The elephant in the room
Grant Warkentin, Courier-Islander, November 21, 2012
Re: Ray Grigg's Nov. 16 column.
In his skewed interpretation of Justice Bruce Cohen's recommendations in the 1,200-page Cohen Commission report, Ray Grigg once again shows tunnel vision when it comes to salmon farming.
Rather than give any mention to what Cohen called "the elephant in the room" - climate change, which is clearly impacting salmon runs from Alaska to California - Grigg instead chooses to play semantics with the language Cohen used to describe potential risk and potential harm to take another whack at salmon farming, his favourite strawman for environmental doom and gloom
Yes, Mr. Grigg, we understand you hate salmon farms and refuse to accept that just maybe your perception is based on wrong information. But hopefully your readers will take a look at the report for themselves, which is all publicly available online.
If they do, they will see that Cohen found no evidence that salmon farms were having any impacts on wild salmon. However, because there is a large public perception of risk (perception of, not reality of), he recommended salmon farming in the Discovery Islands area proceed with caution, while more research is done.
We support this recommendation, and will work with the government however we can to help in this research. And we're confident that the data will show that our farms pose little or no actual risk to the precious wild salmon we all want to protect.
Grant Warkentin, Mainstream Canada Communications Officer
