Legacy - September 2013

Issue 23

September 2013

Legacy Š Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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

Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

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

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

LEGACY 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. E-mail them with captions and credits to Jim (wilcoxj@katewwdb.com).

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

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Founders

Bruce Treichler

Jim Wilcox

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Contents  A few more reasons to protect, restore and conserve wild Pacific salmon _________________________________ 7

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook _________________________________________________________ 9  WGFCI – September Shout Outs: ______________________________________________________________________ 10  Orcas in Captivity (ABC article and video here) _________________________________________________________ 11

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 12  Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby _________________________________________________ 12  Diets of Pregnant Women Contain Harmful, Hidden Toxins ______________________________________________ 13  Consumption habits of pregnant women and implications for developmental biology: a survey of predominantly Hispanic women in California ___________________________________________________________ 15  Fish and Health: More to the Story_____________________________________________________________________ 16  Senators urge Obama to update seafood report for pregnant women_____________________________________ 17  Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) decrease the placental syncytiotrophoblast volume and increase Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) in the placenta of normal pregnancy. ____________________________________  10 American Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries ________________________________________________  I wouldn't feed this garbage to my dog _________________________________________________________________  Tracing Germs Through the Aisles ____________________________________________________________________  Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch: Avoid Eating Atlantic Salmon __________________________________  Farmed Salmon Heavy in Chemicals, Group Says ______________________________________________________  Fresh, PRV-Infected, B.C. Salmon: Now Available at a Supermarket Near You ____________________________  Farmed Salmon Can Be a Risk to your Health __________________________________________________________  Food for thought _____________________________________________________________________________________  Enjoy seasonal wild Pacific salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:____________________________________  It’s Wild-Salmon Season ______________________________________________________________________________  PROUD TO SUPPORT WILD SALMON – Original art by Leanne Hodges __________________________________  Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here _________________________________________________________

18 20 21 22 25 27 29 32 33 34 35 36 37

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38 41 43 46

US puts Marine Harvest Chile salmon shipments on hold _______________________________________________ Oceana Study: ‘Fish Fraud’ Ripping Off American Consumers ___________________________________________ Why I No Longer Eat Farmed Salmon . . . Part 2 _________________________________________________________ Tell your grocer: Boycott GMO salmon ________________________________________________________________

We’re writing for wild game fish conservation ______________________________________________________ 48     

Albertsons – Remove feedlot salmon from stores ______________________________________________________ Follow-up note to Albertsons - Remove feedlot salmon from stores ______________________________________ Sea Shepherd – Remove open pen salmon feedlots from our oceans ____________________________________ Brian Abbott: Washington State Salmon Recovery Office _______________________________________________ Laurie Jensen: Mainstream Canada____________________________________________________________________

48 48 49 49 49

 Maria Cantwell: US Senate (Washington State) _________________________________________________________ 50  John Kerry, Secretary of State, United Sates of America ________________________________________________ 52  Mark Saunders, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Manager, Salmon and Freshwater Ecosystems, Pacific Biological Station _____________________________________________________________________________ 53  Gail Shea, Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada _______________________________________ 53  Pat Pimm, British Columbia Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food _______________________________________ 54

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Responses to WGFCI: ____________________________________________________________________________ 55  Albertsons Customer Care ____________________________________________________________________________ 55  Barak Obama, President, United States of America _____________________________________________________ 55  Department of Fisheries and Oceans __________________________________________________________________ 56

Community Activism, Education and Outreach: ____________________________________________________ 57  Leave this world better than when you found it _________________________________________________________ 57  The Salmon Feedlot Boycott __________________________________________________________________________ 58  Wild Salmon Warriors Never Quit ______________________________________________________________________ 59  Salmon Disease Symptom Reporting – Poster now available HERE ______________________________________ 60  Wild Pacific Salmon Need You – Salmon Are Sacred ____________________________________________________ 61  Salmon Feedlot Boycott ______________________________________________________________________________ 62  SALMON FEEDLOT BOYCOTT – SUPERSTORE Chilliwack ______________________________________________ 63  Yet another grocery-store protest _____________________________________________________________________ 64    

Salmon Confidential: View documentary, Sign up for salmon, Community outreach, Donate, More _________ ‘Salmon Confidential’ documentary raises disturbing questions about farmed salmon ____________________ Association voices concerns about ‘Salmon Confidential’ film documentary _____________________________ B.C.'S SACRED HEADWATERS STAY SACRED_________________________________________________________

66 67 68 69

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Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________ Wil D. Salmon and his “Salmon Love” van _____________________________________________________________ It appears piscine reovirus (PRV) arrived in BC waters around 2007 ______________________________________ Call to action (Canada): Report all Poachers and Polluters ______________________________________________ Don Staniford: Salmon Farming: Big Fish in a Little Pond _______________________________________________ “Big Fish in a Little Pond” – Don Staniford – Watch Part 1 Part 2 _______________________________________ Fish: Part 2. And another worrying case for campaigners. _______________________________________________ In Canada, PM Harper has lists of “Friends” and “Enemies.” Guess Which Side We’re On? ________________ ForestEthics Advocacy Challenges Harper Government Energy Rules in Court ___________________________ Launch of Protect Wild Scotland! ______________________________________________________________________ Salmon Farms Kill – Mainstream Canada “wins”, democracy loses ______________________________________ Court upholds Mainstream Canada’s case against activist ______________________________________________

71 72 73 75 76 76 77 78 80 81 82 83

 Salmon farming company wins defamation lawsuit _____________________________________________________ 85  The Chill Effect: Wild Salmon Advocate Learns $75,000 Lesson in Court So You Won’t Have To ___________ 87  Gag Orders Kill the Truth _____________________________________________________________________________ 89  Wild Salmon Warriors gagged in Canada - not able to speak these truths (and more) ______________________ 90  My personal opinion about open net-cage salmon feedlots in British Columbia ___________________________ 93  Jurisdiction and Education Presentation by Sharon Venne ______________________________________________ 93     

Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages ____________________________________________________________________ 94 Nez Perce Leaders Stand Firm on Frontlines of Mega-Load Transport ____________________________________ 95 Protect Bryce Canyon from dangerous coal mining! ____________________________________________________ 98 COAL, OIL, GAS // NONE SHALL PASS _______________________________________________________________ 100 Who you gonna call? - Fish Busters __________________________________________________________________ 101

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Impacts of open pen salmon feedlots _____________________________________________________________ 102  Bleeding herring discovery alarms B.C. marine biologist _______________________________________________ 102  Disease killing Pacific herring threatens salmon, scientist warns _______________________________________ 104  Experimental infection studies demonstrating Atlantic salmon as a host and reservoir of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus type IVa with insights into pathology and host immunity __________________ 106  Alexandra Morton: HSMI pathogen from Norway found in Canada ______________________________________ 107  Asking Norway about the Piscine Reovirus ___________________________________________________________ 108  Public Prevented from Knowing about Diseased Farmed Salmon _______________________________________ 109  ISA Linked to Aquaculture: Salmon Federation ________________________________________________________ 111  Farmed salmon get TB that can also infect us _________________________________________________________ 112  Sea lice on wild Pacific salmon _______________________________________________________________________ 113  Salmon anemia cause for concern: minister ___________________________________________________________ 114  Alexandra Morton Talks: Video series ________________________________________________________________ 116  Transmission dynamics of parasitic sea lice from farm to wild salmon __________________________________ 117  Aquaculture: The saga of salmon people (translated via Google) _______________________________________ 118  VOICE OF THE PEOPLE _____________________________________________________________________________ 121  Developing models for investigating the environmental transmission of disease-causing agents within open-cage salmon aquaculture _______________________________________________________________________ 122  Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue - SAD __________________________________________________________________ 123  Fish-farm parasites eating Wester Ross trout alive ____________________________________________________ 124

Climate Change _________________________________________________________________________________ 126  Ocean Acidification – Revolution: Now Playing in Theatres _____________________________________________ 126  Marine Life Reacts Faster to Warming Than Land Species ______________________________________________ 127  Global Scientists Shocked by True Scale of Ocean Warming ___________________________________________ 128

Energy production and wild game fish: Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Wind, Natural Gas ___________________ 130 Oil – Drilled, Tar Sands _________________________________________________________________________________  Canadian Natural restricts operations after bitumen leak _______________________________________________  Tar sands well blowout raises questions about Alberta's regulatory oversight ___________________________  Kitimat ocean program set for oil tankers _____________________________________________________________

131 131 133 136

 Alberta fisherman lands 300 pound ball of tar _________________________________________________________ 137  Massive Toxic Black Cloud, Brought To You by the Koch Bros, Blows Over Detroit ______________________ 139  Rail line has a disaster plan, but won’t say what it is ___________________________________________________ 141 Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 144  Washington state Coal Trains and Environmental Review ______________________________________________ 144  Appalachia-North? 18 new coal mine proposals for Comox Valley ______________________________________ 145 Hydropower and water retention ________________________________________________________________________  China and India 'water grab' dams put ecology of Himalayas in danger __________________________________  Soapbox: Protect Northern Colorado families by asking Congress to pass dam safety bill ________________  Crisis In Court: Mega-farms Trying to Seize Salmon Water _____________________________________________  Dam removal to boost habitat on Sandy River and Columbia ___________________________________________  FERC approves permit for dam near Valdez ___________________________________________________________

147 147 149 151 152 153

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!  Fish Passage vs the Bottom Line – EWEB Looks at Alternatives to $45 Million Fish Screen and Tunnel For Chinook ________________________________________________________________________________________ 155  Five years of progress to protect Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead __________________________ 156  NOAA: Puget Sound killer whales to stay protected ____________________________________________________ 157 Natural Gas, Fracking __________________________________________________________________________________ 159  UPDATED: (VIDEO) Fire on gas platform near Deepwater Horizon oil spill scene _________________________ 159 Wind__________________________________________________________________________________________________ 162  Game changer: Next Generation Wind Turbines With Storage Are Cheap, Reliable And Brilliant ___________ 162  The Clean Energy Revolution is Underway Across the World ___________________________________________ 164

Forest Management _____________________________________________________________________________ 165  Stephen Hume: Clayoquot protest 20 years ago transformed face of environmentalism __________________ 165

Government action/inaction and wild game fish ___________________________________________________ 168  I Don’t Pay Attention to Politics… ____________________________________________________________________ 168    

Federally Reportable Aquatic Animal Diseases in Canada - 2013 ________________________________________ Canadian, U.S. fisheries managers wait anxiously for summer sockeye returns __________________________ Sockeye season called the worst in three decades _____________________________________________________ Sockeye ban on Skeena extended to First Nations _____________________________________________________

169 170 172 173

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Loss of wild salmon disease doctor will have major impact ____________________________________________ Fish-lab decision was a good one ____________________________________________________________________ Dalley talks about ISA _______________________________________________________________________________ Ireland mulls Aran Islands salmon farm plan __________________________________________________________ Pollution impact of salmon farms reviewed ___________________________________________________________ Russia’s largest aquaculture plant____________________________________________________________________ Marine Harvest fined $40,000 for violations of the Fisheries Act_________________________________________

175 176 177 179 180 182 183

 FDA Import Alert: Detention Without Physical Examination Of Aquaculture Seafood Products Due To Unapproved Drugs __________________________________________________________________________________  Canadian Aquaculture Industry Welcomes Gail Shea as New Fisheries & Oceans Minister ________________  Gubernatorial Candidate, Jay Inslee on open pen salmon feedlots ______________________________________  B.C., Alberta premiers launch plan to expand oil, gas exports __________________________________________

184 185 187 188

 UPDATE: Port of Vancouver unanimously approves oil terminal lease __________________________________ 190  Parnell Administration: Alaska’s Salmon Streams open for Coal Mining _________________________________ 192

Mining and wild game fish _______________________________________________________________________ 193  US Congressman Larsen to US President Obama – Protect Bristol Bay Salmon Fisheries ________________ 193  Anglo-American mining plans threaten millions of salmon _____________________________________________ 194

Pesticides and Wild Game Fish __________________________________________________________________ 195  World: Complaints over sea lice treatment ____________________________________________________________ 195  Concerns Over Sea Lice Treatment Planned for Galway Bay Fish Farm__________________________________ 196

Economic Benefits of Wild Game Fish ____________________________________________________________ 197  Anglers valued at a staggering €750m to economy - report _____________________________________________ 197

Wild game fish management _____________________________________________________________________ 199  Canadian, U.S. fisheries managers wait anxiously for summer sockeye returns __________________________ 199  Alaskan fisheries endangering B.C.'s Skeena--------- sockeye salmon: conservationists __________________ 201

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!  Majority of salmon in Fraser River expected to die before spawning: DFO _______________________________ 203  Media Release: New evidence shows thousands of unwanted salmon are needlessly killed when no one is watching the fishermen: Groups want oversight ________________________________________________ 205  Video proves unwanted salmon being left for dead on seiners, group alleges ____________________________ 206  WDFW 2013-2015 Strategic Plan ______________________________________________________________________ 208  21st Century Salmon & Steelhead Initiative____________________________________________________________ 209

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses __________________________ 210  Charterboat Slammer – Westport, Washington ________________________________________________________ 210  Pink Fishing - Reeling in the Cure ____________________________________________________________________ 211  Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 _________________________________________________________________ 212  Gašper Konkolič’s Guiding Sportfishing – Experience the beauty and fishing a world away in Slovenia____ 213  April Vokey’s Fly Gal Ventures _______________________________________________________________________ 214  Jeff Wilkins Fly Fishing ______________________________________________________________________________ 215  Chillbilly Sportfishing Charters _______________________________________________________________________ 216

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners _________________________________________________ 218 WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations: _____________________________________________________ 218 Featured Artists: ________________________________________________________________________________ 219  Addie Hollingsworth: “Wild Salmon” _________________________________________________________________ 219  “What we do on Land affects what lives in the Water” __________________________________________________ 221

Featured Fishing Photos: ________________________________________________________________________ 222      

Gašper Konkolič: fly fishing guiding Slovenia _________________________________________________________ Vlasta Štefanič on the shore of the Adriatic Sea at sunset ______________________________________________ Kim Malcom: Owner, Operator - Riverman Guide Service _______________________________________________ Darren Bisson: 50” Ling Cod – released after a couple of quick photos__________________________________ Everything but rod holders___________________________________________________________________________ Mike Gage: Campbell River man catches largest Tyee Chinook salmon seen in 30 years _________________

222 223 224 225 226 227

Recommended Reading _________________________________________________________________________ 228  Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales” _____________________________________________________________ 228

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish ____________________________________________________ 229 Final Thoughts: _________________________________________________________________________________ 230  Truth _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 230

 A few more reasons to protect, restore and conserve wild Pacific salmon July 22, 2013

Brooks falls - brown bear & salmon cam Katmai National Park - Alaska

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Legacy Forward The September 2013 issue of Legacy marks twenty three consecutive months of our web-based publication, the watchdog journal published by Wild Game Fish Conservation International. Once again, no holds are barred in this issue.

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

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

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

We continue to urge our 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 for safekeeping to our generation.

Bruce Treichler

James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

4,500+ WGFCI Faceb The August issue of Legacy is being read in these countries by tens of thousands of like-minded conservationists

ook friends

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 WGFCI – September Shout Outs: Native Fish Society: Located in Oregon City, Oregon, Native Fish Society members are strong advocates for the restoration of wild native fish.

On their web site, they say they are; “Committed to Wild Fish” Guided by the best available science, Native Fish Society advocates for abundant wild, native fish and promotes the stewardship of the habitats that sustain them.

They publish a semi-annual newsletter entitled Strong Runs. The summer, 2013 issue is filled with reports on their work in Oregon and southern Washington State.

We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International strongly agree with their mission and support their work.

Thanks to the Native Fish Society, runs of wild, native fish and their habitats are being restored.

Patagonia: We also applaud Patagonia, a company that manufactures and sells a wide variety of outdoor gear, including waders, boots, and other items. Patagonia’s full-featured website is available here.

If you click on the link entitled ‘corporate responsibility’, you will find that they provide financial support to a variety of conservation organizations; check it out.

Orvis: Orvis can be found here. If you click on ‘Protecting Nature’, you will find what projects Orvis is undertaking in this regard. Specifically, we want to point out their efforts to stop the development of the Pebble Mine in Alaska. To assist in this effort, they are donating funds to T/U in Alaska.

This is a worthy effort and must be supported.

Please join WGFCI and our associates in thanking these extraordinary organizations.

Their websites are: 

Native Fish Society: http://www.nativefishsociety.org/

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Patagonia: http://www.patagonia.com/us/home

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Orvis: http://www.orvis.com/

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Orcas in Captivity (ABC article and video here) July 18, 2013 Editorial Comment We are introducing a relatively new topic to many Legacy readers around planet earth; that of Orcas (killer whales) in captivity and the impact that has on these wild marine mammals who are held captive in various marine parks.

We decided to explore this issue after reading Alexandra Morton’s excellent book Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us (2004). It is available through bookstores and libraries.

We recommend it to you.

In her book, Ms. Morton describes uniquely-important roles that declining numbers of wild Orcas and other marine mammals in play in their ecosystems; especially regarding the elimination of diseased and weak fish and other animals that would negatively impact otherwise healthy marine and terrestrial animals More recently, a documentary entitled ‘Blackfish’ has been released. The reviews of the documentary as near as we can tell have been generally positive.

Here is a link to one review of it; http://truth-out.org/news/item/17851-blackfish-documentaryexposes-negligence-corruption-in-seaworlds-quest-for-profit Here is another review, which includes the response from SeaWorld in regard to this documentary; http://abcnews.go.com/US/seaworld-calls-blackfish-documentary-inaccuratemisleading/story?id=19692502 Below are some additional links to sites that focus on Orcas generally as well as those in captivity.   

http://www.orcahome.de http://www.savethewhales.org/captivity.html http://orca.dolphins-world.com/killer-whales-in-captivity.html

Here is a link to SeaWorld; http://seaworld.com. Unfortunately the site has no information that we could find in regard to the documentary.

Still more information about Orcas is listed below.   

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/killer-whale/ http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/KillerWhale.htm http://www.whaletimes.org/whakw.htm

Our conclusion is that Orcas should no longer be a part of marine parks. They are vitally necessary components of their wild ecosystems; they are not pets to be trained to perform tricks. The consequences of their being in captivity are many, including a shorter life span.

We are interested in what your thinking is on this topic so please let us know. If we have the facts wrong correct us and tell us where you obtained your information. If you think we are going in the right direction, let us know that as well.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

 Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

ď ś Diets of Pregnant Women Contain Harmful, Hidden Toxins August 7, 2013 Pregnant women regularly consume food and beverages containing toxins believed to pose potential risks to developing fetuses, according to researchers at the University of California in Riverside and San Diego, suggesting that health care providers must do more to counsel their patients about the dangers of hidden toxins in the food supply.

In a peer-reviewed study published in the July issue of Nutrition Journal -- "Consumption habits of pregnant women and implications for developmental biology: a survey of predominantly Hispanic women in California" -- a team of psychologists from UC Riverside and UC San Diego found that the diets of pregnant Hispanic women included tuna, salmon, canned foods, tap water, caffeine, alcohol and over-the-counter medications that contain substances known to cause birth defects.

The study is unique in that it highlights the unseen dangers of consuming toxins in food and beverages that are not typically thought of as unhealthy for a fetus, said Sarah Santiago, a Ph.D. student in psychology at UCR and the paper's lead author. It also contributes to the body of literature aimed at assessing dietary habits of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic pregnant women.

"Unlike alcohol and nicotine, which carry a certain stigma along with surgeon general warnings on the packaging, tuna, canned foods, caffeine, and a handful of other foods and beverages with associated developmental effects are not typically thought of as unsafe," Santiago explained.

"Hopefully, this study will encourage health care providers to keep pregnant women well informed as to the possible dangers of unhealthy consumption habits."

The research team -- Santiago; Kelly Huffman, assistant professor of psychology at UC Riverside; and UCSD undergraduate student Grace Park -- surveyed 200 pregnant or recently pregnant women at a private medical group in Downey, Calif., between December 2011 and December 2012. The women ranged in age from 18 to about 40, with Hispanic women accounting for 87 percent of the group. Nearly all had a high school degree, and about one-fourth had a college or post-graduate degree. More than two-thirds had an annual income of $50,000 or less.

Using a food questionnaire, participants reported how often and when during their pregnancy they ate certain foods, drank certain beverages, and ingested prescription and over-the-counter medications. Nearly all of the women reported eating meat while pregnant, with about three-quarters of them eating fish, typically tuna, tilapia and salmon. All reported eating fresh fruit, but fewer than one-third ate the recommended amount of more than one serving a day. Three-fourths ate canned goods, particularly fruits, vegetables and soup. Most reported drinking water, with 12 percent consuming tap water.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Eighty percent consumed caffeinated beverages, and about 6 percent reported drinking alcohol sometime during their pregnancy. Most reported taking prenatal vitamins. Nearly half reported taking an over-the-counter medication -- primarily acetaminophen -- at least once and most reported taking prescription medications at least once.

The results are concerning, the researchers said.

"Consumption of tuna, salmon, canned goods, sugary desserts, fast foods, and drinking of tap water, caffeinated beverages, and alcoholic beverages during pregnancy have been deemed unhealthy due to the appearance of environmental toxins found to have harmful effects in the developing offspring," the researchers wrote.

Tuna contains methylmercury, and prenatal exposure has been associated with numerous developmental deficits involving attention, verbal learning, motor function and delayed performance. "Staggering" levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in farmed salmon. Prenatal exposure to PCBs has been linked to lower birth weights, smaller head circumferences, and abnormal reflex abilities in newborns and to mental impairment in older children.

Metal food cans are lined with a plastic that contains Bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches from the lining in cans into the food. Prenatal exposure to BPA has been associated in animal studies with hyperactivity, aggression and reproductive problems.

 "staggering" levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in farmed salmon.  Prenatal

exposure to PCBs has been linked to lower birth weights, smaller head circumferences, and abnormal reflex abilities in newborns and to mental impairment in older children.

"This study has found that income is inversely correlated with canned food consumption, suggesting that women of low socio-economic status in particular may be especially at risk," the UC Riverside psychologists found.

Tap water also contains prenatal toxins. In Downey, eight pollutants found in drinking water exceed the health guidelines set by federal and state agencies. Some of those contaminants are known to result in central nervous system defects, oral cleft defects, neural tube defects, low birth weight and risk of fetal death, the researchers said. Pregnant women should be encouraged to drink filtered or bottled water in areas where contamination levels are high, they advised.

Also problematic was the level of caffeine consumption, the research team found. Caffeine consumed during pregnancy is associated with fetal mortality, birth defects and decreased birth weights. Animal studies have found developmental delays, abnormal neuromotor activity, and neurochemical disruptions.

A handful of women in the study -- 5.8 percent -- reported drinking alcohol at some time during their pregnancy, less than the national estimate of 7.6 percent. Maternal drinking rates are highest among white women ages 35 to 44.

"We do not know whether this is something unique to Hispanic women, or ubiquitous among women of multiple ethnicities," the researchers wrote.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

"The implications of this research are twofold: Women of childbearing age hoping to conceive should be advised to eliminate all alcohol consumption, as effects of maternal drinking have dire consequences in the first trimester when the mother may not know she is pregnant. … It is also clear that prenatal medical professionals should discourage the consumption of dangerous foods, beverages and medications that women commonly report consuming during pregnancy."

Not enough research has been conducted on certain substances to merit fail-proof labels of teratogenicity -- that is, whether a substance causes developmental malformations, Santiago said.

"Because regulation of prenatal consumption demands a very high level of evidence of teratogenicity, little-researched substances often go unregulated and health care professionals assume they are healthy," she explained. "The problem could also lie in reduced access to health care, or time constraints in prenatal consultations. Perhaps health care providers are informed, but fail to pass the information on to their clients for lack of time or because they assume the clients are already informed."

Teratogenic substances often have subtle, though serious, effects that manifest later in development, Santiago added. "Research suggesting that a given substance does not cause physical abnormalities at birth may be misinterpreted as a green light for consumption -- a grave mistake, considering that other research may exist demonstrating the long-term neural or behavioral abnormalities that result from consuming that substance during pregnancy."

Santiago said the research team continues to collect data on beliefs and attitudes about consumption of these substances during pregnancy. "Hopefully we will uncover some clues as to why women continue to eat these substances, and where in the system interventions would be most appropriate."

Related Article:

 Consumption

habits of pregnant women and implications for developmental biology: a survey of predominantly Hispanic women in California Dr. Claudette Bethune: "More than a quarter of the women (25.5%) surveyed reported consuming salmon, a commonly ingested source of PCBs. Although prenatal fish intake, including tuna and salmon, can be a good source of Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid thought to be beneficial in development, fetuses may be at risk for adverse outcomes, and pregnant women should be advised to be selective about which fish they choose to consume..."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fish and Health: More to the Story Dave Love Science Director, Public Health & Sustainable Aquaculture Project Center for a Livable Future

I’d like to expand a little on my recent interview for a CNN piece by Elizabeth Landau entitled “Farmed or wild fish: Which is healthier?”

There is a third perspective endorsed by the Johns Hopkins Center for A Livable Future (CLF) and others, which acknowledges the complex interrelationships among diet, food production, environment and human health. We are inextricably connected to our food systems and the environment, and by treating the natural world with respect – especially in regards to our diet – we can realize long-term health and ecological benefits. Polluting the environment, irresponsible practices in fish farming or overuse of fisheries can hurt humans in ways we may forget or not know to consider. Two examples of these complex linkages for seafood are: Human produced environmental pollutants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), PCB, PBDEs, dioxins, and methylmercury can concentrate in wild-caught and farmed fish as they eat smaller polluted fish (ex: salmon, Hites et al., 2004). A recent study had linked POPs, at levels present in some farmed Atlantic salmon, with insulin resistance and associated obesity and liver disease in rats (Ruzzin et al., 2009).

Antibiotic use in fish farming promotes antibiotic-resistant bacteria in fish (Furushita et al., 2003), a phenomenon that mirrors industrial terrestrial food animal production (Aubry-Damon et al., 2004) and is a potential cause of increased community associated antibiotic-resistant infections in humans (Gilchrist et al., 2007).

Connecting food production, the environment, and human health is a daunting task, and requires looking at issues from many angles at once. My complements to the CNN author, Elizabeth Landau, for introducing a range of environmental and food systems topics into her article on seafood, and beginning to explore alternative connections between seafood and public health.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Senators urge Obama to update seafood report for pregnant women August 08, 2013, For the third time, a bipartisan group of senators have written to American President, Barack Obama, urging him to help the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) with regards to the issue of the debated safety of seafood consumption during pregnancy.

In the new letter, legislators point out that the last FDA report was done almost 10 years ago, in 2004, and it presumably recommended that seafood should be reduced or eliminated during pregnancy. The group are demanding a more up-to-date report which takes into account the latest scientific studies and ends “years of delay”.

The senators argue that these studies have shown the benefits of seafood rich in Omega 3 oil, a fatty acid which improves cognitive and visual developments in unborn infants and children.

The letter reads that the US Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines for Americans published in 2010 advises pregnant women to eat at least 227g of seafood a week instead of the 57g the average American woman currently consumes.

The senators message is clear: they want pregnant women to eat more seafood. They first wrote to the President over two years ago. Since then, nine million American babies were born without an updated dietary guideline.

Editorial Comment: “The senators’ message is clear: they want pregnant women to eat more seafood.”

Although the new FDA guidelines have been outlined, the review is stuck due to bureaucracy.

 Specific seafood (ie. wild Pacific salmon) is not identified as healthy

"For many women, consistent federal advice may be the only form of nutrition recommendations they receive," the letter states. "These women cannot wait for bureaucratic infighting that is preventing the issuance of new FDA seafood advice."

 Scientists advise pregnant women and young children to avoid farm raised salmon

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) decrease the placental syncytiotrophoblast volume and increase Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) in the placenta of normal pregnancy.

Tsuji M, Aiko Y, Kawamoto T, T Hachisuga, Kooriyama C, Myoga M, Tomonaga C, Matsumura F, Anan A, Tanaka M, Yu HS, Fujisawa Y, Suga R, Shibata E. Source: Department of Environmental Health, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of biologically active, highly stable compounds.

Exposure risks include consumption of fatty fish, meat, dairy products and human breast milk, as well as environmental and occupational settings. Numerous reports have described PCB-dependent adverse effects on human fetal growth, including increased risk for IUGR, changes in endocrine function and hormone metabolism, and immunosuppressive and neurological deficits.

Dr. Claudette Bethune: Scientific article out July 2013, another reason for women, especially, to AVOID farmed salmon consumption: "These results demonstrate that the human placenta...is a target of PCB toxicity, and that current environmental PCB exposure levels are a risk to reproductive health."

Here we test the prediction that in utero PCB exposure adversely effects placental morphology, potentially leading to placental insufficiency en route to fetal growth restriction.

METHODS: PCB homologs (10) were measured in the maternal and fetal blood of a small cohort of normotensive pregnancies (22) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. PCB levels were compared with angiogenesis associated proteins Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) and sFlt-1, determined by ELISA, and the total estimated syncytiotrophoblast (ST) volume.

RESULTS: Significant associations between PCB exposure and both PlGF and ST volume were identified.

DISCUSSION: PCB effects on placenta morphology and predicted function are discussed.

CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that the human placenta, including ST, is a target of PCB toxicity, and that current environmental PCB exposure levels are a risk to reproductive health.

PMID: 23623486 [PubMed - in process]

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 10 American Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries Read entire list HERE #1: FARM-RAISED SALMON Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s description of chemicals approved for use in the Galway Bay salmon farm as medicines rather than pesticides has been slammed as laughable by opponents of the farm, who insist these chemicals “should never be used in an aquatic environment”.

BIM, the state body seeking to locate the organic fish farm off the coast of Inis Oírr, has stated that three chemicals approved for treating sea lice in farmed salmon, cypermethrin, deltamethrin and hydrogen peroxide, “have been commonly used for a number of years in the treatment of farmed animals, both land and marine-based”.

A spokesperson for BIM said that it was committed to ensuring “that any potential use of medicinal products on the proposed Galway Bay Salmon Farm will be in full compliance with national and EU regulation”.

“Use of medicinal products on salmon farms must be in strict compliance with the National Integrated Pest Control Plan and under the supervision of a veterinary surgeon,” he added.

However, Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages (GBASC), a lobby group composed of anglers, environmentalists and members of the tourism industry, has said that the pesticides are toxic to crustaceans such as lobster, prawns, crab and shrimp and have rejected BIM’s assertion that the chemicals will be so diluted as to be safe.

“The people around Galway Bay who depend on the bay to make a living are being told by BIM that these pesticides will cause no damage to the aquatic environment in Galway Bay because they will be so diluted,” said a GBASC spokesperson.

“This is misleading to say the least, as vast quantities will have to be used to kill sea lice on 7.2 million salmon in the open cages,” he added.

Billy Smyth of GBASC said that BIM’s insistence on describing such chemicals as medicines rather than pesticides was misleading and laughable.

“They say that they don’t use pesticides, they use medicines, which is a laugh. If you read any dictionary, it states that a pesticide is ‘any substance which is used to kill animal pests’. They’re calling them medicines, which is a total con-job,” said Mr Smyth.

Mr Smyth said that two of the chemicals approved for use in the proposed Galway Bay salmon farm, cypermethrin and deltamethrin, are freely available to purchase in Galway and are labelled by their manufacturers as being “very toxic to aquatic organisms”.

“We are wondering how these can be approved for use, when it states clearly on the bottles that they’re dangerous to the aquatic environment. If Galway Bay isn’t an aquatic environment, we don’t know what is.”

The proposed Galway Bay salmon farm would produce up to 15,000 tonnes of organic salmon per year and BIM claims it would create up to 500 direct and indirect jobs, a figure hotly disputed by opponents of the project.

The licence application for the salmon farm is currently before Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney and a decision is expected in the coming months.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 I wouldn't feed this garbage to my dog

Angela Koch: Confirmed by Costco Mississauga staff as "fresh not frozen" this pathetically mushy, bruised looking farmed salmon once again reminds me of why I wouldn't feed this garbage to my dog!

Alexis Passmore Thuillier: That is a gross misrepresentation of what a salmon should look like. If I caught a wild salmon that looked like that inside I would throw it away. After a lifetime of working in the fishing industry, a fish that looks like that is diseased and should not be eaten!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Tracing Germs Through the Aisles July 29, 2013 Twice a month for a year, Lance Price, a microbiologist at George Washington University, sent his researchers out to buy every brand of chicken, turkey and pork on sale in each of the major grocery stores in Flagstaff, Ariz. As scientists pushed carts heaped with meat through the aisles, curious shoppers sometimes asked if they were on the Atkins diet.

Lance Price, a microbiologist, is using genetic sequencing to try to match bacteria found in grocery meat to urinary infections in a study in Arizona.

Watch video HERE

In fact, Professor Price and his team are trying to answer worrisome questions about the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs to people from animals raised on industrial farms. Specifically, they are trying to figure out how many people in one American city are getting urinary infections from meat from the grocery store.

Professor Price describes himself as something of a hoarder. His own freezer is packed with a hodgepodge of samples swabbed from people’s sinuses and inner ears, and even water from a hookah pipe. But the thousands of containers of broth from the meat collected in Flagstaff, where his nonprofit research institute is based, are all neatly packed into freezers there, marked with bar codes to identify them.

He is now using the power of genetic sequencing in an ambitious attempt to precisely match germs in the meat with those in women with urinary infections. One recent day, he was down on his hands and knees in his university office in Washington, studying a family tree of germs from some of the meat samples, a printout of more than 25 pages that unfurled like a roll of paper towels. Its lines and numbers offered early clues to Professor Price’s central question: How many women in Flagstaff get urinary infections from grocery store meat? He expects preliminary answers this fall.

