Legacy - September 2012

Issue 11

September 2012

L e g ac y The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation Published by volunteers at:

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Follow us on Facebook Š 2012 Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Feature: Human Health Impacts of Open Pen Salmon Feedlot Practices

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

LEGACY features wild game fish conservation projects, fishing adventures, 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. Your “Letters to the Editor” are welcome.

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

Co-editor “Legacy”

Jim Wilcox

Publisher and co-editor “Legacy”

Legacy The Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation

By Wild Game Fish Conservation International Celebrating Ten Consecutive Months of Wild Game Fish News

SalmonAreSacred.org

Legacy

Contents – Global issues Feature: Human Health Impacts of Open Pen Salmon Feedlot Practices

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Salmon Aquaculture and Transmission of the Fish Tapeworm ................................................................................ 7 Family eats HEB salmon covered in worms ................................................................................................................ 9 Just say “no” to farmed salmon ................................................................................................................................. 10 Woman talks about her allergic reaction to antibiotics in Farmed Salmon ........................................................... 13 Diabetes study suggests link to viruses and toxins ................................................................................................. 14 Dead-fish-like smell raises stink ................................................................................................................................. 15 n–3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with Dysglycemia ..................................................... 16 Salmon Aquaculture and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Marine Environment .................................................. 17 Selections from: The role of persistent organic pollutants in the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the possible connection to Farmed Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar). (Altern Med Rev 2011;16(4):301-313) ...................................................................................................................................................... 18  First-Ever U.S. Tests of Farmed Salmon Show High Levels of Cancer-Causing PCBs ........................................ 20  First Global Study Reveals Health Risks of Widely Eaten Farm Raised Salmon .................................................. 21

Planet Earth       

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Sustainable Floodplains Through Large-Scale Reconnection to Rivers ............................................................... 23 Enjoy wild Pacific salmon dinners at these restaurants: ......................................................................................... 24 Say NO to Farmed Salmon .......................................................................................................................................... 25 Sign petition here: COSTCO, Safeway & Loblaws: Please stop selling diseased farm salmon! ......................... 27 NWF: Risk of coal exports outweigh gains ................................................................................................................ 28 “Pants on Fire” Recognition: Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture .............................................................. 29 How Tar Sands Extraction Is Destroying the Planet and What you can do to Stop it ........................................... 30

Contents – National and local issues Canada

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Chile

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 Canadians are saying no to tar sands pipelines: risks outweigh the benefits ...................................................... 31  Canada needs energy diversity: federal documents ................................................................................................ 32  J'Accuse!...Fish Farmers and Our Governments ...................................................................................................... 33 British Columbia ........................................................................................................................................................................ 34  Christy Clark toughens pipeline stance as Enbridge announces safety upgrades .............................................. 34  First Nations outraged by Clark's Enbridge pipeline 'sales pitch' .......................................................................... 35  Enbridge stirs up controversy with depiction of waterway ..................................................................................... 37  Video: Northern Gateway Pipelines and Tankers - What’s at Stake? ..................................................................... 39  Northern British Columbia Tourism Boycott ............................................................................................................. 40  Five years after Burnaby oil pipeline rupture, residents rally against Kinder Morgan expansion ...................... 43  No choice but to go forward to the Supreme Court of Canada to protect wild salmon ........................................ 45  Walter Cordery: Protecting wild fish must be made a priority ................................................................................ 48  Sampling Salmon on the Mighty Fraser ..................................................................................................................... 49  Anissa Reed: “Such an honour” ................................................................................................................................. 50  Stop Norwegian Fish Farms from Killing Wild Salmon ............................................................................................ 51  Agency orders cull of Atlantic salmon at two farms ................................................................................................. 52  Second B.C. salmon farm quarantined after tests .................................................................................................... 53  Compensation Culture ................................................................................................................................................. 54  Fish farm flap ................................................................................................................................................................ 55  Fatal virus found in more B.C. salmon farms ............................................................................................................ 56  BC Salmon Farms Provide IHN Update ...................................................................................................................... 57  Unprotected salmon farming - Blame it on the wild salmon .................................................................................... 58  Letter to Sue Farlinger (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) ............................................................................... 60  Nanaimo-based conservation group campaigns for enclosed-container farms ................................................... 61  B.C. sockeye salmon fishery likely closed again ...................................................................................................... 62 Newfoundland and Labrador .................................................................................................................................................... 63  Gray Aqua could receive $13M for salmon ................................................................................................................ 63  ASF concerned about virus outbreak......................................................................................................................... 64 Nova Scotia ................................................................................................................................................................................ 65  New fish farms will help environment - Cooke .......................................................................................................... 65  VOICE OF THE PEOPLE ............................................................................................................................................... 66  Salmon cages floating in the National Reserve Guaitecas, Chile ........................................................................... 68

New Zealand

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Scotland

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USA

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 The Sounds are for All – say NO to nine new salmon farms ................................................................................... 69  Salmon farm cleared of known disease ..................................................................................................................... 70  Will wildlife have to pay the price for salmon farming? ........................................................................................... 71  Holyrood denies greenwash over salmon deaths ..................................................................................................... 73

 Hydro bill energizes debate over the nation’s dams ................................................................................................ 74  Help stop the worst dam bill ever. .............................................................................................................................. 75  Thousands of fish die as Midwest streams heat up ................................................................................................. 76  US bid to return salmon to Connecticut River ends ................................................................................................. 78  Seafood Species Substitution and Economic Fraud ................................................................................................ 79  FDA's Examples of Substituted Seafood ................................................................................................................... 80  Conservation Update: Some in House Want Bristol Bay, West Coast Opened to Drilling ................................... 81 Alaska ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 82  EPA Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Generates Widespread Applause, Intensifies Opposition to Pebble Mine ................................................................................................................................................................................ 82  Protect wild Alaskan salmon – Oppose proposed Pebble Mine .............................................................................. 84  Alaska's King Salmon Disappearance Leaves Locals Wondering .......................................................................... 85  A banner king salmon run on Nushagak River in Alaska's Bristol Bay ................................................................. 86 Maine ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 87  Atlantic salmon return to the Kennebec River .......................................................................................................... 87 Washington State ...................................................................................................................................................................... 88  US Senator Maria Cantwell : Salmon virus action plan ............................................................................................ 88  US Senator Patty Murray: “perform a thorough cumulative impact assessment” - export of coal via Washington state and Oregon .................................................................................................................................... 89  Washington congressman seeks coal production tax ............................................................................................. 91  Northwest Tribes Fight for Treaty Rights in Face of Coal-Transport Plan ............................................................. 92  Coal train victory: One less hazardous route in Washington .................................................................................. 93  Businesses want more coal in Washington, neighbors not so sure ...................................................................... 94  National Wildlife Federation Report: Less Coal, More Salmon ............................................................................... 95  Strip Mining Would Imperil Water Quality .................................................................................................................. 96  Our Views: Failure on Flooding Would Be a Great Tragedy .................................................................................... 97  What makes us think we can control a river system better than nature can? ....................................................... 98  THE WILD OLYMPICS EFFORT: New legislation will create a legacy for generations ....................................... 100  THE WILD OLYMPICS EFFORT: Wilderness myth threatens roads, tax base, good jobs .................................. 101

Community outreach: Free salmon fishing seminar Conservation Video Library – “Why we’re involved” Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners104 WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: 104

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Legacy Forward

The September 2012 issue of Legacy features articles associated with the growing global concerns regarding known and unknown impacts to human health due to unsustainable open pen salmon feedlot industry practices.

The objective of publishing Legacy each month is to share current and planned actions that impact the future of wild game fish and their ecosystems around planet earth with our on-line audience. Impact to human health due to the expanding open pen salmon feedlot industry is but one of the issues addressed in the September 2012 issue. Please feel free to share this publication with others.

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

It’s exciting that a growing number of recreational anglers and conservationists around planet earth are passionate about conserving wild game fish and their continued availability for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. Just as exciting is that growing numbers of consumers are paying close attention to the impacts each of us have on global resources through our daily purchases.

We continue to urge our global audience 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 to our generation.

Bruce Treichler

James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Feature: Human Health Impacts of Open Pen Salmon Feedlot Practices

 Salmon Aquaculture and Transmission of the Fish Tapeworm June 2007 Aquaculture of salmon constitutes a rapidly growing worldwide industry with an expanding globalized market (1,2). Although this industry has several economic benefits, according to recent reports it is also accompanied by effects that are detrimental to human and animal health and the environment (1,2). Aquaculture has been implicated in the transmission of infectious diseases. For example, in caged fish aquaculture, bacterial and parasitic diseases can be transmitted to wild fish (1,2).

Furthermore, aquaculture-raised fish may be susceptible to the microorganisms and parasites of wild fish (1,3). However, in spite of the accepted fact that parasitic worms can be transmitted to humans by free-ranging fish (4), until recently, few examples have been reported of pathogens that could be transmitted to humans directly by the products and subproducts of salmon aquaculture. I discuss here information indicating that salmon aquaculture is involved in expanding the range of fish tapeworm infections in nature and to humans.

Several recent publications report outbreaks of human cases of infection by the fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum in Brazil (5–9). These infections have been epidemiologically linked to consumption of raw salmon produced by the aquaculture industry in southern Chile, thousands of miles away (5–9). Infections by D. latum have been detected in several cities in Brazil (5–9), and in 1 tourist who traveled there from Europe (10). These cases of diphyllobothriasis are noteworthy because this parasite was totally unknown to clinicians and parasitologists in Brazil, where it does not appear to have an endemic life cycle (5–9).

D. latum is transmitted to humans by plerocercoid larvae present in fish meat and visceral organs (http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx). D. latum and the closely related sea gull tapeworm, D. dendriticum, have well-established endemic life cycles in a series of glacial lakes that dot Region XIX and Region X in northern Chilean Patagonia. Infections with these parasites have been detected in this geographic area since the 1950s in persons who ingested uncooked fish from these lakes and also in animals (11–14). The link that closes the epidemiologic chain between the Brazilian outbreak of fish tapeworm infections and the aquaculture of salmon in southern Chile is that some of the freshwater lakes where D. latum and D. dendriticum are endemic are used to grow the freshwater stages of juvenile salmon, or smolt, in cages (15). Smolt are temporarily grown in these lakes to accelerate their growth before they are transported to cages in the sea where the salmon will reach adult stages.

The practice of growing smolt in freshwater lakes appears to be unique to Chilean salmon aquaculture; in other salmon aquaculture settings, smolt are grown in tanks containing filtered water.

During the past 55 years, work by Chilean parasitologists has demonstrated that native species and introduced salmonid fish are infested with Diphyllobothrium plerocercoids in these lakes (11–14).

Moreover, the other intermediary hosts of the fish tapeworm, the calanoid copepods Diaptomus diabolicus and Boeckela gracilipes, are also abundant (16). Native and introduced fish ingest copepods containing procercoid larvae that develop into plerocercoids (16). The fish tapeworm life cycle is subsequently closed in these lakes when humans and animals, the definitive hosts of these fish tapeworms, ingest infested fish (11–16). The persistence of the cycle of D. latum in these lakes is facilitated by the release of untreated sewage, which deposits stools of infected humans containing high concentrations of fish tapeworm eggs in the water (11–17).

The Brazilian studies did not detect Diphyllobothrium plerocercoids in several samples of Chilean salmon tested after the first human cases of diphylobothriasis appeared (7). However, this failure may have resulted from limited sampling or temporal and spatial variability in the infestation of the salmon with plerocercoids (11–17).

Nonetheless, recent work in Chile has demonstrated the presence of Diphyllobothrium plerocercoids in rainbow trout raised in aquaculture, which suggests that aquacultured fish can become infected with these parasites (18).

In Chile, infestation with Diphyllobothrium plerocercoids has also been detected in coho salmon living in the wild, a nonindigenous species raised originally in aquaculture that escaped from pens (19).

Larvae of another fish tapeworm, D. pacificum, whose definitive hosts are large marine mammals such as sea lions and fur seals, have been detected in marine fish in Chile (20). Salmon aquaculture sea cages attracts these large mammals, creating the possibility for the parasite life cycle to occur in the environment around the salmon cages (20). However, this is an unlikely scenario for the spread to human populations, because the fish tapeworms identified in the patients in Brazil had the morphologic characteristics of D. latum, which as discussed above is one of the diphyllobothrium endemic in the lakes of southern Chile (5–9). These findings suggest that the aquaculture of salmon in southern Chile has expanded the species range of infestation by diphyllobothrium to nonindigenous salmonid fish species introduced by the aquaculture industry (18,19) and that the escape of infected fish from aquaculture sea cages has probably resulted in the expansion of the geographic range of the disease in Chile (19). In turn, the marketing of Chilean aquacultured salmon in Brazil has expanded the range of this human disease to a geographic region where this pathology was until now absent (5–9).

Traditionally in Europe and North America, infections with fish tapeworms were incurred during the preparation of gefilte fish by Jewish women who tasted bits of uncooked freshwater fish and thus ingested plerocercoids (21). In Chile, infestation of humans with the fish tapeworm in the D. latum– endemic area results from ingestion of raw and smoked fish, and in the Brazilian outbreak all the case-patients had previously eaten salmon sushi. Marinated ceviches may also be able to transmit infecting plerocercoids (5–9,11–17). The disease in humans can be prevented by cooking the fish at a temperature of 54°C to 56°C for 5 minutes (21). Alternatively, the plerocercoids can be destroyed by blast-freezing the fish at –35°C for 15 hours and by regular freezing at –20°C for 7 days before consumption (22).

Thus, to avoid new human outbreaks of fish tapeworm in other geographic areas where this parasite does not exist, salmon originated from aquaculture should not be eaten raw, at least not until it has been frozen under the conditions discussed above. Assuming the epidemiologic information presented here explains the appearance of the fish tapeworm outbreak in Brazil, it would be preferable, in terms of sanitation, for the Chilean aquaculture industry to stop growing salmon smolt in the lakes in the areas where diphyllobothriasis is endemic in humans and animals (11–17).

This epidemiologic event may also be understood as cautionary tale, and 1 more example of the dangers entailed by the globalization of food supply and of the rapidly changing global eating habits that facilitate the distribution of human and animal pathogens worldwide. The expansion of diphyllobothriasis-endemic areas in Chile may, in turn, facilitate the appearance of future outbreaks of this disease as the aquaculture industry expands to these new infested areas and the market for Chilean salmon enlarges worldwide. The increased popularity of eating uncooked fish in sushi and ceviche will also be a factor in the emergence of future outbreaks of this disease (4,21). As has been the case with other human infectious diseases disseminated by the industrialization of animal husbandry, this outbreak of diphyllobothriasis could have been prevented by use of existing information, including that concerning the endemic nature of diphyllobothriasis in the lakes of southern Chile and its transmission by raw fish

ď ś Family eats HEB salmon covered in worms Health department is investigating the case KXAN video: Report of Bad Salmon June, 19, 2012

ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) - The Pham family is trying to forget what happened at their large Father's Day celebration Saturday.

They prepared their own sushi with raw salmon purchased the same day at the H-E-B in Round Rock at State Highway 45 and Greenlawn Boulevard.

"My niece came in here, and she was eating one of the few pieces of sushi we had left on the plate and said, 'Ew, something feels funny,'" said Nichol Pham. "She pulled something out of her mouth, and it looked like a string."

When they looked closer, the string was moving. When they looked at the rest of the salmon, they could see more tiny worms covering the fish.

Pham said 23 people ate the salmon and felt sick the next day. Half of them were children, all cousins, ages 2 to 12.

"We've vomited, have diarrhea, stomach aching," said Pham. "My stomach is still aching today."

She said they went back to H-E-B that night to talk to a manager who offered a refund.

"We explained to him: 'We don't want a refund. We've already ingested this into our bodies,'" said Pham. "Common sense to me: You pull it off the shelf until you find out what's wrong with your fish."

Then she contacted the Williamson County Health Department. A spokesperson for the department told KXAN News they are investigating and will be looking into how the product was handled at the market and how it was handled after the purchase.

Carol Huntsberger, owner of Quality Seafood Market , said salmon carries a lot of parasites and worms -- though they are rarely seen at a store.

There are only two ways to kill them: cooking the fish thoroughly or freezing raw salmon through a process mandated by law at minus 4 degrees for 168 hours, which is about seven days.

"It kills the parasites. It kills the worms, and it makes sure it's safe to eat," said Huntsberger.

H-E-B emailed the following statement: "H-E-B is committed to absolutely safe food. We discourage the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood unless it is prepared and handled according to FDA specifications.

"We encourage all consumers to practice safe food handling when preparing sushi with raw fish. For additional information, refer to the FDA website."

 Just say “no” to farmed salmon April 5, 2012 Twenty years ago, a lead article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that men in a Danish fishing village who ate at least 30 oz of salmon a week had half the risk of getting a heart attack as their bovine-consuming neighbors.

Since heart disease had been, until very recently, the leading cause of death in this country physicians have been recommending that everyone eat fish at least once weekly. In addition to its benefit in reduction of cardiovascular mortality, fish oils have also been found to be of benefit in reducing arthritis and other inflammatory disorders and to improve cognition (particularly in the offspring of fish consuming moms). The NEJM article was published in May of 1985 and between 1987 and 1999 the annual salmon consumption in the United States increased by 23%. During the same time period it increased by 14% in Europe.

This increase in fish consumption has unfortunately not proven to be a boon to the hardy fishermen and women of Alaska. In fact, since the Exxon Valdez disaster these hard-working folks are getting far less per pound for their fish than they were prior to the disaster (which is still not cleaned up).

Close to 60% of the salmon now sold is raised in farms located around the globe (British Columbia, Washington State, Chile and Northern Europe) in which Atlantic salmon (genus Salmo) are crowded into pens and fed fish meal pellets. If you are looking at salmon in the grocery store or the restaurant and it says just “salmon” or “Atlantic Salmon”, it is farmed. The presence of these pens in the Pacific Northwest pose a serious threat to the native runs of pacific salmon (genus Oncorhyncus) in those areas.

While the potential health benefits of wild salmon are well known, the potential toxicity of the farmed salmon needs to be highlighted. Several studies have now been done measuring the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and other persistent chlorinated contaminants in farmed salmon. A study done by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found that farmed salmon had an average of four times the amount of PCBs and Dioxins as wild salmon. In the United States, the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) did a small study of farmed salmon that were purchased at stores in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Portland, OR. They found that seven of the ten farmed salmon purchased had levels of PCB that should raise health concerns. The EWG researchers found an average PCB level of 27.3 ppb in the ten fish studied with highest levels in the salmon that was farm raised in Scotland. This was over 5 times higher than the level of PCBs found in a sampling of wild salmon.

These studies, done on relatively small numbers of fish, had their findings confirmed in a subsequent study done on over 700 salmon (totaling approximately 2 metric tons of farmed and wild salmon) from around the globe. Thirteen persistent chlorinated chemical pollutants were found in significantly higher levels in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. The only compound that did not reach statistical significance was lindane which was still higher in farmed than wild salmon. The four compounds with the greatest differences were PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin. The least contaminated fish samples came from Washington State and Chile still had significantly higher levels of PCBs, dioxins and dieldrin. The most contaminated farmed salmon came from Scotland and the Faroe islands.

The researchers were wise enough to also test the fish pellets that these farmed salmon were fed.

They tested samples of salmon feed from global suppliers that account for 80% of all salmon feed sold world-wide, and found the source of the salmon’s contamination. The levels of these toxins in the fish were directly related to their presence in their feed. These pellets are made from smaller fish which have been contaminated with these pollutants. PCBs then build up in the salmon at levels about 20-30 that of their environment and feed.

Proponents of aquaculture (fish farming) are ready to point out that these levels are not necessarily a health hazard. However, studies that have looked at the effect of PCB intake on offspring appear to contradict that stance. There have been a number of studies that have measured maternal levels of PCBs and then followed the offspring for a number of years. Their findings are consistent that the higher the serum levels of maternal PCBs the greater the neurological deficits in the offspring.

In 1979 rice bran cooking oil that was contaminated with PCBs was used for a number of months in Taiwan. Children born to exposed mothers (including children born up to 6 years after the exposure) were then followed for persistent neuro-psychological problems. At 6 years post exposure the offspring scored an average of 6 IQ points lower than their older siblings who were themselves exposed to the PCBs. In addition they exhibited 23% greater rates of problem behavior and 15% greater levels of activity than their controls. By age 17 these children still showed significantly greater problems with behavior and had a persistent IQ reduction averaging 3 IQ points. This was true even in children born to mothers up to 6 years after their exposure.

A study done in Michigan followed the development of children born to mothers who had consumed fish from Lake Michigan which were polluted with PCBs. These were not farm-raised fish with 4-16 times the level of PCBs found in wild fish. Even though the average maternal serum levels of PCBs were only mildly higher than US averages, these children did show persistent effects. By age 11 these children showed reduced total IQ, and especially verbal IQ, that became more pronounced as the maternal levels of PCBs increased. IQ drops in the group with the highest maternal serum level averaged 6.2 IQ points. This reduction in IQ is similar to that found in children with elevated blood lead levels. The children with in-utero exposure had poorer verbal and reading comprehension, poor “freedom from distractibility�, reduced short and long-term memory, and decreased ability to organize and plan. These children were more than three times likely to perform poorly on testing and were at least two years behind their controls in reading skills. Fortunately levels of PCB in maternal breastmilk had absolutely no association with these neurotoxicity effects. It appears that these defects are developed secondary to PCB exposure in utero, not after delivery.

