Norway, Campbell River Mirror, May 04, 2010
Anybody vaguely familiar with Norwegian history will know what an important symbol the country’s flag represents for its citizens.
Officially adopted as the country’s flag after the liberation from foreign rule in 1905, it became the rallying object around which Norwegian resistance fighters gathered to end the occupation by German forces during the Second World War.
Flying the flag or even having one in their possession would mean harsh penalties for Norwegians during the war.
When liberation finally came in 1945, flags appeared from everywhere, and it has always been a symbol of pride and celebration ever since – demonstrated each May 17 when Norwegians don their finest clothes and get out to celebrate their freedom and to show off their national symbol – the flag.
“The Norwegian flag should always be treated with respect and reverence. It should never touch the ground or drag the water,” say the rules about how to treat the flag. When Alexandra Morton and her entourage came through Campbell River this week, they disrespectfully used a large, desecrated Norwegian flag to get their slanted message through – making my and others who came from Norway’s blood boil.
It is obvious that she will go to any length to get her name in the news – ignoring the ramifications on people’s lives should she be successful in her goal of eliminating the salmon farms from the B.C. coast.
This extreme environmentalist is stirring up the public sentiment against a legitimate and appropriate economic activity in British Columbia that wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Norwegian investors, equipment suppliers and insurance companies.
The main reason for the success of the anti-salmon farming campaign of Alexandra Morton and her followers is the ability to plaster sea lice onto small, unsuspecting juvenile salmon and then show them on the 6 o’clock TV news, along with the prediction of certain collapse of wild salmon – particularly in the Broughton Archipelago where Alexandra Morton claims to live and from where she gets her peer-reviewed reports published.
Since 2003, Government of Canada salmon researchers have monitored the amount of sea lice on outmigrating juvenile salmon in this area.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans have also conducted controlled experiments in laboratories in order to determine what amount of sea lice these young salmon can tolerate. Of the thousands of fish sampled in the Broughton Archipelago during the past three years, not a single wild juvenile salmon (pink or chum) has been found to have sea lice in numbers that would cause mortality.
The Broughton saw a huge run of pink salmon returning to local rivers and streams last year.
Odd Grydeland
Campbell River
