“Open Your Eyes” On Salmon Farms: Ahousaht Chief Councillor
By Westcoaster.ca Staff , Nov. 02, 2010
AHOUSAT — The elected chief councillor of a Clayoquot Sound First Nation is bucking a trend among some aboriginal politicians and is speaking up for salmon farms.
John Frank, chief councillor of the Ahousaht First Nation, said the Cohen Commission – an inquiry into the decline of the West Coast sockeye fishery – should examine factors like the sports fishery, and he questioned what role sea lice have played in the fishery’s decline.
“You can’t just look at the fish farms, guys. Open your eyes,” said Frank.
Frank said sea lice have been around on the West Coast for as long as he can remember – long before the salmon farms came around.
As a boy, said Frank, while fishing with his father, he counted up to 7,000 sea lice on pink salmon.
He also questioned what sort of impact tens-of-thousands of sports fishermen are having on the sockeye fishery.
“If someone wrapped a rope around my neck and made me fight for 10 minutes, do you think I would survive,” said Frank. “How [many] of those fish are going to survive after struggling for that long?”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Justice Bruce Cohen, of the B.C. Supreme Court, to head the commission after only 1 million of an expected 10 million sockeye returned to the Fraser River in 2009.
This summer, however, about 30 million sockeye returned – the biggest run in a century.
The commission is currently holding hearings in Vancouver.
The Ahousaht First Nation did not send anybody to the Cohen Commission, said Frank.
Last week, a flotilla of First Nations chiefs, politicians and conservationists arrived at the hearings after a seven-day paddling trip from Boston Bar to Vancouver, following the sockeye's migratory route backwards.
Members of Tofino’s Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and the Friends of Clayoquot Sound also participated in the event.
Biologist Alexandra Morton maintains sea lice from fish farms have spread to wild stocks, and that a new virus has been imported into Canadian waters that could potentially be responsible for the salmons' demise.
She wants Cohen to demand all fish farms open their books and said without that data, the judge can't provide a complete picture for the inquiry.
Frank said the Ahousaht First Nation has a protocol with Mainstream Canada and 14 salmon farms operate in its traditional territory.
“It’s a really big part of our economy,” said Frank, who added the industry employs about 80 band members.