The alarming point of the ongoing Michigan study is that the mothers only had blood PCB levels slightly above the US average. It would not be hard to have much higher than normal PCB levels if one were to be eating farmed salmon on a regular basis. Even though no federal agency has put out a warning, I think it would be prudent to let all women for whom pregnancy is possible know that they should avoid all exposure to farmed salmon. Fortunately every grocery store seems to have cans of Alaskan Salmon that are readily available for use. With the highest EPA/DHA levels of any fish and a very low mercury and PCB levels, it provides one of the best sources of fish in the diet.

But what does one do if they have elevated PCB levels in their blood. As was found in the Taiwan study, children born up to 6 years after mom’s exposure still had problems. Since PCBs are fatsoluble, they tend to stay in the body for a long time and redistribute throughout adipose stores. Since the human body is not designed to easily get rid of fats or oils these compounds tend to bioaccumulate. Supplementation that helps to produce and dump bile (cholegogue and cholerectic actions) and have that bile be excreted from the body would be beneficial. Psyllium is still the only fiber that is known to actually increase the fecal bile content.

But having patients undergo a program that combines low temperature sauna and colonic irrigations may be the best protocol to reduce levels of PCBs. PCBs have also been associated in the medical literature with different cancers. One of my cancer patients had his PCB levels tested prior to going through our intensive cleansing program for a period of four weeks. He was retested twice as he continued to do a maintenance cleansing protocol. His initial program included 3 hours of low temperature sauna five days weekly for 20 session, that were followed by constitutional hydrotherapy and colonic irrigations. Supplementation was included as part of his cleansing program along with dietary changes. After the initial 20 sessions he did one colonic irrigation weekly for the following 18 months. Prior to starting his cleansing program he had 3 (out of 10 tested) PCBs present in his blood totaling 2.5 ng/ml (ppb). Eleven months later only 2 were present for a level of 1.4 ng/ml. Seven months after that none were detected! This rate of decline far outpaces the normal glacial reduction of PCBs in the serum (as highlighted in the Taiwan spill studies), showing that this cleansing method was clearly effective for this individual in reducing his body burden of PCBs. While such cleansing programs are available to reduce the body burden of persistent chemical pollutants, it would be wiser to avoid exposures to them in the first place. For the sake of the childrento-be, the intake of all Atlantic salmon should be avoided

 Woman talks about her allergic reaction to antibiotics in Farmed Salmon

“Don’t eat it; it’s farmed salmon!”

(Unidentified Vancouver, BC chef)

ď ś Diabetes study suggests link to viruses and toxins August 13, 2012

Claudette Bethune: “Another reason, beyond the known cancer and cognitive impairment, on why kids should never eat farmed salmon that is choked full of viruses and toxins!�

More than 87,000 Australians have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. A new study attributes an environmental cause to the disease.

MINI-EPIDEMICS of type 1 diabetes appear to be occurring among Australian children every five years, a landmark study that points to an environmental cause of the autoimmune disease shows.

The study found that type 1 diabetes, a condition that occurs when the body's immune system seems to spontaneously attack and kill the cells that produce insulin, has also been inexplicably increasing by more than 2 per cent every year.

The researchers reviewed every new case of type 1 diabetes in Western Australia over 25 years, finding that while the illness was on the rise, it was doing so with an even flow of peaks and troughs.

In some cases there was a difference of up to 20 per cent between the peak and low years, the study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, says.

One of the co-authors, Professor Tim Jones, said that while there must be some reason for both the increase and the cyclical pattern of the condition, it was not yet understood.

"We don't really know what the triggers are. There are probably multiple triggers, including environmental factors such as viruses and toxins," he said. "There have been increases in allergies at the same time [as type 1 diabetes has increased], so it may reflect similar underlying causes."

When his team compared the pattern in West Australia with similar research done overseas, they found it to be "almost identical" to a pattern found in northern England, despite the two areas having very different demographic and climatic conditions. The data suggests another peak beginning this year, with previous ones occurring in 2007 and 2002.

More than 87,000 Australians have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the most recent figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show.

Professor Jones said the peaks could be caused by cycles in which viruses are dominant, similar to those with cold and flu viruses, where different strains are common each year.

He said research was now being done to monitor babies who could be at risk of the condition because their parents have it, to try to track what made them develop it.

However, it is complicated by the fact that about 80 per cent of children whose parents have type 1 diabetes will not develop the condition.

The national policy adviser for Diabetes Australia, Greg Johnson, said people often mistakenly believed that type 1 diabetes was an inherited condition. "There is not a common understanding that there are clearly environmental factors at play," he said.

But he cautioned that further studies would be needed before it was clear that viruses were the cause.

"It's complex. Viruses could be implicated but there might be factors such as chemicals and environmental pollutants or who knows what else," he said.

ď ś Dead-fish-like smell raises stink Stench from east-side rendering plant triggers complaints, demands for action August 15, 2012 Claudette Bethune: “Ah, the rendering of diseased farmed salmon into concentrated dioxins, PCBs, and other temperature resistant pollutants into farm fertilizer, it's a stink that just keeps on smelling bad!â€?

A big stink is brewing in Vancouver's east side.

Lenore Newman, a University of the Fraser Valley professor and east Vancouver resident, normally fights to keep farms and food sources close to home.

But the stench that has taken over east Vancouver is just too much, she said, and has spread too far from the source, the rendering plant West Coast Reduction in the 100-block North Commercial Drive.

"I'm thinking something must have gone wrong in the plant because you should not be able to smell it [30 blocks] away," said Newman.

"It's this dead-fish kind of smell," she said. "You spend $1 million on a house, you don't want it to smell like fish. "[The city] would never let a rendering plant keep operating on the west side of the city."

Newman's argument is that this summer has been exceptionally bad for a problem that is normally limited to a few blocks.

"A lot of people are suddenly learning there's a rendering plant in the neighbourhood."

Newman was correct about a problem at the plant - a breakdown at West Coast Reduction on Thursday forced a buildup of unprocessed animal waste and an extra day of rendering Sunday, said West Coast Rendering president Barry Glotman.

But residents shouldn't hold their breath for action against the company. Without any agreeable way to measure the smell, there's no way to prove West Coast Rendering broke any law.

Neither has Harvest Power, formerly called Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre, which Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver's manager of regulation and enforcement, said triggered the majority of this summer's odour complaints.

The summer heat and one-time breakdown are to blame for the recent stench, but there's more at play - gentrification and increased awareness, thanks to a proposed bylaw that will effectively improve air emissions.

Metro Vancouver's complaint line has been ringing off the hook with more than 50 calls this past weekend, well above the weekly average of 30.

"You have people with expectations that are higher than the old days where . . . people were struggling to survive and odours were the least of their concerns," said Robb, who monitors the area's air quality with Metro Vancouver.

The proposed bylaw drafted by Metro Vancouver is set for community consultation in the fall.

Its model would charge for permits by high-risk odour producers. It doesn't measure the amount of odour because a March 2010 decision by a provincial Environmental Appeal Board ruled that the European standard of measurement, odour units, wasn't acceptable.

Without a measurable unit, there's no way to measure odours. All Metro Vancouver can do is impose more means to clean the air through technology requirements.

"If we throw enough technology at it, [the smell] will improve," Robb said.

 n–3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with Dysglycemia July 26, 2012 CLAUDETTE BETHUNE: “GUESS ALL THOSE NATIONAL GUIDELINES ON EATING FARMED FISH FOR "HEART HEALTHY" OMEGA-3S NEED SOME REVISING AFTER THIS YEAR'S FINDINGS OF THE ORIGIN TRIAL.”

BACKGROUND The use of n–3 fatty acids may prevent cardiovascular events in patients with recent myocardial infarction or heart failure. Their effects in patients with (or at risk for) type 2 diabetes mellitus are unknown.

METHODS In this double-blind study with a 2-by-2 factorial design, we randomly assigned 12,536 patients who were at high risk for cardiovascular events and had impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or diabetes to receive a 1-g capsule containing at least 900 mg (90% or more) of ethyl esters of n–3 fatty acids or placebo daily and to receive either insulin glargine or standard care. The primary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes. The results of the comparison between n–3 fatty acids and placebo are reported here.

RESULTS During a median follow up of 6.2 years, the incidence of the primary outcome was not significantly decreased among patients receiving n–3 fatty acids, as compared with those receiving placebo (574 patients [9.1%] vs. 581 patients [9.3%]; hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87 to 1.10; P=0.72). The use of n–3 fatty acids also had no significant effect on the rates of major vascular events (1034 patients [16.5%] vs. 1017 patients [16.3%]; hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.93 to 1.10; P=0.81), death from any cause (951 [15.1%] vs. 964 [15.4%]; hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.89 to 1.07; P=0.63), or death from arrhythmia (288 [4.6%] vs. 259 [4.1%]; hazard ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.93 to 1.30; P=0.26). Triglyceride levels were reduced by 14.5 mg per deciliter (0.16 mmol per liter) more among patients receiving n–3 fatty acids than among those receiving placebo (P<0.001), without a significant effect on other lipids. Adverse effects were similar in the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS Daily supplementation with 1 g of n–3 fatty acids did not reduce the rate of cardiovascular events in patients at high risk for cardiovascular events. (Funded by Sanofi; ORIGIN ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00069784.)

 Salmon Aquaculture and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Marine Environment August 8, 2012 Alejandro H. Buschmann1, Alexandra Tomova2, Alejandra López1, Miguel A. Maldonado1, Luis A. Henríquez1, Larisa Ivanova2, Fred Moy3, Henry P. Godfrey3, Felipe C. Cabello2* 1 Centro i∼mar, Universidad de Los Lagos, Puerto Montt, Chile, 2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, United States of America, 3 Department of Pathology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, United States of America Abstract: Antimicrobials used in salmon aquaculture pass into the marine environment. This could have negative impacts on marine environmental biodiversity, and on terrestrial animal and human health as a result of selection for bacteria containing antimicrobial resistance genes. We therefore measured the numbers of culturable bacteria and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in marine sediments in the Calbuco Archipelago, Chile, over 12-month period at a salmon aquaculture site approximately 20 m from a salmon farm and at a control site 8 km distant without observable aquaculture activities. Three antimicrobials extensively used in Chilean salmon aquaculture (oxytetracycline, oxolinic acid, and florfenicol) were studied. Although none of these antimicrobials was detected in sediments from either site, traces of flumequine, a fluoroquinolone antimicrobial also widely used in Chile, were present in sediments from both sites during this period. There were significant increases in bacterial numbers and antimicrobial-resistant fractions to oxytetracycline, oxolinic acid, and florfenicol in sediments from the aquaculture site compared to those from the control site. Interestingly, there were similar numbers of presumably plasmid-mediated resistance genes for oxytetracycline, oxolinic acid and florfenicol in unselected marine bacteria isolated from both aquaculture and control sites. These preliminary findings in one location may suggest that the current use of large amounts of antimicrobials in Chilean aquaculture has the potential to select for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in marine sediments.

Citation: Buschmann AH, Tomova A, López A, Maldonado MA, Henríquez LA, et al. (2012) Salmon Aquaculture and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Marine Environment. PLoS ONE 7(8): e42724. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042724 Copyright: © 2012 Buschmann et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

READ ENTIRE PLOSONE ARTICLE HERE

 Selections

from: The role of persistent organic pollutants in the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the possible connection to Farmed Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar). (Altern Med Rev 2011;16(4):301-313)

Abstract “Rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), both in the United States and worldwide, have been rising at an alarming rate over the last two decades. Because this disease is viewed as primarily being attributable to unhealthy lifestyle habits, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on encouraging increased exercise, better dietary habits, and weight loss.

Recent studies reveal that the presence of several persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can confer greater risk for developing the disease than some of the established lifestyle risk factors. In fact, evidence suggests the hypothesis that obesity might only be a significant risk factor when adipose tissue contains high amounts of POPs. Chlorinated pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, in particular, have been strongly linked to the development of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and T2DM. In addition to reviewing the evidence associating POPs to these conditions, this article explores the possible contribution of farmed Atlantic salmon – a significant and common dietary source of POPs – with blood sugar dysregulation conditions.”

Farmed Atlantic Salmon Consumption as a Source of Exposure to POPs “In 2009 the global production of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) topped 1.4 million tons, with commercial sales of $6.5 million.27 Salmon has been called a “functional food,” because of its content of omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) and their potential benefits for cardiovascular disease risk reduction.28,29 Despite the potential benefit of EFAs, farmed salmon is also a significant, and possibly the greatest, source of dietary POPs, including PCBs. A pilot study compared levels of POPs in farmed and wild salmon. Total PCBs were found to average 51,216 pg/g wet weight in farmed Atlantic salmon, versus an average of 5,302 in wild Pacific salmon – a 10-fold difference. The farmed salmon also had far higher levels of OC pesticides and PDBE (brominated flame retardants) than their wild counterparts.30 Two larger studies compared farmed Atlantic salmon from around the world and wild salmon from the Northeast Pacific. The studies used close to 600 whole salmon and filets (totaling about 2 million metric tons each), along with samples of the feed used in the farming operations for these fish.

Concentrations of POP contaminants, especially certain PCB congeners, were significantly higher in farmed Atlantic salmon than in wildcaught salmon. European-raised farmed salmon had significantly greater contaminant loads than those farm-raised in North and South America. Although Chinook salmon (also known as King salmon) had the highest PCB content of any of the wild fish, levels were still far below those found in farmed salmon.31,32 An earlier study also reported that the mean concentration of total PCBs in farmed salmon was 41.5 ng/g wet weight, while the wild salmon only averaged 3.2 ng/g wet weight.33 The PCB congener profiles detected in wild salmon were significantly different from those in farmed salmon.

Upon investigation, the PCB congener profiles found in farmed salmon often closely corresponded to samples of commercial feed purchased in the same region. In other words, evidence indicated that feed was the likely source of some of the characteristic PCBs found in the farmed salmon.31 While the wild fish had PCBs with fewer chlorine molecules, making the POPs more water-soluble (which helps explain why they might be more likely to be consumed in the ocean), the farmed salmon had PCBs with more chlorine atoms,31 consistent with the types of PCBs that have been detected in some samples of fish food.31,33 Interestingly, it was PCB congeners containing more attached chlorine molecules that were most strongly associated with T2DM in the CARDIA cohort study conducted by Lee et al.13 Utilizing data from these studies and from the Environmental Protection Agency calculation for cancer risk, it has been recommended that no one should eat more than one meal of farmed salmon a month.32,34 “

Persistent Organic Pollutants “Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation.

Because of this, they persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, and biomagnify in food chains.

The United Nations Environment Programme Governing Council (GC) originally created a list of 12 POPs – known as the “dirty dozen.” These were aldrin, chlordane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD or dioxins), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF or furans), and toxaphene.

In recent years, this list has been expanded to include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), and tributyltin (TBT).

The groups of compounds that make up POPs are also classed as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBTs) or toxic organic micro pollutants (TOMPs). These terms are essentially synonyms for POPs.”

 First-Ever U.S. Tests of Farmed Salmon Show High Levels of Cancer-Causing PCBs Analysis of Fish Consumption Data Shows 800,000 U.S. Adults Eat Enough PCBs From Farmed Salmon to Exceed Allowable Lifetime Cancer Risk 100 Times Over July 30, 2003 WASHINGTON — The Environmental Working Group (EWG) today released results of the most extensive tests to date of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) levels in farmed salmon consumed in the United States. EWG bought the salmon from local grocery stores and found seven of 10 fish were so contaminated with PCBs that they raise cancer-risk concerns, relative to health standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Salmon farming has made salmon the third most popular fish in America — and comprises 22 percent of all retail seafood counter sales. However, EWG analysis of government data also found that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the current U.S. food supply.

EWG analysis of state-of-the-art fish consumption data derived from 20,000 adults from 1990 through 2002 shows that roughly 800,000 US adults are 100 times over their lifetime allowable cancer risk by eating this contaminated salmon.

PCBs were banned in the U.S. in the late 1970s and are among the “dirty dozen” chemical contaminants slated for global phase-out under the UN treaty on persistent organic pollutants. PCBs are highly persistent, and they have been linked to cancer and impaired fetal brain development.

Farmed salmon are fattened with ground fishmeal and fish oils that are high in PCBs. As a result, salmon farming operations that produce inexpensive fish unnaturally concentrate PCBs and have a higher fat content.

Farmed salmon contains 52 percent more fat than wild salmon, according to USDA data.

Wild Alaskan salmon eat Pacific Ocean fish that are naturally lower in persistent pollutants, and they carry less fat than farmed salmon.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has control over store-bought fish, uses PCB safety standards set in 1984. For recreationally caught fish, the EPA employs a more recent standard that reflects current scientific concerns about PCBs and is 500 times safer than the FDA's.

“FDA could not have predicted the rise of the farmed salmon industry when it set its PCB safety standard decades ago,” said EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan. “The industry’s growth has been rapid and unexpected, but it is having a real public health consequence.”

EWG called for more resources to be given to the FDA so it can move quickly to conduct a study of PCB contamination in farmed salmon - and make all the results public. This testing is critical, because FDA will be unable to act to lower public exposure to PCBs in farmed salmon until they conduct these studies. Congress should also pass a funding increase for FDA to support this testing.

In the meantime, EWG recommends that consumers choose wild instead of farmed salmon, and they should eat an eight-ounce serving of farmed salmon no more than once a month. Consumers should also trim fat from the fish before cooking - and choose broiling, baking, or grilling over frying, as these cooking methods allow the PCB-laden fat to cook off the fish.

Wild salmon dominated the market just ten years ago. Now, six of every 10 salmon fillets sold in stores and restaurants are from fish raised in high-density pens in the ocean, managed and marketed by the salmon farming industry. Before salmon farming, PCB exposure was declining, but the trend is now being reversed due to farmed fish.

“When Congress banned PCBs in 1976, no one contemplated that 20-odd years later we would have invented a new industry that re-concentrates these toxins in our bodies,” said Houlihan.

READ ENTIRE EWG ARTICLE HERE

 First Global Study Reveals Health Risks of Widely Eaten Farm Raised Salmon Science Study Suggests Sharp Restrictions in Consumption Albany, New York — A study published this week in a leading scientific journal found significantly higher levels of cancer-causing and other health-related contaminants in farm raised salmon than in their wild counterparts. The study, published in Science and by far the largest and most comprehensive done to date, concluded that concentrations of several cancer-causing substances in particular are high enough to suggest that consumers should consider severely restricting their consumption of farmed salmon.

The majority of salmon served in restaurants and found on grocery store shelves is farmed rather than wild. In most cases, as detailed in the study, consumption of more than one meal of farmed salmon per month could pose unacceptable cancer risks according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methods for calculating fish consumption advisories.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the U.S.’s largest philanthropies, sponsored the study. Pew has sponsored major research on fisheries including a number of widely reported recent studies on the deterioration of the marine environment.

Whereas earlier studies have analyzed anywhere from 8 to 13 salmon samples from individual salmon farming regions, the current study analyzed fillets from about 700 farmed and wild salmon produced in eight major farmed salmon producing regions around the world and purchased in 16 large cities in North America and Europe. The study’s authors, six U.S. and Canadian researchers representing fields from toxicology to biology to statistics, selected salmon samples to be representative of the salmon typically available to consumers around the world.

The researchers found significantly higher concentrations of contaminants in farmed salmon versus wild. In particular, four substances that have been well studied for their ability to cause cancer — PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin, and toxaphene— were consistently and significantly more concentrated in farmed salmon as a group.

Geographic Differences

Among the study’s conclusions, salmon farmed in Europe were generally more contaminated than farmed salmon from North or South America. Farmed salmon purchased for the study from supermarkets in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Paris, London, and Oslo were the most contaminated and triggered consumption recommendations of one-half to one meal per month — based on U.S. EPA consumption advisories for these contaminants. A meal was considered to be an eight-ounce portion.

Farmed salmon purchased from supermarkets in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, New York, and Vancouver triggered a recommendation of no more than two meals per month.

There was slightly more variation in fish purchased in North America than those purchased in Europe.

While farmed salmon purchased for the study in New Orleans and Denver were generally least contaminated — triggering a recommendation of about 3 meals per month — farmed salmon purchased in Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto triggered the more stringent consumption recommendations of the European-purchased fish.

"Ultimately, the most important determinant of risk has to do with where the fish is farmed not where it is purchased," said Dr. David Carpenter, an author of the study and Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany. "And because it’s a global market, it’s hard to be sure what you’re getting."

READ ENTIRE ALBANY.EDU ARTICLE HERE

Planet Earth

POLICYFORUM

ď ś Sustainable Floodplains Through Large-Scale Reconnection to Rivers LAND USE If riverside levees are strategically removed or repositioned, the result can be reduced flood risk and increased goods and services.

