon January 26, 2010 Target® today announces that it has eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen and smoked seafood offerings in Target stores nationwide. This announcement includes Target owned brands – Archer Farms® and Market Pantry® – and national brands. All salmon sold under Target owned brands will now be wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Additionally, sushi featuring farm-raised salmon will complete its transition to wildcaught salmon by the end of 2010. In consultation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Target is taking this important step to ensure that its salmon offerings are sourced in a sustainable way that helps to preserve abundance, species health and doesn’t harm local habitats.

Editorial Comment This article from 2010 is re-published as evidence that national food retailer giants such as Target opted several years ago to not offer salmon raised in open pen feedlots to their trusting customers. Target and other leading food retailers recognize the significant risks that feedlot salmon are to public health and wild ecosystems. There is considerable work remaining to influence other seafood retailers and restaurants to remove feedlot salmon from their display cases and menus.

When buying salmon, buy wild!

Many salmon farms impact the environment in numerous ways – pollution, chemicals, parasites and non-native farmed fish that escape from salmon farms all affect the natural habitat and the native salmon in the surrounding areas. Wild-caught salmon from Alaska is considered a "Best Choice" by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and is certified as sustainable to the standard of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) 1. Alaskan salmon is among the most intensively managed species in the world, with excellent monitoring of both the fish populations and the fishery. “Target strives to be a responsible steward of the environment, while also providing our guests with the highest-quality food choices,” said Greg Duppler, senior vice president, merchandising, Target. “Our guests now have an array of sustainable seafood choices at great prices.” “Target’s decision to source sustainable wild-caught salmon, instead of farmed, will have a real impact in the marketplace – and ultimately, on the health of our oceans,” said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “Increasing the demand for seafood from ocean-friendly sources, like this Monterey Bay Aquarium ‘Best Choice,’ charts us on a course not only to protect our oceans, but to improve fishing and fishfarming practices around the world.” “Greenpeace applauds Target's decision to replace farmed salmon with wild Alaskan salmon, a relatively sustainable and healthy product, throughout its operations,” said Casson Trenor, Greenpeace’s senior markets campaigner. “The company’s decision to address this issue represents an incredible willingness to challenge old paradigms in favor of sound science and environmental preservation, as well as provide real market value to its guests. We have no doubt that the leadership by Target will set a new standard for the seafood industry; one we hope is echoed by other retailers.” A number of Target salmon offerings have been awarded the prestigious MSC fishery certification, including wild Alaskan salmon fillets, Archer Farms Frozen Sockeye Salmon Fillets and Market Pantry Frozen Keta Salmon Fillets. Also, Target currently offers guests multiple sustainable salmon choices under its owned brands at budget friendly prices, including: Archer Farms Smoked Sockeye Salmon, Archer Farms Hot Smoked Pepper Salmon, Archer Farms Cajun Smoked Sockeye Salmon, Market Pantry Crab Stuffed Salmon Roulade, Market Pantry Florentine Salmon Roulade and Market Pantry Keta Salmon Side. About Target Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at 1,744 stores in 49 states nationwide and at Target.com. Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices. Since 1946, the corporation has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs like Take Charge of Education. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week. 1 The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization that has established a global environmental standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Health Food Face-off: Wild Salmon vs Farmed Salmon

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Wild Salmon vs Farmed Salmon (cont’d)

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Congratulations Overwaitea Food Group: Sustainable Seafood Policy

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Denny Heck: Increased tanker traffic, open pen salmon feedlots Congressman United States of America I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our like-minded colleagues around planet earth to respectfully urge you and your colleagues who are working to restore Puget Sound to effectively address the risks to Puget Sound of significantly increased tanker traffic (diluted bitumen/dilbit, condensate and coal) in the Salish Sea as well as the risks of increased open pen salmon feedlots (number of sites and capacity) sited in British Columbia and Washington state. As your brochure on this topic correctly communicates, "Restoring the health of Puget Sound must remain a top priority for our region, state and nation".

Denny Heck

Effectively addressing the international impacts of dilbit spills and open pen salmon feedlots must be included in any meaningful efforts (state, national, international) to restore Puget Sound. Not including these is unacceptable, as money to resolve other important impacts to Puget Sound would be all for naught. Puget Sound and all that rely on its health are intertwined with human activity at every twist and turn This magnificent body of water deserves an effective recovery plan instead of a piecemeal approach that continues to be woefully underfunded and ineffective for the scope and complexity of the issues at hand. We urge you and others from the Washington state delegation to work with your colleagues (locally, nationally, internationally) to make cost effective decisions - decisions that will include a healthy Puget Sound in our legacy.

 Nancy Greene Raine Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our wild fish conservation-minded colleagues around planet earth regarding your role as a member of the federal Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. Open pen salmon feedlots must never be sited on wild salmon migration routes – there are any number of peer reviewed scientific articles from around planet earth that provide a wealth of evidence in support of this statement.

Nancy Greene Raine

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters With all due respect, Ms. Raine, your quote, ""I believe we should be growing fish and that it can be done sustainably”, Is not based in current science regarding the public health and ecosystem security risks associated with open pen salmon feedlots, is not supported by the Cohen Commission Inquiry findings and is not supported by the majority of coastal First Nations. In fact, it is only supported by the government-enabled, open pen salmon feedlot industry Your quote, “At the end of the day, there is no solid evidence that salmon farms here impact wild salmon stocks" is similarly not based in any credible science as the impacts of open pen salmon feedlots to wild salmon is widely documented wherever they are sited. Given that this committee is tasked to develop a regulatory regime for the industry under the auspices of DFO, it is incumbent on you and the other committee members to ensure that the open pen salmon feedlot industry:

 

Not risk public health Not risk wild ecosystem health

 Gail Shea Minister, Fisheries and Oceans Canada Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our wild fish conservation colleagues around planet earthare unable to understand how Canada can recover and protect wild salmon and their critically important ecosystems while at the same time significantly increasing production of open pen salmon feedlots. It is clear to us that the 75 recommendations resulting from the $26 million Cohen Commission Inquiry included 1. removal of open pen salmon feedlots from the auspices of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as managing wild fish while managing farmed fish is a conflict by definition and 2.there was to be a moratorium on new open pen salmon feedlots in specific regions.

Gail Shea

Clearly the recommendations by Justice Cohen are being ignored by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.Unfortunately, there is no effective accountability within DFO. It appears to those of us outside of DFO, that there is a concerted effort to expand British Columbia's open pen salmon feedlot industry at all costs - even if it means the extinction of wild Pacific salmon, the very species you are responsible for protecting. Of course, your disregard for Canada's iconic wild Pacific salmon also sends a direct message to the United States that you are willing to put wild Pacific salmon from Washington, Oregon and California in harm's way of parasites and deadly salmon diseases as well - this is a major error your part. By ignoring current science, Canadian citizens, First Nations in Canada and the United States on issues associated with risks to wild Pacific salmon, you are walking on very thin ice. Given what wild Pacific salmon mean to cultures and communities along North America's entire west coast, you and your staff would be wise to enact an immediate and permanent moratorium on new open pen salmon feedlot production while transitioning existing open pen salmon feedlots to landbased facilities - anything less is irresponsible.

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ď ś Christy Clark Premier British Columbia, Canada We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth respectfully urge you and your administration to transition British Columbia's unsustainable, open pen salmon feedlot industry to a land based industry. This transition is vitally important to the ongoing efforts to recover and protect wild Pacific salmon and their sensitive ecosystems. The sooner this transition can happen, the better for BC's keystone species, wild Pacific salmon and all that rely on them.

Christy Clark

The risks to BC's wild Pacific salmon from these open pen salmon feedlots hold true for wild Pacific salmon of USA origin (Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho) as well, as these valuable fish share migration routes with BC-origin salmon and anadromous trout.. In addition to wild salmon of BC and USA origin, many wild salmon that pass by BC's open pen salmon feedlots originate in the waters of First Nations / Tribes where sustainable populations of wild Pacific salmon are essential. To be clear, the very real risks that we are concerned about regarding British Columbia's open pen salmon feedlots include, but are not limited to: public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. The concerns above are based on current scientific findings, natural laws, knowledge of local history and common sense. To continue to ignore the very real risks of open pen salmon feedlots to British Columbia's uniquelyproductive wild ecosystem is irresponsible. To increase open pen salmon feedlot production as planned is madness. The only reasonable option to factory fish farm production in British Columbia is to have them based on land where they would not put wild Pacific salmon or their ecosystems in harm's way.

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 Dr. Michael Rubino Director of the Aquaculture Office National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration United States of America We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International read in utter disbelief your following quotes in yesterday's NPR broadcast, "The Future Of Clean, Green Fish Farming Could Be Indoor Factories".   



Michael Rubino

the U.S. could harvest much of that fish — especially the salmon — here at home. among all the world's nations, the U.S. had the greatest potential for ocean-based aquaculture production Rubino says it wouldn't even consume a very large area. "The entire Norwegian production of salmon, a million tons a year, can be grown in an area about the size of the runways at JFK Airport in New York," The major reason why it hasn't happened is opposition from environmentalists and from people living on the coast, who enjoy their pristine ocean views.

With all due respect to you and your team of professionals at NOAA, Dr. Rubino, our assessment of your above quotes, is that you are completely out of touch with the reality of published, science-based findings associated with ocean-based salmon feedlots. The science speaks loud and clear. Ocean based salmon feedlots are risks to:     

Public health Wild ecosystems Wild ecosystem dependent cultures Wild ecosystem dependent communities Wild ecosystem dependent economies

In closing, 

 

The coastline equivalent space of JFK Airport (nearly 5,000 acres) is significant – as such, ocean based salmon farms occupying this space would have a significant impact on wild ecosystems and all that rely on them. The aesthetics of open pen salmon feedlots are not the science-based reasons that open pen salmon feedlots have not expanded in the USA. Of particular concern, as with Canada’s DFO, NOAA is conflicted by being tasked to protect wild ecosystems while at the same time promoting open pen salmon feedlots.

Lastly, Wild marine ecosystems and ocean based salmon feedlots will never coexist.

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Responses to Wild Game Fish Conservation International

 City of Burnaby

James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International Dear Mr. Wilcox: Subject: Kinder Morgan Expansion Project Item L), Council Correspondence Received to 2014 March 20 Burnaby City Council, at the Open Council meeting held on 2014 March 24, received your correspondence regarding significant community concerns in relation to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and their application to the National Energy Board.

Thank you for taking the time to write to Council regarding this important issue. Sincerely,

Sid Cleave Deputy City Clerk

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Community Activism, Education and Outreach:

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 Never Give UP!

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 Fracking Crimes in Alberta (USA and others) Watch, Listen Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Ta'Kaiya Blaney Environmental Activism Presentation Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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 Chief Bob Chamberlin – Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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 Province preparing injunction against Unist'ot'en pipeline resistance camp: Grassroots Wet'suwet'en and allies unite to say No Fracked Gas Pipelines! Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

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 Net-Pen Farmed Salmon Boycott Rally Saturday, April 12, 2014, (Time: Noon – 1:00 PM) Superstores at: Abbotsford, Coquitlam (Westwood), North Vancouver, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Duncan, and Guelph, Ontario

Background Superstores come under Loblaw’s chain of stores and follow their Corporate Social Responsibility directions. We sent them reliable information with many references, yet Melanie Agopian, Director of Social Responsibility for Loblaws informed us they will continue to sell wild-caught and farmed seafood from MSC and Aquaculture Stewardship Council certified sources in their stores. She failed to provide us with the company names and geographic location of the fish farms from which Loblaw is sourcing farmed Atlantic salmon. “Given this response, we will continue with farmed salmon boycott rallies at Superstores across BC, and spread to the rest of Canada, “said Eddie Gardner, Boycott Coordinator. “They obviously don’t take into account human health. Dr. Anne-Lise Monsen of Haukeland University, Norway says that farmed fish present a serious risk to how babies’ brains are going to ‘wire’ up if they are exposed to chemicals in farmed salmon eaten by their mothers,” said Shawna Green, Duncan, BC. “Given what health experts are saying about contamination levels in farmed Atlantic salmon, it’s unethical to sell it,” said Terry Wilkinson, of Mission, BC. “We applaud Superstore for selling President’s Choice’s Free From brand of beef, pork and chicken that are farmed without the use of antibiotics and hormones. In keeping with this consumer protection standard, Superstores would do well to remove net-pen farmed salmon, as they contain dangerous chemicals like PCBs that can cause cancer, immune system dysfunction and nervous system damage,” stated Elaine Willis, Coquitlam boycott activist. Jay Peachy pointed out, “In addition, opennet feedlots are breeding grounds for mutating viruses and amplification of sea lice and so fish farmers are forced to use antibiotics and chemicals to protect farmed salmon.” Rachel Young, of the Cranbrook boycott group, expressed her alarm at the dangers fish farms pose to wild salmon, “I cannot imagine what it would be like to see our world without wild salmon! Fish farms must get out of the migration routes of wild salmon!” Jim Wilcox of Wild Game Fish Conservation International stated, “ Ocean-based salmon feedlots are directly responsible for risks to public health, wild ecosystem security, wild salmon-based cultures, communities and economies. It would be disastrous to see aggressive fish farm expansion as this would result in wild salmon vanishing.” “We have a right to be properly consulted as First Nation people along the river on whether or not fish farms belong on the migration routes of our wild salmon, “said Janice Billy, organizer of the Kamloops boycott rally and member of the Neskainlith First Nation. “This has not happened, and we believe this puts our Aboriginal rights to a salmon fishery in peril. This is unacceptable,” exclaimed Janice. Join us at upcoming rallies! Let’s tell Superstores: Stop selling farmed Atlantic salmon! Below are photos from the April 12 Atlantic salmon boycott rallies at Real Canadian Superstores across British Columbia:

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 Real Canadian Superstore: Public Health Risk Associated with Sale of Oceanbased Feedlot Salmon – “Organic” or otherwise

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Ocean-based

Salmon Feedlots

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 Viewpoint: Public spending contradictions cause concern April 9, 2014 At a time when budgetary priorities are strangling public services in the name of restraint and a balanced budget it is puzzling and distressing to see obvious contradictions in public spending. On this coast the decisions to reduce ferry services and increase fares, even at the expense of the economy and general revenues, is greeted with outrage by those directly impacted but with disinterest by the non-coastal province even though they too suffer from a loss of provincial income and reduced services. A subliminal propaganda campaign depicting us as overindulged whiners living in subsidized luxury seems to be working as far as keeping the provincial government in office even though it means abandoning a million constituents and impoverishment of the provincial budget. Federally, the abdication of responsibility for our coastal fisheries and environment by ignoring the recommendations of the $26-million Cohen Commission and instead, quietly, almost secretively, issuing new permits for more unconfined fish farms, is incredibly short-sighted in favour of one foreign-owned industry at huge cost to our economy and ecology. Our prime minister claims to be an economist but seems incapable of understanding causality. And now, the latest revelation of the unapologetic abuse of our privacy rights and the obscene cost of CSEC (Communications Security Establishment Canada), and other government organs like CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and the RCMP, compiling dossiers on Canadians guilty of nothing more than making a phone call in a Canadian airport, makes me think of the famous quote from Pastor Martin Neimöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” Neimöller had been an apologist for the Nazis until it became clear where the “big brother” state was leading and when he objected he himself was sent to the camps. The stunning apathy of Canadians in the face of a government intent upon duplicating the tyranny of the fascists indicates that our sacrifices in two world wars are forgotten and meaningless.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters But we must remember, even if the press chooses to stay on the sidelines, we are paying the cost of our own abuse, in this case over $800 million for the spy programs and currently building the most expensive federal building in Canadian history the “spy palace.” What’s next—a Gestapo? It can happen here. It is happening here. Our local MP John Weston is a willing participant in this obscenity, sending out smiling notices of trivia (at our expense) while his führer makes these ever-more repressive rules and is never questioned as he sabotages our democracy. It’s sickening. Did we fight the fascists for nothing? Where are our courts when this government violates the laws such as flagrant multiple violations of Canada Elections Act and instead of being punished merely writes the most Orwellian or Goebbelsian anti-democratic act, the Fair Elections Act, with impunity? When Conservative Canada finally wakens it will find itself in a real world nightmare and with no voice or democracy.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wall of Women stands opposed to Kinder Morgan in West Vancouver March 22, 2014 Protesters gathered in West Vancouver Saturday to take a stance on Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Around 15 women, including representatives from the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam First Nations, as well as Greenpeace campaigners, gathered for the Wall of Woman in the cold and rain by The Welcome Figure at Ambleside Beach to send a message to Kinder Morgan that a pipeline expansion was not welcome. Shanentsut (Mandy Nahanee), a climate and energy outreach campaigner for Greenpeace BC and organizer of the event, said it was an opportunity to bring women together and strengthen their voices. “We’re standing here together to link arms to build the wall of women to say no, we do not want that in our communities, we will not accept this in our communities, we want better,” said Nahanee. “Canada has a responsibility to protect their communities, we have the right to live in healthy environments— healthy environments to raise our children, to take care of our grandparents, to drink healthy water, to eat healthy food. It's basic human rights.” Kinder Morgan has applied to the National Energy Board to expand its pipeline from its current 300,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day to 890,000 barrels, increasing tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet from five tankers to around 34 tankers each month. Tantoo Cardinal, who co-starred with Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, was also present for the protest. Cardinal said she has a lot of respect for the indigenous people on the West Coast doing their best to protect the water and marine life. “I really think that any way that we can stand there and try to make so much of the world realize that water is important, (is) definitely important,” she said. “There’s a huge contingency of people who don’t really breathe that in very well.” Cardinal said people take clean water for granted and so much of it is being destroyed. “Its part of life force, it’s a part of our life force and it’s a part of our planets life force,” she said. “It’s so important to us, its got to be that important to her.” Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace, said her family comes from one of the regions impacted by the tar sands in Northern Alberta and that spills, whether by tanker or along the pipeline route, are “a very clear and present danger.” “If we continue down this path towards resource extraction, we’re kind of digging ourselves further into this hole, which is extreme fossil fuel development as opposed to going towards more renewable energy sources (and) providing green jobs,” said Laboucan-Massimo. “People have a very intimate relationship to the coast, especially First Nations people who have lived here for thousands of years.” Laboucan-Massimo said she has travelled along the various pipelines and spoken to groups about the dangers they can pose. “It’s what we’re already experiencing in Alberta and we don’t want that to happen to communities here,” she said. Kinder Morgan submitted an application for the expansion to the National Energy Board of Canada on Dec. 16, 2013. If approved, construction on the new pipeline could start as early as 2016 and be fully operational by 2017. All three North Shore municipalities have raised concerns about the possible environmental impacts of the expansion.

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Kitimat Mayor Joanne Monaghan standing next to Haisla Nation girls basketball stars

 Kitimat mayor flash mobbed by 'No Enbridge' protesters at Haisla basketball game (VIDEOS) "You don't mix church and state, and don't mix recreation and politics," reacted Mayor Joanne Monaghan. April 9, 2014 In an increasingly explosive political climate in the Kitimat area over a controversial vote on the Northern Gateway pipeline, the Mayor of Kitimat was flash mobbed by a group of mostly First Nations people, donning "No Enbridge" shirts at a Haisla girls basketball championship on Sunday.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters "No Enbridge! No Enbridge! No Enbridge!" yelled the packed gymnasium crowd, nearly all wearing black protest shirts. "When you're in politics for 36 years, I guess I kind of expected it," Mayor Joanne Monaghan told the Vancouver Observer Wednesday. "You don't mix church and state, and don't mix recreation and politics," she added.

Video by Dan Mesec The Mayor was invited to the Haisla Village of Kitimaat, which neighbours her municipal district, to hand out a $2,000 prize for the victorious girls team - something she's done annually for years. In the dying minutes of what was described as a "nail biter of a game" -- hundreds of black "No Enbridge" t-shirts were thrown into the crowd. Before the mayor had a chance to complete her remarks, she was heckled down. "I was not shook up... I've always respected the Village and its people," said Mayor Monaghan. The plebiscite, to gauge district citizen's support for the project, is on Saturday. Haisla band members will not vote on the plebiscite, unless they are Kitimat citizens. "The excitement in the room was inspiring," said former Haisla chief Gerald Amos. "Even though they don't get to vote in the plebiscite, they were excited to have their say, one way or another." The surreal basketball game confrontation, caught on videos being circulated by opponents to the pipeline, could only be called symbolic of the growing unrest over the controversial $6.5 billion Northern Gateway project.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Enbridge is campaigning for Kitimat citizens to vote yes to its project, using door-to-door visits, advertisements, and Open Houses. Unlike regular elections, there is no restriction on how much money the company can spend in this non-binding vote. Mayor Monaghan said she does not have a position, for or against the pipeline, and her municipal government has worked "really hard to stay neutral" on the upcoming vote. The 1,177 km pipeline would terminate on Haisla Nation's coastal traditional territory, gushing half a million barrels of bitumen per day into 19 storage tanks, and onto 220 supertankers per year. The proposed petroleum facilities are not on Haisla reserve lands.

Video by Kitimat film-maker, Gilda Diaz. Citizen group -- Douglas Channel Watch -- attended the game, but its spokesperson, Murray Linchin said his "vote no to the pipeline" group had nothing to do with t-shirt spectacle. "Somebody, anonymously, donated 200 t-shirts with a great big huge 'No Enbridge' written on the front, and they just started handing them out to the basketball players and people in the crowd." "I don't know [who did it]," added Minchi, on Tuesday. A video, shot by northern video journalist Dan Mesec, showed a grey-haired Aboriginal man among others distributing the shirts from a box. Haisla Nation has taken a firm stand against the Enbridge project. Chief Councillor Ellis Ross wrote in an open letter recently: "Deciding to hold a referendum at this late date is a slap in the face to all the work done by the Haisla Nation on this project. The Haisla Nation dedicated time and money toward testing Northern Gatewayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evidence and claims about safety and environmental protection, while the District stood by and did nothing," wrote Chief Ross, last week.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Enbridge spokesman, Ivan Giesbrecht said Tuesday, "As with every first nation, we are always looking for open dialogue. Whether it be any of the first nations along our proposed right of way." "Obviously our conversations with First Nations communities are private discussions," he added. "They are all important stakeholders to us, and we want to continue the dialogue and conversation that we started with them." Giesbrecht could not confirm if Jim Prentice has visited the community. The former Harper cabinet minister has been hired by Enbridge to bridge relations with First Nations still opposed to the pipeline. The Coastal First Nations organization - an alliance of aboriginal communities on British Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii -- is promising legal action, as well as protests to "stop the bull dozers" if the pipeline is approved. The Harper cabinet will rule on the project before June. The Northern Gateway pipeline is one of five major pipelines that are considered critical for Alberta's oil sands industry to expand. The tenth annual open basketball tournament is billed as a "Cultural Warming" to bridge the aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities. The Haisla girls defeated the Prince Rupert team.

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 Enbridge presents: Kool-Aid Man! Now visiting Kitimat for Plebiscite Yes Vote festivities!!! Just kidding.... but so true. They will promise the world, but deliver toxic sludge and diluent in each cup instead. To learn more of the issues and resistance visit Douglas Channel Watch: https://www.facebook.com/events/569021309847180/?ref=22#!/pages/Douglas-ChannelWatch/359078515967?fref=

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 Stop Kinder-Morgan Pipeline Expansion Rally – Burnaby, British Columbia April 12, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 FG candidate says ‘too many unanswered questions’ remain over fish farm April 3, 2014 No fish farm should be located in Galway Bay, until serious questions about potential risks, pollution, sea lice, and escapees, are answered publicly, through an oral hearing. This is the view of Fine Gael Connemara candidate Niamh Byrne, who has “serious reservations” about An Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s proposal to locate a 1,126 acre, 15,000 tonne, open caged salmon fish farm off Inis Óirr. Ms Byrne and the Fine Gael Oughterard branch say “too many questions remain unanswered” on the issue. As a result, they will be writing to the Marine Minister Simon Coveney, calling on him not to grant permission for the farm until the risks fully examined. “Lough Corrib was the mainstay of the town of Oughterard for so long but it has been seriously impacted by pollution,” said Ms Byrne. “We cannot support a proposal that would further impact on our native salmon stocks and the future viability of Lough Corrib and Oughterard.” Ms Byrne is also calling for an oral hearing to be considered so a full, public, debate can take place on issues such as the exact migrating path of salmon smolts which is disputed by anglers and BIM. The stance taken by Ms Byrne and the FG Oughterard branch is one of the few instances where FG members have publicly come out to criticise the proposed salmon farm of which Minister Coveney is widely believed to be privately in favour. Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages - made up of anglers, hoteliers, guest house owners, and environmentalists - has welcomed Ms Byrne’s stance. “So far, the three Government TDs in Galway West - Seán Kyne, Brian Walsh, and Derek Nolan have not issued a statement against the proposed salmon farm or let the public know what they think on this issue,” said GBASC chair Billy Smyth. “They should take a leaf out of the book of Oughterard FG and come out and support the stance of their branch members

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 Don Stanford: Five Fundamental Flaws of Sea Cage Salmon Farming European Economic & Social Committee in Brussels - Entire presentation HERE February 14, 2014

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 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.

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OLYMPIA CHAPTER OF TROUT UNLIMITED APRIL 23, 2014 AT 7:00PM NORTH OLYMPIA FIRE STATION 5046 BOSTON HARBOR ROAD NE

SMALL WATERSHED, BIG IDEAS CONSERVATION INNOVATION IN THE NISQUALLY RIVER VALLEY

Program: The public is invited to attend the April 23rd meeting for a presentation by Joe Kane, Executive Director of the Nisqually Land Trust (nisquallylandtrust.org), the lead nongovernmental conservation organization in the Nisqually River Watershed. The Nisqually Land Trust acquires and manages critical lands to permanently protect the water, wildlife, natural areas and scenic vistas of the Nisqually River watershed. “Small Watershed, Big Ideas: Conservation Innovation in The Nisqually River Valley” will highlight the watershed’s history of cutting-edge conservation and the challenges ahead. The Nisqually River now enjoys an extraordinary level of environmental protection, with 76 percent of its salmon-producing shoreline in permanent conservation status. The Nisqually has set the state’s gold standard for the planned recovery of threatened Chinook salmon and endangered steelhead trout. Refreshments will be provided and an outstanding fishing equipment raffle will be conducted at the end of his presentation.

Bio: Mr. Kane served on the Nisqually Land Trust Board of Directors from 1998-2004 and was named Executive Director in 2005. Joe also serves as the vice president of the Washington Association of Land Trusts. He is a best-selling author and an award-winning writer. His works have appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic and many other publications. Mr. Kane was recently named a Poynter Fellow at Yale University.

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 Save the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas! Instead of moving forward with the BDCP, which will not add one drop of new water to the State's system, we need to be focusing on the following:

  

First, we need to export a safe yield of water from the Delta without repeatedly depleting the watershed. Second, we need to reinforce levees to ensure that the water that can be shared from the Delta is secure for all Californians. Third, we need to retire drainage-impaired agricultural lands on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. This will ultimately be cheaper than building the twin tunnels, and it will end the cycle of poor water management that will only enrich a few hundred corporate agribusinesses.

Most importantly, we need to put unemployed Californians back to work by investing in smaller local water projects throughout the state that will actually help create water. Independent reports on water conservation projects show that recycling, groundwater cleanup and conservation programs will put twice as many people to work for each $1 million spent than a big project like the twin tunnels. This is the better solution for managing California’s water for all Californians.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Sign the Petition The State of California wants to build two giant tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter, 150 underneath the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta. The tunnels would run about 30 miles just south of Sacramento to just north of Tracy. This project is misnamed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The tunnels could carry up to 2/3 of the flow of the Sacramento River. This is the main supply for fresh water in the Bay-Delta estuary. Water exporters want this high quality water for use in other parts of California. Right now, about 35% of water exported from the Delta goes to cities in the Bay Area, the South Coast and Southern California, while big agribusiness growers in the San Joaquin Valley receive about 65% of the water. In fact just two San Joaquin Valley agricultural contractors, Westlands Water District and Kern County Water Agency, used more water than Metropolitan Water District and Santa Clara Valley urban users combined. Yet, these big agricultural users, which mainly grown cotton, pistachios and almonds for export, contribute only about .3% to California's economy. These are the same interests that have pushed State and Federal officials to over pump the Delta during the last decade and that continue to push for overriding the Endangered Species Act to increase pumping. They are now are pushing through the BDCP for even more water to be exported from the Delta. The proposed Delta tunnels would destroy Delta fisheries, coastal fisheries, especially the $1.5 billion annual commercial salmon fishery, Delta family farms valued at $5.2 billion annually, water quality for Delta water users in San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, North Coast rivers, and would have a negative impact on the ecological health of the San Francisco Bay. Construction of the project itself would turn the bucolic 500,000 acres of the interior Delta into an industrial eyesore. The BDCP is called a conservation plan and is sold to the public as a benefit for the Delta because they intend to take farmland from Delta family farms and convert it to habitat for fisheries. However, State fishery officials admit that such habitat creation would be experimental, and independent science shows again and again that fresh water flows are needed to restore fisheries. Habitat without water will fail to improve fishery conditions. In addition, the tunnels will not make any additional water. If the tunnels were in operation today, during the current drought, they would remain dry, and any water taken from the Delta would be exported from the existing pumps according to BDCP documents. Most importantly, everyday Californians will end up paying for the project through higher water rates and higher taxes to pay for general obligation bonds. The BDCP is estimated to cost $24 billion in 2012 dollars, but when interest and operation costs are added in, independent economists calculate the project would cost over $60 billion.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

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

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives March 25, 2014: Exxon Valdez – 25 years and counting April 1, 2014: Public health risks of ocean based feedlot salmon April 8, 2014: Cayoose Creek Drinking Water Extraction April 15, 2014: SFU 350: Divest SFU Campaign

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Ocean-based salmon feedlots (aka: weapons of mass destruction)

Some say that the ocean-based salmon feedlot industry is analogous with the parasites in the industry’s open pens The industry and its parasites suck every bit of life out of their unsuspecting hosts

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Alex Talks: Time is Running Out Watch, Listen, Learn HERE Get involved today! April 3, 2014 Alexandra Morton: “It is unclear how salmon farming in BC is considered sustainable on any level.” The Pattern I think it is important to pull back and view the broader pattern. 1. January 2014, Harper government gives the BC salmon farming industry the green-light to expand 2. A few days later, Marine Harvest is listed on the New York Stock exchange, announcing plans to expand, inviting North American investment. 3. Plagued with sea lice worldwide, the industry cannot risk expansion without access to drugs that kill sea lice and so they ask that Section 36 of the Fisheries Act to be removed

E tto ll C m :: Fisheries and Oceans begins investigates granting salmon Ed d orriia a Co om m me en ntton 4. AiiSenate Standing Committee farmers ownership of the fish in their net pens,

O On nc ce e IIn nffe ec cttiio ou us s S Sa allm mo on n A An ne em miia a ((IIS SA A)) iis s c co on nffiirrm me ed d iin n 5. A newly minted expert in salmon farming and Senator, recommends more salmon farms in BC long before concludes, contradicting noo at all. B C e a m ,, B h llu w Brriittitheir is sh hinvestigation Co ollu um mb biia a’’s s ffe e ed dllo ott s sthe allCohen mo on nCommission Brriittiis swith hC C oexplanation um mb biia a wiillll the day, no solid evidence salmon l"At o e iitts m u llttthere iib iillis lliio n m a rrk e tt that s h a rre .. farms here impact wild salmon lstocks"Senator os sthe eend sof$ $ m u b o n m a k e s h a e Greene Raine Nanaimo Daily news March 2014

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Alexandra Morton The salmon farmers told DFO not being able to release toxic chemicals into the ocean is a "critical impediment" to their industry, so DFO told the senators they are working to take section 36 out of the Fisheries Act. Just change the laws to fit the industry. Here are pictures of hydrogen peroxide heading into the territories of First Nations of BC, to be poured into the waters where we fish, the whales live, and much more. This is the vision for BC - an industrial playground to make people somewhere else richer. If you do not want to see this, we need to tell the world what putting farmed salmon into your mouth means. Join Eddie Gardner in his ongoing effort to get farmed salmon out of Superstore, call the sushi restaurants near you, write your MP and MLA and tell everyone you know.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Alexandra Morton:  Farmed salmon are a gateway drug to the over-industrialization of the BC coast.  Wild salmon are in the way of so much "development," but farmed salmon work just fine without a river.  Don't eat farmed salmon, don't let your friends eat it and when people stand up like this with their signs and voices places will stop selling it.  You are in the driver’s seat here.  You decide which kind of BC we are going to live in.  The one where wild salmon swim free and feed whales, bears, eagles and people - or the one where the salmon are in pens and you have to go to a market and pay for it. Because globally no place has ever been able to have both!

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

This photo on the DFO website is of a treated Atlantic Salmon

 NOW IN BC! April 15, 2014 Angela Koch Hydrogen peroxide "treatments" are failing miserably in Norway and Scotland as a last resort against drug resistant sea lice, and now we've started using it here! Even DFO admits it doesn't work, so why would we put these poor creatures through this agony just to make some shareholders $$$=SICK, SICK, SICK!!! From Canada Dept. of Oceans and Fisheries 2011 on Sea Lice: "Hydrogen peroxide bath effects on salmon skin epithelium Hydrogen peroxide is used widely for the treatment of sea lice by the salmon industry at the current time. Field sea lice counts seem to indicate that fish treated with hydrogen peroxide suffer from a higher copepodid-chalimus re-infestation than fish treated with other bath chemicals. Our hypothesis is that hydrogen peroxide may affect the ultrastructure of the skin epithelium and subsequently the composition of the mucous layer, thus making it easier for sea lice reattachment. Damage to the dermis from this treatment may also release semiochemicals or chemo-attractants causing sea lice to be overly "attracted" to these fish. If results are positive, industry must then consider adjusting the timing of the hydrogen peroxide treatments in order to reduce the chance of re-infestation. This adjustment would also lead to fewer treatments throughout the year."