Researchers have been warning for years that antibiotics — miracle drugs that changed the course of human health in the 20th century — are losing their power. Some warn that if the trend isn’t halted, there could be a return to the time before antibiotics when people died from ordinary infections and children did not survive strep throat. Currently, drug resistant bacteria cause about 100,000 deaths a year, but mostly among patients with weakened immune systems, children and the elderly.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

There is broad consensus that overuse of antibiotics has caused growing resistance to the medicines. Many scientists say evidence is mounting that heavy use of antibiotics to promote faster growth in farm animals is a major culprit, creating a reservoir of drug resistant bugs that are finding their way into communities. More than 70 percent of all the antibiotics used in the United States are given to animals.

Agribusiness groups disagree and say the main problem is overuse of antibiotic treatments for people. Bugs rarely migrate from animals to people, and even when they do, the risk they pose to human health is negligible, the industry contends.

Scientists say genetic sequencing will bring greater certainty to the debate. They will be able to trace germs in people to their origins, be it from a farm animal or other patients in a hospital.

Representative Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from New York who has pushed for legislation to control antibiotic use on farms, said such evidence would be the “smoking gun” that would settle the issue.

Professor Price is seeking to quantify how extensively drug-resistant bugs in animals are infecting people. He is trying to do that by analyzing the full genetic makeup of germs collected from both grocery store meat and people in Flagstaff last year. The plummeting cost of genomic sequencing has made his research possible.

He is comparing the genetic sequences of E. coli germs resistant to multiple antibiotics found in the meat samples to the ones that have caused urinary tract infections in people (mostly women).

Urinary infections were chosen because they are so common. American women get more than eight million of them a year. In rare cases the infections enter the bloodstream and are fatal.

Resistant bacteria in meat are believed to cause only a fraction of such infections, but even that would account for infections in several hundred thousand people annually. The E. coli germ that Professor Price has chosen can be deadly, and is made even more dangerous by its tendency to resist antibiotics.

The infection happens when meat containing the germ is eaten, grows in the gut, and then is introduced into the urethra. Dr. Price said the germ could cause infection in other ways, such as through a cut while slicing raw meat. The bugs are promiscuous, so once they get into people, they can mutate and travel more easily among people. A new strain of the antibiotic-resistant bug MRSA, for example, was first detected in people in Holland in 2003, and now represents 40 percent of the MRSA infections in humans in that country, according to Jan Kluytmans, a Dutch researcher. That same strain was common in pigs on farms before it was found in people, scientists say. Dr. Price, 44, began his career testing anthrax for resistance to the Cipro antibiotic for biodefense research in the 1990s. His interest in public health led him to antibiotic resistance in the early 2000s. It seemed like a less theoretical threat.

First line antibiotics were no longer curing basic infections, and doctors were concerned. “I thought, ‘Wow this is so obviously crazy, I have to do something about this,’ ” he said. He has done his research on antibiotics at a nonprofit founded in 2002, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, in Phoenix. His lab in Flagstaff, an affiliate, is financed mostly by federal sources, including the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Dr. Price, trained in epidemiology and microbiology, has been sounding the alarm about antibiotic resistance for a number of years. He recently told a Congressional committee that evidence of the ill effects of antibiotics in farming was overwhelming.

He thinks the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to limit antibiotic use on farms have been weak.

In 1977, the F.D.A. said it would begin to ban some agricultural uses of antibiotics. But the House and Senate appropriations committees — dominated by agricultural interests — passed resolutions against the ban, and the agency retreated. More recently, the agency has limited the use of two important classes of antibiotics in animals. But advocates say it needs to go further and ban use of all antibiotics for growth promotion. Sweden and Denmark have already done so.

Ms. Slaughter said aggressive lobbying by agribusiness interests has played a major role in blocking passage of legislation. According to her staff, of the 225 lobbying disclosure reports filed during the last Congress on a bill she wrote on antibiotic use, nearly nine out of ten were filed by organizations opposed to the legislation.

But the economics of food presents perhaps the biggest obstacle. On large industrial farms, animals are raised in close contact with one another and with big concentrations of bacteria-laden feces and urine. Antibiotics keep infections at bay but also create drug resistance. Those same farms raise large volumes of cheap meat that Americans have become accustomed to.

Governments have begun to acknowledge the danger. The United States recently promised $40 million to a major drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, to help it develop medications to combat antibiotic resistance. But Dr. Price says that new drugs are only a partial solution.

“A lot of people say, ‘let’s innovate our way out of this,’ ” he said. “But if we don’t get a handle on the way we abuse antibiotics, we are just delaying the inevitable.”

Dr. Claudette Bethune: 

This needs to be done on farmed salmon...



Cripes...""Tetracycline use was reported by 46% of respondents working with farmed salmon where resistance to tetracycline in one or more species of bacteria was reported as ‘frequent-to-almost always’ for 28% of respondents working with farmed salmon."

Alexandra Morton: 

This is so dangerous to humans. The Agro industry really needs to consider what it is doing to us.

Robert Corlett : 

While working in the fish farm industry, I heard industry talking about the cost benefit of using medication to enhance growth of their stock. This was done under the guise of a prophylactic treatment. Question: Were vets allowed to prescribe drugs to enhance growth?

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch: Avoid Eating Atlantic Salmon

Claudette Bethune, Ph.D. Pharmacokineticist:

SEAFOOD

RATING



“BC farmed salmon is the same awful model as in Norway, where the feedlot companies direct consumers to their own consumption advice instead of health advisors.



Health Canada assessed dioxins, PCBs, and flame retardants in farmed and wild salmon and their Total Diet survey in 2002.

MARKET NAMES

WHERE CAUGHT

HOW CAUGHT

Atlantic Salmon

Farmed Salmon, Sake

Worldwide

Farmed

Coho Salmon

Sake, Silver

U.S.

Farmed in Tank Systems

Coho Salmon

Sake, Silver

British Columbia

Wild-caught

Salmon

Pink, Sockeye

Fraser River, Washington,

Reef net

Salmon

Sockeye

Fraser River (early Summer-run),

Reef net

Washington Salmon

Chinook, Coho, Chum, Keta, King, Pink, Red, Sockeye, Sake

Salmon

Chinook, Coho, Chum, Keta, King, Pink, Red, Sockeye, Sake

Salmon Roe

Ikura

Alaska

Drift Gillnet, Purse Seine, Troll

California, Oregon, Washington

Drift Gillnet, Purse Seine, Troll

Alaska

Drift Gillnet, Purse Seine, Troll

Silver,

Silver,

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

FARMED ATLANTIC SALMON There are many environmental problems related to farming Atlantic salmon, which means it is ranked "Avoid." However, efforts to reduce some of these environmental impacts by raising fish in inland tanks have been successful. Salmon from these farms are a "Best Choice."

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

Health Alert Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for farmed salmon due to high levels of PCBs.

Summary One of the biggest concerns is the amount of food required to raise farmed salmon. It generally takes three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon. The environmental impact of salmon farming is still increasing as global production continues to rise.

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

However, some salmon farmers are making changes to improve their practices. So far, one change has proven successful—raising U.S. freshwater coho using inland tank-based, closed systems.

Closed systems reduce environmental risks by containing pollution, disease, parasites and reducing fish escapes and result in a "Best Choice" ranking.

Look for wild-caught salmon or clearly labeled U.S.-farmed freshwater coho salmon. For now, "Avoid" farmed Atlantic salmon.

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

Scientific Reports About Our Ratings 

Farmed Atlantic Salmon Seafood Watch Report



Aquaculture Fact Cards

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Farmed Salmon Heavy in Chemicals, Group Says High in endocrine-disrupting PCBs July 30, 2003 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Farmed salmon, which Americans are scarfing down because it is supposed to be healthy, may actually be carrying high levels of cancer-causing chemicals called PCBs, an environmental group said Wednesday.

Wild salmon fished out of rivers and streams may actually be healthier for the time being, the Environmental Working Group said.

They bought and tested farmed salmon filets from 10 grocery stores in Washington, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon, and found seven were contaminated with high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls.

"These first-ever tests of farmed salmon from U.S. grocery stores show that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the U.S. food supply," the group, a non-profit organization that investigates environmental matters, said in a statement.

"EWG's analysis of seafood industry fish consumption data shows that one quarter of all adult Americans (52 million people) eat salmon, and about 23 million of them eat salmon more often than once a month," the group said in a statement.

"Based on these data we estimate that 800,000 people face an excess lifetime cancer risk ... from eating farmed salmon."

They called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to do its own study and issue health warnings as needed.

PCBs come from hydraulic fluids and oils, electrical capacitors and transformers.

They are endocrine disrupters -- chemicals that act like hormones. They and related chemicals known as dioxins can cause cancer, infertility and perhaps other sexual changes.

A Banned Chemical In the United States, PCBs have been banned for use in all but completely enclosed areas since 1979.

But they persist in the environment and in animal fat. Predators such as salmon eat other fish, which carry the chemicals in their tissues, and it can build up.

The EWG said its limited study found the farmed salmon had 16 times the PCBs found in wild salmon, four times the levels in beef, and 3.4 times the levels found in other seafood.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

They said their findings are supported by other studies done in Canada, Ireland and Britain.

"In the case of farmed salmon, you have high-density fish pens off the coast of British Columbia, for example, where you have an environment that is relatively pristine but these fish are fed fishmeal from all over the world," EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan said in a telephone interview.

Often this fishmeal is heavily contaminated with PCBs, Houlihan said.

"On top of that, the fish farming industry produces fish with up to twice the fat of wild salmon," she added.

The fat is the source of the omega-3 fatty acids that are supposed to be healthful -- but also provides a place for the PCBs to build up.

Terry Traxell, director of the FDA's office of plant and dairy foods, told the Washington Post newspaper his office was reviewing PCBs in salmon and other foods.

Wild Oats Markets, Inc., which specializes in selling organic and "natural" foods, said it had a new source of salmon from Ireland that, while farmed, was lower in PCBs. "Testing revealed the feed used for the Clare Island farmed salmon tested to .568 parts per trillion for PCB levels," the company said in a statement.

"This is significantly lower than the Environmental Protection Agency recommendation for twicea-week consumption of 4-to-6 parts per billion, and the current FDA standard of 2,000 parts per billion."

Sabra Woodworth: 2003 study -- who's following up? " 'These first-ever tests of farmed salmon from U.S. grocery stores show that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the U.S. food supply,' the group, a non-profit organization that investigates environmental matters, said in a statement."

"PCBs come from hydraulic fluids and oils, electrical capacitors and transformers.

They are endocrine disrupters -- chemicals that act like hormones.

They and related chemicals known as dioxins can cause cancer, infertility and perhaps other sexual changes."

We need as much public debate as possible on these issues, especially on WHY CHEMICALS USED IN BC FISHFARMS NEED TO BE KEPT SECRET!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fresh, PRV-Infected, B.C. Salmon: Now Available at a Supermarket Near You July 22, 2013 A report, published on July 11th of this year, reveals that the Piscine Reovirus (PRV) is decimating British Columbia salmon populations. This report, published in Virology Journal, was co-authored by researchers from the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, Centro de Investigaciones Biologicasin Chile and, and the Raincoast Research Society in British Columbia. The research shows that B.C. fish tested positive in both farmed and wild salmon sources.

Yet, despite the report’s findings, officials for the Canadian government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) claim that the virus is no cause for alarm. As with any of the three deadly European viruses found on the coasts of B.C., the DFO doesn’t consider the appearance of a virus as a threat. They will only take action in the event of a major disease outbreak.

Twyla Roscovich sought to find out why in her Documentary, Salmon Confidential. In it, she asked Dr. Gary Marty, B.C. Health Vet, what his conclusions were about PRV contamination, in relation to the drastic decline in fish populations in the Fraser River and Rivers Inlet Sockeye. Dr. Marty said that he doesn’t know what the problem is, so the virus shouldn’t be blamed.

“When it was first reported in 2010, I was very concerned. So, we went and tested 625 fish and found it in just about every fish. We found it in healthy fish… So, I decided that I couldn’t provide any interpretation for what this meant and I decided it was probably not a major concern. “ – Dr. Gary Marty.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Farmed fish is a multi-million dollar industry in B.C. and salmon is what the province is known for worldwide. Scientists are concerned that the DFO and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)—the governing bodies in charge of protecting the fish—are also responsible for the state of the industry. That “is a major conflict of interest,” said Dr. Larry Dill, professor of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University.

It is likely that the virus was imported to B.C. out of Norway, by way of the fish farming industry. Samples taken from the European virus and the B.C. virus show enough similarities to assume that they are from the same strain. Ninety-eight percent of the Pacific salmon fish farms in B.C. are Norwegian-owned.

The farms are crowded along the coast of the Discovery passage—the narrowest salmon route in the world and the DFO approved location of eleven fish farms. The only wild fish populations that are experiencing a decline in numbers are those that travel through the Discovery passage to spawn.

Wild salmon that take a more westerly route and do not pass through the farms are showing no signs of disease.

Biologist Alexandra Morton, along with many other scientists in Canada, Chile and Norway are convinced that the PRV virus is a very serious problem. PRV was first identified in Atlantic salmon farms in Norway in 1999. It is considered lethal to fish as it has proven to lead to the disease HSMI – heart and skeletal muscle inflammation.

According to the most recent press release by the Department of Wild Salmon, “HSMI can cause lesions in the heart and muscles and can make the heart soft, impeding the fish’s ability to swim and uptake oxygen.”

The 2012 Annual General Report by the Norwegian company, Marine Harvest—the leading salmon aquaculture company in British Columbia—cites HSMI as the second largest cause of fish mortality.

The inflammation of the heart and muscles makes tissues blood-logged and weak, which means that the fish are unlikely to have the athletic ability to swim against the strong current to spawning grounds. This decreased ability to swim upstream may be linked to the thousands of mysterious prespawn fish mortalities in recent years.

There are many papers written by Norwegian experts on the relationship between PRV and HSMI. One such paper by Gustavo Palacios et al. recommends that “measures must be taken to control PRV not only because it threatens domestic salmon production but also due to the potential for transmission to wild salmon populations.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

It has been very difficult for scientists to do proper research on farmed fish in Canada. Fish farm records are considered confidential which means they are not available to scientists or the public. The farmed fish samples used in the Department of Wild Salmon’s research had to be taken, primarily, from supermarkets.

Morton claims that her research is being slowed by her “lack of ability to go to the farms and test.” Out of necessity, Morton has been forced to conduct her research on supermarket fish, which have proven to be a viable source of the virus.

What Morton’s team has found in Canadian supermarkets is appalling. A healthy salmon ought to be fat with dark orange flesh. The supermarket fish were skinny, greygilled, with deformities and visible lesions.

“A skinny fish is a sick fish,” Morton said and Dr. Marty agrees. “Sick fish,” he said, “don’t eat, and fish that don’t eat won’t grow. It is expected that fish that make it to market are healthy. They are also inspected by CFIA.” Morton and Dr. Kibenge from the lab for fish viruses at the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island “have found PRV in nearly 97% of the farmed salmon tested in B.C. supermarkets.” Since these findings the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has attacked the credibility of Dr. Kibenge’s research, suggesting his international certification be revoked.

The province projects that the presence of the virus won’t be a threat according to the Department of Wild Salmon, “there is no evidence to support the province’s theory.”

In Morton’s opinion, the main concern is that “the viability of wild salmon has been put at risk in favour of the viability of farmed salmon.” *images and video courtesy the Department of Wild Salmon.

of

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Farmed Salmon Can Be a Risk to your Health Watch video HERE Robert Corlett: “Believable!

Hysteria leads to questionable conclusions that can spread faster than a brushfire.

Having spent many years working in the fish farm industry I have witnessed the negative side of fish farming first hand.

I do not believe that the three judges handing down this decision have taken away my right to speak freely about the dark side of this industry.

Some of the supposed banned phrases I have witnessed.

To the industry, if I am wrong send me legal confirmation, and please do this within the next ten days.

To the political parties, I ask, for your view on this judgment.” (ed. Thank you, Robert)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Food for thought

Selling Feedlot Salmon is...

Gambling with PUBLIC HEALTH What Happens in Norway Should…

Stay in Norway

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

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

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 It’s Wild-Salmon Season August 7, 2013 Atlantic salmon is an endangered species, but it’s also always in season: we have fish farming to thank for that, if “thank” is the word.

Therefore almost all wild salmon is Pacific. And in flavor, texture and color, the Pacific species of king (or Chinook), sockeye and coho are all superior to any farmed salmon.

Wild salmon is seasonal, and we’re smack in the middle of that season. Unless you live in Alaska or the Northwest, where fresh wild salmon are practically flung onto your doorstep along with the morning paper, these fish remain a rare treat, shipped to markets around the country for a few precious weeks in mid- to late summer.

Farmed salmon does have two distinct advantages: it’s not expensive, and it’s very fatty. That makes not only for pretty good eating but also for extremely forgiving cooking: you can overcook farmed salmon a bit, and it won’t be that dry.

But moisture isn’t flavor; compared with king or sockeye, even the best farm-raised salmon might as well be a frozen fish stick. A well-cooked sockeye fillet is an incredible treat.

As with any seafood, mislabeling is something to look out for. It’s not unheard-of for purveyors to label any kind of wild salmon — or even farmed salmon — “king.” Buy from people you trust.

Wild salmon has so much flavor that all it really needs is a hot skillet and a sprinkle of salt, but because you should be cooking it often before the short season ends, I’m including recipes spanning a wide range of flavors and cooking methods. Obviously grilled fillets or burgers are hard to beat this time of year, but for gentler (and cooler) cooking, try poaching the salmon or simply leaving it raw.

See these recipes and more HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

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

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

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

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wild Salmon Supporters – View entire list here

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

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

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 US puts Marine Harvest Chile salmon shipments on hold July 16, 2013

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has put all shipments from Marine Harvest’s own production in Chile on hold, until an issue stemming from a frozen container is sorted.

According to emails from a Marine Harvest executive to a customer on July 11, seen by Undercurrent News, the company is “doing everything we can to get product in the country [US] but there is not much we can do… our hands are tied, at the moment”.

Bergen, Norway-based Marine Harvest, the world’s largest farmed salmon company, cannot move product from its Chilean operations until it gets FDA clearance.

The company advises customers to “explore other options” on fresh supply, according to the email.

“We have been doing our best to obtain third party product but there is nothing available. We will keep you posted with any updates,” the email said.

Gianfranco Nattero, director of sales and marketing for Marine Harvest in the Americas, confirmed the situation to Undercurrent.

“In June, we had a situation with a frozen container of product getting stopped by the FDA for a regular inspection. The FDA test result showed traces of crystal violet on the sample taken,” he said.

The crystal violet is an antifungal product that is prohibited in Chile and the US due to its carcinogenic effects. (source: Fish Information Services) “Marine Harvest is not using and have never used crystal violet. Our own analyses and the official Chilean surveillance program show no detections. We are investigating how this one sample tested

by FDA could come up positive to resolve the detention,” said Nattero.

First fresh shipment “We have been out of our own production in Chile for a few months. Last week was our first fresh shipment coming back into the US,” he told Undercurrent.

When it arrived, it was stopped by the FDA and sent for testing in a third party lab.

With test results taking 7-10 days, the company effectively cannot send fresh product, from its own farms, to the US until all is clarified, he told Undercurrent.

“We are cooperating with the FDA on getting to the bottom of the original findings. This includes a full traceability of the product and other third party lab testing,” he said.

The company has been sourcing from third party suppliers throughout the year and will “continue, going forward”, said Nattero.

Our production is processed in a third party plant in Chile that we have worked with for some time, he said.

“We want to come back with more volume, as the market is certainly out there,” said Nattero.

“This is not connected to the listeria issue with Delifish, which we are still working through with the FDA,” he said.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Delifish still on hold On July 12, Marine Harvest guided for Q2 operational earnings before interests and taxes (EBIT) of NOK 900 million ($148.5m), up 290% from Q2 2012, but is having a turbulent time in Chile.

On July 1, the company confirmed it is to close its smoked plant in Puerto Montt, Delifish — or Procesadora de Productos Marinos Delifish, to give it its full title — after ongoing problems with listeria and the FDA. Nattero confirmed Delifish is still on the FDA hold list.

“The reasons are a result of a series of events; initially due to the sanitary crisis in the salmon industry, manifested in the lack of availability and poor quality of raw material, and then, in late 2012, a microbiological event that aggravated the financial situation,” said Nattero at the time, referring to a large listeria-related recall in December last year.

“In conjunction to this, a comprehensive review of the business of value added in Marine Harvest was done, which resulted in the closure of five plants in Europe,” he said. $4.4m recall costs On Feb. 8, Marine Harvest had said it had introduced a “much stricter” cleaning and testing regime at Delifish, after a costly listeria recall in the US market.

Delifish was hit with a recall on Dec. 31. Undercurrent then reported the plant was the source of other recalls, relating to Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Multiexport recalls, also.

Ocean Beauty confirmed this, but Multiexport never returned request for comment.

On Jan. 16, Marine Harvest reported an operating loss per kilogram of NOK 8.5 ($1.52) in its Chilean operation in Q4, with the total cost of the Delifish recall amounting to NOK 25 million, or $4.4m.

Marine Harvest had first issued a voluntary recall on certain Delifish batches on Dec. 28, 2012.

That recall affected all Delifish cold smoked products manufactured between over 42 days, from Sept. 5, 2012 and Oct. 17, 2012.

The recall was then expanded to cover all Delifish products manufactured over 110 days.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Oceana Study: ‘Fish Fraud’ Ripping Off American Consumers August 8, 2013 In a follow-up to its February report finding one-third of the seafood tested in the United States is mislabeled according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, an oceans-protection group says Americans are paying a high price for fish fraud. Oceana, an international group advocating for protection of the world’s oceans, says that swapped species can cost consumers twice as much when cheaper counterparts are sold as premium choices.

Just as horsemeat was sold as beef all over Europe when its price was only about one-fifth that of the more-expensive meat, the new report from Oceana says that seafood fraud is practiced on consumers when less-expensive and less-desirable species are passed off as high-quality fish.

“Swapping a lower-cost fish for a higher-value one is like ordering a filet mignon and getting a hamburger instead,” says report author Margot Stiles. “If a consumer eats mislabeled fish even just once a week, they could be losing up to hundreds of dollars each year due to seafood fraud.”

According to the Oceana study, substitution of a lower-cost species such as tilapia for moreexpensive grouper could cost consumers an extra $10 for an eight-ounce filet in a restaurant, and the common substitution of Atlantic farmed salmon for wild Chinook salmon adds another $5 to a restaurant bill. Fish fraud also occurs in grocery stores when cheaper substitutes are used in place of higher-cost fish to rip off about $4 each from consumers, the study says.

Oceana turned to seafood experts and about 300 menus in 12 different cities to come up with its estimates for how much fish substitutions cost consumers.

“Consumers deserve to know their seafood is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled, including information like where, when and how it was taken out of the ocean, “ Stiles said. “The more information that follows the fish, the harder it will be for fraudsters to rip off American consumers.”

The 23-page Oceana report on fish fraud says part of the problem is that seafood follows a complex path “from boat to plate.” Fish often cross ocean basins and multiple countries before reaching the final point of sale.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Oceana says that each stop in the supply chain is an opportunity for fraud. “Without traceability, or requiring information to follow the fish through the supply chain that is transparent and verifiable, consumers can be subject to fraud at every step the way,” the group says.

Oceana supports the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood (SAFE) Act that has been pending in Congress since March. The group says it has more than 500,000 members worldwide.

The fish fraud report also notes that Americans have doubled their seafood consumption in the past 50 years and that some of today’s most popular fish were not even sold in the U.S. until recent years. Freshwater Tilapia, for example, has gone from virtually unknown to the fifth most popular U.S. seafood, mostly in the past decade.

Another indicator is the number of sushi bars in the U.S., which have grown five-fold in the past 10 years. More than 5,000 grocery stores also sell sushi today. In total, Americans are eating about $80 billion worth of fish annually.

Oceana says 1,700 species of fish and shellfish are sold in the U.S. and that most consumers have a difficult time comparing price, quality, origin and other factors. The study found seafood labels often provided inaccurate information and that lessexpensive species were often swapped for sought-after fish such as Atlantic cod, red snapper and wild salmon.

Oceana says each desired fish product has one or more less-expensive offerings which are common substitutions. Fish fraud is so common that Oceana says the practice undermines consumers who choose to eat specific fish for health, environmental or religious reasons.

Mislabeling is common, Oceana says, because of the immediate economic incentive combined with little enforcement.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

ď ś Why I No Longer Eat Farmed Salmon . . . Part 2 June 21, 2013

Earlier in the year I wrote a blog about the negative aspects of raising farmed salmon on the marine ecosystem (Why I No Longer Eat Farmed Salmon). My main concern at the time, with the information I had, was that the high concentration of farmed salmon raised in large pens along coastal waters tends to concentrate the feces and excess food pellets on the bottom of the bay beneath the cages, which tends to multiply the spread of salmon lice and other parasites, which then infect the wild salmon as they migrate through the area, increasing mortality. In addition, the pesticides used by the salmon farms to keep the caged salmon healthy were also being added to the ecosystem in huge quantities.

So, bad farming techniques are potentially damaging the wild salmon populations, and as a dedicated fisherman that really bothers me.

Well, I only knew the tip of the iceberg. In reality, the story is much worse, for wild salmon the world over, and for humans who eat farm-raised salmon.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Two incredibly virulent fish viruses, ISA (Infectious Salmon Anemia virus) and Piscine Reovirus, which causes the heart tissue to turn soft, making the heart inefficient at pumping blood and oxygen.

Wild salmon infected with piscine reovirus tend to die before they get a chance to spawn due to their strenuous upriver migrations to the spawning grounds. However, those fish in farmed cages infected with the virus can live and grow “normally”. And I say normally because now more and more supermarket packaged salmon from salmon farms in the UK, US, Canada and Norway are being shown to contain both ISA and piscine reovirus infections.

And here’s where it gets really stupid. The governments of these countries are allowing the mega fish farm corporations, like Marine Harvest (a Norwegian company) to stock their farms with fish knowingly infected with both viruses. And these are highly infectious viruses which easily spread to wild salmon stocks.

In my estimation, Marine Harvest runs its company with an eye solely on the profit and loss statements, and not on the environmental impact, what we now view as sustainable corporate responsibility. Recently, Marine Harvest’s operations have been severely affected in the south of Chile, where millions of fish have died by the disease infectious salmon anemia, virtually wiping out the farmed salmon industry in Chile in 2009-2010. The rapid propagation of the virus in Chile has motivated Marine Harvest to sell some of its facilities, firing more than a thousand employees, with the aim of moving its installations further south.

Parasitic, viral and fungal infections are all disseminated when the fish are stressed and the pens are too close together, and a spokesman for Marine Harvest recognized that his company was using too many antibiotics in Chile and that fish pens were too close, contributing to the dramatic proliferation of the ISA virus.

And now, to protect the multimillion dollar salmon farming industry, the government of Canada has declared that fish infected with ISA and other viruses pose no threat to human consumption. This doesn’t look healthy:

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Here’s what is happening to the Fraser River wild Sockeye salmon stocks since the introduction of salmon farms along the Fraser River salmon migration route in the early 1990s. They have plummeted. Coincidence? Nature doesn’t do coincidences!

And here’s the scary part: scientists don’t know the effect on humans from eating farm raised salmon pumped full of steroids, pesticides and infected with ISA and piscine reovirus. Here is a comparison of wild vs farm raised salmon. And as someone who has caught and eaten wild salmon, let me tell you they taste much better than the fatty, flabby farmed ones!

And here’s another sad fact that fools the consumer. Wild salmon in my local supermarket is about £12 per kilo, while farmed salmon is about £3. Inexpensive, but what about the real costs to the environment, wild salmon populations, and our own health?

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Tell your grocer: Boycott GMO salmon Sign the petition HERE

AquAdvantage by AquaBounty could become the first brand of genetically modified (GMO) frankenfish coming to your grocery’s seafood case - but opposition from supermarket chains could help us stop it.

Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have already agreed to boycott the fish, but none of the other supermarket chains like Kroger, Safeway, Target, and Walmart -- which account for the vast majority of supermarkets under various brands -- has commented yet.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Tell national supermarket chains: No frankenfish for me. Join the campaign for GMO-free seafood and refuse to sell genetically engineered salmon.

AquaBounty's frankenfish is an Atlantic salmon, spliced with genes from an eel pout and growth hormone from a Chinook salmon. The result is a salmon that produces growth hormone year-round and grows twice as fast.

The fish hasn't been proven safe for humans. But the FDA may approve it based on a limited, flawed, and inadequate study — despite the fact that the same study identified elevated allergy-causing potential,1 and elevated levels of the IGF-1 growth hormone, which is linked to colon, prostate and breast cancers. Clearly more study is needed to determine possible dangers to our health and other wildlife posed of GMO salmon.2 These lab-created salmon would pose a serious risk to wild salmon populations if they escaped into the wild, as they consume five-times more food than wild salmon, and are more aggressive.

Introducing these traits into the wild population would be serious — and irreversible.3 Separate from any risks, GMO salmon are less healthy to eat — producing less of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids than conventional salmon — and a less efficient food source — requiring 1.5 to 8 kilograms of wild fish to produce one kilogram of conventional farmed salmon.

Your grocer shouldn’t stock these GMO salmon. Tell it to join the campaign against GMO seafood and boycott these fish.

If your grocer agrees to sell these salmon, you’ll have no way of knowing when you’re buying them.

Monsanto and other companies have dumped millions into blocking laws that require GMO foods to be labeled,4 so these fish will show up in supermarkets without any indication of their GMO source.

But national grocery chains are sensitive to public pressure, and could agree to stop selling these products if there’s enough public outcry, which could lead people to just buying less salmon overall.

Just last year, the top three grocery chains agreed not to sell products containing “pink slime” meat after publicity forced their hand.

Tell national grocery chains that GMO salmon is unacceptable, and they must refuse to stock it.

Thank you for standing up for safe food.

1. Michael McCauley, "Consumers Union Says FDA Assessment of GE Salmon Is Flawed and Inadequate," Consumers Union, December 21, 12.

2. Joe Cummins, "AquAdvantage Salmon Ready for Commerce?" Permaculture News, September 23, 2010.

3. "Tell the FDA: No Frankenfish," Organic Consumers Union.

4. Stacy Finz, "Prop. 37: Genetic food labels defeated." San Francisco Chronicle, November 7, 2012.

5. Ian Simpson, "Kroger joins rival grocers in rejecting 'pink slime' beef." Reuters, March 22, 2012.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

We’re writing for wild game fish conservation

 Albertsons – Remove feedlot salmon from stores I'm writing as a regular customer in Albertson's Tumwater, Washington store and co-founder of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to respectfully recommend that you immediately discontinue the sale of chemicallytreated, diseased, open pen feedlot-raised Atlantic salmon.

You are providing a disservice to your unknowing customers by selling these sub-par, Canadiangrown products that are regarded by many as invasive species. As such, they and the processes used to bring them to market are very problematic for human health, wild Pacific salmon, their fragile ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

For Albertson's to promote and sell open pen Atlantic salmon speaks volumes to your insensitivity to human health risks and other known impacts directly associated with the open pen salmon feedlot industry. It's truly shameful!

To learn more regarding the impacts of open pen salmon feedlots and Canada's efforts to coverup associated reports, watch Http://SalmonConfidential.ca/. Hopefully, the information provided in this documentary will lead to the removal of open pen Atlantic salmon from your shelves.

 Follow-up note to Albertsons - Remove feedlot salmon from stores Approximately one month ago I shared my concern regarding Albertsons policy to market Atlantic salmon raised in open pen salmon feedlots. Albertsons responded by letting me know that this case would be forwarded to your "Fresh Department and that I would have a response the next day.

Instead, what I received was a phone call from an assistant manager at the store where I shop (Tumwater, Washington). She didn't understand the concern I raised.

She did say that wild salmon are also available for those who would rather not eat the farm-raised Atlantics. She also said that she would have the store manager gall me to discuss this matter when she/he returned from vacation - to date, I have not heard from the Tumwater Albertsons manager nor have I heard from Albertsons' Fresh Department.

To be very clear, the concern is that open pen raised Atlantic salmon negatively impact public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. These products should be immediately and permanently removed from Albertsons stores.

My case number regarding this matter is 1-5728958223.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Sea Shepherd – Remove open pen salmon feedlots from our oceans I am writing to request that Sea Shepherd consider taking action to remove open pen salmon feedlots from our oceans. These weapons of mass destruction directly impact human health, wild fish, their ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

To learn more about this serious problem, please watch: Salmon Confidential at http://salmonconfidential.ca/.

Thank you for your heroic efforts to protect our planet's oceans.

 Brian Abbott: Washington State Salmon Recovery Office Congratulations on your recent selection to lead Governor Inslee's Salmon Recovery Office.

Your passion for wild salmon and your leadership experience involving local, state, federal and tribal entities makes you an excellent choice for this important position.

When time permits, Bruce Treichler and I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss some of the issues we are working on with others to protect, restore and conserve wild salmon and their ecosystems. Among these important issues are:  Open pen salmon feedlots sited in wild salmon migration routes within Washington state and British Columbia  Proposed Chehalis River dam (upstream from Pe Ell)  Oil and coal export via Washington ports (Cherry Point, Grays Harbor, Longview)  Forest practices (ie steep slope logging)

 Laurie Jensen: Mainstream Canada Today's media release from Mainstream Canada is an all time low for Mainstream Canada and the open pen salmon feedlot industry.

This is further evidence that this filthy industry that negatively impacts human health, wild salmon, their ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies is nothing more than a profit-driven bunch of bullies that has no respect for nature and all that rely on its health.

Those who care about our wild natural resources will continue to educate those who consume open pen feedlot salmon regarding their many significant negative impacts.

Mainstream Canada's shallow "victory" in court today will only add fuel to our eternal fire.

Your weapons of mass destruction will be removed from the world's oceans.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Maria Cantwell: US Senate (Washington State) We are rapidly approaching the two-year anniversary of your courageous and responsible legislation to confirm the findings in British Columbia of infectious salmon anemia in wild Pacific salmon. The concern is that Washington stateorigin wild Pacific salmon utilize many of the same migration routes (outbound and inbound) as BC-origin salmon.