The Yolo Bypass while flooded

Summary Flooding is the most damaging natural disaster worldwide, and the flood-vulnerable population is expected to grow in coming decades (1). Flood risks will likely increase because of both climate change (1) and shifting land uses, such as filling of wetlands and expansion of impervious surfaces, that lead to more rapid precipitation runoff into rivers. In the United States, annual river flood losses continue to rise (2), punctuated by major events in the Midwest (1993, $30 billion in total costs; 2008, $15 billion) and California's Central Valley (1995 and 1997; $4 billion each event) (3). Meanwhile, pressure to develop new housing in floodprone areas near rivers (floodplains) continues (4), even as levee-system maintenance is chronically underfunded (5).

ď ś Enjoy wild Pacific salmon dinners at these restaurants:



Say NO to Farmed Salmon

“By bringing together animals from different continents and habitats, they create breeding grounds for new viruses”

ď ś Sign

petition here: COSTCO, Safeway & Loblaws: Please stop selling diseased farm salmon!

Elly Edwards Well, just got back from my 3rd trip to Superstore's seafood dept this month to inquire about the failure to label farmed salmon as farmed. The seafood person smiled big when I told her who I was and why I was there, walked me over to the farmed salmon, pointed down and said, "We'd been meaning to get back to you. Word just came down this morning to change the labels and it was because of you. See, one person can make a difference." All farmed Atlantic salmon at Mission Superstore are now labeled "Farmed Atlantic salmon". No excuse for consumers to say they didn't know it was farmed!!! People, get out there and keep putting pressure on supermarkets to get rid of farmed salmon and at the very least label them as farmed!

ď ś NWF: Risk of coal exports outweigh gains August 1, 2012 WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- With coal declining as a U.S. power source, the subsequent increase in exports to Asian markets comes with major risks, an environmental group said.

A report from the National Wildlife Federation said that U.S. coal exports from the Pacific Northwest would threaten public and environmental health.

"Sending more coal to Asia carries almost no benefits for the United States but we pay the price," said Felice Stadler, who directs the energy campaign for the NWF, in a statement.

"Degraded fisheries, damaged communities, medical costs, harms to wildlife and a continued burning of high carbon fuel will cost us dearly for decades."

The report states there are at least six coal ports under consideration for the western U.S. coast.

Combined, they could send at least 150 million tons of coal to Asian markets.

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said last week that tighter regulations on coal production "could result in the loss of thousands of jobs and economic harm to over 20 states."

The NWF counters that an increase in the use of coal would cause environmental harm no matter where it's burned.

 “Pants on Fire” Recognition: Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture

Wild game fish conservationists around planet earth believe that some things we hear and read from corporate representatives, natural resources agency professionals and elected officials might not reflect reality. In fact, some associate these “leaders” with those who wear burning pants.

The September 2012 recipient of the Wild Game Fish Conservation International “Burning Pants” honor is: Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture.

The following are quotes by Mr. Cooke from Why we need to farm the oceans (July 21, 2012): •

There is no such thing as open pen salmon farming. Our ocean farms, where our salmon spend the latter half of their lives in their natural habitat, are not open

•

our track record of containing our fish has been exemplary.

•

Our farms have not caused widespread pollution, escaped fish or disease outbreaks

•

The well-financed anti-salmon-farming lobby has been promoting a false concept that salmon farms can and should be moved from the ocean

•

we know the benefits of mirroring nature by moving salmon to the ocean when they are physiologically ready to move from fresh to salt water

•

There is nothing unnatural about using a small part of our working waterfront to grow fish to feed the world.

 How Tar Sands Extraction Is Destroying the Planet and What you can do to Stop it July 27, 2012

It’s a hideous, enormous, unimaginable sight. If you were to fly over the Canadian boreal forest, you’d come across an environmental manmade disaster that stretches for hundreds and hundreds of miles, and is large enough to be visible from space.

Bituminous sands, also known as tar sands or oil sands, are found naturally occurring in the Earth.

They are mixtures of water, sand and clay that are saturated with extremely thick bitumen petroleum, and they have become commonly known as ‘tar’ sands due to the thick, tarry appearance, smell and color of the bitumen.

The Environmental Impact Extracting tar sands requires vast amounts of energy, and is extremely carbon-intensive, significantly more so than conventional oil extraction. As the tar sand extraction industry expands, there are growing concerns that initial estimates of the emissions released through extraction processes have been grossly underestimated.

READ ENTIRE ONEGREENPLANET ARTICLE HERE

Canada

 Canadians are saying no to tar sands pipelines: risks outweigh the benefits July 23, 2012

We have long heard threats from the tar sands oil interests that if America won’t allow tar sands pipelines to cross our communities, they’ll just send the oil across Canada to Asia instead. But Canadian communities don’t like the idea of risking their fishing rivers, farms and coastal waters to a tar sands oil spill any more than U.S. communities do. In fact, pipeline company Enbridge’s proposal for the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline that would cross British Columbia is in real jeopardy.

After refusing to take a stance on the Northern Gateway project, just this morning, the Globe and Mail reported that the Premier of British Columbia said that the risks of a tar sands oil spill outweighed the economic benefits of a tar sands pipeline across the province. And the British Columbia government has outlined a series of concerns and minimum requirements. Yet, given the deep concerns of First Nations, municipalities and others in British Columbia, what is needed is a clear message to echo what we hear coming from Canada: no tar sands pipelines and no tar sands oil tankers.

These are the same concerns that are driving opposition to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would cross the U.S. to the Gulf Coast and the Trailbreaker project that would bring tar sands east through the Great Lakes and New England. Bringing dirty and expensive Canadian tar sands across our rivers and through our communities brings us the risk of climate change and tar sands oil spills all to benefit the oil industry. We can do better for our communities.

READ ENTIRE NRD BLOG POST HERE

 Canada needs energy diversity: federal documents August 4, 2012

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Canada is becoming vulnerable to a planetary “mega trend” toward low-carbon energy, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in newly released internal briefing notes.

OTTAWA — A dependence on fossil fuel resources is making the country vulnerable to a planetary “mega trend” toward low-carbon energy that “will affect the whole of Canada’s economy,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in newly released internal briefing notes.

“While Canada has an enviable energy resource advantage, its future success cannot be taken for granted,” said the briefing notes. “It must make smart decisions now in order to get ahead of emerging challenges. The country will need to further diversify its energy sources, ensure that it has secure access to global markets and find ways to meet the growing demand for energy at home in ways that are environmentally sustainable and publicly acceptable.”

Noting that Canada was last among G8 nations in terms of clean energy investments, the briefing notes prepared by bureaucrats at Natural Resources Canada for Oliver after he was appointed to cabinet in May 2011, explained that the growth of emerging economies such as China and India was one “mega trend” influencing the economy and demand for resources and energy.

But the documents also suggested that other countries were getting ahead of Canada in a new market, estimated to be worth $6.5 trillion in 2007-2008, for green products and services aimed at lowering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

READ ENTIRE VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE HERE

 J'Accuse!...Fish Farmers and Our Governments July 20, 2012

Alexandra Morton laid out the case against salmon farms and their diseases to an audience of 200 at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club on Monday In 1894 a French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island prison.

In 1896 a Paris journalist, Emile Zola, printed an article called "J’Accuse!", which tore apart the case and led eventually to his pardon – which he accepted because he was dying on the vicious tropical Devil’s Island – and he was exonerated to serve, gallantly though sick and old in combat in World War I. An Alsatian Jew, Dreyfus was seen by the military establishment.

Last Monday night, along with 200 others, I listened to Alexandra Morton outline the loss of our salmon and carefully and surgically weave together the case against the fish farm industry, the provincial government and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The case goes back 12 years and mirrors the Campbell/Clark administration.

First it involved escapees from fish farms crowding native salmon on their spawning grounds, something that continues but became less relevant as Alexandra discovered that hundreds of thousands of wild salmon smolts were being slaughtered by lice from fish farms sited on their migration routes. Lately Alexandra has concentrated on diseases imported into our waters by farmed fish.

J’accuse both senior governments of deliberately avoiding this issue.

Before going further let me stress a fact that is of great importance but overlooked.

When I started helping Alex, my veterinarian, the estimable Moe Milstein, took me aside and said “Rafe, I don’t know anything about particular issue but I can tell you that when you take huge numbers of animals and coop them up, disease on a massive basis is inevitable.”

READ ENTIRE COMMON SENSE CANADIAN ARTICLE HERE

British Columbia

 Christy Clark toughens pipeline stance as Enbridge announces safety upgrades July 20, 2012

B.C. Premier Christy Clark called the Northern Gateway pipeline 'a very large risk to British Columbia for our marine and terrestrial environment' with 'a very small ... benefit to our province."

Photograph by: Glenn Baglo , PNG Premier Christy Clark toughened her stance Friday on the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, saying the controversial proposal poses too much environmental risk for British Columbia while not offering enough economic benefits.

Clark’s comments came the same day Enbridge promised to add $500 million in safety improvements to its proposal, which the company said is meant to address concerns raised by first nations and the public. First nations in northern B.C. were quick to say the additional safety measures would not alter their opposition to the 1,150-kilometre pipeline between the Alberta oilsands and Kitimat, however.

Clark spoke one day after she held extraordinary face-to-face meetings with the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan — as well as a phone call with Prime Minister Stephen Harper — giving all three a warning that her government will next week lay out its demands on the Gateway project.

“I was giving them the heads up on what we’re going to be talking about next week because I don’t want my colleagues, particularly our neighbours in Alberta and Saskatchewan, to be surprised,” Clark told The Vancouver Sun Friday.

Clark said that as early as Monday she will provide “a little bit more detail about what British Columbians need to see out of the proposal in order for it to work for us.”

“British Columbians want to have our environment protected and they want to know that we’re going to be looking out for their best interests when it comes to jobs and economic benefits,” she said.

READ ENTIRE VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE HERE

 First Nations outraged by Clark's Enbridge pipeline 'sales pitch' July 28, 2012

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 January 10, 2012.

First Nations opposed to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project are accusing B.C. Premier Christy Clark of selling out British Columbians and putting a price tag on the future of aboriginal people.

The Yinka Dene Alliance, a group of five First Nations in the B.C. Interior, issued a statement Saturday, saying it rejects Clark’s “sales pitch.”

The B.C. government said earlier this week it won’t support the $6-billion Enbridge project until five environmental and fiscal conditions are met, including B.C. getting a much larger share of economic benefits such as resource royalties or other tax revenue.

Another one of the five conditions was that legal requirements for aboriginal and treaty rights must be addressed and first nations be allowed to benefit from the project.

However, the aboriginal groups claim the premier is bargaining with land that they say will never be for sale at any price.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for our premier to play a game of ‘the Price is Right’ while putting our lands, our waters and our futures at risk to devastating oil spills,” said Terry Teegee, tribal chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council.

“This is our lives, the well-being of our families that she is playing with. We won’t let her sell our lands out from under us.”

Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation said the government can’t “put a price tag on our future,” adding that the alliance is committed to fighting the project.

“Clark has admitted that B.C. will take 100 per cent of the risks from tankers and most of the pipeline risk. For her to turn around the next day and start bargaining for royalties — that’s knowingly trying to sell all British Columbians out,” said Louie.

On Friday, Clark refused to sign onto any national energy strategy until B.C.’s dispute with Alberta and the federal government over the Northern Gateway oil pipeline is resolved.

The Enbridge project would carry oilsands crude, or bitumen, from northern Alberta to Kitimat, for shipment to Asia.

The Enbridge Pipeline Project Proposal and the potential impacts of a spill from the pipeline and or a Super Tanker have far reaching implications beyond the Northwest Coast of BC! Imagine 225 Ultra Crude Carrier (Super Tanker) of over 1000 feet long, 160 feet wide, 110 feet deep and 1.4 Billion pounds when fully loaded, going at 16 knots, traveling into our water ways, meandering through narrow and potentially treacherous channels. Keep in mind that it takes up to 3 kms long (a full 15 minutes) to go from full speed ahead to full reverse. Now imagine it hitting a rock, spilling up to 2 million barrels of bitumen (unrefined highly toxic tar/oil). That is 10 times the volume of Exxon Valdez.

 Enbridge stirs up controversy with depiction of waterway Critics say video an attempt to mislead public August 15, 2012

“Enbridge deleted 1,000km² of BC's islands off of its public videos and maps to convince the public its pipeline and oil tanker plan is less dangerous than it really is.”

Enbridge Inc. says its video, which depicts Douglas Channel as an open waterway, is meant to be "broadly representational."

About 1,000 square kilometres of islands have disappeared from Douglas Channel in an animated depiction of Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker route.

The project would send bitumen by pipeline from Alberta's oilsands to Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto tankers for export to Asia.

A video on the Enbridge website shows Douglas Channel as a wide open funnel leading from Kitimat to the Pacific, omitting the narrow channels, islands and rocky outcrops that make up the potential tanker access route.

The view of Douglas Channel sprang to public attention after Lori Waters, a Vancouver Island researcher and owner of a biomedical communications company, created overlays and maps showing the real Douglas Channel and posted the images on Facebook.

Reaction against Enbridge - which is fighting an image problem because of recent pipeline spills was swift.

"I find the pictures shocking. It's reprehensible behaviour," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver.

"These images are disturbing enough to make me no longer trust anything coming from Enbridge. It's utterly shameful," he said.

However, Enbridge said the video is an obvious animation and contains a disclaimer that says it is "broadly representational."

"That video is meant to be for illustrative purposes only. It's not meant to be to scale. It's meant to illustrate the pipeline route, not the marine aspects of the operation," said Enbridge spokesman Todd Nogier.

"There's a disclaimer at the end because it's really clear this is meant to be illustrative," he said.

The video is meant to be pleasing to the eye, but viewers would not mistake it for a detailed map, Nogier said.

A tanker safety video showing Douglas Channel in detail and to scale, together with technical reports on every aspect of the marine route, are on the Enbridge website, he said.

"If they are trying to conclude that we are trying to mislead people, nothing could be further from the truth. There's lots of information there. It's all there and it's all for public viewing," Nogier said.

However, groups opposed to the proposed pipeline and tanker project believe the video is an attempt to mislead.

The Enbridge view of Douglas Channel would make anyone who knows the area chuckle, said Eric Swanson of the Dogwood Initiative.

"In reality, it's a twisting path through rocky islands and granite outcroppings, including 90 degree turns, but it's shown as a sparkly, open channel," he said.

"They are certainly painting a rosy picture of a very complicated and dangerous waterway."

The video fits with recent Enbridge advertising campaigns, Swanson said.

"It's more hyper-positive imagery because they know they have a problem because of the spills," he said.

READ ENTIRE TIMES COLONIST ARTICLE HERE

 Video: Northern Gateway Pipelines and Tankers - What’s at Stake?

 Northern British Columbia Tourism Boycott March 31, 2012 Like many of you we are extremely concerned with what is going on in the press these days. Thus the urgent letter below, please read it, if you’re local call your mayor, if you’re not, please help us because the deck is really stacked against our pristine lakes and rivers.

Support our boycott on all business in communities which are not willing to protect our environment in hopes of getting a financial handout from Enbridge. Let us send a clear message to communities who don’t respect our environment enough to protect it.

Please DO NOT BOYCOTT small fishing businesses that reside outside of any community boundary, because they are as much a victim of those who support oil for greed. ____ Greetings fellow sport fishing enthusiasts, I am writing this to all of you, all over the world because we desperately need your help on two major fronts, both could permanently extinguish fishing as we know it for our generation and that of our children’s and possibly much longer.

The first and foremost problem is the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project which the Prime Minister of Canada appears to be declaring a project that will go ahead regardless of the National Energy Board Hearings.

The second is Fish Farming, and its unregulated ability to hide scientific facts, its attacks on free speech and attempts to silence those who dare to speak out against them.

First Nations have done their part, they stood up and spoke, all against Enbridge and Alberta’s need to cash in on the horrific oil sands that are killing the Athabasca River, and sending this toxic mess into the Arctic Ocean. Read what the Swan River First Nation and the Dene Nation and the Driftpile First Nation have testified in the link below.

Parts 6, 7 and 8 of their testimony refute what Alberta is admitting, and refutes what Ottawa is admitting in regards to toxic pollution and killing of fish and wildlife.

Here is where we have a problem, the cities, towns and villages appear to want it both ways, they want your tourist dollar, and they also want any dirty Oil Dollar they can get as well.

We need you; the people of the world to write to the mayors of each community and ask them why tourists could come to a community that won’t protect its natural resources. Why should tourists come and spend their money if the leaders of these communities don’t take a stand in protecting our lakes and rivers from the worst threat ever in the history of British Columbia.

Ask these mayors how many people will come to visit if we end up with a mess like they did on the Kalamazoo River.

Imagine what this will look like if there is an oil spill like in the image below. This is the Bulkley River near Quick.

This will extinguish all salmon and steelhead stocks, and in particular it will extinguish the almost extinct remaining two sockeye strains that are now listed as endangered species. A spill like this will kill not only the Morice Bulkley watersheds, but it will contaminate the entire Skeena River watershed.

This is not a political issue, it simply a fact, you either are willing to protect the environment or you will not, why is almost irrelevant, it does boil down to which communities tourists should visit, namely those who are willing to protect our environment.

As of today we are not aware of many that are willing to stand up and say No to Enbridge, so it would be fair to say they do not support our environment until they make a public declaration stating otherwise. If you want your status changed, then tell the world you oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.

Please note this list is only the communities, not attached aboriginal communities. All aboriginal communities along the pipeline are on record as opposed to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.

If we are wrong, please send us an email at webmaster(at)bcfishinreport.com Prince Rupert – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Terrace – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Kitimat – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Kitwanga – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Hazelton – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Kispiox – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Moricetown – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Smithers – Supports our Environment (Visit this great community) Telkwa – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Houston – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Granisle – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Burns Lake – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Fraser Lake – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Vanderhoof – Does not support our environment. (Boycott) Prince George – Does not support our environment. (Boycott)

We would like to extend a challenge to all fishing websites to publicly post a list of the communities above as to their support or lack of support for our environment and encourage tourists not to vacation in locations who care so little for our environment that they do not have the courage to defend it and stand up and say no to any further construction of any pipelines that carry that toxic sludge through our ever more vulnerable lakes, rivers and mountains.

Likewise we ask that every environmental website in the world also joins us in a boycott to end this fence riding by municipal councilors. ______ Anyone wishing to share information in regards to rivers or lakes is asked to please CLICK HERE We are always in a state of construction, because we keep finding more information we feel would be helpful to you.

From the folks at Pacific Northwest Fishing Report, thanks youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re your support.

Let us never let our guard down in protecting this heritage that we borrow from our children, so that they to might share in the excitement we treasure so much.

 Five

years after Burnaby oil pipeline rupture, residents rally against Kinder Morgan expansion August 16, 2012

Five years after a construction mishap covered a Burnaby neighbourhood with oil from a ruptured pipeline, residents are still dealing with its aftermath. Pictured is Mary Hatch, who lives in the 7200-block of Inlet Drive.

The oil that slicked trees and blackened lawns has long been cleaned from the homes hardest hit by the rupture of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline five years ago.

But the painful memories remain and have turned some longtime Burnaby residents into fervid critics trying to mobilize their newer neighbours to fight against its proposed expansion.

Retired elementary teacher Mary Hatch, 66, is not your stereotypical eco-warrior. Before the spill covered the property she’s shared with her family since 1976, she didn’t even know thousands of barrels of oil were passing just metres away every single day.

“I was sitting in my kitchen doing some work at my table when a fireman came to my door and told me I had to evacuate because there was an oil spill,” she said of the July 2007 rupture. “I didn’t know what that meant, it didn’t mean anything to me.”

About 250,000 litres of crude leaked into the community after a road crew’s excavator hit the pipeline.

70,000 litres flowed into Burrard Inlet. The cleanup cost roughly $15 million and 250 residents were evacuated.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said residents near the spill on Inlet Drive are still traumatized, and many have become vocal critics of the pipeline expansion.

“I think there’s residual bitterness despite the fact that Kinder Morgan did a good job of coming in and helping the people afterwards,” he said.

Hatch has become more engaged in the fight to stop the expansion since she learned of Kinder Morgan’s plan to increase the pipeline’s capacity from 300,000 to 750,000 barrels a day. The move could quadruple the number of tankers in Burrard Inlet, from about five a month to more than 20.

Two weeks ago, Hatch and roughly 20 other concerned residents formed the group Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan’s Expansion (BROKE).

Member Laura Dean, a 57-year-old retired fitness trainer, has lived down the hill from Hatch, about 100 yards away from the oil tankers on Burrard Inlet, for the past 21 years. Dean said BROKE wants to increase public awareness of the environmental issues surrounding the expansion and urge people to “get to” politicians like Burnaby North Liberal MLA Richard T. Lee, who so far hasn’t taken a position on the twinning project.

A telephone survey commissioned by Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Kennedy Stewart last December showed almost three quarters of North Burnaby residents polled oppose the twinning. A similar provincewide Angus Reid survey conducted two weeks ago found 37 per cent were in favour of the project, but still half of all respondents were opposed. A representative of Texas-based Kinder Morgan could not be reached for comment on its ongoing consultation with residents.