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Confiscated salmon from Marine Harvest’s centres April 16, 2014 The fish that were being farmed in two salmon farming centres belonging to Marine Harvest Chile in the Los Lagos Region were confiscated earlier this month, by court order. The measure was implemented in the framework of the legal dispute between the company of Norwegian origin and Salmones Sur Austral.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Marine Harvest was ordered to pay damages for not fulfilling a contract, which to date has not been done, Aqua reported. The court confiscated the fish that were in the farming centre located in Punta ChequiĂĄn, near Achao (Chiloe Island), a total of 778,751 Atlantic salmon. Besides, the fish from Peldehue centre were retained. The farm is owned by Salmones Tecmar, located on the island of Quehui, around Castro (Chiloe Island). In this case, there were 788,259 Atlantic salmon. The confiscated fish are held by the defendant as temporary depository under civil and criminal liability. From the firm having Norwegian origin, it was indicated that "this is a process that forms part of the legal field and the company has already initiated the necessary action for it to be solved as soon as possible." In addition, they ensured that steps have been taken to ensure production is not affected and the company can meet all its business commitments. "We hope the judicial measure immediately comes to an end in order to safeguard the quality standards and reduce the risk of disease transmission in health emergency zones declared by the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service(Sernapesca)," Aqua told company executives.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Coveney confirms Ireland’s largest ever salmon farm escape March 29, 2014 Minister Simon Coveney has confirmed 230,000 salmon are missing after storms significantly damaged Murphy’s salmon farm in Gearhries, Bantry Bay, on 1 February 2014. This is Ireland’s largest single salmon farm escape in history. It is a legal requirement that all mortalities are disposed of at a licensed facility. However, none have been retrieved despite a well boat, capable of collecting farmed salmon from nets, spending a day at the site on 18 February 2014. ‘As things stand there is no evidence of any mortalities at the Gearhries salmon farm. To date, not one of the missing salmon are accounted for. This could spell disaster for wild salmon in Bantry Bay.’ Said Alec O’Donovan, Secretary of Save Bantry Bay. Escapes are a serious problem as farmed salmon differ genetically to wild populations. In the wild salmon are loyal to a particular river returning each year to spawn. Every river’s salmon population has adapted over thousands of years. If these escaped farmed salmon cross breed with wild populations they pose a significant threat to their gene pool. Farmed fish are designed to be aggressive feeders that grow fast. But, they’re not used to dealing with predators, and don’t have carefully attuned strategies for growth, maturity, timing of migration and resisting disease that relate to their local environment. Earlier this month a new research study published by Prof Gage of the University of East Anglia (UK) showed escaped farmed salmon are just as fertile as their wild cousins.1 While previously it was thought they may be less successful in reproducing in the wild, opinion is now changing. Prof Gage noted in the New Scientist on 12 March 2014 that there is ‘ample evidence that escaped farmed salmon can survive at sea and get into spawning rivers. In some Norwegian rivers, big numbers of farmed fish have been recorded – accounting for as much as half of the salmon. There is also evidence that farmed fish have successfully mated with wild populations: the genetic signatures of salmon in some Norwegian rivers now exhibit significant changes that are entirely consistent with wild/farmed hybridisation’.1,2

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The sheer scale of the recent escape in Bantry Bay means that the already depleted wild salmon stocks in local rivers could be swamped. The Dromogowlane, Coomhola, Owvane, Meelagh, Glengarriff and Adrigole rivers are all less than 20km from the escape site. Save Bantry Bay are calling for the proposed salmon farm at Shot Head in Bantry Bay to be rejected on ground of environmental and economic impacts. ‘We now have 230,000 farmed salmon escaped in Bantry Bay, that pose a significant genetic risk to our native brood stock. It is vital that these increasingly threatened salmon stocks in Bantry Bay are put at no further risk. The proposed Shot Head site is only a few kilometres across the Bay from the escape site. These storms have shown that Bantry Bay is not a suitable environment for salmon farming. It is time to stop investing in open cage salmon farms which are clearly failing, and to start investing in land based closed containment systems from which salmon cannot escape.’ Said Kieran O’Shea, Chairman of Save Bantry Bay Contact: Secretary, Save Bantry Bay, Alec O’Donovan, 087 7949227 (mobile) or 027 50508 Chair, Save Bantry Bay, Kieran O’Shea, 086 1280303 (mobile) or 027 60121 Notes for Editors: References: 1. Yeates, Sarah E., et al. “Assessing risks of invasion through gamete performance: farm Atlantic salmon sperm and eggs show equivalence in function, fertility, compatibility and competitiveness to wild Atlantic salmon.” Evolutionary Applications (2014). 2. Jensen, Ø., et al. “Escapes of fishes from Norwegian sea-cage aquaculture: causes, consequences and prevention.” Aquaculture Environment Interactions 1.1 (2010): 71-83. Parliamentary Questions No.883/884 To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in relation to his reassurances that his Engineering Division and the Marine Institute were investigating the disaster that overtook a fish farm (details supplied) in County Cork over six weeks ago, if he will provide the number of salmon contained in the fish farm before the disaster overtook it and the number of fish remaining subsequently. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide information on the number of mortalities collected and stored in formic acid on barges in enclosed ensiling tanks after the disaster that overtook a fish farm (details supplied) in County Cork; the licensed facility at which they were ultimately disposed of as required by his Fish Health Management Plan.. For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 25th March, 2014. REPLY: The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the I propose to take PQ numbers 13634/14 and 13635/15 together.

Marine:

(Simon

Coveney)

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters My Department’s Engineering Division together with the Marine Institute carried out a preliminary onsite examination of the aquaculture operations at the location referred to by the Deputy as soon as weather conditions permitted. The results of this preliminary examination suggest that the total number of salmon held on site in three cages immediately prior to the recent storm was in the order of 250,000. The number of live fish remaining after the storm event was in the order of 20,000. In accordance with the requirements of European Regulation No. 1069/2009 all aquaculture operators are obliged to send mortalities to Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine approved facilities for disposal (e.g. rendering, incineration). My Department’s Veterinary Inspectors carry out routine inspections to ensure compliance with these requirements. Due to the ongoing severe weather conditions that prevailed at the site up to recently no fish mortalities were collected. At the first available opportunity my Department arranged a dive inspection of the area and this took place on the 13th March. The dive inspection indicated that there were no dead fish present. I am advised by the Marine Institute however, that where dead fish remain in the bottom of a cage for extended periods (i.e. more than a week or so) they decompose and the bodies of the fish disintegrate making any estimate of numbers difficult. In addition the effects of rough weather and scavengers feeding on the remains will tend to accelerate the disintegration process. Department continues to keep the position under review.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

“You can see that the salmon in these pens are happy – they jump, swim in circles and put on weight” – Trine Danielsen, Marine Harvest

Alexandra Morton:

 

Here is a film from Norway. Most of it is not in English, but at minute 18:47 they ask if a fish farm company brought ISA to Chile.



Also he asks WWF if they take money from the fish farmers (39:00).



It is worth watching the whole thing wish it was all in English.

 Salmonopoly Watch, Listen, Learn HERE Get involved, Today!

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Some 120,000 salmon escape after fire in Norway farm April 4, 2014 Some 120,000 salmon averaging 0.5 kilos in size are estimated to have escaped from a fish farm in Gulen commune, western Norway. The site affected belongs to Firda Sjofarmer. A fire broke out at the farm on April 2, for still undetermined reasons. A count by wellboat has estimated that fire caused some 120,000 fish to escape, said the Norwegian fisheries directorate. The fire burnt part of the pen’s rim and attachment of the net. The company has started efforts to re-catch the escaped fish in an area of 1,500 meters from the site, later expanded to 5,000 meters. The fish is said to be healthy and not medicated.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Thousands of salmon escape cages in Norway April 15, 2014 More than 47,000 salmon have escaped their cages in the Ålfjorden north of Stavanger, fuelling environmentalist fears that Norway's salmon farming industry will destroy wild salmon stocks and weaken the natural gene pool. The escape, from a farm owned by Alsaker Fjordbruk, was the fifth reported in the last two months. Kurt Oddekalv, from Green Warriors of Norway, told Bergens Tidende that he believed salmon farmers hugely underreported escapes. "Salmon farmers are now being fined for escapes, so they have good reasons for reporting as few as possible," he said. "Remember that there's only a net between farmed fish and the high seas. Farmed salmon is destroying wild salmon stocks and natural genetic diversity.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

SALMON FARMING: Last year Norway's exports of salmon to a value of 40 billion

 A heralded disaster (translated from Norwegian) Billions rolls into salmon farming. Politicians clap excitedly. It covers a profound environmental crisis April 4, 2014 The aquaculture industry tremble of success. Last year Norway exported salmon worth 40 billion. The average price of fresh salmon increased by an incredible 44 percent. The owners counting money and the government will have more of the same. It will be more concessions and more fish in each cage. Behind the national parade industry is facing the worse for. Where is the list of issues long and painful: Escape and genetic pollution, diseases and parasites, discharge of sewage and pollutants, large land use in the fjords, feed resources that are not sustainable and a steadily increasing concentration of ownership.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters If industry and government cleans up, it's only a matter of time before this toxic cocktail gets devastating effect. Both of sea life, fjords, salmon rivers and the Norwegian economy. Fisheries Minister Elisabeth Aspaker (H) "rejoice seafood adventure," wrote the papers then export figures for 2013 were presented. Yet lice more progress than exports. According to the industry's own figures costs salmon farmers around two million for every pound they produce. Today processed salmon at least three times a year for lice, which are tripled since 2007. What is worse: the delousing agents are becoming less effective and many of them pollute, often for long periods. It is noted resistance in seven out of ten products used against lice. Marketing Director Change ter the feed company eWOS has stated that "we are about to run out of remedies against lice." The diseases included salmon are numerous and complex. Such bacterial and viral diseases can in many cases the infection to wild fish. A study conducted by the Institute of Marine Research shows that escapees can carry viral diseases SAV and PRV to the spawning grounds in rivers. It is also shown that diseases from aquaculture can be transferred between populations and species. The research has come a long way in these areas, which in itself poses a danger. The development still has a clear tendency: Farming operations seem to be reading more aggressive and more harmful disease organisms than those normally found in nature. The diseases are therefore no internal problem for the industry, but a threat to the entire biodiversity. Escape contributes to spread diseases and lice, and genetic destruction of wild salmon. In its latest report on the risks of farming, says IMR that the real numbers of escape is several times higher than those farmers report. Moreover escaping a large part of the very young fish (fry).Probably the number of escape higher than the estimate of 1.5 million fish. Surveys in various rivers shows that cross breeding with salmon farming varies from slightly more than two percent to nearly fifty percent. An increasing problem is the pollution and land use in the fjords. The pollution has many sources: Sewage from fish, chemicals and toxins from debugging, waste feed and impregnation (copper). Just sewer equivalent volume of feces from several million people. This naturally affects the environment, particularly in threshold fjords where the replacement of water is poor. Increasingly, comes reports from local fishermen report that good fishing spots are destroyed, or that the fish have lousy quality. Many places growing local opposition to the salmon farms. Eg. Have Conservative mayor Laila Davidsen Alta stated that the disadvantages are so great that the municipality does not want new farming operations. The lack of sustainability in the industry is not solved, yet there are less fish in the diet. The aquaculture industry uses twice as much fish as it produces, and therefore contributes to reducing world food production. As is the growing concentration of ownership. The political ambitions of several governments on local ownership and control are not fulfilled. The ten largest aquaculture operators own about 70 percent of the approximately one thousand salmon licenses. The list of threats is long, but the most dangerous are still the owners, authorities and politicians capitulation to each other. No one will stop the party and take action about tomorrow. Salmon adventure has been an after party that is out of control.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Farm salmon pose clear reproductive threat to wild gene pools March 9, 2014 (ed. Intentionally republished due to importance) Farmed salmon show full reproductive potential to invade wild gene pools and should be sterilised according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA). Findings published today reveal that, while farmed salmon are genetically different to their wild counterparts, they are just as fertile. This is important information because millions of farmed salmon escape into the wild – posing threats to wild gene pools. Lead Researcher Prof Matt Gage from UEA's school of Biological Sciences said: "Around 95 per cent of all salmon in existence are farmed, and domestication has made them very different to wild populations, each of which is locally adapted to its own river system. "Farmed salmon grow very fast, are aggressive, and not as clever as wild salmon when it comes to dealing with predators. These domestic traits are good for producing fish for the table, but not for the stability of wild populations.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "The problem is that farmed salmon can escape each year in their millions, getting into wild spawning populations, where they can then reproduce and erode wild gene pools, introducing these negative traits. "We know that recently-escaped farmed salmon are inferior to wild fish in reproduction, but we do not have detailed information on sperm and egg performance, which could have been affected by domestication. Our work shows that farm fish are as potent at the gamete level as wild fish, and if farm escapes can revive their spawning behaviour by a period in the wild, clearly pose a significant threat of hybridisation with wild populations." Researchers used a range of in vitro fertilization tests in conditions that mimicked spawning in the natural environment, including tests of sperm competitiveness and egg compatibility. All tests on sperm and egg form and function showed that farmed salmon are as fertile as wild salmon – identifying a clear threat of farmed salmon reproducing with wild fish. "Some Norwegian rivers have recorded big numbers of farmed fish present – as much as 50 per cent. Both anglers and conservationists are worried by farmed fish escapees which could disrupt locally adapted traits like timing of return, adult body size, and disease resistance. "Salmon farming is a huge business in the UK, Norway and beyond, and while it does reduce the pressure on wild fish stocks, it can also create its own environmental pressures through genetic disruption. "A viable solution is to induce 'triploidy' by pressure-treating salmon eggs just after fertilisation - where the fish grows as normal, but with both sex chromosomes; this is normal for farming rainbow trout. The resulting adult develops testes and ovaries but both are much reduced and most triploids are sterile.

Editorial Comment:

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Ocean based salmon feedlots devastate wild salmon stocks and their fragile ecosystems Ocean based salmon feedlots irreversibly destroy cultures, communities and economies.

Editorial Comment:

  

Triploidy only addresses some of the issues associated with ocean based feedlot salmon escapes. Risks of ocean based salmon feedlots including public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies must also be resolved. The only solution to many of the risks associated with wild ecosystems and all that rely on them is to move ocean based salmon feedlots to land based facilities

These triploid fish can't reproduce if they escape, but the aquaculture industry has not embraced this technology yet because of fears that triploids don't perform as well in farms as normal diploid fish, eroding profits."

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 THE NO-GUILT, DELICIOUS SALMON OF THE FUTURE Sustainable Atlantic salmon, grown in fresh water in inland farms, is a new viable alternative to the standard variety April 5, 2014 Just beyond the balcony on the 22nd-floor penthouse, New York City's skyscrapers flickered, and the Yale Club's tablecloths flapped as white as the waiters' jackets in the night breeze. Yet the fresh air was not the star of this 2013 spring night, but rather, fresh water. Specifically, the kind used to produce the night’s supper — Atlantic salmon.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Served three ways — raw as tartare, roasted with skin on or cured as gravlax — this salmon had been farmed using a new technique, in fresh water on an inland salmon farm. The guests, members of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, hoped that more salmon farmed this way could help save endangered wild salmon. “The flavor was great,” said the chef, Tom Valenti, noting that in terms of taste the pink fillets were to other farmed salmon what heirloom tomatoes are to winter beefsteaks. “But my angle, forgive the pun, has more to do with conservation.” With an inland farm in British Columbia poised for the first time to start selling commercial quantities of freshwater-reared salmon this month, conservationists in North America are counting on chefs and shoppers to show the aquaculture industry that inland farming is a viable alternative. The standard practice of farming salmon in huge sea cages is toxic to the oceans, they say, and deadly to wild salmon.

“This salmon has the ability to tell a story on multiple levels: its sustainable impact, the non-use of pesticides or chemicals. So for the average [consumer] it really resonates.” Guy Dean Vice President, Albion Fisheries, Canada So how is the new technology working? “All of the fish has been pre-sold for the next year and people are very excited,” said Guy Dean, vice president of Canada’s Albion Fisheries, a distributor of inland-raised salmon. Albion sells this special salmon for around 20 percent more than salmon farmed offshore. The price point fills an important niche for a growing number of concerned consumers who are willing to pay more for safe salmon, Dean said, but who can’t afford to pay triple for sustainably caught wild Pacific salmon. People who tasted the inland-farmed salmon for market research reported that it was leaner, less fishy and more buttery than standard farmed salmon — similar to wild salmon, he said. “This salmon has the ability to tell a story on multiple levels: its sustainable impact, the nonuse of pesticides or chemicals,” he said. “So for the average [consumer] it really resonates.”

Dr. Claudette Bethune: While closed containment does put the burden of waste on the industry, the resulting fish will still contain some of the highest levels of dioxinlike PCBs of any food on the market. Without significant changes to clean the feed, which is even more expense, the product will still be a human health hazard. Perhaps with very limited production, due again to the real cost of producing a product that is not harmful to the environment and our health, the industry will be rightfully cut down to a small industry that has the necessary oversight.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A sea change in aquaculture Salmon farmed in inland tanks, also known as closed-containment systems, have the advantage of growing in a controlled environment, said Sue Scott of the Atlantic Salmon Federation in New Brunswick. The federation has given money for research on an inland salmon farm run by the Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute in Shepherdstown, W.Va. Farms like that eliminate escapes of farmed salmon into the ocean, a major threat to wild salmon genetics, Scott said. They also keep salmon food — small, wild-caught fish like anchovies that are a renewable but sensitive resource — from going to waste when portions wash through the nets and into the ocean, she said. And inland salmon need not be rinsed with pesticides and other chemicals. At sea, inside net pens where fish are packed tightly together like kindergartners in a classroom, naturally occurring parasites and diseases can proliferate, the way common colds do in humans. Diseases and pests can spread to wild fish that swim past, she said. Inland farms, she said, are better protected from fish diseases. “The Freshwater Institute is showing through their research that, operationally, it’s on par with the open net pen, and they’re taking care of their waste,” Scott said. “There’s a large niche market that wants to buy sustainable farmed Atlantic salmon, and that is a good start toward a transition that can take place over time.” More than 99 percent of the fresh water used for inland salmon farms is filtered and reused, she said. And the salmon waste, which when dropped from net pens into the open ocean can trigger harmful algae blooms, is collected and recycled as compost. “It keeps the disease out, it keeps the environment from being impacted,” said Steve Summerfelt, of the Freshwater Institute, who has spent two decades innovating technology to raise salmon inland. “And it hardly uses water.” The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California publishes a well-respected guide about the environmental effects of seafood. The guide recommends that consumers avoid salmon raised in offshore net pens, and spokeswoman Karrie Carnes underlines this. But Coho salmon — a species native to the Pacific Ocean — raised on inland farms? They ranked it a “best choice.” Their decision on inlandfarmed Atlantic salmon, however, is eagerly anticipated. The salmon raised inland at the farm in British Columbia that is poised to start selling come April is called Kuterra. Sprawling over the northern tip of Canada’s Vancouver Island, the farm uses land that belongs to the ‘Namgis First Nation. “Kuterra” is a combination of the ‘Namgis word “ku,” meaning “salmon,” and “terra,” meaning land. “What unifies us is a belief that there’s a more sustainable way to raise Atlantic salmon,” said Jackie Hildering, a spokeswoman for the Save Our Salmon conservation organization, which partnered on the farm with the ‘Namgis First Nation. “However, this will not work for the environment if we don’t have the economics.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Doubts from industry Pamela Parker, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, said the benefits of inland farms are overhyped, and that the environmental damage of offshore farms is overblown. The organization represents offshore farmers. “To say that one is better than the other,” she said, “I think is a mistake.” An inland salmon farm requires around three times the capital investment of an offshore farm, analysis shows. Many say that’s too high a price to enter an exploding industry. Salmon farming leapt from roughly 5,000 tons worldwide in 1980 to more than 2 million in 2012, according to United Nations statistics, because of booming worldwide demand. The vast majority is Atlantic salmon. Canada is one of the leading salmon exporters to the United States, the biggest salmon consumer in the world. Offshore farmers are getting better at preventing salmon escapes, Parker said, and the farms have reduced wasted fish feed by installing cameras on the nets to monitor when salmon eat. Also, chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, used to cleanse salmon of diseases and parasites, are closely regulated by the Canadian government, and deemed safe. These methods curb transmission to wild fish. “We manage our fish health so that we will not be responsible for any transference of parasites or disease,” she said. Salmon farming leapt from roughly 5,000 tons worldwide in 1980 to more than 2 million in 2012 because of booming worldwide demand. United Nations Instead, she charges that by using water pumps powered by electricity generated in plants that burn fossil fuels, inland farms have a worse carbon footprint than the offshore farms. A 2013 study by the Conservation Fund showed that an inland salmon farm’s carbon footprint depends on its location. In the northeastern United States, where most electricity is generated by burned coal, an inland farm would have a higher carbon footprint than an offshore farm, said Brian Vinci, of the Freshwater Institute, who co-authored the report. Not so in the Pacific Northwest, where much power comes from hydroelectric dams and the carbon footprint of an inland farm would be equal to that of an average offshore farm. “If carbon footprint is something that we think is important, we need to think about where we put these farms,” Vinci said. Like any burgeoning industry, inshore salmon farms have struggled with unforeseen challenges. At the ‘Namgis First Nation farm, engineers scrambled after their growing salmon produced more heat and carbon dioxide than expected.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “It’s been a continual process of solving problems,” said Garry Ullstrom, CEO of Kuterra. One of these problems turned catastrophic at another inland farm. Sustainable Blue, based in Nova Scotia, was poised to join Kuterra this spring in bringing Canada’s first inland-raised salmon to a wide market. But on March 15, the farm suffered a power outage so extreme that it knocked out the emergency alarms. Around 12,000 salmon died, the entire first year’s crop, said CEO Kirk Havercroft. He estimates that the company won’t recover until August 2015. “This is a setback,” Havercroft said. “But that’s all it is.” The company learned, however, that minus the start-up costs, the production costs of raising salmon inland were roughly equal to those of raising them offshore. This echoed the results of a 2013 study sponsored by The Conservation Fund that showed that raising salmon inland was slightly cheaper than offshore farming. “There’s a will and a resolve and a determination here to make this a success,” Havercroft said. “This isn’t just a project; this is an industry.” Threat to wild salmon Powering much of the zeal for inland Atlantic salmon farms are urgent calls to save the wild ancestor of this bronze-and-gray-speckled fish. The Atlantic salmon — scientific name Salmo salar, Latin for “the leaper” — is treasured by anglers. It was abundant until the Industrial Revolution. Then the species was decimated by overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, especially dams that choked off spawning streams. Ironically, in the 1970s Atlantic salmon conservationists were among the first to back salmon farming in open sea net pens, believing it was better than gillnetting the last wild stocks. But Atlantic salmon brought into pens became domesticated after a few generations by being selectively bred to show different traits than their wild counterparts. Farmed salmon are genetically engineered to grow fast, scientists say. But wild salmon must balance their growth with the ability to elude predators, hunt food and navigate back to their native streams. Scientists discovered the threat to wild salmon posed by domestic salmon in the 1990s, after aquaculture surged and scores of farmed salmon escaped, said Jonathan Carr, executive director of research and environment for the Atlantic Salmon Federation. After 22 years of monitoring salmon running up New Brunswick’s Magaguadavic River, only four times has the number of wild salmon exceeded the number of salmon escaped from farms, he said. In 2013 there were six wild Atlantic salmon and 91 escapees. “If we’re finding 91 in this river,” he said, “just imagine how many there are in other rivers.” The count of six wild salmon is particularly paltry compared to some years in the 1980s, before the propagation of salmon farms, when the Magaguadavic River saw the return of more than 1,000 wild salmon.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Industry representatives say that of the tens of thousands of farmed salmon that escape each year — some during storms, others because of human error — only around 1 percent are sexually mature and pose any risk of interbreeding. But scientists like Carr say that in many streams in eastern Canada, wild salmon number only in the single digits, and that even one sexually mature farm fish could jeopardize the entire wild strain. One of the genetic traits diluted in farmed salmon, Carr said, is the ability to navigate. Hence, many Atlantic salmon that are hybrids of farmed fish and wild fish have swum out to sea and never returned. Salmon farmers are required by Canadian law to report any escapes. But of all the farmed salmon Carr and his partner biologists have found in rivers, a scant few had been reported. He and others say government oversight of the industry is lax, and that Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a “conflicted mandate” to both regulate and promote aquaculture. A spokesman for the department said he could not comment.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Live tilapia raised by Blue Ridge Aquaculture are loaded into a truck bound for New York

 The Future Of Clean, Green Fish Farming Could Be Indoor Factories Why hasn't fish farming taken off in the U.S.? April 7, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters It's certainly not for lack of demand for the fish. Slowly but surely, seafood that's grown in aquaculture is taking over the seafood section at your supermarket, and the vast majority is imported. The shrimp and tilapia typically come from warm-water ponds in southeast Asia and Latin America. Farmed salmon come from big net pens in the coastal waters of Norway or Chile. Michael Rubino, director of aquaculture at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says the U.S. could harvest much of that fish — especially the salmon — here at home. He points to a study carried out by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, which concluded that, among all the world's nations, the U.S. had the greatest potential for ocean-based aquaculture production. Rubino says it wouldn't even consume a very large area. "The entire Norwegian production of salmon, a million tons a year, can be grown in an area about the size of the runways at JFK Airport in New York," he says. Editorial Comment: The major reason why it hasn't Dr. Rubino and his professional team at NOAA are completely happened is opposition from out of touch with the published, science-based findings environmentalists and from associated with ocean-based salmon feedlots. people living on the coast, who enjoy their pristine ocean views. Ocean based salmon feedlots are risks to: Environmentalists have been deeply suspicious of large-scale aquaculture. When millions of fish are crowded together, they generate a lot of waste. Fish farms can also be breeding grounds for diseases that can infect wild fish nearby. And then there's the problem of feeding the fish. That feed usually contains lots of fish meal and fish oil, which in turn come from wild fish — small species like menhaden or anchovies that are swept from the oceans by the shipload.

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Public health Wild ecosystems Wild ecosystem dependent cultures Wild ecosystem dependent communities Wild ecosystem dependent economies

The aesthetics of open pen salmon feedlots are not reasons that open pen salmon feedlots have not expanded in the USA. Of particular concern, as with Canada’s DFO, NOAA is conflicted by being tasked to protect wild ecosystems while at the same time promoting open pen salmon feedlots. Wild marine ecosystems and open pen salmon feedlots will never coexist.

It's all given aquaculture a bad name — although Rubino insists that these environmental risks can easily be managed. But what if there was a way to make fish farms totally clean and green? Several entrepreneurs say they're doing it. They're building fish factories on land, releasing almost no pollution — vastly less, in fact, than the fish farms from which we routinely buy seafood currently.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters They're working to overcome two different kinds of barriers: technological and economic. The cutting edge of technology is Yoni Zohar's laboratory at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore. When Zohar opens the door to his basement laboratory, I hear the hum of water pumps and see an array of plastic tanks, the biggest ones a dozen feet across. They're filled with artificial sea water and hundreds of fish. "We are located right on the inner harbor of Baltimore, but we don't take a drop of water from the harbor, and we don't drain a drop of water into the harbor," says Zohar. Can Salmon Farming Be Sustainable? Maybe, If You Head Inland Can A Fish Farm Be Organic? That's Up For Debate Some of the fish in these tanks are hard to find in the wild. Among them are the gilt-head seabream and the branzino. If you find them on a restaurant menu, they're usually pretty expensive. "These fish are now spawning," announces Zohar, gesturing toward one tank filled with seabream. Fish like these won't normally spawn in captivity. But Zohar has figured out ways to make the female fish think they're in their natural spawning grounds. "The idea is to have the entire life cycle in completely clean and controlled conditions that disease-free, so you don't introduce anything from the outside," Zohar says. As a result, these never need antibiotics, hormones or other chemicals to keep them healthy. And because they kept in optimal conditions, they grow twice as quickly as fish in traditional net pens in Mediterranean.

are fish are the

All the water here is completely recycled. Waste is filtered out and converted by bacteria into harmless nitrogen plus methane, which is burned for energy. In addition, Zohar is testing a new kind of feed that contains no fish meal. It's made from common grains, algae and one supplemental amino acid that fish require. It appears to solve aquaculture's environmental problems. But, remember, this is just a laboratory. Such a system will only replace traditional fish farming if it's also profitable. So I went to visit another self-contained fish farm: Bill Martin's tilapia factory in Martinsville, Va. Martin ushers me into a huge, dimly lit room, so warm and humid that mist hangs in the air and my glasses immediately fog up. As far as I can see, there are concrete tanks filled with water — a million and a half gallons in all — and millions of tilapia. "If these were cattle, it would be called a feedlot. If they were chicken, it would be a broiler room," Martin says. Each day, trucks haul away 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of live tilapia. They go to markets from Baltimore to Toronto.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters It's big enough to make indoor aquaculture a real business. Like Zohar's laboratory in Baltimore, this factory is self-contained, free of disease. Martin says it's just practical. "I'm not a tree-hugger or an environmentalist by nature," he says. "I am one because it makes this capitalism that you see here work so much better." The technology here isn't quite as cutting edge as what I saw in Baltimore. Tilapia are a lot easier to grow than ocean fish. They aren't picky about where they spawn, for instance. (Martin's tilapia spawn in big ditches inside a nearby greenhouse.) But in a way, that makes Martin's job even harder, because he's competing with tilapia growers in Vietnam, China and Latin America. Martin sells his fish to a small segment of the market: people who want to buy their fish live and will pay extra for them. He still can't compete directly with the imported tilapia fillets that you see in the store. "We can't pay people a dollar a week, or whatever they pay them, to hand-cut these fish," he says. "We had to wait until machinery was available." Martin is now about to test some new machines that will cut these fish into fillets. If they work, he says, his fish will be practically as cheap as the imports, while being produced in clean conditions, without the use of chemicals. He's also moving toward feed that contains no fish meal. In fact, he has even bigger ambitions. He'd like to grow other kinds of fish, and also shrimp. Indoor fish farms, he predicts, will be the clean and green future of aquaculture. Michael Rubino

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Dr. Michael Rubino is the Director of the Aquaculture Office in Silver Spring, Maryland. He joined NOAA in late 2004 to lead NOAA’s renewed commitment to marine aquaculture. Dr. Rubino represents the Department of Commerce on the executive committee of the U.S. Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture. Prior to joining NOAA, Dr. Rubino was the manager of New Funds Development for the World Bank's Carbon Finance Group. In the 1990s, Dr. Rubino was at the International Finance Corporation, a private sector affiliate of the World Bank, where he developed renewable energy and biodiversity investment funds. Earlier he was the CEO of an aquaculture R&D company and a partner in a shrimp farm in South Carolina. Dr. Rubino also served as vice-chairman of the State of Maryland's Aquaculture Advisory Committee. He holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan.

email: michael.rubino@noaa.gov

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Why Greenpeace can't - and won't - endorse farmed salmon March 21, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Greenpeace doesn’t endorse farmed salmon. There you go, that’s it in black and white. Next time you see someone say we do – feel free to forward a link to this blog-post. I’m writing this to set the record straight after a few instances of producers and retailers (and even the occasional NGO) wilfully misrepresenting us as having supported, endorsed, or given their salmon farming some sort of ‘best practice award’. Smoked salmon used to be an occasional, expensive food. Farmed salmon is now a ubiquitous, cheap product. Salmon has shifted in just a couple of decades from being a rare, fancy treat, to a discounted supermarket staple. This growth in demand has been fed by the remarkable growth of salmon farming around the world. From a purely environmental point of view, with salmon farming there is a considerable problem with what goes in and what comes out in terms of kilogram’s of fish. Salmon are fed fish meal, ground up from vast fisheries for ‘little’ fish like anchovies, sardines and blue whiting. Whether it’s a ratio of five, four, three or two to one – making more fish into less fish is an environmental concern. That gets even further complicated when you realise that the fish that makes the meal that feeds the salmon has come from enormous industrial fisheries thousands of miles away. We might not have a taste for these smaller fish, but many other species do – some of them commercially-important fish, as well as countless whales, dolphins, seabirds, sea lions, and sharks. The ‘little fish’ are literally the building blocks of the ocean’s food web. Even krill, the basis of the Antarctic food web and vital food for penguins, whales, seabirds and seals, is now being targeted to create fish feed. The sheer scale of these fisheries, to produce fish meal, is undermining entire ecosystems, as well as local coastal fisheries in countries such as Peru. Salmon farming, even if it’s on your doorstep, is a truly international business. In some places there are huge concerns over the sheer scale of fishing that is happening, or the lengths we are going to in order find more sources of fish food mean we are literally going to the ends of the earth and the bottom of the food chain. Elsewhere we are effectively stealing the fish from the mouths of people in developing countries because it’s more financially desirable to sell it as fish food. As fisheries expert Daniel Pauly evocatively describes it, we are “robbing Pedro, to feed Paul”. Now the taste for salmon is spreading, for example it is increasingly popular in Japan, where it is starting to give tuna a run for its money. The global demand for salmon certainly doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. We don’t need to look any further than the UK where a recent ‘deal’ to double the farmed salmon production in Scotland to help sate growing demand in China, was dressed up by the addition of some pandas to sweeten the deal.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters There are other concerns, too:

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sometimes salmon farms are just in the wrong place - e.g. farming Atlantic salmon in the Pacific Ocean, on the coast of Chile; the amount of fish squeezed into one sea-cage or tank - and what that does to health of the fish and the local environment; disease and parasite transmission to struggling wild salmon populations is a major concern, as is localised pollution from run-off and chemicals used to treat parasites and disease; and perhaps the most visual and emotive issue is the impact on predators, with the legitimate and illegitimate steps taken to control basically any animal that looks like it might eat a salmon. That means birds, possibly otters, but more usually – seals.

