Legacy - July 2016

Legacy

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Matching the Hatch Since 2011

o Contents: o Game Fishing Planet Earth o Special: Sea Snow o Fails o Opinion o Activism o Harvest o Salmon Feedlots oo Alternative Electricity

Cover photo: Unsuspecting, wild, juvenile Pacific salmon from Canada and the USA swim directly into lice infested/diseased waters below salmon feedlots sited in British Columbia’s largest wild Pacific salmon migration route Photo by Tavish Campbell

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

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

LEGACY – Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, nononsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their unparalleled contributions to society and the varied and complex issues impacting them and those who rely on their sustainability.

LEGACY exposes impacts to wild game fish while featuring wild game fish conservation projects, community activism, fishing adventures 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 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

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Contents Game Fishing Planet Earth – Then and Now _______________________________________ 5 Bryan Cal Coolidge’s Light Tackle Ling ___________________________________________________________________ 5 Shannon Thomas with a dandy Sitka, AK halibut ___________________________________________________________ 6 Kate Holms with her first Spring (chinook salmon) _________________________________________________________ 7

Special ______________________________________________________________________ 8 Salish Sea Crossroads ___________________________________________________________________________________ 8

Fails _______________________________________________________________________ 10 Risks of Columbia Gorge Fossil Fuel Transport ___________________________________________________________ Critics: River route no place for oil trains after crash ______________________________________________________ Who Really Benefits from Pipelines like Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Anyways? _________________________ Evidence of Fish Farm Disease Detected in BC ___________________________________________________________

10 16 20 24

Opinion ____________________________________________________________________ 28 Mosier Fire Chief Calls Shipping Bakken Crude Oil By Rail 'Insane' _________________________________________ The ocean sustains our life; it’s time to protect it__________________________________________________________ Opinion: Save our salmon — get diseased fish out of Pacific Ocean ________________________________________ Why You Need Wild Salmon (And Why It's Running Out)___________________________________________________

28 32 35 37

Community Activism, Education and Outreach ___________________________________ 39 Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register____________________________________________________________ Rally: Protect Wild Salmon ______________________________________________________________________________ 2016 Wild Salmon Caravan, British Columbia _____________________________________________________________ CAN FLYFISHING HEAL?________________________________________________________________________________

39 40 41 42

Harvest ____________________________________________________________________ 43 Tens of countries sign up to shut pirate fishers out of their ports __________________________________________ 43

Salmon Feedlots – Weapons of Mass Destruction, Floating Cesspools _______________ 46 Deadly salmon disease found in B.C. farmed stock, federal scientists say __________________________________ 46 Video: Juvinile salmon with farm lice in Musgamaw Dzawada'enuxw _______________________________________ 49 Cooke family closes deal with Icicle Seafoods ____________________________________________________________ 50

Renewable Energy: Geothermal, Waves, Tidal, Solar, Wind, Hydropower ______________ 51 Solar __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 51 Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free _______________________________________________ 51

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Forward The July 2016 issue of “Legacy” marks fifty seven consecutive months of our complimentary eMagazine; the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published and distributed by Wild Game Fish Conservation International.

Wild game fish are our passion. Publishing “Legacy” each month is our self imposed responsibility to help ensure the future of these precious gifts entrusted to our generation for their conservation.

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

Sincerely,

Bruce Treichler James E. Wilcox

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Game Fishing Planet Earth – Then and Now Bryan Cal Coolidge’s Light Tackle Ling Charterboat Slammer: Westport, Washington

Charterboat SLAMMER Everyone fishes a 6 foot rod, spinning reel and 10 pound test on my boat for Rockfish.

His rod was the only real difference from my light tackle.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Shannon Thomas with a dandy Sitka, AK halibut

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Kate Holms with her first Spring (chinook salmon) Photo credit: Kai White's Fishing Adventures

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Special Salish Sea Crossroads International treasure or cesspool?

Jim Wilcox, Dale “Doc” Thoemke

Sea Snow at depths exceeding 400 feet.

Photo credit: Dale “Doc” Thoemke

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels A growing number of interested individuals with varied backgrounds are working together to better understand the marine anomaly dubbed as “Sea Snow”.

Its contents, sources and toxicity are unknown. Decades of Puget Sound sea floor videography document significant increase in Sea Snow volume. It flows like a snow storm on Salish Sea currents until it eventually settles on the seafloor smothering its plants and wildlife.

As Sea Snow travels on Puget Sound currents, its ingested by fish and marine mammals. The likely toxins in this material are expected to accumulate in these creatures and throughout their food chain up to and including humans.

Although relatively early into our Sea Snow investigation, considerable interest has been expressed by tribal, commercial and recreational fishers as well as by local, state and federal elected officials.

Next up are meetings with US Representatives Kilmer and Heck to dovetail our efforts with those included in their proposed legislation to recover Puget Sound.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Fails

Risks of Columbia Gorge Fossil Fuel Transport November 4, 2015 For thousands of years, people have lived, worked and prayed along the Columbia River. The great river of the Northwest shapes the cultures of those who rely on its bounty. The river has experienced many changes in the past 200 years: overfishing, hydropower development, population pressures, and pollutants. Today, the river is threatened by a wave of proposals to turn the railroads lining the river, as well as the river itself, into a major transportation corridor for fossil fuels. These proposals, should they be put into practice, would risk the health, safety, and economic security of those living along the river. Tribal members fishing in the Columbia face even larger risks and potential impacts since they spend significant time outside exposed to the air and water in and along the river and eating a diet heavy in fish caught there.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

The tribe’s opposition stems not only to the climate effects of continued fossil fuel use, but also the present danger of transportation risks. Continued reliance on fossil fuels would have long-lasting, harmful impacts to the environment and the natural resources upon which tribal cultures are based.

This alone is reason enough for opposition to expanding fossil fuel transport through the region, but adding in the risk of catastrophic environmental damage from spills and derailments and the correct course of action is even more obvious.

Concerns with Rail Transport

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels On both sides of the Columbia River Gorge, rail lines follow the river, with some stretches running on causeways mere feet from the river on both sides of the track. Traffic this close to the river almost guarantees that accidents and spillage issues will either enter the water or affect it.

Chip Smith (right), Assistant for Environment, Tribal and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Assistant Secretary for Army Civil Works; and JR Inglis, Corps of Engineers Tribal Liaison, Portland District, dig down to find the depth of the coal debris along the tracks near Dallesport, WA. In some places, they found debris 4 to 6 inches deep.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels For the rail transport of coal, the major risk is the amount of dust and debris that comes off the cargo during transit. Coal is transported in open rail cars that are exposed to the elements. The loaded cars are sprayed with a substance in an attempt to control dust, but settling and jostling of the coal during transit reduces its effectiveness. Coal dust and debris pollutes the air, water, and land all along the Columbia River. Some trains can have more than one hundred coal cars, each adding coal dust and debris to the environment the train travels through. Under windy conditions, black clouds of coal dust have been witnessed coming off these cars, blowing into the environment or the river. Airborne coal dust can be especially harmful to humans when inhaled. Tribal fishers and others who work along the river are at particular risk to breathing in unsafe amounts of coal dust particulates. This scattering of coal into the environment happens in the course of normal transport, not just during a derailment or other accident.

For the rail transport of oil, the primary risk is from derailment and oil spillage into or along the Columbia River. Derailments or oil spills in this sensitive corridor would devastate the Columbia River ecosystem and the treaty fishery. Even with a multi-million dollar, full-scale emergency response using the latest containment methods, a major spill could potentially pollute the area for many years.

A 2014 derailment near Wallula in Oregon. With tracks built this close to the river, any problem will likely impact the water. Fortunately this train consisted of empty cattle cars.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Sightline Daily, a Northwest news source, documented 276 train derailments in the Northwest over one 31-month period they reviewed. Trains transporting Bakken oil out of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan have derailed across North America with alarming frequency, each causing spectacular—and deadly—results. Tribal and local communities are further vulnerable with evidence that companies shipping coal and oil are vastly under-insured leaving local populations with the responsibility of cleaning up spills. Some states have set aside special emergency funds to pay for these clean-ups. For example, New York State set aside $40 million, and there are calls to increase it to $100 million, given the costly nature of cleaning up a large spill.