Almost a third — 30 per cent — of the 4,500 respondents in the Burnaby poll didn’t have an opinion on the matter, something that bewilders Hatch.

“I’m appalled that this neighbourhood here, people who have been affected by it, are not even that aware or that interested in ‘will it or won’t it affect me?’” she said. When Jennifer Kebe and her family moved in across the street from Hatch two and a half years ago, the 2007 spill didn’t play into their decision at all. “I remembered that there was the oil spill, but I had forgotten where it was in all honesty.”

Looking past the tomatoes, peas and carrots growing in her front garden, the 35-year-old biologist said she doesn’t consider herself a “treehugger,” but any new infrastructure projects should have high environmental standards. Kebe said she is resigned to the fact that the world runs on oil, and although she is against the Northern Gateway project, which would transport bitumen through northern B.C. and down it’s rugged coast, she isn’t opposed to expanding Trans Mountain.

“In my opinion, twinning a pipeline is better than building a new one,” Kebe said.

A couple doors down, 79-year-old David Brown said cleanup crews “did as good a job as can be expected” in 2007, but he now believes pipelines are going to rupture through one cause or another.

“Is the oil absolutely necessary? The world can’t survive without oil? That’s not true,” said the retired BC Tel manager. “They’re going to have to learn how to do that, so why postpone the lesson? Let’s get at it.”

ď ś No

choice but to go forward to the Supreme Court of Canada to protect wild salmon

August 8, 2012. - Government attack on environment increases the urgency of First Nations' access to Class Action Proceedings

(VANCOUVER, BC, August 8, 2012) The Supreme Court of Canada is where the Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation (KAFN) of the Broughton Archipelago expect to continue their quest to protect the wild salmon in their Territory. The KAFN announced this morning that they applied to the Supreme Court of Canada for Leave to Appeal the May 3, 2012 decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) regarding the environmental impacts of open net-pen salmon farms on the wild salmon that the KAFN have depended upon for thousands of years.

The recent BCCA decision overturned an earlier legal victory, where the KAFN made history by successfully advancing the first class-action lawsuit in Canada that focused on Aboriginal fishing rights. The case was successfully certified by the Honourable Justice Slade on December 1st, 2010.

Justice Slade's decision was appealed jointly by the BC and Canadian governments on several grounds, but most notably that, unlike other Canadians, "aboriginal collectives" should not be allowed to join together in a class action. This argument was accepted by the Court of Appeal.

Bob Chamberlin, KAFN Chief and representative plaintiff in the case, observed, "The appeal of our certification win by both the Canadian and BC governments, and supported by the aquaculture industry, hinged on technicalities and missed the importance of government's obligation to regulate the open net salmon farming industry in a way that protects wild salmon.

This decision cannot remain unchallenged."

"The urgency and importance of this case has only increased since it was filed in February 2009. The Harper government's recent gutting of the Fisheries Act, hollowing out of the environmental assessment process, silencing of science, and attempting to paralyze ENGOs highlights the importance of the rights of First Nations. Their access to the justice system can serve as the last stand to prevent the environmental carnage that will result from the pursuit of economic development at all costs. With this assault on the environment in favour of the rapid exploitation of natural resources, what is left to hold industry accountable? We must remove this barrier to First Nations being able to protect natural resources such as the wild salmon of the Broughton that all Canadians hold dear."

Legal Counsel, Reidar Mogerman of the Vancouver-based law firm Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman, confirmed that the Leave to Appeal application had been filed earlier in Ottawa.

A successful application for Leave to Appeal would mean the Supreme Court of Canada would consider whether aboriginal collectives should be able to join together and use the powerful class-action laws to protect their rights. The details are contained in the Applicant's Memorandum of Argument. This 21-page document was circulated to media conference attendees.

Chief Chamberlin, flanked by his legal counsel Reidar Mogerman and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), made the announcement to a crowded room in the offices of the UBCIC. In attendance were regional First Nations leaders, scientists, and wild salmon advocates.

Chief Chamberlin went on to say, "Our experience is inconsistent with Canada's international obligations as a supporter of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that promises shared decision making at both the Federal and Provincial levels that is clearly not happening."

He observed, "Wild salmon are integral to the social, cultural, and ecological well-being of the KAFN and they have sustained us for over 5,000 years. Despite this, our firsthand knowledge of the impacts of open net-pen salmon farms in KAFN Territories has not been respected. We are dealing with governments who, rather than respecting First Nations and working together towards solutions and sustainable economic development opportunities, prefer to invest in litigation costs."

"We were forced into the courts. It is not our preferred approach. We would much rather cooperate and use the resources expended on litigation to remediate the environmental damage that has been done and improve the regulatory system for aquaculture. However, from the actions of the BC and Harper governments to date, I can only conclude that we cannot trust them to protect Canada's environment and our fish without being ordered to do so by the courts," stated Chief Chamberlin.

The Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwa-mish First Nation is a First Nations band government, in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of British Columbia. The territory of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwa-mish First Nation spans the southern Broughton Archipelago and the Gilford Island area just north of the mouth of Knight Inlet.

“I am so disappointed in Canada. I’m disappointed in the province of B.C.,” Chamberlin said.

“They’ve lost sight of the importance of healthy, abundant wild salmon stocks and what an economic engine it represents for British Columbia.”

Salmon farm locations Source: Broughton Archipelago Monitoring Plan (BAMP)

ď ś Walter Cordery: Protecting wild fish must be made a priority August 13, 2012 I spent some time during the past two weeks on the West Coast of the Island.

During that time, I decided to check out the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, established in 2000 to celebrate the unique ecosystems of the area. I hadn't been in the Clayoquot since the "war in the woods."

In 1990, during the height of that dispute with MacMillan Bloedel, I saw the passion of people who wanted to see the Clayoquot preserved, including Nanaimo's Order of Canada-winning environmentalist Merv Wilkinson. Wilkinson was one of many who refused to let M&B employees log the sound. And he was one of many arrested for this protest.

Last week, I wondered what Wilkinson, who died in 2011 at the age of 97, would think if he knew that a salmon farm had brought a deadly disease to the area.

Mainstream Canada's farm at Millar Channel in Clayoquot Sound has been ordered to cull hundreds of thousands Atlantic salmon in the sound after the virus, infectious haemotopetic necrosis, or IHN, was discovered in the net pens holding the fish, said B.C. Agriculture Ministry fish pathologist Gary Marty.

Another Mainstream operation, the Dixon Bay Farm in Clayoquot Sound, had to carry out a similar cull earlier this year when IHN was found there in May. Muzzled DFO scientist Dr. Kristi Miller, head of the molecular genetics section at Nanaimo's Pacific Biological Station, found the infectious salmon anemia virus on two Creative Salmon farms in Clayoquot Sound last year. Neither DFO nor the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have responded to the detection of these deadly viruses with follow-up testing.

These viruses are highly contagious and can be fatal in both wild and farmed salmon.

The threat to wild salmon is just one of the reasons why expansion of fish farms in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve is opposed by a number of groups.

Open-net fish pens are the problem. Huge numbers of fish in an enclosed environment is a recipe for disease that will spread. Unfortunately the viruses mentioned above don't just affect the predominately-Norwegian-owned Atlantic salmon fish farms. They are picked up by wild salmon swimming by as they leave or return to their originating rivers along the coast. As can sea lice which have been found in numbers of wild salmon in the Broughton Archipelago. These issues force me to wonder why consecutive federal and the provincial governments continue to allow more open net fish farms on the coast.

These decisions are putting wild salmon at risk and that's unacceptable.

The problem is governments see fish farms as creating jobs, which means more income tax dollars for themselves. They are willing to put the environment and B.C.'s iconic wild salmon at risk in order to create a few thousand jobs.

I've no doubt that those who work for the aquaculture industry will defend the industry; just as I've no doubt that people who work in the tobacco industry defend that industry.

READ ENTIRE DAILY NEWS ARTICLE HERE

 Sampling Salmon on the Mighty Fraser

by Anissa Reed on Friday, August 10, 2012 · “It is time of the salmon again. The first nations people know this as they follow in the footsteps of their elders down ancient paths to the river to set up seasonal camps and once again collect and prepare that which has become them. Salmon. We were invited to come and sample fish for testing.

BoBo has been working with fish here for over 30 years and led us down to Bridge River. Drying racks line each side of the river here and we were glad of his ability to take us down the short trail.

For fog loving Islanders the heat was almost staggering. Councilor Darrel Bob points to his camp on the other side of the river and the "fish boys" have knowing smiles on their faces as they talk about the km plus hike straight up the mountain with a back pack of fish. This is the first time Darrel has been on this side of the river. It is the respect for the health of the fish that has everyone working together to figure this out.

Through science we have learned that some first nations bones were made up of 90% salmon and through science today we are tracking European viruses. People want to know why many of these salmon are just disappearing or dying on the shores of their natal grounds without fulfilling a legacy to the next seven generations.

There is evidence to show that European Viruses potentially from salmon farm feedlots throughout the coast of British Columbia may be spreading their pathogens to wild stocks and many first nations we have met no longer have faith in DFO so they are calling to us.

“We watched as the water swelled and changed. So powerful. The fishermen here work hard for their catch.”

Anissa Reed We travelled to Boston Bar and Lillooet and were guided to traditional fishing spots with our cooler full of ice and sampling gear. It was hot and sweaty and beautiful. It was an honor and a privilege. It's hard to describe the connection that these people have to their land and even though I think I can feel that connection I can only imagine what it means to have thousands of ancestors before me hand down their stories and their ways of living of the land. First Nations that have survived European disease and colonization and had an opportunity to learn from their elders can tell an early Stuart fish by it's shape and minor details and then choose to leave them to swim further north and feed their hungry brothers and sisters.

We are testing fish above and below Hell's Gate, looking for a heart virus specifically and testing for other viruses. When this study is complete we will publish results on the website www.deptwildsalmon.org after sharing them with the chiefs and fishermen the fish belonged to.”

 Anissa Reed: “Such an honour”

Alexandra Morton: “The salmon of the Fraser River are passing the Grieg farm and then entering the river and the nursery areas of lasts year’s salmon runs. The people of the Fraser watershed need to know what strain of IHN is brewing in the salmon feedlot so we can track it through the Fraser River.

Anissa Reed: “Such an honour to be able to attend the traditional first nation fishing grounds and be allowed to sample their fish for testing” — with Alexandra Morton.

 Stop Norwegian Fish Farms from Killing Wild Salmon

Elly Edwards: “Seriously, fish farms must get away from wild salmon!

Del and Ta'Kaiya Blaney know how important it is to protect wild salmon and all that depend on them.”

As Ta'kaiya says, “everyone has a voice. We all have the ability to take a stand, to speak out, to use whatever talents we have to protect that which is sacred, that which we all depend on.”

Protect Mother Earth, protect Wild Salmon!

SalmonAreSacred

ď ś Agency orders cull of Atlantic salmon at two farms Virus detected in small number of fish August 10, 2012 Two B.C. fish farms are culling hundreds of thousands of their Atlantic salmon stock after testing confirmed a small percentage carried an infectious virus.

The virus, infectious haemotopetic necrosis, or IHN, can be deadly to Atlantic salmon, said B.C. Agriculture Ministry fish pathologist Gary Marty.

"These Atlantic salmon are highly susceptible to this virus," he said, adding if there is a lot of the virus around, one or two more farms could be hit this year.

He said testing at the two affected farms confirmed about two per cent were infected. "Because it's such an infectious disease, eventually all the fish would get it and die," he said.

Marty said the virus poses less risk for wild fish species native to the Pacific, which have a natural resistance.

Brian Riddell, CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, said: "IHN is not exotic, it's native to the West Coast. So in that sense it's not as critical as some viruses that you hear people concerned about."

Others say the potential detriment to wild fish stocks posed by the virus, and fish farms in general, is much higher.

"The public needs to be concerned that this isn't just an issue about salmon farms but it's about the health of wild stocks as well," said Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

He said mutation of viruses into more virulent strains is more common on fish farms than in the wild.

"The nearshore marine environment is getting to be a much more hostile environment for wild fish, I can tell you that. And a lot of the problems are attributed to salmon farms."

He also said transmission of sea lice can occur more easily in the crowded farm pens and pointed to the risk of disease posed by imported fish like Atlantic salmon.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued an official order to the two affected farms to remove all fish.

They are Mainstream Canada's farm at Millar Channel in Clayoquot Sound and Grieg Seafood's farm at Culloden Point on Jervis Inlet along the Sunshine Coast.

Another Mainstream operation, the Dixon Bay Farm in Clayoquot Sound, had to carry out a similar cull earlier this year when IHN was found there in May. Mainstream will likely carry out a dry-land disposal, which involves transporting and incinerating tonnes of fish carcasses, said spokeswoman Laurie Jensen.

"The boats to take the fish out, the labour to do the removal, et cetera, it's expensive," Jensen said.

"This has happened before to the industry, and they come back."

Jensen claimed there was even an upside to the outbreak.

"We know our disease screening is working, we know our bio-security is working, we know our protocols are working. So while it's unfortunate we got it, at least we know we're on the right track."

But Marty said the outbreaks could have been prevented. A vaccine is available and used by many fish farms in the Fraser River where sockeye salmon runs are more common. But it's expensive, which may be why more farms don't administer it.

"If the vaccine is effective, then we won't see any more cases in future years," Marty said.

Outbreaks of IHN have occurred periodically through-out the history of fish farming in B.C., Marty said. "Every four to eight years or so there will be a different outbreak."

A spokeswoman for Mainstream said the company planned to vaccinate all of its Atlantic salmon stock in 2013.

An IHN outbreak in Atlantic salmon farms on the West Coast between 2001 and 2003 devastated the industry, resulting in the culling or early harvest of 12 million fish, according to a 2006 report in the Diseases of Aquatic Organisms journal.

The virus has no effect on human health.

First identified in sockeye salmon in a Washington state hatchery in 1953, the IHN virus has likely been present in the Pacific for centuries.

 Second B.C. salmon farm quarantined after tests Farmers await further results to confirm virus August 4, 2012 B.C. Salmon Farmers Association: “testing in Washington state shows wild fish have a high viral load this year.”

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: I’ll assume that the “Columnist”• is referring to the 2011 brood year. I cannot tell if they are referring to the number of fish/pooled samples that test positive or the amount of virus per sample. My thought is that is an incorrect statement because we only test a few “wild”• broodstocks. As you know the majority of our virology is done on hatchery broodstocks. We do see IHNV in both types of production annually.

Mary Ellen Walling B.C. Salmon Farmers Association A second B.C. salmon farm is under quarantine because fish tested positive for a potentially deadly virus, but salmon farmers say the disease has not yet been confirmed and no culling decisions will be made until the Canadian Food Inspection Agency receives results from further tests.

The CFIA has taken charge of the Grieg Seafood site at Culloden Point on Jervis Inlet and a Mainstream Canada farm at Millar Channel in Clayoquot Sound that tested positive for IHN, or infectious haematopoietic necrosis, this week.

Stewart Hawthorn, Grieg's managing director, said preliminary positive results were found during routine monitoring.

"While we are disappointed about this result and will manage it proactively, it's important to note that this early detection and action is evidence of the effectiveness of our monitoring system and our responsible approach to fish-farm management," Hawthorn said.

The virus, which is not harmful to humans, is found in Pacific salmon but does not harm them.

However, it can lead to rotting flesh and organ failure in Atlantic salmon, which have no immunity. Atlantic salmon are used in most B.C. fish farms.

Earlier this year, 570,000 Atlantic salmon from Mainstream's Dixon Bay Farm in Clayoquot Sound were destroyed after the virus was confirmed.

IHN has not been seen in B.C. since outbreaks between 2001 and 2003 devastated the industry and resulted in the culling or early harvest of 12 million fish.

While fish farmers believe IHN spreads to farm fish from wild stocks, environmental groups such as the David Suzuki Foundation and Friends of Clayoquot Sound and anti-fish farming activist Alexandra Morton say the infections show that open-net fish farms should not be allowed in areas where there are wild salmon populations.

"Eliminating interactions between wild and farmed salmon, by shifting to closed containment, protects the industry's investment in their fish and the environment we all rely on," said Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation.

In a letter to Fisheries and Oceans, Morton said the heavy load of viral particles shed by fish farms could also hurt young salmon.

"If the farm is shedding trillions of viral particles a day, the wild inbound adult sockeye are passing this virus over their gills just before they enter the nursery grounds where last year's sockeye run are rearing as fry," Morton wrote.

"These young fish are not only the most susceptible to IHN. They could also become carriers, spreading it through the North Pacific to other Canadian and U.S. runs."

Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said testing in Washington state shows wild fish have a high viral load this year.

Fish farmers would like to see more testing of wild fish in Canada, she said.

"We think there should be increased monitoring of wild fish health and diseases so we, as farmers, have a better understanding of the effects on the health of farmed fish," Walling said.

A vaccine against IHN is available and is used in areas such as Campbell River, where more than one company is operating in the same area, Walling said.

"Obviously, companies will be re-evaluating whether they should look at using the vaccine," she said.

Some companies have been reluctant to use the vaccine as it has not yet been proven in real-life settings and because it is extremely expensive, Walling said.

 Compensation Culture Submitted by Salmon Superhero August 9, 2012 Compensation culture is spreading through Canada like infectious diseases through a salmon feedlot. Just yesterday (8 August), the presence of Infectious Haematopoetic Necrosis (IHN) virus was confirmed at two salmon farms in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia (read more via ‘IHN outbreaks confirmed’).

Since IHN reared its ugly head again back in May, five sites have been affected: three in Clayoquot Sound (Millar Channel, Dixon Bay and Bawden Point); and two on the Sunshine Coast (Culloden Point and Ahlstrom Point). The two Norwegian companies involved have desperately tried to deflect the blame away from their disease-ridden salmon feedlots and onto wild salmon. Cermaq (the Norwegian Government-owned parent company of Mainstream Canada) and Grieg Seafood (controlled by Grieg Holdings in Norway) are now demanding millions of dollars of compensation from the Canadian Government and their insurance companies.

Bernadette Keenan: “These guys are in business and get the profits, but the taxpayers get the losses.

That is crazy.”

Shamefully, the BC Salmon Farmers Association admitted in The Times Colonist (4 August) that some companies have not even used a vaccine against IHN because it was “extremely expensive”.

“It seems to be more about cutting costs, crossing fingers and rolling the dice,” wrote Will Soltau of Living Oceans (7 August). “And when things don't pan out, just blame it on the wild salmon.”

READ ENTIRE SUPERHEROES4SALMON BLOG ENTRY HERE

 Fish farm flap August 14, 2012

It appears that another chapter in the book of stupidity is about to open.

Mainstream and other open pen salmon farms in the waiting line, appear to be preparing to put their hand out to gather up insurance dollars and — wait for it — government dollars to compensate for their loss due to IHN. All the affected companies knew of the dangers of open pen salmon farming due to IHN from wild stock and maybe have insurance to offset this loss. All well and good if some company will insure this liability.

However, to approach the government for compensation is beyond belief. It is like building your home under a slide area or on a flood plain next to a roaring river and then applying to the government for loss of property due to one’s own ignorance.

All open pen farms should be on dry land and the fish farm companies know this, yet they fight it so as not to set a precedent for other open pen salmon farms around the world.

Now, for them to ask our government for our dollars to bail out their foreign international companies is beyond any stretch of the imagination.

There are only three alternatives for these feed lots, put the facilities on the beach and out of reach of IHN, pay exorbitant rates for loss insurance, or pack your bags and go home.

To ask us for compensation to continue to foul the oceans is not very palatable.

 Fatal virus found in more B.C. salmon farms August 3, 2012

Another salmon farm in British Columbia is dealing with an outbreak of IHN, a fatal virus that can devastate fish populations.

Greig Seafood says its farm on Culloden Point, in Jervis Inlet on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, has produced preliminary positive results for IHN, or infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is doing more tests and final confirmation is expected over the weekend. In the meantime, the company has voluntarily quarantined the facility.

IHN was also detected on Monday at a Mainstream Canada facility north of Tofino, in Millar Channel.

Mainstream has also isolated the site to try to limit the spread of the virus. It says there have been no mass fish die-offs at the farm since the discovery.

In May, the virus was detected at another Mainstream Canada farm in Tofino, this time at a fish farm in Dixon Bay. The company says that given the length of time between the cases, it doesn’t think the virus at Millar Channel came from the Dixon Bay farm.

“Migrating wild salmon, natural carriers of the virus, are a more likely source,” the company said in a news release.

IHN is a virus that causes fish bellies to swell and can quickly lead to death, especially in younger fish. The virus is considered endemic to the Pacific Coast and is transmitted in the water through infected fish feces, urine and external mucous.

It’s often fatal in farmed Atlantic salmon, because the fish are not native to the Pacific Ocean and do not have any natural resistance.

This is the first time the virus had been detected in farmed fish in the area in more than nine years.

The last time, it led to a two-year-long outbreak in which 36 farms were infected. More than 12 million salmon either died or had to be culled.

Joe Foy, the national campaign director of the Wilderness Committee says salmon farms should simply be banned in British Columbia. He says with so many fish in one location, it's no wonder the virus is making a return.