Freedom of information requests have revealed that many of the biggest, most well-branded salmon farms come tainted with the taste of dead seal. You won’t see that proudly portrayed on the packaging. Then there’s complicated politics. In Scotland, where many farms are owned and operated by Norwegian companies, salmon farms means jobs in remote rural areas – often where there are few alternatives. So what is globally a huge international business looks like a localised issue of a few people’s livelihoods. You can make better choices when buying salmon. In North America that’s reasonably simple – as wild-caught Pacific salmon from healthy populations is still an alternative. In Europe that is increasingly difficult, as wild Atlantic salmon populations are big trouble in both sides of the Atlantic, so the ‘better’ options are from those who farm organically or with better standards. But saying something is ‘better’, or the best of a bad lot, does not make it good. And it certainly doesn’t make it an endorsement. The real answer for a consumer on salmon is to know what you are potentially tucking into. The real long term solution should be rebuilding wild stocks, and fishing them at sustainable levels. As it stands, the salmon farming industry is not one I can support, and it’s not one Greenpeace endorses. In the dim, distant, utopian future, a system of farming fish that is on land, closed-system, with fish kept at low densities, and with sustainably-caught and justifiable sources of feed, might - just might tick all the boxes. Indeed, after we challenged the industry with our report on aquaculture some years ago and there are already some promising signs of companies moving away from at-sea cage farming to closed, on-land systems of salmon farming. We do need to support those initiatives.

But at the moment on salmon farming – it’s a ‘no’ from us.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Confirms the infectious salmon anemia The locality is a sea plant owned by Jøkelfjord Salmon AS. March 21, 2014 Infectious salmon anemia confirmed. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority says it has confirmed Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in the locality Hjellberget 10808 in Kvænangen municipality in Troms writes Reuters. The locality is a sea farm owned by Jøkelfjord Laks. Food Safety Authority adopted on 20 March 2014 Regulation on the control area for the control of fish disease ISA after the detection of the disease in a fish farm there on 10 March 2014. Dr. Claudette Bethune

 Infectious

salmon anemia (ISA) virus re-emerging in Norway in the same place as last

year.

 Sea lice are a known vector of ISA (since 1994) and they are now largely drug and even bleach bath resistant, leaving their infestation to cause ISA infection.

 I wonder how much of these diseased fish will end up on our plates at restaurants, etc?

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Containment fish farm near Port McNeill ready for harvest March 20, 2014 It’s nearly time to start harvesting the first Atlantic salmon raised at a land-based fish farm on ‘Namgis First Nation land south of Port McNeill.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Marketed under the name Kuterra, the fish are the product of the $9.5-million ‘Namgis Closed Containment Salmon Farm, aimed at being a leader in this kind of venture. “Ku” refers to Kutala, meaning “salmon” in Kwak’wala, and Terra is for the land-raised aspect of the project, which began last year. Albion Fisheries Ltd. is taking the 600,000 pounds of fish that will be harvested regularly through this year, and is hoping for close to one million pounds in 2015, Guy Dean, Albion vice-president, said in an interview. The salmon will be sold in B.C. through an agreement with a major supermarket chain, but Dean would not yet reveal the retailer’s identity. Dean expects harvesting to begin late this month or in early April. After that, the fish will be taken to Albion’s new $10-million Richmond processing plant. In March 2013, the first 23,000 smolts, weighing 100 grams each and supplied by Marine Harvest Canada, went into a tank at the farm. After a month, they graduated to larger tanks where they have been raised to market size, without pesticides or antibiotics, in water from an on-site well. It is fresh water but somewhat salty because of proximity to the ocean. “It tastes like salmon, but we are finding it to have a milder, rich, buttery flavour,” Dean said. Albion plans to send about 75 per cent of the salmon to the retail market, with the remainder going to high-end restaurants, he said. There’s been interest in buying the salmon from elsewhere in Canada and from the U.S., he said. Kuterra CEO Garry Ullstrom is bullish on the project, aimed at creating an environmentally friendly, sustainable and profitable business for the ‘Namgis First Nation. The ‘Namgis people hope the project will help foster more land-based fish farms and encourage aquaculture companies to move away from net pens in the ocean. Target harvest size is 3.5 kilograms but some salmon have reached eight kg, Ullstrom said. Financial details are confidential but he said a “healthy profit” is expected. The long-term goal is to reach the profit level seen with net-pen farming. Project funding came from the federal government, Tides Canada and conservation and philanthropic organizations. Ullstrom would like to see lower capital costs for the land-based system and said they will be looking into ways to make money from farm waste. He hopes for government incentive money for innovation. Aquaculture company Marine Harvest Canada has been raising Atlantic salmon to market size in land-based tanks for 20 years near Duncan, said Ian Roberts, communications manager. Those fish are used for broodstock. Marine Harvest examined raising more fish on land for human consumption, “but has decided against it due to concerns of cost [capital investment and power], environmental footprint [groundwater use] and animal welfare [higher stocking densities].”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Responsibility

for the removal of escaped farmed salmon in the wild (translated via Bing) March 21, 2014 The eight organizations Norwegian salmon rivers, the WWF, Greenpeace, the nature protection League, seem, Norwegian, Norwegian Hunter and fisheries federations, and outdoor life's private organization have joined forces in a call to the Government.

The fishing's official escape statistics show that the yearly 225,000 farmed salmon escape from Norwegian fish farms (average of last 5 years). Many escape events are reported, and the Institute of marine research believes that it is likely that the real escape the number is 1.5 million farmed salmon annually, writes the organizations in a joint press release. By comparison, it comes to no more than 425.000 wild salmon in Norwegian rivers to spawn (average of last 5 years, the Scientific advice for the management of salmon). Escaped farmed salmon make up 12% of all the salmon on spawning grounds in the Norwegian rivers in the fall (average of last 5 years, the Scientific advice for the management of salmon). In order to call attention to the fish farming industry's responsibility for the escapes of salmon, and in order to have an adequate financing of the utfiskingstiltak by escape accident, the Storting has adopted a new section 13 a of the akvakulturloven, which will take effect 1. July 2014. It enjoins all Norwegian fish farmers to participate in a public association with the obligation to cover the necessary expenses for the removal of escaped farmed salmon in the wild. "Given the opportunity to claim on the part of individual breeders if the ownership of the escaped fish can be determined. Our organizations took the view that this parliamentary decision was a very important and absolutely necessary grip to reduce the threat that escaped farmed salmon will inflict on the salmon. Government by State Secretary Drønen Ringdal in the food-and the Fisheries Ministry, has said that it does not want to operationalise section 13 a through a necessary regulatory determination. Instead, the Government will put the "polluter-pays principle" to reason, and correct the legal and economic responsibility directly to the individual breeder. The Government says that a prerequisite for being able to do this, is that all the farmed fish will be marked so that it can be identified and tracked back to the duly authorized animal owner. In 2011 all the fish farming companies committed associated with fisheries and the aquaculture industry's Association to select all of the farmed salmon so it can be distinguished from wild salmon and be traced back to responsible business. Three of the companies have now set in motion a 2-year research project, in which they will test out a tracking system to see if it can be used in all areas where it is produced salmon. The tracking system does not include tagging for be able to distinguish farmed fish from wild fish. Underskrivende organizations support the "polluter-pays-principle" but said none the less that the Government needs to establish a regulation that operasjonaliserer section 13 a of the akvakulturloven as of July 1, 2014, when this paragraph to take effect. At the same time, the Government must impose any, under the legal authority of the akvakulturlovens section 10, all the fish farming companies to brand its farmed salmon, then it can be distinguished from wild salmon in the wild, and be traced back to responsible business through a tracking method that does not create legal doubts about the ownership. This will make it possible to follow the principle that the polluter should pay within the akvakulturlovens section 13a.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Climate Change

 Groundbreaking

UN Report Warns Climate Change a Threat to Global Security and Mankind March 31, 2014

While climate change reports are far from a new phenomenon, an international study released Monday morning should be enough to give any human being reason to act and/or demand action from legislators and the energy industry around them. For the first time, a United Nations panel has concluded that the list of widely known climate change impacts—including extreme weather and warming—could soon grow to include increased strains on water and food supplies, leading to civil resource wars, migration and international conflict. That’s on top of assertions that the effects of climate change are already seen on every continent and oceans on the planet, and that we’re “ill-prepared” for them.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters According to a United Nations panel, climate-related impacts are taking place all over the world, and for the most part, we’re unprepared for them. Photo credit: International Panel on Climate Change “We live in an era of man-made climate change,” said Vicente Barros, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group II, which compiled the report. “In many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face. Investments in better preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future.” By all accounts, the report, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability is the most comprehensive report on climate change released on a global scale. A total of 309 authors and editors from 70 countries were selected to produce the report. Additionally, 436 contributors and nearly 1,800 experts and government reviewers provided input. The report’s impending release led to a flurry of responses and interpretations over the weekend that all agree that fossil fuel divestment needs to end now. “Oil rigs and coal power plants are weapons of mass destruction, loading the atmosphere with destructive carbon emissions that don’t respect national borders,” Jen Maman, peace adviser at Greenpeace International, said. “To protect our peace and security, we must disarm them and accelerate the transition to clean and safe renewable energy that’s already started.” Chris Field, another IPCC co-chair, told The Guardian that the group that compiled the report realized it was high time to move beyond weather and energy related impacts when discussing the risks of a changing climate. “If we want to take a smart approach to the future, we need to consider a full range of possible outcomes and that means not only the more likely outcomes, but also outcomes for truly catastrophic impacts, even if those are lower probability,” Field said. Michael Mann, a climate scientist, author, professor and director of Penn State University’s Earth System Science Center, said the report shows that “increased competition for diminishing resources among a growing global population is unfortunately a perfect prescription for increased conflict.” In the IPCC’s view, it’s most striking that these effects on our agriculture, health, livelihood and ecosystems are taking place “from the tropics to the poles, from small islands to large continents, and from the wealthiest countries to the poorest.” That means the potential for mass migrations and competition is just as widespread. Mann adds that it will have an extreme impact on biodiversity. “The Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world and a home to much ocean biodiversity, is being hit with a double whammy—increased coral bleaching because of hotter waters and the increased acidity of the ocean water as growing atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to penetrate into the upper ocean,” Mann said. “In fact, scientists conclude that this combination of factors will kill off the Great Barrier Reef and nearly all the world’s coral reefs in a matter of decades if we continue with the course that we’re on.” Hoda Baraka of 350.org says keeping coal, oil and gas reserves in the ground is the best way to minimize that course.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters To those who are concerned about the potential financial cost of adapting to the demands of climate change, Amalie Obsuan, a Greenpeace campaigner for Southeast Asia, suggests examining the true cost of warming. “Let’s not get distracted by limited economic models or be blinded by global [gross domestic product],” she said. “What value can you put on the lives of 8,000 people left dead or missing by typhoon Haiyan? Or what is the cost of the trauma of children being torn from their mother’s arms due to storm surges? “That is the true cost of climate change that should define the urgency of the action we take.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Keystone PipeLIES Exposed: New Film from Center for Media and Democracy Watch, Listen, Learn HERE February 26, 2014 On Tuesday, the Center for Media and Democracy released a new short film that sets out to debunk the many false claims — the films calls them “pipeLIES” — used by promoters of the KeystoneXL pipeline. These industry talking points, many of which are repeated without verification by mainstream media sources, have corrupted any reasonable public discourse on the pipeline, and the film's producers hope that using the video medium to expose the mistruths will lead to better public understanding of the true risks of the pipelines. The film, Keystone PipeLIES Exposed, takes a close and critical look at both ends of the proposed pipeline — from the open pit tar sands mines in Alberta to the toxic refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. But the meat of the 23-minute film looks at the pipeline itself — the route, the construction jobs, the spill risks, the communities and ecosystems that would be made vulnerable.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters While traveling down the pipeline, so to speak, the film pays special attention to the talking points and falsehoods — the massively inflated job creation claims, promises of lower gas prices, and so on — that are constantly repeated by those who stand to profit from the pipeline's construction, and often by a mainstream media too lazy to verify them. Emmy Award-winning journalist Dave Saldana wrote, directed and produced the film. Saldana is also an attorney, and says this background was particularly useful in exploring and debunking many of the oil industry's suspicious claims. Saldana says: I looked at the claims as a lawyer; what did the evidence show me? The evidence shows that its job creation claims are grossly inflated; that better, greener alternatives would aid America's energy independence and put more Americans to work for a longer time than the pipeline; and that the pumping of tar sands oil across the U.S. primarily for export to foreign countries poses enormous risks to America's water supply, food supply, and air quality. And that’s before you even get to what it does to climate change.” Here's the film. You can also check out the PipeLIES Exposed site to find references for all the arguments debunking the lies. Keystone PipeLIES Exposed from Center for Media and Democracy on Vimeo. Specifically, here are few of the “pipeLIES” that are exposed through the film: 

KXL will not directly create 100,000+ jobs but 3,900 short-term and 50 long-term ones.



KXL will not produce billions in corporate tax revenues, due to tax loopholes most Americans have never heard of.

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KXL will not be safe from disastrous leaks, but it will be exempt from corporations paying into a key disaster insurance fund because it is “unconventional oil,” which puts taxpayers on the hook for billions.

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KXL will not make America energy independent; and, in fact, most of the tar sands oil is planned for export from the Gulf of Mexico via tankers to foreign countries.

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KXL will not be climate neutral – in spite of that suggestion made in an assessment prepared by an industry-linked group – but it will speed climate change and global instability.

Besides the point-by-point dismantling of deceptive talking points, what I feel the films does best is connect the dots and data points across the Keystone XL debate and increasingly risky realm of transporting unconvential oils like tar sands crude and heavy shale. For instance, in a quick three minutes, Saldana contrasts TransCanada's promises of pipeline safety with the recent spills in Mayflower, Arkansas and into Michigan's Kalamazoo River, both of which have ruined lives and livelihoods. Connecting another dot, Saldana shows that such spills are also costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, as operators of tar sands pipelines are exempt from contributions to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which helps pay for these unfortunate, if predictable, incidents. And that's just the three minutes on spills. PipeLIES Exposed takes the same hatchet to claims of energy independence and gas prices and economic benefits and promises of jobs. It's well worth checking out and sharing widely.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

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

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen Watch video HERE

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Editorial Comment: Hundreds of tankers carrying diluted bitumen and liquefied natural gas, along with their support vessels, are projected to ply the treacherous waters of Douglas Channel each year.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Gerald Amos Interview on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Watch, Listen, Learn HERE Benjamin Paull January 7, 2014 I had the chance to interview Gerald Amos, past Chief Councilor of the Haisla Nation, in Kitimaat Village on April 27th, 2012. The interview centered on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project and the threats it poses to the community of Kitimaat and the greater north coast of British Columbia, but Gerald provides a much broader perspective on the history of resource extraction on the north coast, and what has been lost during his lifetime. In his life he has seen the complete demise of a once seemingly endless oolichan run that largely sustained entire communities. He remembers rivers full of steelhead and salmon beyond counting. Gerald's experience provides a sobering reminder of what happens when people neglect natural systems for the sake of industrial development.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Northern Gateway could be B.C.’s Exxon Valdez, experts warn March 20, 2014 With the federal government expected to announce its decision on the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil pipeline in June, economic and environmental experts are warning the public of the potential pitfalls that could come with it, even comparing it to the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. It’s been 25 years (Mar. 24, 1989) since the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground off the coast of Alaska dumping millions upon millions of litres worth of oil into the ocean and damaging thousands of kilometres of coastline and animal habitat. Experts have called it one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters in history, and some are worried B.C. is heading toward a similar fate.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “This is not oil that’s being refined or produced to heat Canadian homes,” said Kevin Hanna, associate professor of geography at UBC’s Okanagan campus. “We’re taking diluted bitumen and we’re selling it mostly to Asia. It’s in the raw form, and I think the benefits to Canadians have been over-estimated.” Hanna is concerned with several factors including the proposed tanker route, which he says could be more challenging than the old Exxon Valdez route. “Arguably this is navigationally a much more challenging route, and some would say more storm prone, especially violent storms, than the route of the Exxon Valdez,” Hanna said. While he says it’s important to note technology has advanced in 25 years and companies and governments have learned more about navigating the seas, he still believes there is one risk that’s timeless and inevitable. “At some point there will be an accident, human error will occur,” Hanna said. “And the fundamental reality is if there is a spill, and there will be, we don’t have any real experience dealing with diluted bitumen.” Douglas Channel, the proposed termination point for an oil pipeline in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, is pictured in an aerial view in Kitimat, B.C., on Tuesday January 10, 2012. UBC fisheries economist Ngaio Hotte has ran the numbers looking at a no-spill situation up to what would happen if a disaster the size of the Exxon Valdez were to take place along the proposed tanker route. “The potential economic impact cost depends very much on the size and location of the spill,” Hotte said. “So if there’s a lot of high-end fishing lodges nearby, like near the exit of the Douglas Channel, the impacts are going to be greater.” For a “medium-impact” spill, that is if 63,000 barrels worth of oil were to be dumped, Hotte estimates a loss of $190-million in output, $100-million in GDP and 1,300 person-years (or 26 full-time jobs) worth of employment over 50 years. A “high-impact” spill (257,000 barrels of oil), roughly the same size as the Exxon Valdez, would cost $300-million in output, $200-million in GDP and 4,400 person-years over 50 years. “These are conservative numbers,” Hotte added. “If you add other costs in, like clean-up, those costs rise to $2.4-billion for the medium-impact and $9.6-billion for the high-impact.” In a no-spill scenario Hotte projects $600-million generated in output, $300-million in GDP, and up to 8,400 person-years of employment over 50 years. But the odds of a spill never happening are very low, she added. She would like to see the government look at other economic solutions, such as taking advantage of the commercial fisheries in northern B.C. The federal government’s Joint Review Panel approved Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal in Dec. 2013 under 209 conditions, many of them designed to safeguard against any potential environmental impact.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 OIL SPILL COST TO TOP $40 BILLION.

AND THAT’S FOR STARTERS.

In 2012, the City of Vancouver passed a motion demanding that Kinder Morgan pipeline company carry full liability to cover the costs of an oil spill in our Vancouver Harbour. The request is just common sense but demonstrated very uncommon courage in the public political realm.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters So, how much liability would Kinder Morgan – the now notorious ex-Enron billionaires from Texas, who bought BC Gas and flipped it for the pipelines – need to carry to indemnify our city from the ravages of an oil spill? SO, HOW MUCH LIABILITY WOULD KINDER MORGAN NEED TO CARRY? WELL, FOR STARTERS, SOME $40 BILLION. Well, for starters, some $40 billion, as I explain below. But let’s keep in mind: There is no price to cover the soul of this region, the promises of indigenous rights, the food we take from this water, the childhoods on our beaches, the families of creatures and forests of fauna, the identity of this city and region, our heritage, and our dignity. There is no price for that. ECONOMIC COSTS OF AN OIL SPILL The Aframax tankers now using Vancouver Harbour carry up to 700,000 barrels of bitumen, the deadliest crude oil on Earth. To estimate the costs of responding to such a spill, one must examine comparable costs for similar accidents. One method uses the historic “costs/barrel” for responding to oil spills. THE ALASKA TOURISM INDUSTRY LOST 26,000 JOBS AND $2.4 BILLION IMMEDIATELY. The Exxon Valdez spilled 270,000 barrels, about one-third of an Aframax tanker. The Alaska tourism industry lost 26,000 jobs and $2.4 billion immediately – and another $2.8 billion over the next decade. Total loss for tourism alone: $5.2 billion. Ouch. British Petroleum set aside $20 billion for clean up and compensation in the Gulf of Mexico, but Credit Suisse estimated total BP liabilities of $37 billion, just for cleanup and injury claims. So, who pays this cost? Exxon has been in and out of court for 23 years over the Exxon Valdez spill, and still hasn’t paid its liability claims. BP is fighting injury claims, but in Vancouver Harbour there may be no such company that would even accept liability. The oil companies – Shell, Syncrude, Sinopec – and pipeline company Kinder Morgan have already indemnified themselves and would decline liability once the oil is on a ship. The ship owner has liability by Canadian marine law, but these days oil tankers are owned by obscure numbered companies with few assets, in slippery jurisdictions, where they can and literally do disappear overnight in the case of serious accidents. The response costs would fall to Canadians – municipalities, the Province, the Federal government – that is, to the people. Imagine a $40 billion Canadian bill to mop up 10% of a marine and economic disaster, while our schools and social programs disintegrate.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters BITUMEN’S ABRASIVE PERSONALITY Consider a 500,000-barrel bitumen oil spill in Burrard Inlet, 70% of an Aframax tanker. Globally, there has been an oil spill of this size about every 18 months worldwide for the last 40 years. Bitumen (tar from tar sands) is a particularly dense, toxic version of crude oil. It has to be mixed with some thinner petroleum product to even move through a pipeline, whereby the pipeline industry calls it “dilbit” – for “diluted bitumen.” Something like arsenic diluted with vinyl chloride. In July 2010, a 30-inch bitumen pipeline owned by Enbridge Energy – that other pipeline outfit angling for the BC coast – burst, spilling 20,000 barrels of tar sands bitumen into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The challenges of dealing with the heavy, sinking bitumen shocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which Mitchell Anderson wrote about in the Tyee. Costs of even partial cleanup soared to more than ten times historic crude oil costs. “I don’t think anyone at the state level anticipated that,” said EPA Incident Commander, Ralph Dollhopf. “I don’t think anyone at the EPA anticipated that. I don’t think anyone in industry anticipated that.” Bitumen, diluted with solvents such as condensate or naphtha, separates in the marine environment. Volatile gases – toluene and the carcinogenic benzene – rise into the air, causing headaches, nausea, dizziness, coughing, and fatigue among the local population. One may fairly assume all other animals that breathe air experience similar symptoms. After the Kalamazoo River spill, the toxic fumes remained for weeks and could be smelled up to 50 kilometres away. A major Aframax spill in Burrard Inlet – 25-times larger than in Michigan – would likely require evacuations in the lower BC mainland and islands. Clean up crews would battle toxic fumes as they watched the bitumen sink below their skimmers. Bitumen contains sulphur, paraffins, asphaltics, benzenes, and other toxic compounds. Animals and plants are suffocated and poisoned. The die-off starts at the foundation of the food chain, obliterating the vital mudflat biofilm – the bacteria, diatoms, and mucopolysaccharides that provide a high-energy food source for shorebirds in Burrard Inlet and Georgia Strait. As the bitumen moves with wind and tides, it kills all bottom life, mixes with the intertidal sediments, and kills shellfish, ocean plants, fin fish, and marine mammals. On top of this, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (“PAHs”) in bitumen, dissolve in the water. Two years after the Michigan spill, 30 miles of the Kalamazoo River remained closed to fishing, swimming, or even wading in the water. After a bitumen spill in Burrard Inlet, the toxins would contaminate the entire marine ecosystem from Seattle to Campbell River, and beyond. Most of this damage could not be “cleaned up” at any price

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters SHOW ME THE MONEY Cleanup: According to the US EPA, historic U.S. crude oil cleanup costs have been about $80/gallon ($3,400 per barrel). The added problems with tar sands bitumen – toxic gas, sinking sludge, and soluble hydrocarbons – push costs up. The Kalamazoo River spill by Enbridge cost 10 times the traditional crude oil clean up costs – about $35,000 per barrel. Comparatively, the cleanup response to a 500,000-barrel bitumen spill in Burrard Inlet would be: $ 17 billion    Tourism losses: “Tourism is dead,” said Charlotte Randolph, president of the Lafourche Parish in Louisiana, after the Gulf Oil spill. “We’re dying a slow death.” Oxford Economics estimated the Gulf region’s tourism industry would lose $7.6 to $22.7 billion over 3 years. Tourism dropped by 35 percent in some Gulf regions. Economist Sean Snaith, from the Institute for Economic Competitiveness in Florida, estimated that Florida alone would lose $11 billion in business activity job losses. BC brings in $14 billion annually in tourism, and we could lose half of this for 2-4 years, so added to the clean-up costs would be the tourism loss to BC over several years, on the order of: $ 20 billion    Fishing: “I’ve been fishing in BC since 1973,” says B.C. fisherman Ron Fowler, a Pacific Salmon Commissioner and Director of the Area-F Trollers Association. “If we get an oil spill anywhere in these waters, it would wipe out every fishery we have, shellfish, salmon, herring, and the plankton that they feed on. An oil spill would move with the wind and tides and devastate the intertidal zones.”   The BC fishing industry wholesale value is about $1.2 billion per year. An oil spill on the coast could destroy a large portion of this for 3-4 years and some shoreline intertidal fisheries for a decade or more. A 40% fisheries loss in the first year could be expected, with recovery to perhaps 10% loss within five years. The potential fisheries loss over several years is in the range of: $ 1 billion    Health costs: Oil companies, public, and private workers during the Exxon Valdez spill described health effects that forced them from the area and into hospitals. Some first responders in Alaska still suffer from the toxic intake. Bitumen is worse. In Michigan, the volatile benzene and toluene caused nausea, dizziness, headaches, coughing, and fatigue to some 60% of the local population for weeks after the spill. The health department encouraged an evacuation within a mile of the river. As with other oil spills, there will be a spike of cancer and other diseases. A 500,000-barrel bitumen spill in Burrard Inlet would likely cause a mass evacuation and severe health impact for over a million people. The costs could easily reach: $ 1 billion  Lost Time: The lost time for families, students, workers, business owners, and others in the lower mainland and up to 50 kilometers way, likely farther up the Fraser River past Fort Langley, and south past Whiterock, would be massive. Given our normal tides and winds, the crude oil would be in Nanaimo, Sechelt, and the Southern Gulf Islands within a few days. The lost time for hundreds of coastal communities would likely reach at least millions of person-hours at a cost of another: $ 1 billion    Port losses: An oil spill would disrupt Port of Vancouver shipping business. The Port contributes over $2 billion in direct revenue per year and over $4 billion in direct economic output. The port generates some 30,000 jobs (~ $1 billion annual wages & salaries). Shipping could be virtually stopped for months and disrupted for several years, so the costs would be on the order of: $ 1 billion

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters So there it is, in round figures: a $41 billion price tag for an oil spill, with no one to accept liability except a renegade shipping company in Somalia or the Cayman Islands. Vancouver and BC brand value: The “Beautiful BC” and “greenest city” reputations would be lost. How much is that worth? Billions more. Stanley Park would be devastated. How do we put a price tag on that? The lost reputation and destroyed ecosystems – if we could even place a dollar-cost on these losses – would double the $40 billion direct costs to make the loss more like $80 billion. This is the aggregate risk that the Vancouver region must accept if it wants to be the Tar Sands Oil Port in exchange for some tugboat jobs, port fees, consulting gigs, and payoffs. NORMAL SPILLAGE All oil ports have oil spills. Most oil spilled into the world’s bays, harbours, and marine environments is “normal spillage,” acknowledged by the industry as a routine “expense,” which they write off as a tax deduction. Oil terminal workers have admitted that they spill oil virtually every time they load a tanker. Every time. Normal spillage includes routine leaks and spills along pipelines and at refineries, tank farms, and terminals. This constant drain of heavy hydrocarbons into the marine environment kills the intertidal life and other marine species. Try going east of Second Narrows, near Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Terminal and find a healthy clam or crab. This Inlet once fed the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsawwassen people, who retain rights to this unceded territory. “When the tide is out, our table was set,” recalls Rueben George, Sundance Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh, the indigenous People of the Inlet. Second narrows, the traditional waters of the Tsleil-Waututh, is a sacred place that provided food for many generations. That food resource is already virtually eradicated from the normal spillage from the oil refinery and terminal on Burrard Inlet. “We’ve had enough of seeing our waters destroyed,” says Rueben George. “Second Narrows is sacred to us. Our creation stories go back to this channel of water.” What price would one place on this? What price for the obliterated natural livelihood of indigenous people, our regional heritage, our marine and intertidal ecosystems, our coastal economy, and our community identity and pride in the sea? There is no way to protect these values and real wealth of this region if Vancouver becomes the tar sands oil port. The only way Kinder Morgan can indemnify the land, water, creatures, plants, and people of Burrard Inlet is to return our pipelines and our public policy to this region and to its people. As Rueben George said on Earth Day: “We’re doing this for Kinder Morgan’s children too. They deserve a world that is rich and wild and that provides food to people and a place to walk with your children. We’re doing this for their children too. Not just ours.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Tanker FSL Shanghai is escorted under the Lions Gate Bridge and out of the Vancouver Harbour by three tug boats after being loaded at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby.

 Trans Mountain pipeline hearings set for January 2015 Less than one-fifth of the thousands of environmentalists, First Nations, community groups and municipalities who had applied to participate in the hearings were OK'd as interveners April 2, 2014

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The public battle between Kinder Morgan and opponents of its proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline is set to begin in January 2015, National Energy Board announced Wednesday. Less than one-fifth of the thousands of environmentalists, First Nations, community groups and municipalities who had applied to participate in the hearings were OK'd as interveners by the NEB, according to a news release by the board. Those 400 will join another 1,250 applicants who were approved as commenters during the oral public hearing, in speaking on issues including the environmental and social effects of the project, increased levels of marine shipping, impacts on Aboriginal groups, contingency planning for spills and other accidents, and economic feasibility of the project. The hearing will follow two months of submissions of traditional evidence by First Nations groups that are slotted for September and August 2014. The $5.4-billion pipeline-twinning proposal would nearly triple oil capacity to 890,000 barrels per day and bring about 400 more tankers a year into Burrard Inlet (up from about 80) if it is approved by the National Energy Board and federal government. Kinder Morgan estimates the project would create 90 permanent jobs and employ 4,500 people at the peak of construction. The 1,150-kilometre pipeline will carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands, starting in Edmonton, through Jasper and across B.C. to the company's Westridge Terminal in Burnaby.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 25

years after Exxon Valdez, some damage heals, some effects linger in Prince William Sound March 20, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, at the time the nation's largest oil spill. The 987-foot tanker, carrying 53 million gallons of crude, struck Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989. Within hours, it unleashed an estimated 10.8 million gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the water. Storms and currents then smeared it over 1,300 miles of shoreline. For a generation of people around the world, the spill was seared into their memories by images of fouled coastline in Prince William Sound, of sea otters, herring and birds soaked in oil, of workers painstakingly washing crude off the rugged beaches. Twenty five years later, most of the species have recovered, said Robert Spies, a chief science adviser to governments on the oil spill restoration program from 1989 to 2002. But some wildlife, as well as the people who live in the region, are still struggling. Here's a look at what's changed since the spill:

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FISHERMAN

Bernie Culbertson was preparing to fish cod when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. With oil in the water, fishing came to a standstill and life for he and other fishermen drastically changed. "The bottom fell out of the price of fish," he said. Pink salmon that sold for 80 cents per pound fell to 8 cents per pound. Consumers turned to farm fish or tuna out of fear of tainted salmon. His boat caught 2.5 million pound of pinks one season and lost money. Culbertson turned to other fisheries, travelling as far as California. Fishing 12 months a year, his marriage failed. Friends couldn't repay loans and lost boats or homes. Exxon compensation checks, minus what fishermen earned on spill work, arrived too late for many. The fisheries today are not the same. "The shrimp are slowly, slowly coming back. The crab aren't back. The herring aren't back. The salmon are back in abundance," he said.

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INDUSTRY

At the time of the spill, complacency among government officials and the oil industry had set in after a dozen years of safe shipments, said Mark Swanson, director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council and a former Coast Guard officer. When the tanker ran aground, for instance, spill response equipment was buried under snow. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in 1989 had 13 oil skimmers, five miles of boom and storage capacity for 220,000 gallons of spilled oil. Now, Alyeska has 108 skimmers, 49 miles of boom and on-water storage capacity of almost 38 million gallons. North Slope oil must be transported in double-hull tankers, which must be escorted by two tugs. Radar monitors the vessel's position as well as that of icebergs. The company conducts two major spill drills are conducted each year. And nearly 400 local fishing boat owners are trained to deploy and maintain boom

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PACIFIC HERRING

After the spill, the population of herring crashed. It is now listed as "not recovering." The silvery fish is a key species because it is eaten by salmon, seabirds and marine mammals from otters to whales. Four years after the spill, the estimated herring population based on modeling shrunk from 120 metric tons to less than 30 metric tons.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters How that happened remains a question, said Scott Pegau, research program manager for the Oil Spill Recovery Institute in Cordova, Alaska. Here's what's known: Adult herring feed on zooplankton, which crashed for three years after the spill. With less to eat, herring may have been more susceptible to disease normally fended off within a herring population. Herring populations can stabilize at a low or high number, but something has prevented a rebound. Oil likely is no longer a factor, Pegau said.