The impacts of increased fossil fuel transport aren’t limited to risks from a possible accident. This transport will impact the sensitive Columbia River ecosystem even if every train runs without any problems. The increases in rail transport will require expansion of rail lines, which means more fill in the river, shorelines, wetlands, and streams, along with further displacement of tribal fishers and impact to the ecosystem and natural resources.

Increased rail traffic also equates to more risk of train-strike. Tribal fishers are particularly at risk, as they regularly cross railroad tracks when accessing their fishing sites. Most of the access roads to the Columbia River are rural crossings without lights or crossing bars. This combination of tribal members regularly using uncontrolled crossings and a sharp increase in railroad traffic greatly increases the likelihood of deadly train-strikes.

Concerns with Barge Transport

A barge transporting coal on a river.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Fossil fuels transported by barge carries its own risks and impacts, not only to the environment, but to tribal treaty fishing activities as well. Increased barge traffic impedes tribal fishing efforts and the construction of more boat docks and loading terminals could impact or even eliminate treaty fishing sites. In the lower river, the large ships that are proposed to carry the fossil fuels will further damage valuable habitat and cause problems such as wake stranding for adults and out-migrating salmonid smolts. Increasing the already large amount of barge traffic through the Columbia River estuary will only make this situation worse.

Fossil Fuel Use Impacts on the Columbia Basin Ecosystem Even if the coal that passes through the Columbia River basin travels safely and without incident, it still has the power to impact or harm the region’s ecosystem. Most of the coal shipped from the Pacific Northwest travels to Asia, where it is burned, emitting mercury and other airborne pollutants into the winds that head east, eventually reaching the Columbia River Basin. The full extent of this impact has yet to be studied.

Tribal Energy Vision

Umatilla tribal members digging roots beneath windmills in their ceded territory.

The tribes’ opposition to fossil fuel transport through the region doesn’t mean they are opposed to or ignorant of the region’s energy needs. In 2003, the tribes authored their Tribal Energy Vision, a plan that proposes sustainable energy development goals that would not burden natural resources. A fundamental goal of the Tribal Energy Vision is to reduce the pressure of energy demand on Columbia Basin fish and wildlife resources. In other words, the tribal goal is to take energy policy off the backs of salmon and the environment that supports them.

Our entire region is defined by the Columbia River, and its protection should be on the forefront of our thoughts and actions. Opposing threats such as fossil fuel transport is a significant and important piece of that goal.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Critics: River route no place for oil trains after crash June 4, 2016 A fiery oil train derailment in Oregon's scenic Columbia River Gorge drew immediate reaction from environmentalists who said oil should not be transported by rail, particularly along a river that is a hub of recreation and commerce.

Key Developments: 11 oil train cars in Oregon derailed near Mosier One was on fire for hours.

The train was on the way to Tacoma No reports of injuries, but area-hospital prepared to receive patients I-84 was closed westbound through Friday evening.

No reports of oil entering the Columbia River PHOTOS: See images from the scene here.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels At least eleven cars derailed Friday in the 96-car Union Pacific train and the company said several caught fire. The crash released oil alongside tracks that parallel the Columbia River and sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky that spurred evacuations and road closures No injuries were reported.

All the cars were carrying Bakken oil, a type of oil that is more flammable than other varieties because it has a higher gas content and vapor pressure and lower flash point.

"Moving oil by rail constantly puts our communities and environment at risk," said Jared Margolis, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene, Oregon.

It wasn't immediately clear if oil had seeped into the river or what had caused the derailment. Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for the railroad, did not know how fast the train was traveling at the time, but witnesses said it was going slowly as it passed the town of Mosier, Oregon, about 70 miles east of Portland.

Response teams were using a drone to assess the damage, said Katherine Santini, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Forest Service.

Crews were continuing to suppress the fire, which they expected to do overnight. Gov. Kate Brown activated additional state resources including water tenders and the coordination efforts of the Oregon State Fire Marshal to assist firefighters at the scene.

Officials in Mosier closed about 23 miles of Interstate 84 and evacuated the area immediately around the spill, including 50 mobile homes and 200 school children who were picked up by their parents.

Residents in Mosier were issued notices to boil their water until further notice due to a loss of water pressure, potentially allowing harmful bacteria to get into the water supply.

Silas Bleakley was working at his restaurant in Mosier when the train derailed.

"You could feel it through the ground. It was more of a feeling than a noise," he told The Associated Press as smoke billowed from the tankers.

Bleakley said he went outside, saw the smoke, got in his truck and drove about 2,000 feet to a bridge that crosses the railroad tracks.

There, he said he saw tanker cars "accordioned" across the tracks.

Another witness, Brian Shurton, was watching the train as it passed by the town when he heard a tremendous noise.

"All of a sudden, I heard 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' like dominoes," he told The Associated Press.

He also drove to the overpass and saw the cars flipped over before a fire started and he called 911.

"The train wasn't going very fast. It would have been worse if it had been faster," said Shurton, who runs a wind surfing business in nearby Hood River.

Matt Lehner, a spokesman from the Federal Railroad Administration, said a team of investigators had arrived at the scene from Vancouver, Washington.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Union Pacific said 11 cars had derailed, but a spokesman from the Oregon Department of Forestry, which helped extinguish the blaze, said 12 cars had been involved. The discrepancy could not immediately be resolved.

Including Friday's accident, at least 26 oil trains have been involved in major fires or derailments during the past decade in the U.S. and Canada, according to Associated Press analysis of accident records from the two countries.

The worst was a 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Damage from that accident has been estimated at $1.2 billion or higher.

At least 12 of the oil trains that derailed over the past decade were carrying crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region — fuel that is known for being highly volatile. Of those, eight resulted in fires.

Since last spring, North Dakota regulators have required companies to treat oil before it's shipped by rail to make it less combustible.

A May 2015 derailment near Heimdal, North Dakota, involved cars carrying oil that had been treated to reduce the volatility, but the crude still ignited. At least one train wreck involving treated Bakken oil did not result in a fire, when 22 cars derailed and 35,000 gallons of oil spilled near Culbertson, Montana, last July.

Reducing the explosiveness of the crude moved by rail was not supposed to be a cure-all to prevent accidents. Department of Transportation rules imposed last year require companies to use stronger tank cars that are better able to withstand derailments.

But tens of thousands of outdated tank cars that are prone to split open during accidents remain in use.

It's expected to take years for them to be retrofitted or replaced.

Hunt, the Union Pacific spokesman, did not respond to questions about whether the Bakken oil in Friday's derailment had been treated to reduce volatility. It also wasn't clear if the tank cars in the accident had been retrofitted under the new rules.

To get to refineries on the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico, oil trains move through more than 400 counties, including major metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia; Seattle; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; and dozens of other cities, according to railroad disclosures filed with regulators.

Friday's derailment follows a string of fiery accidents in the U.S. and Canada as shipments of crude by rail have increased with more domestic oil production: — July 5, 2013: A runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train that had been left unattended derailed, spilling oil and catching fire inside the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec. Forty-seven people were killed and 30 buildings burned in the town's center. About 1.6 million gallons of oil was spilled.

The oil was being transported from the Bakken region of North Dakota, the heart of an oil fracking boom, to a refinery in Canada.

— Nov. 8, 2013: An oil train from North Dakota derailed and exploded near Aliceville, Alabama. There were no deaths, but an estimated 749,000 gallons of oil spilled from 26 tanker cars.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels — Dec. 30, 2013: A fire engulfed tank cars loaded with oil on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train after a collision about a mile from Casselton, North Dakota. No one was injured, but more than 2,000 residents were evacuated as emergency responders struggled with the intense fire.