In your October 2011 press release regarding this subject, you said: “We thought it was very important that this amendment pass tonight because scientists are calling it a disease emergency. That is, that the Pacific Northwest wild salmon might be threatened by a virus that has already decimated fish farm salmon from around the world,” “We cannot risk having this impact the Pacific Northwest wild salmon.”

“It’s tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars as it relates to our economy. …We need an action plan immediately and we need to make sure that we are formulating a rapid response to what to do if we do detect that this virus is spreading with the potential impact that we've seen in other areas.”

Senator Maria Cantwell

When time permits, please provide me with links to above-mentioned action plan and to the rapid response as I have yet to see evidence that these exist.

Related to the impacts associated with open pen salmon feedlots, it seems as though the fisheries folks within NOAA are serving multiple masters as we've seen in Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Both agencies are in place to protect wild fish while at the same time their responsibility is to expand open pen salmon feedlots and to promote their products.

Of course, this automatically creates conflict given the growing list of impacts from open pen salmon feedlots on wild salmon and their ecosystems.

As identified in the September 2012, "NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-119, Genetic Risks Associated with Marine Aquaculture" http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/assets/25/8737_10162012_143010_GeneticRisksAquacultureTM119 WebFinal~Std.pdf: 

In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has diverse and potentially competing responsibilities with respect to marine aquaculture: 1. Enable and support the growth of sustainable seafood production in the United States by aquaculture, including stock enhancement activities and commercial production.

2. Ensure that such growth is compatible with NMFS’ stewardship responsibility for living marine resources.

and

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon! 

In the United States, legislative and policy events over the past decade have focused attention on the promise and risks of aquaculture and broadened NOAA’s involvement in marine aquaculture (commercial and enhancement). Some of the key events include: 1. The Department of Commerce Aquaculture Policy (1999) set the following goals for 2025: • Increase the value of domestic aquaculture production (freshwater and marine) from $900 million annually to $5 billion.

• Develop aquaculture technologies and methods not only to improve production but also to safeguard the environment.

• Enhance depleted wild fish stocks through aquaculture.

2. The Final Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (2004) called on the Secretary of Commerce to: • Design and implement national policies for environmentally and economically sustainable marine aquaculture.

• Develop a comprehensive, environmentally sound permitting, leasing, and regulatory program for marine aquaculture.

• Expand marine aquaculture research.

Given the importance of wild Pacific salmon to Washington state, our neighboring states and our friends in British Columbia, it is vitally important the above words are turned into meaningful actions to protect, restore and conserve wild Pacific salmon.

Thank you for your continued leadership on this important international matter, Senator Cantwell

Editorial Comment: Wild Game Fish Conservation International requested a meeting with US Senator Maria Cantwell to urge: 

immediate and permanent removal of open pen salmon feedlots from Washington state’s wild salmon migration routes



collaboration to immediately and permanently remove open pen salmon feedlots from Canada’s wild salmon migration routes

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 John Kerry, Secretary of State, United Sates of America The following text was developed by our colleagues at Save Our wild Salmon.

Please modernize the Columbia River Treaty The re-negotiation of the U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty represents a tremendous opportunity for the people of the Northwest and the nation. The Columbia/Snake River Basin is a unique and irreplaceable economic and ecological asset. The original treaty - established in 1964 - prioritized hydropower and old-style flood control above all other uses.

This narrow set of objectives may have made sense fifty years ago, but it has harmed salmon, steelhead and other native species, Native American Tribes hereditary indigenous families, and an ecosystem upon which many people and communities rely for their livelihoods.

The upcoming re-negotiation provides us a crucial opportunity to bring the Treaty into the 21st Century in a way that better reflects today's values, economies, and vital need for a healthy Columbia River watershed that can weather the climate changes now occurring.

Secretary of State John Kerry

Modernizing the Columbia River Treaty is extremely important. However, the Working Draft for Treaty Re-Negotiation released on June 27th by Bonneville Power and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not result in a modernized Treaty for Northwest people and economies. I therefore urge the following fundamental changes to this Working Draft: (1) Make ecosystem-based function a co-equal purpose of the new Treaty, joining power production and flood control. This is essential if we hope to truly protect and restore wild salmon and steelhead, for today's river-based economies, and to assure the watershed's health through climate change.

(2) Establish a program to restore native fish runs and fish passage throughout the Columbia River basin, including the upper Columbia and the headwaters of its tributaries.

(3) Expand the energy purposes of the Treaty, including conservation and renewable resources, consistent with our region's goals.

(4) Amend flood risk management to incorporate flexibility, improved forecasting science, and flood plain management to assure that flood and ecosystem management are closely integrated and synergistic.

(5) Include an adaptive process for joint Canadian and U.S. responses to climate change as an integral component of treaty implementation.

(6) Add a third agency or sovereign with a focus on ecosystem function - e.g. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, or the fifteen Columbia Basin Tribes with one vote - to join the Bonneville Power Administration (for energy production) and the Army Corps of Engineers (for flood control) as co-managers of the Treaty.

Thank you very much for your careful consideration of these very important issues.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Mark

Saunders, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Manager, Salmon and Freshwater Ecosystems, Pacific Biological Station

I am writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to urge you and your team at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to collaborate with First Nations hereditary indigenous families and others to identify the growing disease issues facing British Columbia's iconic wild Pacific salmon and Pacific herring; a major forage fish for these magnificent salmon and other species.

As a keystone species, wild Pacific salmon are critical components to public health, ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. As such, these diseases must be identified and their causes immediately eradicated.

Those of us who rely on wild Pacific salmon in one way or another fully expect that you and your team will work with others to the best of your ability to protect and restore wild Pacific salmon and their ecosystems.

Mark Saunders

 Gail Shea, Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth to respectfully request that you and your agency do all that is humanly possible to protect and restore British Columbia's iconic wild Pacific salmon and steelhead trout.

These magnificent creatures are keystone species that support public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies unfortunately, they could easily face extinction if they are not provided the respect and management they deserve.

You, as Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans have the responsibility and authority to put an immediate halt to activities that place these God-given natural resources in harm's way day in and day out.

Gail Shea

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans at the federal level and in British Columbia must:

• •

immediately and permanently remove open pen salmon feedlots from wild Pacific salmon migration routes responsibly manage wild Pacific salmon and steelhead harvests to maximize their environmental and economic contributions

Continued disregard for British Columbia's wild Pacific salmon and steelhead trout will result in a collapse of all that is good about "Beautiful British Columbia" - culture diversity, economic diversity, magnificent natural resources (fishing, forestry, eco-tourism and more).

We urge DFO to to protect and restore wild Pacific salmon and steelhead trout before it is too late for them and all that rely on them.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Pat Pimm, British Columbia Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food I am writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet earth in support of Alexandra Morton’s official complaint regarding misleading comment by your employee, Dr. Gary Marty, to the public in the Globe and Mail.

We are requesting that DFO and/or the province of BC follow up and correct Dr. Marty's quote in the Globe and Mail. The governments of BC have the responsibility to inform the public accurately about a resource as valuable as herring. It is unethical to suggest that herring bleeding throughout their bodies could be "actually good."

Pat Pimm

We would also like to know how the DFO and the Province of BC, who are responsible for the siting of each salmon farm, have responded to VHS in salmon farms and the recent DFO finding that this can potentially cause 100% mortality in BC herring.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Responses to WGFCI:  Albertsons Customer Care Thank you for contacting us with your comments on the salmon that is sold at Albertsons. We value customer feedback and appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

We strive for continued customer satisfaction and would first like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Your comments about this product have been forwarded to the fresh department for review and to ensure that our products meet or exceed quality expectations. You should receive a response by phone or email by the end of the next business day and your case number regarding this matter is 1-5728958223.

Our number one goal is customer satisfaction and if you have any further questions, concerns, or comments, please contact us at 1-877-932-7948.

 Barak Obama, President, United States of America Re. WGFCI request for moratorium on open pen salmon feedlots in American waters (July 2013)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Department of Fisheries and Oceans Thank you for your e-mail dated 11 August 2013, voicing your comments regarding the health of salmon and herring stocks in the Pacific Region.

We have forwarded your concerns to the relevant authorities within Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require additional information.

Sincerely, General inquiries / Renseignements généraux 613-993-0999 facsimile / télécopieur: 613-990-1866 TTY/ATS: 613-941-6517 info@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

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

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 The Salmon Feedlot Boycott Make no mistake: salmon "farms" are large-scale fish factories.

These feedlots operate as intensive livestock grow-outs in the ocean with up to a million fish raised on a single site. Factory salmon are fed colourants to turn their grey flesh pink and given antibiotics and de-lousing drugs to fight disease and parasites. There are no barriers for disease, viruses, bacteria and lice between salmon feedlots and the surrounding environment.

Salmon feedlots never shovel their manure, it all pours into rich coastal fishing grounds.

During salmon feedlot mass mortalities, over 325 billion infectious viral particles can spread into the ocean per hour. Though salmon feedlots in Canada frequently experience mass mortalities from viruses, not enough is done to protect wild fish.

Massive lobster kills have occurred with salmon feedlot sea lice drugs found in them on Canada's east coast.

For those concerned, the time to act is now!

We have reached a tipping point and cannot stand idly by while our livelihoods and natural environments are destroyed by an industry that claims to be responsible and sustainable, yet among other concerns: 

is a feedlot industry with no barrier to protect surrounding ocean environment;



is an incubator for disease and parasites; and



starves one ocean to pollute another.

A federal inquiry reported serious concerns that wild fisheries may be irreversibly harmed by industrial salmon feedlots.

Together, we will stand up for wild salmon, lobster, and all that rely on the resources being destroyed by industrial salmon feedlots.

Join Canadians from coast to coast and take action to send a message to big corporations and government: remove salmon feedlots from our oceans and the migratory routes of our wild fish.

BOYCOTT feedlot salmon.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wild Salmon Warriors Never Quit

There is now a team on your side!

Introducing the Wild Salmon Warriors All Star Basketball Team Built by hand from the grassroots - DTES VanCity and ready to fight for wild salmon for all Nations.

Check us out at wildsalmonbasketball.ca.

Wild Salmon Warriors Never Quit!

Wild Salmon Warriors (WSBB) is a community oriented sports team, based in the Coast Salish Territories in British Columbia Canada.

We are focused on giving service to wild salmon through promoting healthy living, culture and creative expression.

We aim to assist low-income, inner city communities and serve to showcase positive alternatives for high risk youth.

Inspired by indigenous values, we believe in providing direct access to nature and environmental awareness as a key component to a healthy living model.

Through our exhibition games, tournaments and outreach, we hope to express these values to the communities we serve.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon Disease Symptom Reporting – Poster now available HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wild Pacific Salmon Need You – Salmon Are Sacred

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon Feedlot Boycott

Sabra Woodworth – Wild Salmon Warrior Extraordinaire

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 SALMON FEEDLOT BOYCOTT – SUPERSTORE Chilliwack W

The Chilliwack chapter of the Salmon Feedlot Boycott is raising red flags to alert an unaware public that

H A

consuming farmed Atlantic salmon poses grave HEALTH risks. Health specialists around the world point to high levels of contaminants such as PCBs, which are proven to be carcinogenic. Recent global studies warn

T :

consumers to eat no more than two servings of farmed salmon per month because of the high toxin levels.

The aquaculture industry remains plagued with mutating viruses, pollution and parasites – resorting to the use of chemicals and antibiotics to protect their farmed fish grown in open net cages, many of which are placed on the migration routes of wild salmon.

Farmed Atlantic salmon boycott advocates requested that Superstore remove farmed salmon from their shelves on January 15, 2013 and in subsequent communication, but have not yet received an official response from company management. Since Superstore continues to offer farmed Atlantic salmon on their shelves, another boycott rally will be held there on August 1. The purpose of the boycott is to warn Superstore customers of the health hazards of this product, and urge Superstore to make the ethical and moral decision to remove farmed Atlantic salmon from their shelves. The boycott action is part of a growing campaign to have federal and provincial governments exercise the precautionary principle by removing open net feedlots from BC coastal waters in 2013 to protect wild salmon and its habitat..

Jim Wilcox, conservationist with Wild Game Fish Conservation International (Washington-based NGO), will add his support at the boycott.

Media coverage of the boycott is invited and welcome.

Real Canadian Superstore – 45779 Luckakuck Way Chilliwack, B.C. Thursday August 1, 2013 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Salmon Feedlot Boycott, supported by Salmon Are Sacred and Wild Salmon Forever

email: singingbear@shaw.ca

website: www.SalmonFeedlotBoycott.com

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

ď ś Yet another grocery-store protest Eighth event for anti-salmon farming group AUGUST 5, 2013

Alexandra Morton:

A group of activists opposed to salmon farming held their eighth rally at local grocery stores.

They are called a "group of activists" but in fact they are people standing

Led by Sto:lo elder Eddie Gardner, the Chilliwack chapter of the group Salmon Feedlot Boycott held placards and demonstrated in front of Superstore on Thursday.

eyes and see what is coming to them. People like Eddie are making a

up for their home, and the wild salmon that have fed the people of this place for thousands of years. Everyone with children needs to open their better world for the children of the people who allow the European viruses to spread and cause sickness in the most important food for this place. To the fish farmers and their government handmaidens I can only say - think about your children, there must be someone young that you love and then look at Skaw elder, Eddie Gardner, and think about helping

The protest was the group's third at Superstore. They have also been at Walmart three times, Safeway once and Costco in Abbotsford once.

him. Farm salmon do not belong among the wild salmon of the BC coast and their viruses do not belong in our bodies, and our watersheds. I raise my hands in thanks to Eddie and the men and women who stand with him. I travel this coast telling people what I know about the spreading viruses, that government is not lifting a hand to stop it and I know how

All the stores sell Atlantic salmon produced by fish farms off Vancouver Island.

rare it is for someone like Eddie to simply step up personally and say, enough! There are hundreds of things individuals could be doing and now is the time before the viruses make BC their home.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The focus of the protesters has shifted from environmental sustainability to human health. Critics of fish farms suggest diseases can move from farmed fish in the ocean onto wild fish. The salmon farming industry says this isn't true and, in fact, the industry has helped scientists learn about salmon diseases because of the measures they take to examine fish after the die.

But Thursday's protest in Chilliwack was more focused on the supposed human health risks of farmed salmon.

Editorial Comment: In a press release issued Wednesday, the group said a Norwegian scientist, Dr. Anne-Lise Birch Monson, has raised concerns about contaminants in farmed salmon that have a negative effect on brain development and are associated with autism, ADD/ADHD and reduced IQ.

Public health risks associated with open pen salmon feedlots are very real and must be taken seriously. (see related articles in this issue of Legacy)

The group says also that the European Union has granted Norway's request to raise permissible levels of toxins in salmon feed.

"Yes, this is a true story, and you can read all about this in the August edition of our publication Legacy," said Jim Wilcox of the U.S.-based Wild Game Fish Conservation International. The activists said Superstore has been bragging about selling pork without hormones or antibiotics yet the company sells farmed salmon in which antibiotics are used.

"This is why we are encouraging customers to ask Superstore to remove farmed Atlantic salmon from their shelves, as it is the ethical and moral thing to do," Eddie Gardner said.

When asked about the protest on Thursday, a Loblaw spokesperson said the company takes environmental concerns seriously and they are "committed to providing our customers with products that are sourced, handled and produced responsibly."

Senior manager of public relations, Elaine Quan, told the Times in an email that Loblaw has a worldleading sustainable seafood policy. She said that increased demand is why the company sources both wild and farmed salmon. "When there are responsible farming practices, through waste and disease management, water pollution from fish farming can be mitigated," Quan said. "The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standards are currently being developed to address these issues."

She added that the company's goal is to source all seafood in the company's stores from sustainable sources by the end of this year.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon

Confidential: View documentary, Sign up for salmon, Community outreach, Donate, More

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 ‘Salmon Confidential’ documentary raises disturbing questions about farmed salmon July 23, 2013 Listen Documentary filmmaker Twyla Roscovich thought she was just going to make a short 10 minute video on diseased salmon for a marine biologist she knew. She ended up producing a gripping 70 minute eye-opening feature documentary.

Documentary filmmaker Twyla Roscovich.

Salmon Confidential follows Alexandra “Alex” Morton on the Pacific coast of Canada, in the province of British Columbia (BC).

Morton was puzzled by the mention of viruses among Pacific coast salmon, and investigated. What she found, and the documentary shows, is the impact of factory farming of salmon, not only on the farm fish, but also on wild salmon that swam right by the farm containers on their way to spawn.

The documentary shows Morton testing fish from the wild and from grocery store shelves, and the continued silence on the issue by both the government authorities and fish industry. The concern is that the diseased farm salmon could drastically reduce the number of wild salmon found naturally off the coast.

Alexandra Morton

RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda spoke to Twyla Roscovich about her documentary “Salmon Confidential” and a just released short video featuring Norwegian scientists.

More information: Salmon Confidential – the documentary – here

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Association voices concerns about ‘Salmon Confidential’ film documentary July 26, 2013 Listen Following the posting of an interview by RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda with documentary filmmaker Twyla Roscovich about her film “Salmon Confidential” on the RCI website Tuesday (July 23), the executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association wrote a letter to the management of Radio Canada International expressing concerns about the interview and the documentary.

The documentary focuses, in part, on the impact of salmon fish farms on the wild salmon of Canada’s Pacific coast province of British Columbia (BC).

Mary Ellen Walling Executive Director BCSFA

The Association represents salmon fish farmers and the supply and service industry that supports salmon farming, including fish processing.

To find out what concerns the Association had, RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda spoke to Mary Ellen Walling, the Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.

More information: BC Salmon Farmers Association website - www.salmonfarmers.org Wojtek Gwiazda’s interview with Twyla Roscovich about “Salmon Confidential” – here twitter.com/wojtekgwiazda

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 B.C.'S SACRED HEADWATERS STAY SACRED July 25, 2013 Looking out into the standing room only crowd packed into Kitsumkalum Hall in Terrace, British Columbia, Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC), needs a reality check. She asks the crowd, just shy of 1,000 people "Is this actually happening?"

There are myriad events on this February day she is probably questioning. Sure, it might seem surreal that members of British Columbia's First Nations are celebrating an ancient "mixing of the waters" ceremony that for the first time includes non-First Nations participants. Or that after the ceremony, one of Canada's highest ranking government officials asks to take a vial of the ceremonial water back to Parliament to demonstrate how real government works. But really she questions her reality for the simple reason everyone is gathered.

This party is a culmination of almost a decade's worth of work and collaboration, which resulted in the permanent protection of British Columbia's Sacred Headwaters from coalbed methane, petroleum, and natural gas extraction.

As the source of the Stikine, Nass, and Skeena Rivers—considered some of the richest steelhead and salmon watersheds on the planet—the 400,000-hectacre Sacred Headwaters, with their huge reserves of natural gas under Mount Klappan, caught the attention of Shell Canada, Ltd. in the early part of the century.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Shell, however, underestimated the power and unity of these small B.C. communities and their opposition to drilling, which in the end was the company's downfall. Early actions by the global corporation included having First Nations elders arrested for blockading roads and threatening them with injunctions. These elders, members of the Tahltan, sought legal representation, at which point Shell realized they had no case and moved for an adjournment. "Every angle Shell tried to play," recalls McPhail, "the elders and others were waiting for them."

This was about the same time that McPhail—a welder by trade with a resume that includes hunting guide, whitewater guide, nutritionist, fork-lift operator, mill worker, and who up until nine years ago thought a cabinet minister was a carpenter—realized the serious threat Shell and other fossil-fuel and mining companies posed to her home, community, and "grocery store." So in 2004, she, along with a few other concerned residents founded the SWCC, and formed plan to work with the communities and First Nations to protect their region from unsustainable industrial development.

"When you have the Tahltan protecting the birthplace of the Stikine, the Nass, and the Skeena watershed," says McPhail, a fourth-generation British Columbian and mother of two, "and you have all the downstream First Nations and communities vowing to protect those rivers, and saying 'thanks' to those that are protecting the sections that they don't lay claim to, then what you have is this unified wall that nobody can get through."

That's exactly what happened. Last December, during the final days of the four-year government-imposed drilling moratorium, B.C. politicians announced that Shell would be withdrawing its plans and there would be no more tenures issued for oil and gas development in the Sacred Headwaters. "When you mess with our salmon," she says, "you're going to get an ass-kicking."

"And if you wanna do business up here," she adds, "you need social license. That is a big keyword up in the North."

Even McPhail's husband, one of the strongest supporters and funders of the SWCC, works as a welder in the oil fields of Alberta to help support her "SWCC habit" (up until last year, all SWCC staff were volunteers, with 80-hour work weeks the norm), yet drives his truck to work plastered with a 'Get The Shell Out' bumper sticker.

Up next for the SWCC and First Nations is a process to determine what protection is the best fit for the Sacred Headwaters and all stakeholders, whether that is a National Park, conservancy, or an Indigenous Community Conservation Area (ICCA), which recognizes both the rights of the First Nations and the convention for biological diversity.

"In the North, we are lucky that we have people that are motivated to do this stuff," McPhail says.

"We aren't career environmentalists. When we started, we were just fighting for our homes. We are just people who love our community and we are going to fight for our community. When you get to be connected to your work, so right down deep in your heart and you know you are doing something good and something right, that feeds things that are far more important than your bank account."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings August 13, 2013 Guests: Don Staniford, Rod Marining and Peter Hall

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wil D. Salmon and his “Salmon Love” van “Wild Salmon Don’t do Drugs”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 It appears piscine reovirus (PRV) arrived in BC waters around 2007 Alexandra Morton August 2013

photo by Anissa Reed

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

On July 11, Virology Journal published a scientific paper co-authored by Dr. Fred Kibenge, myself and others reporting that a highly contagious European salmon virus is in BC. It appears piscine reovirus (PRV) arrived in BC waters around 2007.

Virology is the first publication to note the occurrence of the virus outside of Norway. The authors show that the virus they found in BC closely matches the same virus in diseased Atlantic farmed salmon in Lofoten, Norway.

There is strong scientific evidence that Atlantic farmed salmon carried an exotic virus into BC. PRV is associated with a serious salmon heart disease. For anyone who takes a look at the science, it’s pretty hard to deny this one. Perhaps that is why Fisheries and Oceans Canada is completely silent.

Will the industry get away with it?

I first reported piscine reovirus in 2012 when I began buying farmed Atlantic salmon in BC supermarkets to test for European viruses. These fish also tested positive for segments of the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) and salmon alpha virus (SAV). These are all European viruses killing massive numbers of farmed salmon in Norway. None of these viruses were previously reported in BC. Most widespread in my samples is PRV. In 100 Atlantic farmed salmon sampled in BC supermarkets, the PRV infection rate was a staggering 95+%. PRV is a tough, durable virus more easily detected than the fragile ISA virus. Unfortunately, these findings came too late to be included in the Cohen Commission into the decline of the Fraser sockeye, but they would have been important for this reason. Norwegian scientists don’t think a salmon with the heart disease associated with PRV can swim up a river.

Up to 90% of some sockeye runs that make it to the lower Fraser River no longer make it up the river to their spawning grounds. If close to 100% of the BC Atlantic salmon tested in BC supermarkets markets are infected with PRV, it stands to reason, that many, if not most, salmon farms on the Fraser sockeye migration route are also infected; BC wild salmon have to swim past many salmon farms to get to and from the river. One scientist warned that PRV can spread like “wildfire.”

Did this virus really come from Norway? Is it dangerous to wild salmon? Could it be responsible for declines in wild BC salmon? To answer the first question, we can only look at the science. PRV has never been reported outside of Norway. The strain in BC matches the strain in Norway.

Is it dangerous to salmon? Three scientific papers report that PRV appears to be causing Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI). Marine Harvest is one of the largest salmon aquaculture companies in the world. The Norwegian company has operations in BC and cites HSMI as the second leading cause of death of their salmon worldwide.

Could it be a factor in BC wild salmon declines? Because we were finding it in wild salmon, filmmaker Twyla Roscovich went to Norway in May to ask the experts, on camera. The scientists were unanimous, emphatically stating that PRV causes HSMI, which damages the salmon’s heart to the point they are unable to pump blood. One scientist warned BC to get PRV- infected Atlantic salmon out of its waters before it’s too late. View the short film Asking Norway About the Piscine Reovirus at SalmonConfidential.ca The Department of Wild Salmon is asking for the public’s help to stop the spread of this virus. For more info and to get involved, visit SalmonConfidential.ca

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Call to action (Canada): Report all Poachers and Polluters

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Don Staniford: Salmon Farming: Big Fish in a Little Pond

 “Big Fish in a Little Pond” – Don Staniford – Watch Part 1

Part 2

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fish: Part 2. And another worrying case for campaigners.

August 4, 2013 Earlier last week I found myself highlighting the death of thousands of fish in my local area while at the same time considering these often ignored creatures on a larger scale.

I have long been a campaigner against factory farms; having seen for myself the terrible conditions, suffering of the animals, reliance on medications such as antibiotics and waste and feed issues while going through my vet training.

One area of factory farming though has always been slightly off the radar- fish farming. So I was very interested to go to a lecture by Don Staniford, a determined campaigner against fish farming.

His talk at the National Geographic store in west London certainly confirmed to me that intensive fish farming, in particular Salmon farming, is just another frontier in the battle over industrialisation of our future food supply.

There are compelling arguments for fish farming; a way to feed ourselves in the face of population growth, increasing meat and fish consumption and increasing pressures on other resources. And it is a good business for some people.

Unfortunately it also suffers from the same problems as other intensified, industrial systems. The costs are externalized and while the farms may be able to produce relatively cheap protein that we seem to be addicted to, ultimately the balance of 'payments' with these systems is that we actually end up less able to feed ourselves and the local environment gets trashed too.

The most striking fact of the evening is that research shows that factory Salmon farming actually results in a net LOSS of protein in the food chain. This is due to the amount of protein from other fish that are fed to the growing salmon. It is also because wild fish in the vicinity are devastated by diseases transmitted from the farmed fish.

Just like on industrial animal farms the high stocking density of stressed animals (bear in mind that Salmon's natural behaviour is to swim long distances, yet they are confined in very high numbers in small pens) creates the perfect environment for disease. But these diseases don't just affect the fish in the farm but can spread to affect wild populations, as research has shown.

There is also the waste issue; faeces, waste food and dead fish all affect the local marine environment.

It was good to know that a campaigner such as Don was working on highlighting this issue. So I was shocked to discover just a few days later that he has been ordered to pay $75, 000 by a court in Canada in damages over mock cigarette packages that criticised Norwegian fish farms. You can see more about the details of the case here but the comments of the West Coast Law firm are surely correct: 'A major lesson, and one that we’ve unfortunately seen before, is that deep pocketed companies have the power to drag their critics into court. Staniford does not have the resources to pay a $75,000 damages award, and presumably Mainstream knows that. It looks as if the real value of this litigation for them is to silence him and (perhaps) to discourage other critics'. We saw a similar situation with the Dash for Gas activists being threatened with having to pay astronomical sums.

Corporations already have far too much power and influence over governments. The law needs to be changed so they can't bully activists in this way.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 In Canada, PM Harper has lists of “Friends” and “Enemies.” Guess Which Side We’re On? July 22, 2013 As an environmental coalition, ForestEthics has worked with Fortune 500 companies, First Nations (Canada’s indigenous peoples) and other stakeholders to develop solutions toward protecting endangered forests and wild places.

We have also worked closely with governments of all levels, including Canada’s federal government.

An example of our government work: after a decade of markets campaigns and boardroom meetings with various stakeholders, we reached an agreement to protect British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest—one of the last coastal temperate rainforests of its kind. This created a monumental conservation agreement.

It was then Minister of the Environment John Baird who announced in 2007 that the Federal government would match the British Columbia Liberal Government’s $30 million contribution towards a conservation trust fund for communities in the Great Bear Rainforest. The federal government’s contribution was what enabled the fund. This trust fund would seed sustainable economic initiatives for local First Nations. It would also provide those communities with the capacity for planning and management of the newly protected 6.7 million acres (2.2 million hectares) of forest.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Canada

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Since the day that Baird announced the Federal government’s key contribution to that worldrenowned conservation agreement, Prime Minister Harper won a majority government in Canada.

And since then, we have been actively trying to stop his government’s agenda of expanding dirty tar sands oil at all costs. Those plans include building the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline that would introduce massive oil tankers for the first time ever to the majestic Great Bear Rainforest.

Once, we were collaborators with the federal government on projects like protecting the Great Bear Rainforest. Now we’ve been accused of working against the government.

What kind of democracy are we living in?

Despite challenging their agenda, it admittedly came as a shock to us in the Vancouver and Smithers, BC offices to hear that the Harper government had called ForestEthics “enemies of the state” back in early 2012. While some folks jumped to comparisons of the McCarthy era, my family jumped to the Argentine Dirty War where those labeled as “enemies” disappeared if they didn’t succeed in seeking refuge first.

But more than anything, it made us all ask--is this Canada??? Is this the country we all know and grew up in, which is supposedly based on “peace, order and good government”?

Days later, Minister Joe Oliver posted an open letter to Canadians that proceeded to call those opposed to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project “radicals.”

Instead of hiding, we decided to give up our charitable status—which we deeply appreciated and respected—to become ForestEthics Advocacy. We needed to do more advocacy with this adversarial government, not less.

So, last week when Harper made his minimal cabinet shuffle in an attempt at renewal from a scandal-ridden government, it was not entirely surprising that the Prime Minister’s Office had asked for “enemies lists” to pass on to newly appointed cabinet ministers. If we found out that we were on that list in 2012, we can only guess that we’re still there, though the list isn’t public.

Harper’s government has divided Canadians more than any other. He has seemingly enjoyed creating rifts. Like conservative governments in the US, the federal Canadian government operates in black and white--you’re on a “friends” or “enemies” list; you’re a “radical” if you oppose projects it supports; you’re a “foreign-puppet” if you’re an organization who accepts international funds, but in the “national interest” if you’re a foreign government or company taking over our natural resources; you’re shut down if you’re a scientist who reveals facts contrary to its ideology; or as former Minister Vic Toews said: “you're with us or you're with the child pornographers." As opposed to any kind of collaborative approach, the federal conservative majority government is one more interested in warring with its own people.

As with all empires, Harper’s too will fall. And when it does, let’s elect a government that respects differences, engages in debate, and doesn’t bully those who oppose its agenda. As with the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, let’s collaborate and find solutions that address the environment and jobs. Let’s work together toward a better, more sustainable future.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 ForestEthics Advocacy Challenges Harper Government Energy Rules in Court August 13, 2013

BREAKING NEWS: ForestEthics Advocacy is standing up to the Harper government’s bullying and silencing of opponents of tar sands expansion and pipelines. Today they announced they’re suing the federal government of Canada over changes made by the Harper gov’t that violate Canadians’ right to free speech and put our natural environment at risk.

Canadians deserve to have a voice in dirty energy projects like the Enbridge Line 9b pipeline project or the Kinder Morgan Transmountain Twinning proposal. ForestEthics Advocacy is standing up for these rights. Stand with them and protect your right to speak up! SHARE this image! http://bit.ly/1cIEwzE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Launch of Protect Wild Scotland!

July 17, 2013 Protect Wild Scotland is officially launched today (17 July) – read our press release: Protect Wild Scotland Launches New Campaign: Scottish Ministers Challenged on Salmon Farming Wester Ross, Scotland – Protect Wild Scotland this week launched a new campaign – ‘Scotland Against Salmon Farms’- to fight the Scottish Government’s reckless plans to expand salmon farming production by 50 per cent by 2020. In a letter sent today (17 July), Protect Wild Scotland called upon the First Minister & Scottish Ministers to curb salmon farming due to sea lice infestation, chemical resistance, genetic dilution and water pollution.

“Shame on the Scottish Government for sanctioning further increases in salmon farming production when sea lice infestation is already way beyond crisis levels,” said Don Staniford, Director of Protect Wild Scotland. “Wild fish are being eaten alive by sea lice from dozens of disease-ridden salmon farms littering the coast of Scotland. The First Minister should put the wild salmon economy first by closing down farms rather than opening the world’s largest and unhealthiest Chinese take-away.”

“Protect Wild Scotland will fight to protect wild salmon from the scientifically acknowledged impacts of salmon farming,” said Jenny Scobie, Chair of Protect Wild Scotland. “The Scottish National Party is shamefully selling off Scotland’s natural assets to feed the Chinese market and fuel the profits of Norwegian multinationals. The Scottish Government is promoting a false salmon farming economy based on spin and deception instead of a healthy local economy based upon Scotland’s wild salmon.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon Farms Kill – Mainstream Canada “wins”, democracy loses

Recently Released Judgments This webpage lists judgments recently released by the Court of Appeal and provides links to copies of those judgments. Judgments are best viewed in Internet Explorer 7 or newer (click here to download).

Posted Monday, July 22, 2013: Mainstream Canada v. Staniford, 2013 BCCA 341 – 2013/07/22 Court of Appeal The appellant sought general and punitive damages for allegedly defamatory comments made by the respondent in various publications, as well as a permanent injunction restraining him from publishing similar words and images in the future. The trial judge found the defence of fair comment applied to the defamatory comments and dismissed the action. In holding that the defence applied, the judge found that a determined reader could have located the facts upon which the comments were based. Held: appeal allowed. The trial judge erred in finding the test for the defence of fair comment was satisfied. The defamatory publications did not identify by a clear reference the facts upon which the comments were based that were contained in other documents. The trial judge’s order dismissing the appellant’s claim is set aside, and the permanent injunction is granted. As it is in the interests of justice for this Court to assess damages rather than order a new trial, the appellant is awarded general damages of $25,000 and punitive damages of $50,000. The respondent is punished for his misconduct during the trial by awarding the appellant special costs of the action.

