Some Recent Public Submissions to the Cohen Commission:
You can submit your comments at Public Submissions
Submitter: Gary Knowles
Community: Campbell River
Date Submitted: June 23, 2010
Summary:
The commission's final report should offer practical solutions to conserve Fraser River sockeye. The commission should resist attempts by U.S.-funded groups to make the inquiry another review of net-cage salmon farming.
Submission:
I only ask that your final report presents meaningful and quantifiable results with practical solutions to conserve Fraser River Sockeye. I hope you will resist attempts by some groups to make this another review of net-cage salmon farming.
Please put these US funded anti fish farming eco worriers in their place by using science and facts to make decisions.
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=97
Submitter: Heather Olney
Community: Black Creek
Date Submitted: Jun 25, 2010
Summary:
The joint letter by Alexandra Morton and Brian Riddell published on June 24 in the Campbell River Courier Islander was highly inappropriate, as Morton has been granted standing and Riddell is on the commission's Scientific Advisory Panel. The timing of Morton's honourary degree from SFU also appears to be inappropriate, since members of the Scientific Advisory Panel are from that university. Morton's claims about the fish farming industry are incorrect; care is taken by the industry to ensure that no damage is done to the environment.
Submission:
Within the past two days two things have happened that I feel are entirely inappropriate considering the timing of them. First of all Ms Morton and Brian Riddel have published a joint letter in the Campbell River Courier Islander newspaper dated Thursday June 24 refuting an article in the Fiancial Post written by Terence Corcoran entitled " This Science is Fishy " regarding sea lice numbers and returns of pinks to the Broughton last year etc. I think this is highly inappropriate as Ms Morton is a biased activist who has been granted standing and Mr Riddel is on the committee appointed by Judge Cohen. There should be no joint action taken by members of the panel of experts and the individuals granted standing for submissions. Further to that SFU just granted Ms Morton an honourary degree now giving her the title Dr. Morton. As members on the committee of experts are also comprised of scientists deemed expert from SFU this makes it appear that Ms Morton is being highly favoured by the committee of experts appointed by Judge Cohen. The timing of this doctorate is indeed questionable. Appears the deck is being stacked as it were.
As the wife of a Marine Harvest employee I have visited fish farms on the vessel my husband is captain on and know first hand by having seen with my own eyes many things Ms Morton claims are out and out lies. We are ex commercial fishermen. My husband was born in Alert bay and is a status Indian. His grandfather was James Sewid who was given the Order of Canada for his work in the seventies sitting on the conference of the sea proceedings that took place in Venezuela.
My husband knows the Broughton like the back of his hand and also knows the care that is taken to ensure no damage is done to the environment by his industry. Marine Harvest requires everyone in it's departments to re-cycle all recycleables to avoid any garbage being put into the environment.Every possible care is taken to insure the health of the pen stocks and to make sure no damage is done to wild. The proof has been shown in 2009 returns of pinks.There has been a steady decline in rate of lice in the Broughton on wild and pen stocks which gives issue to why Ms Morton immediately seized the opportunity to blame salmon farms for the non return of sockeye when proven wrong about her claim Broughton pinks would be extinct by 2011. I feel the issue of the two things I've mentioned above should be investigated as inappropriate.Thank you, Heather Olney
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=102
Submitter: Derek Nickel
Community: Campbell River
Date Submitted: June 24, 2010
Summary:
The commission should use research that has been conducted by renowned and trustworthy people such as Dr. Richard Beamish. Flimsy, weak, biased or highly scrutinized work should be ignored. Foreign funding from interest groups, such as the Alaskan fishing industry, should be monitored and regulated.
Submission:
I would like to see an open minded broad spectrum enquiry without bias. I would like to see it based off of and follow meaningful research that has been conducted by renowned and trustworthy people such as Dr. Richard Beamish. DFO lists some of his achievements, “Dr. Beamish has been honoured with a number of awards including the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and recently became the first foreign scientist to be made an honorary member of the fisheries laboratory TINRO in Vladivostok, Russia. He has published over 350 articles with about half in peer reviewed journals.” Research that is used in this enquiry needs to come from sources such as this, I would be disappointed to see flimsy, weak, bias, and highly scrutinized work have a place in such an important case. As well, all foreign funding from interest groups should be monitored and regulated to reduce bias from the receivers of the funds, for example anyone linked to the Alaskan fishing industry. These are just some of the things that I think could help the enquiry get off to a level and solid base.