— Jan. 7, 2014: A 122-car Canadian National Railway train derailed in New Brunswick, Canada.

Three cars containing propane and one car transporting crude oil from western Canada exploded after the derailment, creating intense fires that burned for days. About 150 residents were evacuated.

— Jan. 20, 2014: Seven CSX train cars, six of them containing oil from the Bakken region, derailed on a bridge over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The bridge is near the University of Pennsylvania, a highway and three hospitals. No oil was spilled and no one was injured. The train from Chicago was more than 100 cars long.

— April 30, 2014: Fifteen cars of a crude oil train derailed in Lynchburg, Virginia, near a railside eatery and a pedestrian waterfront, sending flames and black smoke into the air. Nearly 30,000 gallons of oil were spilled into the James River.

— Feb. 14, 2015: A 100-car Canadian National Railway train hauling crude oil and petroleum distillates derailed in a remote part of Ontario, Canada. The blaze it ignited burned for days.

— Feb. 16, 2015: A 109-car CSX oil train derailed and caught fire near Mount Carbon, West Virginia, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning a house to its foundation. The blaze burned for most of week.

— March 10, 2015: Twenty-one cars of a 105-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe train hauling oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota derailed about 3 miles outside Galena, Illinois, a town of about 3,000 in the state's northwest corner.

— March 7, 2015: A 94-car Canadian National Railway crude oil train derailed about 3 miles outside the northern Ontario town of Gogama. The resulting fire destroyed a bridge. The accident was 23 miles from the Feb. 14 derailment.

— May 6, 2015: A 109-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe crude oil train derails near Heimdal, North Dakota. Six cars exploded into flames and an estimated 60,000 gallons of oil spilled.

— July 16, 2015: More than 20 cars from a 108-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe oil train derailed east of Culbertson, Montana, spilling an estimated 35,000 gallons of oil. __ Nov. 7, 2015: More than a dozen cars loaded with crude oil derail from a Canadian Pacific Railway train prompting the evacuation of dozens of homes near Watertown, Wisconsin.

— June 3, 2016: A Union Pacific train hauling crude oil derails in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, sparking a large fire.

Associated Press Writers Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; Steven Dubois in Portland, Oregon, Lisa Baumann in Seattle and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix contributed to this report.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Who Really Benefits from Pipelines like Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Anyways?

May 20, 2016 “Oil to tidewater.”

It’s an industry mantra happily adopted by politicians — and even some environmentalists. But ask yourself this: what happens when you pump more product into an oversupplied market? Answer: the price goes down.

Who benefits from cheaper crude oil? First, the customers — like China’s state-run heavy oil refineries. And later, competitors with lower overhead, like Saudi Arabia.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels You’ve probably heard these twin arguments before: Canada’s oil would fetch ‘global prices,’ if only it could access ‘tidewater.’

If we approve pipelines to the coast, the ensuing bonanza will make us all rich.

Let’s address each of these political talking points in turn.

What’s the ‘Global Price?'

The first thing to remember is that pipelines don’t magically add value to crude oil. What they do is reduce transportation costs from point A to point B, allowing the seller to pocket a few extra dollars per barrel.

The real problem for Canadian oilsands producers is that prices all over the world are low. If oil is selling for $45 and it costs you $46 to dig up a barrel of oil, no pipeline can fix that.

Worse, we’re talking about heavy oilsands bitumen, which is worth even less than the global “price of oil” you see quoted in the newspaper.

That’s because oilsands crude is heavy, sticky and high in sulfur, which means you need more lube to get it through pipelines and special refineries to turn it into gasoline.

Most refineries in Canada are not set up to chew through heavy oilsands bitumen. It would be like trying to fuel up your grocery getter with creosote: bad idea. So we export this low-value crude, mostly to the United States, while importing lighter crude and fuel products.

For a real comparison, we have to look at another sea-traded heavy crude. Mexico has a blend comparable to oilsands bitumen called “Maya.” The Alberta finance department tracks the average price spread between the two in a graph they update every month.

Canada is the blue line. We’re chasing the green line: What would happen if oilsands producers hit their expansion targets, and put all that heavy crude on tankers?

The current oil price slump, which you can see started in summer 2014, was triggered by an oversupply of global markets. Oil producers were pumping out about two million barrels per day more than people needed.

Hang on. Enbridge Northern Gateway is designed to carry 525,000 barrels per day. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion would carry 890,000. And Energy East would carry a whopping 1.1 million barrels per day.

“We’re in favour of all pipelines, to be honest,” Alberta energy minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd told the Edmonton Journal in April. “We see the need for more than one pipeline, and what helps one will help another.”

If the Alberta government could wave its magic pipeline wand and build all three of these projects, 2.5 million barrels of heavy crude would flood overseas refineries. With demand growth slowing, this would put downward pressure on prices.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Who Would Benefit?

Subtract the corporate welfare our governments give to oil companies, the billions in damage caused by climate change and the public cost of oil spills. Imagine for a minute the oil companies get their way and sell a whole bunch of crude in Asia at rock-bottom prices. Who benefits?

Not British Columbians, that’s for sure. We get no royalties and not even a guarantee of temporary construction jobs.

The federal government might at least break even, by collecting more income tax from oil workers.

The Alberta government has given itself no other choice. With no sales tax and an electorate hostile to tax in general, Albertan politicians depend on whatever oil royalties they can get to pay for social services.

The real winners would be the state-owned refineries in China, which would get a reliable supply of cheap feedstock. That’s why the government in Beijing has been pushing for these pipelines for 10 long years. And sourcing that crude from Canada would come with a strategic geopolitical bonus.

Dire Straits With 21.1 million passenger vehicles sold last year and the world’s largest active military, China goes through a lot of oil: 11 million barrels a day.

The majority of that is imported through two geographic choke points: the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca. That makes China’s rulers nervous, which is why they’re expanding overland oil and gas pipelines — and looking to Canada as a future supplier.

U.S. Department of Defense

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels We could help ease China’s reliance on those contested shipping lanes, but it appears increasingly doubtful prices will climb again to the levels that had oil producers rubbing their hands at the prospect of West Coast exports.

In 2012, the pro-pipeline Fraser Institute predicted the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline would allow oil producers to make an extra $2.50 more per barrel than if they sold in the U.S. Yes, that’s the pot of gold at the end of the “tidewater” rainbow: a toonie and two quarters per barrel.

Since then the pace of growth in China has slowed while global oil supply has expanded — thanks in part to fracking technology. More worrisome, from the perspective of Canadian oil companies, is the strategic shift by Saudi Arabia.

The End of the Oil Age “The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” That prophecy came from the Saudi oil minister, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, in 1973.

In February 2016, Yamani’s successor took the idea a step further. Ali al-Naimi told a crowd of oil executives in Texas why, despite low prices, his country refused to turn off the taps: “We’re going to let everybody compete.” Addressing investors in high-cost deposits like the oilsands, al-Naimi said “inefficient, uneconomic producers will have to get out.”

The Saudi regime slaughters its own citizens and harbours religious extremists. It is, by all metrics, repressive, brutal and corrupt. But when it comes to the realpolitik of oil markets, the Saudis have an advantage. They can pump it out of the ground cheaper than anyone else.

With climate treaties coming and electric transport set to cut into oil demand, the Kingdom is not counting on the return of $100 prices. Instead, it’s planning to crank up production even further, to wring every last drop out of the sand before the rest gets locked underground forever.

What’s becoming clear is that Canada is pursuing the same strategy, despite having a product that costs more to dig up and sells for less.

Under relentless pressure from oil lobbyists, politicians of all ideological stripes have accepted the industry’s logic: just pump more crude and pray for higher prices.

Let’s get real. These pipelines are not nation-building projects. They are catheters designed to drain a giant pool of carbon as cheaply as possible, so oilsands companies can keep the lights on for a few more years.

The irony is that flooding the market with cheap crude would make it less likely for prices to recover.