Don Staniford: Shocking news: Cermaq won the appeal and now there is a permanent injunction against saying 'Salmon Farming Kills' (plus 50 other statements such as 'Wild Salmon Don't Do Drugs')! Read Judgment online via: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/court_of_appeal/recent_judgments.aspx

Elly Edwards: Proof that the courts are indeed "Kangaroo Courts". If anything the likes of Mainstream Canada should be sued for advertising false statements such as “farmed salmon is natural, nutritious and free of contaminants” and “the only real difference between farmed and wild salmon is that the farmed ones know where their next meal is coming from”. Outright lies and the "justice" system turns a blind eye to it. May the Supreme Court of Canada restore some faith in it's ability to know what justice is by overturning the appeal and putting an end to SLAPP suits!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Court upholds Mainstream Canada’s case against activist Mainstream Canada Newsletter Date: Mon, 2013-07-22 Mainstream Canada was vindicated today when the BC Supreme Court of Appeal ruled against antisalmon farming activist Don Staniford.

The Supreme Court of Appeal also granted Mainstream Canada special costs based on the activist's behaviour during the trial.

"The appropriate way to punish Mr. Staniford for his reprehensible conduct in the litigation is to award Mainstream special costs against him," wrote Justice David Tysoe in the judgment handed down this morning.

The company originally took the activist to court because his attack did not just affect Mainstream Canada.

"It affected our employees, their families, our suppliers and our partners. A company is not just its registration number. The soul of a company is its employees, and we need to stand up for them and defend them against malicious and defamatory attacks, and against cyberbullying," said Laurie Jensen, Mainstream Canada's Communications and Corporate Sustainability Manager. "We are pleased that the court recognizes that especially in the age of the Internet, public comments need to be backed up by facts."

Justice Tysoe found that the activist was not eligible for protection under a fair comment defence because he failed to adequately present facts to back up his claims.

"All of the readers of the publications were not in a position to make up their own minds about the merits of what Mr. Staniford said in the publications. Accordingly, one of the elements of the defence of fair comment was not satisfied, and the defence was not available to Mr. Staniford. The judge erred in dismissing Mainstream's defamation claim," wrote Justice Tysoe. "I would allow the appeal and set aside the judge's order dismissing Mainstream's claim and her costs order. I would grant the injunction requested in Mainstream's amended notice of civil claim, and I would award Mainstream general damages in the amount of $25,000 and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000. I would award Mainstream special costs of the action and party and party costs of this appeal."

Today's judgment upholds Mainstream Canada's arguments made during the company's original court case against the activist.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The trial, which ran from January 16 to February 10 2012, was responding to a prolonged, malicious, and unfounded attack on Mainstream Canada and its employees. In the original trial, the judge concluded that Mainstream was a responsible corporate citizen.

"They are conscious of the need to operate the business in a manner consistent with producing a product that is safe to consume and contributes to a healthy and nutritious diet," the trial judge wrote in her judgment.

The original trial judge also found that the activist's comments were defamatory and were motivated by express malice toward Mainstream. She described the language in his publications as "extreme, inflammatory, sensationalized, extravagant and violent."

Today's judgment shows that while public debate should be encouraged, it should be based on fact, and critics should be held accountable for their public commentary.

Media contact: Laurie Jensen 250-286-0022 ext. 2232 or laurie.jensen@mainstreamcanada.com

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon farming company wins defamation lawsuit July 22, 2013

Don Staniford says he plans to continue to speak out about salmon farming. (Global Alliance against industrial Aquaculture.)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

An outspoken critic of B.C.'s salmon farming industry has been ordered to pay a major industry player $75,000 for claims he made online about the safety of farmed salmon.

Last year Mainstream Canada, which operates 27 farms off B.C.'s coast, sued Don Staniford for defamation after he claimed online that "salmon farming kills" and "salmon farming is poison".

While the trial judge found Staniford's statements were defamatory, she ruled they were also protected by the defence of fair comment, because readers could make up their make up their own minds about what Staniford was saying.



Read about the earlier court decision

However on Monday, B.C.'s Appeal Court disagreed, and ruled the facts Staniford relied on weren't sufficiently referenced on his website.

The court ordered Staniford to pay $75,000 in damages and slapped him with an injunction against repeating his claims.

Not backing down yet But Staniford is already vowing he won't be silenced, claiming the injunction would ultimately bar anyone from criticizing the industry.

"I intend to repeat these allegedly defamatory words," said Staniford, speaking from Ireland.

"This opens up a whole new line of attack by these Norwegian multi-nationals to muzzle free speech," he said, referring to the Norwegian parent company Cermaq, which operates Mainstream and other salmon farming operations worldwide.

Lawyer Gavin Cameron, who represents Mainstream, says Staniford is wrong.

"This judgment means you can be forceful in your criticism, you may not be 100 per cent correct, but you do have to point to some facts that back up what you're saying," said Cameron.

In a statement, Mainstream Canada called Staniford a cyber-bully who carried out a prolonged and malicious attack against the company and its employees.

"We are pleased that the court recognizes that especially in the age of the Internet, public comments need to be backed up by facts," said Laurie Jensen, Mainstream Canada's Communications and Corporate Sustainability Manager in a statement posted online.

Staniford says he plans to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear an appeal.

Be sure to watch “Salmon Confidential” to learn about many of the negative impacts of open pen salmon feedlots and the greed-driven industry they support.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 The

Chill Effect: Wild Salmon Advocate Learns $75,000 Lesson in Court So You Won’t Have To August 12, 2013

Recently the BC Court of Appeal fined an antifish farm activist named Don Staniford $75,000 plus court fees for defamation. Staniford’s work to advertise the dangers fish farms pose to wild salmon stocks did not constitute fair comment, said the judge, because he failed to adequately cite scientific information.

Staniford, a British citizen visiting BC, campaigned against Norwegian fish farming giant Mainstream Canada with mock cigarette packages reading “Salmon Farming Kills,” “Salmon Farming is Poison,” and “Salmon Farming Seriously Damages Health.” The Court of Appeal found these statements to be defamatory.

Although the BC Supreme Court ruled Staniford’s message legally fell within his right to ‘fair comment,’ the BC Court of Appeal overturned that decision, saying Staniford’s claims failed to fully meet the requirements needed to invoke fair comment protections.

What he neglected to do was ‘sufficiently state’ the factual basis of his claims on what the court deemed to be the defamatory pages on his website and a press release.

Although Staniford provided access to scientific information elsewhere on his blog, the court was not willing to consider the website’s content as a whole.

The crucial element of the ruling lies in this one detail: the court agreed that Staniford would have qualified for the defence of ‘fair comment’ to win his case if he had been clearer about where his information came from.

For activists, advocates, citizen journalists and campaigners working on issues related to big industry in Canada, the BC Court of Appeal’s decision is likely to cause some concern.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Andrew Gage, staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, says that “there is a real risk that the decision will chill legitimate public debate” in Canada, especially from within the activist community.

“In general deep-pocketed companies suing individuals is not a level playing field and has the effect of silencing industry critics. Moreover, defamation law, despite some important advances in recent years, in my view still favours private interests over public interest debate,” he told DeSmog Canada.

Although, he adds, “it’s not all a bad news story.” Individuals are still free to discern what science is reliable and what science may reflect the interests of industry.

“The BC Court of Appeal decision left untouched the ruling by the BC Supreme Court that judges should not choose between different versions of the science, allowing activists to speak about scientific information that may be at odds with industry-funded scientists,” he said.

The issue of sufficient citation, however, stands.

“On the other hand” he said, “and this is where the court didn't think Staniford did enough, activists will apparently need to be very active in directing the public to the scientific or other factual information on which their statements are based. While that may be reasonable for articles and blog posts, it could be challenging for some forms of graphic activism - bumper stickers and posters, for example.”

Another notable aspect of the case is the divide it draws between corporate accountability and the duties of individuals.

Individuals like Staniford are responsible for actively citing scientific sources to defend their claims regarding industrial practices. On the other side of the public arena, especially in advertising, industrial corporations are not.

Just think back to Enbridge’s embarrassing removal of the 1000 square kilometres of islands dotting the proposed oil tanker route off the coast of British Columbia. Although Enbridge most certainly misinformed the public about the dangers of oil tanker traffic associated with the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the company was not held accountable to the public in doing so.

Advocates for an oil free coast, however, may find themselves in legal trouble if they aren’t careful to cite their sources when criticizing Enbridge.

The farmed fish industry is also legally allowed to advertise farmed salmon without citing scientific research on the negative health and environmental effects of farmed salmon production and consumption.

According to Gage, the overall problem with BC’s fair comment laws lies in the general imbalance within the legal system. Most essentially, critics of industry should be free to oppose industry without the fear of harsh reprisal.

“We can all press for laws that strike a better balance,” he says. “Quebec has banned lawsuits aimed at silencing public critics (known as SLAPP suits), while Australia has banned large companies from suing for defamation at all.”

“BC,” he adds, also “needs laws to protect free speech.”

Staniford, who has temporarily suspended activities on his blog, plans to take his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Gag Orders Kill the Truth

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Wild Salmon Warriors gagged in Canada - not able to speak these truths (and more)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 My personal opinion about open net-cage salmon feedlots in British Columbia Laurie Watt: “Each sentence written in this posting is my personal opinion about open net-cage salmon feedlots in British Columbia.

Salmon feedlots kill. Salmon feedlots kill wild salmon. Salmon feedlots kill Steller sea lions, seals, eagles, bears, other birds, trees and many other species that depend upon wild salmon. Excrement from salmon feedlots kills virtually all life under the cages. Salmon feedlots kill components of indigenous cultures that are thousands of years old by smothering clam beds with excrement and by killing wild salmon.

Our federal and provincial governments deny there is a problem, muzzle their own scientists tracing the source of salmon diseases, ignore the $26 million Cohen Commission's recommendations, strip a world-renowned Canadian biological laboratory of its investigative credentials because it has superior testing facilities, and allow diseased feedlot salmon to be placed in open net-cages in the ocean, in sushi restaurants and on shelves in our supermarkets.

The highest levels of the Canadian and British Columbia governments are responsible for the current situation. They desperately want to remain in the 20th Century, building pipelines, damming rivers, fracking for gas, mining bitumen. They know these destructive activities can be stopped by our indigenous neighbours who are the final protectors of the land, water and air, because members of indigenous nations living in unceded territory have a higher legal standing than Canada.

Our governments are afraid of this power held by indigenous people, afraid the people will become united in opposition before the destruction is complete - that's why they're allowing the salmon feedlot industry to continue killing - killing everything indigenous culture depends upon.”

 Jurisdiction and Education Presentation by Sharon Venne Watch video HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages Watch video HERE

Don Staniford: “Don't gamble on salmon farming in Galway Bay – Brian Curran of Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages on the risks posed by a proposed 15,000 tonne "organic" salmon farm!”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Silas Whitman, in handcuffs, appeals for tribal members and other protesters to remain calm after he and other tribal elected leaders were arrested during a blockade of equipment bound for the tar sands Monday August 5.

 Nez Perce Leaders Stand Firm on Frontlines of Mega-Load Transport August 9, 2013 “Lights! Lights!”

The amber flashers of the first pilot truck in a convoy bearing a gigantic piece of processing gear destined for the oil sands of Alberta, Canada rounded a distant corner in the darkness at the edge of the Nez Perce Reservation.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The cry went up just after midnight on Monday August 5, the beginning of a protest against megaloads through Nez Perce territory along scenic Highway 12 in North Central Idaho. By Friday August 9, 30 tribal members and their leaders had been arrested.

Foremost among them on August 5 was Tribal Chairman Silas Whitman, who joined six members of the tribe’s Executive Council, grabbing wooden barriers and striding out onto U.S. Highway 12. A rush of more than 200 tribal members and others—from grandmothers to children—followed, all determined to stop a football-field-sized mega-load from passing through their sacred lands.

A phalanx of Idaho State Police cruisers idling in the darkness nearby flipped on their headlights and rooftop light bars and rolled to within yards of the blockade. It was an eerie blue-and-red strobe-lit standoff: Tribal members sang and drummed and whooped, while stony state and tribal police faced them, arms crossed. Looming behind the police came the mega-load, its cylindrical face appearing as an enormous ghostly moon, swathed in a white tarp.

The 23-foot-high load was a water evaporation unit that weighed 644,000 pounds and, hooked up on dollies with a diesel truck at front and back, was nearly as long as a football field at 243 feet. It ate up nearly two full lanes of road.

The blockade lasted for two hours. Whitman and his council members were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and taken to the county jail along with a dozen other tribal protesters.

RELATED:BREAKING: Nez Perce Committee Members Arrested During Protest It was one of many protests that the Nez Perce are planning against mega-loads destined for the Alberta oil sands. Feeling ignored by state and federal officials, and increasingly concerned that oil companies are working with Idaho to convert the federally designated Wild and Scenic portions of Highway 12 into an industrial high-and-wide corridor to the oil sands, the Nez Perce have been riled into direct action, Whitman and others said.

RELATED: Video: 19 Arrested in Idaho Protesting Megaload Delivery The protests came as the Nez Perce prepared to mark the anniversary of the battle of the Big Hole from the 1877 war.

RELATED: Native History: Chief Joseph Leads Nez Perce in Battle of Big Hole

By Friday August 9, at least 30 people had been arrested. The nightly protests and blockades and youngsters placing rocks in the highway had slowed but not stopped the mega-load as it lurched across Idaho’s narrow panhandle, escorted by increasing numbers of police.

A complaint was filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in a last-ditch attempt to halt it.

The passage of this week’s mega-load over opposition from both the Forest Service and the tribe is an attack on sovereignty Whitman said at a hastily called press conference at the Nez Perce casino on Monday night.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

But the Nez Perce are also protecting their fellow First Nations up in Canada, Whitman said, tribal people being sickened by pollution related to tar sands mining. The tribe feels a duty to try and stop equipment from reaching the sites, he and other council members said.

“Even if we were supportive of mega-loads in the wilderness corridor, we oppose the final use of the product,” Whitman said. “We tie this together with the [Keystone] XL pipeline. We want to help our brothers and sisters in the First Nations of Canada, and the Sioux Nation and the Oklahoma and Nebraska tribes.”

The fight in Idaho goes back to 2008 when oil companies led by Exxon Mobil’s Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil, found an unlikely way to the tar sands that was not blocked by tunnels or low overpasses and was far shorter than the usual method of shipping to Houston. The new way involved barging the loads up the Columbia and Snake rivers to Lewiston, Idaho, and trucking over Lolo Pass—a historic route used by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 and for intertribal trade between the Pacific coast and the plains long before that. Once over the shoulder of the Bitterroot Mountains, the loads turn north through Montana to the oil sands.

Residents only learned of the oil companies’ interest in their narrow, twisting remote highway when utility crews came through to raise the power lines, followed by trimmers to limb roadside trees. A court fight was launched to try and compel the Forest Service to enforce the values that come with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and with the highway’s designation as a wild and scenic roadway.

One-hundred miles of Highway 12 traverse forested federal lands along the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers. Significant Nez Perce cultural and sacred sites—from the Ant and the Yellowjacket rock arch and the Heart of the Monster formation central to the place that the tribe originated—also lie along the route.

Related: Nez Perce Oppose Mega-Loads Through Reservation In February, U.S. Magistrate B. Lynn Winmill ruled that the Forest Service does have authority to regulate mega-loads. But the Idaho Transportation Department says it is not affected by the federal ruling, and on Friday August 2 the state issued a permit for shipping company Omega Morgan to haul the mega-load to Alberta. The department’s deputy director did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages from ICTMN asking to explain why the permit was issued when new stakeholders, the Forest Service and the tribe, have joined the permitting process. Officials at Omega Morgan also refused to be directly available for questions.

The request for an injunction is likely too late to stop the load that was slowed by tribal blockades, but it may halt the next one, which is already offloaded at the port of Wilma, and the eight more that Omega Morgan has lined up after that.

Even as the mega-load trundled heavily away from his Nez Perce homeland, Whitman said he had reached out to other tribes along the route to take action.

“This is not over by a long shot.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Protect Bryce Canyon from dangerous coal mining!

Last year, the Sierra Club and our allies submitted nearly 250,000 comments to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opposing the expansion of the privately owned Alton Coal Mine onto federal land in southern Utah, 10 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park.

At the same time, both the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued formal comments opposing the mine. In addition, Utah's largest newspaper editorialized against the mine proposal.1 But the BLM has never denied a mining expansion request like this one before. That's why we aren't taking any chances. With your help this will be the first!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Keep up the pressure to halt the expansion of the Alton Coal Mine and protect Bryce Canyon National Park! Send a message to the BLM and Department of Interior Secretary Jewell now!

In response to the huge outpouring of opposition, the BLM agreed to further study the proposed mine. We anticipate the review will be released this fall. We need to ensure that the new Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, and the BLM, know we still oppose this boondoggle and the danger it poses to this stunning natural landscape.

We can't risk the pristine night sky, the local recreation economy, the amazing vistas or the wildlife near the park just to dig more coal out of the earth for a few years of dirty electric power.

Tell Secretary Jewell and the BLM to deny Alton Coal's request to expand mining operations near Bryce Canyon National Park!

The world's most respected investor, Warren Buffett, isn't optimistic about coal. He recently stated, "Coal will gradually decline in importance."2 Coal's decline is already happening and the West is leading the way!

Washington and Oregon are transitioning away from their coal plants and have stopped three out of six proposed coal export terminals.3 In March, Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city, announced it would be entirely off coal by 2025. NV Energy, the largest utility in Nevada, announced in June that they would be closing their largest coal plant and making big investments in renewables.4,5 If the world's greatest investor is saying coal is declining and states across the West are ditching coal, why are we even thinking about mining coal near one our nation's greatest natural treasures -Bryce Canyon National Park?

Secretary Jewell and the BLM need to hear from you that coal is a dirty, risky investment and a dangerous proposition for our precious natural wonders.

Tell them to deny the expansion of the Alton Coal Mine and protect Bryce Canyon National Park!

Thanks for all you do to protect the environment, Mary Anne Hitt Beyond Coal Campaign Sierra Club P.S. After you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues!

[1] "BLM should reject mine expansion," The Salt Lake Tribune. 8 November 2011.

[2] Snyder, Jim, "Buffett says coal's decline in U.S. to be gradual yet permanent," Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 25 July 2013.

[3] Thompson, Claire, "Coal-export plans going off the rails in Pacific Northwest," Grist. 10 May 2013.

[4] "Los Angeles to be first coal free city in US by 2025," National Geographic News Watch. 22 March 2013.

[5] Doughman, Andrew, "NV Energy bill wins passage, signaling state's shift from coal," The Las Vegas Sun. 4 June 2013.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 COAL, OIL, GAS // NONE SHALL PASS Portland Rising Tide – Banner Drop July 27, 2013

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Who you gonna call? - Fish Busters

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Impacts of open pen salmon feedlots

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has yet to reveal test results after accepting samples of bloodied Pacific herring two years ago from a Vancouver Island marine biologist, who again found hundreds of the sickly fish on Saturday.

(PHOTO ALEXANDRA MORTON)

 Bleeding herring discovery alarms B.C. marine biologist Scores of bloodied fish found in the water off northeastern Vancouver Island are alarming a B.C. marine biologist, who says Fisheries and Oceans Canada is ignoring the problem.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Vancouver Island marine biologist Alexandra Morton first spotted herrings bleeding from their dorsal and pelvic fins in 2011 and began monitoring the phenomenon, which she suspects is a disease or viral infection.

Using a seine net, she dragged up several hundred of the fish this past weekend and found the apparent infection had spread — instead of their usual silver colour the fish had eyes, tails, underbellies, gills and faces plastered with the sickly red colour.

“I have never seen fish that looked this bad,” Morton told 24 hours Sunday. “If you look only in one place, you really can’t say whether it’s happening along the whole coast … the concern is these are migratory fish. They don’t stay in one place.”

In June, the affected fish were only found in eastern Johnstone Strait, but have since spread to Alert Bay and Sointula, she said.

Humpback whales, eagles, chinook and coho salmon are known to eat Pacific herring, further adding to the risk should the infection be contagious.

Morton has several theories, including three European-based viruses she’ll be personally testing the fish for. Another theory is it’s caused by the local viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus — a deadly disease transferable between different species.

According to emails from FOC, the federal authority had asked the marine biologist to send in 20 to 30 herring in September 2011, saying that would be “more than sufficient for the lab to look for clinical signs of disease and provide sufficient diagnostics.”

She did, and hasn’t heard back since.

Alexandra Morton: DFO has answered my request that they test the herring from northeastern Vancouver Island. They said they have not received any reports of a dieoff, but their crew in the region is going to try to get samples if possible. I appreciate their response and I will be following up with them to see how it goes. I attribute the fast response to all of you who wrote to them. Thank you.

Dr. Claudette Bethune: Viruses from farmed salmon feedlots sitting and spewing out viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) for over 10 weeks once infected.

This is not natural, this virus is not suppose to be manufactured and produced in stationary disease factories that are now known to transmit this lethal disease to wild herring: "VHSV can cause mild mortality in Atlantic salmon and salmon can be a reservoir of virus subsequently transmitting VHS disease to cohabitating naïve Pacific herring" (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S 0378113513003015)

“These are very strong disease symptoms that I’m simply asking (the ministry) to tell us, in a verifiable way, what is wrong with these fish?” Morton said, adding the answer could be found using an existing test that examines the immune systems of fish.

FOC officials did not respond to a request for comment by the 24 hours presstime.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Disease killing Pacific herring threatens salmon, scientist warns August 13, 2013 Independent fisheries scientist Alexandra Morton is raising concerns about a disease she says is spreading through Pacific herring causing fish to hemorrhage.

Ms. Morton has called on the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to investigate, saying it could cause large-scale herring kills and infect wild salmon, which feed heavily on herring.

“I’ve been seeing herring with bleeding fins,” Ms. Morton said Monday. “Two days ago I did a beach seine on Malcolm Island [near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island] and I got approximately 100 of these little herring and they were not only bleeding from their fins, but their bellies, their chins, their eyeballs.

Biologist Alexandra Morton at her home on Sointula on Malcolm Island, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, near Port McNeill.

These are very, very strong disease symptoms.”

Ms. Morton, a researcher and environmental advocate who campaigns against fish farms, said she caught some herring with similar symptoms in beach seine nets in 2011, but was unable to get DFO to investigate.

The problem seems much worse this time, she said, with all of the herring she caught in the recent netting showing disease signs.

“It was 100 per cent … I couldn’t find any that weren’t bleeding to some degree. And they were schooling with young sockeye,” said Ms. Morton, who suspects the disease is viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Dr. Gary Marty, fish pathologist with the animal health centre for the B.C. Ministry of Environment, said VHSV and a second disease, viral erythrocytic necrosis, or VEN, are the two most likely suspects.

But he said both diseases have been on the West Coast for a long time and it is too soon to ring any alarm bells.

He said Ms. Morton could be seeing a common, localized outbreak that might just fade away.

“You’d have to have more information or more fish dying” before concluding there is a serious disease outbreak, Dr. Marty said.

“There has been … research that shows it probably remains in the [herring] population all the time, but at a very low level. So in that sense it would be similar to influenza in people or just a cold virus in people,” he said. “It will affect the population in late winter and early spring and then as the fish get more food available in the summer their condition improves and the virus goes away.”

Dr. Marty said limited outbreaks of the two diseases are not necessarily a bad thing.

“In some respect for the population it’s actually good to have small outbreaks, often because even though it may kill a few individual fish, the survivors are then immune from the disease and actually the population can be stronger as a result,” he said.

Dr. Marty said he was aware of Ms. Morton’s catch of apparently diseased herring, but hadn’t been officially notified by DFO of the incident and had not begun any research himself.

DFO officials weren’t available for comment Monday.

Lorena Hamer, a spokesperson for the Herring Conservation and Research Society, a non-profit founded by the herring fishing industry, said the symptoms described by Ms. Morton sound like VHSV but scientific confirmation is needed.

“I do hope that DFO is following up on this – it would be good to get confirmation of the disease, and more information on the extent of the infection,” Ms. Hamer said in an e-mail.

She noted that a paper published in a recent issue of the international journal Veterinary Microbiology indicates that VHSV is a disease that can spread between species.

The paper, by researchers from Canada’s Pacific Biological Station, in Nanaimo, and the U.S. Western Fisheries Research Center in Washington State, states that farmed Atlantic salmon can develop VHS and transmit it to Pacific herring.

“Viral hemorrhagic septicemia is considered a serious disease of wild Pacific herring, causing large scale fish kills,” states the paper.

Guy Fournier: Heads up!!!!

The 50 pink salmon I just caught and released in the Squamish River yesterday were sick. Very sick. They had the same red all over their bodies as the herring, and the really bad ones began to bleed profusely as I tried to release - from the mouth, and not from my hook. Most had tentwenty sea lice on them, mostly around the anal fin region. Many had large lacerations?

What is up in our waters??? Something is very wrong.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Veterinary Microbiology Volume 166, Issues 1–2, 27 September 2013, Pages 91–101

 Experimental

infection studies demonstrating Atlantic salmon as a host and reservoir of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus type IVa with insights into pathology and host immunity

Abstract In British Columbia, Canada (BC), aquaculture of finfish in ocean netpens has the potential for pathogen transmission between wild and farmed species due to the sharing of an aquatic environment. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is enzootic in BC and causes serious disease in wild Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, which often enter and remain in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, netpens. Isolation of VHSV from farmed Atlantic salmon has been previously documented, but the effects on the health of farmed salmon and the wild fish sharing the environment are unknown. To determine their susceptibility, Atlantic salmon were exposed to a pool of 9 isolates of VHSV obtained from farmed Atlantic salmon in BC by IP-injection or by waterborne exposure and cohabitation with diseased Pacific herring. Disease intensity was quantified by recording mortality, clinical signs, histopathological changes, cellular sites of viral replication, expression of interferonrelated genes, and viral tissue titers. Disease ensued in Atlantic salmon after both VHSV exposure methods. Fish demonstrated gross disease signs including darkening of the dorsal skin, bilateral exophthalmia, light cutaneous hemorrhage, and lethargy. The virus replicated within endothelial cells causing endothelial cell necrosis and extensive hemorrhage in anterior kidney. Infected fish demonstrated a type I interferon response as seen by up-regulation of genes for IFNα, Mx, and ISG15. In a separate trial infected salmon transmitted the virus to sympatric Pacific herring. The results demonstrate that farmed Atlantic salmon can develop clinical VHS and virus can persist in the tissues for at least 10 weeks. Avoiding VHS epizootics in Atlantic salmon farms would limit the potential of VHS in farmed Atlantic salmon, the possibility for further host adaptation in this species, and virus spillback to sympatric wild fishes.

Sabra Woodworth: “As Cohen so fully acknowledged the risk of bio-magnification of endemic fish diseases within netpens ("The high numbers of hosts on fish farms can then ‘bio-magnify’ such diseases. As well, high numbers and densities of hosts on fish farms may ‘select for fast-growing, early-transmitted and more virulent pathogens,’ which could, as noted above, be transmitted back to wild Fraser River sockeye.”59) -- of which VHSV is one, could we have a list of the diseases in netpens known to biomagnify in these ways? Alexandra Morton would the fish disease records from the Cohen Commission reveal the causes (& numbers) of farm fish deaths from such diseases on the farms? & how many such diseases do we know the farms vaccinate against? All of this no doubt adds up to much more than "minimal risk from serious harm", Cohen's benchmark for removing the farms.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Alexandra Morton: HSMI pathogen from Norway found in Canada Listen to Dr. Morton interview (July 18, 2013) HERE July 17, 2013 The virus that causes heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) in salmon has been detected outside of Norway for the first time, according a new report’s co-authors, which include Alexandra Morton and researchers from Chile, Norway and Canada.

Morton also refers to Fred Kibenge, whose lab was recently stripped of its credentials by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), as a researcher on the report.

Alexandra Morton and Dr. Frederick Kibenge

As HSMI spreads rapidly in Norway, the study says the virus that causes the disease – piscine reovirus (PRV) – is in British Columbia, Canada and came from Norway; and it is also present in Chile, with a sequence that most closely matches that in Norway.

Morton, a highly active anti-farming salmon activist in British Columbia, announced the news on Wednesday.

She is also the researcher that announced there was infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in British Columbia in 2011, but that claim was later refuted by the Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), as well as the OIE, an intergovernmental organization responsible for improving animal health worldwide.

“The evidence suggests PRV recently arrived from Norway, which means we have not experienced its full potential to kill B.C. wild salmon yet,” Morton said.

The Canadian province of British Columbia does not accept that PRV causes HSMI; but Morton argues there is no published study supporting the province’s theory.

HSMI, first recognized in Atlantic salmon farms in Norway in 1999, is a condition that weakens salmon, making it difficult for their hearts to pump blood.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Researchers published the report, entitled “Whole-genome analysis of piscine reovirus (PRV) shows PRV represents a new genus in family Reoviridae and its genome segment S1 sequences group it into two separate sub-genotypes”, last week.

Authors are from the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Aplicadas in Chile and the Raincoast Research Society in British Columbia. “…When the experts warn us that PRV should not be allowed to spread because of its threat to wild salmon, I don’t know why we would ignore them,” said Morton. “This research has shown most farmed Atlantic salmon in B.C. supermarkets are infected with PRV. This suggests the millions of farm salmon still out in the net pens are also infected, which means the wild salmon swimming home this summer will be exposed to this Norwegian virus. It is extremely poor management to allow a Norwegian salmon virus to infect our wild salmon.”

Morton has taken the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Harvest to court with the assistance of Ecojustice. Morton seeks to have the Fisheries Act upheld and not allow transfer of salmon into net pens carrying known disease agents into B.C. marine waters.

 Asking Norway about the Piscine Reovirus July 16, 2013

Twyla Roscovich

Industry and government deny the piscine reovirus (PRV) is anything to be concerned about, even though this newly introduced, highly infectious virus from Norway has infected the majority of the salmon farms in BC and is rapidly spreading to BC’s wild salmon. In this video Twyla hops a plane to Norway to find out what scientists there have to say about PRV and it’s effects on salmon. For more info: salmonconfidential.ca/piscine-reovirus/

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Public Prevented from Knowing about Diseased Farmed Salmon July 19, 2013

Watch Video Here

SOINTULA, BC — The first scientific publication on the occurrence of piscine reovirus outside of Norway was published on July 11 in Virology Journal. The report, Whole-genome analysis of piscine reovirus (PRV) shows PRV represents a new genus in family Reoviridae and its genome segment S1 sequences group it into two separate sub-genotypes, was co-published by researchers from the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Aplicadas in Chile, and the Raincoast Research Society in British Columbia.

Piscine reovirus (PRV) was identified in 2010 as the causative agent of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) in Norway. This disease, first recognized in Atlantic salmon farms in Norway in 1999, is a condition that weakens salmon, making it difficult for their hearts to pump blood. HSMI is spreading rapidly in Norway. Marine Harvest, who grows one-fifth of the world’s farm-raised salmon, lists HSMI as the second largest cause of death of their fish in their 2012 Annual General Report.

In this paper, the co-authors show that piscine reovirus is in British Columbia and it came from Norway.The process of tracing viruses is similar to matching fingerprints. Scientists around the world enter viral sequence data into GenBank so matches can be run. The piscine reovirus found in British Columbia is most similar to a Norwegian PRV sequence from Atlantic farmed salmon suffering from HSMI in the Lofoten Archipelago in northern Norway. The paper also reports PRV is now in Chile and it most closely matched a Norwegian PRV sequence from the Trondheim region.

The newly published paper reports piscine reovirus entered British Columbia from Norway in 2007 ± 1 year and Chile in 2008 ± 1 year. The piscine reovirus sequences included in the paper were from farmed Atlantic salmon bought in Vancouver supermarkets, wild cutthroat trout from Cultus Lake, chum salmon from near Campbell River, farmed steelhead from Lois Lake and farmed Atlantic salmon morts from the central coast of British Columbia. The Chilean samples were all Atlantic farmed salmon.

Experts in Norway continue to publish papers on the relationship between PRV and the disease HSMI. With over 400 Norwegian salmon farms now infected with PRV there are warnings in their papers: measures must be taken to control PRV not only because it threatens domestic salmon production but also due to the potential for transmission to wild salmon populations.

In ongoing work, Morton and Kibenge have found PRV in nearly 97% of the farmed salmon tested from B.C. supermarkets. The Province of British Columbia does not accept that PRV causes HSMI. There is no published research supporting the province’s theory.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“The evidence suggests PRV recently arrived from Norway, which means we have not experienced its full potential to kill B.C. wild salmon yet,” says co-author Alexandra Morton, “but when the experts warn us that PRV should not be allowed to spread because of its threat to wild salmon, I don’t know why we would ignore them. This research has shown most farmed Atlantic salmon in B.C. supermarkets are infected with PRV. This suggests the millions of farm salmon still out in the net pens are also infected, which means the wild salmon swimming home this summer will be exposed to this Norwegian virus. It is extremely poor management to allow a Norwegian salmon virus to infect our wild salmon.”

The only containment of PRV possible would be to cull infected farmed salmon and to end the practice of using net pens to raise Atlantic salmon on wild salmon migration routes. This would be a significant risk to the viability of the 98% Norwegian-owned industry operating in British Columbia.

The co-authors recommend that PRV-HSMI be treated as an emerging disease. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) do not test for PRV. “The viability of wild salmon has been put at risk in favor of the viability of farmed salmon,” notes Morton.

Last month the World Health Organization for Animal Health (OIE) stripped the Kibenge Lab of its international authority as a reference lab for a different European virus, called ISAv. They have declined to give a reason.

Morton has taken the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Harvest to court with the assistance of Ecojustice. Morton seeks to have the Fisheries Act upheld and not allow transfer of salmon into net pens carrying known disease agents into B.C. marine waters.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Alexandra Morton: The Atlantic Salmon Federation is correct.

Wild strains of ISA virus have complete RNA sequences, the HRP6 strains in the eastern Canada salmon feedlots are "deleted" strains that have never been seen before - this is how the CFIA reported them to the World Animal Health Authority - OIE.

 ISA Linked to Aquaculture: Salmon Federation August 3, 2013

The provincial government says recent outbreaks of Infectious Salmon Anemia is spread from wild salmon populations to farmed salmon, but the Atlantic Salmon Federation doesn't believe the data is there to support government's theory.