"When you get the salmon farms bunching the disease together and getting these outbreaks, you can have unexpected disasters in the wild stock. And that's what we're very, very concerned with,” Foy says.

 BC Salmon Farms Provide IHN Update August 6, 2012 Editorial Comment: This article is published to share the industry perspective regarding deadly salmon diseases recently detected in Atlantic salmon raised in open pen salmon feedlots sited in British Columbia marine ecosystems.

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Response: • The salmon farm industry is required by law to report deadly salmon diseases to CFIA • These diseased Atlantic salmon are in open pens (large mesh) - there is no way to effectively quarantine them and their ability to spread deadly diseases to wild Pacific Mary Ellen Walling, Executive Director, salmon passing through and near the infected feedlots.

British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association • It’s not proven that the increasing number of deadly CANADA - Two preliminary positive test salmon diseases found in open pen feedlot-raised results for IHN (Infectious Haematopoietic Atlantic salmon do not harm humans.

Necrosis) virus have been reported by BC • The industry’s “proactive plans around protecting fish salmon farmers this week. health” is in fact reactive and is detrimental to the health During routine fish health monitoring, of wild Pacific salmon Mainstream Canada identified a possible • Norwegian-owned and operated Mainstream Canada case of IHN at its Millar Point farm north and Grieg Seafoods are significant offenders regarding of Tofino. The finding was immediately reported to the Canadian Food Inspection the biosecurity of British Columbia’s uniquely productive Agency (CFIA) and public notification made. marine environment.

Ongoing and regular fish health testing also returned a preliminary positive result on Grieg Seafood’s Culloden Point farm in Jervis Inlet. Once again, all reports were made immediately.

These farm sites are now isolated and both companies are working with the CFIA on confirmatory testing and next steps. The farming community has also come together to enact a pre-developed action plan to manage the situation.

“The work our members have put into proactive plans around protecting fish health is really exemplary,” said Mary Ellen Walling, Executive Director. “Everyone is working together to see our response carried out efficiently and effectively.”

IHN is a natural virus of the Pacific Ocean, which can be carried regularly by wild salmon who have a natural resistance to it, studies show. They can carry the virus their whole lives without any negative impacts on their health. The health of Atlantic salmon, however, can be affected by IHN as they have not developed immunity to it.

IHN has no effect on human health.

In May this year, a farm in the north Tofino-area was diagnosed with IHN. Those fish were culled and composted and increased monitoring was put in place at other farms across British Columbia. This finding was the first of its kind in British Columbia in nearly 10 years.

As a result of reinstated increased biosecurity measures, the BC Salmon Farmers Association’s public farm tours have been postponed. We are also asking for the public’s assistance in respecting isolation measures by not approaching any farm site without first contacting the company directly.

The BCSFA will continue to update the public weekly.

 Unprotected salmon farming - Blame it on the wild salmon August 7, 2012 Will Soltau is Sustainable Fisheries and Salmon Farming Campaign Manager for Living Oceans Society.

“Virus detected at fish farm.” It seems like that headline is popping up in the news more often these days. Is it because of heightened awareness of salmon pathogens in the media or is it because of something different happening in the ocean?

One example is the infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus - IHNv for short. It has been in the headlines a lot recently.

The science says it's an endemic pathogen native to Pacific salmon - so common it is also known as sockeye disease. Atlantic salmon on the other hand, are very susceptible to IHNv. They have no natural immunity and past outbreaks in British Columbia farmed salmon have resulted in disastrous losses. Salmon farmers say they have learned lessons and now practice better husbandry at their operations.

Since there is no treatment, a vaccine was apparently developed to protect the farmed fish from IHNv and salmon farmers claim to use. One of their videos claims it to be a 'fact'. This 'fact' was repeated in a submission to the Cohen Commission. Another salmon farm company vet gave evidence at those hearings about his company's fish health practices. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every single fish gets injected by a vaccine to protect us against a lot of the endemic pathogens we have in saltwater to ensure that they are well protected before they go to saltwater.â&#x20AC;? The quote is on page 36 of the transcript.

Then there was another outbreak this spring at an Atlantic salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound. It resulted in over half a million Atlantic salmon being culled and dumped in a landfill, ergo the headlines. Salmon farm vets and scientists claimed the most likely source of the pathogen is the passing wild salmon. I couldn't understand why those nasty, dirty, sickly wild fish swimming all around open net-pens full of healthy, vaccinated farmed fish would be a problem. Then I read that the culled fish weren't vaccinated. That is even harder for me to understand, given all the 'facts' and testimony.

And it begs question; why are these companies choosing to stick their unvaccinated, unprotected stock into an ocean of the wild fish carrying lethal viruses?

Now I read a new headline about more detections of IHNv, this time at two salmon farms one of which is less than seven kilometers from where the first diseased fish were culled and that only some fish get vaccinated because it is extremely expensive. The same reason is given for not investing in closed containment which could have better protected farmed salmon from natural pathogens while at the same time protecting the ocean environment from other adverse impacts associated with growing salmon in open net-cages.

That makes it easier to understand why pathogens are being detected at fish farms and reported more frequently. It doesn't really have anything to do with changes in the ocean, it seems to be more about cost cutting costs, crossing fingers and rolling the dice. And when things don't pan out, just blame it on the wild salmon.

 Letter to Sue Farlinger (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) 08/03/2012 « CTV NEWS FARM SALMON DISEASED | Main Today, Grieg Seafoods is reporting an outbreak of IHN at their Culloden salmon farm near the entrance to the Fraser River. Earlier this year Grieg reported IHN at Ahlstrom. They cancelled that report, but this outbreak less than 5km away makes us wonder if that cancellation was valid.

Cohen Commission Technical Report #1 by Dr. Michael Kent on pathogen threats to Fraser sockeye states: "I designate the following pathogens as potential "HIGH RISK,: IHN virus…The IHN virus is well recognized as a lethal pathogen to fry sockeye salmon in freshwater." Dr. Kent also states: "… recent evidence suggests that there is variability in the virulence of this virus…"

While IHN is a locally occurring virus, your scientist, Dr. Kyle Garver testified at Cohen that a single salmon farm can shed 650 infectious viral IHN particles an hour. IHN is a reportable disease and the OIE document on IHN states a few facts we should all be aware of: • Younger fish are the most susceptible to the disease • "once IHNv is introduced into a farmed stock, the disease may become established among susceptible species of wild fish…"

• Infection often leads to death in salmon • primary infection is fish to fish (horizontal) • depending on the strain, outbreaks can be chronic or explosive • The only control method is avoidance Download 2.3.04_IHN copy.pdf (211.2K) Looking at the attached map, if the farm is shedding trillions of viral particles a day, the wild inbound adult sockeye are passing this virus over their gills just before they enter the nursery grounds where last year's sockeye run are rearing as fry. These young fish are not only the most susceptible to IHN, they could also become carriers, spreading it through the North Pacific to other Canadian and US runs, similar to the threat from the European viruses we are tracking.

I am writing to ask who exactly in DFO Fish Health is going to be tracking this virus in the inbound Fraser sockeye passing this infected farm? What lab did this diagnosis? What clade and strain of IHN does this farm have so we can track it as well. What is known about the virulence of the Grieg IHN strain to Fraser sockeye fry?

I look forward to hearing from you. I will follow up with the person in DFO Fish Health who is tracking this outbreak. I will be adding IHN to the list of viruses we are looking for this summer and will keep you informed of my results.

Alexandra Morton and Anissa Reed

 Nanaimo-based conservation group campaigns for enclosed-container farms August 14, 2012 Editorial Comments: • Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI) and our associates agree that open pen salmon feedlots must be removed from our oceans • WGFCI does not support land-based salmon rearing given its environmental risks (sustainable food source, disease, power and water demands, etc.)

• Open pen salmon feedlots in Canada do not suffer from financial losses – Taxpayers cover the growing expense associated with culling diseased and dead salmon from these facilities.

• Although natural levels of IHN and other potentially deadly salmon diseases are not harmful to healthy wild Pacific salmon, extraordinarily high levels of these diseases and parasites due to open pen salmon feedlot practices are lethal even to healthy wild Pacific salmon.

• WGFCI and others around planet Earth continue to question whether or not deadly salmon diseases have negative health impacts on humans – as documented in this issue of Legacy, we know that the mix of chemicals used to control salmon diseases and parasites in open pen salmon feedlots definitely are problematic for human consumption.

The number of farmed salmon killed by a virus is in the thousands and a Nanaimo-based conservation group said the incident supports its position that all aquaculture should be moved to enclosed, land-based facilities.

Financial losses for two B.C. salmon farming companies could reach into the millions of dollars as fish are culled at sites where a potentially deadly virus was found.

Atlantic salmon from Grieg Seafood's Culloden Point fish farm in Jervis Inlet, on the Sunshine Coast, and Mainstream Canada's farm in Clayoquot Sound are being destroyed after the infectious haematopoetic necrosis virus, or IHN, was confirmed.

The virus, which is endemic to sockeye salmon but does not make them sick, can kill Atlantic salmon.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the cull to contain the disease.

IHN has no effect on human health.

Nanaimo-based Georgia Strait Alliance has campaigned for enclosed-container fish farms for 20 years and sees this as more evidence for that.

"What we'd like to see is for farms to be out of the open water and in closed containers, then there would be no chance of transfer of diseases or pathogens," said Ruby Berry, GSA aquaculture campaign program manager.

She said when IHN strikes salmon in open-net pens, disease is concentrated and it creates a reservoir of germs that can spread though wild stocks, just as colds and flu are concentrated among children in kindergarten.

Craig Stephen, founding director and president of the Centre for Coastal Health, which has expertise on the design and analysis of disease outbreak investigations and independently investigates disease problems, agrees with the kindergarten analogy. But Stephen said even enclosed, land-based facilities come with risks, and "what I've never seen done, in a way that people agree on, is the probability, frequency and magnitude of any exchange of pathogens between wild and farmed fish."

Grieg has destroyed about 316,000 fish. Costs of the losses are still being tallied.

 B.C. sockeye salmon fishery likely closed again August 16, 2012

Don Staniford: “So if Justice Cohen concludes in his final report published next month that diseaseridden salmon farms were responsible for the collapse of sockeye, will the Norwegian salmon farming companies compensate fishermen for not being able to fish?!”

Sockeye salmon adult populations are in widespread decline, a study concluded earlier this summer.

British Columbia's lucrative commercial and recreational sockeye salmon fishery is not likely to open this year, as Fisheries and Oceans Canada says there are simply not enough fish coming back.

Although there has been enough returning fish to fill the spawning grounds and open an aboriginal fishery, numbers have actually started to decrease.

In order for a commercial fishery to operate, the number of summer run sockeye salmon would have had to be roughly double last week's count.

"Returns to some of the populations this year have been fairly good,” said Barry Rosenberger, cochair of the Pacific Salmon Commission's Fraser River Panel.

“But overall, we haven't achieved a total abundance that would allow us to commercially fish."

Mike Forrest, president of the Fraser River Gillnetters Association, says he has seen his livelihood slowly disappear over the past 50 years.

"My brother and I have fishing boats, nets and all kinds of equipment ready to go fishing. We are third-generation doing this and the access to the resource has been taken away from us,” said Forrest, .

He says the native food fishery has priority and in years of low abundance it is often the only one that's allowed.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says although the figures are down, overall returns are increasing slowly from a record low in 2009 and it's hopeful there will be enough for a commercial fishery next year.

Newfoundland and Labrador

 Gray Aqua could receive $13M for salmon July 27, 2012 Infected fish have been destroyed, compensation still being worked out Gray Aquaculture’s compensation for infected salmon ordered destroyed could reach more than $13 million.

The Telegram has learned from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that all salmon from cages where infectious salmon anemia was confirmed earlier this month have already been removed from the company’s Butter Cove site and destroyed, and the remaining unaffected fish are still being removed. The salmon are being taken to a rendering plant, said Gray Aqua vice-president Clyde Collier on Thursday.

“They’re made into fish meal,” said Collier, who added that fish meal made from infected fish won’t spread the anemia. Collier said the anemia, which in some strains can kill up to 85 per cent of infected fish, found in Butter Cove hasn’t proved fatal to Gray Aqua stock. “The reality is we’ve not really seen any mortality from this anyway. It’s something that showed up in a lab test, so they’re just taking a precautionary approach to it all.”

Representatives from the agency declined to comment on the removal of the fish, but in an email to the Telegram said the facility’s quarantine will remain in place until all fish have been removed and all pens, cages and equipment have been cleaned and disinfected.

While the company and the agency have worked out what will happen with the fish, financial details are still being decided. In cases where the federal agency orders animals destroyed — such as this one — it may compensate the company for the loss of its stock.

“We’re still working on that. We still don’t have all those details,” said Collier, who earlier this month estimated the fish stock to be worth about $15 million. “I’m not sure how that will work in the end.”

Suzi Beck, a media relations co-ordinator for the agency, wrote in an email that compensation discussions with the company are ongoing.

“Compensation amounts are based on market value. The amounts are intended to reflect the reasonable market value that an owner could expect to receive for the fish up to the maximum of $30,” wrote Beck. “Evaluators determine market value, based on factors such as age and sizes (weight). In addition, compensation may include costs related to the destruction and disposal of the fish.”

With a maximum of $30 per fish — and 450,000 fish at Gray Aqua’s Butter Cove site to be destroyed — compensation from the federal government could run to $13.5 million. Beck, who also noted there are no health risks to other animals that eat fish infected with anemia, wrote that an evaluation team would determine the final amount of compensation once all the fish have been counted and assessed.

Collier said he expected the fish removal to be complete by Aug. 4.

 ASF concerned about virus outbreak August1, 2012 Inviting industry leaders to discuss issues The president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) says Fisheries Minister Darin King has made some misleading statements about a viral outbreak at a Gray Aquaculture site in the Coast of Bays.

Bill Taylor said the ASF is concerned with King saying the outbreak of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) was just a cost of doing business, and that the virus contracted by the farmed fish came from wild salmon.

“This is a complete fallacy, unfounded by science,” he said, “and we have a grave concern with the statement. There has been only one documented case of an ISA outbreak in wild salmon, so it’s not a disease that originates in the wild.

“Wild salmon only get ISA under extremely stressful conditions,” said Taylor.”

The only detection of ISA in wild Atlantic salmon was a result of the wild fish coming into contact with farmed infected salmon during the outbreak in New Brunswick in the late 1990s.

“There is no doubt — ISA is a farmed salmon problem. The disease has reared its ugly head wherever there are salmon farming industries, beginning with Norway and spreading to Scotland, the Faroes, Chile, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and now Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Taylor said the problem stems mainly from open pen salmon farming.

“When you put tens of thousands of salmon in confined space, they are stressed and disease will break out in a significant way and that’s what happened at Butter Cove,” he said.

“Wherever open pen net aquaculture has been undertaken, there has been huge environmental consequences to pay. I think for Minister King to say that the outbreaks of ISA are going to happen and that it’s just a case of doing business is very irresponsible and very misleading to the public.”

The ASF doesn’t support open pen salmon farming, he said.

“We certainly recognize the many benefits of salmon aquaculture in that it is providing jobs and it is a good food product. There are alternatives to open net pen aquaculture, such as raising salmon in land based operations.”

Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture, says it isn’t feasible to raise production fish for market in land-based environments. In a statement, Cooke said that’s because the environmental impact of land-based salmon farming is greater because of the electricity that is required to pump, heat, cool, recirculate and filter water, as well as the need to dispose of waste.

Taylor countered that Cooke’s statement is also misleading, arguing that he exaggerated the costs for land-based aquaculture.

“Mr. Cooke is referring to studies done several years ago and technologies have improved considerably since then.

READ ENTIRE TELEGRAM ARTICLE HERE

Nova Scotia ď ś New fish farms will help environment - Cooke July 5, 2012

Gael Duchene: â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, the farming of carnivores such as salmon is not the answer.

Salmon farming is actually exacerbating the global food problem.â&#x20AC;?

Cooke Aquaculture operates open net pen fish farms in several areas around the province. (CBC)

Cooke Aquaculture says its proposed new sites would help, not harm, the environment.

Cooke spokesperson Nell Halse said two sites planned for Jordan Bay, Shelburne County, will lessen the environmental impact of its operations.

"We need to have farms in different parts of Nova Scotia so that we can rotate our crops, and always have some farms that are lying fallow, or resting," she said. "That helps for environmental impact, and it also helps for disease control or parasites. These are normal farming principles on land that are very important on the ocean."

Cooke has ten ocean-based fish farms in Nova Scotia. The company wants to open two more in Jordan Bay. Transport Canada, which is responsible for the environmental assessment because the fish farms will be in navigable waters, has approved the plan.

The agency says there are enough checks and balances in place to protect the environment if the new farms go ahead, and that "the project is not likely to cause adverse environmental effects."

Sindy Horncastle of the group Mayday Shelburne County says that is not the case, and even if safeguards do exist, there is no enforcement.

"Neither DFO or the provincial government for that matter, has ever enforced any regulations, so there are no controls in place to prevent pollution, pesticide use. We've seen that in other communities, so we don't feel there is any protection," she said.

Horncastle says Jordan bay is a sensitive lobster fishing area and an expansion of fish farming could destroy that industry.

Cooke expects the provincial government to make a final decision on the plan to farm in Jordan bay within a few weeks or possibly a couple of months.

The province recently announced $25 million in loans and forgivable loans to help Cooke Aquaculture expand in the province.

 VOICE OF THE PEOPLE August 12, 2012 Editorial Comment: Battles in Nova Scotia to protect wild salmon and their fragile ecosystems from the known and unknown negative impacts of open pen salmon feedlots are heating up. The following reader comments from the Chronicle Herald are examples of Nova Scotians’ sentiments regarding the ecosystems they’ve relied on for centuries to provide their lifestyles.

Protecting wild salmon Re: “Wave of controversy greets fish farms (Aug. 7). I appreciated John DeMont’s examination of some of the issues surrounding the expansion of open-net pen salmon aquaculture in Nova Scotia.

Unfortunately, there was an error in need of correction.

The article states “Salmo salar (wild Atlantic salmon) is almost gone from Nova Scotia rivers these days.” This suggests we have no wild stocks left to protect from the diseases, sea lice, escapees, etc., that are inevitable byproducts of industrial-scale salmon feedlots. Nova Scotia has very healthy runs of wild Atlantic salmon — mostly in the Cape Breton Highlands and our fall-run mainland rivers along the Northumberland Strait. Although wild salmon numbers have declined along the Atlantic Coast, mostly due to acid rain, they are far from gone and continue to persist in rivers like the Musquodoboit, Medway and St. Mary’s.

It is also a proven fact that wild salmon and sea-trout populations plummet wherever open-net pen salmon feedlots are placed near their natal rivers or along their migratory routes. Nova Scotians will not stand idly by while our remaining wild salmon heritage is put in danger. We will continue to vigorously defend our wild salmon and trout from companies and politicians that would do them harm, either deliberately or through ignorance.

Raymond Plourde, Wilderness Co-ordinator, Ecology Action Centre

Greater concerns than view I read with great concern John DeMont’s Aug. 8 and 9 pieces on aquaculture. My family (from rural Digby County) were finfish and lobster fishers. I have walked the shore adjacent to Cooke’s salmon pens off Brier Island, where the stench is unbearable, the beach is fouled, and broken pen parts litter the coasts of Long and Brier islands. The concerns greatly exceed the view.

I was at the August 2010 public meeting in Sandy Cove where the proposed open-net cages for St. Mary’s Bay were discussed. The spokeswoman for Cooke’s confidently stated there was an almost exact match between what the penned salmon were fed and their growth, that really their salmon didn’t poop. Later, the same spokesperson stated they only treated sick salmon — hard to imagine how they do this.

It was noted in one piece that $60,000 is being allocated for the evaluation of closed-pen aquaculture.

Typically, industries allow four to five per cent of any budget for research, development and evaluation: $60,000 of $25 million represents 0.24 per cent. As a clinician and researcher, I find this absolutely appalling.

I am not opposed to aquaculture, just open-net aquaculture which I feel gravely threatens our environment and economy.

Richard MacLachlan, MD, Freeport

Unacceptable threat The Heraldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s informative series on fish farming notes that inland aquaculture is much less profitable than ocean operations. One can argue that inland aquaculture does a far better job than the ocean type of incorporating principles of sustainability, and minimizing harm to the environment.

Our provincial sustainable prosperity legislation calls on all sectors of our economy to adopt methods and practices which minimize global warming and damage to ecosystems. Notwithstanding the growing efficiency of ocean fish-farm operations, they still constitute an unacceptable threat to marine ecosystems, the lobster fishery and wild salmon stocks in particular.

The provincial governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lavish and uncritical support of ocean fish farming is a quick and dirty way to generate jobs in rural Nova Scotia that will translate into an NDP victory in the next election.

Future generations of Nova Scotians risk being left with degraded marine ecosystems that will no longer support sustainable fisheries.