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SEA OTTERS

Responders estimated that as many as 3,000 sea otters died the first year. Hundreds more died in the years after of exposure to oil that persisted in sediment, where otters dig for clams. Three factors could have had an impact on the otters' ability to survive. Oiled fur loses insulating value. Otters ingest oil as they groom, and researchers years after the spill found blood chemistry evidence consistent with liver damage. Grooming takes time away from feeding. "One of the lessons we can take from this is that the chronic effects of oil in the environment can persist for decades," said Brenda Ballachey, who moved to Alaska a few months after the spill and spent the next summer dissecting sea otter carcasses collected from beaches and frozen. The U.S. Geological Survey research biologist is the lead author of a federal study released last month that concludes that sea otters have finally returned to pre-spill numbers.

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PIGEON GUILLEMOTS

The pigeon guillemot (GEEL'-ah-mot), which looks like a black pigeon with web feet, is one species that has not recovered. Numbers were declining before the spill. An estimated 2,000 to 6,000 guillemots, or 10 to 15 per cent of the population in spill areas, died from acute oiling. Researchers suspect river otters, mink and other predators targeted guillemot eggs as an alternative to foraging on oiled beaches. Like sea otters and another bird that took years to recover, harlequin ducks, pigeon guillemot's forage for invertebrates in sediment and likely were affected by lingering oil, said David Irons, a seabirds expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The decline of its other prey, juvenile herring, didn't help. Numbers continue to decline in both oiled and non-oiled areas. Irons has proposed reducing mink numbers on the heavily oiled Naked Islands, once prime habitat for guillemots, to restore their numbers.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Guest: Promises broken by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, 25 years later March 24, 2014 AS we mark the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska on March 24, recall the history of previous industry promises made and broken. That troubled past should help inform the future of energy policy for Arctic offshore drilling, tar-sands and oil-shale pipelines. The typical oil-spill message from industry and government is that the risk of a catastrophic spill is small, government oversight will be rigorous, any spill will be promptly cleaned up and environmental harm will be minimal and short-term. History tells a different story. Seeking approval to build the Trans Alaska Pipeline in the early 1970s, industry and government promised that oil would be shipped safely from Alaska, and not one drop would be spilled. The public and environment would be protected by double-hulled tankers, a fail-safe tanker-tracking system, state-of-the-art spill-response capability and the watchful eye of government. Soon after approval was granted, all these promises were abandoned. On March 24, 1989, the single-hulled tanker Exxon Valdez grounded in Prince William Sound, causing, at the time, the nation’s worst oil spill. Millions of gallons of oil spread across Alaska’s coastal ocean, contaminating 1,300 miles of shoreline, and killing millions of seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other organisms. An Alaska Native elder referred to the spill as “the day the water died.” So much for not one drop. Twenty-five years later, the injured environment has still not fully recovered. In fact, only 13 of the 32 fish and wildlife populations, habitats and resources monitored by the government are listed today as “recovered” or “very likely recovered.” Some, such as herring, pigeon guillemots and the AT1 orca whale pod, are still listed as “not recovering.” The AT1 orca pod declined after the spill from 22 to just 7 whales, and has yet to birth a new calf. The government concludes that, for this unique group of whales, “there appears to be no hope for recovery,” and the population “will likely become extinct.” There are still thousands of gallons of Valdez oil in beach sediments, which the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council representing state and federal governments says is “nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill,” and will take “decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Government litigation with Exxon, now Exxon Mobil, remains unresolved as the company refuses to pay the government’s final $92 million claim presented in 2006 for unanticipated ecological damage, making this now the longest-lasting environmental litigation in history. So much for short-term effects. Five months before the 2009 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, representatives of the oil industry and government regulators assured Congress that offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was perfectly safe, and the existing regulatory regime was sufficient. Based on such assurances, President Obama announced an expansion of offshore drilling, declaring that “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills.” Three weeks later, the Deepwater Horizon exploded, causing the largest accidental oil spill in history. And now, with the rush to drill in the Arctic Ocean and to build new tar-sands and oil-shale pipelines and terminals, we hear the same old empty promises. Shell’s 2012 Arctic drilling fiasco, in which one drilling rig ran aground and both rigs were deemed unfit for service, shows the same pattern of betrayed promises. Clearly, hoping for the best and rolling the dice is no longer acceptable. If we care about a coastal area, we should not expose it to the risk of oil development. Spills will occur, they can’t be cleaned up, they can cause long-term damage and restoration is impossible. Where we do continue to produce and transport oil, it should be done with the highest possible safety standards, regardless of cost. We need to use oil much more efficiently and stop wasting it. Above all, we urgently need to kick our hydrocarbon habit and transition to a sustainable society.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A dead sea turtle lies next to a rolling tide of crude oil, released following the sinking of the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, June 7, 2010.

 Four years on, animals dying in record numbers from BP spill April 9, 2014 The effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill continue to threaten the Gulf of Mexico’s animal population, according to a report prepared by the National Wildlife Federation, which warned of damage to 14 native species including bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles. The report warned that animal species are dying in record numbers, four years after the biggest oil spill in U.S. history and one of the worst environmental disasters the country has ever seen. The number of bottlenose dolphins found dead or stranded in the spill zone since April 2010 totals more than 900, with many more found underweight and suffering from liver and lung diseases. Around 500 dead sea turtles have been recovered by scientists every year since the spill, with many more likely unaccounted for. The Gulf is home to endangered Kemp’s ridleys, loggerhead, and green turtles, a “large number” of which have been found stranded since 2010. Researchers found increased levels of “toxic oil compounds” in the blood of loons and “DNA-damaging metals” like chromium and nickel, which were used in the well, in the bodies of sperm whales. The report also described damage to embryos of bluefin and yellowfin tuna from an oil chemical that researches fear causes premature death. When a BP-operated oil rig exploded in the north-central Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2014, 11 workers were killed and more than 200 million gallons of oil spewed into the environment, causing immeasurable damage.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters BP criticized the study as “a piece of political advocacy—not science” that “cherry-picks reports to support the organization’s agenda, often ignoring caveats in those reports or mischaracterizing their findings.” “For example, the report misrepresents the U.S. government’s investigation into dolphin deaths; as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s own Web site states, that inquiry is ongoing,” the statement said. “The report also conveniently overlooks information available from other independent scientific reports showing that the Gulf is undergoing a strong recovery. Just this week, a study published by Auburn University researchers found no evidence that the spill impacted young red snapper populations on reefs off the Alabama coast.” With a vast quantity of oil still unaccounted for, the report warns that the “full scope” of the disaster on the Gulf’s ecosystem “will likely unfold for years or even decades to come,” and notes that the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill a quarter century ago are still being felt.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Oil spill product of barge, ship collision in Texas City Dike Watch, Listen, Learn HERE March 22, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

TEXAS CITY, Texas - Several state, federal and local agencies are on scene of an oil spill that resulted from a collision off of the Texas City Dike. The Coast Guard and its state and local partners responded after the accident happened at approximately 12:35 p.m. Saturday, approximately 400-500 yards off of the dike. The captain of the 585-foot bulk carrier, Summer Wind, called the Coast Guard Sector Houston/Galveston to report the collision between the Summer Wind and a barge that contained 924,000 gallons of fuel oil, towed by the motor vessel Miss Susan. According to Bruce Clawson, Texas City's Emergency Manager, the barge is partially sunk. “It has a type of bunker fuel, a very heavy oil. Some of it has leaked out," Clawson said. "It has not been contained. They are working on that now. We anticipate it will move around for the next day or day and a half before it actually comes ashore.” Clawson said containment booms are being used to prevent the oil from spreading to sensitive areas. It's still unknown just how much oil has spilled, but Clawson said only one of the barge's four tanks is leaking. According to the Coast Guard, the tank that was breached has a total capacity of 168,000 gallons, or about 4,000 barrels. “Certainly we are always concerned when oil is in the water. We're concerned for the environment and humans. I'd say this is a moderate incident,” said Clawson. According to Clawson, two people were injured during the initial incident after being overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. They have been taken to a hospital. Fisherman Geoff Roberts of Texas City said his fishing trip was cut short after he began reeling in oil on his lines. "At first, the oil was going up the ship channel, then a couple of hours later it was coming through the back of the dike," said Roberts. Officials are monitoring the air in the area but said there no reports of problems in Texas City. The U.S. Coast Guard said the Houston Ship Channel is currently closed to traffic and ferry service between Galveston and Bolivarto has been suspended due to the incident and an assessment is underway.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Oil Spill Paralyzes Houston Port The Houston Ship Channel, one of the world’s busiest ports, was at a standstill after 160,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled during a barge collision. March 24, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 UPDATE 4-Sunoco oil pipeline leaks in Ohio nature preserve March 18, 2014 Clean-up operations began on Tuesday after a major oil pipeline owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners LP leaked hundreds of barrels of crude oil into a nature preserve next to the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio. Crews vacuumed oil that had leaked from the Mid-Valley pipeline into a wetland area of the Oak Glen Nature Preserve, 20 miles (32 km) north of Cincinnati, according to local officials. The 240-barrel (10,000-gallons/38,000-liter) spill has been contained, Sunoco said in a statement. The leak was discovered at 8:20 p.m. EDT on Monday (0020 GMT Tuesday) and the line was shut around 1 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sunoco said. It was unclear if any oil was still spewing from the pipe. The spill did not appear to have reached the Great Miami River, about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) away, though tests were still being completed, said a spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. "The extent of impact to the resource is currently unknown," said a statement from the Great Parks of Hamilton County, which oversees the Oak Glen preserve. "The EPA is assessing the situation to determine appropriate action." The cause of the spill was unclear and under investigation, Sunoco said. It had no timeline for the restart of the line. The Mid-Valley pipeline is part of the company's Midwest system that runs about 1,000 miles from Longview, Texas to Samaria, Michigan, providing crude oil to a number of refineries, primarily in the U.S. Midwest. Flows along the line decreased overnight to around 163,000 barrels per day from an estimated 229,000 bpd, according to data provider Genscape. The pipeline has a capacity of 280,000 bpd, Genscape said. The loss of a key supply route from the south hit physical crude oil prices in Texas, already pressured by ample supplies. West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery at Midland, Texas, fell $2.50 a barrel on Tuesday to $15 below U.S. oil futures. West Texas Sour fell $4.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Hiland Crude Pipeline Spills Oil Near Alexander, ND March 21, 2014 BISMARCK, N.D.— Cleanup workers have contained about 34,000 gallons of crude that spewed from a broken oil pipeline in northwestern North Dakota, a state health official said Friday. North Dakota Water Quality Director Dennis Fewless said the breach occurred Thursday morning on Hiland Crude LLC's pipeline about 6 miles northeast of Alexander. A gasket on the above-ground pipeline appears to have failed near a compressor station, spewing about 800 barrels of crude, Fewless said. A barrel holds 42 gallons. Fewless said about half the oil migrated off the site but has been contained and no water sources are threatened. Hiland gave a lower estimate than state inspectors did for how much oil escaped the site, saying in a statement that "approximately 100 barrels of crude left the location, with an undetermined amount contained on location." The Enid, Okla.-based company said the environmental impact "is limited to contaminated soil, which is being removed from the site." Fewless said the cleanup likely will continue for a few days. The McKenzie County Sheriff's Department said a road to the spill site has been closed until the work is completed. The spill occurred about 5 a.m. Thursday and Hiland notified North Dakota regulators about six hours later, Fewless said. State health inspectors have been on the scene since Thursday. Hiland's statement said its workers "immediately began emergency response activities" after detecting the spill. It said specialized cleanup contractors were at the site before 6:30 a.m. Thursday, and the flow of crude oil was "substantially controlled" at that time. "They called in all the necessary forces to get it cleaned up," Fewless said Friday. "They worked all night, got the leak stopped and got it contained. They are in cleanup mode right now." Fewless said oil migrated into a dry drainage that has been "diked off, contained and boomed." But he said if a heavy spring rain hit during cleanup, oil could leach from the site. "If we were to get a rainstorm, you would have potential for oil to make it to water," Fewless said. Hiland Partners LP, which owns Hiland Crude, has reported two other incidents to North Dakota regulators in recent months.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters In November, the company reported a 500-barrel crude oil spill near Trenton at a rail transfer facility. Last month, an above-ground natural gas pipeline owned by the company caught fire in rural Williams County, touching off explosions that could be felt miles away. Hiland Crude began courting oil producers this week to reserve space on a new oil pipeline that would run from Dore and Sydney, Mont., to an oil storage facility in Guernsey, Wyo. The company said it expects to transport up to 100,000 barrels per day of crude on the pipeline later this year.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 BP Confirms Oil Spill into Lake Michigan From Whiting Refinery March 25, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters WHITING, Ind.– A malfunction at the BP refinery in Whiting forced a slug of crude oil (diluted bitumen from Alberta tarsands) into Lake Michigan on Monday, the company confirmed today. It was not immediately clear how much oil spilled into the lake or how long the discharge continued. A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said the leak was plugged by 1 a.m. today. The effect on Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water for 7 million people in Chicago and the suburbs, likely won’t be determined for several days. Emergency response crews from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard are on the scene. BP laid booms on the water in an attempt to keep the oil from spreading beyond a cove between the refinery’s wastewater treatment plant and an Arcelor Mittal steel mill. Winds were pushing the oil toward the shore and frigid temperatures caused some of it to harden into a waxy consistency that made it easier to collect, said Scott Dean, a BP spokesman.

Editorial Comment: Unlike light crude oil that floats, heavy diluted bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s tarsands eventually sinks in water. As such it is impossible to clean, even with burning. This recent incident serves as a stark warning for those who rely on Great Lakes water that there is a 60 year-old Enbridge tarsands pipeline submerged on the floor of these iconic waterways – very likely to have a catastrophic failure.

The malfunction apparently occurred at the refinery’s largest distillation unit, the centerpiece of a $4 billion overhaul that allowed BP to process more heavy Canadian oil from the tar sands region of Alberta. The unit, which Dean said has resumed normal operations, performs one of the first steps in the refining of crude oil into gasoline and other fuels. WHITING, Ind. — The Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency are responding to the report of an oil discharge into Lake Michigan from the BP Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Ind. The Coast Guard received a report Monday night from watchstanders the National Response Center of a sheen from an unknown substance discharging from an outflow adjacent to the refinery. Personnel from Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Chicago and the EPA responded last night and found an area of about 5,000 square feet covered in crude oil. BP established an incident command post and deployed about 1,000 feet of boom, along with six vacuum trucks to begin initial containment and recovery operations in a cove adjacent to the refinery. Tuesday morning, Coast Guard pollution responders observed some of the substance had made landfall along the shoreline of the cove; they found tarballs less than 1 centimeter in diameter, averaging 20 tarballs per 10 feet of shoreline. In addition, a helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Mich., conducted an overflight of the scene and did not report any sheen or pockets of oil beyond the refinery. BP has established an air monitoring program on shore to ensure safety of the public and responders.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The Coast Guard and EPA are overseeing BP’s cleanup plan and operations. Shoreline cleanup assessment teams, made up of personnel from the Coast Guard, EPA, Indiana Department of Environmental Management and BP, will survey the shoreline that may have been affected by the discharge. The outcome of this survey will be used to recommend cleanup strategies to the incident commander. For information relating to the discharge and recovery operations, contact the BP press officer at 281-366-4463. For information about the Coast Guard’s response operations, contact Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf at 216 389-0420. For information about EPA’s response, please contact Francisco Arcaute at 312-886-7613. Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Commentary: Tar sands expansion poses risk to Great Lakes April 15, 2014 Will Lake Superior and the Upper Great Lakes region continue to be the land of sky blue waters? Or will a vast swath of our pristine waters become a fading memory, soiled by the leaks and spills of a massive network of tar sands crude oil pipelines and maritime traffic? Expanding proposals for more pipeline capacity by Canadian pipeline company Enbridge, as well as plans to ship tar sands crude oil across Lake Superior and other Great Lakes, are astonishing in their sheer scale. For example, Enbridge is currently seeking to nearly double the capacity of its Alberta Clipper pipeline — which runs from Alberta, Canada, through Minnesota to Superior — to 880,000 barrels per day. That pipeline is a key enabler, a head gate for tar sands crude oil expansion projects in Wisconsin and throughout the region. A region wide public comment period for a Minnesota permit for that project is currently open, and an overflow crowd attended an April 3 hearing in St. Paul. Wisconsin regulators tabled an earlier permit application for a tar sands crude oil maritime loading dock in Superior after citizens objected. Earth’s finest collection of fresh water — Lake Superior and the Upper Great Lakes — is not a reasonable location for a major transportation corridor designed to carry tar sands crude oil to the overseas market. If these proposals move forward, our region will be locked into a future of oil-impacted water, air quality and public health. Tar sands crude oil is notorious for its climate change implications. Asphalt-like in its original form, it requires more energy than typical crude oil to convert it into a usable form. It is also particularly unsuitable for our water-rich region: Unlike conventional crude oil, it sinks after being spilled on water. Whether the spill can be cleaned up has yet to be shown. Great Lakes history cautions us that shipping interests often externalize costs, the resulting damage is typically massive and long-lasting and the public is left holding the bag. Think of the dynamics of both how zebra mussels, sea lampreys and Asian carp became serious issues and why the threats were not addressed in a timely manner. Due diligence is in order. Has our state and region done a systematic in-depth analysis of the broad implications of the tar sands proposals? Or are we, one piecemeal permit application at a time, lurching toward a future sprinkled with crude oil mishaps? April 20 marks the fourth anniversary of the BP Gulf of Mexico fiasco, a vivid reminder of industrial overconfidence meeting reality.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Three months after the initial BP incident, our nation’s largest inland crude oil spill began on July 25, 2010. Just 150 miles east of Milwaukee, an Enbridge pipeline break poured 840,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Despite multiple alarms, 17 hours passed before Enbridge shut down the pipeline. Today, the Kalamazoo River spill cleanup is still incomplete, with a price tag passing the billion-dollar mark. “It will be very difficult to give Enbridge creditability going forward on any pipeline project,” the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board noted on July 11, 2012. Given Enbridge’s record, why is the company allowed to propose a large, risk-filled expansion of its operations? Now is the time to speak up for clean water and common sense.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

This image shows a normal yellowfin tuna larva not long after hatching (top), and a larva exposed to Deepwater Horizon crude oil during embryonic development (bottom). The oil-exposed larva shows abnormalities, including fluid accumulation from heart failure and poor growth of fins and eyes. (NOAA)

 Oil spill chemicals cause heart defects in tuna Huge Deepwater Horizon spill may affect tuna, marlin, mackerel and other species March 24, 2014 Tuna eggs exposed to crude oil from a massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 hatched into fish with heart and fin defects, a new study shows. Those with severe defects would have died soon after hatching, while others may survive for some time before their heart problems affect their ability to swim after their prey, reported a team led by John Incardona of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "This creates the potential for delayed mortality. Swimming is everything for these species," said Incardona in a statement Monday, coinciding with the publication of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper noted that pink salmon eggs exposed to oil as after the Exxon Valdez spill were 40 per cent less likely to survive to adulthood after hatching. Following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, the undersea oil well it was drilling spewed 636 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico between April 10 and July 14, 2010. That was a time of year when many fish were spawning in the area, including bluefin and yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi, king and Spanish mackerel, greater and lesser amberjack, sailfish, blue marlin, and cobia – many of which are fished commercially, the paper noted. At one point, the slicks produced by the disaster covered an estimated 17,700 square kilometres, or nearly the area of Lake Ontario. Eggs, babies float near surface Spawning bluefin and yellowfin tuna lay eggs that float near the surface of the water, and hatch into babies that also float for the first part of their life. The area where the spill took place is a prime spawning habitat for bluefin tuna, an endangered species.

Following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, the undersea oil well it was drilling spewed 636 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico between April 10 and July 14, 2010. ((Gerald Herbert/Associated Press)) To find out how the oil might have affected the spawning fish, the researchers collected oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill and mixed it into the water where Bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and amberjack embryos were developing inside their eggs at an indoor hatchery.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Fish embryos are known to be particularly sensitive to chemicals in crude oil called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs.) Developmental abnormalities appeared when concentrations of PAHs were between one and 15 parts per billion. The researchers noted that these concentrations were lower than many of those in water samples collected in the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill, suggesting "the potential for losses" of baby fish. The abnormalities seen in the study ranged from slow or irregular heartbeat to the accumulation of fluid around the heart and deformed fins. A study published by the authors in Science last month showed the oil blocks heart muscle cells from responding correctly to signals that tell them when to contract. The researchers said the effects they saw were similar in all three fish species in their experiment and were also similar to those seen in previous studies on other kinds of fish, suggesting that many different kinds of fish could be affected, including swordfish, marlin and mackerel. However, the researchers don't yet know how the potential damage to young fish will affect overall populations of each species in the Gulf of Mexico, as they're still missing some key information. "We've not answered the question — how much of the spawning ground was oiled," said Barbara Block, a Stanford University biologist who co-authored the study, in an email. "This study is currently underway." The researchers noted that the developing hearts of all fish embryos seem to respond to crude oil exposure the same way. Because of that, watching for heart defects in the embryos of local fish species when exposed to oil may be a good way of gauging how sensitive certain habitats, such as the Arctic, may be to oil spills in their waters.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A CN freight train carrying crude oil and propane derailed Jan. 8, 2014 in a sparsely populated region of northwestern New Brunswick.

 CN Rail striving to improve safety record Company concedes work needs to be done to improve its ‘bad rap’ March 27, 2014

CN Rail has experienced some high-profile derailments involving oil trains, such as the January crash of a 17-car train in New Brunswick and an incident west of Edmonton last October where four oil cars derailed along with two propane cars that crashed in a fiery explosion. However, the company is working hard to improve the safety of its operations, said company executive Normand Pellerin at the Globe 2014 conference Thursday.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “I will be frank with you; we’ve had some incidents (and) we have a bad rap,” said Pellerin, CN’s assistant vice-president for environment and sustainability. “It’s not because we’re not trying. We’re spending $1.4 billion in making sure rail lines are safe.” Innovations include monitoring stations that measure the geological conditions around their tracks and identifying risks before they become accidents. Pellerin was speaking on a panel with pipeline executive Janet Holder, vice-president of western access for Enbridge Inc.; former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, who now heads his selfnamed Manning Centre, and David Parker, vice-president, pipelines for the engineering firm SNC Lavalin. One strategy being taken to improve the railway’s accident rates involves a “beaver control program,” said Pellerin. “We are concerned about beaver dams two miles away (from the track) on a mountain giving way and therefore washing out the track,” he said. A Jan. 11 derailment saw three CP Rail coal cars tip on CN track near Burnaby Lake due to such a washout spilling coal into a fish-bearing stream. However, he added that the company also faces closer scrutiny of its operations and new regulations require that it report more minor incidents than it would have in the past.

Editorial Comment: Our society can no longer ignore:  Science-based climate change warnings  Cultural and science-based opposition to fossil fuel extraction, transportation and burning  Aging/problematic infrastructure (rail, pipelines, tankers) Immediate needs:  Conserve remaining natural resources  Replace dependency on fossil fuels with cost effective renewable energy alternatives.

The example he used was a train where one wheel on one car leaves its rail. The Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada look at that as a reportable incident, Pellerin said, whereas “if a truck has a flat tire on the highway you don’t report it as an incident.” The topic of the panel Pellerin was participating in was called Energy on the Move, which describes how CN is increasingly involved in shipping oil. Pellerin added that whether CN carries more crude to the West Coast depends on whether companies succeed in building their proposed pipeline projects, such as Enbridge’s $6.5billion Northern Gateway project, and how successful oil companies are in selling their product. “We have an obligation to move (oil) from Point A to Point B,” if companies request, Pellerin said. However, he added that he was not at liberty to discuss whether companies are pushing to ship crude by rail to the West Coast.

Editorial Comment: Mr. Pellerin, CN Rail’s assistant vice-president for environment and sustainability:  Is focused on removing problematic beaver dams.  Doesn’t recognize differences between heavy diluted bitumen and light crude oil .in this article  Believes their obligation is to move oil when companies request it – no mention of associated risks to public health or ecosystem security.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Permitting process under way for third crude oil shipping terminal Much of the Port of Grays Harbor’s Terminal 3 has been sitting empty for decades, since Rayonier used the land to store logs from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s. But over the next two years, the vacant lot could be transformed into a massive oil storage facility, with U.S. Development Group planning to build an oil storage and shipping facility, which would be capable of handling an average of 689.85 million gallons of crude oil each year.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The U.S. Development project, which will be called Grays Harbor Rail Terminal, is the third crude-byrail project proposed for Grays Harbor. The company filed a shorelines substantial development permit application with the City of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology earlier this week. U.S. Development has a lease option on property at Terminal 3, but has not yet inked a lease for the land. The lease option has been open for a year, with U.S. Development paying $7,000 and $21,000 at various periods for the right to start an actual lease on the site once it gets all the requisite permits and insurance. Westway Terminal Co. and Imperium Renewables applied for permits more than a year ago and are in the process of completing an Environmental Impact Statement. Preliminary plans for the Grays Harbor Rail Terminal predicted that an average of 766.5 million gallons of crude oil would be handled at the facility each year, but the permit application states that the facility would handle 689.85 million gallons each year — 76.65 million gallons fewer than the previous prediction. Charla Skaggs, a spokeswoman for U.S. Development, said the decrease doesn’t signify a smaller project, it’s just a better estimate for the planned facility. “That number is just a more finely tuned estimate for how much oil will be handled,” Skaggs said. The oil will be delivered by train and stored in between six to eight large storage tanks. The proposal includes a large rail car storage area on the northeastern corner of the lot. The Process Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay said reviewing the application will take at least 30 days. After that, the city and Ecology will issue a determination of non-significance, a mitigated determination of non-significance or a determination of significance for the project’s environmental impacts. If the agencies issue a determination of non-significance or a mitigated determination of nonsignificance, the Grays Harbor Rail Terminal will likely be awarded a shorelines substantial development permit, Shay said. But if Hoquiam and Ecology issue a determination of significance, the company will likely have to go through the lengthy and costly process of completing and Environmental Impact Statement. Shay said it’s too early to predict the outcome of the review — he’s only just started sifting through the six-inch stack of application papers. U.S. Development submitted more materials than Westway and Imperium — which is likely the result of some complications with the previous companies’ permitting processes, Shay said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The city and Ecology initially issued mitigated determinations of nonsignificance for the Imperium and Westway projects, but two groups — the Quinault Indian Nation and a coalition of local environmental groups — filed appeals with the state Shorelines Hearings Board. The Shorelines Hearings Board overturned the mitigated determination of non-significance last November. “There are definitely more reports in this application than were submitted by the other two projects,” Shay said. “I know U.S. Development looked at the Shorelines Hearings Board’s decision and tried to use that information.” Each project will need 13 permits from the city and state before starting operations, Shay said. The Location Terminal 3, the proposed site of the Grays Harbor Rail Terminal, was most recently used as a log yard for the former Rayonier saw mill. According to Polson Museum Director John Larson, the land was cleared during the mid-1970s when the company built the mill, which operated until the mid-1980s. Rayonier continued to used the property to store logs until the early 1990s. The shipping terminal was built at about the same time, and is currently being used by Willis Enterprises. The site is bordered by the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge to the east, the City of Hoquiam’s wastewater treatment plant to the southwest and Willis Enterprises to the southeast. Hoquiam High School is located to the northeast, across State Route 109. Shay said city officials will analyze potential impacts to the school while reviewing application material. “It’s a fair distance away from the high school, so I wouldn’t expect too many impacts,” Shay said. The city will also analyze potential impacts to traffic on Paulson Road, which will separate the facility and the wildlife refuge and serves as the main access to the wastewater treatment plant and Bowerman Field. As part of the Grays Harbor Rail Terminal project, the Puget Sound &Pacific Railroad will extend the rail line past Paulson Road to allow trains to back into the facility. The railroad currently ends about 50 yards before reaching the road. “We’ll have to consider the impacts to the road, whether traffic will significantly increase,” Shay said. “There’s not much traffic on Paulson Road, so hopefully trains blocking the intersection won’t cause too many problems.” Drivers can also access the area via 5th Street and Airport Way.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Imperium and Westway Update The City of Hoquiam, Ecology, Imperium and Westway recently began work on an Environmental Impact Statement to analyze the cumulative impacts of the three facilities. Shay said the agencies will begin accepting public comments online today. Project information is available on Ecology’s website, http://1.usa.gov/PTnENZ and http://1.usa.gov/1esyMad. Links to submit scoping comments were expected to be available on those pages as of this morning. Comments can also be sent by mail to Westway and Imperium Renewables Expansion Projects, 710 Second Ave., Suite 550, Seattle, WA 98104 and people can contribute comments orally at two public meetings. An April 24 meeting will take place in the Hoquiam High School Commons and an April 29 meeting will take place in the Centralia High School Commons. Both meetings will run from 5 to 9 p.m. “I think we’re expecting as many as 20,000 comments,” Shay said. “I’m hoping that the people who take the time to comment will really pinpoint their concerns. People could certainly come up with concerns we’ll need to look into.” Since filing the initial permit application, Westway has made a substantial increase in the maximum amount of oil it’s asking to handle every year. In its earlier permit application, the company gave a maximum of 403.2 million gallons per year. In new permit applications filed March 11 as part of the EIS process, the number jumped to 749.9 million gallons, an increase of about 346.7 million gallons every year. Imperium has not changed its throughput estimates, and still lists its maximum as 1.26 billion gallons per year. Daily World writer Brionna Friedrich also contributed to this story.

Editorial Comment: The total crude oil volume proposed for these three sites is just shy of three billion gallons per year: 

Grays Harbor Rail Terminal: .70 billion gallons



Westway: .75 billion gallons

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Imperium: 1.26 billion gallons

These crude by rail proposals require transport through and storage in extremely sensitive ecosystems.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Communities not prepared for risks of crude oil train derailments, Congress told WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emergency response officials told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that big cities and small towns alike are unprepared for a disaster on the scale of an oil train derailment and fire last year in Quebec that destroyed part of a town and killed 47 people. The hearing was only the second on Capitol Hill in recent weeks that sought the perspective of local officials. The federal government has regulatory authority over rail shipments, but the burden of emergency response ultimately falls on local agencies. The specter of a large-scale crude oil fire and spill has hung over communities across the country since July’s crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where firefighters were simply outmatched by the scale and ferocity of the blaze. “We can handle everyday emergencies,” said Timothy Pellerin, the fire chief of Rangeley, Maine, whose department assisted in the Quebec derailment. “We’re not prepared for a major disaster like this.” Urban fire departments may have more resources and personnel, but the scale of the threat is a challenge for them too. Barb Graff, director of the Seattle Office of Emergency Management, said three loaded crude oil trains a week pass through the city but that the frequency could increase to three per day when refineries are able to receive them. “There’s an imbalance when we increase the hazard but we don’t increase the ability of the local community to deal with that hazard,” she testified. The hearing in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, was led by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, RMaine. Crude oil shipments not only cross both states in trains, but they also cross the border into Canada on North America’s virtually seamless rail network.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Pellerin’s department was one of seven in Maine to assist in Lac-Megantic. He testified that crossing the border into Canada, he could see the plumes of smoke 30 miles away. They were confronted by multiple problems on arrival. He testified that his radios were not compatible with Canadian frequencies nor were fire hose couplings in sync. And the Maine firefighters needed an interpreter because their Quebec colleagues only spoke French.

Editorial Comment:

 SNAFU  Fiasco  Perfect storm

Pellerin said 8,000 gallons of firefighting foam had to be trucked in from a refinery in Toronto, which took several hours. Neither the railroad nor the oil companies involved in the derailment had a disaster plan, he said. He also said he learned only two weeks ago that the crude oil in the tank cars had been improperly identified. Pellerin said three railroad representatives arrived in Lac-Megantic on the day of the derailment, took some pictures and left. The company filed for bankruptcy and was sold in December. “They need to be held responsible for it,” he testified. Graff said regional emergency managers met with representatives of BNSF Railway recently to discuss the impact of crude oil shipments in Washington state. BNSF, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is the nation’s largest hauler of crude oil in trains and operates routes through Washington state’s major population centers. According to a map of BNSF crude oil terminals, the railroad serves four in Washington, with two more in development. Murray said the shipments are expected to triple to 55 million barrels this year, and that’s “only the tip of the iceberg.”