The outbreaks took place in a number of locations on the south coast, including Butter Cove, Pot Harbour, Goblin Cove, Pass my Can, and Manuel's Arm, which resulted in the destruction of 1.8 million fish.

Federation spokesman Jonathan Carr says there is evidence to show that ISA is linked to aquaculture.

He says ISA first became known in 1984, in the Norwegian aquaculture industry. Carr says the solution to preventing the disease is better management of open net pens.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Farmed salmon get TB that can also infect us

Dr. Claudette Bethune: Found out something new this weekend, farmed salmon get TB that can also infect us, and current processing methods for feeds don't ensure its inactivation.

"Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is the leading cause of death worldwide from a bacterial infectious disease. In addition, other mycobacteria cause disease in both humans and animals including fish.

Mycobacteriosis is one of the most common diseases affecting cultured and wild fishes worldwide, including Atlantic salmon, and mycobacterial infections have been described in freshwater and marine fishes from tropical to subarctic latitudes. Use of non-pasteurised feed in hatcheries during the late 1950s promoted an increase in prevalence of fish mycobacteriosis (Parisot and Wood 1960; Ross and Johnson 1962).In addition to their known infectivity to fishes, marine mycobacteria pose significant zoonotic concerns. M. marinum is a well-known human pathogen, producing granulomatous lesions in skin and peripheral deep tissues (Lewis et al., 2003; Petrini, 2006)."

Page 13 in the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety response to evaluate feed processing for a whole host contagion in recycled fish to feeds: 2010 Assessment of the Fish Silage Processing Method (FSPM) for treatment of category 2 and 3 material of fish origin

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Sea lice on wild Pacific salmon

Alexandra Morton:

Eddie Gardner:

“This sockeye was given to me today. There were ~120 juvenile sea lice on it. From their size and life-stage we know these sea lice have only been on this fish a couple of days. This is not normal and the most likely source is the salmon feedlots just west of here off Port Hardy. While fewer people are being nourished by sockeye salmon - more lice are enjoying this nutritious fish. It is clear government is unable to do anything about this, some kind of deal has been made that we are not part of. Want to stop this? Think about showing up the next time Eddie Gardner puts a call out to show up in front of the supermarkets. Put up signs on your lawn declaring your home farm salmon - free and post a picture here. Tell your local market you cannot accept their complicity in this. Join the http://www.salmonfeedlotboycott.com/. And write your MLA and MP (and your other elected representatives), they may not be leaders, but they could follow your lead. Honestly, people these things are essential if you think this photo is disturbing.”

“This accumulation of sea lice on an adult means there is a cause for an amplification of sea lice that points in the direction of fish feedlots on the coast, in this case just off Part Hardy. If this many sea lice are on an adult salmon, just think about how many can latch onto juvenile salmon. The harm would be much more than minimal, and represent a potential to pass on any deadly viruses from farmed salmon. This would provide more than enough rationale for the federal and provincial governments to have open net feedlots removed from the migration routes of wild salmon on the BC coast. Supplement this with the mounting scientific evidence that farmed fish contain levels of contaminants that warrant precautions on eating no more than one or two servings a month and people would be outraged and would want more immediate action. It is incumbent on all of us to be a very loud voice for wild salmon and its habitat, and for the well-being of all those people who are unawares and buy and eat farmed salmon from these sources. Time to warrior up! Write those letters to the MPs, MLAs and to local newspapers.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon anemia cause for concern: minister Alexandra Morton: "“ISA comes from the wild,” Dalley said," Actually I would argue that there is no evidence that the strain of ISA virus reported so far in Newfoundland is from the "wild."

Wild-source ISA virus has a complete RNA sequence. Aquaculture ISA has portions of this sequence "deleted" and thus are known as "HPR-deleted" strains.

"Dalley said, the province is concerned about managing and mitigating the impacts of any potential virus on the aquaculture industry."

And who EXACTLY is concerned and mitigating impact of the virus on the WILD fish? My guess is no one.

Newfoundlanders, test your wild fish now and see what is going on here.

Fisheries Minister Derrick Dalley says the government is very concerned about the five cases of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) that have occurred in the Coast of Bays within the past year-and-ahalf.

The latest ISA cases involved a Gray Aquaculture site at Pass My Can and a Cooke Aquaculture operation at Manuel’s Arm, which are both located in the northeast part of Bay d’Espoir.

Even though the outbreaks have been confined to a specific area, Dalley said, the province is concerned about managing and mitigating the impacts of any potential virus on the aquaculture industry.

While the government and industry continues to invest in best practices, he acknowledged some events are beyond anyone’s control.

“ISA comes from the wild,” Dalley said, “so we have to continue to work with industry to find ways and means to protect fish health against future viruses. We also need to ensure we have the proper protocols and mechanisms in place to address this issue swiftly to mitigate any potential impact on other sites.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Plan in works The minister said the government is working closely with aquaculture companies in developing a Bay Management Plan that will look at issues facing the industry moving forward. He noted the plan is a significant document that will address biosecurity issues facing the industry.

The Bay Management Plan will soon be completed and ready for use by the industry.

“In addition, we’ve increased our vigilance particularly in this region in terms of testing and inspections for possible issues,” he said. “ISA compounds a company’s problems in terms of developing business plans and supplying markets, so we have to be always cautious about this serious matter.”

With regards to others who are concerned about ISA, Dalley said people need to understand the virus is not harmful to humans, as it poses no threat to human health through consumption or contact.

He said studies have proven it is not feasible to raise large volumes of fish in land-based containment systems.

“To the naysayers, I want to say that we are cautious, we rely on science, our veterinarians consistently monitor and, when issues do arise, we have a good working relationship with the companies involved,” Dalley said. “We also have significant protocols and standard operation practices in place, and we will continue to build this industry while being ever aware of the challenges it presents.”

Valuable industry Dalley said the industry is valuable to the province and Coast of Bays in particular.

“We’ve seen significant growth in the area’s economy in the past few years and we want to see this continuing.

We have a tremendous opportunity for aquaculture in this province, and again, we are committed to working with the companies to ensure that when and where there are challenges, we put measures in place to address them. We will continue to help build the industry and to work with stakeholders, especially around the issues of biosecurity and fish health.”

A Cooke Aquaculture official said ISA continues to be a challenge to both companies operating in the area.

“Cold Ocean is working very closely with both the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and (Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture) to manage through it,” Nell Halse said. “We recently had another positive case as the minister indicated to you, but the fish have already been removed from the affected cages under CFIA supervision.

“This is in keeping with our company's practice to move quickly and aggressively to remove fish once a site becomes positive. We continue to stock farms in NL according to Bay Management principles and will continue to process fish in the Harbour Breton facility.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Alexandra Morton Talks: Video series

Alexandra Morton - Marine Biologist

Alex Talks 1

Alex Talks 4

Alex Talks 2

Alex Talks 5

Alex Talks 3

Alex Talks 6

Watch “Salmon Confidential” Here http://salmonconfidential.ca/

Alex Talks 7

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Transmission dynamics of parasitic sea lice from farm to wild salmon April 7, 2005

Abstract Marine salmon farming has been correlated with parasitic sea lice infestations and concurrent declines of wild salmonids.

Here, we report a quantitative analysis of how a single salmon farm altered the natural transmission dynamics of sea lice to juvenile Pacific salmon.

We studied infections of sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus clemensi ) on juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) as they passed an isolated salmon farm during their seaward migration down two long and narrow corridors.

Our calculations suggest the infection pressure imposed by the farm was four orders of magnitude greater than ambient levels, resulting in a maximum infection pressure near the farm that was 73 times greater than ambient levels and exceeded ambient levels for 30 km along the two wild salmon migration corridors.

The farm-produced cohort of lice parasitizing the wild juvenile hosts reached reproductive maturity and produced a second generation of lice that re-infected the juvenile salmon.

This raises the infection pressure from the farm by an additional order of magnitude, with a composite infection pressure that exceeds ambient levels for 75 km of the two migration routes.

Amplified sea lice infestations due to salmon farms are a potential limiting factor to wild salmonid conservation.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Aquaculture: The saga of salmon people (translated via Google) Salmon Breeders do not eat farmed salmon.

July 20, 2013 Summer SALMON FISHING has been scary bad. To save salmon stocks notified the Environment Agency on Wednesday that it will be introduced emergency measures. It means a halt in salmon fishing in many places.

The crisis is so well warned that it could almost be called planned.

WILD SALMON spawn as known in the rivers. To get into the ocean has grilse had to swim through fjords with millions of farmed salmon - and billions of lice. In a very few larvae attach themselves to smolt, it dies.

Scientists, wild salmon experts and environmental authorities have warned of this for years. What helps when your opponent is an industry with so much power in Norway that it is no longer just an environmental problem, but also a democratic such?

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

JOHN FREDRIKSEN is one of the world's richest men. He is the main shareholder in the world's largest fish farming company, Marine Harvest.Billionaire and tax refugee looks salmon farming as the new shipping.

The connections between the multi-billion dollar industry, politics and environmental degradation memories indeed about matters we usually associate with the Naples area and Sicily.

Paradoxically enough, Fredriksen also a passionate salmon fisherman. Every summer he goes to the country by the river Nausta in Førdefjord to fish for wild salmon, preferably with business associates.

Perhaps these are salmon buyers who misled into thinking that it is about the same animal? The illusion is quickly broken if Fuller would receive an escaped farmed salmon. They have deformed jaws, tail and fins are damaged. The fish are released, and encased in yellow fat. Perhaps the large, inflamed flesh wound caused by lice.

What do you think, John, when you stand with your waders and fly rod in beautiful boathouses and hope that a feisty wild to chop, while the bank account information of farmed millions? Do you ever think that farmed salmon is wild salmon worst enemy, or the link uncanny?

Fredriksen likes to have clean around it. Once he stood in the river and fished, floated manure from a farm by. "Terrible stench," wrote Fuller in cottage book. He has hardly known the indescribable stench from a bottom set nets in fjords with a lot of salmon farming.

READ ALSO

Happy Salmon sought "Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen and big investors are wealthy. The environment and all of us are paying the price, "wrote Morten Strøksnes in its last Saturday comment.

FOR DINNER get Fredriksen guests probably served delicious delicacies from sunnfjord. Farmed salmon has definitely never been on the menu. Salmon farmers have admitted that they do not touch farmed salmon, because they know how it is made.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

And it is inconceivable that Fuller would offer its guests to have an industrial product containing brominated flame retardants, a carcinogenic substance found in the circuit boards of computers - and in farmed salmon. Each pesticide ethoxyquin, which added to feed to prevent rancidity, which penetrates the cortex of fish and enlarges the heart and liver.

Otherwise stopped the U.S. FDA (FDA) this week imports of salmon from Marine Harvest in Chile. They have found toxins in salmon, substances that Marine Harvest says they do not use.

Maybe that's right. But large coastal areas in Chile is destroyed by pollution from aquaculture industry. Local populations are depleted to be feed for farmed salmon, so that local fishermen have lost their livelihoods.

In the first quarter achieved Marine Harvest a billion surplus. Listed farming corporations earning billions on behalf of the investors, but not even pay land tax to municipalities for the use of the fjords. While municipalities spend significant resources to clean our sewers, sewage discharged from farms right out of the fjords, along with an extremely toxic substance taken into the ecosystem.

In interviews with OAG FSA admitted that they did not really know what "sustainable" means.

Norway is pushing the EU to increase the limits for married in farmed salmon. This work has been crowned with success, perhaps because the EU industrial use also depends on chemical solutions to nurture their animals.

What cocktail of poisons from farming does to the human body, or sea life, we have very little knowledge about. The precautionary principle is set aside.

How did this madness possible?

NO LOBBY, with the possible exception of the oil industry, has been so active in Parliament that salmon farmers. They have secured broad political support, often from politicians who barely know anything about what goes on in the fjords. They look revenues but not costs.

Salmon lobby has great influence over research, audit and policy and information flow.

OAG is not infiltrated. Their judgment on the industry, in a large report of last year, is merciless. It was found major weaknesses in environmental management and control regime. Among other FSA will undergo. In interviews with OAG FSA admitted that they did not really know what "sustainable" means. "The disagreement between environmental authorities and fisheries authorities have NFSA meaning unclear created conditions for their work," writes OAG. After so devastating report by the Auditor General would the opposition in Parliament normally be thrown over the responsible Minister.

Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Lisbeth Berg-Hansen has command authority to the FSA. While all other state agencies have added violently under the red-green and aquaculture industry has doubled, FSA has actually shrunk. Breeders counts even lice. If the number is high, it means millions, and carnage. How easy is it to count wrong?

AFTER THE SMASHING report of the Auditor General would the opposition in Parliament normally be thrown out of the responsible Minister, that Berg-Hansen. Instead, it was quiet as the sea.

The links between billion industry, politics and environmental degradation memories indeed the conditions we normally associate with the Naples area and Sicily.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 VOICE OF THE PEOPLE August 6, 2013 Primer for mayor: In the July 30 Chronicle Herald, Mayor Karen Mattatall of Shelburne wonders why Cooke Aquaculture is “constantly on the defensive.”

That’s a dandy question. Let’s see if we can remind her: 1. Cooke Aquaculture this very year voluntarily chose to plead guilty to illegal usage of pesticides in its New Brunswick open net pen feedlots. That charge was accompanied by a $500,000 fine from Environment Canada. Many would hope we could avoid such behaviour by this company in its Nova Scotian operations.

Just as many fear the behaviour is unavoidable and will be repeated.

Mayor Karen Mattatall

2. Cooke Aquaculture received a $25 million package in 2012 based upon its commitment to create jobs in Nova Scotia processing salmon from its operations. Those jobs will never come to Shelburne or anywhere else as promised unless the government permits an incredible expansion of open net pen operations. Is the mayor prepared to pay that price relative to the environment and risk to wild fisheries? Is hers a “jobs at any cost” campaign?

3. Cooke Aquaculture has distributed for retail sale truckload after truckload of salmon anemiainfected salmon this year. Protocols are in place for processing the fish in plants. Hopefully its workers are largely protected. No protocols or labelling exist for the consumer, however. We are left with buyer beware in many more ways than one.

Perhaps all of the above is no big deal and we should ease up on Cooke and let it off that defensive posture.

I’m hosting a salmon BBQ tonight. I’m inviting the mayor to join me. I’m not completely certain of the origin and safety of the fish, but what the heck. Let’s live dangerously. We can reminisce about the good old days when our environment remained pristine and we didn’t need to worry about the risk to food safety.

Stewart Lamont, Tangier

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Developing models for investigating the environmental transmission of disease-causing agents within open-cage salmon aquaculture N. K. G. Salama*, **, B. Rabe** Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, Torry, Aberdeen, AB11 9DB, UK ABSTRACT: Global aquaculture production continues to increase across a variety of sectors, including Atlantic salmon production in Scotland.

One limitation to the expansion of open-cage aquaculture is disease-induced stock losses as well as the potential for disease agents from farms interacting with other farms and possibly with wild salmonids.

Epidemiological studies of disease agent transmission often omit environmental transmission of organisms, although this process is an integral part of parasite spread and incidence.

Within the aquatic environment, water movements enable pathogens and parasites to potentially be transmitted over long distances.

As pathogens and parasites are transported, their status can change; they can degrade or, in the case of sea lice, develop into an infectious stage.

A combination of biological and physical models is required to understand the transmission of disease-causing organisms.

Here we propose a set of components that have been implemented in a range of modelling studies of sea lice dispersal, and describe how such attributes have been used in developing a study in one of Scotland’s largest fjordic systems.

By developing descriptive simulation model frameworks, which are validated using physical and biological observations, alternative methods of integrated pest management can be investigated and developed.

The identification of dispersal routes of sea lice and establishment of potential farm−farm connections can inform sea lice management.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue - SAD

Far from being "responsible", "environmental" or "sustainable" the so-called ''Responsible Salmon Aquaculture Standards' published by WWF in June 2012 - and now being used by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council to certify farmed salmon - shockingly permit:

o o o o o o o o o o o o

waste pollution and chemical contamination killing of wildlife including marine mammals sea lice infestation and the spread of infectious diseases the farming of non-native species escapes unsustainable and non-certified fish feed transgenic plants including GM soya in feed copper-treated nets and biocides use of antibiotics use of toxic chemicals such as cypermethrin and emamectin benzoate mortality rates of 20% deaths of workers

The standard actually specifies the number of "lethal incidents" permitted - with nine animals including two marine mammals such as seals or sea lions allowed to be killed!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fish-farm parasites eating Wester Ross trout alive July 3, 2013

The Salmon and Trout Association Scotland (STAS) has revealed that samples of trout recovered from Little Loch Broom, near Ullapool, show that some fish are infested with “huge and probably lethal” numbers of the parasitic sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis.

And the association has blamed the high infestation levels on the failure of a fish farm to control lice numbers on farmed salmon An STAS spokesman said: “Forty-six juvenile sea trout were monitored over six days. The average number of sea lice per fish was 133 with many carrying over 200 and two over 500. A burden in excess of 13 pre-adult sea lice is known to compromise severely the survival of juvenile sea trout.”

He blamed the infestation on the failure of a fish farm to control lice numbers on farmed salmon. But he admitted that the source of the infestation could not be positively identified.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The spokesman said: “Little Loch Broom is part of the Kennart to Gruinard area within which in both February and March this year the average number of adult female sea lice on farmed salmon at the seven fish-farms in the area was nine times over the threshold set under the salmon farming industry’s own Code of Good Practice (CoGP).

“These numbers, based on data supplied by the farms themselves, have just been published by the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) in the first in a series of Fish Health Management reports which provide area, but not farm-specific, sea lice count data. The first report recorded that in the Kennart to Gruinard area, which includes Little Loch Broom, on average each farmed salmon was carrying 4.61 adult female sea lice in February and 4.57 in March. Figures for subsequent months have yet to be published.”

Hughie Campbell Adamson, chairman of the STAS, claimed: “There can be no doubt that the appalling sea lice infestations now being seen on wild sea trout in Little Loch Broom are related to the fact that the numbers of adult sea lice per fish on the hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon in the vicinity earlier this year were in effect out of control. Such a reservoir of adult breeding female lice will have produced literally billions of juvenile sea lice to populate the local marine environment. Inevitably wild sea trout, migrating from local rivers, are being infested with devastating consequences.”

He said: “Lice feed by grazing on the surface of the fish and eating the mucous and skin. Large numbers of lice on fragile small sea trout soon cause the loss of fins, severe scarring, secondary infections and, in time, death. Quite literally, these young fish, which do not usually experience such heavy lice burdens, are being eaten alive – a direct consequence of the failure by salmon farms to keep on-farm sea lice numbers in check.”

Mr Campbell Adamson continued: “Juvenile sea trout remain in local waters and accordingly can be monitored. Juvenile salmon however, which also leave the rivers in spring and must pass through the same lice-infested coastal waters before heading out to sea, are virtually impossible to monitor.

“If they pick up similar numbers of sea lice as the juvenile sea trout, then their prospects of marine survival will be similarly bleak. The chances of many of those young salmon which left Little Loch Broom this spring, given the lice burdens they would have picked up, actually surviving to return in the future are poor.”

Guy Linley-Adams, solicitor to the association’s Aquaculture Campaign, said: “The current problems in Little Loch Broom underline just why we need publicly available weekly sea lice data on an individual farm basis - so that individual farms cannot hide behind averages - and why Scottish Ministers were so wrong to prevent such a measure being included in the recently passed Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill.

“Furthermore, we need to know why, given that there were clearly massive breaches of the industry’s CoGP for sea lice earlier this year, no salmon farm company been held to account either by statutory agencies or by the SSPO.” The spokesman for the STAS said: “The Wester Ross District Salmon Fishery Board formally reported the situation in Little Loch Broom to the Fish Health Inspectorate on 14 June, asking them to investigate. To date there has been no response.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Climate Change

 Ocean Acidification – Revolution: Now Playing in Theatres "Ocean acidification is probably the most important issue on the planet today," says Revolution director Rob Stewart and it is also the largest environmental issue threatening the world. Oceans regulate climate, atmospheric chemistry and carbon.

Ocean plants called phytoplankton produce at least half of the oxygen we breathe.

Since the Industrial Revolution, massive quantities of carbon dioxide pollution and carbonic acid have been released into the atmosphere and are absorbed by oceans, lowering the PH level of the sea, making the water acidic, which in turn dissolves the shells of marine organisms.

The impact on coral reefs, needed by species for spawning, homes for their offspring and feeding, could create a mass extinction.

We need to reduce our carbon footprint and pressure our government to create strict emissions laws.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Marine Life Reacts Faster to Warming Than Land Species August 4, 2013 Species that depend on the sea are reacting more quickly to global warming than landbased life, according to a study in scientific journal Nature Climate Change, with implications for fisheries and food supplies.

Areas occupied by marine species including fish, corals and plankton are moving by an average of 72 kilometers (45 miles) a decade, typically toward the poles, the study by researchers at 17 institutions in 8 countries said today. That’s more than 10 times the 6.1 kilometer rate that land creatures are shifting.

Gentoo penguins are seen on the shore of Deception Island, Antarctica. Photographer: Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images

Marine environments face a range of changes brought on by the rising carbon emissions that scientists blame for global warming. Arctic sea ice is melting at record rates, while the carbon dissolved in the oceans is causing acidity to rise, harming corals and shellfish. The latest analysis will have implications for fisheries, an author of the paper said.

“If the food a fish is eating is moving at a different pace, then the fish and their prey aren’t arriving at the same point at the same time,” Pippa Moore, a lecturer in aquatic biology at Aberystwyth University in Wales said in a telephone interview. “That has implications for the abundance of species and it will undoubtedly affect our food supplies and the species we’re used to seeing at our shores.”

The researchers compiled data from 208 prior studies that examined 857 species. They found species of phytoplankton are shifting their ranges at almost 470 kilometers a decade and bony fish are moving at 278 kilometers every 10 years. Less mobile species such as corals are moving more slowly, Moore said. The study included seabirds, seals and polar bears in the assessment as they live in a marine environment and feed mostly on sealife.

Researchers also uncovered shifts in seasonal behavior, or phenology, such as breeding, egg-laying and migration. Marine life is displaying behavior typical of both spring and summer about 4.4 days earlier a decade. That compares with estimates of 2.3 to 2.8 days for land-based creatures, the researchers said.

“This is the first comprehensive documentation of what is happening in our marine systems in relation to climate change,” Camille Parmesan, a co-author of the report and professor of oceans at Plymouth University in southwestern England, said in an e-mailed statement. “The changes that are occurring on land are being matched by the oceans. And far from being a buffer and displaying more minor changes, what we’re seeing is a far stronger response from the oceans.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Global Scientists Shocked by True Scale of Ocean Warming August 5, 2013 SANTA BARBARA, California, (ENS) – Warming oceans are causing marine species to change their breeding times and shift their habitats toward the poles much faster than land-based species, finds new research by scientists at 17 institutions across the world.

The researchers warn that these big shifts in the timing of major events could produce disruption to ocean food webs, affecting all sea life, as well as humans who depend on the sea for food.

A net full of fish, Western Indian Ocean (Photo by Jose Cort courtesy NOAA Fisheries) Findings of the three-year research project, conducted by a working group of University of California, Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, NCEAS, and funded by the

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

U.S. National Science Foundation, are published in the current issue of the journal “Nature Climate Change.”

The report, “Global imprint of climate change on marine life,” will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, IPCC, Assessment Report due for publication in 2014. Based in Geneva, the UN-backed IPCC assesses scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information concerning climate change, its effects, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

“The effects of climate change on marine species have not been a major focus of past IPCC reports because no one had done the work to pull together all the disparate observations from around the world,” said NCEAS associate Carrie Kappel. “This study provides a solid basis for including marine impacts in the latest global accounting of how climate change is affecting our world.”

Unlike previous studies that relied on terrestrial data to estimate the impacts of climate change on oceans, this research team assembled a marine-only database of 1,735 changes in marine life from the global peer-reviewed literature. The studies have an average length of 40 years of observation.

The team found that 81 percent of changes across different populations and ocean basins were consistent with the expected impacts of climate change.

The study took in research from all the world’s oceans, with particular focus on the east and south coasts of Australia, both U.S. coastlines, the European Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Fish in the Atlantic Ocean, southeast U.S. shelf, 2004 (Photo by Andrew David, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC)

READ ENTIRE ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICETICLE HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Energy production and wild game fish: Oil, Coal, Hydropower, Wind, Natural Gas

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Oil – Drilled, Tar Sands

 Canadian Natural restricts operations after bitumen leak July 18, 2013

Bitumen from one of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s projects has bubbled up into a nearby body of water at one of its oil sands operations, killing waterfowl, frogs, tadpoles, beavers, shrews, and prompting the Alberta regulator to limit the company’s extraction efforts around Cold Lake.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The Alberta Energy Regulator on Thursday ordered CNRL to suspend underground steaming – which melts bitumen and allows it to rise to the surface in pipes – within one kilometre of the unnamed body of water at its Primrose South operation. The regulator imposed other steaming restrictions throughout CNRL’s Primrose North and South properties and the company must enhance its monitoring systems.

Oil leaks of any kind, whether from trains, pipelines, or wells, are increasingly damaging to energy firms trying to buff up their safety credentials. Spills and leaks killing animals attract even more criticism.

CNRL’s most recent leak, reported June 24, is unusual because it involves the extraction process, rather than infrastructure or transportation methods.

The AER said it has not seen this style of leak seep into water before, which could put a dent in the argument that underground oil sands extraction methods are greening Alberta’s energy industry.

The contaminated body of water is on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, where CNRL uses a process called high pressure cyclic steam stimulation to suck bitumen out of the ground. The Calgary-based company uses wells to pump high-pressure steam below the surface to soften the bitumen while water dilutes and separates the bitumen from the sand. The pressure creates cracks, allowing the bitumen to flow back into the steam injector wells.

The pipes did not leak, AER spokesman Bob Curran said. Instead, bitumen leaked into the slough from the bottom.

“It is coming through the ground somewhere. We don’t know what caused it,” Mr. Curran said. “It is leaking directly into the body of water.”

Earlier this year, the AER sanctioned CNRL, which did not return messages seeking comment, for three bitumen leaks at Primrose East, another section of the property. Bitumen leaked to the surface, although on land rather than into water, Mr. Curran said. The regulator has not seen that type of surface leak since 2009, he said. The AER previously ordered the company to halt steaming within Primrose East because of these leaks.

The affected area is about 40 hectares, Mr. Curran said. He does not know how much bitumen leaked.

The Alberta’s Environment and Sustainable Resource Development department confirmed the list of dead animals and said a wildlife team is working to rescue other animals with live traps. A veterinarian is assessing oiled animals.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Tar sands well blowout raises questions about Alberta's regulatory oversight July 24, 2013 A tar sands well blowout that has been gushing for as much as 10 weeks contaminating a large area of Canada’s Boreal Forest killing dozens of animals, a new report reveals that Alberta’s regulatory system to prevent and enforce tar sands operations is lax and failing. The blowout from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s Primrose tar sands drilling operation gained public attention when an anonymous government scientist went to the press with concerns about failures to contain the spill.

According to a Mother Jones article, the spill—which has released at least 4,500 barrels of tar sands oil from the high-pressure, “in situ” tar sands production site—was reported to have started on May 21 and was still releasing oil as of Tuesday, July 23.

The ongoing blowout, coupled with the report on the province’s failed regulatory program, raises questions about oversight of the tar sands industry especially given that neither the Alberta government nor the company has confirmed the cause of the blowout, the rate of seepage, or a plan to stop the spill. It also raises questions about this particular method of tar sands extraction, called “in situ” which is projected to be the dominant way that the industry extracts tar sands in the coming years.

This spill underscores that despite its outward appearance of appearing less impactful, drilling for tar sands still comes with major risks. Moreover, in situ tar sands development is significantly more carbon intensive than tar sands strip mining operations – a focal point of the U.S. administration in making a decision over the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Photos of the incident are featured on the Toronto Star website and were provided by a government scientist show the site of an oil spill in Cold Lake, Alta.

The uncontrolled spill from the Primrose tar sands drilling operation is located on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (where there are active weapons tested by the Canadian military) has already kills dozens of animals including beavers and loons. The Toronto Star, which broke the story to the public, said that more than 4,500 barrels (nearly 200,000 gallons) of bitumen had been released. At least 26,000 barrels of a tar sands and water mixture have been recovered in clean-up operations, and the blowout has contaminated almost 100 acres or an area the size of 75 football fields. Tar sands drilling operations require the injection of high pressure steam into deep reservoirs, creating cracks in underground geological formations, and essentially turning the earth into an oven so that the bitumen can be melted out.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Despite the fact that they tend to have significantly greater greenhouse gas emissions than mining, fragment vast swaths of land, and use a tremendous amount of water, tar sands drilling operations are often promoted by industry as the “environmental friendly” method of tar sands extraction. It is estimated that 80 percent of tar sands can be accessed using these in situ or drilling methods.

The anonymous scientist who broke the story to the Canadian media said, “Everybody (at the company and in government) is freaking out about this. We don’t understand what happened.

Nobody really understands how to stop it from leaking, or if they do they haven’t put the measures in place.” This is not the first time there has been a spill of tar sands from the Primrose operations.

Another release of oil occurred in 2009 and after an investigation and apparent changes to steam injection operations, Government regulators permitted Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to resume operations. The newly created Alberta Energy Regulator issued a press release announcing the spill on June 27 which indicated the released had occurred, but did not indicate the amount that had spilled or what actions were being taken to stop the leak. They issued another press release on July 18 announcing further measures for enhanced water monitoring and reductions steaming operations.

Just this week, a new report from Dr. Kevin Timoney and Peter Lee reveals that the system to oversee violations of environmental laws that are designed to prevent major leaks like the one in Cold Lake, Alberta, has widespread problems. The comprehensive 600-page report reveals that less than one percent of violations from tar sands operations are enforced. The study evaluated over 4,000 violations of Alberta’s environmental laws but found that 99 percent of those violations did not result in fines or other enforcement actions. The authors noted the Alberta environmental enforcement rate is far below that of the United States. According to the study, “the average enforcement rate for violations of the Clean Water Act in the United States for the period 2004-2007 was 16.0 %, over 17 times the environmental enforcement rate in Alberta’s bitumen sands region.”

And the report also noted that of the 50 U.S. states, only 3 states had worse performance than Alberta.

The report details chronic failures to enforce, poor oversight, failure to provide timely access to accurate and complete information, and a near total lack of enforcement. The report also profiles substandard safety procedures, poor communications and emergency response, and lax monitoring by industry and regulatory. This has led to “systemic problems in management, reporting, monitoring, and environmental protection…” according to the report.

Some of the key findings: 

They reviewed over 9,000 environmental incidents or violations related to tar sands development in northeastern Alberta between 1996 to mid-2012 period.



There was a minimum of 4,063 alleged contraventions (or perceived violations of legislation) and the Alberta took enforcement actions 0.9 percent of the time.



Most enforcement actions imposed only minor financial penalties, and it appears media attention and public involvement facilitate enforcement measures.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The report details numerous examples of where violations of environmental rules were not reported to local communities. One such example occurred in April 2011, when a pipeline operated by Plains Midstream spilled 1.2 million gallons of oil onto boreal wetlands.

The company was criticized for failing to communicate with the Lubicon Cree, an affected community, but failed to take enforcement action until a public report was released by Greenpeace.

The report also indicates that the Government of Alberta continuously failed to provide timely and accurate information to public following major spills. Journalists who have attempted to investigate oil spills in Alberta faced several hurdles with efforts to access information. The Alberta government was given a grade of “D” in the 2012 freedom of information audit conducted by Newspaper Canada.

The debate over the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has put Alberta’s tar sands operations and its regulatory system under a microscope. Alberta leaders have made several claims to audiences in the U.S. that the province is a world leader on environmental issues. Alberta Premier Alison Redford has traveled to the United States defending Alberta’s environmental record. In a USA Today editorial she said, “We stand ready to demonstrate our strong track record on responsible oil sands development.” And at another speech she said Alberta is “home to some of the most environmentally friendly, progressive legislation in the world.” Despite these claims, there are indications that Alberta’s environmental record is lacking.

Local communities living near and affected by tar sands operations deserve an independent audit of the effectiveness of Alberta’s regulatory system including public reporting. And U.S. decision-makers evaluating whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline should independently evaluate Alberta’s regulatory system in light of this new development.

With respect to this recent blowout, the Alberta government owes the public more information to the question of what is happening including the amount of oil that has leaked, the area affected, wildlife impacts, water quality monitoring, and information as to the cause of the occurrence. And U.S. decision-makers evaluating whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline should independently evaluate Alberta’s regulatory system in light of this new development.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Kitimat ocean program set for oil tankers July 24, 2013 A little-noticed federal ocean monitoring program around Kitimat is the clearest signal yet that the federal government is preparing the region for crude oil tanker traffic, Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver says.

Weaver was catching up on his scientific reading after the B.C. election when he stumbled on a line – "almost a throwaway" – in the April issue of Canadian Ocean Science Newsletter.

"A major initiative in planning is the complementary measures project for the area surrounding Kitimat British Columbia to support planned oil traffic," it says.

Government scientists who developed the system in the Gulf of St. Lawrence say it is to help "search and rescue, oil spill response and to ensure safe and navigable waterways."

Weaver said the project goes well beyond research, and represents a major ongoing budget commitment by Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to forecast ocean conditions for oil tanker traffic.

"My conclusion is, come hell or high water, the intention of the feds right now is to ship bitumen to Asia through Kitimat," Weaver said in an interview. "Whether it be through rail or through pipeline, it's going to happen, and I don't think that British Columbians are getting the whole picture here."

Environment Canada spokesman Mark Johnson issued a statement confirming the program was funded in the 2012 federal budget, under the government's "responsible resource development" initiative.

Its purpose is to "to improve the scientific understanding of diluted bitumen products and to improve operational capabilities to provide timely scientific assessment in the event of an oil spill.