Scott Burbidge, Port Williams

Chile

ď ś Salmon cages floating in the National Reserve Guaitecas, Chile

Floating cages are home to reared salmon for export. The fish are fed with feed containing fish proteins and antibiotics. Intensive production methods pollute the water and promote the spread of infectious salmon anemia. Given the decline in production, the solution adopted is to move the breeding industry in the south, where there are the cleanest water fjords, leaving behind residues, disease and water without oxygen Editorial Comment: The above article was translated into English from the original article published in Spanish by National Geographic. http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/2010/01/27/jaulas_flotantes_salmones_reserva_nacional_las_guaitecas_chile.htm l

New Zealand

 The Sounds are for All – say NO to nine new salmon farms

Why this is important?

I am a seventeen-year-old who lives in the Marlborough Sounds and have done so all my life. I am working on an award-winning environmental project my family has spent the last 20 years building from the ground up.

I am calling on fellow New Zealanders and also international visitors to sign this petition and help create a worthy message. We DON’T want nine new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds.

There are already seven salmon farms here, and they have had major issues earlier this year with one of their farms.

We need the numbers, we need your names... sign this petition and make a difference! The Marlborough Sounds is a beautiful place and there are many parts of it that remain unspoilt. The Maori and Pakeha heritage goes way back, and today thousands of visitors come to this area to experience the beauty and endemic wildlife.

King Salmon’s application is proposing to build nine new salmon farms, on top of their existing eight farms. Eight of their new farms are inside Marine Farm Prohibited Zones. All the while King Salmon still can’t explain why thousands of salmon died this year and had to be trucked away on a barge.

This is the ‘clean-green’ country we love and are willing to fight for - say NO to further salmon farms that deplete the natural resources and cordon off public water space for a private profit, and there is no cost to the company to occupy the water.

Join the fight.

Please sign this petition here

 Salmon farm cleared of known disease August 14, 2012 Don Staniford: “Fishy goings on in New Zealand: "NZ King Salmon CEO Grant Rosewarne says company vets believe the farm was the subject of some extraordinary natural event or combination of factors. "There are no environmental problems at the farm and testing has ruled out the presence of any known disease-producing agents," Mr Rosewarne says.”

The New Zealand King Salmon farm at Waihinau has been given the all-clear after comprehensive testing revealed no known pathogens nor evidence of any unknown diseases.

NZ King Salmon CEO Grant Rosewarne says company vets believe the farm was the subject of some extraordinary natural event or combination of factors.

"There are no environmental problems at the farm and testing has ruled out the presence of any known disease-producing agents," Mr Rosewarne says.

"Our experts believe the farm may have suffered from an extraordinary event that directly killed the fish by interfering with them physiologically. Whatever it was, it also put other fish off their feed.

"From time to time nature throws curve balls at farmers everywhere - two years ago a massive snow storm killed almost a million lambs in Southland. Major events can occur in the marine environment and go undetected because they are underwater."

The Ministry of Primary Industries confirms on its website that it is not always possible to determine a cause for a mortality event.

[1: http://www.fish.govt.nz/ennz/Aquaculture/Mortality+Investigation/default.htm?WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished] It says its Waihinau investigations "focused on ensuring that the event was not caused by infectious agents. The investigation has ruled out a number of exotic and endemic disease threats. No cause for the excess mortality has been identified".[2: See the relevant policy document on MPI’s role at this link: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/biosec/policy-laws/response-policy-risk-organisms.pdf ] The MPI says because no infectious agents were found it "has not imposed movement controls or any other form of biosecurity restriction on the Waihinau Bay farm".

NZ King salmon says more than a dozen specific pathogens were tested for and ruled out.

Microscopic examination of thin tissue samples was also used to try to detect any tell-tale evidence of unknown diseases. Furthermore, electron microscopy (up to 100,000 times magnification) was used to look for the presence of any viral particles but both techniques turned up nothing.

READ ENTIRE VOXY ARTICLE HERE

Scotland

 Will wildlife have to pay the price for salmon farming?

August 2012

Nearly every day in the summer, David Ainsley takes tourists on his boat, Porpoise II, to look for wildlife amidst the unassuming beauty of water, rock and hill that characterises the west coast of Scotland. If they are lucky, they get to see eagles, goats, seals, dolphins, porpoises and minke whales, as well as the famed Corryvreckan whirlpool.

For more than 20 years, Ainsley has been running a successful wildlife-watching business from his home on the island of Seil, eight miles south of Oban. But now he is worried that the wildlife - and with it his livelihood - could be blighted by the burgeoning billion-pound fish farming industry.

A Polish-owned company, the Meridian Salmon Group, has applied for planning permission to double the production of a nearby salmon farm in the Sound of Seil off Ardmaddy, and move it 900 metres south. This means more shooting and scaring of seals, more pollution and more dangers for the area’s priceless natural heritage, Ainsley fears.

“Salmon farming is an important industry but some farms unnecessarily kill wildlife and affect wildlife tourism,” he says. “The salmon farm at Ardmaddy is a classic example of an inappropriately located farm.”

In their anxiety to prevent seals from eating salmon, fish farmers sometimes shoot them, or try to frighten them with loud underwater blasts of noise. But according to Ainsley, this can interfere with the echo-sounding vital for dolphin and porpoise navigation. “It’s like blinding them,” he argues.

Pollution from the existing salmon farm was declared “unsatisfactory” in 2010 by the government’s green watchdog, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). The conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, has also expressed concern that chemicals used to treat the fish could spread to the nearby Firth of Lorn Special Area of Conservation, protected under law because of the rarity of its reefs.

Meridian’s expansion plans for Ardmaddy have prompted more than 800 objections, and are still to be assessed by Argyll and Bute Council. The company insists that it is “totally committed to ensuring best practice” and describes claims of damage to wildlife as “unsubstantiated”. Said managing director, Mark Warrington: “If there was conclusive data on this, we would look to change our operations.”

The arguments over Ardmaddy are being replicated across Scotland, as the salmon farming industry seeks to keep on expanding. Recently, there have been conflicts over fish farms proposed near the islands of Eigg, Canna and Colonsay - and there will be many more.

Production of Atlantic salmon has risen nearly fivefold from 32,350 tonnes in 1990 to around 157,400 tonnes in 2011, and now involves 30 companies at about 250 sites along the west coast and on the islands. Farmed salmon is Scotland’s single largest food export, with a worldwide retail value of over £1 billion and major sales in the US, China and France.

Scotland is the world’s third largest producer of farmed salmon, after Norway and Chile. But for the industry, backed by the Scottish government, this is not enough. It wants to grow even bigger, and is aiming to boost the production of all farmed finfish 50% by 2020.

The industry has brought jobs and income to remote communities, but this has come at a price.

“There’s no doubt that salmon farming has given a boost to rural communities in the highlands and islands, but this has to be balanced against environmental costs,” says the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s ‘living seas’ policy officer, Alex Kinninmonth.

“The salmon farming industry must acknowledge that it’s the unique quality of Scotland’s natural environment that’s the brand that’s so successful worldwide. To operate in a way that damages Scotland’s wildlife not only puts itself at risk, but the future of hugely important livelihoods, like tourism and fisheries.”

The problems are manifold. As well as the fish wastes that smother the seabed under the cages, farmers have to regularly use pesticides to try and kill off the sea lice that eat the salmon alive.

Surveys by Sepa in 2008 and 2009 found pesticide contamination in the sediments of all nine sea lochs tested on the north west coast.

Research by the Salmon and Trout Association suggests that pesticide residues in some places are above safety levels set to protect wildlife. The danger, points out the association’s lawyer, Guy Lindley-Adams, is that lobsters, crabs and prawns could be killed. The solution, he says, is to introduce “closed containment units” for fish farming to prevent pollution from leaking out.

Meanwhile, there’s mounting evidence that sea lice are growing increasingly resistant to the pesticides, and can spread to wild fish, damaging their populations. Farmed salmon also escape when nets are ripped by storms, and dilute the genetic integrity of wild salmon by interbreeding.

The risks to wild fish in some areas are “significant”, according to Dr Alan Wells, the policy director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards. Along with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, he is looking to new aquaculture legislation promised by Scottish ministers to help tackle some of the problems.

Both organisations are calling for stronger controls on the management of fish farms, and for new powers to limit the amount of salmon allowed to be farmed. Such moves, though, are strongly opposed by the salmon farming industry, which is resisting further regulation.

“There appears to be little sensible rationale for bringing forward a bill which consists of regulation and bureaucracy serving no purpose other than to tie salmon farmers to computers instead of allowing them to rear fish,” says the chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, Scott Landsburgh.

The clash between the companies and the conservationists is not going to lessen, or be easily resolved. But many would argue that Scottish ministers must be careful not to sacrifice the long term value of the natural environment for the short term demands of businesses. There is much at stake.

 Holyrood denies greenwash over salmon deaths July 31, 2012 THE SCOTTISH government has denied it is planning a public relations offensive to conceal the scale of disease and death on salmon farms throughout the country with a new website due to be launched in August.

The charges come from anti-salmon farming activist Don Staniford, who says he has published “dirty data” showing that more than two million farmed salmon have died in Shetland waters alone over the past 18 months.

Official figures released to Mr Staniford’s campaign group Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) show that Shetland’s biggest fish farm operators Grieg Seafood Hjaltland (GSH) suffered deaths of more than 1.5 million salmon in 2011, and almost 500,000 in the first three months of this year.

Meridian Salmon, who own fish farms in Shetland and Orkney, admitted that in May 2011 they lost around 260,000 salmon smolts destined for the Djuba Wick site, off the isle of Yell.

GSH managing director Michael Stark said their losses were regrettable and caused by a variety of factors, the worst being seals.

Mr Stark said: “Over three quarters of the losses are due to natural mortality during the life cycle, transfer from freshwater to seawater, naturally-occurring algal blooms, swarms of jellyfish, 100 mph storms and depleted oxygen levels caused by weather events.

“However, by far the largest single contributor has been the damage from seal attacks.”

Meridian director Paul Irving said their fish were 15 months old and six inches long when they died while being transported on well boats from fresh water to the sea off Shetland.

“Transferring smolts is a meticulously planned process. We have a very short window to get it exactly right as the smoltification process takes place,” he said.

Meridian reared more than 9.4 million smolts in 2011 and the number that had died represented a loss of 2.8 per cent. “Everyone in the company felt this loss. It really was a bitter blow for all of us,” the firm said.

Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation secretary David Sandison said that 30 per cent of the 80 million salmon reared in Scotland were grown in Shetland.

He described Mr Staniford’s allegations as “mischievous” and designed to increase opposition to the industry.

The English-born activist was recently deported from Canada for overstaying his visa after he was taken to court twice by Norwegian salmon firms accusing him of defamation. He won one case on appeal, the other outcome of the other is still pending.

Now based in Bergen, Norway, Mr Staniford said: “The facts speak for themselves. Salmon farming in Scotland is ridden with infectious diseases, sea lice infestation and dead seals.

“And Shetland salmon is scraping the bottom of that dirty rotten barrel. The shameful history of Shetland salmon farming is littered with cases of illegal chemical use, the killing of seals and the spread of deadly diseases.”

He added that the Scottish government’s new aquaculture website was a “ham-fisted attempt to greenwash the Scottish salmon farming industry”.

However a government spokesman said the website was designed to bring together in one accessible location a substantial amount of information held by different bodies.

He said the survival rate of salmon from smolt to harvest had been increasing and any reports of unexplained mortalities were investigated by the Fish Health Inspectorate, which routinely inspects fish farms.

“The Scottish government is fully committed to ensuring a viable, long-term future for both freshwater fisheries and fish farming, with effective management of interactions between the two sectors.

“That is why we have consulted on new legislation, with plans to introduce the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill to Parliament in the autumn.”

Official figures show that in 2010 5.3 million farmed salmon died in Scotland, in 2011 that increased to 6.9 million and in the first three months of 2012 the figure had reached 2.2 million.

USA

 Hydro bill energizes debate over the nation’s dams August 11, 2012 Congress: Rep. Doc Hastings of Pasco introduces legislation WASHINGTON – Hydropower dams would get a boost, while their skeptics would get punished, under a controversial new bill backed by Western conservatives in Congress.

In a bit of tit for tat, the legislation introduced this month would strip federal funding from environmental groups that have challenged hydropower facilities in court over the past decade. The bill further would block federal money from being used to study or undertake dam removals, save for the rare occasion when Congress has authorized the action.

Hydropower issues heated up this spring after Energy Sec. Steven Chu issued a memo to the Department of Energy’s four power marketing administrations, including the Bonneville Power Administration, that deliver federal hydropower.

The concern goes beyond conservative Congressional leaders. More than 160 bipartisan U.S. representatives and senators fired off a letter saying the memo’s proposals constitute a fundamental shift away from regional hydropower planning and the understanding of local needs and impacts that come with it toward a Washington, D.C.-based, top-down approach.

Nineteen Northwest legislators, including Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., also sent a letter saying DOE appeared to be making requirements outside BPA’s legal authority that could lead to higher power rates without benefits for their constituents.

When Hastings introduced the new hydropower bill Aug. 1, he said in a statement that it would “help eliminate government roadblocks and frivolous litigation that stifle development.” Hastings, chairman of the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, has convened a panel hearing with hydropower supporters for next Wednesday in Pasco, providing a hint of legislative momentum.

But with little time left in a Congress now mostly focused on campaign season, and with the 17-page Hastings bill poisonous to prominent environmental groups, the legislation appears fated for now to serve primarily as debate provocation.

“This is incredibly extreme,” said Jim Bradley, the senior director of government relations for American Rivers. “I haven’t seen anything quite like this. It’s a little bit shocking for a member of Congress to create this kind of blacklist.”

American Rivers, the National Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited are among the organizations that could be cut off from federal grant funding under the bill; each has been party to a suit potentially challenging hydropower generation, and each has received federal money.

“We’re very concerned about it,” said Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited’s vice president for government affairs.

It’s all a reminder that hydropower, however fresh it sounds, can generate political heat as well as occasional cooperation.

READ ENTIRE OLYMPIAN ARTICLE HERE

 Help stop the worst dam bill ever.

On August 1st, Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA), Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, introduced HR 6247 - a reckless bill threatening salmon, rivers, family-wage jobs, and communities across the country.

Excited about the progress being made on the Elwha, Penobscot, Sandy, Kennebec, and White Salmon Rivers?

If HR 6247 becomes law, we can say goodbye to these types of historic, job-creating, river and salmon restoration success stories. A classic example of congressional overreach and top-down lawmaking, HR 6247 would prevent people from working together and finding solutions to tough problems through collaboration at the local level. This legislation would also further harm alreadyendangered salmon and steelhead, stifle job creation, and restrict innovation in the clean energy sector, all the while locking in existing problems and creating new ones for rivers, salmon, jobs, and our economy. Read the bill. Read the factsheet on the bill.

Take Action: Please send the message at the link below to Congressman Hastings opposing HR 6247.

http://sows.convio.net/site/R?i=lV68MZHYY57qCgZ5CGmX1w

Little Goose Dam – Snake River, Washington State

ď ś Thousands of fish die as Midwest streams heat up August 6, 2012 LINCOLN, Neb. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Thousands of fish are dying in the Midwest as the hot, dry summer dries up rivers and causes water temperatures to climb in some spots to nearly 100 degrees.

About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa last week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. Nebraska fishery officials said they've seen thousands of dead sturgeon, catfish, carp, and other species in the Lower Platte River, including the endangered pallid sturgeon.

And biologists in Illinois said the hot weather has killed tens of thousands of large- and smallmouth bass and channel catfish and is threatening the population of the greater redhorse fish, a state-endangered species.

So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators.

"It's something I've never seen in my career, and I've been here for more than 17 years," said Mark Flammang, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "I think what we're mainly dealing with here are the extremely low flows and this unparalleled heat."

The fish are victims of one of the driest and warmest summers in history.

The federal U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are experiencing some form of drought, and the Department of Agriculture has declared more than half of the nation's counties - nearly 1,600 in 32 states - as natural disaster areas. More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month.

Iowa DNR officials said the sturgeon found dead in the Des Moines River were worth nearly $10 million, a high value based in part on their highly sought eggs, which are used for caviar. The fish are valued at more than $110 a pound.

Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, said the sturgeon kills don't appear to have reduced the supply enough to hurt regional caviar suppliers.

Flammang said weekend rain improved some of Iowa's rivers and lakes, but temperatures were rising again and straining a sturgeon population that develops health problems when water temperatures climb into the 80s.

"Those fish have been in these rivers for thousands of thousands of years, and they're accustomed to all sorts of weather conditions," he said. "But sometimes, you have conditions occur that are outside their realm of tolerance."

In Illinois, heat and lack of rain has dried up a large swath of Aux Sable Creek, the state's largest habitat for the endangered greater redhorse, a large bottom-feeding fish, said Dan Stephenson, a biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

"We're talking hundreds of thousands (killed), maybe millions by now," Stephenson said. "If you're only talking about game fish, it's probably in the thousands. But for all fish, it's probably in the millions if you look statewide."

Stephenson said fish kills happen most summers in small private ponds and streams, but the hot weather this year has made the situation much worse.

"This year has been really, really bad - disproportionately bad, compared to our other years," he said.

Stephenson said a large number of dead fish were sucked into an intake screen near Powerton Lake in central Illinois, lowering water levels and forcing a temporary shutdown at a nearby power plant. A spokesman for Edison International, which runs the coal-fired plant, said workers shut down one of its two generators for several hours two weeks ago because of extreme heat and low water levels at the lake, which is used for cooling.

In Nebraska, a stretch of the Platte River from Kearney in the central part of the state to Columbus in the east has gone dry and killed a "significant number" of sturgeon, catfish and minnows, said fisheries program manager Daryl Bauer.

Bauer said the warm, shallow water has also killed an unknown number of endangered pallid sturgeon.

"It's a lot of miles of river, and a lot of fish," Bauer said. "Most of those fish are barely identifiable. In this heat, they decay really fast."

Bauer said a single dry year usually isn't enough to hurt the fish population. But he worries dry conditions in Nebraska could continue, repeating a stretch in the mid-2000s that weakened fish populations.

Kansas also has seen declining water levels that pulled younger, smaller game fish away from the vegetation-rich shore lines and forced them to cluster, making them easier targets for predators, said fisheries chief Doug Nygren of the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

Nygren said he expects a drop in adult walleye populations in the state's shallower, wind-swept lakes in southern Kansas.

But he said other species, such as large-mouth bass, can tolerate the heat and may multiply faster without competition from walleye.

"These last two years are the hottest we've ever seen," Nygren said. "That really can play a role in changing populations, shifting it in favor of some species over others. The walleye won't benefit from these high-water temperatures, but other species that are more tolerant may take advantage of their declining population."

Geno Adams, a fisheries program administrator in South Dakota, said there have been reports of isolated fish kills in its manmade lakes on the Missouri River and others in the eastern part of the state. But it's unclear how much of a role the heat played in the deaths.

One large batch of carp at Lewis and Clark Lake in the state's southeast corner had lesions, a sign they were suffering from a bacterial infection. Adams said the fish are more prone to sickness with low water levels and extreme heat. But he added that other fish habitat have seen a record number this year thanks to the 2011 floods.

"When we're in a drought, there's a struggle for water and it's going in all different directions," Adams said. "Keeping it in the reservoir for recreational fisheries is not at the top of the priority list."

 US bid to return salmon to Connecticut River ends August 05, 2012 SUNDERLAND — The dream seemed tantalizingly within reach: restoring majestic Atlantic salmon to the Connecticut River, where dams had blocked the waterway so completely the overfished population became extinct.

Now, almost 50 years and more than $25 million later, the federal government is giving up on restocking the river.

The coveted sport fish follow an intricate, circuitous life journey along the 407-mile long Connecticut.

Born in tributaries, they swim to the ocean off Greenland before returning to that same tributary to spawn the next generation. Many of their most daunting foes — dams — are now equipped with fish ladders and lifts, allowing the easiest passage in centuries for the salmon.

But the fish confront a new nemesis: the changing ocean. So few Connecticut salmon today are surviving their arduous sea journey — a tenfold decline since the early 1990s — federal officials say they can no longer justify spending money to save them. This year, only 54 fish returned to the Connecticut River.

No one knows exactly why, although theories abound, including the consequences of climate change.

“We really thought this was going to work . . . but the quality of the ocean is changing,’’ Mickey Novak, longtime hatchery manager at the Richard Cronin National Salmon Station in Sunderland, said as he stood in a concrete holding pool with one of the silver fish writhing in his hands.

A decision has not been made about whether the station will remain open.

The Connecticut’s story is a painful lesson about the challenge of repairing nature — and an ominous indicator for Atlantic salmon in more northern locales. Maine salmon populations are nowhere near levels that would allow them to be self-sustaining without stocking despite decades of effort, and scientists worry that the fish — or the funding — may disappear before they figure out how to save them.

“If Connecticut River fish can’t make it, is it just a matter of time before the northern fish can’t?” Novak asked.

New England rivers from northern Maine to Connecticut once teemed with the fish, which became such a regional icon that one was ceremoniously delivered to the US president each year. Pursuit of the wily fish became a quintessential New England sport: salmon clubs proliferated in Maine, and tales of their power at the end of fishing lines were part of family lore. Today, most people know of Atlantic salmon from restaurant menus, but those fish spend their lives in pens, not battling nature to survive.

