POSITIVE AQUACULTURE AWARENESS
NEWS RELEASE
While people are helping displaced communities, tourism association sends attack press release
September 28, 2010, Campbell River – Residents of Northern Vancouver Island have been busy over the past few days sending food and supplies to Alert Bay to help families who have been displaced from their communities by massive flooding. An activist group known as the Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA) has been busy too – not assisting the needy – but issuing press releases which attack other local businesses.
Several communities on Northern Vancouver Island have been in a state of emergency since September 25th. Kingcome Inlet, Quatsino, Zebellos, Port Hardy and Port Alice have all been seriously affected by massive flooding, and resulted in the temporary displacement of hundreds of families.
While many locals are rallying support to provide clothing, food and shelter, Brian Gunn of the Wilderness Tourism Association finds it timely to send out a press release attacking local salmon farmers;
“While British Columbians are celebrating the massive returns of Fraser River sockeye salmon, other key BC salmon runs are experiencing a drastic collapse. In the Glendale River in Knight Inlet it is expected that less than 20,000 pink salmon will return.
What is the cause of the drastic declines? “We don’t know exactly”, said Brian Gunn, President of the Wilderness Tourism Association. “Nobody seems to know including the DFO because they do not monitor the salmon after they leave the rivers and spawning channels. We believe that one possible cause in the south coast is the presence of open net caged fish farms on the migration routes of the young out migrating juvenile salmon.”
This statement was released 3 days after Vancouver Island’s worst floods in recent history.
The WTA has chosen not to report on this years Fraser River sockeye salmon returns (the best in over 100 years), nor the banner pink returns in BC last year and this year. They’ve also chosen to ignore this year’s poor returns of many stocks far removed from salmon farms (north of Vancouver Island). It’s apparently much easier to cherry pick data on one river in one area. But is it even true?
No. The truth is pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago area are doing quite well. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) have just completed their 4th assessment of the area (September 13th) and issued the following statement:
Yes, you read that right. Pink salmon returns in 2010 in the Broughton Archipelago are similar or slightly better than the brood returns of 2008.
If Brian Gunn is looking for a real “state of emergency” to be involved in, then he should visit Alert Bay and make himself useful.