Editorial Comment: According to the above Aberdeen Daily World article, the crude by oil volume to be exported out of the proposed Grays Harbor terminals will exceed 2.5 billion gallons per year

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed a resolution last month that presses railroads to disclose the volume, frequency and contents of shipments. They currently are not required to do so. The resolution also calls for an “aggressive” phase-out of older model tank cars known as DOT-111s, which were known to be vulnerable to punctures and ruptures in derailments well before they were pressed into service hauling crude oil and ethanol. When asked when his department would finish new regulations for tank cars, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, told the panel, “We are not going to wait until 2015,” but wouldn’t commit to a specific date. The pace of the rulemaking has frustrated lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as well as state and local officials. Murray said lawmakers would continue to press the department to move swiftly. “We certainly are not dropping this topic,” she said. “This is an issue that has to be addressed.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Coal

 Germany's clean energy drive fails to curb 'dirty' coal power January 7, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Germany’s switch to renewable energies is proving surprisingly good for brown coal as the use of it surged to a new high in 2013. Environmentalists are fuming and claim Germany’s clean energy image is sullied. Sully: damage the purity or integrity of; defile. The share of German electricity generated from environmentally dirty brown coal rose 6.5 percent year-on-year in 2013, soaring to its highest level since 1990, latest energy industry figures released Tuesday showed. Brown coal accounted for electricity to the tune of 162 billion kilowatt hours, equivalent to about 25 percent of Germany's total electricity production of 629 billion kilowatt hours in 2013, industry group Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen said. The use of hard coal - compared with 2012 - also increased, the group added, rising by 8 billion to 124 billion kilowatt hours. As a result the two energy sources accounted for 45.5 percent of Germany's gross energy output, up from 44 percent the previous year. According to the industry data, heavily subsidized renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydropower were also able to raise their contribution to the German energy mix. Rising to 23.4 percent, or 147 billion kilowatt hours, the share of green energy rose by less than 1 percent in 2013. Energy experts said the gain in the use of pollutant coal was the result of a German policy aiming to phase out nuclear energy by 2022 and promoting the use of renewable forms of energy. Gas-fired plants outpriced More efficient and less polluting gas-fired power plants were currently crowded out of the market, they said, as and coal energy was substantially cheaper than electricity generated from gas. German environmental organizations called on the government to make sure that coal power prices fully reflect their costs to the environment. BUND energy expert Tina Löffelsund said steps must be taken to increase the price of emissions certificates on the EU carbon market to force utilities to curb the use of coal. According to BUND, the rise in coal power was threatening to undermine Germany's climate protection goals which includes a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. German emissions had risen steadily since 2009, the organization added, with especially strong increases recorded in 2012 and 2013.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Geothermal

 Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Geothermal power exploration to start south of Terrace this spring March 20, 2014 PLANS for a geothermal power plant in the Mount Layton Hot Springs area near Terrace are still in the initials stages, but if the project were to proceed as intended, it could generate enough electricity to power close to 10,000 homes. Exploration on the potential for a 15-megawatt geothermal power plant, through a Kitselas First Nation-led consortium that also includes Enbridge and geothermal exploration company Borealis Inc., is set to being this spring, confirmed Chris Knight, an advisor for Kitselas. “We want to get the exploration program started this field season,” he said. “It'll take a year so we want to get going as soon as we can.” The consortium purchased exploration rights for $100,000 from the provincial government earlier this year. The exploration process works in three phases. The first is “a series of biochemical analyses, data gathering, modelling, some work that doesn't require much in the way of surface impact,” he said. The process then moves onto a series of slim-hole drilling initiatives, and if that proves viable, the third phase would be the drilling of a small number of production wells “to determine in full detail the carrying capacity of the resource and its ability to support what we've initially targeted as a 15 mega watt geothermal power plant.” A 15-megawatt plant would have a small surface footprint, while still producing a decent amount of electricity, Knight explained. “We wanted it to be modest in terms of size, and we wanted it to be of a size that would lend itself to consideration by the BC Hydro standing offer program,” he said. That program involves independent power projects selling power to BC Hydro. Aside from selling electricity to BC Hydro, the plant would generate nearly 30 megawatts of thermal energy as a by-product to be used for commercial and industrial purposes, said Knight. “This is heat that could potentially heat greenhouses or provide primary fibre breakdown,” he said. “There's kind of two dimensions to this – it's the economic benefit of producing electricity but there's also potential associated with the heat by-product that comes from the production of that electricity.” That all adds up to it making “good business sense as a standalone project,” said Knight. The project was a Kitselas initiative, he said. “Kitselas has known about the surface anomaly of the geothermal resource for generations, it was used very extensively in historic times by the Kitselas First Nation so Kitselas has always known that there's a potential there,” he said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “With the move towards a requirement and a desire for renewable energy, particularly in the northwest ... Kitselas thought it was time to move ahead with it and took the project to both Enbridge renewables and Borealis and we initiated the dialogue with the provincial government in order to get the exploration tenure out the door.” In the northwest, Enbridge is mostly known as the company which wishes to build the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline. This geo-thermal project “has nothing to do with Northern Gateway,” said Knight. “It's unfortunate in some respects that Northern Gateway has produced the attitudes out there that it has, but in the perspective of a renewable energy project, they would be a good partner respective of the Northern Gateway project,” he said. “They've got experience, they've got the financial resources, they particularly have experience in geothermal, which all adds up to positive consideration of them as a player in this project.” Senior Enbridge official Janet Holder, who is in charge of the Northern Gateway project, said people in B.C. identify Enbridge as an oil-pipeline company, but they have been operating in B.C. in the natural gas area for 20 years. “I can understand maybe some of the suspicions,” she said, of those who might question Enbridge's motivations behind this geo-thermal project. “You don't think of us as being anything other than an oil pipeline company, but we are much bigger than an oil pipeline company.” It makes sense for Enbridge to look for renewable opportunities in British Columbia, she said, as that is what the company does all over North America. “We've got renewable opportunities as far east as Quebec, obviously Alberta, we've got them south of the border, so wherever we work as a business, whether that be natural gas, oil, or renewables, we have a team of people that's their job to really look at opportunities,” she said. If the exploration process is successful, the consortium will still need to go through the environmental assessment phase. Area stakeholders, including First Nations, the city of Terrace, the regional district of Kitimat-Stikine and local property owners, are being kept informed as exploration unfolds, said Knight.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Hydropower

 “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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 B.C.

Farmland Could Be Flooded for Site C Megadam if Changes to Agricultural Land Reserve Proceed April 8, 2014

Proposed changes to B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) open the door to flooding the Peace Valley, which could feed a million people fruits and vegetables, according to an agricultural expert. The Site C dam, if approved, would impact 13,000 hectares of agricultural land — including flooding 3,800 hectares of farmland in the ALR, an area nearly twice the size of the city of Victoria. Bill 24 would split B.C.'s ALR into two zones. Zone 1 land would continue to be protected for food production, while Zone 2 land could be opened to non-agricultural uses, including oil and gas development.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters On Monday, farmers from the Kootenays converged on the B.C. legislature, protesting the changes and saying they hadn’t been consulted. And on Tuesday, 13 soil experts wrote to Premier Christy Clark warning the bill will put at risk some of the province's best farmland. With the changes, “the land reserve will be considered toothless,” says professional agrologist Wendy Holm, who has 40 years of experience in agriculture economics and public policy. “It opens the door for Site C.” The Peace Valley falls into Zone 2, which includes the Interior, Kootenay and North regions — despite being capable of growing the same crops as the Fraser and Okanagan valleys (including melons, tomatoes and corn). “There’s enough land to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for a million people,” Holm says of the Peace Valley. “There’s tremendous potential in the north.” In a news release, the province said the changes would “provide farmers with more flexibility to support their farming operations” and “help farmers generate increased incomes and better support food production.” The ALR was created 40 years ago to preserve the province’s shrinking farmland in the face of rapid development pressures. Typically, to remove land from the reserve, approval is required from the province’s Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), which aims to conserve lands for food production. But in December 2013, Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett wrote a letter to BC Hydro and the ALC seeking to block the commission’s involvement in the Site C review: “The province is aware that one of the issues at the [JRP] hearing will be the effect of the project on agricultural land, some of which is within the Agricultural Land Reserve. I am writing to inform you that the government’s current view is that this process should not be duplicated … under the Agricultural Land Commission Act.” However, the joint review panel assessing the proposal decided to request an opinion from the Agricultural Land Commission anyway — just days before its hearings finished. “It’s the only large tract of vegetable land that’s not in production we have in the province,” says Holm, who was contracted by the Peace Valley Environmental Association to assess the Site C dam’s impact on agriculture. “We have to bring more land into production to meet our own food security needs.” B.C. imports 57 per cent of fruits and vegetables consumed in the province that could be grown in the province, according to Holm’s presentation to the review panel. “It’s not about what’s economic today,” she says. “This is land that forms part of the commons. This is part of the natural capital of our country.” Holm says food prices are only going up, further increasing the importance of protecting agricultural land. “I think we’re going to see dramatically increasing food prices due to the droughts happening,” she says.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Some of the arable land in the Peace Valley is not currently farmed because the area has been under threat of flooding since the late 1950s, Holm says. “Without the shadow of the dam, what is happening today would be different,” she says. The Peace River already hosts two hydro dams — the WAC Bennett Dam, which began operating in 1968 and created the Williston Reservoir, the largest body of freshwater in B.C., and the Peace Canyon dam, completed in 1980. In the 1980s, the Site C dam was considered by the independent BC Utilities Commission and turned down because the electricity it would produce was too expensive and not needed. In the ’90s, BC Hydro decided to suspend the project again because the need for power was still insufficient. The project may have been turned down by the utilities commission again, but in 2010 the provincial government removed Site C from the commission’s oversight. The joint review panel will issue its recommendation on the Site C dam on April 23. After that, the federal government will have 45 days to make a decision on the project.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Healthy Salmon Go With The Flow Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

File photo of the fish ladder at John Day Dam on the Columbia River. The fish ladders at the Wanapum and the Rock Island dams are dry.

 Fish Experts Plan A Salmon Water Slide On Cracked Wanapum Dam Listen HERE March 21, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The ongoing issue with the cracked Wanapum Dam in central Washington is now creating a problem for migrating salmon. The drawdown of water between the Wanapum and the Rock Island dams to relieve pressure on the crack means the water levels are down about 25 feet at the base of both dams. That leaves fish ladders high and dry. Now, government fish scientists and engineers are trying to figure out just how to get adult salmon by both hulking concrete structures. At Wanapum, engineers plan to pump water into the fish ladder and create a sort of waterslide for salmon. Russell Langshaw, a fisheries scientist with Grant County utility district that owns and operates Wanapum, says record numbers of fish are headed that way, so they have to get it figured out by mid-April. “We have a lot of fish coming back this year, and we agree it’s an absolute necessity that we have safe and effective passage at both Wanapum and Rock Island dams.” Langshaw says the smaller, juvenile fish are expected to be fine. They’re going downstream, and can move through the spillways and turbines. Langshaw also says juvenile bypass systems are still operational at the Wanapum and the downstream Priest Rapids dam to help the small fish get downriver.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The fourth support from the right on the Wanapum Dam near Vantage, Wash., has large cracks that workers are trying to repair. In them meantime, upgrades to the dam's fish ladders should allow migrating salmon to continue their journey to up-river spawning grounds.

 Fixes

should let migrating Columbia River salmon clear the cracked Wanapum Dam

SPOKANE, Wash. — Modifications on the cracked Wanapum Dam will allow migrating salmon to pass through the structure starting this week on their journey to spawning grounds, the Grant County Public Utility District said Tuesday. The utility has extended fish ladders, making them functional even after water was lowered behind the dam to prevent the crack from getting worse. Spokesman Tom Stredwick said the utility spent $1.5 million to extend fish ladders by 18 feet so salmon can pass through the 8,600-foot wide dam on the Columbia River during their spring migration. "They will travel up the ladders, slide down the flume, and continue their journey upstream to spawn," Stredwick said Tuesday.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "These are different conditions, but the fish are used to jumping upstream and downstream," he said. "These are not outside the norm." Divers discovered a 65-foot crack across part of Wanapum Dam's concrete spillway in February, and workers have lowered the reservoir level by 26 feet to reduce pressure on the dam. That left the upstream exits of the fish ladders high and dry — unusable for the migrating fish. In addition to extending the fish ladders, the utility this week is starting a program to trap migrating salmon, place them in a tanker truck and drive them around Wanapum Dam, Stredwick said. The trucking provides insurance in case the modified fish ladders prove difficult for the fish to navigate, Stredwick said. The trucking will also be necessary when the much larger runs of salmon this summer overwhelm the capacity of the fish ladders, he said. "We don't want all our eggs in one basket," Stredwick said. The utility has set up a fish trap at Priest Rapids Dam, 18 miles south of Wanapum Dam, where it will collect fish, place them in trucks, and drive them around Wanapum Dam to continue their journey up the river to spawning grounds, Stredwick said. Thousands of spring chinook are already headed up the Columbia River, and about 1,200 to 1,500 spring chinook will soon be passing Wanapum Dam each day. That will climb to a peak of about 25,000 migratory fish per day during the summer run, utility officials have said. All modifications will have to be removed when the cracked spillway is fixed and the reservoir level is raised to normal, the utility has said. The cause of the crack remains unknown, but the utility has ruled out four possibilities: seismic activity, foundation settlement, operation of spillway gates, and explosions at the nearby Yakima Training Center operated by the U.S. Army. Chuck Berrie, assistant general manager of the utility, has said the cause of the crack might be determined as soon as the next two or three weeks. The crack was detected by divers on Feb. 27, three days after a worker at the dam noticed that the top of a spillway pier had shifted slightly. When the reservoir behind the dam was drawn down by 26 feet, the pressure on the spillway was reduced and the fracture closed. Six holes have been drilled into the pier and more holes are planned to determine the geometry of the fracture and how far it goes into the pier, the utility said. The utility said it may be June before a repair plan is formulated. Wanapum Dam is the Grant County PUD's largest power producer, capable of generating 1,092 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply nearly 900,000 homes. The giant dam continues to generate electricity at 50 to 60 percent of its capacity, the utility said. The crack runs the entire 65-foot width of the concrete base of the dam's No. 4 spillway pier. The dam has a total of 12 spillways and is located just south of Vantage, where Interstate 90 crosses the Columbia River.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Liquefied Natural Gas

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Ohio finds probable link between fracking, quakes Ohio geologists have found a probable connection between fracking and several mild earthquakes in a region that had never experienced a temblor until recently, according to a state report. The report, which coincided with Ohio’s announcement of some of the nation’s strictest limits on fracking near faults, marked the strongest link to date between nerve-rattling quakes and hydraulic fracturing — the process of firing water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth to extract oil and natural gas from ancient rock. Last month, the state indefinitely shut down Hilcorp Energy Co.’s fracking operation near the Pennsylvania border after five earthquakes, including one magnitude 3 temblor that shook many Ohioans awake. Federal scientists have previously linked earthquakes in part to the use of injection wells, where postfracking wastewater is forced back deep into the earth for storage. None of the seven wells near the Ohio quakes were used for waste disposal, leaving Ohio scientists to go a step further to find a significant relationship between the initial blast of fluid and the earthquakes shortly thereafter. They “believe the sand and water injected into the well during the hydraulic fracturing process may have increased pressure on an unknown microfault in the area,” the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said in a statement about the operation in Poland, Ohio. The new rules require companies to install “sensitive seismic monitors” before beginning to drill sideways into underground rock “within 3 miles of a known fault or area of seismic activity greater than a 2.0 magnitude.” Humans can generally feel earthquakes in excess of magnitude 3. Drilling would be suspended pending investigation whenever the monitors detect anything above magnitude 1. “While we can never be 100 percent sure that drilling activities are connected to a seismic event, caution dictates that we take these new steps to protect human health, safety and the environment,” department Director James Zehringer said. Data gathered by the monitors would be used to improve fault maps, he said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Hilcorp Energy said that it was reviewing the new permitting rules and that it remained “fully committed to public safety and acting in a manner consistent with being a good corporate citizen.” Officials from Ohio and several other states that have seen an increase in seismic activity met recently to discuss how to handle the expansion of fracking to new beds of rock, where faults might not be well mapped. Gerry Baker, associate executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, called Ohio’s new rules a “sensible response to a serious issue that regulators across the country are closely examining.” Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Kansas have been among those seeing the largest surges in seismic activity. Critics of fracking have long warned of a possible connection between earthquakes and the expanded drilling for oil and gas in shale deposits. They have also raised concerns about possible groundwater contamination by fracking chemicals. Ray Beiersdorfer, a Youngstown State University geology professor whose wife co-founded Frackfree America, said the new regulations mirrored what he had been seeking. He has asked Ohio officials to make public the data they used to find the connection as well as set the new restrictions. “The whole problem is no one knows about these faults until the earthquakes happen because the faults haven’t been researched,” he said. Oil and gas companies have tended to avoid the well-known fault lines in Ohio, according to the industry publication Natural Gas Intelligence. But industry leaders maintained there is scant evidence that fracking causes earthquakes and labeled the temblors isolated incidents. At Hilcorp’s site directly above last month’s earthquakes, the state has banned further fracking but has allowed wells already fracked to resume operating. “This is also expected to have the beneficial effect of reducing underground pressure and decreasing the likelihood of another seismic event,” the state said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Up To 1,000 Times More Methane Released At Gas Wells Than EPA Estimates, Study Finds April 15, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters An analysis of a number of hydraulic fracturing sites in southwestern Pennsylvania has found that methane was being released into the atmosphere at 100 to 1,000 times the rate that the Environmental Protection Agency estimated. The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that drilling operations at seven well pads emitted 34 grams of methane per second, on average, much higher than the EPA-estimated 0.04 grams to 0.30 grams of methane per second. The researchers, who were attempting to understand whether airborne measurements of methane aligned with estimates taken at ground level — the method commonly used by the EPA and state regulators — flew a plane over the region of the Marcellus Shale for two days in June 2012. “The researchers determined that the wells leaking the most methane were in the drilling phase, a period that has not been known for high emissions,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “Experts had thought that methane was more likely to be released during subsequent phases of production, including hydraulic fracturing, well completion or transport through pipelines.” Methane (CH4), the chief component of natural gas, makes up about nine percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is a super-potent greenhouse gas — especially during the first 20 years after it enters the atmosphere when it traps around 86 times as much heat as CO2. So even small leaks in the natural gas production and delivery system can have a large climate impact — enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas. Paul Shepson, an atmospheric chemist at Purdue University who worked on the study, toldthe Los Angeles Times that while more research is needed to determine whether the extremely high measurements are typical, the vast disparity between the readings illustrates the limitations of the current methods. “The EPA’s approach puts regulators at the mercy of energy companies, which control access to the wells, pipelines, processing plants and compressor stations where methane measurements should be made, ” he continued. This study adds to the growing literature on the critical role methane emissions play in contributing to climate change, and the need for better data and improved means of reducing emissions. A recent comprehensive Stanford study reviewed over 200 earlier studies to find that “U.S. emissions of methane are considerably higher than official estimates,” and that “leaks from the nation’s natural gas system are an important part of the problem.” Less than two weeks ago as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan — which involves addressing climate change without the help of legislation from Congress — the White House released a preliminary strategy to reduce methane emissions from a variety of sources including landfills, agriculture, and the fossil fuel industry. The plan calls for the EPA to study what sort of regulations may be needed to comply with the Clean Air Act. If the agency decides to issue new rules they must be in place by the end of 2016 when Obama leaves office. Not only does leaking methane of more than three percent from natural gas production render the fuel no more climate-friendly than coal-fired power plants for some period of time, but it can also be a safety hazard. Leaking natural gas infrastructure can result in deadly explosions. In 2012, 244 “significant” pipeline incidents, happened in the U.S., leading to 10 fatalities and 55 injuries according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 ANR Pipeline: Introducing TransCanada's Keystone XL for Fracking April 7, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters When most environmentalists and folks who follow pipeline markets think of TransCanada, they think of the proposed northern half of its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Flying beneath the public radar, though, is another TransCanada-proposed pipeline with a similar function as Keystone XL. But rather than for carrying tar sands bitumen to the Gulf Coast, this pipeline would bring to market shale gas obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Meet TransCanada's ANR Pipeline System. Although not actually a new pipeline system, TransCanada wants ANR retooled to serve domestic and export markets for gas fracked from the Marcellus Shale basin and the Utica Shale basin via its Southeast Main Line. “The [current Southeast Main Line] moves gas from south Louisiana (including offshore) to Michigan where it has a strong market presence,” explains a March 27 article appearing in industry publication RBN Energy. Because of the immense amount of shale gas being produced in the Marcellus and Utica, TransCanada seeks a flow reversal in the Southeast Main Line of its ANR Pipeline System. TransCanada spokeswoman Gretchen Krueger told DeSmogBlog that ANR's flow reversal is a “more efficient use of the system based on market demand.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters TransCanada has already drawn significant interest from customers in the open seasons and negotiations held to date, so much so it expects to begin the flow reversal in 2015. “ANR Pipeline system has secured almost 2.0 billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d) of firm natural gas transportation commitments on its Southeast Main Line (SEML) at maximum rates for an average term of 23 years,” reads a March 31 TransCanada press release. ”ANR secured contracts on available capacity on the [South East Mainline] to move Utica and Marcellus shale gas to points north and south on the system.” Like Keystone XL, an Export Pipeline Like Keystone XL, ANR's flow reversal will serve — among other things — the global export market. “This project will…allow more natural gas to move south to the Gulf Coast, where markets are experiencing a resurgence of natural gas demand for industrial use, as well as significant new demand related to natural gas exports from recently approved liquefaction terminals,” TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said in his company's March 31 press release. “ANR will continue to be an attractive transportation option due to its strategic foot print, interconnections, on-system storage and access to high demand markets.” With the debate over liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports heating up in the U.S., ANR has arrived on scene right in the knick of time for the oil and gas industry. Other Keystone XL: Cove Point or Sabine Pass? Some recent media coverage of the prospective Dominion Cove Point LNGexport facility located in Lusby, Maryland has drawn comparisons to the Keystone XL debate because both involve key pipeline systems, with accompanying plans to export product globally and the Obama Administration has final say over approval (or disapproval) of the pipeline. Yet, while Cove Point awaits final approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG export facility was approved by FERC in April 2012 and opens for business in late 2015. Enter TransCanada into the mix with ANR and it's the perfect storm: a Keystone XL pipeline for fracking run by the same company that owns Keystone XL. Creole Trail: ANR's Sabine Pass

Connection

ANR feeds into the same Gulf Coast export and refinery markets Keystone XL is set to feed into (and the same ones its alreadyexisting southern half, the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project feeds into).

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Port Arthur, Texas — the end point for Keystone XL — is a mere 20 minute drive away from Sabine Pass, Louisiana. That's where Cheniere's Creole Trail Pipeline comes into play, a 94-mile pipeline completed in 2008. Cheniere proposed an expansion project in September 2013 to FERC for Creole Trail, which FERC is still currently reviewing. If granted the permit by FERC, the expansion would allow Creole Trail to connect to TransCanada's ANR pipeline at the Mamou Compressor Station located in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. Mamou Compressor Station already received an expedited air permit in October 2013 from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Exports Gone Wild, Climate Disruption Gone Wild Beyond Sabine Pass, ANR and Creole Trail also connect to other key prospective LNG export terminals neighboring Sabine Pass LNG. That's depicted clearly in a map appearing in a June 2013 Cheniere corporate presentation. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) — new chair of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee who recently hosted a hearing promoting U.S. fracked gas exports — has called for expedited permitting by FERC of one of those export terminal proposals, Cameron LNG (owned by Sempra Energy which has given her $10,000 toward her re-election efforts). In short, TransCanada's ANR — like its tar sands carrying brother Keystone XL — will open the floodgates for exports gone wild.

Which is a short way of saying, given the climate impacts of both shale gas production and tar sands production, both will also help lock in climate disruption gone wild.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Lelu Island, near Port Edward is the site for proposed $11-billion Pacific Northwest LNG plant. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced Wednesday that a 30-day public comment period for the Pacific NorthWest LNG project will begin April 2 and end May 1

 Environmental agency seeks public comments on proposed LNG plant in B.C. March 26, 2014 VANCOUVER - A multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project proposed for B.C.'s north coast is inching its way through the environmental approval process. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced Wednesday that a 30-day public comment period for the Pacific NorthWest LNG project will begin April 2 and end May 1. The announcement follows last month's publication of an environmental impact statement that predicts the project's effects on air quality would not be significant, but it would increase the province's greenhouse-gas emissions annually by more than eight per cent. Agency spokeswoman Karen Fish said in an email that once the 30-day period is over, officials will consider the feedback and prepare a draft environmental assessment report. "This report will set out the agency's conclusions and recommendations regarding the potential environmental effects of the project, the proposed mitigation measures, and the significance of any remaining adverse environmental effects," she said. She said a fourth and final public comment period on the draft environmental assessment report will be announced at a later date, after which the agency will finalize the document and submit it to government. If approved, the facility would be built near the city of Prince Rupert and will convert natural gas, transported by pipeline from northeast B.C. into LNG before export to Asian markets. The company estimates the plant will produce as much as 19.2 million tonnes of LNG annually.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters In December, the National Energy Board granted Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd. and three other companies 25-year export licences, subject to final government review. Still, the issue of greenhouse gas emissions has at times dominated public discussion about LNG. In February, Premier Christy Clark told state senators in California that the industry will be the biggest step B.C. has taken to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and growing its economy responsibly. Previously, she also suggested hitting the government's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one third by 2020 may be a challenge if the LNG industry expands. In fact, the environmental impact statement published in February states the Pacific NorthWest LNG project is expected to increase emission totals by 8.5 per cent provincially and 0.75 per cent nationally. "The majority of project GHG emissions will originate from the combustion of fuel, that will be subject to the BC carbon tax," says the document. Last June, the company's vice-president said it was prepared to invest between $9 and $11 billion in two LNG plants. The Malaysian oil-and-gas company Petroas owns 90 per cent of the company. Minority shareholders include the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company and PetroleumBrunei.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Environmental Assessment of the Proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG Project Public Comment Period and Information Sessions Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd. proposes to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and marine terminal near Prince Rupert, within the District of Port Edward. The Pacific NorthWest LNG facility would be located on Lelu Island. The proposed project would convert natural gas to LNG for export to Pacific Rim markets in Asia. The Pacific NorthWest LNG Project is subject to review under both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012) and B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Act and is undergoing a coordinated environmental assessment process. Public Comment Period The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) and B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) are inviting the public to comment on the ongoing environmental assessment of the Pacific NorthWest LNG Project. The Proponent has recently submitted its Application / Environmental Impact Statement (Application / EIS) which describes the project and the potential environmental, heritage, health, social, and economic effects of all phases of the project. The Application / EIS, as well as a summary of the document and additional information regarding the environmental assessment process, are available online at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca and at www.eao.gov.bc.ca. The 30-day public comment period is from April 2, 2014 to May 1, 2014. The Agency and the EAO accept public comments submitted by any of the following means: By Online Form: www.eao.gov.bc.ca By Email: GNLPacificNorthwestLNG@ceaa-acee.gc.ca By Fax: 250-387-0230 By mail: Ken Howes, Project Assessment Manager Environmental Assessment Office PO Box 9426 Stn Prov Govt Victoria, British Columbia V8W 9V1

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Natural Gas Pipeline Fire in Copano Bay Watch, Listen, Learn HERE March 25, 2014 ROCKPORT - A natural gas pipeline is on fire in Copano Bay. The Rockport Volunteer Fire Department says no one was injured, but it will be up to the pipeline company to turn off the supply. The scene is a few hundred yards off the Copano Bay Causeway. Witnesses tell us there was a large plume of smoke at first, followed by a large column of fire that is still coming up from underwater. The Coast Guard and Texas General Land Office will investigate claims a boat was in the area this morning right before the rupture. There is speculation a boat anchor snagged the pipeline. Flames could be seen for miles around. The last bit of gas burned out just before 2 p.m. Officials plan on sending a diver down to the bottom tomorrow after everything cools off. The City of Rockport says the pipeline delivers natural gas to Holiday Beach and Lamar. Residents should expect to be without gas service for the time being.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The LNG storage plant at Mount Hayes near Ladysmith, B.C. B.C.’s urgency to finalize the fiscal regime underlines the government’s determination to attract companies that are weighing various locations to build LNG projects, including the United States, Australia, West and East Africa.

 British

Columbia rushes to approve LNG regime as global competition heats up April 7, 2014

British Columbia’s final decision on its liquefied natural gas fiscal regime could come before the summer and not fall as originally thought, as the provincial government moves quickly to engage companies that are poised to build billions of dollars worth of export projects on the West Coast.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “The final decision is set for the fall legislature, but you can expect it earlier,” even before summer, Steve Carr, British Columbia’s deputy natural gas minister, told the Financial Post Friday on the sidelines of an investment symposium organized by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in collaboration with Scotiabank. The government also appears to be backtracking on its two-tier LNG tax proposed in February. The first tier is set at 1.5% at the start of production, while the second tier, when introduced, could rise to 7% once the plant has recouped its running and capital costs. The proposal has been criticized by companies such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which plans to make a final investment decision on its West Coast project proposal by 2015. “I really want to stress the ‘up to 7%’ — we have not landed on the 7% and we are continuing to look at our competitive position,” Mr. Carr said during his speech to business executives in Toronto. As many as 13 liquefied natural gas projects are being proposed, but none have been approved by proponents. “We will be speaking to proponents over the next few weeks since they are the experts and can tell us about their industry,” Mr. Carr said. “We have confidentiality agreements in place, so they can share their financials outlays with us.” The B.C. government is pushing its decision forward to remove fiscal uncertainty as companies such as Chevron Corp., Shell and Progress Energy Canada Ltd. finalize plans over the next 15 to 18 months. “At this point in time, we are waiting for the details of the LNG tax,” Michael Culbert, president and chief executive of Progress Energy said. Progress’’ parent company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has proposed an export project on the West Coast along with other Asian investors. The company intends to take a final investment decision before the end of 2014. B.C.’s urgency to finalize the fiscal regime underlines the government’s determination to attract companies that are weighing various locations to build LNG projects, including the United States, Australia, West and East Africa.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “The fiscal regime part is one of the great many things that’s going to determine whether the B.C. LNG projects are competitive or not,” said Barry Munro, oil and gas leader in Ernst & Young’s Calgary office. Indeed, the province’s nascent natural gas industry faces a number of challenges before it can achieve the government’s target of three projects by 2020. Mr. Carr says labour is the “number one issue in terms of costs” facing the industry. On Thursday the government released an LNG skills strategy as it seeks to create labour skills needed to meet expected demand. The province may need as many as 670,000 new workers by 2020, and B.C. is looking to recruit around 75,000 from within Canada and another 265,000 internationally during the period. The government is engaged with municipal jurisdictions to ensure the province can find a balance between a fair fiscal regime and benefit to communities. The government is offering royalty credit to encourage drilling in shallower basins. Christy Clark’s government is moving quickly on all these fronts to ensure that it does not fall behind other countries looking to build LNG infrastructure and secure long-term supplies with Asian countries. While the U.S. Gulf Coast projects are less expensive as they already have some infrastructure built, B.C. projects are based in remote locations with little or no infrastructure. In addition, some of the U.S. Gulf Coast projects have secured contracts based on American natural gas price benchmark Henry Hub, while most companies looking to build on the West Coast prefer oillinked pricing due to the high upfront capital costs.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Solar

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Solar Cheaper Than LNG in Asia Power Generation, Bernstein Says April 4, 2014 Solar power is cheaper in many parts of Asia than electricity from liquefied natural gas, meaning photovoltaics don’t need subsidies to compete with fossil fuels. The Middle East will consume less oil, off-grid areas in developing markets will reduce kerosene and diesel demand, while Asia, the U.S. and Europe will burn less gas as the adoption of solar accelerates, according to a report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. The market for costly plants built to supply electricity at peak daytime hours could collapse, while distribution utilities which shut out rooftop solar projects that reduce demand for grid power will drive consumers to start storing energy in batteries, according to the report. The rise of solar may begin to depress fossil-fuel prices within the decade. “All of the above eats away – at the margin – at oil and gas demand,” analysts Michael W. Parker and Flora Chang said in the report. “It competes with oil, kerosene, diesel and LNG in developing markets.” Solar’s penetration into the $5 trillion global energy trade is still too small for it to disturb pricing in any market, they said. However, it’s a technology that’s set to get bigger and cheaper, whereas fossil-fuel extraction costs will keep rising, according to the report. Solar accounted for only 0.17 percent of energy in 2012. Within a decade, it may begin to displace a significant share of oil and gas supply and start to depress prices, according to the report. “Global energy deflation would become inevitable,” they said. “Technology with a falling cost structure would be driving prices in the energy space.” If oil and gas producers start to expect a world of deflating energy prices, they may be less inclined to sit on large reserves and may begin pumping faster, according to the report.