That’s fine for the Saudis, who are happy to compete in a low-price environment. But it’s a poor longterm strategy for Canadians.

Approving Enbridge or Kinder Morgan’s oil tanker terminals will lay the path for a furious final expansion of the oilsands, before creditors stop lending money and the heavy-oil producers start going bankrupt.

We can’t change the end-times mindset of the global oil industry. But we can give our politicians a reality check.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Evidence of Fish Farm Disease Detected in BC Government backs down from court appeal based on 'new information.'

May 23, 2016 Evidence of a heart disease that has devastated commercial fish farms in Norway has been detected in British Columbia.

The Strategic Salmon Health Initiative announced last week that it detected a "potential" Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) in farmed Atlantic salmon samples collected from one B.C. fish farm located on the Johnstone Strait between 2013 and 2014.

The disease, which is not considered a health hazard for humans, did not kill the farmed Atlantic salmon. But the costly bane of Norway's industry would not have been detected if scientists had not been able to follow the life cycle of farm fish from smolts to harvest.

"We don't how common or distributed the disease might be," said Kristi Miller, a molecular biologist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who has been studying salmon health for 23 years.

Although two top fish disease experts confirmed the diagnosis, DFO researchers did not explain why the press release described the cases as a "potential" finding other than the fact that it did not cause any fish deaths.

HSMI first emerged in Norwegian fish farms around 1999.

Ten years later, it expanded geographically and accounted for 150 costly disease outbreaks a year with significant mortality on fish farms. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority made HSMI a reportable disease in 2008. It is not yet a reportable disease in Canada.

The 2015 annual report of Marine Harvest, one of the world's largest seafood companies, rates HSMI as the number three cause of mortality in its fish farms, which operate in Norway, Chile, Scotland, Ireland and British Columbia.

But until now, HSMI had not been detected in any B.C. fish farms or wild fish, although the virus associated with the disease is now common in penned Atlantic salmon and wild fish near fish farms.

According to scientific studies, the movement of infected fish from hatcheries to open nets appears to be one way that HSMI can spread to new locations. Lesions on the heart generally appear five to nine months after smolts have been placed in ocean pens.

Nobody knows what risk the disease may pose to wild salmon migrating by fish farms.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels "We can't comment on the risk to wild salmon yet. We are not there yet with the study," said Brian Riddell of the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

Although no HSMI has yet been found in wild salmon, it is unlikely a sockeye or chum made lethargic by the disease would survive long enough in the wild to be captured and tested.

Huge changes on the survival and growth of young wild salmon have been observed in B.C.'s southern waters, and many citizens and experts suspect that fish farms, climate and other environmental issues may all be having an impact.

The Strategic Salmon Health Initiative is a unique scientific collaboration between the DFO, the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Genome British Columbia.

The researchers have collected samples from 26,0000 fish and will now use state-of-the-art disease detection equipment to test them for 45 different microbes that can affect wild and farmed fish in Canadian waters.

'No consensus': salmon farmers In a statement on the DFO findings, the BC Salmon Farmers Association said "there is no consensus amongst the scientific community about the finding as the fish sampled in this farm showed no clinical signs of disease."

Yet the disclosure has already had an impact on the federal government.

Last week, the DFO backed away from a Federal Court of Appeal case that could make it legal for companies to transfer diseased farmed fish into open-net pens located near migrating wild salmon on B.C.'s coast. The DFO supported the appeal.

But now the DFO has asked and secured a five-month adjournment on the case, which involves B.C. biologist Alexandra Morton. Morton was one of the first researchers to raise concerns about the spread of diseases from fish farms to wild salmon.

The abrupt request, which officials said was due to "new information," reversed the government's earlier attempt to fast-track the appeal through the courts.

The Harper-era case concerns the legalities of transferring fish carrying known or unknown pathogens from freshwater hatcheries to marine pens for farmed fish, and the risks those diseases might pose to wild salmon.

It is well known that fish farms, just like any large feedlot, provide opportunities for the viral transmission of disease due to crowding of susceptible hosts in a small area.

The move took Morton by surprise. "The Harper government would never have backed down like this. I'm very encouraged and do applaud the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the adjournment," she told The Tyee. "I'm actually baffled. I've never seen a government behave like this."

Morton added that she's "not sure if the government responded to public pressure or if they responded to the science, but there is an enormous amount of both. This is a very positive move."

In the last month more than 15,000 Canadians have sent messages to Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo to reconsider the government's position on the case, which was due to be heard on May 26.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels 'New information' Steven Postman, a federal justice lawyer, secured the postponement by informing the federal appeals court that "new information relating to matters raised on the appeals has come to the DFO's attention."

Postman added that the department "needs time to complete the analysis and determine if this information impacts its position on the appeals. The other parties may also want to consider whether their positions are impacted. DFO is conducting a preliminary review of the information and will provide it to the parties in the coming weeks."

That "new information" turned out to be the disease findings made by the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative study.

The appeal aims to overturn a Federal Court ruling last May that DFO must uphold the Fisheries Act and not allow the transfer of diseased Atlantic fish into netted pens in the Pacific Ocean.

The ruling also tasked the department with applying the precautionary principle, given the ease with which viral diseases can spread in the ocean.

The court gave DFO until September 2015 to revise and review licences granted to Marine Harvest and its 70 fish farming operations along Vancouver Island.

Instead, the Harper government and Marine Harvest appealed the decision on the grounds that the judge erred in law and that his decision was "unreasonable."

Marine Harvest, a Norwegian-based multinational, raises nearly one-fifth of the world's farmed salmon in Chile, Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Canada.

If the government eventually drops its appeal and the original decision stands, "and corporations can no longer use infected fish, the whole industry will have to change," Morton said.

Virus at heart of case The heart of the case concerns the piscine reovirus (PRV), a pathogen associated with the HSMI disease that now plagues farmed salmon in Norway. HSMI impairs a salmon's ability to swim.

The virus was first reported to authorities in B.C. in 2010 after the intensification of fish farming along the B.C. coast.

According to the Journal of Fish Diseases, approximately 80 per cent of farmed fish now test positive for PRV, while an increasing number of wild fish also test positive especially along migration routes near fish farms.

A spokesman for Marine Harvest offered no comment on the case other than highlighting a 2015 press release on the appeal.

It states that, "the fish disease known as Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation has never been detected in Canada, despite extensive testing of farm-raised and wild salmon. In addition, the piscine reovirus is known to be a relatively common and benign fish virus that existed in B.C. before salmon farming."

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels However, the company did respond to the latest finding by noting in a press release that "to date, samples of Marine Harvest Canada's farm-raised Atlantic salmon have been found negative for HSMI." Morton, an independent biologist who lives on Malcolm Island, has long argued that the scientific evidence shows a connection between the disease in Norwegian-owned fish farms and the decline in wild salmon.

She sought a judicial review of the matter in 2013 after she discovered that smolts raised at a Marine Harvest hatchery near Sayward had tested positive for PRV. After being delivered to a corporate fish farm off Port Hardy, the fish remained positive for the virus.

She also argued that federal scientists had not done appropriate studies to gauge the potential risk of loading or exposing wild salmon to a "virus we know so little about."

Although the DFO scientists noted that "any role of PRV in the development of HSMI remains unclear," Norwegian pathologists and veterinarians commonly describe it as the central virus associated with significant and serious HSMI disease in Norway's fish farms.

Since 2008, Morton has raised concerns about the impact of industrial fish farms on wild salmon and ocean waters, including sea lice and disease exchanges in the Broughton Archipelago Musgamagw Dzawada'enuxw Territory, an area with the highest density of fish farms in B.C. Justice Bruce Cohen's $37-million inquiry on the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River recommended in 2012 that the DFO no longer promote fish farms.

Cohen also suggested that the DFO should make maintaining the health of wild salmon its first priority. The former Conservative government did not implement many of Cohen's recommendations.

The clustering of high-density animal feeding operations, whether on land or the sea to raise industrial quantities of protein (everything from pork to shrimp) can amplify bacterial and viral evolution and depress animal immune systems.

