Salmon film included errors, unproven allegations
James Costello, Westerly News, April 25, 2013
Re “Biologist joins filmmaker to cast dark shadow over fish farms,” April 16.
Shadows are an accurate description when people talk about the kind of complaints included in the film salmon Confidential: they may look and feel dark or ominous, but really are only a trick of light.
The allegations in this documentary film are the same: someone who was to only watch this film might feel salmon farming is harming our natural environment. In reality, it’s just a trick of clever editing and the manipulative presentation of facts. Salmon farming in BC is being done responsible and sustainably.
The film includes many errors that have been corrected many times, and claims that have been made and disproven – the biggest of which, of course, being that salmon aquaculture is harming wild salmon returns, particularly the Fraser River Sockeye.
In fact – a two-year inquiry that cost taxpayers $26-million and included as participants many of those involved in the production of this ‘documentary’ came to the conclusion that “data presented during this Inquiry did not show that salmon farms were having a significant negative impact on Fraser River sockeye,” (Cohen Commission final report, Vol. 3, p. 24).
It’s frustrating that the work done by many committed salmon farmers every day is sidelined by the continued rants of a few – this was shown in last week’s poll in the Westerly which asked, “Do you Support the Fish Farming Industry?”
The results of that poll showed an overwhelming 92.2% of respondents did.
We hope people will be critical as they hear the same story, from the same group – and if they are interested in more information, we have it available to them:
http://www.salmonfarmers.org/sites/default/files/salmon_confidential_myths_facts.pdf
James Costello
Sustainability Officer, Mainstream Canada - Tofino