"The Government of Canada is increasing research into non-conventional petroleum products to fortify Canada's marine prevention, preparedness and response capabilities.

"In terms of ocean forecasting, Environment Canada Meteorological Service of Canada will bring specific contributions to this overall goal in the provision of high-resolution surface winds forecasts along the complex waterways from Kitimat to Hecate Strait area, as winds play an important role as input to oil spill modelling assessment."

A federal assessment panel is preparing recommendations for the federal cabinet on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project, which would deliver diluted bitumen from Alberta to the Kitimat port.

Weaver said Ottawa's apparent rush to export heavy crude increases the pollution risk on land and ocean, and also works against development of a petrochemical industry in Canada.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Alberta fisherman lands 300 pound ball of tar July 30, 2013

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

LAKE ATHABASCA, AB - “At first I thought I had just caught myself a piece of the bottom of the lake,” said Rose. “Then I realized that I had caught myself a piece of Alberta’s robust regional economy.”

Rose has celebrated his accomplishment by mounting the bituminous mass on a plaque above his mantelpiece.

“It looks great up there,” said Rose. “Now whenever I walk into my living room, I get all sick and dizzy with pride.”

Editorial Comment: This article was clearly written with tongue-incheek.

It does point out many of the increasing environmental and human health issues associated with extraction of bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands fields.

Although Rose has had impressive catches before, he has never caught anything to rival the ball.

“The only thing that even came close was that giant pike I caught last summer,” Rose said. “Well, it was a pretty small pike, actually. But the tumors gave it a lot of added mass.”

Despite the status of local celebrity that the catch has brought him, Rose maintains that he fishes for family, not fame.

“There’s pride enough to be found in putting a fresh catch on the table every night. Whether it be the greasy corpse of a heron that I dragged out of a tailing pond, or somebody’s dog that floated over from Fort Chipewyan after drinking the river water, a man’s got to provide for his family.”

Sources say that Rose has already willed the tar ball to his eldest son, Darren Junior.

“The tar ball is great,” said Darren Junior, scratching at his mysterious rash, “I can’t think of a better legacy for my father to leave for me and my children.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Massive Detroit

Toxic Black Cloud, Brought To You by the Koch Bros, Blows Over

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Mind-boggling video of a billowing, high-carbon, high-sulfur cloud from the mountain of petroleum coke - waste from Canadian tar sands shipped from Alberta to Detroit, and the dirtiest potential energy source ever - illegally stored by the Koch Brothers along the Detroit River.

Produced by Marathon Refinery but owned by Koch Carbon, the pet-coke piles have for months been producing "fugitive dust" - ie: thick black crud - that blankets the homes of outraged residents and lawmakers; analysis shows the dust contains elevated levels of lead, sulfur, zinc and the likely carcinogenic vanadium.

Environmental officials say the Koch Brothers broke the law by not getting a permit for their toxic dump, and they can't guarantee there won't be another "dust event," but not to worry: The Kochs reportedly plan to move the mess to some other poor beleaguered place.

We await the day we can exercise our right, not just to free expression and clean air, but to the end of Koch power.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Rail line has a disaster plan, but won’t say what it is Should a railroad engine with 100 cars of crude oil derail within the city limits of Montesano or fall from a bridge into the waters of Grays Harbor, there’s a plan in place to deal with the crisis.

Editorial Comment: The following are but a few reasons why transporting oil via rail tankers to export terminals sited on the banks of Grays Harbor: 

A disaster plan will not bring back the human lives lost in an catastrophic incident (accident. or intentional)



A disaster plan will not restore uniquely productive ecosystems along the rail lines or in Grays Harbor estuary.



The millions of dollars and countless hour spent of the past several decades to protect and restore these ecosystems will be for naught in the event of a catastrophic oil spill or explosion.



The Quinault Indian Nation opposes the proposed storage and export of crude oil via Grays Harbor facilities.



Wild Game Fish Conservation International opposes planned export of crude oil via Grays Harbor

The rail line just won’t release that plan. They won’t even talk about its contents.

The Vidette joined Grays Harbor County Commissioner Frank Gordon in requesting access to the oil-spill response plan crafted by Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad. And, for months, the railroad has refused to release it.

Gordon says he’s even more troubled now in the wake of the explosion recently of a driverless train carrying crude oil that left many residents of a small town in Quebec, Canada, missing and many dead.

“The disaster was so bad that some people may never be found,” Gordon said. “They were just incinerated. Imagine — they were dancing, some were tourists, and then the explosion happened right in the middle of town.”

The permit process to place crude by rail export facilities at the Port of Grays Harbor is well under way. Imperium wants to expand its biodiesel facility in Hoquiam to include crude oil storage and nearby Westway Terminals has proposed additional bulk liquid facilities to store crude before shipping. The city of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology issued a Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance for both projects, as well as shoreline permit approvals. Environmental groups and the Quinault Indian Nation have appealed the permits for the projects.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Quebec train derailment and explosions U.S. Development Group, which is working on a proposal to add a crude by rail export facility in Hoquiam at Terminal 3, has not yet submitted its permit application. The Port has granted a lease to the company, going by the name Grays Harbor Rail Terminal, to allow for further analysis and obtaining of permits to bring the project to shovel-ready.

A records request with the Port of Grays Harbor turned up no oil spill response plans from the rail line on file with the Port or even much in the way of recent written communication between the Port and rail officials. And, in reviewing documents to ready permits for potential crude by rail export facilities, the railroad even refused to release the plan to the city of Hoquiam and the state Department of Ecology.

Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay says he and Ecology officials were allowed to travel to the offices of Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad in Elma to look at the plan. But, when he asked for copies, the railroad refused.

“They were asked for, they were not provided,” Shay said. “The railroad is not a public agency and like the tribes, are not subject to public records requests.”

County Commissioner Gordon says he simply doesn’t understand. Gordon says he’s sought documents that prove the railroad is prepared in case of a disaster as well as bridge inspection reports that show that area bridges are in good working order. Neither have been provided. However, the railroad did send officials to meet with him.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“I really don’t understand what the railroad is hiding here,” Gordon said. “They have a chance to do real good here, to squash real concerns of the public and they’ve refused to cooperate.”

No documents — bridge inspection reports or safety plans — are required to be on file with the state Department of Transportation’s rail division, according to a spokesman for the state agency.

However, railroad spokesman Patrick Kerr with Genesee & Wyoming, which bought Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad late last year, says that the response plan is on file with the Federal Railroad Administration. But even with a Freedom of Information Act request, Kerr says, the document wouldn’t be released because of national security issues.

Kerr says the oil spill response plan consists of details for “security and handling of hazardous materials.”

“This confidential document is not made public for security reasons; however, as part of the State Environmental Protection Act process for review of development plans at the port, the railroad allowed state ecology personnel to review the plan, and they were satisfied with it,” Kerr said.

City Administrator Shay says he never signed any non-disclosure agreements preventing him from talking about the railroad’s plans. He says the plan consists of about 20 pages.

“It covered their exact procedures if there was a spill, who gets called, how they would report the spill to Ecology, the contractors they have on board, the types of equipment they would have to respond to a spill,” Shay said. “It almost felt like a city emergency response plan, like how we would respond to a sewage break. They didn’t have specifics on what they would do if a spill were to happen at specific points along the railroad, it just talked in generics.”

Shay said he felt it was a comprehensive document.

“And now that the railroad is owned by Genesee & Wyoming, it sounds like they may even have more of an extensive rail response plan in general throughout their system,” Shay said.

Shay said he feels comfortable that if an oil spill or explosion were to happen along the rail line, that the plan is good enough to allow an adequate response.

“There’s two big firms that do major disaster spill response and they have contracts with those companies that can mobilize anywhere for any event,” Shay said. “I do think that everyone is aware of what happened in Canada and we hope we can all learn lessons to apply here for what happened over there.”

During a meeting with The Vidette last week, Jerry Vest, the vice president of government and industry affairs for Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, also lauded the railroad’s safety record.

But Vest said that the disaster response plan wasn’t being made public to keep it out of “nefarious” hands, who may use it to circumvent the railroad’s efforts.

“The tragedy in Quebec is very saddening,” Vest said. “I know it is. It is to everyone with G&W. That company was not part of our companies. We’re not affiliated with it. We need to have a full investigation of what happened there. And that’s what we need. My first reaction was true sadness. It really is. My second reaction is, how did this happen? Because it shouldn’t have happened. It simply shouldn’t have happened and until a thorough investigation is done, all the speculation doesn’t help.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Coal

 Washington state Coal Trains and Environmental Review Editorial Comment: The July 31, 2013 headline in the Seattle Times reads ‘State to undertake sweeping review of coal terminal plan.’ We invite you to read it.

“The state will launch a broad review of the planned Cherry Point project that will include a look at greenhouse-gas emissions from burning the fuel, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Whatcom County will conduct more limited reviews.”

That the Washington State Department of Ecology would take on such a sweeping review is impressive and we fully support their efforts.

We do have one issue and it is not a minor quibble.

Namely, the review will focus on the plant proposed for Cherry Point, which is near Bellingham Washington.

There is another proposal to build a similar terminal in Longview Washington. This terminal would be located in SW Washington state.

We believe that a thorough environmental review would consider both of them at the same time.

The environmental risks are many yet similar for them both.

However, considering them one at a time means that whatever impacts they each have may not include the additional impacts because two of these terminals are in place.

For example the proposed coal export terminal at Longview would require transportation of coal via trains along the Columbia River and many of its important tributaries. These streams and rivers are home to many species of federally listed, wild salmon and trout that would likely not tolerate accumulation of dust predicted from these trains; each with some 120 loaded coal cars. Nor would they tolerate spills associated with train derailing. And of course fires associated with coal train wrecks often devastate wild salmon and trout habitat.

Similarly, the proposed coal export terminal at Cherry Point in northwest Washington would require coal transportation along Puget Sound and many rivers that flow into this unique marine ecosystem that is home to many federally-listed species of wild fish and marine mammals. Accumulation of coal dust and risks associated with coal train accidents would not be tolerated by these animals and their fragile ecosystems.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Appalachia-North? 18 new coal mine proposals for Comox Valley July 22, 2013 The Comox Valley citizens’ group that recently sent a proposed coal mine application back to the drawing board has discovered a staggering 18 new coal mine applications throughout the same central Vancouver Island region.

The discovery comes on the heels of abroad-based public campaign, driven by Coalwatch Comox Valley, which successfully blocked the proposed Raven Coal Mine through its environmental assessment. The organization managed to drive thousands of people to public hearings opposing the project, which threatened the local shellfish economy, one of the region’s biggest employers.

This new batch of applications was filed with the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas by Feisa Resources Canada and Golden River Resources Inc. during a two-week period from May 10 to May 24, 2013.

CoalWatch issued the following statement in reaction to the findings: Golden River Resource Inc. has filed 8 coal license applications, with 4 applications in the Anderson Lake area, just north of Comox Lake, and 4 applications in the Oyster River area. The total area covered in the Golden River applications is 9,075 hectares.

Feisa Resources Canada has filed 10 coal license applications in the Fanny Bay-Union Bay-Royston area. The total area covered in the Feisa Resources applications is 13,312.5 hectares.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

These Feisa applications appear to be for exactly the same coal that is targeted for the proposed Raven Underground Coal Project.

“We were stunned to see this amount of new coal license applications covering such a large area of the Comox Valley”, said CoalWatch president John Snyder. “The applications in the Anderson Lake area are a huge concern due to their proximity to the Puntledge and Tsolum River watersheds”. “ It’s shocking there’s been no public notice on these coal license applications, other than being listed on an obscure government website. These applications are the first stage in any future coal mine exploration or development, and there needs to be more transparency and public notice when these are filed,” added Snyder.

On two recent coal license applications in the Anderson Lake and Oyster River areas, the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) passed a motion requesting no license be issued due to concern that coal mine exploration, and further coal mine development, impacts existing industries.

“CoalWatch intends to monitor the review process on these new coal license applications, and if the CVRD is asked to comment on these applications, we’ll notify the public so they can voice their concerns”, said Snyder. “These latest applications are the first step on the slippery slope of transforming the Comox Valley into what many fear would be a mini-Appalachian type coal mine region”.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Hydropower and water retention

 China and India 'water grab' dams put ecology of Himalayas in danger More than 400 hydroelectric schemes are planned in the mountain region, which could be a disaster for the environment August 10, 2013

The Ranganadi hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh, India

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

The future of the world's most famous mountain range could be endangered by a vast dam-building project, as a risky regional race for water resources takes place in Asia.

New academic research shows that India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan are engaged in a huge "water grab" in the Himalayas, as they seek new sources of electricity to power their economies. Taken together, the countries have plans for more than 400 hydro dams which, if built, could together provide more than 160,000MW of electricity – three times more than the UK uses.

In addition, China has plans for around 100 dams to generate a similar amount of power from major rivers rising in Tibet. A further 60 or more dams are being planned for the Mekong river which also rises in Tibet and flows south through south-east Asia.

Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys. Many of the proposed dams would be among the tallest in the world, able to generate more than 4,000MW, as much as the Hoover dam on the Colorado river in the US. The result, over the next 20 years, "could be that the Himalayas become the most dammed region in the world", said Ed Grumbine, visiting international scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming. "India aims to construct 292 dams … doubling current hydropower capacity and contributing 6% to projected national energy needs. If all dams are constructed as proposed, in 28 of 32 major river valleys, the Indian Himalayas would have one of the highest average dam densities in the world, with one dam for every 32km of river channel. Every neighbour of India with undeveloped hydropower sites is building or planning to build multiple dams, totalling at minimum 129 projects," said Grumbine, author of a paper in Science.

READ ENTIRE GUARDIAN ARTICLE HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Soapbox:

Protect Northern Colorado families by asking Congress to pass dam safety bill August 9, 2013

It was 80 years ago Aug. 3 that a single rainstorm preceded the collapse of Castlewood Canyon Dam outside of Denver. Waves of floodwaters traveled 30 miles downstream before sweeping through the city’s downtown area, killing two residents and causing, by today’s standards, $18 million in damage to homes and businesses.

Extreme weather remains difficult to predict. Many of us here in Fort Collins remember the Spring Creek Flood that occurred on July 28, 1997. Ten inches of rain fell in less than six hours, causing a flash flood that killed five people. While dams are engineered to withstand heavy rainstorms such as the Spring Creek event, we can’t simply “set it and forget it.” Dams are complex structures that require regular monitoring, upkeep and repair, just like bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

Many dam owners and downstream communities don’t have the resources needed to prepare for dam safety emergencies. Now Congress has the opportunity to help ensure the safety of all downstream communities in the country, including Colorado. An updated Water Resources and Development Act, or WRDA, passed the Senate in May, and now the House of Representatives can pass this important legislation. Two of the main benefits include reauthorizing the National Dam Safety Program and creating a National Levee Safety Program, both of which would support and strengthen state dam safety programs.

Average citizens can help protect downstream communities. We all must educate ourselves about the risks associated with living in an inundation zone and the best practices for avoiding floodwaters in the event of a dam failure. The need to have an evacuation plan in place cannot be overstated. And we can ask our congressional representatives and local leaders to invest in state dam safety programs.

Colorado’s dam safety program already serves as a good example for other states. With 1,700 dams across the state, 367 of these dams in operation are deemed to be “high-hazard potential.” This means they could pose a risk to human life in the event of a failure. Colorado is lucky: Our strong safety record demonstrates a strong state dam safety program.

The National Dam Safety Program will help maintain Colorado’s dam safety program and will increase the number of high-hazard dams with emergency action plans, or EAPs, here and in other states.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

While many of us don’t see a dam every day, we all benefit from dams on a daily basis. Reservoirs created by dams provide year-round fresh water supplies, recreation areas, flood control and nearly half of our state’s renewable electricity.

Investment in dam repair, maintenance and community education not only saves lives, but also pays dividends in savings. A stronger dam infrastructure reduces the number of failures and the severity of an incident and its aftermath. This means less emergency relief appropriations are required, which are typically exponentially higher than the upfront costs of preventive maintenance.

Ninety-seven percent of Colorado’s state-regulated, high-hazard potential dams have an EAP in place. While this percentage is high, we should strive for 100 percent compliance and encourage other states to do the same. Anything less potentially risks the lives of our fellow citizens.

We all have a role to play in creating a future where dams are safe. Ask Congress to pass WRDA to prevent a tragedy like the Castlewood Canyon Dam failure from ever happening again.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Crisis In Court: Mega-farms Trying to Seize Salmon Water Court hearings this week may decide fate of Klamath/Trinity River salmon August 16, 2013 Local fishing communities depend on healthy salmon runs. (Chris JordanBloch / Earthjustice) This is the time of year when Chinook salmon head back up the Klamath/Trinity River system to spawn—if they have abundant, cold water.

But this year—this week—powerful business interests are in court trying to seize that water, putting tens of thousands of salmon, and an entire generation of their offspring, in peril.

Here’s why: Because California faces drought this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) has developed a plan to release extra water from dams along the Trinity River (a tributary of the Klamath) to prevent another disaster like the ‘Fish Kill of 2002.’ Also a drought year, 2002 saw the Klamath running low, slow and with high temperatures. The Bush administration prevented water from being released, leading to a massive die-off of adult Chinook salmon, one of the worst fish kills in U.S. history.

Coastal communities dependent on those salmon suffered $200 million losses.

Fast forward to this year: Corporate agricultural interests, led by the powerful Westlands Water District in California’s Central Valley, have sued to block water releases that will protect salmon. This despite the fact that more than half the water from the Trinity River is already diverted to industrial agriculture.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, represented by Earthjustice, intervened last week in defense of BuRec’s plan to protect the salmon run. A 3-day hearing this week will determine the salmon’s fate.

“Healthy salmon runs are the sustainable lifeblood of Northern California coastal fishing communities,” explains Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman. “But without enough water in the river for salmon to survive, these resources will disappear.”

Stay tuned.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Dam

removal to boost habitat on Sandy River and Columbia Public invited to see dam project and Maya Lin artwork.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin removal of its 750-foot-long Sandy River Delta dam, starting Aug. 15. Removal of the 1930svintage dam will help restore fish habitat at the confluence of the Sandy and Columbia rivers.

This is the last in a series of dam removals on the Sandy River, starting with Portland General Electric’s 1999 announcement it would close its Bull Run hydro operations and remove its Marmot and Little Sandy dams.

Dam removal is aiding in fish passage and improving the Sandy for kayaking.

This photo from the 1930s shows the 750-foot-long dike that dammed off the east channel of the Sandy River The Confluence Project and partners are near its mouth. hosting an evening of interpretive hikes for the public on Aug. 15, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Visitors can see the dam on the first day of deconstruction and discuss the project with representatives from the Army Corps.

Then there will be a hike to the Bird Blind, another in a series of place-based art installations designed by acclaimed artist Maya Lin. Visitors are advised to bring a picnic dinner, and enjoy live music, art and an easy three-mile hike.

To get there, take Interstate 84 to the Sandy River and Lewis & Clark State Park exit, or exit 18, and enter the park.

The Confluence Project is a series of six place-based art projects involving a collaboration of Maya Lin, Northwest tribes and other communities. Four of the six projects have been completed.

More information: Contact Courtney Yilk at 360-693-0123 or info@confluenceproject.org.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 FERC approves permit for dam near Valdez August 3, 2013

Another dam project in Southcentral Alaska is gushing forward, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, on Thursday approved a license for a $38.8 million hydroelectric project near Valdez, paving the way for construction to begin on the 6.5-megawatt operation.

Copper Valley Electric Association, which provides electrical services to more than 8,000 consumers in the Copper Basin Region, plans to construct the dam on Allison Creek, located next to Prince William Sound and immediately south of Valdez, home to one of the most important ports in Alaska - the oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline is loaded onto ships at the town’s oil terminal.

But the association’s board, elected members who oversee the nonprofit cooperative corporation, would like to reduce the region’s dependence on fossil fuels, according to its mission statement.

The project is part of Alaska Energy Authority’s push for hydroelectric in Alaska. According to the authority, hydroelectric is the largest renewable energy source in the state, producing more energy than every other alternative source combined.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Hydroelectric projects receiving money through the authority’s renewable energy fund are found throughout Alaska but primarily in the Aleutian Islands and Southeast.

As approved by FERC, the Allison Creek dam will include a 16-foot-high structure to divert water at the mount of the creek, which spills out into Allison Lake. There will also be turbine generator units and a transmission line connecting to an existing substation, among other facilities, according to a FERC environmental assessment.

The entire project will span about 42 acres on private and state land; Copper Valley must acquire titles or rights to use the lands within five years, and construction must begin within the next two years and completed within five, according to the license.

The estimated annual generation output for the project is 23,300-megawatt hours, the environmental assessment says. And according to AEA, it would save over four million gallons of diesel fuel annually, a major source of energy in the region.

Although ambitious in its mission, the Allison Creek dam pales in comparison to AEA’s star project, the Susitna-Watana Hydro project. Fresh funding has allowed the state agency to continue moving forward with plans to build what would be the second-tallest dam in the country, just behind California's 770-foot Oroville dam. Proponents of the Susitna dam in Southcentral pushed hard during the recent legislative sessions to funnel money toward the mega project. They were able to secure further state investment during a session in which lawmakers approved a cut to state oil revenue worth about a billion dollars or more per year. Despite the state's shrinking revenue expectations, the Susitna dam project received $95.2 million in Alaska's most recent capital budget, which totaled $2.2 billion, down nearly $1 billion from the previous year.

Farther south, the license was awarded to Copper Valley Electric’s project just two years after it filed its application. The permit includes various agreements to protect the area. “This license … requires a number of measures to protect and enhance geology and soils, water quality, fisheries, terrestrial, cultural aesthetic and recreational resources at the project,” wrote Jerry C. Wright, director of FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, in the approval.

Copper Valley will be on the hook for controlling erosion at the site and maintaining certain minimum water flow releases that could affect the area’s aquatic life.

A total of $13.28 million has already been secured for Allison Creek, and another $4 million has been requested from the state’s 2014 capital budget. As of last year, 30 percent of the design phase for the dam was complete, with Copper Valley aiming to begin construction this year, Law360 reported.

Throughout the last decade, Alaska’s interest in renewable energy has surged as oil and gas production declined, and in 2010, the Legislature adopted a renewable energy goal that calls for generating 50 percent of the state’s electricity with renewable sources by 2025.

The Alaska Energy Authority is funding at least two dozen hydro projects, many of them dams, at a time when dams nationwide are being removed to protect fish and restore habitat. The World Wildlife Foundation argues, in the case hydropower, renewable isn’t always sustainable; hydropower projects can have huge impacts on the environment.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fish Passage vs the Bottom Line – EWEB Looks at Alternatives to $45 Million Fish Screen and Tunnel For Chinook August 6, 2013 The Eugene Water & Electric Board figures it would be cheaper to stop using one of its McKenzie River hydropower dams to produce electricity than to carry out much of a salmonrelated upgrade on the dam that’s mandated if the utility wants to keep the structure’s power turbines turning.

The good news: The utility still would proceed with the second major piece of the fish passage project, building a $12 million fish ladder that salmon coming upriver would use in order to get around the dam and continue up the McKenzie. Complete story here from OPB EARTHFIX: [LINK] Not only will fish passage help salmon, it would also improve connectivity between Upper Mckenzie bull trout and lower river bull trout. [LINK] LIDAR mapping of the dam and reservoir: [LINK]

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Five years of progress to protect Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead July 10, 2013 The Action Agencies today released a draft Comprehensive Evaluation of the first five years of progress in implementing NOAA Fisheries' Biological Opinion for operation of the FCRPS for ESAlisted salmon and steelhead. The drat CE reviews accomplishments in dam passage improvements, habitat restoration, hatchery reform and predator management as well as the status of the fish. Below are some findings.

HYDRO SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS: Scientifically designed tests in 2010, 2011 and 2012 estimated progress toward meeting the BiOp performance standards for juvenile dam passage survival. To date, performance testing indicates that all projects are on track to meet the BiOp performance standards of 96 percent survival for spring migrating fish and 93 percent survival for summer migrants. (For a given dam to achieve the performance standards requires two years of testing with survival meeting or exceeding the performance standard each year.)

Combined with refined spill operations, surface passage has reduced the percentage of fish that go through powerhouses, turbines and bypass facilities, decreased fish travel time through the system and increased overall dam survival.

Spillway weirs in operation (on the spillbays to the right) at McNary Dam

READ ENTIRE 2013 COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 NOAA: Puget Sound killer whales to stay protected August 2, 2013

Seattle - Killer whales that spend their summers in Puget Sound are a distinct population group and will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service spent a year reviewing a petition to delist the orcas. The petition was brought by the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of California farmers who faced water restrictions to protect salmon the orcas eat. They argued the Puget Sound orcas were part of a larger north Pacific population and didn't qualify for the 2005 endangered species listing.

But NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman said those arguments were rejected.

"We have decided these killer whales are a distinct population group," Gorman said. "They have their own language, own food source. They don't interbreed with other groups of killer whales. They meet the legal standard for a distinct population group."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

He added officials are continuing to work on recovery plan options.

There are now 82 orcas in three pods - J, K and L - which also spend much of the year in the Pacific off the West Coast.

They are known as southern resident orcas. Puget Sound also is visited by so-called transient killer whales that hunt harbor seals.

"It's great news that Puget Sound's orcas will continue to be protected," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

"It was troubling to even think that the killer whales might have their protections stripped," she said in an email.

The Fisheries Service says there's no new information to make it change its opinion.

"Our determination that the southern resident killer whale population constitutes a distinct population segment under the Endangered Species Act and previous conclusion that the DPS is in danger of extinction and should retain endangered status all support our finding that the petitioned action to delist the southern resident killer whale DPS is not warranted," the service said in its finding.

Despite their popularity with whale watchers and symbolic value to the region, the orcas are "not in the best of shape," Gorman said.

Their numbers peaked at close to 100 in the 1990s.

"Water quality in Puget Sound isn't the best. There's lots of boat traffic, especially in the summer," Gorman said. "Their food - Chinook salmon are limited. And that's just in Puget Sound. We have no idea what goes on in the ocean where they spend most of their time."

A recovery plan issued in 2008 suggests actions to address threats from pollution, vessel traffic and noise and a limited food supply, NOAA said in a news release.

A lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation said he'll check with the family-run farms to decide whether the next step will be a lawsuit. The Empress Del Bosque and Coburn Ranch farms in the San Joaquin Valley south of Sacramento might receive no irrigation water next year in order to help protect salmon in the Sacramento River.

"Although we disagree with the service, the finding does tee up various issues that we would like to litigate over," attorney Damien M. Schiff said Friday.

The main one is the lack of a genetic difference between Puget Sound orcas and others that are not endangered.

"Our argument is the service is cherry picking to list a population of species," Schiff said. "You could take any species, and if you focus on a narrow subset of individuals you could decide they are not doing well and need protection."

Only by narrowing its focus to these three pods can the service say it looks like the population is in trouble, he said.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Natural Gas, Fracking

 UPDATED: (VIDEO) Fire on gas platform near Deepwater Horizon oil spill scene JULY 24, 2013 Firefighters tackled a blaze on a gas platform off the coast of Louisiana, not far from the scene of the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said the fire broke out late Tuesday aboard the Hercules 265 Rig located some 55 miles off the Louisiana coast, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fire ignited after a leak which prompted the evacuation of the rig’s 44 workers, authorities said.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“The natural gas leaking from the well ignited at 10:50pm CDT July 23, 2013. No one was on board at the time of the ignition and no one was injured,” the BSEE said in a statement.

“The source of the ignition is not known at this time,” the BSEE statement said.

Authorities said that a firefighting vessel was trying to extinguish the blaze using water and foam.

The US Coast Guard, which is providing safety management oversight, dispatched an 87-foot cutter and crew, a helicopter, and a twin engine aircraft to the scene.

The BSEE said that the site operator, Walter Oil and Gas Corporation, will be conducting a site assessment prior to beginning any work on the well.

British energy giant BP reached a $7.8 billion settlement last year with thousands of people and businesses hit by the Deep Horizon explosion and oil spill – the worst environmental disaster in US history.

That disaster three years ago killed 11 workers, blackened beaches in five US states and crippled the region’s tourism and fishing industries.

View updated (7/24/13) video HERE

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

[Update 12:11 p.m. EDT] The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said Wednesday that the U.S. Coast Guard is overseeing efforts to extinguish the fire at Hercules 265, a jack-up offshore natural gas rig located about 55 miles off the coast of Louisiana drilling in 154 feet of water.

Here’s the latest news: - The fire has caused beams supporting the rig floor and the derrick to collapse over the rig structure.

- Two firefighting vessels had to be moved back to a safer distance.

- One Coast Guard cutter is at the scene to establish a security cordon around the rig.

- Walter Oil & Gas Corporation, which owns the rig, is preparing to move to the site another jack-up rig to drill a relief well in order to cut off the natural gas, the source of the fire.

From http://blog.skytruth.org UPDATED 7/24/2013 3:10pm EDT with new photo, info on drilling permit.

At about 11pm Central time last night, the Hercules 265 jackup drill rig in the Gulf ignited. It’s now engulfed in flames. Options for controlling the gas blowout are now a lot more limited, since the rig can’t be occupied by well-control specialists. Eventually the well might collapse on itself, “bridging over” and shutting off the flow of natural gas. Otherwise a long and complicated intervention might be required, such as the drilling of a relief well — the solution required to kill BP’s runaway Macondo well in 2010, Chevron’s fatal blowout off Nigeria in 2012, and the months-long blowout and massive oil spill off Australia at the Montara platform in 2009. Either way, the rig is certainly a total loss.

We saw nothing unusual at the site on yesterday’s MODIS satellite images, which were taken in early afternoon, long before the fire began. Today’s images might be more interesting, although we’re not expecting to see any significant slick on the water. Luckily, this well was apparently just a gas producer. Otherwise the situation could be gravely worse, from an environmental and economic perspective.

We have questions, as usual:

Why was this work being done? The federal drilling permit, issued in June, notes that this was a bypass operation on an existing well (not a sidetrack as federal officials are saying). But it gives no explanation for why the bypass was required. Usually that’s an expensive, last resort fix for a serious technical problem with the well.

Was the blowout preventer engaged? If not, why not? If so, why did it fail to do its job? Should the feds speed up the implementation of new BOP standards? Would these new standards have addressed the problem in this case?

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Wind

ď ś Game changer: Next Generation Wind Turbines With Storage Are Cheap, Reliable And Brilliant July 14, 2013

What makes a new wind turbine exciting?

Wind companies are always trying to making their next turbine spin more efficiently and generate more power than the last, just as car companies are looking for better fuel efficiency and engine power. Advances usually come in small jumps in both cases, with a single percentage improvement cause for celebration.

GE announced a new line of wind turbines in May that generate between 20 and 24 percent more power than the previous best turbine in its class. It does this through traditional improvements in turbine design, but also through innovations that address one of the main issues that critics of wind power raise: intermittency.

The wind does not blow all the time, and the electric grid needs a regular supply of electricity. Wind has been a critical and climate-friendly addition to the grid portfolio, but as the industry continues to expand, people have started to think about what happens when more and more of our electricity is generated from intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Fossil fuel advocates try to make the case that coal and gas (and oil) can be burned constantly, but this is becoming less and less tenable. Rising carbon emissions are triggering extreme weather and sea level rise that endanger the very reliability of the electric grid.

Can advances in technology allow renewable energy sources to be reliable for second-to-second grid use? It’s already happening. In 2011, a concentrated solar plant produced power for24 hours straight.

A huge array of mirrors heated up a huge molten-salt battery system that permitted the solar plant to supply power when the sun was down. Reliable, steady wind energy is also becoming a real thing.

GE’s Brilliant 1.6-100 and 1.7-100 wind turbines are different from previous efforts because they use a short-term, grid-scale battery storage system paired with an “industrial internet” — a sophisticated system that is able to predict when power will be needed and when the wind will be blowing. It’s also bigger. All of this increases efficiency and capacity factor, or how much energy a turbine actually can produce.

This is a big deal, for grid operators and wind energy producers. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has a rule that requires the people that run the grid to pay more for power that is more reliable and can reach the grid immediately — when demand spikes. Energy providers that take an hour or a few minutes to come online are worth less to those that work to ensure that when you turn on your lights, there is energy ready at hand. Historically, natural gas plants have been more valuable than, say, coal plants because it is easier to get spark a flow of methane to turn a turbine quickly than it is to get a coal furnace hot.

CleanTechnica has an excellent three-part series stemming from their visit to GE’s Research site near Tehachapi, California, with a guided tour into and on top of the GE Brilliant 1.6-100 turbine.

When the wind blows near one of GE’s Brilliant turbines, the “industrial internet” has already done a lot of work to let the power producers and the grid operators know when that energy can be expected.

It is able to micromanage the most efficient way to position the turbines for optimal rotation. Still, turbines will produce energy at times that the grid is unable to use it. The battery system attached to the turbine allows it to feed excess electricity into the batteries, converting it to electrochemical energy that the grid can use upon request, with nearly immediate turnaround time.

This also allows the wind turbine operator to get into the frequency regulation business. Frequency regulation is the complex part of grid operation, where second-to-second peaks and valleys in demand obliterate any smoothness in the demand curve. This is ordinarily very difficult and expensive, because entire coal and gas power plants have to be operating full bore on “reserve” capacity to cover for this. But using battery-powered sources to smooth frequency regulation demand is much more efficient — it also allows the grid to dump extra electricity into the battery systems. This is worth more to the grid, and so such systems command nearly twice the price for frequency regulation as thermal (fossil fuel) systems. The U.S. military is already looking into using their growing fleet of electric vehicles on domestic bases to get into the frequency regulation business.

So where are these cutting-edge turbines headed? Sixty-seven of them will be built for installation in the mountains of New South Wales in Australia in the fall of 2013, with power expected to be flowing into the grid by the end of 2014. Fifty-nine of them are headed to the “thumb” region of Michigan as part of a wind farm planned by NextEra Energy Resources. And Invenergy Wind is building a farm in Mills County, Texas that will feature three 2.5 MW GE Brilliant turbines.