The waters that served as highways for hundreds of thousands of salmon to travel to interior New England were made impassable by dams — 2,500 dams in the Connecticut River watershed alone.

By the early 1800s, the fish were extinct from the Connecticut.

READ ENTIRE BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE HERE

ď ś Seafood Species Substitution and Economic Fraud

Seafood Substitution Economic Deception or Fraud in the sale of seafood occurs when a less expensive species is substituted for a more expensive-species.

For example, the substitution of less expensive rockfish (Sebastes spp.) for more expensive red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in interstate commerce constitutes fraud and is prohibited under the Misbranding Section of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act Section 403: MISBRANDED FOOD. (See also, United States Code, Title 21, Chapter 9, Subchapter IV, Section 343.)

Section 403(b) - Misbranded food: A food shall be deemed to be misbranded if it is offered for sale under the name of another food.

ď ś FDA's Examples of Substituted Seafood Products in Column A have been known to be substituted for those in Column B, which in most cases are products that are more expensive.

Column A

Column B

Rockfish

Red Snapper

Yellowtail

Mahi Mahi

Mako Shark

Swordfish

Oreo Dory or John Dory

Orange Roughy

Alaska Pollock

Cod

Sea Bass

Halibut

Arrowtooth Flounder

Dover Sole

Black Drum

Red Drum (Red Fish; Southern or Gulf)

White Perch

Lake or Yellow Perch (Great Lakes)

Zander

Lake or Yellow Perch (Great Lakes)

Paddlefish and other Fish Roe

Caviar (Sturgeon species)

Sauger

Walleye

Pacific Salmon

Atlantic Salmon

Pink Salmon

Chum Salmon

Skate Wings

Scallops

Alaskan Pollock

Walleye

Steelhead Trout

Salmon

Imported Crabmeat

Blue Crabmeat

Farm Raised Salmon

Wild Caught Salmon

ď ś Conservation Update: Some in House Want Bristol Bay, West Coast Opened to Drilling July 29, 2012

Sportsmen wondering why certain House members -- who claim to be the sportsmen's voice in Congress -- keep pushing to open up oil drilling in some of the nation's most sensitive fishing areas can get a good idea from this recent interview with Randal Luthi on Environment and Energy TV. Luthi claims that the push by the House GOP to lift the Obama Administration's protection from Alaska's Bristol Bay and the coasts off Washington, Oregon, California and Maine is the right thing to do -- even though his industry already has access to more than 75 percent of the nation's offshore waters.

You probably don't know who Luthi is, but it's a good bet your congress person does: He's president of the National Ocean Industries Association, the powerful lobby of offshore oil and gas. Since 1998, oil and gas has spent $1.2 billion lobbying congress. It spent $149 million last year alone and has already forked out $37.8 million this year, all according to the authoritative Web site, OpenSecrets.org.

A key exchange in this interview: "EETV: In the Senate though, Senators Vitter and Coats have released a bill that would take energy issues out of the hands of the Interior Department and they cite a lapse in offshore production under the Obama administration. Do efforts like this, are they effective or do they simply serve as sort of a distraction or adding more noise to the discussion?

"Randall Luthi: I think what they help do is call attention to the problem and I think that's one way to do it, is you say look at Interior. They're now offering fewer sales than they ever have in their past.

You know, is there something, another approach we should try? So I think it actually adds somewhat not necessarily to the noise, but it does shine a little more light on what we think is a very important issue."

That should give sportsmen a good idea of where this powerful industry is moving. Taking energy out of Interior would remove it from some of the strongest laws protecting fish, wildlife and, most importantly, public lands.

Sportsmen's groups oppose the House bill, and not because they oppose all energy development. It's because they share the belief expressed by most Americans that some places- some public places are too important as permanent homes for fish and wildlife to disturb for temporary financial gain. (www.sportsmen4responsibleenergy.org).

Alaska ď ś EPA Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Generates Widespread Applause, Intensifies Opposition to Pebble Mine July 26, 2012

If the proposed Pebble Mine has a best friend, it is silence.

That's why the Pebble Limited Partnership -- the consortium of foreign mining giants behind the uniquely destructive mega-mine planned for the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska -- hates the Watershed Assessment prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and released by the agency in draft for public comment last May. Recently, the public comment period closed, and the numbers thus far are bad news for the mining partnership -- and very good news for everyone else. Of an estimated 204,000 comments received by EPA so far, 200,000 support EPA's assessment and urge regulatory action to stop the Pebble Mine.

Only 4,000 comments urge EPA to stay away. Stated another way, 98 percent support EPA's engagement and a mere 2 percent do not. And this isn't even the final tally.

That's as close to a unanimous endorsement as will ever be found in the world of public policy. And the reason is clear: As EPA's scientific review found, the Pebble Mine would devastate the region -- its wild salmon fishery, its people, its communities, and its economy. Even if the project were to function perfectly according to permits -- an assumption contrary to the experience of every large-scale copper mine anywhere in the world ever -- it would cause irreparable harm to what is generally acknowledged to be the most productive wild salmon fishery in the world.

No wonder the opposition in the region exceeds 80 percent -- and no wonder the public comments on EPA's draft assessment so overwhelmingly endorse EPA's involvement.

NRDC submitted extensive comments on the assessment, supported by a wide array of environmental and conservation organizations and business representatives. The range and diversity of organizations and individuals weighing in to support EPA can be found on EPA's website here.

PBS Frontline also ran a Pebble Mine segment on Tuesday evening, called Alaska Gold -- an hourlong documentary that portrays, in the words of former Alaska Senate President Rick Halford, what is the "biggest environmental fight of this century for Alaska." Frontline shows the extraordinary natural resources of Bristol Bay, meets the people who will be affected most if the mine is ever approved and built, and delves into why the region is fighting so hard against it.

Notably, Pebble Partnership representatives, including its CEO and VP for Environmental Permitting, proved once again to be their own worst enemies. They repeatedly expressed their unbridled confidence in the capacity of technology -- yet unidentified and never proven, if indeed it exists except in their highly compensated imaginations -- to (1) contain the projected 10 billion tons of contaminated mining waste forever; and (2) enable construction of one of the world's largest copper mines at the headwaters of a wild salmon ecosystem without harming the fish.

Does anyone really believe them? Is there any basis at all to support their limitless confidence in technology to protect a resource that everyone -- even Pebble's CEO and VP for Environmental Planning -- agree that we cannot afford to lose?

The battle against the Pebble Mine is one of the most important conservation issues of our time. It's a battle we have to win. NRDC is committed for as long as it takes.

ď ś Protect wild Alaskan salmon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Oppose proposed Pebble Mine

Hundreds of Salmonstockers joined together to show the world how they feel about wild Alaska salmon (August 5, 2012).

Visit www.RenewableResourcesFoundation.org for more information.

 Alaska's King Salmon Disappearance Leaves Locals Wondering July 19, 2012 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaskans again this summer are wondering: Where are the king salmon?

Some of Alaska's largest and best rivers are closed to king fishing because state and federal fisheries managers have determined that the largest of the salmon species, also called Chinook, aren't showing up in enough numbers to ensure sustainable future runs.

In western Alaska, people living in dozens of villages along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers are turning to less desirable salmon species — fish with lower oil and fat content — to fill their freezers for winter in what one official described as a summer of "food insecurity."

"It is pretty scary," said Timothy Andrew, director of natural resources with the Association of Village Council Presidents in Bethel. "Chinook salmon is probably the biggest species that people depend on for drying, salting and putting away in the freezer to feed the family throughout the winter."

Fishery managers predict that this year's Yukon River king salmon run will be worse than last year, and that was the worst showing for Chinook in 30 years.

Commercial fishermen on the Yukon and Kuskokwim are turning to less desirable but more plentiful species of salmon that sell for under $1 a pound. King salmon sells for more than $5 a pound. With gas costing $6.70 a gallon in Bethel, many fishing boats are sitting idle, he said.

People living in the region's 56 villages are devastated, Andrew said.

"It is an incredibly stressful time," he said.

In mid-July, the Kenai River — considered by many to be Alaska's premier river for salmon fishing — is normally crowded and chaotic with fishing guides steering their boats to give their clients the best opportunity to catch a trophy king.

But a ban on king fishing on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers went into effect Thursday.

Robert Begich, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's area management biologist, said the Kenai king run looks to be the lowest on record going back to the 1980s.

While the continued downward trend in kings isn't clear, Begich suspects a combination of factors, with researchers looking more closely at changes in the ocean environment. King salmon usually spend several years in the ocean before returning to rivers to spawn.

Ray Beamesderfer, a consultant with Cramer Fish Sciences in Gresham, Ore., also suspects changes in the marine environment. He thought he and his family would be fishing for king salmon on the Kenai River on Thursday. Instead, they were casting for rainbow trout or smaller sockeye salmon.

Beamesderfer said in the late 1970s, there was a change in ocean currents that favored Alaska salmon but contributed to poor salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.

READ ENTIRE HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE HERE

ď ś A banner king salmon run on Nushagak River in Alaska's Bristol Bay August 5, 2012 Sport fishermen across much of Southcentral Alaska who'd hoped for heart-thumping fights with Alaska's most regal fish, the prized king salmon, have largely walked away with dashed dreams this summer, casualties of a statewide trend of declining runs.

Yet in Southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay, home to one of the world's largest salmon fisheries, the magic that anglers seek has maintained its spell -- a rebound that may offer hope to disgruntled Kenai River king salmon fishermen.

Just two years ago, the Nushagak River saw its worst king salmon run ever. In 2010, a little more than 36,000 kings made it into the river -- fewer than 25 percent of the river's historic high of 172,000 king salmon in 2005.

But this summer, the Nushagak has bounced back smartly, offering anglers and fish biologists a glimmer of hope in this summer of discontent. As of early August, in-river sonar counts show about 110,000 fish have returned, to the delight of people who make their living catering to fisherman eager to wet a line. That's nearly 100,000 more kings than have reached the Kenai River so far, as the world-famous waterway south of Anchorage deals with its worst king salmon return in a decade.

Bounty of kings "Not only were the numbers good, but (the kings) just kept coming. And coming. And coming," said Brad Giroux, owner of Nushagak River Adventure Lodge.

His clientele this year included people who'd booked fishing vacations elsewhere in the state, such as the frequently shuttered Kenai River. Looking to salvage their Alaska getaway, one visiting couple found their way to Giroux. In five days at the lodge, Giroux said, the couple landed at least 30 of the highly sought-after kings.

And a travel writer who planned to write about fishing for Alaska silvers walked away with a different fish tale. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The article of everyday slaying the silvers turned into lots of kings with a trickle of silvers," Giroux said."

Lucky break amid a mystery State biologists don't have a silver-bullet explanation for why so few kings returned to many Alaska river systems, particularly those in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet.

In 2010, it looked like Alaska king runs had hit bottom after several years of declines, according to Matt Miller, a regional fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Division of Sport Fish. In 2011, things started looking up and it was thought that trend would continue in 2012.

Instead, many places declined again.

But not all. Returns to rivers in the Kodiak and Bristol Bay region strengthened, Miller said.

Scientists generally believe that whatever is happening to Alaska king salmon is occurring in the ocean, where the fish mature several years before returning to their home rivers to spawn. "What we are fairly comfortable saying is that it appears what we are seeing in Southcentral (Alaska) isn't tied to in-river survival. If you have an instance where it is widespread, and it affects hatchery fish, then we tend to point to ocean conditions," Miller said.

READ ENTIRE ALASKA DISPATCH ARTICLE HERE

Maine

 Atlantic salmon return to the Kennebec River August 02, 2012 BATH — For the past 100 years, Atlantic salmon have been near extinction in New England rivers. In mid-July, an encouraging discovery was made in the Kennebec River. Five adult Atlantic salmon were live-trapped at Waterville’s Lockwood Dam, the first of four Kennebec River dams blocking the upstream passage of salmon and other sea-run fish. Near Bath, in the lower Kennebec, a sixth salmon was spotted. Although dead, the salmon measured an impressive 36 inches.

The salmon ranged in weight from 10 to 20 pounds. They were trucked upriver and released in a major tributary of the Kennebec, the Sandy River. Due to the number of dams in the Kennebec River, fish could not freely swim the 67 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Waterville from 1835, when the Edwards Dam was built in Augusta, until 1999, when it was removed.

The maze of dams in the Kennebec and other rivers are part of the difficulty salmon, and other anadromous fish (i.e. fish that migrate up rivers from the sea to breed in fresh water), have had in continuing to inhabit these waterways. Anadromous fish such as alewives and Atlantic salmon are born in fresh water, spend much of their lives in the sea, and return to fresh water to spawn. Their inability to swim upstream to spawn has lead to the decline and eventual disappearance of salmon populations. Combined with toxic industrial and municipal wastes, Atlantic salmon vanished from the Kennebec.

Paul Christman, Atlantic salmon biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), is working to bring the Atlantic salmon back to Maine rivers. He said hydroelectric companies along the Kennebec have banded together to work on freeing a path for anadromous fish to swim upstream. In 2006, a lift was installed at Lockwood Dam, the next obstacle in the river from Edwards Dam. Fish swim into the lift and are raised up to river level. At this point, the fish are captured and taken to the Sandy River to spawn.

Between 2003 and 2009, Christman said, small numbers of eggs were hatched in incubators along the Sandy River (anywhere from 15,000 to 50,000 eggs) and the very young fish were released into the river. According to Christman, the Sandy River has ideal conditions for salmon spawning and growth. The Sandy’s gravel bottom and cold, highly oxygenated water provides ideal habitat for salmon.

The five salmon trapped in the Kennebec a few weeks ago were probably from those eggs. They likely returned as four-year-old fish after spending two years in the north Atlantic as far away as Iceland and Greenland. Christman said the number of salmon to return to the Kennebec each year is highly dependent upon conditions in the North Atlantic, making restoration timelines hard to predict.

In 2007, 11 fish returned from eggs released into the Sandy River. Last year, 64 salmon returned, 42 of which were wild, or naturally reared.

READ ENTIRE COASTAL JOURNAL ARTICLE HERE

Washington State ď ś US Senator Maria Cantwell : Salmon virus action plan

(July, 20, 2012) Dear Mr. Wilcox, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thank you for contacting me about the salmon virus known as Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA). I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter and sincerely regret the delayed response.

As you may know, Canadian scientists recently announced they have detected ISA in multiple species of wild Pacific salmon. While the virus does not pose a threat to human health, previous outbreaks of ISA in Chile and Norway did significant damage to their aquaculture industries. This virus could harm the Pacific Northwest salmon fishing industry and the coastal economies that rely on it because thousands of Washington state jobs depend on healthy, sustainable salmon populations. A 2010 Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Study found that commercial fisheries, after processing and distributing their stocks, contributed $1.6 billion to the local economy.

In response to the recent ISA discovery in Canada, I authored a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 2112) on October 19, 2011.

This amendment calls on the National Aquatic Animal Health Task Force to evaluate the risk the virus could have on wild salmon off West Coast and Alaskan waters, and to develop within six months a plan to address this emerging threat. I am pleased my amendment became law on November 18, 2011, when H.R. 2112 was signed by President Obama (P.L. 112-55).

Additionally, on November 2, 2011, I sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science expressing the need for the U.S. federal government to independently test samples of the recently detected salmon virus, rather than relying on Canadian scientists. The letter urges the Committee to commit the resources needed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to measure salmon virus susceptibility among different species, assess surveillance and monitoring, develop an essential action plan to respond to the potential salmon virus, and establish better techniques for virus detection. As we continue to learn more about the potential infectious salmon anemia virus on the West Coast, I will work to ensure NOAA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other state and federal agencies have the resources necessary to protect our wild salmon.

Since being elected to the Senate, I have committed myself to protecting the environment and natural resources, not only within Washington State but throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Pacific Northwest wild salmon support tens of thousands of local jobs. I believe we need to take immediate action to protect these jobs by quickly developing a salmon virus action plan. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as we continue to closely track this ISA threat.â&#x20AC;?

Sincerely, Maria Cantwell United States Senator

 US

Senator Patty Murray: “perform a thorough cumulative assessment” - export of coal via Washington state and Oregon

impact

Editorial Comment: Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates truly appreciate the ongoing efforts of elected officials such as Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray as well as Representative Jim McDermott to protect wild Pacific salmon from negative habitat impacts associated with burning coal, transporting oil via pipelines and tankers, rearing Atlantic salmon in open pen feedlots sited in Pacific salmon migratory routes, building dams in salmon bearing streams and more.

These dedicated civil servants and their like-minded colleagues fully understand that healthy, sustainable populations of wild Pacific salmon is a cornerstone to our unique way of life.

 Washington congressman seeks coal production tax August 02, 2012

Rep. Jim McDermott, (Washington state) HELENA, Mont. — A Seattle-area U.S. congressman wants to tax coal production to help mitigate the effects of increased train traffic if Powder River Basin coal is exported through West Coast ports.

Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott introduced The True Cost of Coal Act of 2012 on Wednesday, saying he’s opposed altogether to the coal trains passing through Seattle and the Northwest.

The increased export of coal mined in Wyoming and Eastern Montana is likely to increase train traffic through Montana. The Helena City Commission and the Missoula City Council have both asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider effects along the route, including those on health, the environment and traffic, in its analysis of the port expansion proposals.

McDermott’s bill calls for a tax of $10 per ton of all coal extracted, with the money going into a newly created fund for affected communities.

He said in a statement that the average price for a ton of exported coal was about $148 in 2011.

“To ensure that taxpayers aren’t saddled with the additional costs of dealing with these coal trains, this small tax could generate an estimated $115 billion over 10 years for affected states,” McDermott said in a statement.

Chuck Denowh of the industry group Count on Coal Montana said the bill looked like an attempt to get media attention.

“This is just one more example of the environmentalists out there looking for ways to attack coal,” he said. “If this type of thing were to pass, there’s no doubt in my mind that it would hurt Montana’s coal industry.”

He also noted McDermott has previously voiced concern for the nation’s trade deficit, especially with China, which is expected to be one of the largest consumers of the increased coal exports.

“It’s obvious one of the motivations here is to reduce coal exports, which has a direct impact on Montana,” Denowh said. “For politicians who are worried about America’s trade deficit, exporting resources like coal should be part of the mix.”

The bill also calls for railroads to mitigate coal dust by covering or spraying the loads of coal. Montana Rail Link has said it already does that, eliminating the vast majority of the coal dust.

McDermott said the bill is just one in a series he plans to introduce to raise awareness of the coal issue.

 Northwest Tribes Fight for Treaty Rights in Face of Coal-Transport Plan August 15, 2012

Treaty fishing rights are meaningless if there are no healthy fish populations left to harvest, say Pacific Northwest tribes, fishers and tribal environmental organizations.

But that is exactly what is happening on the Columbia River in Washington State as habitat degradation has led to a decline of salmon and diminished the treaty harvest to levels not seen in nearly 40 years. And a proposal to transport coal through these sensitive waterways threatens to undermine the salmon population even more, tribal leaders say.

Tribal fishers like Billy Frank Jr. fought hard battles to uphold the tribes’ treaty right to fish. When the 1974 Boldt federal court decision established tribal co-management of Washington State fisheries and affirmed the affected tribes’ treaty rights to half the harvestable salmon, their harvest finally increased.

Now the coal industry is seeking to export millions of tons of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal to lucrative Asian markets through six proposed shipping terminals on Oregon and Washington waterways. If the coal companies prevail, it will degrade salmon and cultural-foods habitat as well as affect treaty rights, say organizations like the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC); the National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Tribal Lands Program; tribal nations including the Lummi in northwest Washington and the Yakama in eastern Washington, and tribal voices such as Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs elder Bruce Jim.

READ ENTIRE INDIAN COUNTRY ARTICLE HERE

 Coal train victory: One less hazardous route in Washington August 16, 2012

On Thursday, the Washington Environmental Council released the news that RailAmerica has withdrawn its plans to install a coal train terminal in Grays Harbor County.

Coal is not only a dirty and polluting source of energy, but it is a highly hazardous material to transport over thousands of rail miles in uncovered train cars.

Accidents and derailments are not uncommon, which can cause expensive rerouting for other trains, the spill of tons of toxic laden material and some have even resulted in tragic deaths.

The environmental, health and safety risks are too great.

In the end, under pressure from environmentalists and local opponents, RailAmerica decided the location could support more favorable uses that would generate jobs, tax revenues, help the struggling economy and create an acceptable win-win for all concerned.

According to WEC, the actions of Citizens for a Clean Harbor were very instrumental in the change of plans for the location: “The costs to our community didn’t make sense, especially given the uncertainty and instability of the international coal market. A coal terminal would endanger our natural-resource dependent industries, our local economies and the health of our citizens. We know we can do better.”

WEC hopes to avoid any further installations of coal terminals in Washington, although five more are being planned.

Go here for more information and suggestions on how to get involved.

ď ś Businesses want more coal in Washington, neighbors not so sure

Watch Video Here

July 27, 2012

Editorial Comment: In addition to air pollution from coal dust, noise and traffic congestion due to increased number of trains, Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates are concerned with the known impacts of burning coal to human health and to the health of earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fragile natural resources.