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 Latin America's largest solar power plant goes online in Mexico March 27, 2014 Latin America's largest solar power plant, a facility with 39 MW of generating capacity, has gone online in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The Aura Solar I photovoltaic power plant was inaugurated by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday and will supply electricity to the city of La Paz. The energy industry reforms implemented last December will help lead to "more energy generation, cleaner energy and, above all, cheaper energy to help make Mexico a more competitive country," Peña Nieto said. The goal is to turn Mexico into "a country that attracts greater investment for the development and creation of jobs," the president said. Some 25 percent of Mexico's electricity is currently generated using clean energy sources, Peña Nieto said during the ceremony in the Las Olas Altas section of La Paz. The Climate Change Law requires that this number go up to 35 percent by 2024, the president said, adding that he was confident that the goal would be met. The Aura Solar I power plant, which is owned by Corporacion Aura Solar and quadrupled Mexico's installed photovoltaic capacity, will be "a model of success that will be duplicated in other parts of the country," Peña Nieto said. "This photovoltaic power plant is not just the first large-scale one of its type in Mexico, but also the biggest in all of Latin America," Corporacion Aura Solar chairman Daniel Servitje Montull said. The $100 million energy project was developed on a 100-hectare (247-acre) site in La Paz by Mexico's Gauss Energia and Martifer Solar, an international engineering company that has experience in building solar power facilities. Aura Solar I, which has an estimated operational life of 30 years, has about 132,000 solar panels and is expected to prevent the emission of 60,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually. The emission of greenhouse gases is believed to contribute to global warming. The Aura Solar I power plant will supply electricity to about 164,000 people, or about 64 percent of La Paz's residents. EFE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Tidal

 Puget Sound Tidal Energy Project Approved By Feds March 21, 2014 Puget Sound tides may soon be generating power. A proposal for the world’s first grid-connected tidal energy project received a federal license Thursday. The project has been almost eight years in the making. The Snohomish County Public Utility District will install two underwater turbines near Washington’s Whidbey Island. The turbines would stay underwater for up to five years, said Neil Neroutsos, spokesman for the utility. He said the utility expects a reliable stream of energy from the project. “The beauty of tidal energy is that it’s very predictable. We know when the tides are going in and when they’re going out,” Neroutsos said. The turbines will be at a depth of about 200 feet in Admiralty Inlet. At maximum output, the turbines could generate enough power for up to 200 homes, although Neroutsos said the main purpose of this pilot project is to test out the technology in Puget Sound. Some have raised concerns that the tidal projects could harm marine life. Neroutsos said several studies from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission indicate that the turbines will not hurt marine life or the environment. The utility expects the pilot project will be running by 2016.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Blue Is The New Green: How Oceans Could Power The Future March 26, 2014 In February, a natural gas power plant along the Central California coast closed after operating for more than 50 years, thus ending an era that saw the surrounding community of Morro Bay grow up around it. In an unlikely partnership, the shuttering may also help usher in a new era of energy generation — this one reliant on power from the waves that undulate through the bay before crashing up against the nearby shoreline.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The antiquated Morro Bay plant is part of a pattern of seaside plants closing due to a combination of stricter environmental regulations coupled with California’s requirement that 33 percent of electricity in the state come from renewable sources by 2020. Two companies have filed preliminary permits with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to test wave energy projects off the coast of Morro Bay, a town of about 10,000 people north of Los Angeles. Both projects would use the defunct plant as a much-needed transmission hub to push energy to the grid and from there to consumers throughout the region. “If we aren’t able to use Morro Bay, there are other shore-based power plants shutting down along the coastline,” said Paul Grist, president and chairman of Archon Energy, one of the companies applying for a FERC permit. “They can’t meet the Renewable Portfolio Standard and they suck in and spew out millions of gallons of water.” Dynegy, the owner of the power plant, is the other company that applied for a FERC permit. A Houston-based utility company with around 13,000 megawatts (MW) of nationwide power generation capacity, their February 6 application with FERC came several months after Archon’s. If their project tests successfully and goes on to get the two dozen or so licenses and permits that would be needed, it would eventually generate 650 MW of power and cost more than $1 billion to build. “Dynegy filed their permit many months after we did,” Grist said. “Our goal was to use that transmission corridor to the coast and Dynegy basically followed. Their application is further towards land than ours. I’ve talked with them and we’re going to try to work together and help each other out as much as we can.” Wave energy will be coming of age in the immediate future. Archon Energy, co-founded by Grist in 1999 when he was 20 years old, is a small, independent power producer focusing on next generation technologies with minimal environmental impacts. In the fall of 2013, the company filed for a FERC permit to pursue testing on a one-by-fifteen mile site several miles offshore that would cost about $1 million. Grist said they are waiting for preliminary permits to start investing significant capital and holding consultations with stakeholders, including local community members and environmental groups. However, he’s had his eye on hydrokinetics — the production of energy from the flow of moving water — for a decade. “There’s a lot of technology happening in wave energy conversion,” Grist said. “Wave energy will be coming of age in the immediate future.” Ocean-Powered Future A spate of recent developments would seem to support Grist’s prediction. In March, Lockheed Martin, a global defense, security and technology company, signed on to help build what will be the world’s largest wave energy project — a 62.5 MW project several miles off Australia’s southern coast that will have the capacity to power 10,000 homes. Across several oceans, a 320 MW tidal project, another world’s largest, is under consideration off the coast of Wales. Ideally, it will lay the groundwork for similar installations around the U.K.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The first FERC-licensed, grid-connected tidal project was approved in 2012 off the coast of Maine for the Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Company. Having invested over $20 million dollars in the project, no major negative environmental impacts have been observed thus far and the company plans to expand the installation this year, deploying several additional devices and greatly increasing the amount of tidal power they are capturing. On March 20, in an indication of FERC’s willingness to support such technologies, the agency approved a ten-year pilot license for the 600 KW Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project to be located in Puget Sound off Washington state. The project will be grid-connected and, as the first U.S. undertaking at such a scale, is leading an effort to better understand how wave and tidal energy projects interact with local environments, numerous stakeholders ranging from tribal groups to business organizations, and the electric grid. “Anyone who has spent time on the waters of Puget Sound understands the power inherent in the tides,” Steve Klein, Snohomish Public Utility District (PUD) General Manager, told the local news. “In granting this license, the FERC acknowledges the vigilant efforts of the PUD and its partners to test the viability of a new reliable source of clean energy while at the same time ensuring the protection of the environment and existing uses.” Ocean current resources are about 800 times denser than wind currents … meaning a 12-mph marine current generates the equivalent amount of force as a 110-mph wind gust. Wave and tidal power are both hydrokinetic sources of energy. Wave power harnesses the energy of surface waves through a number of different mechanisms, many still in early stages of development. Currently the primary method involves floating buoys the size of lighthouses that are moored to the ocean floor. In another example, a group of researchers at UC-Berkeley have developed what they call a “seafloor carpet” that absorbs the impact of ocean waves much as muddy seabeds do. Tidal power uses the flow of ocean currents, tides or inland waterways to capture the potential energy between high and low tides as they occur every 12 hours. “The rotation of the earth creates wind on the ocean surface that forms waves, while the gravitational pull of the moon creates coastal tides and currents,” the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) explains.

Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy uses a buoy to convert wave energy into electricity. CREDIT: OCEAN POWER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters As the search for new forms of clean, sustainable energy persists, the global potential of wave and tidal power represents an untested but immensely promising frontier. Oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface — and they do so densely. Ocean current resources are about 800 times denser than wind currents, according to NREL, meaning a 12-mph marine current generates the equivalent amount of force as a 110-mph wind gust. With more than half of all Americans living near the coastline, wave and tidal power is also appealing for its proximity to electricity demand centers, whereas the many of the best wind and solar sites are hundreds of miles from population hubs. A 2012 report prepared by RE Vision Consulting for the Department of Energy found that the theoretical ocean wave energy resource potential in the U.S. is more than 50 percent of the annual domestic demand of the entire country. The World Energy Council has estimated that approximately 2 terawatts — 2 million megawatts or double current world electricity production — could be produced from the oceans via wave power. Testing Waves Up And Down The Coast But even in the small nook of ocean lapping into Morro Bay, an impressive amount of energy is being devoted to the development of wave, and possibly tidal, power generation. Just about a dozen miles inland from the Bay, research into setting up a National Wave Energy Test Facility in California (CalWave) is underway at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. As part of the newly formed Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, the facility has been selected by DOE to determine which location along California’s coast has the best potential to accelerate the development of a commercial ocean renewable energy industry. IATPP, formed in 2012, is the brainchild of former California State Senator Sam Blakeslee, who has been running it since its inception on a pro-bono basis. Blakeslee has a Ph.D. in geophysics from nearby UC-Santa Barbara and also worked as a strategic planner for Exxon before entering state politics in 2005. He left politics just over a year ago after leading the GOP State Assembly and helping craft California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, among other things. “I have no plans to return to politics,” Blakeslee told ThinkProgress. “The best place to drive policy right now is in some of these think tanks working on exciting new ideas, and not in state houses or on the Hill where people can’t seem to agree on anything.” Blakeslee wants to help develop and spread the potential transformative benefits of emerging technologies rather than get bogged down by laws, regulations, and standards that can actually impede the application of such innovations. And after signaling its interest in giving up to $40 million to the expansion of wave energy technologies — pending Congressional approval — its seems DOE is pursuing the same type of paradigm-shifting innovation. Blakeslee likens the prospect of a national wave testing facility to the public-private partnership that led to the proliferation of satellites. In that case, satellite owners and operators share in the common technology and infrastructure provided by the government which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to development. “The Obama administration is looking to develop the test facility so companies can test equipment and compare results in a facility that would otherwise be unavailable to them individually,” Blakeslee said. “Down the road as the technology develops there will be wave farms, and this is one of the major steps towards that. By having this facility in the U.S. the likelihood that the country will be a big commercial player in the industry greatly increases.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters By having this facility in the U.S. the likelihood that the country will be a big commercial player in the industry greatly increases. Blakeslee has had conversations with Grist about the type of research that needs to occur off Morro Bay before any siting decisions are made. He and Grist both expressed concern for marine life, especially migratory mammals such as blue whales, gray whales, and humpback whales, as well as fishing communities that could be impacted by the projects. These concerns will need to be addressed up and down California’s 750-mile coastline and the rest of the West Coast if wave and tidal power are to proliferate. The closing of the Morro Bay Power Plant is not a one-time, serendipitous occasion, but part of a trend of coastal power facilities closing due to old age and new regulations aimed at protecting sea life being negatively impacted by the facilities’ cooling systems. In fact, the plant is just one of 19 gasfired power plants along the coast of California to be phased out of operation in order to project marine life from being sucked through their cooling systems or impacted by the hot water released back into the ocean. This will open up 5,500 MW of transmission lines and a similar amount of energy demand — although many would like to see some of that demand reduced through efficiency and conservation measures rather than replaced, even by sustainable sources. Farther down the coast, the recent closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has opened up not only hundreds of megawatts of transmission lines, but also a power supply void that will need to be filled. The California Public Utilities Commission recently directed Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to secure up to 1,500 MW of new energy by 2022, with at least 600 MW coming from renewable energy sources or energy efficiency measures. Having available transmission lines is critical for a nascent technology like wave power. “Building transmission lines in California can take up to a decade,” Blakeslee said. “The availability of transmission lines and to have a prescribed amount of power brought into the system through Independent System Operators are big considerations for any energy project in the state.” Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy wave generation system.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Overcoming the Barriers Transmission is far from the only challenge wave and tidal power will have to overcome on the path to becoming major energy providers. New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies encapsulates the ups-and-downs of the early days of the industry. In February, Ocean Power Technologies signed on to provide buoys for the Lockheed Martin project off the coast of Australia, a major deal that sent the company’s stock soaring. The company has spent millions of dollars developing a PowerBuoy that converts ocean wave energy into commercial scale electricity. Standing 140 feet tall, it resembles a giant metal detector and when submerged in the ocean, only the handle remains above water. The tip-of-the-iceberg effect in the form of wave energy. Then in March, Ocean Power Technologies shelved its much-hyped plans to develop the country’s first large-scale wave energy project off the coast of Oregon, which would have employed a flotilla of up to 100 buoys. A key challenge uncompetitive.

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Kevin Watkins, the Pacific Northwest representative for Ocean Power Technologies, told the Oregonian that implementing the wave energy technology on a large scale became too expensive and complicated. The cumbersome regulatory process and concern from fishing and crabbing communities about ecological and economic impacts caused unanticipated delays. Peter Fraenkel, co-founder of U.K.-based Marine Current Turbines Limited and a pioneer in the field of wave and tidal energy, thinks that the bottom-line concern is really cost. “A key challenge is that all new technologies are initially uncompetitive,” he told ThinkProgress via email. “Conventional generation using steam turbines, gas turbines or nuclear for example were originally developed on an almost cost-no-object basis mainly for military purposes. Sadly there seems to be no military application for wave or tidal energy so it will need subsidies in some shape or form for early projects.” Fraenkel also acknowledges the challenges of grid connectivity, saying that in the U.K., unlike along California’s coastline, promising tidal and wave resources lack easy transmission options. “So we have a ‘Catch 22′ situation where nobody wants to invest in grid extension until the technology to generate into the grid extension is ready and nobody wants to invest in projects where there is no certainty of having a grid connection.” While oceans may cover more than two-thirds of the planet, wave and tidal power require concentrated energy locations with strong currents or consistently large waves. This limits the opportunities to a tiny percentage of the ocean, according to Fraenkel. So on top of technological advances and economic favorability, siting, natural resources availability, and transmission access must all align for a successful wave or tidal power project. Even so, Fraenkel views the challenges as not only worth overcoming, but necessary to overcome.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

“The oceans contain a huge amount of energy so logic dictates that we need to learn to extract energy where possible bearing in mind that future use of fossil fuel is going to be inhibited both by the effects of pollution induced climate change and by resource depletion,” he said. “So my message is that although extracting energy from the oceans is more difficult and perhaps less successful so far than some people might have wished, it has been shown to be possible and will no doubt become increasingly important in future.”

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Wind

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Forest Management

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Washington state used outdated data to allow logging on slope April 1, 2014 SEATTLE — State regulators have been using outdated boundaries to restrict logging above the Snohomish County slope that collapsed March 22, failing to incorporate newer research that would have protected a swath of land that wound up being clear-cut, according to a Seattle Times analysis of documents and geographical data. Because trees intercept and absorb water, removing them can contribute to the risk or size of a landslide by increasing the soil’s saturation, according to geological reports. The impact can linger for years.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters In 1997, a report commissioned by the state Department of Ecology used “newly developed computational tools” to map the plateau atop the unstable hill outside Oso. That report was prepared by geologist Daniel J. Miller and hydrologist Joan Sias; Miller’s portion drew boundaries for where groundwater could feed into the slope and increase the risks of landslide. When the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued logging restrictions later that same year, the agency cited the Miller-Sias report and treated it as state of the art, saying any future study should emulate its methods. But instead of adopting Miller’s map, DNR used boundaries that had been drawn up in 1988. “We did the work. It was cited in the prescriptions as what you should do. And it appears from your comparison of the maps that it didn’t get done,” Miller told The Seattle Times on Sunday. “I suspect it just got lost in the shuffle somewhere.” Had Miller’s map been used for the plateau, called the Whitman Bench, an additional 12 acres to the west would have been placed under protection, according to a Seattle Times analysis. In 2004, DNR approved the clear-cutting of 7 { acres on the plateau — about 5 of which would have been protected under Miller’s boundaries. Grandy Lake Forest, the owner of that property, finished harvesting the acreage by August 2005. The 7 { acres took the shape of a pizza slice — with its tip just touching the part of the slope that fell away this month, releasing millions of cubic yards of sand, silt and clay. The Seattle Times previously reported the actual harvest appeared to extend past the permitted area, with about an acre cut in restricted land. The hill that collapsed had a long history of slides, including ones in 1949, 1951, 1967 and 1988. Geologists studying the slope have cited multiple factors that could have contributed to the slides, from excessive precipitation to erosion of the hill’s base by the Stillaguamish River to logging. DNR issued its logging restrictions in 1997 as part of what’s called a watershed analysis. Even then, the geologist who authored the section on the potential link between logging and landslides expressed doubts about using the boundaries from 1988. Gerald Thorsen, who died five years ago, wrote that he considered it beyond his work’s scope to “second guess” the 1988 study, but added: “However, I feel that there is enough additional information available now (since the 1988 study), and enough unanswered questions, to warrant a new look at this slide and its recharge area.” The “recharge area” refers to the part of the plateau at risk of sending groundwater into the slope. DNR spokeswoman Diana Lofflin emailed a statement to The Times, saying: “The 1997 Watershed Analysis is a historical document and (it) will take some time to understand what data was used in the analysis and the underlying assumptions. This is further complicated by the fact that the report was prepared 17 years ago under a previous administration with different staff.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “Please be patient as we review the information and complete an investigation, and bear in mind that we are focused on the recovery efforts at this time.” Paul Kennard, a geologist who was working with the Tulalip Tribes during the 1997 watershed analysis, said he remembers a Grandy Lake representative arguing “very eloquently and hard” to protect the company’s timber interests. “Everything had to be argued to the nth degree if it involved leaving a stick of timber,” Kennard said. He could not recall what role, if any, Miller’s report played in the discussions and whether there was serious consideration to redrawing the boundaries. He said there was a feeling that the gains made in 1988 were groundbreaking, and the tribes worried that the timber industry might spend a lot of money fighting to reclaim land if officials had decided to revisit the groundwater boundaries. The tribes saw the system as tilted heavily in favor of timber companies. “It’s David and Goliath, but you don’t have the slingshot,” Kennard said. Representatives of Grandy Lake could not be reached for comment. Last week, the DNR posted on its website a fact sheet about the steps it takes to protect forested land from mudslides. The fact sheet said some sites prone to landslide have not been the subject of sufficient review, or lack recent updates. But that wasn’t the case with the hill that collapsed March 22, DNR said. That analysis, completed in 1997, “contained detailed prescriptions that were the product of rigorous geologic review” and “meets or exceeds all current rule requirements for harvest restrictions,” the DNR wrote in the fact sheet. Last year, the DNR decided 36 watershed areas in the state need to be reanalyzed for landslide risks, because the protections — or “prescriptions,” in its terminology — attached to them trace to the 1990s. One of those areas is the hill that fell March 22. Unless “new research and technologies” are applied, the DNR wrote, it was not confident the prescriptions were” protective enough.”

About this story: The Seattle Times based this analysis on a 1997 map of groundwater impacts by geologist Dan Miller. To digitize Miller’s map, The Seattle Times cross-referenced aerial photos and utilized lidar imagery, which exposes landscape beneath vegetation. That allowed the Times to identify landmarks — for example, old logging roads — to insert Miller’s boundaries into mapping software. Once digitized, Miller’s map could be compared to logging boundaries used by the state.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 China replanting forests to fight pollution March 23, 2014 It’s no secret that China’s rapid industrial and economic expansion in the past decade has taken a toll on its environment — not completely dissimilar to what was seen in Europe during the Industrial Revolution during the West’s own modernization, albeit at a faster pace and on a larger scale. One of the often-overlooked aspects of the environmental degradation is the issue of deforestation. But as Beijing increasingly focuses its attention on a cleaner environment to placate the public, officials are also now more keenly aware of the well-being of China’s forests. And these officials want the West to be equally aware of Beijing’s efforts to reforest the country during the past decade. Last month, the country’s State Forestry Administration issued its latest review of China’s forest inventory. Cutting through the political language in the report, the raw numbers illustrate that China’s efforts to plant new trees appears to have already brought some sizable results. According to the report, China’s forests currently cover 21.6 per cent of the country’s landmass, a total of 208 million hectares. Reuters reported that in the last five years China has planted 13 million hectares of new forests. That is roughly the same area as Greece — or about four times the size of Vancouver Island. The report also states China is committed to increasing forest cover to more than 23 per cent of its territory, in accordance to a promise made at a United Nations climate change summit in 2009. That process, officials say, in currently 60 per cent complete. Reuters reported that some experts have concerns regarding the specifics of the reforestation program, namely that the focus on new forests being the driver of the growth outlined in the state agency’s report.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Reuters quoted a professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany as saying the plantation forests may be planted with species that bring economic benefits (such as rubber or fruits), without considering what works best with the local ecosystem. Regardless, the sheer number of trees being planted is staggering, with an environmental impact to match: Beijing now estimates China’s forests will be able to store 8.43 billion tonnes of carbon emissions and conserve up to 580.7 billion cubic metres of water — in addition to absorbing 38 million tonnes of “pollutants” per year. The forestry narrative is just the latest in a string of announcements from Beijing targeting what many believe to be one of the most important issues facing Chinese authorities in the future. Earlier this month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made it abundantly clear that Beijing has now “declared war” on pollution. He wasn’t joking. The country’s environment ministry said last week it has started using drone aircraft to search for illegal polluters in northern China. The country’s rise since the 1980s has increased the standard of living dramatically for hundreds of millions of its people when it comes to most economic and general quality-of-life factors. But environmental degradation — most visibly the air pollution seen in major cities — remains an outlier in that regard. Besides the pollution being a serious health concern and potentially leading to astronomical medical costs down the road, officials are now recognizing its immediate economic impact. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, a recent survey shows that 48 per cent of 365 foreign companies doing business in northern China expressed concern that the region’s pollution levels are turning senior executive away. That’s a jump from the 19 per cent recorded in a similar survey in 2010. Essentially, pollution is preventing top-end talent from embracing China fully. And a report from the World Bulletin last week noted that some foreign companies had to offer extra financial incentives, such as higher pay and/or heftier insurance packages, to entice executives, which adds extra costs for firms doing business in China. With competition for global investment rising, especially from Southeast Asia, pollution has become a rare disadvantage for China — one Beijing is now actively tackling. The forest expansion is just one aspect of that initiative. There is another economic aspect to consider when it comes to China’s reforestation, and it is an issue that British Columbia should keep a close tab on. Beijing’s forest report clearly outlined one of the key benefits of reforestation is the increased “provision of lumber products for the development of economy and society.” The report also notes that the plantation forests — which now account for 46 per cent of China’s domestic lumber production — will allow for the country to protect natural forests while continuing to maintain (or even increase) lumber production levels. The likelihood of China’s reforestation having an immediate impact on the country’s demand for Canadian lumber is slim. But if Beijing follows through with its plans, it may force B.C. rethink its lumber export goals.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Canfor, West Fraser overcut a million cubic meters of BC timber March 24, 2014 Read this 250.org story from Peter Ewart on the shocking overcut of non-pine timber by two forestry companies, Canfor and West Fraser, in northwest BC’s Morice Timber Supply Area. It is an outrageous amount. According to a document from the Ministry of Forests that was recently brought to light in the provincial legislature, for the five years between 2008 – 2013, the forest company giants, Canfor and West Fraser, overcut 928,000 cubic metres of non-pine wood in the Morice Timber Supply Area (TSA), a region in north-western British Columbia. This overharvesting was done in direct violation of the Allowable Annual Cut (AAC), and is equivalent to about 23,000 logging truck loads of timber.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters What is particularly galling is that, while this flagrant overcutting has been taking place, communities in the BC Interior have been facing dozens of mill closures and thousands of job losses in the wake of the pine beetle devastation of the forests and looming drop in the AAC. Having an adequate mid-term supply of non-pine wood is crucial to see the communities through this rough period, but it is precisely this mid-term supply that, in defiance of forestry regulation, Canfor and West Fraser targeted for severe overharvesting. Indeed, as part of a controversial timber swap with Canfor, West Fraser has since announced it would be closing its Houston mill in the Morice TSA by the summer of 2014. The Morice TSA case raises the question: How much overharvesting has been going on in other Timber Supply Areas of the Interior? But to catch overharvesting and other violations of the Forest Act, oversight is needed from forestry inspectors and scientists. Unfortunately, the number of government forestry personnel has been dramatically slashed over the last decade in British Columbia. In 2010, forestry analyst Ben Parfitt noted that the BC Forest Service had lost 1,006 positions or about a quarter of its workforce. Between 2001 and 2005 alone, field inspections fell by 46 per cent “opening the door to a range of potential abuses, including illegal logging and log theft, unmarked logs and therefore unpaid provincial stumpage fees, and environmentally destructive logging operations.” He further pointed out that, in Northeast BC, each forest service employee oversees an average of 232,240 hectares of land, compared to just 2,666 hectares of land for a US forest service employee.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 GE fish is losing the PR war April 1, 2014 With the genetically modified foods labeling debate raging, it’s not surprising that consumers are not showing a lot of love for AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon right now. In response to the consumer and advocacy group outcry, some of the biggest food retailers — including the likes of Kroger, Safeway, Meijer and Trader Joe’s — have promised to ban the genetically modified salmon if approved by the FDA. Meanwhile, AquaBounty Technologies’ approach to assuaging concerns leaves a lot to be desired. At a Seafood Expo panel last month, AquaBounty VP Henry Clifford listed the ways that the company would prevent the fish from escaping into the wild and reproducing:

  

The facility in Panama is near warm water that would kill the cold water salmon before they make it to the ocean. The fish will be sterile and all female. The fish will be confined to containers on land with barriers.

I can see this reasoning alarming consumers: The fish are at no risk of reproducing because they are female and are restricted to island-like conditions? Has anyone at AquaBounty seen Jurassic Park? (It turns out that a U.S. Department’s Fish & Wildlife Service geneticist also made this comparison years ago when questioning AquaBounty’s ability to sterilize the fish and guarantee they wouldn’t survive in the wild, according to emails obtained by the Food & Water Watch in 2010.) While genetically engineered salmon are hardly fictional velociraptors, I don’t see how AquaBounty can win over the seafood industry and the majority of consumers with Jurassic Park-like logic, no matter how scientifically driven. AquaBounty’s Clifford argues that it is politics that is keeping the FDA from approving the fastgrowing salmon and it’s a small group of people that are preventing all consumers from having more choices in the seafood case. “Now here’s my personal prediction: The salmon will be approved,” said Clifford. “It will enter the marketplace and it will be embraced by many seafood consumers just like they embraced farmed salmon, and then when that happens, the consumers and the retailers will realize that they were misled by the activists.” Time will tell. Right now, though, that allegedly small group has consumers’ attention and retailers are responding.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 ISA virus confirmed in AquaBounty’s genetically-engineered salmon December 16, 2011 VANCOUVER, B.C. – A 2009 memo from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) entered into evidence at Canada’s federal Cohen Inquiry into the collapse of Fraser River sockeye Thursday reveals that salmon at the AquaBounty facility in Prince Edward Island have tested positive for the Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus. The genetically-engineered (GE) salmon, currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for potential sale to American consumers, tested positive for the ISA virus in November 2009. An email from a senior DFO fish health official was sent to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, notifying the agency of the positive test results. “AquaBounty’s genetically modified fish are in a closed, land-locked facility,” said Catherine Stewart of Living Oceans Society, the group whose research uncovered the evidence. “This suggests the virus could only have entered such a facility through eggs or smolts, proving once again that Canada must take action to both ban egg imports and implement more rigorous testing for ISA.” In the notification to the food health authority, DFO notes that based on molecular strain testing at two separate laboratories, the virus appears to be a new strain of ISA. The email also states: “With respect to international exports of live fish or eggs from this facility, DFO would identify that the facility has tested positive for ISAv should we be asked to sign a fish health certificate for export.”

Download a pdf of the DFO email. Editorial Comment: The 2009 reported findings of Infections Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) in Aquabounty’s genetically modified salmon research facilities in Canada have been ignored / swept under the carpet by Canada and United States Health agencies.

 

Canada recently approved manufacture of Aquabounty’s GMO Atlantic salmon United States is working to approve Aquabounty’s GMO Atlantic salmon for human consumption

 Not all Aquabounty GMO Atlantic salmon will be female and sterile as marketed  Aquabounty GMO Atlantic salmon will be raised in open pen feedlots  Aquabounty GMO Atlantic salmon will escape feedlots and compete with wild stocks

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

This undated 2010 handout photo provided by AquaBounty Technologies shows two same-age salmon, a genetically modified salmon, rear, and a non-genetically modified salmon, foreground. Don't expect to find genetically modified salmon on store shelves any time soon. The Obama administration has stalled for more than four years on deciding whether to approve a fast-growing salmon that would be the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption.

 Engineered salmon may be a tough sell April 4, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) — Don't expect to find genetically modified salmon — or any other engineered fish or meat — on store shelves anytime soon. The Obama administration has stalled for more than four years on deciding whether to approve a fast-growing salmon that would be the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption. During that time, opponents of the technology have taken advantage of increasing consumer concern about genetically modified foods and have urged several major retailers not to sell it. So far, two of the nation's biggest grocers, Safeway and Kroger, have pledged to keep the salmon off their shelves if it is approved. Supporters of genetically engineered fish and meat say they expect Food and Drug Administration approval of the salmon and still hope to find a market for it. However, the retailers' caution and lengthy regulatory delays have made investors skittish.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "The FDA delay has caused developers to take a pause," says Dr. David Edwards of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the main industry group for genetically engineered agriculture. "They're not really sure where to go as far as the regulatory system." By altering genetic materials of animals, scientists have proposed — and in some cases actually created — animals that would be bred to be free of diseases, be cleaner in their environments or grow more efficiently. Think chickens bred to resist avian flu, "enviropigs" whose manure doesn't pollute as much or cattle bred without horns so they don't have to be taken off during slaughter. But where the scientists see huge opportunity, critics see a food supply placed at risk. They say modified organisms can escape into the wild or mingle with native species, with unknown effects. "These are fundamental questions we have to ask of society," says Lisa Archer of Friends of the Earth, an advocacy group that has lobbied retailers not to sell the modified salmon and has urged consumers not to eat it. "Where is all of this going to end up? Where do we draw the line? Let's look at the full implications and the full costs." There is no evidence that the foods would be unsafe, but for some, it is an ethical issue. Archer says people have a greater "visceral response" to eating modified fish and meat than they do engineered crops, which are already fully integrated into the food supply. The FDA said in 2010 that the modified salmon appears to be safe to eat, and said in 2012 that it is unlikely to harm the environment.

Editorial Comment:

 There

is no evidence that frankensalmon will be safe for human consumption

 There is evidence that frankensalmon will be reared in ocean based feedlots where they will definitely harm wild ecosystems and all that rely on them.

But an FDA spokeswoman said "it is not possible to predict a timeline for when a decision will be made." Ron Stotish, AquaBounty's CEO, says the company has already spent $77 million on its AquaAdvantage salmon, which has an added gene from the Pacific Chinook salmon that enables the salmon to produce more growth hormone, allowing it to grow faster. AquaBounty executives say there are several safeguards designed to prevent the fish from escaping and breeding with wild salmon. Still, opponents call it "Frankenfish" and say not enough is known about it. The FDA won't say how many applications are in line behind the salmon. But given AquaBounty's long road, other projects have remained on the shelf or moved to other countries. James Murray, a professor of animal sciences at the University of California at Davis, has genetically modified goats that produce milk designed to fight childhood diarrhea in poor nations. He moved his project to Brazil, where he says the regulatory environment is friendlier and the government is funding some of his research. "You can't get funding in this country because you can't get regulation," Murray says. Similarly, Canadian researchers have said they won't pursue the "enviropig" in the United States after investors raised concerns about the length of the FDA review process.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Another project backed by the Minnesota-based company Recombinetics would genetically modify cattle to be born without horns so they would not have to be removed during slaughter, an efficiency for meatpackers. Recombinetics CEO Scott Fahrenkrug says the project is in a holding pattern as investors eye the lengthy salmon approval process, but he says technologies like his will be necessary as global population is set to increase. The company is now developing engineered products for the medical market, but Fahrenkrug says they hope to produce cattle for meat. "The agriculture market is huge, and that's where we want to be," he says. If the salmon are approved, it still would take about two years to get them to market — if anyone will sell them. Although some of the biggest grocery chains have pledged not to, one major retailer has not weighed in — Wal-Mart, the nation's largest grocer. Opponents are aggressively lobbying the company to keep it off shelves. The fish is not expected to be labeled as genetically modified under FDA guidelines, so if retailers do sell it, consumers wouldn't know if they are buying it. AquaBounty's CEO says he's holding out hope for approval. "We believe that if we're given a fair chance, the marketplace is the place to evaluate this," Stotish says. "If the product were available, I think people could choose for themselves."

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Government action

 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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Still

in Bed Together: BC Salmon Farmers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Nearly twenty months since $26 million Cohen Inquiry recommended actions Beyond Corruption!

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 St’at’imc: We have exclusive jurisdiction CHIEF DON HARRIS, CHAIR, ST’AT’IMC CHIEFS COUNCIL February 12, 2014 Lillooet News, p. 5

The St’at’imc Chiefs Council has sent the following letter to the Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of B.C. Feb. 7, 2014 The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, PC, MP Office of the Prime Minister and Honourable Christy Clark Premier of B.C. Dear Prime Minister and Premier: Re: Jurisdiction in St’at’imc Territory We are writing to collectively advise the Province of British Columbia and Canada that the St’át’imc Chiefs Council hereby declares that St’at’imc hold exclusive jurisdiction over our Territorial Lands and Resources. We are supported in this declaration by observation that both Canada and the Province have “left the field” in terms of your capacity and political will to properly review and adjudicate development applications – exposing our natural ecosystems (whether fragile or hearty) to neglect and “death by a thousand cuts.” Consequently, we, as the original inhabitants of our Territory see the need to intervene and declare your assumed authority over our Lands as extinguished. Your failures to properly manage these same Lands and resources is evidenced by:  allowing the degradation of the Fraser River as one of the world’s premier salmon spawning habitats.  the surrender of salmon habitat to industrial/commercial and municipal interests.  the utter failure to re-invest in sustainable forest management.  the proposed commercialization of our water via the Water Sustainability Act.  the surrender of compliance and enforcement functions to industry.  the move to professional reliance, de facto adopting a self-serve approach to compliance with standards.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

We have lived in our Terrority for time immemorial and we will take whatever actions are required concerning our right and ability to continue to sustain ourselves for the next several thousands of years from the natural wealth our Terrority provides. Consequently, we are putting the Province on notice that your development permits and licenses will not be recognized by the St’at’imc Chiefs Council until the Province has properly and meaningfully reconciled your assumed jurisdictions with our inherent jurisdictions.