As more of these turbines hit the grid, the reliability of renewable energy increases, making it a feasible backbone to the electric grid. And with the cost of the energy produced by these turbines right now level with thermal coal, this seems like a game-changer.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 The Clean Energy Revolution is Underway Across the World

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Forest Management

 Stephen

Hume: Clayoquot protest 20 years ago transformed face of environmentalism How the event has continued to shape the environmental movement August 9, 2013

Then Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robinson (second from right) joins in anti-logging protest on the Kennedy Lake bridge in Clayoquot Sound in 1993.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

It’s hard to believe, for me at any rate, that Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the mass arrests at Clayoquot Sound, an event that transformed the face of environmentalism and forced governments and corporations to start taking such concerns seriously.

The protests at Clayoquot Sound, which lies just off Tofino on Vancouver Island’s outer coast of pristine beaches, rugged coastlines, islets, inlets and tranquil sheltered coves, represented the coalescing of public objections to clearcut logging plans by corporations who were following government policy in majestic old-growth forests.

There had been sporadic protests from Haida Gwaii to Meares Island involving First Nations activists and environmentalists, but they were considered a radical fringe by government and routinely dismissed by media as nutty extremists, “tree huggers” and flakes.

However, at Clayoquot Sound, the protest went big and it went mainstream. People came from all over the country and beyond. Teachers, artists, musicians, university students and their professors, working folk, soccer moms, dentists, doctors and First Nations elders descended on the West Coast to put a stop to clearcutting by blockading a road.

What followed was the largest mass arrest for civil disobedience in the province’s history.

Twenty years on, perhaps it’s worth remembering what launched the protests — and what the protests launched.

For one thing, they represented a new approach to public protest over environmental issues.

Five months earlier, a couple of Tofino-based activists, Garth Lenz and Valerie Langer, took the principle of thinking globally while acting locally to heart. They got on a plane and flew to Europe to persuade international organizations in Britain, Germany, Austria and other countries that protecting at least a remnant of B.C.’s ancient rainforest was important.

And they next took their campaign into the marketplace itself, urging organizations to pressure major buyers to cancel contracts with B.C. suppliers of paper and paper products on moral grounds.

As history shows, it was a stroke of strategic genius. Major environmental organizations like Greenpeace International came on board. The Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council and its high profile spokesman Bobby Kennedy Jr. took up the cause. The Australian rock band Midnight Oil flew in to put on a concert for the protesters.

Langer and other campaigners adroitly got the campaign branded the “War in the Woods,” polarizing debate into those who favoured mowing down the forests for industry and those who wanted to save an ecosystem from corporate greed.

Whether one agrees with this perception or not — and many in resource communities didn’t — it proved a defining wedge issue that made it easy for people to choose sides.

Eventually, the NDP government struck a special science panel to address the environmental concerns in Clayoquot Sound and, in 1995, all of its unanimous recommendations for resource and ecosystem management were adopted by the province.

Five years later, the entire Clayoquot Sound was designated as a global biosphere reserve by UNESCO.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

But the tremors from the Clayoquot protests and the campaigns that emerged from them continue to shape our political landscape.

Fallout from the Clayoquot campaign continues to conflict the provincial NDP, which in 1993 had to choose between its blue-collar labour union roots and a new generation of young people concerned about green issues. The resulting rupture and subsequent migration of the disaffected to the Green party continues to plague it today.

Many of those who went to Clayoquot Sound as teenagers or students are now at the forefront of campaigns that seek to shape environmental policy on Alberta’ oilsands, pipelines across B.C., Canada and the U.S., tanker traffic, fish farms, mining ventures and protection for the boreal forest.

The market campaign strategies formulated to pressure government and business with respect to old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound led to the campaign to protect the so-called “Great Bear Rainforest” on B.C.’s mid-coast, another example of shrewd branding.

The commercial salmon farming industry was forced to treat environmental concerns seriously when market campaigns were launched in the U.S. differentiating wild from farmed product.

And today there’s a pantheon of environmental organizations that are household names — Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Dogwood Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Living Oceans Society, Friends of Clayoquot Sound — which employ similar market-based campaigns from Brazil to the United Kingdom over everything from biofuels to logging of tropical hardwoods.

Among the individuals who emerged from the Clayoquot protests to take leading roles in helping shape and influence environmental policy at the international, national and provincial level: • Tzeporah Berman, one of those arrested and jailed in 1993, went on to an international role with Greenpeace. She helped found ForestEthics and, in 2009, was appointed by B.C.’s premier to the Green Energy Task Force and granted an honorary doctorate from UBC this spring.

• Ken Wu, leads the Ancient Forest Alliance in seeking protection for B.C.’s biggest, oldest and most significant forests, an end to raw log exports in order to guarantee supply for B.C. mills and a re-tooling of those mills to shift their resource base from old growth to second growth.

• Chris Genovali is executive-director of Raincoast Conservation Foundation, which enables scientific research that supports conservation and protection of waters, wildlife and lands in coastal B.C. Its campaigns include ending the trophy hunting of grizzly bears, mapping marine bird distribution and abundance and protecting resident killer whales.

• And, of course, Langer, who’s now with the Canadian arm of ForestEthics, ForestEthics Solutions and still campaigns tirelessly to protect the boreal forest and the mid-coast rainforest and Lenz, who’s had a distinguished career as a wildlife and conservation photographer with an international reputation.

Agree with them or not, the graduates of Clayoquot Sound care about the world they live in. They were prepared to fight for it then — and they are still fighting now — and that has made Canada a better place.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Government action/inaction and wild game fish

 I Don’t Pay Attention to Politics…

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Federally Reportable Aquatic Animal Diseases in Canada - 2013

Editorial Comment: This data is considered by many to be suspicious at best given the test results from leading laboratories around the world.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Editorial comment: The fish in this photo are Atlantic salmon in an open pen salmon feedlot. This “farm” is one of over 120 foreign-owned, salmon feedlots irresponsibly sited in BC’s uniquely-productive, wild salmon migration routes.

quely productive

 Canadian,

U.S. fisheries managers wait anxiously for summer sockeye

returns Disastrous Fraser River runs spurred federal Cohen Commission four years ago

August 5, 2013 Four years after disastrous sockeye runs on the Fraser River spurred the federal Cohen Commission, fisheries managers in both Canada and the U.S. are waiting anxiously to see how returns will fare this summer for that same cycle of salmon.

Mike Lapointe, chief biologist with the Pacific Salmon Commission, said the main summer runs are later than expected and that he won’t know for a few more days whether total Fraser sockeye returns will match the pre-season estimate of almost 4.8 million fish.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“There is still ambiguity with that run,” he said in an interview. “It’s frustrating...but all we can do is wait.”

The estimate of 4.8 million sockeye is a median figure based on spawning success four years ago, he said, noting there is a one-in-four chance of returns as low as 2.7 million fish or as high as 8.6 million.

In 2009, Fraser River sockeye returns totalled only about 1.5 million fish, down from expectations of 10.4 million, the majority of which went unfished in order to maximize numbers on the spawning grounds.

“It gave us hope for rebuilding,” Lapointe said.

Appointed by the federal government in late 2009, the Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser River sockeye delivered its report in October 2012, making 75 recommendations to improve the sustainability of the fishery.

Final Report

Volume 1 - The Sockeye Fishery

Volume 2 - Causes of the Decline

Volume 3 Recommendations Summary - Process

-

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Sockeye season called the worst in three decades August 7, 2013 Joy Thorkelson of the United Fishermen and Allied Worker's Union (UFAWU) is pulling no punches when it comes to discussing the 2013 commercial fishing season.

"I've never seen it this bad, and I've been here for 30 years," she said, adding she lost any sense of optimism for this year a month ago.

"The average gillnetter fishing the North Coast has caught approximately 500 fish. Just 500.

That doesn't pay for the licence fee with the federal government, let alone the other fees that have been piled on this year, like the onboard monitor, and it doesn't even cover the $300 fishermen have to pay Archipelago Marine for the log book."

Dr. Claudette Bethune: It shouldn't be a scary mystery, it should be Fisheries officials being asked questions and held accountable.  Why is not the Cohen recommendations enacted?

commission

 For fisheries estimates, why are not regulators modeling the number of salmon feedlots right on the out migrations that allow sea lice and disease to infect and kill out migrating wild salmon conducted?  Where is the process basic principles laid Commission and to models to protect the rely on them?

in place to follow the out in the Cohen do basic math and sockeye and all that

With only an estimated 453,000 sockeye of the necessary 1.05 million making their way back into the Skeena River, Thorkelson said the few in the fleet able to afford the fuel have made their way south to the Bella Bella area. Still others are trying their luck in the Nass River with the hope of making some money.

"They might fish the Nass next week if there are still sockeye along with the pink salmon ... but as the sockeye numbers dwindle, fewer boats are likely to go there. Right now the pink salmon catch is just covering the cost of fuel and any money being made is on the rare sockeye caught, so it doesn't make sense to fish just to cover the cost of fuel," she said.

More than being the worst year in three decades, Thorkelson said it is also frightening the fleet.

"The closure this year is the scariest yet. We have had closures before, but we have never had a closure where the returns were this low," she said.

"It's scary because what does this mean for four years from now when the salmon from this year return to the system?"

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Sockeye ban on Skeena extended to First Nations THE First Nations food fishery and the recreational fishery are the latest victim of the low Skeena River sockeye returns.

Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), confirmed that First Nations food fishery was closed as of midnight on Aug. 4 until Aug. 23 for an area covering the marine water right up to the Babine fence. For the recreational sockeye fishery, the closure extends from the Pacific to the Skeena River, its tributaries and right through to the Babine River and Babine Lake.

The reason for the closure is due to the extremely low number of salmon returning to the system. The DFO estimates that only 408,000 fish have returned, well below initial estimates of between 600,000 and 800,000. Kotyk said this is the first time these steps have been implemented on the river.

“There have been food restrictions on the Fraser River and in some other localized circumstances, however … to the best of my knowledge has never been implemented for the Skeena River,” he said.

The problem hit home hard in Terrace when the Riverboat Days salmon barbecue typically hosted by the Kitsumkalum First Nation was cancelled because of a small catch.

“Basically the barbecue was cancelled due to our inability to capture enough fish for the barbecue.

We had problems meeting our food source and ceremonial needs within the village and organizers thought it best to just cancel the barbecue because we wouldn’t have sufficient fish for them,” Kitsumkalum band manager Steve Roberts said.

The DFO sockeye ban, which includes food and ceremonial fish, means that local First Nations have to focus on catching other species this year.

Roberts said the DFO is predicting a large pink salmon return and he thinks about 50 per cent of this year’s catch will be pink and also coho, another species that is predicted to return in large numbers.

However part of the ban includes a temporary prohibition on gill netting because of its potential to damage the sockeye, in effect until August 23 as well.

Roberts added that many Kitsumkalum members are employed full-time in local industry and development projects so so they don’t have to rely as heavily on the fish for sustenance this year.

The closure of the recreational sockeye fishery will be felt on the pocketbooks of charter operators in the region, but Stan Doll with Skeena Wilderness Adventures, a charter company that runs on the Skeena, said the low numbers make the closure understandable

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“We like fishing them, they put up a good fight and are a good tasting fish, and we don’t have that much of an impact on the numbers, but if they’re going to close every other fishery, then it is fair that they close us down too. We understand, we want a strong fishery,” he said, adding that the lack of sockeye is evident to those on the river.

“Normally you see them jumping and flipping everywhere. We’re just not seeing them on the Skeena this year.”

WGFCI comment submitted: As expected, the 2013 run of BC sockeye salmon in many rivers would be significantly lower than historic levels due to the greatly reduced run size in the 2009 generation.

Unfortunately, it's the ecosystems and user groups that are forced to suffer while the impacts to these once-bountiful fisheries are allowed to continue and even expand.

One of these impacts that must be immediately curtailed is the foreignowned, open pen salmon feedlot industry. This filthy business is analogous with weapons of mass destruction as it negatively impacts public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

The sooner open pen salmon feedlots are removed from BC's wild salmon migration routes, the better!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Loss of wild salmon disease doctor will have major impact July 16, 2013 A very important negative event occurred recently with the World Animal Health Organization pulling Dr. Fred Kibenge’s status as the only disease reference lab in the western hemisphere for testing fish diseases, particularly, ISA from farmed Atlantic salmon.

I asked the OIE several times for the origin of the complaint but received no response. While news releases have pointed to complaints from other countries, the other factor is that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, discredited in the Cohen Commission testimony in December 2011, has made representations to the OIE to pull Kibenge’s status. In testimony, they were cornered into admitting their interests are the export possibilities of the largely Norwegian-owned farms over natural wild salmon, a clear conflict of interest. Dr. Kim Klottins said the CFIA didn’t want to find ISA in B.C. The video is not pretty.

You will have recently read in the Times Colonist that they tested several thousand wild salmon – not farmed fish, the source of the Atlantic Ocean diseases, ISA and HSMI — and announced they found no ISA in B.C. That should be a good thing because the two diseases could well lead to the demise of all 11 Pacific salmonid species from California all the way to Korea. But it is not a good thing.

Drs. Miller (DFO, Nanaimo), Kibenge (P.E.I.) and Nylund (the only other OIE lab in the world, in Norway), have found ISA in B.C. wild salmon. During Cohen they discredited the DFO, CFIA and the B.C. testing systems. The CFIA and DFO use the Moncton lab under Dr. Gagne, and the experts found its procedures don’t find ISA and its equipment is poor; this means a negative response for the worst fish farm disease means nothing. These doctors have found literally tens of thousands of cases of ISA in B.C., dating all the way back to 1988.

For instance, Miller’s work showed 25 per cent of Clayoquot Sound farmed Chinook had ISA and HSMI. This means 125,000 to 250,000 fish per farm. There are 22 farms in the Sound and wild Chinook numbers are at extinction levels — only 501 fish in six rivers. The Kennedy Lake sockeye run, once the largest on Van Isle, is no more.

The CFIA is a member on the OIE council which has members from many nations. Kibenge was the lab that found Atlantic ISA (Nylund showed it was taken from Norway), in Chile. In 2008, ISA wiped out quarter of a billion farmed salmon, a loss of $2 billion, with 13,000 losing jobs. The CFIA with its $740-million budget apparently wants to control the narrative with respect to farmed salmon diseases in Canada, and so Kibenge lost his status as the place where wild B.C. salmon have been sent most frequently for testing by concerned B.C. residents.

I read a scientific study not long ago that says fish farms cause a loss of 50 per cent of the wild salmon/trout where they are introduced, and this includes B.C. There are, for instance, only 6,000 wild Chinook spawners on the entire west coast of Vancouver Island. Fewer wild salmon translates into fewer jobs in B.C.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Fish-lab decision was a good one July 19, 2013 Re: “Loss of wild-salmon disease doctor will have major impact,” July 16.

In the column, the actions of the World Animal Health Organization in pulling the infectioussalmon-anemia reference status at Dr. Fred Kibenge’s lab are presented as a negative. In fact, the organization’s decision should be viewed as a positive one. The organization conducted an audit with an international panel of scientific experts and found a series of weaknesses affecting the quality of diagnoses performed at the lab — which led to the unanimous decision by the general assembly of the organization to delist the lab.

This news should reassure the public, as it shows that labs carrying international designations are held to high standards.

It is correct that several thousand wild salmon were tested and no ISA was found. Thousands of Atlantic salmon have also been tested for ISA and those tests were also negative.

ISA is a concern for B.C. salmon farmers — it has the potential to have an impact on our industry.

That’s why our fish are tested and why we support ongoing wild- and farmed-fish monitoring programs.

All the world’s oceans are connected, so it makes sense that viruses that have been found in other areas might eventually be found in B.C. That’s why ongoing monitoring of both wild and farm-raised fish is important so if a virus that causes disease, as not all do, does appear, it is found quickly and can be dealt with.

Mary Ellen Walling Executive Director, B.C. Salmon Farmers Association Campbell River

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Dalley talks about ISA The Honourable Derrick Dalley, the provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Newfoundland and Labrador, said that government is very concerned about the five cases of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) that have occurred in the Coast of Bays within the past year and a half.

The latest ISA cases involved a Gray Aquaculture site at Pass My Can and a Cooke Aquaculture operation at Manuel’s’ Arm which are both located in the northeast part of Bay d’Espoir.

Minister Dalley said that, even though the outbreaks have been confined to a specific area of the Coast of Bays, government is concerned about managing and mitigating the impacts of any potential virus on the aquaculture industry.

Daley said that while government and industry continues to invest in best practices for the industry some events are beyond anyone’s control.

“ISA comes from the wild, “Minister Dalley said, “so we have to continue to work with industry to find ways and means to protect fish health against future viruses.

We also need to ensure we have the proper protocols and mechanisms in place to address this issue swiftly to mitigate any potential impact on other sites.”

The Honourable Derrick Dalley, the Newfound and Labrador Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture at a function in St. Alban’s in 2012

Dalley said that government is working very closely with the companies in the aquaculture industry in developing a Bay Management Plan that will look at issues facing the industry moving forward. He noted that the plan is a significant document that will address biosecurity issues facing the industry.

The Bay Management Plan will soon be completed and ready for use by the industry.

Dalley said, “In addition, we’ve increased our vigilance particularly in this region in terms of testing and inspections for possible issues. ISA compounds a company’s problems in terms of developing business plans and supplying markets so we have to be always cautious about this serious matter.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

With regards to the people who are concerned about ISA, Minister Dalley said that people need to understand that the virus is not harmful to humans, as it poses no threat to human health through consumption or contact.

He said that studies have proven that it is not feasible to raise large volumes of fish in land based containment systems.

Dalley said, “To the naysayers, I want to say that we are cautious, we rely on science, our veterinarians consistently monitor and, when issues do arise, we have a good working relationship with the companies involved.

“We also have significant protocols and standard operation practices in place, and we will continue to build this industry while being ever aware of the challenges it presents.

This industry is very valuable to the province in general and to the Coast of Bays in particular. We’ve seen significant growth in the area’s economy in the past few years and we want to see this continuing.

“We have a tremendous opportunity for aquaculture in this province, and again, we are committed to working with the companies to ensure that when and where there are challenges we put measures in place to address them.

“We will continue to help build the industry and to work with stakeholders especially around the issues of biosecurity and fish health.”

Nell Halse, an official with Cooke Aquaculture, said that ISA continues to be a challenge to both companies operating in the area.

Halse said, “Cold Ocean is working very closely with both the CFIA and DFA to manage through it.

We recently had another positive case as the Minister indicated to you but the fish have already been removed from the affected cages under CFIA supervision.

“This is in keeping with our company's practice to move quickly and aggressively to remove fish once a site becomes positive.

“We continue to stock farms in NL according to Bay Management principles and will continue to process fish in the Harbour Breton facility.”

Josephine Fletcher: “Government says what is convenient to the shareholders.

Fish Farms are not helpful. The ISA virus is not from the wild.

It comes from the contamination of faeces and antibiotics of the contained fish that suffer unnatural mutations.

The way salmon are contained in pens is not natural.

The results are a very inferior sort of fish that people have to consume unwittingly in masses.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Ireland mulls Aran Islands salmon farm plan August 10, 2013 Controversial plans to build a huge salmon farm off the west coast of Ireland are being considered by the government in Dublin.

Supporters of the scheme say it will double the amount of farmed salmon produced in Ireland and help the country out of its economic crisis.

But critics claim it will damage wild salmon stocks.

Diarmaid Fleming reports from the Aran Islands.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Pollution impact of salmon farms reviewed August 5, 2013

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

A Scottish fish-farming expert has been called in to check the accuracy of reports on the impact of New Zealand King Salmon farms on the Marlborough Sounds seabed.

Marlborough District Council resource management officer Bruno Brosnan says the Cawthron Institute, which monitors environmental compliance for King Salmon farms, has changed the way it calculates pollution effects on the seabed below and beyond farms.

Scientist Nigel Keeley unexpectedly altered the weighting given to effects, including biodiversity, sediment chemistry and the presence of sulphides, Mr Brosnan said.

Changing these values might alter final scores, affecting the determination whether farms were compliant.

The council has contracted Kenny Black, of the Scottish Association of Marine Science, to review whether Cawthron might have underscored or overscored farm effects, Mr Brosnan told the council environment committee last week.

"We need to be certain before we take any action."

Cawthron Institute chief executive Professor Charles Eason said it had not changed its methodology for measuring effects to the seabed under the farms.

Instead, the weightings of variables used were adjusted to place greater emphasis on those that were most reliable and meaningful in determining seabed effects.

The change had been made through on-going research, published in an international peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Cawthron said the effect of the minor change in weightings, overall, was negligible and has been detailed in a subsequent letter to the Marlborough District Council.

The institute welcomed the council seeking expert advice.

Early analysis by the council found two farms were code red and two code amber, meaning there was high concern or the council was concerned but needed information, Mr Brosnan said.

Only two, where fish were no longer farmed, were code green.

Feed limits were exceeded at Clay Point in Tory Channel and at Otanerau in Queen Charlotte Sound, and the seabed could be more polluted than allowed.

The council had talked through its preliminary findings with King Salmon and the company would be asked to respond to Prof Black's report, which was due in about two weeks.

King Salmon's responses to 2012 monitoring results included reducing stocking densities, reducing bio-fouling, installing monitoring equipment, monitoring for algae, splitting farms into single-year classes, improved feeding strategies and reducing movements of fish and cages during summer, Mr Brosnan said.

He expected to report back to the environment committee at its next meeting, pencilled in for September 5.

King Salmon had applied to change resource consent conditions for three of its farms and was likely to do this for three more in the next few months, Mr Brosnan said. Changes were likely to include a new monitoring programme and a lowering of environmental thresholds. The consent for its Te Pangu farm would expire in 2015.

Mayor Alistair Sowman said King Salmon was a major contributor to the Marlborough economy but "needs to get things right". He was pleased to see the company working with the council.

In May the High Court heard appeals against an Environmental Protection Authority decision to grant four of nine new farms applied for by King Salmon.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Russia’s largest aquaculture plant August 7, 2013 Russian Salmon Company, one of Russia’s largest fish producers, has announced plans to establish a large-scale aquaculture complex in the Murmansk region of Russia, which will specialise on the production of juvenile Atlantic salmon and trout, reports Eugene Gerden.

According to Andrew Laskov, general director of Russian Salmon, the new plant will be built on a 12ha site in the Little Volokovaya Bay. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2014 and the first phase of the plant is expected to be launched in spring 2016.

The volume of production during the first phase will be 10 million juveniles and is expected to be increased up to 30 million during the second stage.

The volume of investment in the project has not been disclosed, however, according to sources close to the company, it could be up to RUB8bn (USD$240m).

Russian analysts believe that the establishment of such a complex will help to partially reduce Russia’s current dependence on the supplies of Atlantic salmon from Norway and to stimulate domestic production.

According to Dennis Bezruchko, a senior analyst of St. Petersburg Fisherman Club, at present the annual volume of supplies of Norway Atlantic salmon to Russia is about 135,000 tonnes, which is a large figure for Russia. The implementation of the project will help to solve this problem.

However, he also warned that the company may face serious problems during the implementation of the project - in particular high mortality rate of juveniles, as well as a longer period of implementation of the project, as the growth of fish in Murmansk takes significantly longer than in Norway, due to colder conditions.

At the same time analysts believe that implementation of the project will be very important for Russia, as the level of development of the country’s aquaculture leaves much to be desired.

According to the Federal Agency for Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture, the share of Russia in global aquaculture production is currently estimated at only 0.2%. The recently approved federal law ‘On aquaculture’, aims to create more favourable conditions for the development of aquaculture in Russia and to significantly increase the level of production.

In the meantime, Russian Salmon is not the only Russian company, which plans to become a prominent player in the domestic salmon market in the coming years.

Russian Sea, Russia’s leading fish producer and processor, is also involved in production of Atlantic salmon in the Barents Sea. Several weeks ago the company commissioned the second phase of its aquaculture plant in the Murmansk region and plans to continue to build its aquaculture business in the future.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Marine Harvest fined $40,000 for violations of the Fisheries Act

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 FDA

Import Alert: Detention Without Physical Examination Of Aquaculture Seafood Products Due To Unapproved Drugs

Import Alert 16-124 -

(Note: This import alert represents the Agency's current guidance to FDA field personnel regarding the manufacturer(s) and/or products(s) at issue. It does not create or confer any rights for or on any person, and does not operate to bind FDA or the public).

Import Alert # 16-124 Published Date: 07/30/2013 Type: DWPE Import Alert Name: "Detention Without Physical Examination Of Aquaculture Seafood Products Due To Unapproved Drugs" Reason for Alert: There has been an extensive commercialization and an increased consumption rate of aquaculture seafood products. As this industry grows, the use of unapproved new animal drugs and the misuse of approved new animal drugs in seafood raised through aquaculture also grows. The use of unapproved new animal drugs will have an impact on the safety of aquaculture products for consumers.

Guidance: Districts may detain, without physical examination, the products from the firms identified in the attachment for this alert.

Contact the Division of Field Science at 301 796-6600 for questions or issues concerning science, science policy, analysis, preparation, or analytical methodology.

All requests for removal from detention without physical examination should be address to DIOP 301796-0356.

Product Description: Aquaculture seafood Charge: "The article is subject to refusal of admission pursuant to on 801(a)(3) in that it appears to be adulterated in that it or contains a new animal drug (or conversion product of) that is unsafe within the meaning of Section 512, which violation of Section 402(a)(2)(C)(ii)." OASIS charge code VETDRUGRES

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Canadian

Aquaculture Industry Welcomes Gail Shea as New Fisheries & Oceans Minister Seeks Strong Partnership to Spur Jobs & Growth July 15, 2013

OTTAWA- The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) today welcomed the Honourable Gail Shea as the new federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and expressed their enthusiasm to work together to create new jobs and growth following today's cabinet shuffle by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"We look forward to working in close partnership with Minister Shea to hasten the pace and broaden the reach of the economic and health benefits that flow from Canada's farmed seafood sector," said Ruth Salmon, Executive Director of CAIA. "Canada has an opportunity to lead the world as we build upon and expand a responsibly developed aquaculture industry. With the new Minister's leadership we are confident this moment can be seized."

The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans holds lead federal responsibility for aquaculture and Canada's farmed seafood sector, which operates in every part of the country creating well-paying jobs for thousands of Canadians while providing consumers with highly nutritious and healthy seafood for their daily diet.

As demand for nutritious and safe seafood outstrips the production capacity of the wild fishery, aquaculture has grown substantially worldwide. Each year demand grows worldwide by 7% to 9%.

This has led to intense global competition as nations such as Norway, New Zealand and Scotland have expanded their capacity significantly. During this time, Canada's industry has remained largely unchanged suggesting the opportunity to grow and recapture a sizable portion of global market share is substantial.

"With a supportive policy and regulatory environment, our industry is ready to expand dramatically, creating new jobs and growth, much of that activity in coastal and aboriginal communities," added Salmon.

CAIA also took the opportunity to thank outgoing Fisheries and Ocean Minister Keith Ashfield for his dedication and work on behalf of Canada's farmed seafood sector.

"Minister Ashfield recognized the potential of our industry and provided appreciated leadership in fostering a national vision for our growth," concluded Salmon. "His is a record and approach that we can build upon".

CAIA members generate over $2 billion in economic activity, over $1 billion in GDP, and employ over 14,500 Canadians. Our mission is to unlock the full range of economic, environmental and public health benefits that flow from a competitive, sustainable and growing farmed seafood sector.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

To learn more about aquaculture in Canada visit www.aquaculture.ca.

SOURCE: Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance For further information: or to request an interview, please contact: Sheri Beaulieu Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) sheri.beaulieu@aquaculture.ca 613-853-0612

Dr. Claudette Bethune: “Health benefits?

The fraction of the population that get any 'benefit' from farmed salmon is becoming very small as we understand the toxicity of the cocktail of POPs in farmed salmon, topped off with dieldrin, toxaphene, and dioxin-like PCBs which exceed most tolerable consumption guidance with a single serving.”

Rory MacNamara: “Health benefits?..from farmed salmon? (amusing oxymoron)”

Geoff Gerhart: “This doesn't sound like a conflict of interest, it is a conflict of interest.”

Eddie Gardner: “We really need to pump up the public education on this profoundly destructive industry that provides a hazardous and risky food product that will inevitably cost Health Care in Canada in future years should the open net feedlot operations expand in the manner they wish.

They are going in the wrong direction!

This industry needs to be dismantled in 2013! Not more renewing leases!

They need to clean up after themselves and clear out!”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Gubernatorial Candidate, Jay Inslee on open pen salmon feedlots “We’re going to enforce the law” Watch video here

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 B.C., Alberta premiers launch plan to expand oil, gas exports July 26, 2013

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – The premiers of British Columbia and Alberta have launched a joint plan to expand exports of oil, gas and other resources, laying the groundwork for new pipeline projects to the west coast.

Wrapping up discussions at the Council of the Federation annual retreat of Canada’s 13 premiers, Christy Clark and Alison Redford said they had instructed their senior bureaucrats to start working together on policies to promote the exports and allow their fossil-fuel industries to gain access to new markets in Asia, driving up the prices for their resources.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

“We understand in British Columbia how important it is that resources get to the coast,” said Clark, standing next to Redford. “We are getting our natural gas to the coast and off to Asia, hopefully selling it at a much, much higher price. We understand the economics of that. And Alberta understands that social licence is something that’s important for moving resources so we’re going to work through some of those details together and you can’t do that if you don’t sit down and talk.”

Redford said the discussions were at a preliminary stage that would go beyond talks about Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, now under review by an independent panel. She said the provinces would also discuss which projects could be viable in the future.

“One of the things that’s been really exciting this year, I think right across Canada, but particularly in Alberta and British Columbia, is we’re seeing a number of people who are really coming to terms with the fact that responsible resource development is what’s going to allow us to continue to have economic growth in Canada,” Redford said.

B.C. and Quebec were the only provinces that declined to sign on to a progress report, released this week by premiers, on a national energy strategy that was spearheaded by Redford, establishing a set of common values to promote co-operation and growth as well as social and environmental responsibility.

Clark said her government still had concerns about the risks of the existing Northern Gateway proposal and was opposed to the project, which if approved, would create a new link between Alberta’s oilsands region and the west coast of British Columbia, opening the door to more expansion in the Alberta industry.

Environmental groups and First Nations communities have opposed most pipeline expansion projects from the oilsands region, arguing that the industry needs to first crack down on its environmental footprint and heat-trapping emissions which contribute to global warming before it expands.

But both premiers noted that they were elected with mandates to create jobs and grow the economy, explaining that their provinces were economic engines for the entire country.

“Alison and I have been having this (discussion) together as premiers, we want to take the next concrete step in that journey and have our officials sit down and start really grinding through some of the details to find out where we can find common ground, where we disagree and where we need to try and work a little harder,” said Clark.

The B.C. premier added that improving Coast Guard response to emergencies on the coast would also be a key factor and a failure to boost its ability could be an obstacle to economic growth.

“The federal government has been stripping down Coast Guard response in British Columbia, not adding to it,” Clark said. “So they’re going in the wrong direction on that and if we want to protect our coast, they’re going to have to step up to the plate on that.”

Redford also said she had interesting discussions with New Brunswick and Quebec about a separate pipeline proposal to bring Alberta’s oil to eastern Canadian refineries and that each jurisdiction was now reviewing details of the project.

For her part, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said she was happy to have discussions and exchange information with her colleagues about energy policies, but did not want to endorse a national strategy with elements that could interfere with Quebec’s constitutional jurisdictions.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 UPDATE: Port of Vancouver unanimously approves oil terminal lease State will still have to consent to plan Port of Vancouver commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved leasing 42 acres for a controversial oil terminal, despite overwhelming public testimony against the plan by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies to build what would be the largest such facility in the Pacific Northwest.

Commissioner Brian Wolfe said the lease — worth $45 million to the port over an initial 10 years — addresses public safety concerns. Port managers will stay on top of Tesoro and Savage like “white on rice” to ensure the project is “done right,” Wolfe said.

Commissioner Nancy Baker said if the port doesn’t build the infrastructure to handle oil, then “someone else is going to do it. That’s the way the world works.” The project will generate familywage jobs, said Commissioner Jerry Oliver, and help the U.S. wean itself off foreign oil. “We’re not adding to global warming,” he said. “We’re replacing oil (that’s) already being consumed.”

The commissioners’ decision was a first step in determining whether the oil terminal — which would handle up to 380,000 barrels of crude per day from the Bakken oil shale formation in North Dakota — will get built. That’s because the Tesoro-Savage proposal must undergo an examination by the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which would make a recommendation to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has the final say.

David Postman, a spokesman for Inslee, said Tuesday the governor isn’t going to comment on the oil facility proposal now “prior to that (energy facility siting) process working its way up.”

Tesoro and Savage hope to launch the terminal in 2014.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Dan Serres, conservation director for Columbia Riverkeeper, which opposes the oil terminal, said Tuesday the pressure is now on the council and the governor “to do a better job” than commissioners of vetting the oil terminal.

The notion the oil terminal won’t exacerbate global warming is “absurd,” Serres said. Columbia Riverkeeper estimates the combustion of oil moved through the planned Tesoro-Savage terminal would result in about 59.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, or the equivalent greenhouse gas pollution of roughly 12 million cars.

With their action Tuesday, port commissioners underscored the fact that Vancouver has become an epicenter of global energy market gyrations and national environmental concerns.

Curt Dowd, executive vice president of Savage, told commissioners the companies “hope to earn the trust” of the community. Moments after the commissioners’ decision, opponents issued a news release saying they’ll turn out hundreds of people in Vancouver this Saturday as part of a national series of protests against building fossil-fuel infrastructure in the Northwest.

'A competitive environment’ Commissioners approved the Tesoro-Savage lease after about an hour of testimony and discussion.

Four people testified against the oil facility Tuesday. Melinda Bell of Vancouver, whose home overlooks the BNSF Railway yard, said the oil terminal will worsen global warming.

