Another skewed media tale
A recent report aired on CCTV America did make an effort to actually visit a salmon farm near Vancouver Island, but the programme was still peppered with errors
Odd Grydeland, FishfarmingXpert, July 7, 2015
When controversial issues are brought up in media circles, the term “don’t shoot the messenger” is often used to defend the writing of journalists and other reporters. But when staff the like of Mike Kirsch of CCTV America puts his name to a TV segment that refers to the anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton as a “biologist”, this excuse no longer applies. Anybody with the slightest respect for journalistic integrity would quickly find out through a basic background check that Ms Morton doesn’t have a single scientific accreditation to her name that would justify her being referred to as a “biologist”, let alone a “marine biologist”.
Mr Kirsch also makes the common mistake of stating that the BC salmon farming industry is importing eggs of Atlantic salmon “that come with viruses and other disease agents”. Another simple background check would have shown Mr Kirsch that no importation of Atlantic salmon eggs has happened in BC since 2009. And since 2002, the only eggs of Atlantic salmon brought into BC came from a certified disease-free facility in Iceland. During the six years prior to 2002, only eggs from facilities in Washington State were brought in, a jurisdiction with a picture of salmonid pathogens much the same as in BC.
Perhaps the greatest mistake in the CCTV’s website advertisement of the report by Mr Kirsch is the reference to his visits with “an organization called First Nation who stage protests to oppose salmon farming”. This is a great insult to the Province’s 198 First Nations, and in particular to the four such First Nations that are strong supporters of 8 current applications for new salmon farming sites in BC - all based on the sustainable production of Atlantic salmon...