Chief Harry O’Donaghey, N’Quatqua Kukwpi7 Perry Redan, Sekw’elwas Chief Patrick Williams, Skatin Chief Shelley Leech, T’it’q’et Chief Larry Casper, Tsal’alh Chief Robert Shintah, Ts’kw’aylaxw Chief Art Adolph, Xaxli’p Chief Don Harris, Xa’xtsa Chief Susan James, Xwisten Submitted by John McNamer

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Burnaby Mayor against Kinder Morgan pipeline The Mayor of Burnaby has taken a stand against Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline. Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Hello two new open-net salmon farms and a 100% increase in production by 2025? Goodbye public process and transparency April 2, 2014 (Vancouver, B.C.) The B.C. Salmon Farmers Association recently announced their intent to increase open-net farmed salmon production in B.C. waters by 43% (to 100,000 metric tonnes) by 2020 with a further increase to 150,000 metric tonnes by 2025. That’s a 100% increase over today’s current production levels.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters This expansion process has already begun. Government decisions are now pending for two completely new open-net salmon farms. If approved, these two farms would be on the migration route of the Fraser River Sockeye and many other wild salmon stocks (near Hope Island, north of Port Hardy). With these new applications for fish farm Licenses of Occupation, it is clear that government is facilitating the industry’s expansion dream. Information needed to allow for informed public comment on these applications is not being made available and, with recent changes to the federal Fisheries Act, the former Navigable Waters Protection Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, there will no longer be any environmental assessments of, or formal transparent public review processes for fish farm applications. Dr. Craig Orr, Executive Director of Watershed Watch stated, “This approach to expansion is outrageous. DFO is continuing to ignore the deadlines and recommendations of the $26 million Cohen Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon of the Fraser River in which Justice Cohen explicitly recommends that salmon farm siting criteria be revised to reflect new science. There is no indication this is happening.” “Instead of moving to a more open process as recommended by Justice Cohen, government is effectively muting the opportunity for transparent and informed decision making,” said John Werring, Senior Science and Policy Advisor with the David Suzuki Foundation. “They are forging ahead with expansion without even providing access to the basic information that would allow for informed public comment on new fish farm applications.” The Province has posted minimal information about the two new aquaculture applications (see map provided) at the links below with a comment deadline of April 6th. Detail is provided about the boundaries of the tenures, but there is no information about associated production volumes, site management plans, or habitat surveys, thereby making it impossible for the public to provide meaningful comment on the suitability of these sites for open net aquaculture. 

#1414224 - Bull Harbour, Hope Island



#1414225 - Hope Island, Heath Bay

As further evidence of a lack of transparency and reason for concern, these two new fish farm applications are near the existing Marsh Bay and Shelter Bay farms where, in May 2012, DFO quietly granted a 45% increase in production capacity without announcing anything in the way of policy change and well before the Cohen Inquiry even completed its work. Stan Proboszcz, Fisheries Biologist with Watershed Watch observed, “The process around these applications and aquaculture regulation in general are completely out of sync with the Cohen Inquiry Recommendations.” Mr. Proboszcz summarized the groups’ concerns, “Before any new farms or expansions are considered, DFO must act in accordance with Justice Cohen’s Recommendations. Most urgently, outdated siting criteria need to be amended in light of new science as recommended by Cohen; the public must have access to the full application packages for the Licenses of Occupation; and the comment deadline must be extended.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

NDP finance critic Nathan Cullen requested that the Natural Resources department explain where the oilsands ads will run, how much money is being spent per ad, and the projected reach of the campaign.

 No oilsands ad campaign, Conservatives say Conservatives block attempt to find out info on $22 million international oilsands ad campaign OTTAWA—The federal Conservatives are blocking another attempt to ferret out details about a publicly funded $22 million international oilsands ad blitz. The Conservatives did not answer questions from the NDP about a multi-million dollar public relations push to increase investment in Canada’s natural resource sector, which was scheduled to be rolled in the United States, Europe and Asia early this year.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the National Energy Board, and the Northern Pipeline Agency are not engaged in an oilsands advertising campaign in the United States,” wrote Conservative MP Kelly Block, the parliamentary secretary for natural resources, in a response to the NDP. The federal government may not be taking part in an “oilsands advertising campaign,” but they certainly did plan a “co-ordinated and multifaceted response to engage business, policy and opinion leaders” on Canada’s natural resource sector, and specifically the oilsands, through advertising. In January, the Conservatives awarded FleishmanHillard a $1.7 million contract to oversee the ad blitz in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The public relations firm will be responsible for developing print, Internet and television ads, as well as coming up with strategic communications plans to promote international investment in Canada’s natural resources. Despite the fact that the contract has already been signed, Natural Resources has been reluctant to release further details about the campaign. NDP finance critic Nathan Cullen requested that the department explain where the ads will run, how much money is being spent per ad, and the projected reach of the campaign. Cullen said the government’s response is “as close to a flat-out lie as you’re ever going to get.” “The idea that they have not been running this massive advertising blitz on behalf of oil companies in Washington is insane,” Cullen told the Star on Wednesday. “We have the proof. We have the ads and the commercials and the full-page newspaper spreads . . . They are completely in bed with the oil lobby, they’re using taxpayer money to fund oil campaigns.” The Star requested an interview with the Department of Natural Resources, as well as newly minted Natural Resource Minister Greg Rickford, to clarify the response. In a written response, a department spokesman said the campaign is not exclusively focused on the oilsands. The Conservatives hope the advertising campaign will increase investment in Canada’s natural resources sector, promoting the country as “responsible” when it comes to resource extraction. In response to a request for a detailed breakdown of the planned ad spending, the department previously said the campaign will be tailored to “key markets” and that “key media and national policy decision makers” will be the target. Former natural resources minister Joe Oliver said in January that the details will be released in the government’s annual advertising report — after the campaign had concluded. The campaign is also intended to counter “preconceived notions” about the oilsands, according to the department’s planning documents.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Diamond agrees on call for end to public bailouts for salmon feedlots March 24, 2014 Bob Diamond believes there’s a gross waste of taxpayers’ money being put into supporting the fish farming industry in compensating fish farmers for any loss due to salmon anemia. A report out of Halifax, Nova Scotia this week said communities and conservation organizations are alarmed at the significant public dollars spent on subsidizing poor fish farming practices in Atlantic Canada. In the last two decades, almost $139 million taxpayer dollars have been spent on “compensating” open-net pen fish farms in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland for fish infected with ISA or infectious salmon anemia. The compensation is now provided to the aquaculture industry by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In early 2013, for the first time in Canada’s history, the CFIA no longer required destruction of the infected fish and allowed fish to be grown out and sold without any labeling indicating that the fish were diseased. Diamond, an environmentalist in Stephenville, said this type of compensation doesn’t happen to any degree in the traditional fishery. He said if fish harvesters don’t get a good catch, then it’s their tough luck. “I’m sure people in Port au Port Bay have not been compensated by government for the collapse of their scallop fishery,” he said. Diamond believes government is looking at the fish farming industry as a saviour for the collapse of wild fish. He said that’s because the traditional fish industry in Newfoundland is not what it used to be and is not employing as many people as it used to. “Now government is looking to fish farming and putting a lot of money into it as an alternative to a collapsing traditional fishery and it’s not working,” he said. He said personally he don’t eat farmed salmon and doesn’t believe its a healthy thing to eat salmon that have a lot of antibiotics in their system.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Diamond said pesticides are used on these fish to try and kill the lice and to him it’s not a healthy product. He said government would be better off putting that kind of money into restoring the stocks of natural fish in traditional fishery in the province. He said attempting to restore the natural fishery habitat would be better than putting all of their bucks into the farming of fish. Diamond said there is no way these fish farmers can lose when they get public money to help them start up these fish farms and then when the stocks become diseased, they’re compensated for their loss. “It’s a win-win situation for the people who are into fishery aquaculture,” he said. “It’s an ongoing loss for the traditional fishery in Newfoundland, which should be supported rather than the farming.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Environment

Canada cuts enforcement, marine pollution and emergency

budgets March 14, 2014 Environment Canada is cutting its Compliance Promotion and Enforcement, marine pollution and emergency response budgets over the coming years, raising questions when cuts to other federal departments are added in, about just how the department can continue to operate, much less enforce the 209 conditions that the Joint Review Panel has laid down for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, not mention future projects connected with LNG and mining in the northwest. Environment Canada and other departments suffered cuts in the 2014 budget. Now Environment Canada has posted its spending estimates on its website. A table published on the site shows that Environment Canada spent $17,467,430 on compliance and enforcement in fiscal 2011 to2012; $16,695,292 in 2012 to2013. It estimates spending a little more in 2013 to 2014, $16,725,035; then comes a steady drop $15,821,926 for 2014 to 2015; $15,321,593 for 2015 to 2016 and $15,356,059 for 2016 to 2017. According to organizational table on the spending estimates site, Marine Pollution and Environmental Emergencies comes under the Substances and Waste Management division, with most of the department’s concentration on “substances management” and “effluent management.” Despite the probable growing threat to the environment from marine pollution and the possibility of a marine disaster from a tanker plying the northwest, the overall budget for Substances and Waste Management is also shrinking; from $83,291,322 in 2011 to 2012, $79,295,781 in 2012 to 2013. $76,209,841 for 2013 to 2014, $75,747,789 for 2014 to 2015 and $73,834,432 for 2015 to 2016. The budget cuts take effect just as the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, if it gets a final go ahead and the LNG projects begin to come on stream.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Overall Environment Canada will spending from $1.01 billion in 2014 to 2015 to $698.8 million in 2016 to2017. In addition, Environment Canada’s list of strategic priorities has absolutely no mention of either monitoring and enforcing pipeline conditions nor protecting the British Columbia coastline. Plans for meeting the “Sustainable Environment” priority:

      

Improve and advance implementation of the Species at Risk program including by reducing the number of overdue recovery documents; Pursue a collaborative approach to protect and conserve biodiversity at home and abroad, including by supporting the development of a National Conservation Plan and the maintenance and expansion of a network of protected areas; Contribute to responsible resource development through the provision of science-based expert advice during environmental assessments; Advance work through the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring; Implement a comprehensive approach to protecting water and to ecosystem management; Continue collaborative work with the provinces and territories on water quantity monitoring through the National Hydrometric Program; and, Promote compliance with and enforce wildlife acts and regulations.

Another area where the budget has been cut is in climate change monitoring. It was those cuts that garnered the most reaction, from the mainstream media Toronto Star, Environment Canada braces for cuts to climate programs to the environmental site, Desmog Canada, More than 1000 Jobs Lost, Climate Program Hit Hard in Coming Environment Canada Cuts. The Star notes “Spending on the department’s climate change and clear air program is projected to decrease from $234.2 million this year to $54.8 million in 2016-17.” On the site, Environment Canada notes As is the case for all organizations, Environment Canada faces uncertainties in meeting its objectives. These uncertainties create opportunities and risks with potential to positively or negatively affect program results and outcomes. Uncertainties include those driven by external environmental factors, such as dependencies on partners and stakeholders, changing regulatory and legislative requirements, increasing Canadian and international expectations concerning the management of the environment and the continuously increasing pace of advances in science and technology.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Environment Canada gives itself an out, should the Conservative government suddenly be converted to environmental protection while on the road to the 2015 election. Since it notes The 2015–16 decrease is explained by the reduction in funding for the SDTC Foundation and the sun setting of temporary funds. In 2016– 17, the decrease in funding is explained by the sun setting of funding for temporary initiatives. Sun setting programs are subject to government decisions to extend, reduce or enhance funding. Outcomes of such decisions would be reflected in the Department’s future Budget exercises and Estimates documents. In other words, Environment Canada is becoming more dependent on partnerships with private companies and foundations to help provide funding for what the government should be doing and it is allowing for the politicians to introduce new temporary programs, probably just before the election, to make it look green.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A group of First Nations, with territory covering a quarter of the route for the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline, has gathered in Fort St. James, British Columbia to officially reject the project on Friday April 11, 2014

 Kitimat residents vote no on Northern Gateway April 13, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters OTTAWA - Proponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline, anxious to show it has public support in the B.C. community expected to benefit the post from the $7.9 billion project, lost badly in a non-binding plebiscite in Kitimat Saturday. The unofficial preliminary results showed 1,793 voted against the project, or 58.4 per cent, compared to 1,278 who endorsed it, or 41.6 per cent, according to the District of Kitimat. The turnout was impressive, with 75 per cent of the 4,100 eligible voters casting ballots. The plebiscite has no legal impact on the project, but Enbridge Inc. poured considerable resources into its “Vote yes for our future” campaign. The company touted the expected creation of 180 permanent jobs in the community where tankers would load and ship hundreds of thousands of barrels of diluted bitumen a day to Asia-Pacific markets. Kitimat municipal council will consider the results at a meeting Monday, and one option could be for the council to declare that it shares the community’s opposition to the project, according to Mayor Joanne Monaghan. She said she wasn’t surprised by the result. “I predicted a 40-60 split, but I think the main thing is the people of Kitimat were able to have their say and it was a democratic process.” The vote “just goes to show that you can’t buy social licence in this region,” crowed environmentalist Nikki Skuce, of the group ForestEthics Advocacy, in one of the first social media comments after the results were released. A statement from the environmental group Dogwood Initiative said the company was handed a “resounding” defeat despite spending “unlimited” money in the campaign. “This shows what happens when you actually give people the chance to vote on Enbridge’s proposal,” said spokesman Kai Nagata. “What would happen if we opened it up to a provincewide vote?” Enbridge said it will continue its efforts to obtain public approval. "Today’s result shows that while there is support for Northern Gateway in Kitimat, we have more work to do,” said Donny van Dyk, the company’s Kitimat-based Manager of Coastal Aboriginal and Community Relations. "And over the coming weeks and months we will continue to reach out and listen to our neighbours and friends so that Northern Gateway can build a lasting legacy for the people of our community." The company came under criticism during the lead-up to Saturday’s vote, with opponents accusing the company of taking advantage of the lack of any rules on spending limits for municipal plebiscites and referendums. Enbridge posted pro-pipeline signs around the community, waged an aggressive media advertising campaign, and had a dozen employees in the community making presentations and going door-todoor.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The company’s main opponent was Douglas Channel Watch, a tiny group headed by postal worker Murray Minchin that began its campaign with $200 and relied on handmade and recycled posters. The plebiscite question had come under scrutiny, with some critics suggesting it was too wordy and confusing because it was tied to a federal panel’s massive December report that endorsed Northern Gateway with 209 conditions. The question: “Do you support the final report recommendations of the Joint Review Panel (JRP) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and National Energy Board, that the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project be approved, subject to 209 conditions set out in Volume 2 of the JRP’s final report?”

British Columbia

Diluted Bitumen

Condensate Liquefied Natural Gas

Fossil fuel shipping increase proposed via British Columbia’s often treacherous Douglas Channel

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Kinder Morgan pipeline project bedeviling governments at every level March 20, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The fight over the Alberta-to-Burnaby oil pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan is shaping up as a political battle royal that will entangle all three levels of government. The $5-billion project to triple the capacity of the company’s existing pipeline is opposed by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, and now Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan is turning up the volume. “This is the wrong place and the wrong time for them to put in this pipeline,” Corrigan told me, adding opponents of the project are even willing to break the law if it’s approved. “I guess then we’re going to be lying down in front of bulldozers,” he said. While the mayor gets set to defy the construction crews, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper continues to beat the drum of expanded oil exports to Asia. Asked in front of a New York business audience recently about Canada’s various export-driven pipeline proposals, Harper said it was “critical” for Canada to expand its markets. “Obviously, we’ll work closely with potential markets and with our industries to do what we can to make sure that these go ahead,” Harper said. The Kinder Morgan project would increase the capacity of the firm’s existing pipeline from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of oil a day. The number of foreign-bound supertankers in Burrard Inlet would go from five to 34 per month. Now, land agents are already knocking on the doors of area residents to alert them that the project could impact their properties under several proposed pipeline routes. “They’re proposing going different ways through the community and having different impacts on various neighbourhoods, schools, parks and infrastructure,” Corrigan said. But as the mayor digs in his heels, he also admits Harper’s cabinet will get the final say. “Our power is extremely limited,” he said. “But we’re hoping that with the public on our side we’re going to be able to get enough opposition that there’s a heavy political price to pay for approving it.” So with the feds on one side, and municipalities on the other, where does that leave provincial politicians? In the middle and tying themselves up in knots. Premier Christy Clark has already said her government won’t support the Kinder Morgan pipeline unless it meets five conditions, including environmental protection, First Nations’ interests and a “fair share” of pipeline profits for B.C. “We will not pre-judge Kinder Morgan’s project,” the provincial government said Wednesday in a statement, noting the government is pleased the company has signaled it is willing to accept the conditions. The NDP, meanwhile, are in the midst of a leadership contest where the Kinder Morgan project will be a key issue. The opposition party seems as divided as ever on a megaproject that bedeviled outgoing leader Adrian Dix during last May’s doomed election campaign. Now, the pipeline project will test the political tap-dance skills of leadership rivals Mike Farnworth and John Horgan, who should both summon the guts to take a stand and state a position.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Washington State Flood Insurance Premiums to Rise March 24, 2014 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — When Joley Spears bought her three-bedroom Aberdeen home just a few blocks from the Chehalis River last year, she was relieved to find something in her price range that was recently remodeled and had a fenced backyard for the kids. But while she knew she was in a flood range and would need a federal insurance policy, one thing she wasn't expecting was a potentially significant increase in her flood insurance rates. "No one told me," she said. If they had, she says, "we would have bought up on a hill, where I didn't have to have flood insurance." In 2012, Congress passed a law requiring policyholders receiving subsidies to start paying rates based on the true risk of flooding at their properties in an effort to cover a $24 billion deficit in the National Flood Insurance Program. After public outcry over the premium hikes, Congress passed legislation earlier this month pulling back some of the insurance overhaul. However, while approximately 1.1 million policyholders won't face immediate dramatic increases under the measure signed Friday by President Barack Obama, they will still be hit with annual premium increases. Homeowners face hikes as high as 18 percent year after year, until the government is collecting what it needs to pay out claims. Owners of businesses and second homes face increases of 25 percent each year. Washington state has more than 13,000 federally subsidized flood insurance policies, according to federal data analyzed by The Associated Press. More than 9,100 homeowners in the state face an annual increase of up to 18 percent, and nearly 4,000 businesses or second homes will see 25 percent hikes each year. Spears was told that based on homes such as hers, she could face a monthly increase in her premium of up to $800 a month — more than the mortgage on her home. "I panicked," she said. "I was calling lawyers, I was calling senators, you name it." She has since received notice that her premium would be $240 more a month. Spears — a nursing assistant who supports her husband and two young children on about $31,000 a year — said even that amount is too much, and she fears that she won't be able to afford to stay in her home.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters In the small city of Aberdeen, which sits at the mouths of the Chehalis and Wishkah Rivers and is about 50 miles west of the state capital of Olympia, 84 percent of those receiving subsidies are likely to face increases. In the neighboring city of Hoquiam, about 95 percent of subsidized policies will see increases, according to the data. Erica Rodman, a real estate agent in the southwestern Washington city of Woodland, about 20 miles north of the border with Oregon, said one listing in her office got a flood insurance quote of $7,500 a year. If a buyer could afford that sort of monthly cost on flood insurance, Rodman said, that person would likely decide to buy a more expensive home in a different community. "Why would you choose that home in a flood zone if you're looking at that kind of bill?" she asked. Rodman said that uncertainty over how FEMA will implement the rate hikes under the new law is concerning. "It leaves our sellers and our buyers in flux," she said. Before the underlying 2012 law, rate increases had been capped at no more than 10 percent. The new law rolls back the instant hikes, but it lays the groundwork for significant increases to be phased in over time. "We are dealing with unintended consequences," said Malcolm Bowie, Aberdeen's public works director. "Honestly, I don't think anyone really knows the impact." He said that he hopes affordability studies that are supposed to be done with the new law will help keep the increases low. "We're just hoping that it will be fair," he said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Mudslide: Could It Happen in Lewis County? Similarities in Geography Mean Comparable Tragedy Possible March 27, 2014 Even as search teams continue combing through the carnage left behind by the devastating mudslide near Oso in Snohomish County, many across the region are asking the same question: Could it happen here? Assistant Lewis County Emergency Management Director Ross McDowell doesn’t hesitate long when asked that question. “Of that magnitude? Sure,” McDowell said. Snohomish County shares some of the same geographic characteristics of Lewis County, both of which have heavily populated western portions with rural, mountainous eastern sides that include high hills on either side of rain- and snow-fed rivers. In Snohomish County, news emerged this week that officials had been informed of the threat posed by the hills that came crashing down on homes and people Saturday.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Various reports, including a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report in 1999, warned Snohomish County, yet homes kept being built. Lewis County Commissioner Lee Grose said the county has taken steps to identify potential properties that are at risk for slides. “As far as studies, what we do is go through our comprehensive land use plan and that accounts for slide-prone areas,” Grose said. “It’s a pretty intensive program. It accounts for buildings on perspective slopes.” Grose said the comprehensive land use plan, approved annually, is a broad brush approach to determining where structures can be built. The plan identifies critical areas including steep slopes, wetlands, streams, aquifer recharge areas and wildlife habitat areas where development is limited. “Quite frankly, I spoke out against parts of it because if we took out critical areas in our county, most of our development would be gone,” Grose said. “When you are living in the mountains you are going to have slides, just like when you live on the river, you will have floods.” While Lewis County is limiting development on steep slopes to prevent mudslide events, the county has no other preventative systems. There is also much debate on the impact of logging practices on steep hillsides. A group of homeowners recently lost a lawsuit aimed at proving a logging company was responsible for a landslide in Glenoma in 2009. McDowell said the emergency management department provides warnings for flooding and earthquakes, but similar systems are not in place for mudslides. McDowell said preparedness often falls on homeowners. For emergency management workers, most of the work is after the fact, McDowell said. “The biggest thing with preparedness for landslides is knowing you may have to shut off an area. Landslides happen rather quickly,” McDowell said. “A lot of people here like to build on the hills. It’s a good thing because you won’t get flooded, but you don’t know the stability of that hill.” Lewis County Emergency Management has identified susceptible locations around the county for mudslides, including along state Route 12 at Peters Road in Randle and state Route 6 near Spooner, Chandler and River roads outside Pe Ell. Other potential sites have been identified in Independence Valley in Thurston County. McDowell said the county bases the locations on past events. “A lot of it is by history, if there have been slides there before they will probably happen again,” McDowell said. “That is what we look at.” Regionally, the state Department of National Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey have monitoring sites set up statewide, but none for Lewis County. Rex Baum, supervisory research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the USGS has monitoring sites in Seattle and Portland for long term observations of specific landslides or landslide prone areas and to learn about the hill slopes and how they respond to rainfall.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "We have a limited number of monitoring sites. There are so many sites that could be monitored and of course many of them are on private property,” Baum said. “We don’t have the mandate to carry out a nationwide monitoring program. We have limited sites that support research.” Pe Ell Fire Chief Mike Krafczyk knows all too well the danger and destruction of a mudslide. It happened to him and his family during the 2007 Flood. Krafczyk remembers helping out at a service station set up at the elementary school while his wife and children were still at home. His wife saw the molding pop off the walls of their 1924 farm-house located on state Route 6. She and the kids were able to get out in time before a mudslide covered the roadway and destroyed the nearby properties. “Honestly, I don't think you ever recover from something like that, but the most important thing I have came out of that house in the first five minutes,” Krafczyk said. “The rest was stuff and you just learn to cope with the rest of it.” Krafczyk said it’s hard to compare the 2007 flood and mudslide that hit his house with the recent situation in Snohomish County. Both were devastating events, Krafczyk said, but the most recent event included an incomparable loss of life. “I drive by that place every day and think I had a beautiful home there. I can’t even fathom what people are going through up north,” Krafczyk said. “I hope they have the support Lewis County had. Lewis County was amazing. Everybody pulled together and that was awesome.” Caption (left): Acres of timber and debris backed up behind this bridge in the Boistfort Valley, which was inundated by the flooding of the south fork of the Chehalis River. Caption (right): This is another clear-cut slope that sustained extensive slides during the storm. Studies indicate that landslides frequently occur in unlogged forests but happen with greater frequency in logged-off lands. Major storms, such as the one that hit earlier this month, often are the triggers for slides and debris flows that — as they travel downhill and gather momentum rip out rocks, root wads and other material. --Seattle Times

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Greenwashing (aka: Pure Bovine Excrement)

Alexandra Morton:

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Made to look like (wild) salmon - note the amount of fat, both the white strips and the white feathering in between - the fat is where the toxins are stored. When people eat these toxins (PCBs and dioxins) they transfer to your fat stores and stay there unless you have a baby and then they can drain out of you.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Aquaculture projects offer 'huge' opportunity March 27, 2014 Aquaculture projects along B.C.'s coasts and across Canada provide "huge opportunities" for employment and economic growth, according to Senator Nancy Greene Raine. Greene Raine is a member of the federal Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans that is undertaking a study on the regulation of aquaculture in Canada, and the opportunities and challenges for the sector. She said B.C. is unique in national discussions concerning the aquaculture industry in that the issue has become "polarized" between those who are against it and the industry itself. "It's the citizens of this province that are caught in the middle," Greene Raine said in Nanaimo on Wednesday where the latest round of hearings were held. "I believe we should be growing fish and that it can be done sustainably. At the end of the day, there is no solid evidence that salmon farms here impact wild salmon stocks." The hearings in Nanaimo are the last that are to be held on Vancouver Island after the committee visited Tofino, Campbell River and Baynes Sound to gather input into the issue. Greene Raine said the committee hopes to complete a final report for the government's consideration by June of 2015. In 2010, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that the province does not have the right to regulate B.C.'s salmon farms because the fish inside the farms are a fishery, not agriculture as stated by the province, so the federal government has exclusive right to regulate them. The committee is tasked to develop a regulatory regime for the industry under the auspices of DFO. The B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, which represents the industry, maintains that the province's salmon farming industry currently contributes $800 million to the provincial economy and it could grow to $1.4 billion by 2020, resulting in 8,000 total jobs. By 2035, it could reach $3.5 billion and 20,000 jobs. Association executive director Jeremy Dunn told the committee all the sector needs is legislation that "better speaks" to the work of the province's ocean farmers. "An Aquaculture Act for Canada. .. will define aquaculture in federal law and provide a unifying, long-term framework that recognizes aquaculture's growing importance to Canada's economy."

Editorial Comment: As expected, this “dog and pony show”, was nothing more than an illusion of transparency. Government is expected to “rubber stamp” open pen salmon feedlot industry-developed regulations.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 BCSF'S Dunn says 20,000 jobs possible with Aquaculture Act March 28, 2014 B.C.'s salmon farming contributes $800 million per year to the provincial economy but could grow that to $1.4 billion by 2020 and $3.5 billion by 2035 if a proper Aquaculture Act for Canada was in place. That's what BC Salmon Farmer's Executive Director Jeremy Dunn told a standing senate committee in Nanaimo Wednesday. He said such an act would allow the industry to create 8,000 total jobs by 2020 and 20,000 jobs by 2035. The industry says it currently creates about 6,000 direct and indirect jobs. Dunn said all the sector needs is legislation that better speaks to the work of the ocean farmers. "An Aquaculture Act for Canada will define aquaculture in federal law and provide a unifying, longterm framework that recognizes aquaculture's growing importance to Canada's economy," said Dunn. The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans visited Nanaimo as part of a fact-finding mission this week studying the regulation of aquaculture in Canada, and the opportunities and challenges for the sector. Campbell River Mayor Walter Jakeway spent one hour in front of the committee and was impressed with their handling of the issue. "The Nanaimo Senate sessions on aquaculture were informative and the senators are well aware of most issues," said Jakeway. "They asked good, deep questions, and are beginning to formulate potential recommendations/solutions. Their collective ability to read people was impressive and they worked well together at asking difficult questions from numerous directions." From representatives of BC's salmon farming community, they heard that regulation tailored specifically to aquaculture would both meet the public's interest in strong management of the sector while also enabling the sector to grow. Editorial Comment:

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British Columbian’s are interested in minimizing detrimental impacts of open pen salmon feedlots to public health and ecosystem security – not strong management of salmon feedlots Growing British Columbia’s unsustainable, problematic, open pen salmon feedlot industry only benefits government-enabled corporations.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Alexandra Morton Mr. Bevan (DFO) says to the Senate Committee: “I think the first steps that we were asked to take by the industry were to resolve the issue around the use of therapeutants and other treatments.” Under section 36, it's illegal to put into the water any harmful substances, so that was a very critical impediment to further operation of the aquaculture industry, so that's what we're currently dealing with. (See above picture - I am told is of hydrogen peroxide tanks on a barge near Campbell River. Without section 36, this coast is one big happy feedlot. Imagine, these companies tell DFO to remove one of the pillars of the Fish Act and DFO does it...)

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

From left, Cameron Gilmartin, Lance Page, and Jordan Smit in a fresh water fish farm in Duncan

 The side of Marine Harvest that escapes the radar March 21, 2014 It's a part of their operations that never seems to make the radar. But Marine Harvest Canada's experience raising Atlantic salmon to market size in tanks on land is now in its second decade. For 20 years they have been working on the land based system and while they have met with a lot of successes, three main stumbling blocks remain.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The first is cost and power, the second is the environmental footprint because of the groundwater use and the third is animal welfare, because of the higher stocking densities.

Editorial Comment: And then there is the omnipresent matter of waste management.

This investment in land-based aquaculture systems by the company is also helping niche companies test the viability of commercial sized projects. Marine Harvest has been growing smolts (prior to seawater entry) in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) since 1988 and today the technology is responsible for growing 800 tonnes of smolts each year. "Our experience with smolt RAS afforded us a great learning opportunity which made it easy to transition to raising our parent (broodstock) groups ten years ago," said Jamie Gaskill, Marine Harvest Canada's Production Director. "Our research has helped perfect the correct use of current velocity, lighting, water chemistry, and stocking densities." "Professional salmon growers don't think in terms of 'either/or' but instead 'and'," said Gaskill. "We'll continue to use RAS as one accelerator of our business, but we shall also use advancements in sea cage technology to continue to produce a high quality, healthy, and affordable farm raised salmon."

Editorial Comment: According to reports from around planet earth Atlantic salmon raised in open pen feedlots are not high quality, healthy or affordable.

In addition to providing technical assistance, Marine Harvest has provided smolts and equipment to startup companies attempting to prove the viability of growing market-sized salmon for niche markets.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 First Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment for Sea Lice in Canada a Success April 11, 2014 CANADA - The first use of hydrogen peroxide in British Columbia for control of sea lice has been completed with great success. The new treatment option, announced by Marine Harvest Canada in January, was applied to a group of the company’s salmon in March, and proved to be a very safe and effective method to reduce the level of sea lice on farm-raised salmon.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "Our current sea lice management may require the use of an in-feed drug (SLICE™)," said Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada's Public Affairs Director. "Although successful to control sea lice, and sparingly used, our adherence to voluntary but strict third part certification standards require us to continually reduce our use of medication." The new treatment available to BC salmon farmers, diluted hydrogen peroxide, is applied as a bath to a group of salmon. The bath removes small, naturally occurring, external fish parasites (sea lice) attached to the salmon. Hydrogen peroxide rapidly breaks down into harmless compounds: water and oxygen. Diane Morrison (DVM) oversaw the recent treatment process and says the procedure was safe for staff and fish. "Ninety-five per cent of the sea lice on our fish were removed by a single treatment," Ms Morrison said. British Columbia salmon farmers are recognised for their successful management of sea lice (Rogers et al, 2013) and for many years have requested additional treatment options to ensure this success continues. The Ministry of Environment and Health Canada have authorised use of peroxide for a trial period, during which time continued monitoring and reporting will be required by the company. The sea lice common in BC waters are not a concern to human health, and rarely pose a fish health concern to farm-raised salmon. Marine Harvest Canada is British Columbia's leading aquaculture company and supplier of Sterling brand salmon.

Editorial Comment: Does not pass the “straight face” test: Why treat for lice if they “are not a concern to human health and rarely pose a fish health concern.”?

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Vegas Chef Rick Moonen: Vancouver is Always Impressive April 7, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Sustainable seafood champion and celebrity chef Rick Moonen, from Las Vegas' RM Seafood at the Mandalay Bay was in town last week for a discussion at the Vancouver Aquarium and also a special 'Surf and Surf' dinner at YEW, where he paired up with fellow fish-fighter Ned Bell and a host of BC wineries, to create an Ocean Wise feast. Eater sat down with chef Moonen after dinner to talk about changes in farmed salmon and his first impressions of fresh-out-of-the-ocean spot prawns. Have you been to Vancouver before? I've been to Vancouver at least six times; this is where I had my epiphany about farm-raised Atlantic salmon years ago. A lot has changed since then on the east coast side, but I saw the effect that sea lice were having on the native stocks. Here you have five species of salmon that are still thriving and doing well, but these salmon farms were producing this incredibly healthy population of sea lice that were going out to immature pink salmon. We went out and grabbed some with a net and put them in the aquarium to examine them and they were lethargic; they were dying because they were affected by the lice.

Editorial Comment:

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And this was because of the farmed salmon? I believe so, yes. There are people that will argue back and forth that lice are normal and it's part of the environment and yes, that's true, but sea lice have a natural cycle, like mosquitoes, in certain times of the year they go into dormancy. With the farms, the lice were healthy and prolific year-round. When there's usually a migration of the wild salmon population, lo and behold, these immature smolts who don't even have a protective coating of scales would get affected by lice and it killed them. When I saw that happening I said *whistles* gone—I'm taking it off my menu.