Recent studies show that these industrial facilities can generate many different pathways for diseases and parasites to move from crowded feedlots to wild animals. In recent years as fish and shrimp farms have expanded and intensified, explosive epidemics of emerging diseases have saddled the industry with dramatic economic losses.

These outbreaks have also threatened valuable stocks of wild fish and other ocean-going animals.

The Strategic Salmon Health Initiative has now added to the evidence of how that may be happening in British Columbia.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Opinion

Jim Appleton, Mosier fire chief, speaks Saturday, June 4, 2016, following the derailment of an oil train in his town near Hood River Friday.

Mosier Fire Chief Calls Shipping Bakken Crude Oil By Rail 'Insane' June 4. 2016 Jim Appleton, the fire chief in Mosier, Ore., said in the past, he’s tried to reassure his town that the Union Pacific Railroad has a great safety record and that rail accidents are rare.

He’s changed his mind.

After a long night working with hazardous material teams and firefighters from across the Northwest to extinguish a fire that started when a train carrying Bakken crude derailed in his town, Appleton no longer believes shipping oil by rail is safe.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels “I hope that this becomes death knell for this mode of shipping this cargo. I think it’s insane,” he said.

“I’ve been very hesitant to take a side up to now, but with this incident, and with all due respect to the wonderful people that I’ve met at Union Pacific, shareholder value doesn’t outweigh the lives and happiness of our community.”

Federal regulators say oil from the Bakken region is more flammable and more dangerous, than other types of crude. It’s been involved in a string of rail disasters, including a tragedy that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

Shipments through the Columbia River Gorge have dramatically increased in recent years and oil companies have proposed building the largest oil-by-rail terminal in the country 70 miles downstream from Mosier, at the Port of Vancouver.

Emergency responders in communities along rail lines in the Northwest have struggled to prepare for a possible disaster. Much of the focus has been on stockpiling critical equipment needed to fight oil spills and fires, including a special type of fire suppression foam.

But Appleton said that foam was of relatively little use for the first 10 hours after the spill in Mosier. It couldn’t be directly applied to the main rail car that was on fire.

“The rationale that was explained to me by the Union Pacific fire personnel is that the metal is too hot, and the foam will land on the white-hot metal and evaporate without any suppression effect,” he said. “That was kind of an eye-opener for me.”

Appleton said crews spent 8 to 10 hours cooling down the adjacent rail cars with water before the final burning car was cool enough to be extinguished using the firefighting foam. Fire tending trucks drew water from the Columbia River using a nearby orchard supply line, and applied roughly 1,500 gallons of water per minute to the white-hot rail cars.

Other first responders described a chaotic scene, and difficulty getting to the site of the accident due to a massive snarl of traffic on Interstate 84.

“It looked like the apocalypse,” said Elizabeth Sanchey, the Yakima Nation’s environmental manager and the head of its hazmat crew. “You get into town, and there is just exhausted firefighters everywhere you look. It was quite scary.”

Emergency crews on Saturday, June 4, 2016, found an oil sheen on the bank of the Columbia River near the site of an oil train derailment and spill in Mosier, Ore., the day prior.

Amelia Templeton/OPB No lives were lost in the fire, and reports so far of property damage have been minimal, but an oil slick has appeared in the Columbia River, and officials said they haven’t determined for sure how oil is reaching the water. Yellow oil containment booms were stretched across the river to contain the oil.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Sanchey and several other Yakama Nation first responders were monitoring the containment effort through binoculars from a nearby overpass.

“It’s unknown how much oil is in the river, but it is in containment now, and we believe it to be relatively safe,” she said. “We currently have a sockeye run that is just starting, and lamprey live in the sediment, so that’s definitely a concern. We have endangered species at risk.”

Jim Appleton said Friday was a horrible day for his town, and he feels like he narrowly avoided a catastrophe.

“If the same derailment had happened just 24 hours earlier, there would have been 35 mph gusts blowing the length of the train,” he said. “The fire very easily could have spread to some or all of the 96 cars behind, because they were in the line of the prevailing wind. That would have been the catastrophe.”

Crews subdued the fire from the oil train derailment in Mosier, Ore., by the morning of Saturday, June 4, 2016. Cleanup on the oil spill and charred rail cars continued into the weekend.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels In a press conference Saturday, the Union Pacific Railroad apologized for the incident.

“We apologize to the residents of Mosier, the state of Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest Region,” said spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza.

Espinoza said the railroad company will pay for the cost of fighting the fire. She said it has to wait for the area to cool down before it can extract the cars that remain and remove them by flatbed truck.

The company said crude oil represents less than 1 percent of its cargo, and said it has trained more than 2,300 emergency responders across Oregon since 2010.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Makah tribal fishing boat Garda Marie waits for a slot to open at the Makah Marina to unload its halibut catch in March 2015

The ocean sustains our life; it’s time to protect it The amount of carbon being absorbed by our oceans threatens the delicate food chain, affecting all of us.

June 7, 2016 DAWN approaches during a final drift in his canoe, the last of the day and the mothership will be full.

The young boy notices a heavy fog setting in at Swiftsure Bank as the bow of his canoe disappears from sight. Yet he drops his line and chibood (halibut hook) just as he has done many times before.

Soon the canoe is full and the fog remains heavy. The other canoes and mothership are out of sight and out of hearing. It’s peacefully quiet. Many hours pass as the canoe drifts along the paths of currents and tides, until finally a vessel passes by and gives tow to the young boy and his catch. He pulls up his last line.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels This story was told many times to me by my father, Phil Greene. Fast forward in time: I’m a young boy on those same waters my father fished at my age. I’m green about the gills. How did my father endure the same experience from only a canoe? Through time and many nauseous episodes over the rail, I became part of the ocean environment upon which my people depend.

The ocean provides all things to Native coastal communities, especially the Makah people. Glacialfed rivers are limited in our territory, thus returning salmon are not our staple. Instead, marine mammals and halibut make up the bulk of our traditional diet, wealth and economy. Today, we harvest more than 20 species of fish from our marine waters. It’s the largest treaty harvest in the nation, yet we are accessing less of our reserved resources than we did at the time of the Treaty of Neah Bay (in 1855).

Our spiritual connection to the ocean defines our culture. The beautiful song, dance and artwork that is produced by our people would not be possible without this connection. If that connection is broken and the ocean becomes too unhealthy to sustain our communities, then our culture will fade and die.

For this reason, we are taught to love, respect and care for the waters that provide us with a rich and diverse quality of life. The health of our ocean is impacted by the health of our watersheds that flow into it, and the migratory species of salmon and other fish depend on both environments for its survival.

Wednesday (June 8) is World Oceans Day. What is the state of our ocean?

The lives and cultures of the great Pacific Northwest, including our fragile Native American societies, are under immense pressure from the changing ocean chemistry and water quality. The amount of carbon being absorbed by our oceans threatens the delicate food chain, affecting all of us.

The health of our watersheds is also of great concern. Storm runoff is the biggest threat to Puget Sound and coastal estuaries. We need sustainable land-use practices that will protect our watersheds from this pollution.

The recent disastrous coho salmon returns could be a result of these changes in the ocean environment, with temperatures as much as 3 degrees Celsius warmer over large areas of the northern Pacific Ocean. The small returns that have occurred are also threatened by our actions within these watersheds.

Increased shipping traffic in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca brings additional risks.

Understanding the size, frequency and content of every vessel transiting our shared waterways in coordination with appropriate response and protection measures are essential to defend this ecosystem from accidental catastrophe.

Science and policy must come together to tackle these complicated issues. No longer can we isolate the agencies that exercise authority on the ocean. We have to work across borders and jurisdictions to preserve our way of life for future generations.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels A number of forums are working to meet this challenge. The West Coast Ocean Partnership is working to bring the region from California to Washington together. Additionally, several representatives from Washington state sit on the National Ocean Council’s governance coordinating committee. This high-level participation from our region is essential to informing the federal government of our current challenges related to our changing climate.

The great people of the Pacific Northwest have always filled leadership roles on resource management and environmental issues. The diverse structures of our economy, culture and demographics contribute to innovative and inclusive thought, bringing forth meaningful solutions that secure these resources for future generations.

My oldest son derives his livelihood from the ocean, and one day when my 1½-year-old grandson is ready, I’ll take him to the same waters his ancestors fished for millennia and share with him the story of a young boy hand-lining halibut from a small cedar canoe.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Independent fish researcher Alexandra Morton is a long-time detractor of ocean-farmed salmon

Opinion: Save our salmon — get diseased fish out of Pacific Ocean June 17, 2016 The government recently made an announcement that could critically impact wild salmon: Atlantic salmon on at least one farm off the B.C. coast have a serious disease called Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI).

As a biologist who has spent decades studying the impact of salmon farms on Pacific wild salmon, I was relieved when this news finally broke. While the presence of HSMI is not something to celebrate, the government’s announcement confirmed my concerns.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels On the one hand, I applaud the new federal government for listening to the science and publicizing these findings. On the other hand, this troubling admission emphasizes the urgent need to get salmon farms out of our ocean.

Wild salmon are vital to British Columbia. They are an important part of First Nations’ economy, diet and culture. They fuel a billion-dollar wilderness tourism industry, feed coastal towns, and supply commercial and recreational salmon fisheries. The orca depend on wild salmon. And these important fish carry essential nutrients deep into the forests, which take in carbon and release the oxygen we all breathe.

Scientific evidence suggests that HSMI — the disease scientists have found in farmed salmon — poses a serious threat to wild populations.

HSMI causes severe lethargy, ultimately robbing salmon of their ability to feed, swim upstream and spawn, and rendering them helpless against predators. In farmed fish, HSMI is not necessarily fatal.

But it could be a death sentence for wild salmon. HSMI is a heart disease and wild salmon have to be supreme athletes to make a living.

When I first discovered Piscine reovirus (PRV) — the virus believed to cause HSMI — in B.C. farmed salmon, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the B.C. government were adamant the virus was harmless. In fact, when lawyers from Ecojustice helped me take the department to Federal Court over its aquaculture licensing practices, the DFO insisted PRV did not threaten wild salmon.

The court ruled in my favour, and ordered the DFO to stop granting licences that allowed companies to transfer disease-carrying fish into open-net pens in the ocean. The government appealed this decision, and we were set to return to court on May 26, 2016, when the DFO suddenly asked to delay the hearing.

Then, it released its shocking HSMI announcement.

To see this government acknowledge that HSMI is in B.C. and adjourn their appeal, suggests a significant shift in Ottawa. After 30 years of dealing with this issue, this is the first time I’ve seen real progress. But now that we all agree HSMI is in B.C. waters, it’s time to take action.

We must remove diseased salmon from open-net pens in the Pacific Ocean — before it is too late.

PRV is highly contagious. In Norway, where scientists first observed PRV and HSMI, the virus has spread rapidly, affecting nearly every farmed fish in the region.

Salmon farms line B.C.’s biggest salmon migration routes, and while the science on HSMI is still developing, we cannot risk the consequences of widespread heart disease in wild salmon. When I took the DFO to court, the judge agreed, ruling “… complete scientific certainty should not be used as a basis for avoiding or postponing measures to protect the environment.”

Now, I’m calling on the federal government to drop its appeal in our aquaculture case and to get down to the important business of getting diseased fish out of our oceans.

In practice, this might mean honouring First Nations rights by giving indigenous peoples authority to oversee sampling of farmed salmon for HSMI and PRV. It should also mean that the government requires a clean bill of health for any farmed fish transferred into or through First Nation’ territory.

On a larger scale, we need to overhaul the way we think about the salmon farming industry. In light of the discovery of HSMI in B.C. waters, the government needs to look at alternative aquaculture methods, such as the land-based fish farming that Canadians are currently pioneering.

The government’s HSMI announcement sheds light on the threats facing wild salmon. Now it’s time to do something about it. We have new and powerful tools to restore Pacific wild salmon to the benefit of our economy, our ecology and our children. It is time to use them to save our salmon.

Alexandra Morton is an independent biologist who has spent decades fighting against ocean-farmed salmon.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Why You Need Wild Salmon (And Why It's Running Out) June 9, 2016 How much do you value your nutritional health? A little ... or a lot?

What if it was taken away from you? How much would you care then?

In other words, should your right to dine on inexpensive, store-bought wild salmon be worth defending?

I'm talking about a great Canadian dietary delicacy -- something that's particular prized these days because it's a protein that's super-lean, heart-healthy, drug-free, and antioxidant-rich.

Here's the problem: Supplies are running out. But it doesn't have to be this way. (More on this in a moment.)

Climate change is playing a role in this looming extinction. But that's not the only culprit. In fact, the biggest threat may be another man-made problem that should be much easier to solve. In a moment, I'll explain how you can be part of the solution.

Meanwhile, the gradual killing-off of wild Canadian salmon populations is having a devastating impact all the way up the food chain. Bears, eagles, wolves and orcas are just several iconic species that can go hungry - or even starve to death -- when there aren't enough salmon returning to spawning grounds.

It a terrible loss for people, too, because salmon is arguably the leanest and most nutritious kind of protein available to humankind.

Truth be told, there's a grim life or death struggle taking place in the Pacific Northwest, where most of Canada's salmon lives. Mounting scientific research paints a disturbing picture: Farmed salmon are threatening the very survival of their wild counterparts.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels More specifically, they've exposed them to devastatingly lethal exotic diseases and equally deadly concentrations of parasitic lice that originate on salmon farms.

In recent years, tens of millions of wild salmon have died as a result of being exposed to this doublebarreled onslaught, according to critics of the salmon farming industry. (This will be the focus of an upcoming blog entitled Why The Salmon You Eat Shouldn't Do Drugs.)

But you can stand up for wild salmon simply by saying "No" to farmed salmon. If you do, you'll be joining the many millions of consumers who already refuse to support this controversial, scandaltainted aquaculture industry.

So how exactly would you personally lose out if the all-natural kind of salmon is eventually wiped out forever? Let me list the ways.

First of all, you'd lose out if you expect the salmon fillet you're barbecuing for dinner to be as nutrientpacked as Mother Nature intended it to be. Because it won't be if it's farmed.

You'd also lose out if you don't want your baked or seared fillet to be streaked with comparatively wide bands of fat. Because wild salmon is much leaner and heart-healthy than the farmed kind.

In fact, it contains up to 200% less saturated fat, and has higher amounts of brain-protecting essential fatty acids (including omega-3s which have powerful anti-inflammatory properties.)

You'd lose out yet again if the salmon sashimi you're enjoying at your favorite Japanese restaurant is the farmed variety. Because it'll likely contain far higher levels of potentially cancer-causing chemicals (including PCBs) than are found in wild salmon.

Finally, you'll lose out if you don't want to be associated with fish that do lots of drugs. Truth be told, farmed salmon swim around all day in a chemical stew (saturated with powerful antibiotics) within the confines of their aquatic cages. Which is where they're raised for the dinner table.

What's most contentious is the potential presence of antibiotic residues in the farmed salmon that may be on your dinner plate. In fact, the medical and scientific communities have become increasingly vocal in recent years about the health threats posed by antibiotic residues in livestock meat and fish.

They say this common form of dietary contamination poses a terrible threat: It may reduce or even negate the effectiveness of certain infection-fighting antibiotics that one day may be needed to save your life.

Now you know why the survival of wild Pacific salmon is so important to millions of health-conscious consumers, including the likes of you and me.

So do yourself and your family a favour -- eat wild salmon. It's not just a delicious and extraordinarily nutritious dinner choice. It's also a socially-conscious and environmentally-friendly gesture that shows you care about doing what's right.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Community Activism, Education and Outreach

Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Rally: Protect Wild Salmon Abbotsford, BC

Editorial Comment: One of many grocery stores still selling Atlantic salmon raised in ocean-based salmon feedlots sited in fragile wild salmon migration routes within British Columbia’s precious and productive marine ecosystems.

This madness must end.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

2016 Wild Salmon Caravan, British Columbia

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

OLYMPIA CHAPTER OF TROUT UNLIMITED JUNE 22, 2016, 7:00PM NORTH OLYMPIA FIRE STATION 5046 BOSTON HARBOR ROAD NE CAN FLYFISHING HEAL?

Seamwater file photo

Seamwater file photo

Program: The public is invited to the 7:00pm June 22, 2016 meeting of the Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a presentation on “Can Fly Fishing Heal?”. The guest speaker is Trevor Brearty, founder of Seamwater, a fly fishing and fly tying learning platform that serves to help behavioral growth and bring inner power and peace to participants. Seamwater’s focus is using fly tying to bring the healing power of the sport to those who need to find ways to improve their current life. When Trevor retuned from Iraq, he struggled with depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. He found that fly fishing brought the needed peace that fly fishing offered as a crucial element to his recovery. Seamwater helps people of all ages who are fighting a need to learn the deep rewards and inner peace that comes from time through fly fishing. Seamwater offers a wide variety of instructional classes aimed at everyone from total novice to seasoned veterans. Fly tying is a core piece to Seamwater’s offering. Fly Tying classes provide participants with the equipment, training, and know-how to tie their first flies – flies they can then use to catch fish. Seamwater helps people of all ages and backgrounds who are fighting a need to learn the deep rewards and inner peace from fly fishing.

Please Visit Seamwater.com for more Information about how you can sign up for the program.

Refreshments will be served and a fishing equipment raffle will be conducted following the presentation.

Bio: Trevor Brearty is a visionary and entrepreneur who's "purpose" is focused on helping all people see the benefits of finding peace in a chaotic world. Part of this "purpose" involves bringing an awareness to the general public of the rewards learning to fly fish can produce. As a past Veteran who experienced the effects of war and the struggles of drug abuse. Trevor knows firsthand how important it is to find lasting peace in order to balance a stressful life. Trevor seeks no undue honor or praise for his endeavors, but works hard to maintain a humble attitude and a self-sacrificing spirit.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Harvest

Chinese boats banded together with ropes, after alleged illegal fishing in South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea off the southwestern coast county of Buan. The picture was taken on 16 November, 2011.

Tens of countries sign up to shut pirate fishers out of their ports The first of its kind, a new international treaty obliges signatories to intercept pirate fishers before they can sell their catch May 23, 2016 In March, the Argentinean coast guard shot at and sank a Chinese vessel that was alleged to be fishing illegally in Argentinean waters (the crew were all rescued). While it’s unclear whether the boat was committing crime, the incident showed that the tension surrounding pirate fishing is reaching a peak, marked elsewhere by increasing conflict, and the detainment and scuttling of illegal fishing fleets. But for pirate fishers, the financial gains appear to be worth these risks.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels Illegal fishing vessels siphon off up to 26 million tons of illegally caught fish each year, which amounts to over $23bn (£16bn) in profit. This not only deprives legitimate fishers of their catch, but as it’s an unregulated practice, it also undermines the stability of fisheries stocks around the world. Illegal fishing also has a hand in driving already threatened species closer to extinction—like the criticallyendangered vaquita, the world’s smallest porpoise, whose fate is rapidly being worsened by illegal fishers in Mexico who tangle and drown the small, protected mammals in their gill nets.

The only common ground illegal fishing vessels share with ordinary fishing boats is their dependence on ports, where they dock with their catch so they can bring it to market. If they can’t take refuge in one port, they may try their luck at the next one, assuming they’ll always have some place else to go with their illicit fish.

But a momentous new treaty, led by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), aims to shut down this convenient network. Known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), the treaty, which comes into full force on 5 June, requires signatory countries to inspect or stop suspicious fishing vessels from entering their ports. Under the banner of the rule, countries that have signed now hold a legal obligation to, quite literally, leave illegal fishers out in the cold.

Over the past several years, the effort to get the treaty ratified has been quietly ticking away in the background, as countries have been slowly adding their names to the list of signatories. Recently, a spate of newcomers—Gambia, Sudan, Thailand, and Tonga among them—pushed the number above the 25 required to bring the treaty into force. And last week it reached 30 signatories, a total that includes the United States, and the European Union, which counts as one entity.

The PSMA completely changes the focus of enforcement. Whereas in the past, the battle against pirate fishing has been fought predominantly on the waves, requiring huge resources, manpower, and time to track mostly elusive pirate fishers, this new rule turns ports into the first line of defence.

“You’re really just waiting for the vessels to come to you,” says Lori Curtis, who is part of the FAO fisheries team working on the new agreement. “It is novel in that it targets the ports. And it targets illegal fishers by focusing on the element that they have to use to bring their catch to market,” adds Tony Long, director of the Ending Illegal Fishing project for the Pew Charitable Trusts. “It really does pull the net quite tight around the activity.”

The treaty is unprecedented, Long adds, because it’s the only international agreement so far that tackles illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. On the ground, it will work by imposing several measures. Firstly, incoming vessels will have to request permission to enter a port before docking, and be willing to provide information like the vessel number, and if it’s a fishing boat, the catch on board, and whether they plan to land it.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels If the boat’s behaviour or its records throw up any red flags, countries can choose to block it, Curtis explains. “If they simply deny them entry, then it’s just like closing the door on that port.”. This applies not just to dodgy fisheries vessels, but extends to boats suspected of supplying illegal fishing crews with fuel, or vessels that transfer fish between boats without authorisation.

Countries already hold a sovereign right to refuse entry to their ports; this new treaty obliges them to not only enforce that but also to share information about illegal vessels with other countries, so that law-breaking boats struggle to seek safe harbour elsewhere.

This concept isn’t new: it already has practitioners on the ground—and they’re proving it can work. In the waters of southeast Africa, countries have joined forces to create FISH-I Africa, a group of eight coastal nations that track suspicious vessels and exchange information about their activities in realtime, motivated by the astonishing fact that one in four fish caught in African waters is pilfered by pirate fishers.

Since it was formed in 2012, the network has stopped a number of illegal multinational vessels from docking in African ports. In just the first two years of its existence, FISH-I Africa got illegal vessels to pay almost $3m in fines for their infringements.

The hope is for the PSMA to expand on successes like this, and elevate these efforts to a global scale. The treaty is legally binding, but currently, there’s no mechanism in place to force the 30 signatories to carry out its measures—though countries will be meeting at intervals to review enforcement amongst members. In any case, Long and Curtis both think the economic benefits of stopping pirate fishers will generate significant pressure to comply.

With big markets like the EU and he US involved in the treaty, signatory states may feel obliged to uphold it in the interests of trade, Curtis says. “You don’t want to be the port that is known for all the illegal vessels going there.”

It also opens up an avenue for increasing the traceability of seafood, enabling the flagging of products that come from unregulated ports, and prioritizing those that originate from monitored sources.

“Retailers and suppliers are now more interested in the provenance of their fish,” says Long—a reality that will create more motivation to abide by the rule.

But for global fisheries to experience the wide-ranging benefits of the new ruling, the treaty first needs to gather more signatories. Curtis is hopeful: the FAO has received more requests from countries wanting to become signatories, and governments are being lobbied to put the measures in place that will enable them to sign on, she says. The more countries weigh in, the more difficult that network of ports will be to exploit, and the more frequently illegal vessels will be left to bob on the waves with their unmarketable catch.

“From my point of view, the PSMA can form the lynchpin of the global effort to end illegal fishing,” Long adds. “Ultimately [illegal fishers] can’t land their fish, and that will make a change on the water.”