SEATTLE -- A new alliance of businesses and groups officially launched an effort Thursday pushing for new terminals that would ship U.S. coal overseas, increasing the number of coal trains running through Washington.

The Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports started running TV ads Thursday.

"It can mean thousands of jobs, it can mean millions of dollars for the region," said Lauri Hennesseey, spokesperson for the alliance.

The group is also confident that studies will show no significant issues with coal dust.

"We have a high level of confidence that it'll come through with flying colors," said Bob Watters of SSA Marine, which is looking to build a terminal north of Bellingham.

Many people who live along the tracks are concerned about seeing more trains. Heinz Streng of Shoreline, who has lived along the tracks for nine years, said the number of trains has increased over the years.

"You move near an airport, you expect airplanes, but we didn't expect the increase that we have so many trains," he said. "When a train comes by, you cannot have a conversation. It's so noisy."

Environmental groups oppose plans increasing the coal trains, afraid it would have a negative impact on air quality.

Two University of Washington professors and their students sampled the air above train tracks in Shoreline Thursday night. They're testing the air from every train, including freight and passenger trains, to see if coal trains are any different.

"Really there's not much study about coal dust coming off of trains," said Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric chemist. "We're really trying to understand what kind of exposure those who live near the tracks would have if we see a very large increase in the number of coal trains."

After a two-hour wait Thursday, a long coal train finally came through. They noticed spikes in the particulates for both the coal train and non-coal trains. They will need to test many more trains and dig deeper into the data to see if they can reach any conclusions.

Government agencies will lead an extensive study, which is expected to last at least two years. They will explore several aspects of the plan to build more terminals and increase the number of coal trains, including the impact on air quality and traffic.

The public will have an opportunity to comment this fall on areas that should be explored during the environmental study.

ď ś National Wildlife Federation Report: Less Coal, More Salmon August 2, 2012

Vancouver, WA - Coal trains that roll through the Columbia Gorge could be the next big threat to endangered salmon and steelhead, according to one finding in a new report from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

Only one biological assessment of port and rail expansions has been done so far, the study says, and it wasn't good news for fish habitat. The new report describes more construction, more rail and tanker traffic, and lower water and air quality as possible perils for fish.

With precautions, says Russell Bassett, executive director of the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, these problems don't have to happen.

"We have a tendency to wait until it's a conservation imperative - and then, we try to clean up the disaster that has caused salmon and steelhead to decline. Here's an opportunity to try and stop something before it happens."

Called "The True Cost of Coal," the report also describes the questionable environmental records of several large companies backing the increased coal shipments. Without more study, Bassett says, the entire Northwest will be backpedaling in its salmon-recovery efforts.

"Tax and ratepayers in Oregon and Washington are literally paying $1 billion a year to recover salmon and steelhead. A lot of time, effort and money is going into recovering these fish species, because they are of such economic and ecosystem importance, and regional icons, to us here."

The Steelheaders' Association released the report jointly with the NWF. It asks that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launch a comprehensive study of expansion plans for ports and rail lines, and that the National Academy of Sciences do the same for wildlife and marine habitat.

 Strip Mining Would Imperil Water Quality August 16, 2012 To the editor (Chronicle): “This letter is for the benefit of everyone in Southwest Washington who enjoy and are served by the fresh water resources fed by the rivers and subterranean aquifers directly adjacent or connected to the Mount Saint Helens mountain region. Specifically, the Lewis and Cowlitz rivers, and subsurface flows leading toward the Yakima region and further south on the Columbia river. The following is the result of my own investigation.

My name is Lynn Jones. I am a graduate of Washington State University. I have degrees in mechanical engineering, ’07 (WSU-Vancouver), and civil engineering ’09 (WSU-Pullman). I have specialized studies in environmental science and water resources.

This letter is in regard to other recent letters addressing the Gifford Pinchot Task Force’s efforts to halt the strip mining operation proposed by Ascot USA Inc. After reading the letters drawing questions as to the motivations of why GPTF and other groups are against the proposed strip mining operation, I would like to state some facts based on the type of mining operation.

Upon receiving information about Ascot’s plans to initiate a strip mining operation, I set about doing considerable research on strip mining operations around the world. The mining industry has made considerable technological advances in its methods of exploration and mining methods; however, there is a fundamental area that continues to be left out of the discussion, the subject of the effect on surface and groundwater aquifers.

Having the benefit of being able to utilize several academic and research databases, I have not found one single example throughout the world where a strip mining operation has not tainted, polluted or destroyed the fresh water resources wherever they have operated. Statistics further indicate an operation in the Goat Mountain-Mount Margaret area would affect the water resources that serve several million residents and tourists in the Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon regions.

This does not address the myriad detrimental effects upon the wildlife and our own children who would be affected by the pollutants used in the mining and smelting processes. I challenge anyone to find some record of where these types of operations do not have a significant negative impact upon the environment, the wildlife or the communities that support these operations.

Taking the stance of we need this to bolster the local economy would be like having a bullet in the chamber and the hammer pulled back. Who has control of the trigger at that point is the mining company.

Ensuring our own safety is the motivation behind the GPTF efforts, and leaving the issue up to the mining company is like saying, it’s not my problem, you are the ones who wanted the negative effects, or we’ll let our children deal with it. Think about it and do your own research. It is difficult to refute facts, especially from an unbiased source.”

Lynn Jones Vancouver, Wash.

 Our Views: Failure on Flooding Would Be a Great Tragedy Chronline.com July 20, 2012 After years — decades — of uncertainty about how to reduce damage from Chehalis River flooding, we are reaching a decisive moment.

The William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a neutral, science-based forum overseen by the original administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is finishing up an intensive, months-long, independent look at the reality of flooding and possible solutions.

The center is not making specific recommendations. Instead, the group is giving objective information about the major ideas proposed for helping find a way to help solve repeated flood damage.

They have come away with “an overwhelming sense that policy makers and leaders are interested in a Basinwide solution for the Chehalis.”

The Ruckelshaus Center’s report provides good information for the members of the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority, a diverse group that has worked through good and bad times in the past four and a half years.

The current Flood Authority members have provided the most productive discussions thus far. They are more cohesive in their opinions and are at critical mass regarding agreement of a recommendation to the governor.

It will be hard, perhaps impossible, to have complete, unanimous and enthusiastic agreement about any major flood projects that truly have a chance of making a difference.

Very few groups examining any important issue, even if they generally agree, can reach consensus.

This group is no exception, but they have that critical mass as they study the best chance for solving the flood problem in the Chehalis Basin That plan is water retention in the foothills of the Willapa Hills.

Again, there might not be unanimous agreement on this project, but we must keep in mind that the opposition to this is a very small, highly vocal minority. Totally against water retention, they are engaging in contempt regardless of investigation.

It’s vitally important to the future of thousands of people and dozens of communities, from Pe Ell to the Twin Cities and all the way down the river to Grays Harbor, that we continue to deeply investigate the promising potential for a water retention structure upstream to take the dangerous edge off high water.

The importance of that quest is underscored as Ruckelshaus Center notes that the people of the Chehalis River Basin came together with great success in those hard days after the flood.

“Future floods will come; based on their history, the residents of the Basin will pull together to respond as they always have.

The question people in the Basin are asking now is whether they and their leaders also can pull together to make difficult decisions about how best to invest in Basin-wide flood mitigation for a better future.”

Editorial Comment: Those who continue to advocate for a multi-purpose water retention facility on the Chehalis River just south of Pe Ell continue to disregard the legitimate concerns of a growing number of organizations, agencies and nations opposed to this dam and its resulting reservoir.

Many decades will pass while additional millions of tax dollars are spent on studies, legal actions, permits, etc. and there will still be no resolution to increased Chehalis River basin flood damage.

It will take political will to implement a permanent moratorium on steep slope clearcuts as well as a moratorium on floodplain development to effectively reduce flood related damage throughout the Chehalis River basin.

The proposed dam is likely to do far more harm than good.

 What makes us think we can control a river system better than nature can?

August 1, 2012 Reader Opinion By Carol Seaman

This letter comes in response to a July 25 Daily World article entitled, “Study suggests multi-pronged flood solutions,” by Steven Friederich.

First, I applaud Steven Friederich for sitting through, and reporting on, the often laborious, sometimes tedious, meetings, of the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority.

However, one has to wonder, with the millions of dollars already spent on consultants and studies, why there is still no apparent progress, solution or answer to this group’s attempt at preventing flooding on the beautiful, natural Chehalis River. I wonder, has the Flood Authority ever stopped to think that perhaps doing nothing at this time might be the best way to proceed? It would appear to me, and many citizens of Grays Harbor County, that the Flood Authority has been spinning its wheels for years, while spending a great deal of money in the process.

What is the answer?

For those of us who live on the river — especially downstream from the proposed earthen dam and levees — we would say, DO NOTHING! That is correct — DO NOTHING because there are no answers to the questions regarding dangerous effects the “proposed” projects would most likely have on people and properties downstream. It would also be prudent to look at the devastation caused by earthen dams over the years in Washington State, as well as elsewhere throughout the world. This is an unequivocally dangerous proposal and should not be considered. Period. This stance is validated by the most recent 282-page report presented by the Ruckelshaus Center and certainly questions the policy makers in this county.

Not even the latest “new report” required by the state Office of Financial Management, was effective in offering any kind of quantifiable activity or project that hasn’t been considered previously, as well as the mitigation questions. This report is nothing more than a weak attempt to keep the Flood Authority rolling along and justify more millions being spent for what? Honestly, this entire endeavor is absolutely pointless without the completion of mitigation studies — that means “what happens downriver when you start changing upriver” whether it be earthen dams, levees or any number of projects sighted in the “many pronged attack.” There are too many variables, tidal flow, high winds, heavy rains and this question cannot effectively be answered — no matter the money spent. Even with these suggestions offered by the Ruckelshaus/Jim Kramer report — the Flood Authority has no more answers than it had several years ago! To many of us, it is beginning to look like an unending lesson in futility!

Why doesn’t the federal government step up to the plate, build an overpass to eliminate the flooding issues on I-5 in the Centralia/Chehalis area. All of the building there was done with full knowledge that it was in a flood plain. Why doesn’t the Chehalis River Authority disband and stop acting like it is accomplishing something? It isn’t. Stop spinning your wheels with useless studies, and certainly some amount of bickering reported to the citizens of Grays Harbor over the years. Divert the $5 million you are posed to receive, already allotted — to a fund which would help flood victims in the case of a flood.

Five million dollars would be a start. Then, take a serious look at the logging industry for the large part it has played, and continues to play, in the flooding on the Chehalis and many other rivers in this state. Work with Peter Goldmark, our Public Lands Commissioner for some answers and hopefully some assistance and solutions. Perhaps the Department of Natural Resources would be willing to contribute to my proposed “Flood Victim Fund.”

As for Mr. Kramer signing a recent $91,200 contract to “provide facilitation services” to the Flood Authority — nonsense. If he is unable to offer opinions or direction to the Flood Authority, it is a complete waste of more money. Put that money also in the fund to help flood victims in the event it is needed! There, now you already have $5,091,200. That’s a good start. Leave the river alone. No good comes from trying to control natural habitat. I wonder if the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority knows that a DNR-driven, 5,000-acre Natural Area Preserve and a one-of-a-kind estuary system, which contributes natural flood control, currently exist at the mouth of our precious Chehalis River?

Please, let us not jeopardize what we have with more relentless studies and inept attempts to control yet another natural river!

 THE

WILD OLYMPICS EFFORT: New legislation will create a legacy for generations August 7, 2012

PERMANENT PROTECTION FOR THE Olympic Peninsula's ancient forests, free-flowing rivers and stunning scenery made a gigantic leap forward in June with the introduction of the historic Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 2012.

Years in the making, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks' and Sen. Patty Murray's landmark legislation would designate more than 126,500 acres of new wilderness in Olympic National Forest, permanently safeguarding our ancient forests, wildlife habitat and sources of clean drinking water.

Nineteen Peninsula rivers and their major tributaries would be designated “wild and scenic,” forever protecting them from dams and safeguarding critical salmon habitat and recreation for future generations.

When the Wild Olympics Campaign started in 2008, our goal was a plan to permanently protect the Peninsula's rivers and streams that was also tailored to diverse needs of Peninsula communities.

Paramount to success was our commitment to extensive community input.

The community spoke, and Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray listened.

They spent nearly three years gathering input from the people of the Olympic Peninsula to draft their proposal, meeting with conservationists, tribes, timber communities, hunters, anglers, local officials, businesses and other Peninsula residents, revising their plan repeatedly to address concerns.

In the end, not everyone got everything he or she wanted in the bill — the Wild Olympics Coalition included — but everyone, for and against, helped shape it.

This inclusive process resulted in a final plan significantly different than the draft proposal our coalition released in early 2010.

In their final revisions, Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray: • Dropped all 37,000 acres of proposed park additions.

• Removed 11,300 acres of timber base, including plantations, from the proposed wilderness.

• Removed all roads from proposed wilderness, ensuring no roads will be closed or affected.

• Added 7,400 acres of old growth and mature (80-plus) forests to proposed wilderness, Our Congressional Champions added significantly to the old growth in the proposal, while removing all but a tiny fraction of 1 percent of available timber base from the plan — an amount so insignificant it ensures that no timber jobs will be impacted.

In essence, the final Wild Olympics legislation simply makes current Forest Service safeguards permanent, preventing future administrations from opening ancient forests and rivers to new logging, road building, mining, drilling or dams.

We are shifting into high gear to help get the bill passed this year because the clock is ticking to put these safeguards in place.

As we witness the Forest Service rolling back safeguards for old-growth forests in Central Washington and new hydro development projects advancing in the Cascades, we cannot afford to wait any longer to grant full, congressionally designated protection to the Peninsula's ancient forests and free-flowing rivers.

And the majority of folks agree.

Last month, a bipartisan poll by two nationally renowned pollsters showed likely voters in our 6th Congressional District overwhelmingly favor Wild Olympics by more than 4 to 1: 64 percent supporting and only 15 percent opposed.

Nearly half supported it “strongly.”

Congressman Dicks' and Sen. Murray's legislation will provide durable, permanent safeguards for the Peninsula's most priceless natural treasures.

Their hard work will ensure a vital natural legacy to all those who come after us.

The Wild Olympics Coalition and our thousands of supporters express our deepest thanks to Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray for their visionary leadership.

Future generations will thank them, too.

ď ś THE

WILD OLYMPICS EFFORT: Wilderness myth threatens roads, tax base, good jobs August 7, 2012

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Aberdeen and Cosmopolis city councils and Grays Harbor County commissioners have passed resolutions opposing the Wild Olympics campaign.â&#x20AC;? (Chronline.com, August 17, 2012)

THE BACKDROP OF Sequim is largely in the Olympic National Forest, a green mantle created by Mother Nature and, yes, by logging.

Somehow, this very effective management program is being called into question, though there is no sign of desecration.

It is simply highly productive forestland doing what it does best: growing trees.

Those who question this process have been emboldened by the complacent reaction of the public who are obviously unaware of the long term implications of the Northwest Forest Plan, enacted in 1994.

One of the hallmarks of this legislation is to tear out the road system which eliminates access to the timber resource, historically the main source of funds for managing the forests.

The reasons given by the Forest Service are two: water quality and aquatic resources.

So armed with this information, I took a drive to see these roads close up and to assess their obvious harm to these resources.

At random, I chose five roads listed for decommissioning. Surprisingly none of them had even the slightest potential to cause the problems that had been raised.

The grades were gentle, the water draining easily, the water bars functioning, the fills stable and simple maintenance a certainty.

These roads had been built for a reason: to assure a continued supply of timber.

Finding well-stocked, viable plantations ages 15, 20 and 35 years planted at public expense, was no surprise.

But the real surprise is that tearing out the roads does not create a furor.

How would we react if other public roads were torn out despite their value and necessity?

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks has introduced legislation [along with Sen. Patty Murray] to expand wilderness once again, suggesting that the long-term benefits of this designation are compelling.

So while traveling, I looked at some of these areas as well.

Apparently, U.S. forest managers can no longer be trusted to care for our trees and to assure their perpetual yield while protecting the resources under their care.

The green mantle behind Sequim suggests otherwise. It's a success story, not even remotely threatening anything.

This wilderness idea is a fallacy, particularly in areas such as this.

It is mainly supported by an elite group of well-financed, highly educated and skillful people who enjoy the backcountry under their own terms.

It does not consider the disenfranchised, i.e., those who do not have the time, the physical fitness, or even the resources to outfit themselves adequately for the backcountry.

These people are left out of these areas and soon will be excluded permanently by de facto wilderness (no roads) or legislated wilderness as Congressman Dicks proposes as his swan song.

In either case, the definition of wilderness as described in the Wilderness Act of 1964 does not apply to these acres.

The areas chosen for road removal and wilderness designation do not measure up today nor have they in the past when considered. They were excluded purposely.

These acres are simply timberland, today, tomorrow and forever.

To suggest that a wilderness designation will improve employment is, at the least, implausible.

More importantly it sacrifices, forever, the potential that these lands provide for our tax base, the support for schools and public roads and, most importantly, for the creation and maintenance of family-wage jobs.

We can all sit idly by and watch these things as they occur or we can object, loudly and long, for the good of our people and those who follow us.

You can be certain that these folks will thank us for these efforts, so vital for their future well-being.

Community outreach: Free salmon fishing seminar

OLYMPIA CHAPTER OF TROUT UNLIMITED AUGUST 22, 2012 7:00PM NORTH OLYMPIA FIRE STATION 5046 BOSTON HARBOR ROAD NE

YEARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ROUND SALMON FISHING

Program: The public is invited to the August 22nd meeting of the Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a presentation by Capt. Clint Muns, refreshments, and fishing equipment raffle. Year â&#x20AC;&#x2122;round salmon fishing in Puget Sound is a reality, although some times of the year are better than others. The calm beauty of Puget Sound, Hood Canal, and Grays Harbor provide a unique fishing experience. In this modern era of fisheries management, with ESA listed stocks, hatchery reform, marked selective fisheries and all the regulations that go along with this, having someone with experience and knowledge to negotiate these complexities for you will enhance your enjoyment.

Bio:

With over 30 years experience fishing the waters of Puget Sound and as a lifelong resident and

fisherman of Washington State, Capt. Muns offers some of the same opportunities to you that he has experienced. He is a licensed skipper and owner of Puget Charters, offering personalized service and customized trips. His fisheries efforts also include serving as a member of the Charter Boat Association of Puget Sounds and as a member of the WDFW Recreational Fisheries Advisory Group. Since 2005 he has been the Director of Resource Management for Puget Sound Anglers.

Conservation Video Library – “Why we’re involved” Salmon Wars: Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities (6:07) Tar Sands: Oil Industry Above the Law? (1:42) SPOIL – Protecting BC’s Great Bear Rainforest from oil tanker spills (44:00) The Facts on Fish Farms (60:00+) Undamming Elwha (26:46) Is your favorite seafood toxic? (6:06) “Algae culture fish farm” (6:40) Pebble Mine: “No Means No” (1:15) Salmon Wars- Aquaculture, Wild Fish & The Future of Communities (6:25) Vegetarian Fish? A New Solution for Aquaculture (7:32) Everyone Loves Wild Salmon – Don’t They? - Alexandra Morton (2:53) The End of the Line (1:08) Sacred Headwaters - British Columbia, Canada (16:14) Atlantic salmon feedlots - impacts to Pacific salmon (13:53) Salmon: Running the Gauntlet - Snake River dams (50:08) Farmed Salmon Exposed (22:59) Salmon farm diseases and sockeye (13:53) Shame Below the Waves (12:37) Locals Oppose Proposed Pebble Mine (7:23) Occupy Vancouver, BC - Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:18) Farming the Seas (Steve Cowen) (55:53) Farming the Seas (PBS) (26:45) Cohen Commission – Introduction (9:52) Deadly virus found in wild Pacific salmon (1:57) A tribute by Dr. Alexandra Morton (5:35) Green Interview with Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:06) Closed containment salmon farms (8:15) Don Staniford on 'Secrets of Salmon Farming' (7:50) H2oil - A documentary about the Canadian tar sand oil (3:20) From Tar Sands to Tankers – the Battle to Stop Enbridge (14:58) Risking it All - Oil on our Coast (13:16) To The Last Drop: Canada’s Dirty Oil (22:31) Greed of Feed: what’s feeding our cheap farmed salmon (10:37) Land-based, Closed-containment Aquaculture (3:14)

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners Many businesses around planet earth rely in part on sustained 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 sustained 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.

Sustained wild game fish populations provide family wage jobs and balanced ecosystems while ensuring cultural values. They also provide a unique, natural resourcesbased lifestyle for those fortunate to have these magnificent creatures in our lives.

Conservationists working together with the business community can effectively protect and restore planet earth’s wild game fish for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This will be our LEGACY. WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations:

 American Rivers  Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture  LightHawk  Salmon Are Sacred  Salmon and Trout Restoration Association of Conception Bay Central, Inc (be sure to “Like” on Facebook)  Save Our Salmon  Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter  Sportsman’s Alliance For Alaska  Steelhead Society of British Columbia  Trout Unlimited  Wild Salmon First