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Arrogance and ignorance in one package West coast salmon and other wild marine life are not thriving and doing well – far from it. Salmon lice disengage from their hosts shortly after entering fresh water Atlantic Ocean based feedlots are significant risks to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. Atlantic Ocean based feedlots are nowhere closer to addressing their environmental hazards than are any ocean based salmon feedlots sited around the world. The ocean based salmon feedlots in the Bay of Fundy are among the most irresponsible and unethical corporations on the face of planet earth. Spot prawns, and their ecosystems, like other marine life, are significantly impacted by ocean based salmon feedlot practices Canadian/Vancouver citizens and Americans are more similar than different when it comes to recovery, protection and conservation of natural resources.

But I'm actually starting to put farm-raised Atlantic salmon back now— from the Atlantic— because there are farms there that are addressing the environmental issues so much more effectively. In order to have a healthy supply of marine protein that people enjoy we need aquaculture, but we need it to be responsible and they are doing that in the Bay of Fundy. I still don't believe that having non-indigenous species like Atlantic salmon; they don't belong in the Pacific.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters What's been the highlight of this trip? Spot prawns! I was out with Steve Johansen from Organic Ocean and pulled them out of the ocean for the first time in my life! I peeled and ate one while it was still moving and ate one raw. To be able to take a live spot prawn and eat it, it was terrific, sooo tender and sweet and tasted like the ocean— what is better than that? When you spoke to the diners at YEW earlier, you said you thought Vancouver was ahead of the US? That's right, the mentality and embrace of sustainability in Vancouver is always so impressive. I've travelled around and I speak about sustainability to chefs globally, and I'm not just blowing smoke up your skirt, it's unbelievable here! Everyone seems to get it. True story; I went into a coffee shop and I start taking to a teenage girl about sustainability and said something about by-catch - and she said, oh yeah. I'm like, you know about by-catch? And she's said, 'Sure, it's when you start catching things you're not targeting'. My jaw dropped—why don't we get that in the United States? I talk about it constantly and travel around the world and you just get it here. Bravo, bravo! I think it's because we are surrounded by the most gorgeous natural beauty and people want to protect that. But you go to coastal cities elsewhere and they don't get it; people don't want to know where their food is coming from, they don't get it and they're not interested. You can't beat it into their heads! But here they are interested. That is the major difference, I hope that's an epidemic and it spreads into the USA. Where did you eat while you were here? I ate at Vij's— Vikram is a good man, I met him at Cooking For Solutions at Monterrey Bar Aquarium. I ate at Cioppino's, then at the Fish Counter and last night we ate at L'Abbatoir, it was really good!

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Mining

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rio Tinto Ditches Pebble Mine Earthworks applauds Rio Tinto's withdrawal from Pebble Mine proposal in Alaska's Bristol Bay April 7, 2014 "Earthworks applauds Rio Tinto’s decision to withdraw from the Pebble Mine proposal that threatens Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, home to the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery. We also applaud their recognition that “Alaskans should have a say in Pebble’s future development”. And Alaskans have had their say: they overwhelmingly oppose the mine. 98% of comments from Bristol Bay residents oppose the Pebble Mine proposal. That’s largely because, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s peer reviewed scientific assessment of large scale mining’s impacts on the watershed showed, the Pebble Mine would destroy 94 miles of salmon streams, and threaten the $480 million/year salmon fishery and the 14,000+ jobs that depend upon it. With Rio Tinto’s departure following close upon Anglo American’s withdrawal last year, there is currently no major funder backing the Pebble mine proposal. Perhaps more importantly, there is now no mining company behind Pebble that has actually mined anything. Rio Tinto’s divestment from Pebble may not be the final nail in the coffin, but it’s surely one of the last".

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Taseko Mines is planning a $1.5-billion open-pit copper and gold mine near Fish Lake, about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake

ď ś Taseko asks Federal Court to quash minister's decision on rejected B.C. gold mine March 26, 2014 VANCOUVER - The company behind a proposed B.C. gold and copper mine that was rejected twice by the federal government is asking the Federal Court to quash the environment minister's decision. Taseko Mines Ltd. says it's filing a second application for judicial review of the decision against the New Prosperity mine, which is proposed near Williams Lake. Taseko's Brian Battison says the federal environmental review process was unfair and led Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq to make the wrong decision when she said no to the mine. Court documents to be filed in Federal Court claim changes made by the government to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act two years ago are unconstitutional, because they go well beyond weighing the environmental impact of a project. The B.C. government has approved the proposal, but Ottawa first rejected the proposed $1.5-billion mine in 2010, because the plan involved draining a lake of significance to local First Nations for use as a tailings pond. The company says the revised plan will save the lake, but the environmental assessment found it would still cause significant adverse affects and cabinet rejected the proposal again last month.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Wild fish management

 New

Report Reveals U.S. Fisheries Killing Thousands of Protected and Endangered Species A new report by Oceana exposes nine U.S. fisheries that throw away half of what they catch, and kill dolphins, se a turtles, whales, and more in the process. March 23, 2014

These fisheries are even fishier than they smell. A new study released this week called W asted Catch: Unsolved Bycatch Problems in U.S. Fisheries reveals the nine dirtiest fisheries in the United S tates. It’s a dirty bunch indeed, the waste between them accounting for nearly half a billion wasted seafood meals in the U.S. alone. Culled by Oceana, the largest international organization for ocean conser vation, the fisheries are ranked based on bycatch —the amount of unwanted creatures caught while commercial fishing. Combined, they’re responsible for 50 percent of reported bycatch nationwide.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters At the dirtiest fishery, Southeast Snapper -Grouper Longline Fishery, 66 percent of the animals caught are discarded —a number that includes more than 400,000 sharks in just one year. Close behind is California Set Gillnet Fishery, where 65 percent of animals caught are thrown away. The other seven dispensaries, spanni ng from coast to coast, are death traps for thousands of sea organisms each year. (Read the full list here). “W e’re allowing the capture and death of whales, dolphins, porpoises, turtles, and more,” Dominique Cano-Stocco, campaign director for Oceana tells The Daily Beast. While it’s technically a pro -ocean conservation organization, Oceana stresses that it’s pro-fishing too—but the safe kind. In the interest of bringing in huge quantities, commercial fishing techniques have turned grisly. “Gillnets,” or as Cano -Stacco refers to them “walls of death” are nets that can be as long as two miles. Meant to capture fish by the gills (hence the name), they snare anything from sea turtles to dolphins. “Trawls,” which Cano-Stacco has nicknamed “the bulldozers of the ocean,” are long nets that are dragged along the ocean floor, taking no prisoners in their path. “No matter if you’re looking at animal conservation, ecosystems, or just waste in general — at all nine fisheries, it’s a bad story,” she says. With wide-reaching nets, catches are unintentionally trapping and killing thousands of unwanted bait. It’s a problem that is crippling the efforts of ocean conservationist nationwide. “If we don’t clean up these particular fishing gears then we’re continuing to throw away millions of pounds of fish every year as waste,” says Cano -Stacco. “It’s absurd.” “At the dirtiest fishery, 66 percent of the animals caught are discarded —a number that included 400,000 sharks in just one year.” The gut-wrenching data, retrieved from the National Marine Fisheries Service, exposes bycatch as the dark and deadly underbelly of commercial fishing. “It’s still the largest threat to maintaining fish populations and ecosystems,” says Cano -Stacco. W hile scientists and the government (NOAA) have known about bycatch for a long time, their efforts to combat it have not been effective. “W e’ve made great pr ogress in the fight against this, but not enough.” For the ocean conservation community it’s the knowledge that the senseless deaths could be avoided that is most infuriating. Banning gill nets and trawls, enforcing a system of accurate counting, and cappi ng the number of waste, has the potential to completely change the world of commercial fishing. As it stands now, the commercial fishing industry is eclipsing even the most advanced efforts to preserve the ocean’s natural habitat and protect endangered spe cies. CanoStacco, for one, hopes that the study highlights not simply the problem, but the urgency for a solution. “If you don’t get bycatch under control, the other government programs won’t work,” says Cano-Stacco. “If you do, you not only save the ocea n, you provide a potential solution to the human overpopulation crisis in the process.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Ottawa's

Move to Allow Overfishing of Salmon Draws United Condemnation from First Nations, Fishermen, and Conservationists April 3, 2014

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA- First Nations, recreational fishermen, and conservation groups from the Skeena River watershed are calling on Fisheries Minister Gail Shea to abandon a reckless fishing plan being proposed by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The new plan would significantly increase harvest rates on sockeye salmon, resulting in the overfishing of endangered sockeye populations, and serious impacts to other salmon species caught as "by-catch." The changes would nullify the recent (2009 to 2013) commercial harvest plan for Skeena River sockeye salmon, introduced following the 2008 Independent Science Review Panel. The Panel found that harvest rates were too high for many sockeye populations and needed to be reduced. A 2013 scientific analysis released by Pacific Salmon Foundation confirmed this, reporting that several Skeena sockeye populations were in the "Red Zone"-the area of greatest conservation concernunder DFO's Wild Salmon Policy. The overfishing would affect the Gitanyow, Lake Babine, and Wet'suwet'en Nations, who all host sockeye populations that lie in the "Red Zone." "We have harvested Kitwanga River salmon as food for thousands of years. They feed our elders, our culture, and who we are as a people," states Chief Glen Williams of the Gitanyow Nation. "We thought we had turned a corner on a century of overfishing in 2008, but now DFO intends to return to the era of much higher commercial harvest rates." Chief Wilf Adam of the Lake Babine Nation angrily responds, "Babine River sockeye once numbered over a million, supporting our Food and pre-contact commercial fisheries. Last year less than 40,000 fish spawned. Our people went hungry rather than harvest any for food. And DFO's response is to increase commercial fishing! How can anyone think this is a good idea?" "Increasing commercial harvest rates threaten recreational fisheries and the communities who benefit from them," said Keith Douglas of the North Coast Steelhead Alliance. "The lower harvest rates introduced in 2009 brought some respite to steelhead runs after decades of overharvesting in unselective gillnet fisheries and spread economic benefits throughout the watershed. It's not like the sockeye won't still be caught and processed," argues Douglas. "Sockeye not caught on the coast are caught in highly selective terminal fisheries that avoid harming both the sockeye populations we are concerned about and recreationally valuable steelhead."

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Greg Knox, Executive Director of the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, explains, "There are 30 genetically distinct sockeye populations in the Skeena River watershed. The commercial fishery is focused on the two artificially enhanced populations at the expense of the 28 wild ones." Mr. Knox continues, "DFO argues they only intend to increase harvest rates in years where there are above average sockeye returns. But, large returns are the result of the large numbers of sockeye returning to the two enhancement facilities. It ignores the impact such harvests will have on wild populations important to First Nations and the Skeena ecosystem." Other groups on record as opposing Ottawa's new plans to allow overfishing of at-risk Skeena salmon populations include the BC Federation of Fly Fishers, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, The BC Federation of Drift Fishers, the Steelhead Society of BC, and the Kingfishers Rod and Gun Club. "Skeena First Nations, conservationists, and recreational fishermen contend that DFO's plan to allow overfishing ignores independent science advice, First Nations' Constitutional Food and Treaty Rights, and bows to a narrow set of commercial interests," concludes Walter Joseph, Fisheries Manager for Office of the Wet'suwet'en.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Federal

judges deny request for emergency injunction against steelhead planting in Elwha River April 11, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO –– A panel of federal appellate judges has rejected a wild-fish advocacy group’s request to stop the planting of hatchery-born steelhead in the Elwha River. The ruling clears the way for Lower Elwha Klallam tribal hatchery managers to proceed with their planned release of as many as 175,000 steelhead — an ocean-going salmonid trout species — from the $16.5 million hatchery built to help restore Elwha River fish runs. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed a request from four wild-fish advocates for an emergency injunction to stop the steelhead plantings. The appellate court upheld a U.S. District Court judge’s decision to reject the injunction March 12. Rob Jones of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees the hatchery’s operations, said hatchery managers will proceed with the spring planting as laid out in the hatchery and genetic management plans, or HGMP, assembled to restore the river’s fish runs after removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams. “It was our belief that the numbers that are in the HGMPs are what’s necessary,” Jones said. “That doesn’t mean we have to plant that many fish in the river, but we have the option to do that.” Wild-fish groups Wild Fish Conservancy, Conservation Angler, Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee and Wild Steelhead Coalition filed suit in federal court last year to have the plans changed, saying the agencies that assembled the hatchery program did not adequately address the impacts hatchery-bred fish would have on wild species.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle rejected seven of the advocacy group’s eight motions to stop the federal government’s hatchery plan March 26. Settle did rule that federal agencies must review their plans to see whether the release numbers that call for 175,000 hatchery steelhead and 425,000 hatchery coho could be reduced. He said the government should confer on a compromise with the conservation groups who had proposed a release of 50,000 of each species. “We’re disappointed in the appeals court’s decision, but we’re still working our way through Judge Settle’s court on the overall program, so we’ll see where we go now,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy, based in Duvall. “That’s what we’re hoping. We still haven’t heard from them on that meeting, though.” Hatchery managers released 77,000 coho smolt into the Elwha at the end of March. The Elwha River once produced 400,000 spawning fish, a number that declined to fewer than 3,000 after the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were built without fish passage structures in the early 20th century. Jones said the hatchery was developed to ensure survival of the species that use the Elwha to spawn. “None of us have really had to deal with a situation like the Elwha before,” Jones said. “So we tried to be extremely risk-averse when we put together the HGMPs.” He noted the fish born in the hatchery are genetically identical to the wild species. The plans call for adult fish to be captured in the fall to spawn in the hatchery so their smolt can be released in the spring. One factor that jeopardizes the survival of the fish runs is the heavy loads of sediment that had built up in the riverbed behind the dams. In April 2013, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, operating a separate fish hatchery along the Elwha River, attributed the deaths of hundreds of year-old chinook salmon, which were found along the Elwha banks, to heavy sedimentation in the river. Now that the river has been reopened, sediment is being flushed out of the river valley. Hatchery releases are timed to avoid planting fish during those times when the river is heavily loaded with sediment, officials said. “That’s an additional issue hatcheries elsewhere don’t have to deal with,” Jones said. “The sediment is complicating juvenile survival.” Eventually, the hatchery is expected to ramp down production, Jones said, as the sediment clears and the fish population becomes self-sustaining. “If we give them a chance, they’ll be more and more successful as the river heals,” Jones said.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Guidelines for Anglers that suspect they have recaptured an escaped Farmed Salmon Guidelines for Anglers that suspect they have recaptured an escaped farmed salmon:

    

Do not return the salmon to the water. Tag the salmon with rod or commercial tags issued with your licence under the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Regulations. (Blue, brown, red, white) Contact IFI immediately and report where you caught the farmed salmon (estuary/river/lake). Freeze the salmon whole and IFI will assist with the identification process. If the Salmon is identified as a recaptured farm escaped salmon, your tag will be replaced. Blackrock +353 1 2787022 Clonmel +353 52 6180055 Macroom +353 26 41221 Limerick +353 61 300238 Galway +353 91 563118 Ballina +353 96 22788 Ballyshannon +353 71 9851435

Please be advised that farmed salmon may be the subject of various treatments and may not be suitable for human consumption. Signs that you may have caught a Farmed Salmon Rounded Head, Damaged Fins, Missing or Partial Gill Plates, Unusual Spotting

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Something fishy in B.C. The new Fisheries Act has former Liberal and Tory fisheries ministers agreeing: it’s a big problem March 25, 2014 Mike Pearson pulls up the DIY fish trap he’s left overnight in a slough near Agassiz, B.C. He’s hoping to catch Salish suckers, an endangered freshwater fish that looks like it’s puckered up for a kiss. While the work is routine for Pearson, an ecological consultant in the Fraser Valley, one thing is different on this day: Canada’s revised Fisheries Act is now in effect. “Last year, these fish would have been protected under the act, and now they’re not,” Pearson says. “This has fallen between the cracks.” The new act, which was introduced in June 2012’s omnibus budget bill and came into force last November, replaces the old version that prohibited the “harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat” (HADD).

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The revised act bars “serious harm” to fish, which is defined as either killing a fish or causing “permanent alteration to, or destruction of, fish habitat.” But it covers only fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery. In the past all fish were protected, full stop. The idea behind the old clause, which dates back to 1976, was not just to protect stock from overfishing, but to protect the habitat of all fish species as well. “The great thing about the Fisheries Act with the HADD provisions was that it could be used to prevent fish from getting threatened or endangered in the first place,” says Rick Taylor, a biologist at the University of British Columbia. “It was getting toward the adage: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” While the act applies to both freshwater and marine environments, as much as 80 per cent of Canada’s 71 at-risk freshwater-fish species are now unprotected, the Salish sucker included, according to fisheries biologists John Post and Jeff Hutchings, at the University of Calgary and Dalhousie University, respectively. Most are fish we don’t eat. “I would wager that every species in some way has a benefit or an importance, and we play with that at our peril,” says Pearson. Tom Siddon, a fisheries minister in Brian Mulroney’s government, says the revisions fly in the face of a tradition of government balancing economic objectives against scientific knowledge. “To have all of this unraveled, and turn Canada back 25 years or more in the way we approach fisheries science and policy, I found extremely troubling,” he says. History tells us that the cost of degrading fish habitat runs high. Nearly three quarters of freshwater fish extinctions in North America are attributed to habitat alteration. This is one issue on which two former ministers in two different governments are in agreement. “To say that you can somehow just protect the trout and not worry about other aspects of the ecosystem struck me as a very backwards step,” says former Liberal fisheries minister David Anderson. He says the changes “are designed to speed up, streamline and remove irritations for developers, whether it’s people who build pipelines or people who build ports, and that’s a legitimate objective, [but] it means that we are throwing out some extremely complex science-based decision-making.” Under the old act, the “no net loss” policy meant that in cases of unavoidable habitat loss, equivalent habitat creation or restoration should occur. Now, offsets will only be triggered when fisheries-related species are harmed. When asked about the government’s rationale for the changes, Fisheries and Oceans Canada media relations liaison David Walters replied via email: “Canadians had told us they found the old rules indiscriminate, confusing and far-reaching. Prior to the amendments, the Fisheries Act subjected all activities—from the largest industrial development to the smallest personal project on private land— to the same rules, which was unnecessary to protect the productivity of Canadian fisheries.” Walters did not address questions as to why the government chose to scale back protection for all fish. Final say on what habitat protection the new act affords other fish will ultimately be decided by the courts. David Anderson wonders just how the courts will define “permanent alteration” of habitat and whether they will provide sufficient protection, given how sensitive fish are to even temporary changes in their habitat. As for Pearson, his concerns extend well beyond endangered fish: “The legacy is going to be an accelerated loss of aquatic habitat—and all of the environmental goods it supports.”

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 DFO

backs down from commercial fishery banned by Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation April 3, 2014

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A coastal British Columbia First Nation is claiming a partial victory after federal Fisheries and Oceans officials agreed to keep commercial herring gillnet boats away from waters set off-limits by the community. Federal fisheries officials agreed to keep the commercial boats out of Kitasu Bay after Kitasoo/Xaixais hereditary chiefs refused to budge from their position. Federal fisheries officials were trying to arrange a meeting Wednesday with the Kitasoo/Xaixais Nation elected Chief Clark Robinson Sr. in hopes of negotiating the entrance of commercial fishing boats into the bay. “DFO agreed not to go in, they agreed to stay out,” said Doug Neasloss, Kitasso/Xaixais Stewardship director, in an interview from Klemtu, B.C. Klemtu sits about 765 kilometres north of Victoria. Neasloss said fisheries officials would be allowing commercial fishing boats to fish just outside of the boundary line set by the community. Fisheries Minister Gail Shea overruled the advice of her department officials and opened the herring fishery in the region to commercial fishers. Shea’s office could not be reached for comment. The Kitasso/Xaixais First Nation has focused on using traditional practices to grow the herring population in the bay. The community feared the entrance of commercial vessels would devastate their herring fishery. The commercial vessels have quotas of about 730 tonnes each. “At the present time we have set our trees and kelp using traditional practices and are waiting for the herring to spawn in Kitasu Bay,” read a fishing notice given to commercial gillnet fishers on Monday banning them from the bay. “Just the presence of your vessels can be enough to impact our fishery.” NDP B.C. MP Nathan Cullen said he was “mystified” by Shea’s handling of the situation. “I do wish for peace and that this thing will resolve itself. First Nations are doing all they can to protect their fisheries, to protect their way of life,” said Cullen. “They have made many sacrifices over the years…it is a shame this Conservative government doesn’t share their values.” The decision by the federal fisheries department to stand-down has diffused a potentially volatile situation that carried echoes of the Burnt Church crisis in New Brunswick which sparked in 1999. Mi’kmaq and Acadian fishers clashed over the lobster fishery after the Supreme Court’s Marshall decision.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Nine

Dirty Fisheries (based on data published by the National Marine Fisheries Service):



Southeast Snapper-Grouper Longline Fishery (66% discarded) –More than 400,000 sharks were captured and discarded in one year

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California Set Gillnet Fishery (65% of all animals discarded) – More than 30,000 sharks and rays as well as valuable fish were discarded as waste over three years

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Southeast Shrimp Trawl Fishery (64% discarded) – For every pound of shrimp landed, 1 pound of billfish is discarded; thousands of sea turtles are killed annually

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California Drift Gillnet Fishery (63% of all animals discarded) – Almost 550 marine mammals were entangled or killed over five years

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Gulf of Alaska Flatfish Trawl Fishery (35% discarded) – More than 34 million pounds of fish were thrown overboard in one year, including 2 million pounds of halibut and 5 million pounds of cod

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Northeast Bottom Trawl (35% discarded) – More than 50 million pounds of fish are thrown overboard every year

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Mid-Atlantic Bottom Trawl Fishery (33% discarded) – Almost 200 marine mammals and 350 sea turtles were captured or killed in one year

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Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Longline Fishery (23% discarded) – More than 75% of the wasted fish in this fishery are valuable tuna, swordfish and other billfish targeted by the fishery

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New England and Mid-Atlantic Gillnet Fishery (16% discarded) – More than 2,000 dolphins, porpoises and seals were captured in one year

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

 Fishing Guide Arek Kotecki - Iceland

 APK Fishing Guide company offers one day fishing trips, but can be longer by request, what we think is an unforgettable Fishing adventure in Iceland.

 Our

tours are suitable for beginners as well as experienced anglers. Our goal is personal service and are able to customize the tours upon request.

 We arrange the licenses needed for the fishing tour in advance.  Our focus is mostly on fishing the East Iceland and the reasons for that are simple.  In East Iceland the country is not as densely populated as in the south making giving you a chance to fish rivers with a much lower fishing pressure than the rivers in South, North and South West Iceland.

 Amazing venues, including beautiful wild rivers and lakes well populated with native Brown Trout, Arctic Char, Sea Trout and of course the powerful Atlantic Salmon…

 With our help, we hope our guests can catch the fish of lifetime or at the very least a personal best!

 Above all we hope the adventure with us will be memorable and provide a lasting friendship with us and Iceland.

 We will do everything in our power to make it happen for you.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” Reserve your 2014 Pacific Ocean fishing adventures on Slammer through Deep Sea Charters – Westport, Washington

2014 Westport Salmon Seasons Set: May 31 to June 13: two hatchery Chinook (King). June 14 to September 30: one wild or one hatchery Chinook (King) and one hatchery Coho (Silver) OR two hatchery Coho (Silvers). This is the first year since 1983 that the season has been set to go 7 days a week for the whole year! Large quotas of both species.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 CHALLHUAQUEN Fishing Lodge – Patagonia, Argentina

CHALLHUAQUEN Fishing Lodge & Relax. The perfect mix between comfort, nature, relaxation and sport. Challhuaquen Lodge, that in Mapuche language means “fishing place”, is located in the center of natural settings of the Futaleufu River or Grande, next to the National Park Los Alerces in the Trevelin Valley, Chubut Province. This fly fishing lover’s authentic paradise combines its privileged location in the heart of the Argentinean Patagonia with its sophisticated facilities, the quality of its services and the most careful attention. Our services include: full spa area, gourmet restaurant, comfortable and friendly living rooms and a bar where you can enjoy a fly tying with friends and drinks, and a wet room to change clothes after a fishing day. Our intention is to offer the fisherman a unique experience. That’s why we plan every stay in a personalized way and we design the fishing packages according to the size and expectations of the group and the time of the year. Write us. We will gladly help you to plan your own experience in Challhuaquen

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Churchill Fly-fishing – Camden, Maine

My Goal Hi my name is Filip and my goal is to make sure that you have the best fly-fishing experience of Maine wild rivers and lakes you can imagine. Together we will visit the best fishing spots in the area. I will help you fine-tune your technique, you will learn local secrets about which fly catches the most fish and I will even cook you a delicious meal to make sure you have the best experience of Maine possible. You will have a lot of fun, amazing memories and net full of fish and new skills. Please click on the button below to find more details about my service

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 April Vokey’s Fly Gal Adventures

Fly Gal Ventures is a guiding operation that was created in 2007 by British Columbian Steelhead angler/guide, April Vokey; a Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) certified casting instructor and dedicated conservationist. Originally based around local fisheries and workshops geared primarily for women, the vision was to bring specialized courses and instruction to other female anglers and newcomers to the sport. However, with the expansion of Fly Gal, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t just the ladies who were interested in experiencing the unique off road adventures of the West Coast, and it didn’t take long for the guys to jump on board the excitement of Fly Gal’s steelhead and salmon trips.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Fly Fishing in Slovenia

WELCOME Slovenija is a small, green and picturesque country in the heart of Europe. Our most beautiful rivers which flow through still intact nature offer visitors, especially fishers, never to be forgotten moments of pleasure.

Geographically speaking, Slovene rivers belong to two river basins; Adriatic basin with its main river Soča with inflows, and Danubian basin with Sava and its inflows as its main river. Soča is not only known for its beautiful emerald colour but also for its famous Marble trout, whose marble pattern certainly charms every fly fisher. In our rivers, suitable as well as for beginners and masters, you will also be able to fish Graylings, River trouts, Hybrids, Rainbow trouts, Brook trouts and in Danube Salmons (Hutcho Hutcho). You will certainly enjoy the beauties of our nature and good fishing. Come and visit us. I promise you that once you experience our waters you will certainly want to return.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 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 – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors View our six-panel information brochure HERE

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Cabo Sails – Cabo San Lucas Sailing, Tours and Activities

Cabo Sails is a sailing charter company in sunny Cabo San Lucas Mexico offering:

 private Cabo sailing charters  whale watching tours  snorkeling tours  sunset cruises  sightseeing  special occasion celebrations Our private sailing charters accommodate all ages from 2-20 guests. Kids under 10 enjoy sailing, snorkeling and whale watching for free.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Westcoast Fishing Adventures

We are a world class fishing destination with 17 years of guiding experience on the Skeena and nearly all the remote systems of the North extending our boundaries as far as the head waters of the Nass river. Guests of Westcoast Fishing can expect a professional experience from the time you book your trip we are licensed to guide on over 30 rivers including area lakes and Ocean fishing for halibut & salmon. There are no extra rod days fees when fishing with our company we include them in the package. Guests will stay at our B&B Style Lodge nested in between the mountains and the Skeena River. If you’re looking for a unique steelhead fly-fishing adventure — an expedition off the beaten path — this is your trip. By truck, by boat, by helicopter (if you’re feeling rich ), or walk and wade — whatever it takes — we’ll explore hidden valleys and fish where very few people have step foot before. Make your reservations today or visit our guided adventures page for more information.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing Booking Now for 2014 Montana: (406) 665-3489 Alaska: (907) 842-5480

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Great River Fishing Adventures

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Featured Artists:

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dan Wallace – Authentic cultural designs Tribal Affiliation: Haida, Lekwiltaich Dan Wallace is a descendant from the Haida and Lekwiltaich Nation. Being from two Nations, his work reflects these two styles. Having come from two cultural and historical backgrounds has given him an abundance of creativity to draw from. He comes from a long line of artists, whose ancestors have been creating art for thousands of years now. He cites his biggest influences as his grandfather and uncle. Dan began doing jewelry and wood carvings at the age of 28. He is a self taught artist who was recently accepted into a jewelry and art design course. He chose this two year diploma program to broaden and develop his creative endeavors. Dan actively participates in his culture, performing singing, dancing, and attending other culture events on a regular basis. He is a strong believer in maintaining, restoring, and sharing his culture, including the art. He feels he also has a big responsibility as a young chief to start to set a higher standard of living, and to protect and enforce the traditional protocols.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Ta’Kaiya Blaney Sings Against Enbridge Watch, Listen, Learn HERE Make a Difference

“Ten year old Ta’Kaiya Blaney is an inspirational being. A grade four student, she is taking on Enbridge, speaking out and singing out. She has taken her song Shallow Waters to the Enbridge office in Vancouver, but they didn’t have the courage to receive her and instead hid inside the building. Through her song and eloquent speech, she has shared her message with the world. Check out coverage of her in Yes Magazine, First Nations Drum, Greenpeace, and her music at CBC Radio 3. Congratulations Ta’Kaiya! Keep the song going!” Ta’kaiya, We at Wild Game Gish Conservation International truly appreciate your important messages and your passionate delivery of them through song. Thank you.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Diane Michelin On the web at DianeMichelin.com

Be sure to stop by Diane Michelin’s display during the Atlantic Salmon Fly International Expo, May 17 and 18 in the Pavilion Event Center, Renton, Washington. Many of her amazing pieces, including “Patiently” (left), will be available for purchase during the Expo.

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Richard Mayer’s Flyfishers’ Arte & Publishing Co-founder: Wild Salmon Forever

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Featured Fishing Adventures, Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny:

 Fish for Peacock Bass on Brazil’s Aqua Boa River with host Camille Egdorf Base camp: Aqua Boa Amazon Lodge Dates: December 18-27. 2014 Book your Peacock Bass fishing adventure with Fishing with Larry

Est. cost: $4,000

I'm hosting another group to the Amazon in December 2014! Who wants to join me? Camille You can land 30 to 100+ peacock bass per day. Some will be huge. The lodge has exclusive rights to over 100-miles of the Agua Boa River so you literally have an entire river to yourself. There is a giant reserve area – birds, wildlife, no people, no mosquitoes. There is one guide per two anglers per boat.

Includes: airport reception, all transfers in Brazil, 240-mile deluxe roundtrip flight Manaus, Brazil to lodge, lodging, daily laundry service, meals, soft drinks, beer, wine, and local liquor, fishing license, free copy of Larry’s 40-page book Fly fishing for Peacock Bass. We also supply all flies, and fly patterns. Plus, courtesy of Agua Boa Amazon Lodge - Free 8-day Global Rescue Insurance, a $119.00 value. Does not include: international airfare, Brazilian visa, satellite telephone calls, liquor, airport taxes, overnight hotel and meals in Manaus, and tackle. (Our hosted groups usually stay together at a nicer hotel in Manaus.)

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Gašper Konkoli

- Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia

Brown trout x marble trout hybrid - Bača River

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Krystal Jean May with her Fraser River white sturgeon Fishing with Ben Trainer: Great River Fishing Adventures

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Kyle McClelland:

XXL Chrome Chasing

Michigan Winter Steelhead Trout A Ass aa G Grreeaatt LLaakkeess FFiisshhiinngg TTeeaam m,, TTeeaam m X XX XLL C h r o m e C h a s i n g i s a l w a y s o n t h e f i s h ! Chrome Chasing is always on the fish! FFrroom m LLaakkee S Suuppeerriioorr TTrriibbss,, ttoo LLaakkee M Miicchhiiggaann TTrriibbss,, ttoo LLaakkee H Huurroonn ttrriibbss,, ddoow wnn ttoo LLaakkee E Erriiee TTrriibbss,, aanndd oovveerr ttoo LLaakkee O n t a r i o T r i b s . Ontario Tribs. O Ouurr m maaiinn ffooccuuss iiss oonn tthhee G Grreeaatt LLaakkeess ttrriibbuuttaarriieess,, bbuutt w wee aallssoo ddoo aa lloott ooff B Biigg LLaakkee FFiisshhiinngg iinn tthhee ssuum m e r t i m e . mmer time. W Wee aallssoo ooffffeerr oonnee ooff tthhee bbeesstt G Guuiiddee S Seerrvviicceess iinn tthhee G Grreeaatt LLaakkeess R Reeggiioonn!! A Alloonngg w wiitthh tthhee G Guuiiddee S Seerrvviiccee w wee aarree aallssoo ssttoocckkeedd w i t h s o m e o f t h e b e s t f i s h i n with some of the best fishingg pprroodduuccttss oonn tthhee m maarrkkeett aalll aaiim meedd ttoo m maaxxiim miizzee yyoouurr ssuucccceessss oonn tthhee w a t e r ! ! water!! W Wee aallssoo ppoosstt w weeeekkllyy iinnffoorrm maattiioonnaall vviiddeeooss,, rreeppoorrttss,, aanndd iinnffoorrm maattiioonnaall ppoosstt!!

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Natasha Larson: Sheepshead (Jacksonville, FL)

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rhett Weber: Wolf Fish

Caught on “Slammer”: Deep Sea Charters - Westport, Washington

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Sara Stevenson: “A Day at the Office” Spring Chinook salmon fishing

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Idrijca River, Slovenia Lesly Janssen: Professional Guide at Soca Fly

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Adrian Armato: purple oscillated snakehead Mustad Asia and Oceania

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 It doesn’t get any better than this! Fishing Guide Arek Kotecki - Iceland

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Lael Paul Johnson: “Thanks for the Memories” Wild steelhead trout

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rosnani Bidin: Kuala Rompin, Malaysia While fishing with Mat Rompin Boat Charters

Legacy – May 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters