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Mountain Life:
Alexandra, it’sbeen six years sincewe talked last, what
has changed?
AlexandraMorton:
Nothing has really changed since 2010. I knowmore
about the problem because now I am studying viruses, before it was just
sea lice. A couple of days ago I sued theMinistry of Fisheries for breaking
the law by not testing for the piscine reo-virus in the farm salmon that are
being put in our waters. It’s illegal under Section 56 of the FisheriesAct; you
can’t put fish in the water if they have a disease agent. But it’s happening.
MountainLife:
Youspent some timeonsomeof theactual farms thissummer,
right?Whatdidyousee?
Alexandra:
When you stand on a farm and look straight down, you see
thousands of lethargic fish finning just the surface, and hundreds laying
on the surface with their fins showing. This is the behaviour of sick fish.
And if this is caused by disease, it is pouring out of the pens. It’s a good
guess that what harms salmon in the pens is going to threaten wild fish
outside the pen. And if not, then let’s see scientific evidence that it isn’t
happening. Instead, Marine Harvest [the biggest global fish farm owners]
is suingme for trespassing. What that tells me is this industry can’t handle
being looked at. No fish farm company will allow samples of the fish in
their pens to be taken for independent testing, and yet they claim nothing
is wrong. Inmy view, that’s dishonest. There is something very wrongwith
the fish in their pens andmeanwhile, for the Fraser River sockeye salmon
run swimming past these farms, this year is the worst ever recorded.
The companyGriegSeafood tried togive
the local fishermen$20,000each toshut
themup, theysaid“no”butayear later the
Trudeaugovernment quietlyapproved it.
–AlexandraMorton
Mortonhas been studyingBC’s keystone species for nearly 40 years.
SIMONAGER / SEA SHEPHERDCONSERVATION SOCIETY
