Pinks pass by same fish farms
By Grant Warkentin, Chilliwack Times, September 19, 2013
Ian Stephen's letter about Fraser River sockeye returns makes no sense.
He refers to this year's Fraser sockeye returns as "shocking" even though DFO has already stated that the returns this year show signs that the stock is rebuilding. And most telling, he fails to mention the staggering run of 26 million pink salmon returning up the same river.
If, as he asserts, salmon farms harm wild salmon, why is one species doing better than the other? Sockeye and pinks pass the same farms-in fact, pink salmon are more vulnerable, because they go to sea as smaller fry. Smaller pink salmon are why salmon farmers have acted on the precautionary principle during the past decade, timing production cycles and sea lice treatments to ensure that when juvenile fish migrate to the open ocean in spring, salmon farms pose little or no risk.
Stephen's letter ends with four paragraphs of free advertising for the SeaChoice program-a seafood buyers' guide produced by several environmental groups. However, he fails to mention that not a single wild B.C. salmon species gets the coveted SeaChoice green light. The only salmon recommended by the program are wild Alaskan-caught fish.
Does Stephen think we should save wild B.C. salmon by eating only Alaskan salmon? I agree with Stephen about one thing. Wild Pacific salmon are a source of pride in B.C. That's why we as farmers want wild salmon to be here forever, for our children and grandchildren. But there's a massive global demand for salmon, and only a finite number of wild fish. We can't save them by eating more of them.
But we can help conserve wild salmon by providing farm-raised salmon to meet increasing global demand.
Wild-caught and farmraised salmon can and do coexist in the same ocean, and the same marketplace. There's plenty of room for both.
Grant Warkentin
Mainstream Canada communications officer
PAA Note: Grant's letter was posted on our Facebook page and genereated this comment from James Costello:
Another thing to point out is that in the original letter by Ian Stephen he stated the run size of Fraser Sockeye was estimated to be 2 million fish. The actual run size was estimated to be between 3.7 and 4.7 million, as stated 11 days earlier by the Pacific Salmon Commission: http://www.psc.org/NewsRel/2013/NewsRelease10.pdf Another instance of using outdated info where the actual facts run counter to your argument.
Typical.
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Here is the letter Grant responded to.
Ian Stephens is an active member of the Salmon are Sacred group, for your reference we have posted a link to a previous Salmon Facts are Sacred Blog about Stephens letter writing - see Below.
Smarter consumer choices may save our salmon
Ian Stephen / The - Chilliwack, Times, September 17, 2013
Editor: The following is a letter in response to the low sockeye returns this year.
Open-net salmon farms raising Atlantic salmon were introduced to B.C. in the 1970s. These farms have long been recognized as a threat to wild B.C. salmon. Yet despite a 2007 B.C. Special Committee recommendation that "A rapid, phased transition to ocean-based closed containment begin immediately", and despite the finding of the federal 2009 Cohen Commission that "the potential harm posed to Fraser River sockeye salmon from salmon farms is serious or irreversible," no level of government has issued any plan to deal with the threat of open-net salmon farms in B.C. waters.
The 2013 Fraser sockeye run is estimated at a shocking two million fish. Making matters worse is the added threat of warming weather-hence warming waters. All species of salmon are harmed by warm waters.
Looking at the current sockeye runs, DFO estimates 70 per cent will die before they spawn. That leaves only 600,000 to spawn this year. And we thought 2009 was bad.
Wild B.C. salmon are in trouble. What can you do? One action is to make educated purchasing choices by looking for SeaChoice guidelines place seafood into three categories: Green = Best Choice; Yellow = Some Concerns; Red = Avoid.
Open-net farmed salmon fall into that red category. Avoid.
The Overwaitea Food Group (PriceSmart, Save-On, Coopers, and Overwaitea Foods) got on-board with SeaChoice in 2010 and removed open-net farmed salmon from their shelves in 2012. Recently Safeway has committed to remove all SeaChoice red-labelled products from their shelves by 2015.
Wild Pacific salmon are a source of pride in B.C., as evidenced by their designation as B.C.'s official fish. They provide myriad benefits that can never be duplicated by any sort of salmon farm. Show support for wild Pacific salmon by looking for those SeaChoice labels, commending those stores that do not sell open-net farmed salmon and encouraging the rest to follow suit.
Ian Stephen
Chilliwack
A Reference link for you:
Positive Aquaculture Awareness Blog on Salmon Facts are Sacred
I do not think that word means what you think it means
A weird letter is making the rounds in Lower Mainland newspapers, in which the author tries to explain why salmon are “sacred.”
The author says that like blood in a human circulatory system, salmon cycles “nourish all the ‘cells’ of this part of the world.”
The author also states that “When we say ‘salmon are sacred’, we are not making it so by our declaration. It is so, with or without us.”
Well, actually, that word doesn’t mean what you think it means, Ian Stephen.