Six people urged commissioners to move forward, including Tim Schauer, president and CEO of MacKay Sposito, a Vancouver engineering firm. “This is a competitive environment,” said Schauer, a member of the Columbia River Economic Development Council, and he said he wants to see the community grow.

Tuesday’s hearing came on the heels of a Monday night workshop that gave commissioners an opportunity to broadly review potential elements of a lease. The workshop, packed with opponents, lasted for more than two hours. About 40 people spoke, and they were unified in their opposition to the proposed oil-handling operation, according to Oliver.

Critics raised numerous concerns, including the potential release of toxics into the air and the increased risk of oil spills in the Columbia River Gorge, which oil trains would travel through on BNSF Railway tracks to Vancouver.

Opponents also held a vigil outside port offices Monday night honoring the victims of a runaway oil train that exploded and leveled much of a small Quebec town on July 6.

On Tuesday, Terry Finn, director of government affairs for BNSF Railway, said roughly 99 percent of hazardous cargo arrives safely and on time. “We’re very good at it,” he said.

Wolfe said the lease requires the port and Tesoro and Savage to mutually agree on comprehensive safety plans before the companies ever get to launch their operation. The companies could “put a lot of money in the ground,” Wolfe said, but if they fail to produce adequate safety plans, they won’t get to launch their operation.

Theresa Wagner, the port’s communications manager, declined Tuesday to provide The Columbian with a copy of the lease, saying the newspaper must first submit a formal public records request, which would undergo a legal review.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Parnell Administration: Alaska’s Salmon Streams open for Coal Mining State denies wild salmon stream protections July 29, 2013 ANCHORAGE — Governor Parnell and the Alaska Department of Natural Resource rejected a petition on Friday filed by local citizens seeking to protect wild Alaska salmon streams from coal strip mining in Upper Cook Inlet.

“This is a horrible precedent for Alaska wild salmon and the countless families they support. PacRim Coal’s mining plans would remove miles and miles of wild Alaska salmon streams to a depth of over 300 feet,” said Judy Heilman, Chuitna Citizens Coalition President. “The Alaska Department of Fish and Game calls the tributaries PacRim would remove as important to salmon, yet the state refuses to formally protect our wild salmon streams.”

In January 2010 the Chuitna Citizens Coalition and Cook Inletkeeper submitted a petition seeking protective buffers around the Chuitna River and its tributaries under the Alaska Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act. No coal strip mining would be allowed within salmon streams, but the petition would not preclude mining in the rest of PacRim’s coal lease area; similar buffers are standard for logging operations and in municipal development plans.

“It’s a sad day when Governor Parnell’s policies protect a Delaware corporation’s profits over our wild Cook Inlet salmon runs and the Alaskan families salmon support” said Terry Jorgensen, a Cook Inlet commercial fisherman and founding member of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition. “DNR’s rejection clearly illustrates the State’s failure to protect our wild salmon runs. The Governor must understand the importance of salmon to Alaskans, yet his policies are leading us down the same path that led to the demise of salmon runs around the world.”

Dr. Margaret Palmer, the Director of the National Science Foundation’s Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center unambiguously told Alaska Senate Committee members that PacRim’s mining plan will destroy 11 miles of salmon streams and that these impacts will be irreversible. Dr. Palmer, who is an expert in stream restoration with a long history dealing with impacts of surface mining on streams, went on to say: “large scale failure at Chuitna is inevitable.”

“Governor Parnell has said on several occasions he would ‘never trade one resource for another,’ but that’s exactly what he’s doing by allowing strip mining in our salmon streams,” said Heilman. “Time and again the Parnell administration has refused to protect our salmon and our way of life. It’s time for Alaskans to stand up for the salmon we all depend on.”

The public interest law firm Trustees for Alaska represented the Chuitna Citizens Coalition and Cook Inletkeeper. The groups’ Petition can be found here, and the State’s rejection here.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Mining and wild game fish

 US

Congressman Larsen to US President Obama – Protect Bristol Bay Salmon Fisheries

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Anglo-American mining plans threaten millions of salmon July 29, 2013 The landscape of Alaska is where a massive dispute between the fishing and mining industries is escalating.

The issue has divided opinion in the US's largest state and prompted warnings that one of the last great wild fisheries in the world is at risk.

Britain's Anglo American and Canadian partner Northern Dynasty are pushing to develop a vast open cast copper mine, the largest ever in North America, in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, south west Alaska.

Every summer 40 million wild salmon swim in to the bay before heading up the rivers and streams of the region to spawn and die.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Pesticides and Wild Game Fish

 World: Complaints over sea lice treatment July 29, 2013

ACCORDING to the pressure group Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), BIM Aquaculture Manager Donal Maguire's recent statement that the sea lice treatment cypermethrin "has been fully tested in the marine environment for toxicology to ensure it is safe" is in direct contradiction to the Irish Medicines Board [IMB] and the manufacturer's warnings.

Cypermethrine is used for the control of sea lice on all Irish salmon farms, including the proposed organic Galway Bay mega-farm. BIM is awaiting the Minister's decision on its application for a salmon farm in Galway Bay that will double national production of farmed salmon.

The Friends cite the IMB product description which states that cypermethrin is "dangerous to fish and other aquatic life" and instructs "Do not contaminate ponds, waterways or ditches with the product or used containers. The product should not be allowed to contaminate water."

The Data Safety Sheet states that: "According to Directive 67/548/EEC [Dangerous substances Directive] and 1999/45/EC [Dangerous Preparations Directive] cypermethrin is 'Very toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment'."

FIE say that: "Cypermethrin is a biocide which kills life, not a medicine which saves lives. The sea lice it teats are not an 'ailment', as BIM suggests – they are an infestation of parasites. Cypermethrin is a chemical used with the 'intention of destroying, deterring, rendering harmless, preventing the action of, or otherwise exerting a controlling effect on, any harmful organism'."

"It is a highly ecotoxic active neurotoxin. There are known effects on fish and, most sensitive of all, crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters. Bathers and watersports may also be at risk. For this reason, the manufacturers clearly indicate that there should be no release to environment."

According to the Galway Bay EIS: "The volume of chemical used to treat a pen is estimated at 3,333 cubic metres". For comparison, an Olympic swimming pool holds 2,500 cubic metres. This will be discharged directly into the (once) natural waters of our Bays under BIM's 'organic certification', creating massive biocide plumes without any attempt to formalise the environmental risk assessment within the existing EU legal framework.

"Mr Maguire's position and that of BIM is without any scientific justification and contradicts the IMB and the manufacturers' warnings. BIM have not even undertaken a base line study of lobster and crabs in Galway Bay," said FIE Director Tony Lowes.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Concerns Over Sea Lice Treatment Planned for Galway Bay Fish Farm July 30, 2013 Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has responded to concerns from environmental groups that an ingredient in treatments for sea lice in salmon farms poses a threat to wild marine life.

As Galway Bay FM reports, campaigners Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages - one of the groups opposed to the planned Galway Bay fish farm - say that cypermethrin, an active ingredient in veterinary medicine used to treat sea lice, is toxic to aquatic organisms.

BIM aquaculture manager Donal Maguire attempted to play down fears over the use of the pesticide, saying it has been fully tested for toxicology in the marine environment.

However, another campaign group claims BIM's position is contrary to the manufacturer's own warnings on the use of the drug.

According to FishNews.eu, Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) cited the Irish Medicines Board's product description for cypermethrin, which states that it is "dangerous to fish and other aquatic life" and demands that the chemical "should not be allowed to contaminate water".

FIE went on to describe cypermethrin as "a biocide which kills life, not a medicine that saves lives" and as "a highly active neurotoxin" with "known effects on fish and, most sensitive of all, crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters. Bathers and watersports [enthusiasts] may also be at risk."

Earlier this month, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) expressed "serious concerns" over the findings of a study on wild salmon in Ireland that claimed fish farm schemes were less harmful to wild fish than pollution and possibly even beneficial to wild catchments.

IFI is among the significant opposition to BIM's proposed organic salmon farm off the Aran Islands, a 500-hectare project that would be the largest of its kind in Europe and create hundreds of jobs in the locality.

Wikipedia: Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide in large-scale commercial agricultural applications as well as in consumer products for domestic purposes. It behaves as a fast-acting neurotoxin in insects. It is easily degraded on soil and plants but can be effective for weeks when applied to indoor inert surfaces. Exposure to sunlight, water and oxygen will accelerate its decomposition. Cypermethrin is highly toxic to fish, bees and aquatic insects, according to the National Pesticides Telecommunications Network (NPTN). It is found in many household ant and cockroach killers, including Raid and ant chalk.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Economic Benefits of Wild Game Fish

 Anglers valued at a staggering €750m to economy - report Anglers are worth about three-quarters of a billion to the economy, a new study has revealed.

July 18, 2013 A study into the value of people fishing on loughs, rivers and the coast has found that 406,000 people went fishing in Ireland last year and spent about 555 million euro.

When the wider spending and impact of recreational angling is added in, the sector is estimated to be worth 755 million euro to the overall economy.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), which commissioned the study, said the figures showed that angling and recreational fishing supported about 10,000 jobs, mostly in rural areas.

Fergus O' Dowd, junior minister responsible for natural resources, said the value of angling had been greatly under-estimated.

"The results contained in this report are significant," he said.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

"Angling, as a recreational pursuit, is a major contributor to the fabric of Irish life in all parts of the country, particularly in rural and peripheral areas.

"It is equally clear to me that maintaining a strong focus on the protection and conservation of this vital resource into the future is absolutely key if we are to properly sustain and grow these benefits to anglers, angling businesses and the Irish economy."

According to the report, by consultants Tourism Development International, the average spend on a fishing trip is 628 euro, not counting flights and ferries.

It said that on average the spend fell to 196 euro for an Irish angler travelling for a day or two to fish, and rose to 1,526 euro for someone coming from Britain and 2,114 euro for someone from mainland Europe.

In 2012, 406,000 people went fishing with a rod, with more than 150,000 coming in from Northern Ireland and overseas.

Some 69,000 anglers took day trips in Ireland for salmon and sea trout fishing and 22,000 made overnight trips.

Sea fishing was also among the most popular.

Dr Ciaran Byrne, IFI chief executive, said: "Clearly fish stocks and fish habitat must be conserved, protected and developed.

"Angling businesses must be given every opportunity to win business and secure and grow the jobs within the sector."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Wild game fish management

 Canadian,

U.S. fisheries managers wait anxiously for summer sockeye

returns August 5, 2013

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Four years after disastrous sockeye runs on the Fraser River spurred the federal Cohen Commission, fisheries managers in Canada and the U.S. are waiting anxiously to see how returns will fare this summer for that same cycle of salmon.

Mike Lapointe, chief biologist with the Pacific Salmon Commission, said the main summer runs are later than expected and that he won’t know for a few more days whether total Fraser sockeye returns will match the pre-season estimate of almost 4.8 million fish.

“There is still ambiguity with that run,” he said in an interview. “It’s frustrating ... but all we can do is wait.”

The estimate of 4.8 million sockeye is a median figure based on spawning success four years ago, he said, noting there is a one-in-four chance of returns as low as 2.7 million fish or as high as 8.6 million.

In 2009, Fraser River sockeye returns totalled only about 1.5 million fish, down from expectations of 10.4 million, the majority of which went unfished in order to maximize numbers on the spawning grounds.

“It gave us hope for rebuilding,” Lapointe said.

Appointed by the federal government in late 2009, the Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser River sockeye delivered its report in October 2012, making 75 recommendations to improve the sustainability of the fishery.

Alexandra Morton:  “It’s frustrating ... but all we can do is wait.”  Really that is all the Pacific Commission can do?... "wait"

Salmon

 Dr. Miller with DFO found the Fraser sockeye that are dying are fighting a virus.  Every indicator pointed to salmon farms and no one will get the things off the Fraser sockeye migration route.  DFO is allowing the salmon farms to get bigger and use fish infected with disease agents, against the advice of the $26 million Cohen Commission we all paid for.

David Wright :  75 recommendations by the Cohen Commission ...and yet, how many were implemented?  Is the answer the same ..."All we can do is wait"?

Dr. Claudette Bethune:  It's amazing that with the 4 years between smolt and their return to spawn there is this 'mystery for wild salmon'.  We know that conditions like millions of sea lice excreted from farms during migration out for a run of wild salmon will affect the numbers expected 4 years on their return.  This seems like basic math in a model that Fisheries are not willing to include as a valid metric.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Editorial Comment: Trout Unlimited Canada collaborated with Trout Unlimited (USA) to develop a strategic white paper to address many of the issues associated with these shared salmon fisheries.

“Resolving the Pacific Salmon Treaty Stalemate” was simultaneously delivered January 1999 to the governments of Canada and the USA at the same time it was introduced via a media event in Seattle.

The strategies it recommends remain relevant today.

 Alaskan fisheries endangering B.C.'s Skeena--------- sockeye salmon: conservationists July 17, 2013 A near record-low sockeye salmon run for Skeena River fisheries has cut off the catch in B.C., but conservation groups say Alaskan fishermen are not pulling in their nets, making the problem worse.

"This is probably one of the lowest (runs) we've seen in about 50 years," said Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Only 453,000 sockeye are expected to swim up the Skeena this year, Kotyk said, compared to approximately 2.4 million last year. The DFO has been forced to close all commercial and recreational fisheries for the area.

Speculation over the cause of the collapse continues, but Watershed Watch conservationist Aaron Hill is worried that Alaskan fisheries are causing even greater harm.

"The Alaskan commercial fisheries are still going right across the border and hammering these fish," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "We need to get as many of these fish back onto the spawning grounds as possible to ensure that this collapse isn't perpetuated in future years."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Hill and other conservationists are calling on the federal government to defend Canada's interests by asking Alaskans to move their fisheries to avoid accidentally catching sockeye.

"It's important that everybody shares the burden of conservation and it doesn't just fall on Canadian fishermen," Hill said. "This is definitely a matter of Canadian public interest in an international jurisdiction, and we're just not happy with the level of attention that it's getting from our federal government."

B.C. conservationists are targeting Alaskan pink and chum salmon fisheries who catch a significant number of sockeye as a by-product of their operations.

Hill said that if those fisheries moved closer to the rivers where pink and chum spawn, the sockeye could make it back to the Skeena.

"They just need to shift their fishing effort to a different location where they're not going to be catching so many of these fish," he said. "They could still target the abundant local stocks."

DFO spokesman Kotyk said that the government has been providing regular updates to Alaskan fishery managers for the sockeye run.

"They're very aware of the conditions, and so they would factor that into any of (their) decisions," he said. "From my understanding they have taken steps, but I cannot elaborate."

Kotyk added that the Canadian and Alaskan state governments meet at the end of each year and discuss what impacts they had on each other's fish.

"That would be the discussion point as to what we could have done differently," he said.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said it would respond to a request for comment, but did not get back to The Canadian Press in time for publication.

Under the Canada-U.S. Pacific Salmon Treaty, Alaskans are allowed to catch Skeena-bound sockeye salmon. The Skeena sockeye salmon run is the second largest in B.C. after the Fraser River, and the amount of salmon caught by Alaskan fisheries has been a concern for a number of years.

A 2008 report by the Skeena Independent Science Panel to the provincial and federal governments estimated that Alaskans catch approximately 23 per cent of all the sockeye harvested from the run.

The high percentage makes it difficult for Canadians to catch sockeye sustainably, the report said. As a result, the government "should utilize all available mechanisms to ensure that Alaskan harvests of Skeena salmon . . . are reduced."

The forecast for this year's Skeena sockeye run is so low that Kotyk said the government has begun consultations with First Nations groups to see if they can reduce their food, social and ceremonial fishing.

"Low sockeye return is of great concern to First Nations people on the Skeena," the chair of the First Nations' Skeena Fisheries Commission, Stu Barnes, said in an email.

"All we can do is provide technical advice to our member Nations," said Barnes. "It's up (to) individual First Nations to take the advice and act as they see fit."

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Majority of salmon in Fraser River expected to die before spawning: DFO August 15, 2013 A large portion of the Chilliwack recreational fishing industry has come to an abrupt halt as the government shut down the Fraser River to salmon fishing on Thursday.

Up to 70 per cent of sockeye salmon in the Fraser are expected to die before reaching spawning grounds, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

Fishing for any type of salmon in the river from the Mission bridge to the Alexander Bridge past Yale is suspended until further notice.

The main reason for the closure is the Fraser River's current record high temperatures of 20 to 22 °C. This impairs salmon swimming ability, causes disease outbreaks, and rapidly deteriorates the health of the fish, explained Les Jantz, DFO area director for the B.C. Interior. Ideal temperatures for spawning salmon are 16–18 °C. The run, at an estimated 3.2 million fish, is also smaller than the earlier forecast of 4.7 million.

"That's why we've closed fishery. We're trying to get more fish into the river so that the 30 per cent that do survive, we maximize the number," said Jantz.

Although the concern is primarily about the sockeye, fishing of all species has closed because of the risk of catching a significant amount of sockeye as bycatch.

But fishing is still permitted where the Fraser meets the Strait of Georgia, where the main method is trolling from a boat.

Recreational fishing on the Fraser was closed by federal fisheries this week due to conservation concerns and record-high in-river water temperatures.

Editorial Comment: This article documents:  importance of wild Pacific ecosystems, economies, communities

salmon to cultures

wild and

 coordinated efforts by elected and appointed government representatives to enable foreignowned corporations to devastate wild Pacific salmon stocks through irresponsible commercial endeavors including open pen salmon feedlots, oil and coal extraction and transportation, hydropower generation and forestry practices.  total disregard for, and gagging of, scientists and conservationists who dare to introduce peerreviewed science that identifies and explains foreign-origin diseases and their impacts on wild Pacific salmon.  Ongoing apathy by those who benefit from robust populations of wild Pacific salmon

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

This results in "very very low" incidents of sockeye bycatch, according to Jantz. Further up the Fraser, however, recreational anglers are often "bottom-bouncing" or "flossing," a technique in which they have little control over which salmon get hooked.

"Any additional stress that is put on those fish right now is not a good thing," said Jantz.

Local Chilliwack fishing guide Dean Werk rejects that there is more flossing on the Fraser than at marine approach. Flossers are a minority group, with a "miniscule" impact on salmon bycatch, counters the operator of Great River Fishing Adventures. He maintains that sport fishers can effectively target chinook and other species with minimal sockeye bycatch.

"If it is a conservation concern, then there should be nobody fishing salmon anywhere...Unless there's a conservation concern, sport fishing should have an opportunity to fish for chinook salmon," said Werk, speaking by phone from the Hope River, where he was helping fisherman from California and Edmonton pull out a five-foot sturgeon. The visitors flew out to Chilliwack specifically to fish.

Werk's company is now handling cancellation calls from people who were flying out for the salmon, including an 11-person group from Edmonton. That's hotel rooms, restaurant meals, all cancelled.

"There's going to be an immediate economic impact for all the guide companies, for the hotels, for the tourism-related businesses that were going to benefit from the visitors that were coming into the community to take advantage of doing some salmon fishing this summer," said Brian Coombes, executive director of Tourism Chilliwack.

Great River Fishing Adventures alone does $1 million worth of fishing trips annually.

Coombes added that those disappointed by the closure this year are less likely to return.

"There's also a credibility issue as well. There's a lot of money spent raising awareness about the sport fishing opportunities in the Fraser River and our area...To try to attract sport fishing enthusiasts here."

Once the sockeye run is near completion, possibly as early as September, the government may reopen the Fraser to fishing of other salmon species.

"We anticipate at this point that there will be other recreational and First Nations fishing opportunities on other species, like pink salmon and chum salmon. At this point, this closure is specifically to try to get the sockeye through, as many as we possibly can. And when the sockeye returns begin to dissipate, then we will be looking at other opportunities," said Jantz.

The unusually high air temperatures this summer have led to a lack of rainfall and below average water levels in the Fraser, which in turn has led to higher water temperatures. These reached similar heights in 2004, but later in the season. Prior to that, temperatures was similarly high in 1998.

The last time that the fishing season ended so early was in 2009, when only 1.5 million salmon returned from the projected 10 million. This year's salmon are returning from the collapse of that year.

Fishing for trout, steelhead, sturgeon and other non-salmon species on the Fraser remains open.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Media

Release: New evidence shows thousands of unwanted salmon are needlessly killed when no one is watching the fishermen: Groups want oversight View video HERE

Vancouver (August 15, 2013) — Shocking video evidence released today shows that tens of thousands of wild salmon from depleted populations are being needlessly killed because the federal government has let commercial fisheries get out of control on Canada’s northwest coast.

Conservationists are calling on the Fisheries Minister to enforce the rules put in place by her own department to protect these endangered salmon.

Fisheries targeting abundant pink salmon runs on BC’s north coast must release chum, sockeye, and other salmon because of concerns for their low abundance in the Nass, Skeena, and dozens of other BC rivers. In the two previous fishing seasons, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation have complained about hundreds of tons of salmon being thrown back into the water dead or nearly dead.

The groups now have video evidence from recent fisheries in Area 6, southwest of Kitimat, that prove this shocking and irresponsible waste is occurring, and is likely widespread. The footage can be seen at: http://www.watershed-watch.org/resources/north-coast-chum-discards/ The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has ample evidence that when boats have on-board monitors to watch over fishery practices, fishermen follow the rules, and non-target salmon species are discarded in ways that greatly improve their chance of survival.

“Clearly, the answer to keeping thousands of endangered and at-risk fish alive long enough to spawn successfully is to have observers on board all of these boats, and fisheries enforcement present on the fishing grounds,” said Raincoast’s Misty MacDuffee.

Greg Taylor, a former fishing company executive, and now Fisheries Advisor with SkeenaWild, said that these controversial fisheries should not be allowed to proceed without addressing this problem.

“Other BC fisheries have addressed this problem either with cameras or with on-board observers.

Without this oversight, most discarded fish won’t survive to spawn,” concluded Taylor.

“It’s the wild west out there right now,” said Aaron Hill of Watershed Watch. “They’ve discarded around 167,000 chum, sockeye, and other salmon from depleted and endangered populations, with almost zero oversight. The Prime Minister, the Fisheries Minister, and the Pattison Group, which controls most of the seine fleet, need to bring these salmon fisheries into the 21st century.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Video proves unwanted salmon being left for dead on seiners, group alleges August 15, 2013

The commercial fishing industry has long claimed it strives to ensure salmon that can’t be legally kept are released alive and well.

But a video shot by a conservation group in British Columbia shows seine boat crews kicking salmon across decks, or waiting for fish to stop moving before picking them up and throwing them overboard.

In a season where there have been widespread concerns about low numbers of some stocks, particularly sockeye and chum salmon, the video is expected to stir controversy.

An industry spokesman has dismissed the video as misleading, however, and says fishing crews are “doing a good job” of ensuring the safe release of fish that are accidentally taken in a by-catch.

“I’m sure that they have cut the footage that they took to try and emphasize the point they are making,” Rob Morley, vice-president for the Canadian Fishing Company, a subsidiary of the Jim Pattison Group, said Thursday. “And I think the majority of the crews are doing an extremely good job in handling a very small volume of by-catch.”

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Mr. Morley, whose company owns most of the seine boats on the West Coast, said fishing crews are told they have to obey Fisheries and Oceans regulations, which require the prompt and safe return to the water of all prohibited species.

But he says crews handle a lot of fish and can’t always immediately get to the species that have to be released.

In Area 6 on B.C.’s central coast, where the video was shot, he said boats have scooped up about seven million pink salmon so far this season, typically taking 20,000 salmon a day, of which only about 200 might be prohibited species.

Mr. Morley said he’s convinced the crews “in general” are doing a good job of releasing fish.

But Aaron Hill, the man who shot the video, says it provides clear proof of abusive behaviour on the fishing grounds.

(Watch the full-length video here.)

“We’ve known this has been happening for a long time, but we finally have evidence,” said Mr. Hill, a biologist with Watershed Watch. He took the video in the Great Bear Rainforest, near Hartley Bay. Mr. Hill said the fishery, the largest on Canada’s West Coast this year, is targeting pink salmon but other species – including sockeye and chum – are mixed in because the runs overlap.

Mr. Hill said federal regulations require fishermen to quickly and safely return to the water any species accidentally taken.

But he said he followed three seine boats and was alarmed to see fish being abused on all of them.

Mr. Hill said salmon should be sorted on a table on a boat’s deck and fish should be returned to the water down a tube or slide.

Instead he saw salmon thrown overboard, apparently lifeless, or kicked across the deck, ricocheting off metal railings.

“There’s no doubt those fish were goners,” he said.

Mr. Hill said that after a fish has been out of the water for more than one minute, the chances that it will die are extremely high.

But the video shows the crew on one boat walking away from fish that have been dumped on the deck. They don’t go back to release the non-target salmon until the fish have stopped moving, nearly three minutes later.

“Even if their hearts were still beating, they would not be in any shape to avoid predators, let alone migrate up a river to spawn,” Mr. Hill said.

“I know in some fisheries they do take measures to safely release fish, but this raises the question if it’s happening all the time,” he said. “And it’s just a total waste.”

In the video, Watershed Watch urges people to write to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and to the Jim Pattison Group.

DFO was not immediately able to provide comment.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 WDFW 2013-2015 Strategic Plan This Strategic Plan outlines new strategies the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will employ in the 2013-15 biennium to meet its long-term goals.

Since 2007, state general fund support for the department has declined by 47 percent, requiring careful prioritization of a growing number of pressing needs. To be useful in guiding the department’s operations, our Strategic Plan must be pragmatic as well as visionary.

Many of the new initiatives included in this plan are based on the following principles:

2013-2015 Strategic Plan [PDF]

Support healthy ecosystems: Resource managers have increasingly recognized the value of management strategies that benefit whole ecosystems, not just a single species. While at-risk populations and game species always require special attention, the draft plan supports efforts to protect and restore critical habitats across a broad landscape.

Maximize the impact of limited resources. Poor habitat conditions are a common condition for fish and wildlife populations listed for protection under state and federal endangered species laws. Projects that support healthy ecosystems can help to avoid the high cost of managing listed species by “keeping common species common.”

Consider public values. Any successful approach to resource management requires the support of Washington’s growing human population, which plays a dominant role in ecosystems throughout the state. This plan includes a variety of initiatives to increase public involvement in decisions affecting the management and stewardship of our state’s fish and wildlife resources.

Anticipate uncertainty, respond to change. This principle is critical to an agency like WDFW, which must plan for climate change, fluctuating salmon runs and other highly variable issues. Using adaptive management, the department plans to make significant changes in several areas, including its process for correcting salmon-blocking culverts.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Improve internal processes. Cross-program collaboration will become increasingly important as WDFW takes on more projects designed to benefit multiple species and entire ecosystems. The Conservation Initiative, a collaborative effort by department managers, is working to meet that challenge.

The job of managing Washington’s fish and wildlife is changing, and WDFW is changing with it. This Strategic Plan lays the groundwork for those changes in the years ahead.

Phil Anderson Director

 21st Century Salmon & Steelhead Initiative Big challenges for wild salmon and steelhead require that management and recovery efforts be more strategic than ever. WDFW must: support the work of our partners to restore and protect habitat; ensure fisheries protect wild populations; and reform hatchery programs.

There wasn’t a blueprint for how to accomplish this all at once- so we made one.

WDFW formed a planning team-with expertise in science, habitat protection and recovery, hatchery management, fisheries, enforcement, and outreach-to build a new framework for 21st century salmon and steelhead management.

21st Century Salmon and Steelhead Initiative [PDF]

The framework is a matrix of measurable outcomes critical for healthy salmon and healthy fisheries, against which salmon-related strategies can be judged.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

 Charterboat Slammer – Westport, Washington Reserve your next fishing adventure here

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Pink Fishing - Reeling in the Cure

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 Kim Malcom – Owner, Operator Licensed and Insured Guide Quality Float Trips – Western Washington Rivers – Steelhead, Salmon, Trout

K Kiim mM Maallccoom m’’ss

Riverman Guide Service ((336600)) 445566--88442244

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Gašper Konkolič’s Guiding Sportfishing – Experience the beauty and fishing a world away in Slovenia

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 April Vokey’s Fly Gal Ventures

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Jeff Wilkins Fly Fishing

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Chillbilly Sportfishing Charters

About Chillbilly Come and enjoy fully guided trips down the Columbia River - home of the world’s best dry fly trout fishing with explosive takes and high flying aerials as well as some of the best walleye fishin around.

From April to October $500.00 CDN per day (8 hours).

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Attention Conservation-minded Business Owners Many businesses around planet earth rely on healthy populations of wild game fish.

This is true for fishing guide/charter services, resort and hotel owners, fishing tackle and boat retail stores, clothing stores, eco/photo tours, grocery stores, gas stations and many more. In fact, wild game fish are the backbone of a multi-billion dollar per year industry on a global scale.

This is why we at Wild Game Fish Conservation International offer complimentary space in each issue of “LEGACY” for business owners who rely on wild game fish populations to sustain your business. An article with one or more photos about your business and how it relies on wild game fish may be submitted for publication to LEGACY PUBLISHER. Please include your business website and contact information to be published with your business article. Selected submissions will be published each month.

Healthy 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 effectively protect and restore planet earth’s wild game fish for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This i our LEGACY. WGFCI endorsed conservation organizations:  American Rivers  Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture  LightHawk  Native Fish Society  Salmon and Trout Restoration Association of Conception Bay Central, Inc  Save Our Salmon  Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter  Sportsman’s Alliance For Alaska  Steelhead Society of British Columbia  Wild Salmon First  Wild Salmon Forever

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Featured Artists:

 Addie Hollingsworth: “Wild Salmon”

For all my fellow wild salmon warriors!!

I wrote this for all of us!

Hope you like it....wild salmon Sacred salmon swimming slow, beneath the waves of tidal flow.

The sun and eagles high above, Dear sacred salmon please hear my love.

You start your lives brave and small, creeks soon turn into rivers.

Urged on each day by ocean's call, silvery, pink life givers.

The whale, the bear, the cedar tree, rely on you for survival Dear sacred salmon swimming free, ancient eternal revival.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Casting nets into the waters, a time for elders to teach. come near my sons, watch close my daughters, gifts from the gods we can reach.

Red and orange, yellow and green, colours that contrast the rocks.

Thrashing tails, waterdrop sheen, spawning new life into stocks.

Sacred salmon dying slow, force within transferring flow.

Your precious eggs silently wait, tales old as time, pre-ordained fates.

The spirit of salmon echoes all through B.C., generations are built from your bones. strong future for salmon my vision to see a keystone like no other has shown.

Dear sacred salmon please hear my cry, I vow to be your voice.

There is no need to wonder why for my heart has made the choice. A.H.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 “What we do on Land affects what lives in the Water”

Karl Ryan Gardea: The Inscription on this Pendleton Mills blanket reads "What we do on Land affects what lives in the Water, we must Respect the Salmon People so they will be reborn next year and return to feed our villages

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Featured Fishing Photos:

 Gašper Konkolič: fly fishing guiding Slovenia

62 cm marble trout from Idrijca River - Slovenia

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Vlasta Štefanič on the shore of the Adriatic Sea at sunset (photo courtesy: ©2013 Josko Pegan)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Kim Malcom: Owner, Operator - Riverman Guide Service With a pair of dandy Puget Sound pink salmon

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Darren Bisson: 50” Ling Cod – released after a couple of quick photos

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Everything but rod holders

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

 Mike Gage: Campbell River man catches largest Tyee Chinook salmon seen in 30 years

The 73-year-old sport fisherman set the record Sunday for largest Tyee caught in Campbell River.

He is pictured with his son Richard on the left.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Recommended Reading

 Alexandra Morton: “Listening to Whales”

In Listening to Whales, Alexandra Morton shares spellbinding stories about her career in whale and dolphin research and what she has learned from and about these magnificent mammals. In the late 1970s, while working at Marineland in California, Alexandra pioneered the recording of orca sounds by dropping a hydrophone into the tank of two killer whales.

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Video Library – conservation of wild game fish Aquaculture Piscine Reovirus in British Columbia: (14.36) Salmon Confidential: (69:15) The Fish Farm Fight; (6:51) Salmon Wars: Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities (6:07) The Facts on Fish Farms (60:00+) “Algae culture fish farm” (6:40) Vegetarian Fish? A New Solution for Aquaculture (7:32) Everyone Loves Wild Salmon – Don’t They? - Alexandra Morton (2:53) Atlantic salmon feedlots - impacts to Pacific salmon (13:53) Farmed Salmon Exposed (22:59) Salmon farm diseases and sockeye (13:53) Shame Below the Waves (12:37) Occupy Vancouver, BC - Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:18) Farming the Seas (Steve Cowen) (55:53) Farming the Seas (PBS) (26:45) Cohen Commission – Introduction (9:52) Deadly virus found in wild Pacific salmon (1:57) A tribute by Dr. Alexandra Morton (5:35) Green Interview with Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:06) Closed containment salmon farms (8:15) Don Staniford on 'Secrets of Salmon Farming' (7:50) Greed of Feed: what’s feeding our cheap farmed salmon (10:37) Land-based, Closed-containment Aquaculture (3:14) Hydropower Undamming Elwha (26:46) Salmon: Running the Gauntlet - Snake River dams (50:08) Mining Pebble Mine: “No Means No” (1:15) Locals Oppose Proposed Pebble Mine (7:23) Oil: Extraction and transportation Tar Sands Oil Extraction: The Dirty Truth (11:39) Tar Sands: Oil Industry Above the Law? (1:42) SPOIL – Protecting BC’s Great Bear Rainforest from oil tanker spills (44:00) H2oil - A documentary about the Canadian tar sand oil (3:20) From Tar Sands to Tankers – the Battle to Stop Enbridge (14:58) Risking it All - Oil on our Coast (13:16) To The Last Drop: Canada’s Dirty Oil (22:31) Seafood safety Is your favorite seafood toxic? (6:06)

Legacy – September 2013 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2013 – Year of the Wild Salmon!

Final Thoughts:

 Truth