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=99
Submitter: Dave Porter
Community: Nanaimo
Date Submitted: June 17, 2010
Summary:
The commission should investigate the extent to which ocean ranched salmon from Alaska, Russia, Japan and Korea compete with and prey on wild sockeye in the North Pacific.
Submission:
Dear Cohen Commission,As a Fisheries/Aqauculture Student at VIU, I feel a major factor is missing in your investigation, that being 'Salmon Ranching' aka 'Ocean Ranching'. Up to 5 Billion pink, coho and Chinook smolt are hatchery raised in Alaska, Russia, Japan and Korea each year and then released into the North Pacific to augment those country's fisheries. This obviously has an effect on all Oncorhynchus species, including O. nerka/sockeye while at sea. Although this is not done in Canada, wild Pacific Salmon know no international boundaries and compete with ocean farmed salmon in the same feeding areas. Ocean ranched salmon could well be preying on wild salmon smolts, as ocean ranched smolts can be much larger than wild smolts when released.
I hope this important though largely unknown practise can be included in the Cohen Commission. Kind Regards, Dave Porter.
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=77
Submitter: Michael Heavenor
Community: Campbell River
Date Submitted: June 10, 2010
Summary:
The introduction of 1.5 billion enhanced salmon per year from Alaskan salmon ranches, into the Gulf of Alaska, increases the competition, and depletes the available food for non-enhanced salmon from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, which perish prior to returning to their home rivers. The Gulf of Alaska has reached critical mass.
Submission:
The introduction of 1.5 billion enhanced salmon per year from Alaskan salmon Ranhes, into the Gulf of Alaska, increases the competition, and depletes the available food for non-enhanced salmon from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, which perish prior to returning to their home rivers. The Gulf of Alaska has reached critical mass.
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=59
Submitter: David Conley
Community: Kanata
Date Submitted: June 18, 2010
Summary:
The attached papers on the British Columbia salmon farming industry and its challenges illustrate how the provincial population has been subjected to a relentless propaganda campaign against salmon farming since 1984.
Submission:
My question for the Commissioner is how he will separate the wheat from the chafe, given that the BC population has been subjected to a relentless propaganda campaign against salmon farming since 1984. And that despite the Gillespie inquiry in 1986, the Owen inquiry in 1988, the Salmon Aquaculture Review in 1996-97, and numerous other attempts to bring some sanity to this irrational debate, there appears no end in sight. When will the statute of limitations on this witch hunt finally run out?
Included are 2 papers I have written on the BC salmon farming industry and its challenges for your enlightenment. http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=79
Submitter: Vivian Krause
Community: North Vancouver
Date Submitted: April 9, 2010
Summary:
Claims that sea lice from salmon farms cause high mortality among wild juvenile salmon or that farmed salmon contain harmful levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are false. The widely-cited studies making these claims contain serious flaws, and were funded by organizations that have been paid to promote the consumption of wild salmon.
Submission:
Claims that published research shows that sea lice originating from salmon farms cause high mortality among juvenile salmon in the wild, are false. Here's why: 1) Sea lice levels at salmon farms and mortality in the wild were never measured. 2) A technique for tracing the origin of sea lice does not exist, 3) The data is correlative and inconclusive, 4) The use of data was highly selective: data prior to 2000 and data for the largest salmon producing watershed in the study area, was excluded. The peer review of this sea lice research appears to have failed in that an unsubstantiated claim was not nipped in the bud. The journals where some of this research is reported (eg. Conservation Biology, PLoS and SCIENCE), have been heavily funded by the U.S. foundations that fund Alaskan salmon marketing. The Editor-in-Chief of SCIENCE is the trustee of a U.S. foundation that has granted about $75 million to shore up demand for "wild" fish - especially Alaskan fish - while swaying consumers and retailers away from the competition: farmed fish. More information is at www.fair-questions.com
http://www.commissioncohen.ca/en/submissions/ViewASubmission.php?sub=24