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Salmon Feedlots – Weapons of Mass Destruction, Floating Cesspools

Activists have previously claimed that they found evidence of the HSMI virus in farmed salmon bought at Vancouver grocery stores in 2012.

Deadly salmon disease found in B.C. farmed stock, federal scientists say It is not clear yet if HSMI disease in farmed Atlantic salmon could threaten B.C.'s wild salmon May 21, 2016 A feared viral disease proven deadly in Norwegian fish farms has been confirmed for the first time by federal scientists studying farmed salmon in B.C. Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) has been linked to the deaths of up to 20 per cent at some Norwegian farms.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels "The concern is that it is a disease that hasn't previously been detected in B.C. and at the present time we really don't have sufficient evidence to know if it causes mortality or is a production issue here," said Kristi Miller, part of a team of federal scientists studying farmed fish samples from sites along the B.C. coast.

Deadly salmon virus may be in B.C. waters, study suggests B.C. wild salmon campaigners claim victory over fish farm ruling Miller, head of the molecular genetics research program in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) confirmed that pathologists found lesions on salmon at one farm in Johnstone Strait, along the north-east coast of Vancouver Island.

It is unclear if wild salmon - like this Coho caught near Tofino B.C. - would be at risk from the disease detected in farmed Atlantic salmon.

The lesions indicated that the fish had HSMI, a disease found in several countries including Norway in the late 1990s, where it was linked to low levels of mortality ranging from 0-20 per cent on various farms.

A fish that has heart disease and muscle damage ... it's not going to make it up to spawn.- SFU professor Rick Routledge

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels "We know that this virus, in other parts of the world, can be observed in fresh-water origin fish and we believe we know that here in B.C. in Atlantic salmon. But in Norway, while the virus can be observed in fish in hatcheries the prevalence of the virus can become much, much higher in the marine environment," Miller said Friday.

Miller's team used cutting-edge technology and collaborated with international scientists to study 2,400 live and dying salmon from four Vancouver island fish farms from 2013-2015..

Scientists are trying to define the relationship between HSMI and a virus known as Piscine Reovirus (PRV).

This virus was first identified in farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway. It's linked to HSMI, but research is still underway to determine whether PVR causes HSMI or not.

While experts say there is no definitive proof that one causes the other, the evidence suggests that relationship.

Simon Fraser University Professor Rick Routledge said that despite the low mortality of farmed fish, HSMI could really hurt wild salmon.

"A fish that has heart disease and muscle damage ... it's not going to make it up to spawn," said Routledge.

Federal biologists have found no evidence of HSMI disease in wild salmon in B.C. Research is still in early stages, and will continue.

Cover-up!

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Video: Juvinile salmon with farm lice in Musgamaw Dzawada'enuxw Alexandra Morton: This is one of the things salmon farms do to wild salmon. Wild salmon did not suffer like this before salmon farms. This is a dead fish swimming,

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Cooke family closes deal with Icicle Seafoods June 10, 2016 The Cooke family, which owns Cooke Aquaculture, has purchased Icicle Seafoods after a year long process, according to an email sent to Undercurrent News by Nell Halse of Cooke Aquaculture.

This ends the long sale process for Icicle's private equity backers Paine and Partners. Last year, Paine thought it had sold Icicle, to interests controlled by the Indonesian business family, the Soetantyos. The deal, the prospect of which was first reported by Undercurrent News, was announced, then collapsed a few months later.

In February, Undercurrent reported Cooke's interest in buying all of Icicle.

On Monday the Cooke family, which is fast expanding into wild seafood, announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the purchase of Icicle.

The deal includes Icicle’s three business units, which harvest and process over 150,000 metric tons of seafood annually: wild salmon, groundfish and farmed Atlantic salmon.

With the acquisition of Icicle, which operates salmon farms off the west coast of the US and also wild fishing and processing assets in Alaska, the Cooke group of companies will produce over 275,000 metric tons of seafood annually and generate $1.8 billion in annual sales, according to an earlier press release.

“The Icicle team is excited about the opportunity to join the Cooke family of companies and to be able to focus on the expansion of our footprint in Alaska,” said Christopher Ruettgers, CEO of Icicle Seafoods, in a release.

“Cooke provides Icicle with a long term owner that is dedicated to the seafood industry. The partnership with Cooke also means access to capital to further modernize our platform, expand market access for the products harvested by our fleets, and a broader product offering for our customer base.”

Editorial Comment: As documented on North America’s east coast, Cooke’s takeover of Icicle’s west coast assets is an irreversible disaster in the making. Wild Pacific salmon and shellfish will be devastated.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels

Renewable Energy: Geothermal, Waves, Tidal, Solar, Wind, Hydropower Solar

Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free June 2, 2016 Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator. While that may be good for consumers, it’s bad news for companies that own power plants struggling to generate revenue and developers seeking financing for new facilities.

Chile’s increasing energy demand, pushed by booming mining production and economic growth, has helped spur development of 29 solar farms supplying the central grid, with another 15 planned.

Further north, in the heart of the mining district, even more have been built. Now, economic growth is slowing as copper output stagnates amid a global glut, energy prices are slumping and those power plants are oversupplying regions that lack transmission lines to distribute the electricity elsewhere.

“Investors are losing money,” said Rafael Mateo, chief executive officer of Acciona SA’s energy unit, which is investing $343 million in a 247-megawatt project in the region that will be one of Latin America’s largest. “Growth was disordered. You can’t have so many developers in the same place.”

A key issue is that Chile has two main power networks, the central grid and the northern grid, which aren’t connected to each other. There are also areas within the grids that lack adequate transmission capacity.

July 2016 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2016– Transitioning from Fossil Fuels That means one region can have too much power, driving down prices because the surplus can’t be delivered to other parts of the country, according to Carlos Barria, former chief of the government’s renewable-energy division and a professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago.

"Michelle Bachelet’s government has set the energy sector as a priority,” said Carlos Finat, president of the country’s renewable association, known as Acera. “But planning has been focused in the short term when it is necessary to have long term plans to solve these type of issues."

Inadequate Infrastructure The government is working to address this issue, with plans to build a 3,000-kilometer(1,865-mile) transmission line to link the two grids by 2017. It’s also developing a 753-kilometer line to address congestion on the northern parts of the central grid, the region where power surpluses are driving prices to zero.

“Chile has at least seven or eight points in the transmission lines that are collapsed and blocked, and we have an enormous challenge to bypass the choke points,” Energy Minister Maximo Pacheco said in an interview in Santiago. “When you embark on a path of growth and development like the one we’ve had, you obviously can see issues arising.”

Solar Growth Solar capacity on Chile’s central power grid, known as SIC, has more than quadrupled to 770 megawatts since 2013. Much of that comes from the grid’s northern sections, the Atacama region that’s home to the copper industry. Total installed capacity increased 5 percent in the past year, with half coming from solar farms, according to the grid operator, Cdecsic. SIC supplies power to the regions where 90 percent of the country’s residential demand is located.

The country is expected to install almost 1.4 gigawatts of solar power this year, up from 371 megawatts in 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

When power companies aren’t giving away electricity, it’s cheap. At the Diego de Almagro substation in the Atacama region, for example, prices didn’t exceed $60 a megawatt-hour for most of March.

That’s less than the $70 minimum price for companies that won long-term contracts to sell solar power in Chile’s energy auctions in October and March.

The issue may limit future development because the uncertain revenue means banks will be reluctant to finance new power plants, according to Rodrigo Violic, head of project finance at the Chilean lender Banco Bice. “It’s a big problem,” he said.

Solar ‘Surprise’ Salvatore Bernabei, head of Enel Green Power SpA’s operations in Chile, has 170 megawatts of capacity in operation and 300 megawatts under construction in the country. He wouldn’t say if his company has surplus power.

Bernabei, however, is adamant that change is needed. “The rapid development of renewables was a surprise and now we have to react quickly,” he said.

Until this is resolved, low prices will plague companies that own power plants, according to Jose Ignacio Escobar, general manager for Acciona’s Chile unit.