http://www.wildsalmonpeople.ca/
Wild Salmon People
Candidates of Canada
will you remove salmon feedlots from BC waters?
April 2011 - Campaign for Wild Salmon
This spring we have the opportunity to elect a government that will work for us, the people. I am hitting the campaign trail mid-April to personally ask candidates if they will remove salmon feedlots from our wild salmon waters. We are guardians of one of earth's most generous and increasingly rare resources and we are trading them away to become beggars at a table we once owned.
According to the province there are only 1,259 jobs directly with salmon feedlots - we can help these people find work elsewhere and thus there is no downside to getting these pollution sources out of our ocean.
I will be posting candidate responses here. If we want our communities to thrive we have to take back the power to lead government and make sure they start working for us, not the huge international corporations that are taking the trees we grow, are so blinded by their oil addiction they create toxic waste lands, and see wild salmon as an impediment to "progress." Today's government is impaired we need to do an intervention. See how at salmonaresacred.org. Lets find out if we still live in a democracy.
Our salmon feed the ecology of this coast and our economy: whales, eagles people, a $1 billion wilderness tourism industry and a $500 million commercial fishery. They also feed our souls. Last summer wild salmon passed through the city of Vancouver carrying 45 million kilograms of ocean energy uphill deep into the interior of the province rebuilding our forests. They fed thousands of people, breathing economic life into communities province-wide. This windfall came in spite of political floundering, neglect and cover-ups. This website is about making choices in this election that will serve the people of Canada. We are a rich land, but only as long as we remain ecologically intact.
People and salmon arrived in British Columbia together to a land laid bare by receding glacial ice. As salmon built the earth with their bodies, the people built a culture that respected the fish they depended on. In this way people and fish prospered together. The 2010 sockeye taught us this opportunity still exists.
The Cohen inquiry into the 18-year sockeye productivity decline revealed on March 17that Fisheries and Oceans Canada is covering up that the majority of Fraser sockeye appear to be infected with a virus. Called Salmon Leukemia, Marine Anemia by fish farmers, this virus became epidemic in salmon feedlots on the sockeye marine migration route in the early 1990s. This is exactly when the sockeye began to decline. It is highly significant that a DFO scientist is now pinpointing this same virus is epidemic in wild salmon. Salmon Leukemia weakens salmon making them vulnerable to all pathogens, drives them into the river too early and millions have died just before spawning. If the industry also spills an exotic virus into BC, these weakened salmon don't have chance. See my blog "DFO - in the business of truth?"
DFO will not allow the scientist who discovered this to speak. Why? Why would they hide that a virus appears to be killing the majority of wild salmon of the Fraser River? A senior fishery scientist point out this is exactly how the east coast cod were killed off. In that case, the Hibernia oil wells went onto the Grand Banks as soon as the fishermen were tied to the dock. Is Canada afraid to stand up to the Norwegian government, who are heavily invested in salmon feedlots in BC because Norway is an important oil partner? After 26 years of trying to protect my town from the salmon feedlots I can say government is not actually interested in wild salmon.
Government judgement is impaired when it comes to the Norwegian salmon feedlot industry. We need a government strong enough to work for us.
The life cycle of salmon spans the province of British Columbia from the headwaters, through our towns and cities, out into international waters. If we gauged our behavior in terms of impact on salmon, we would instantly have to consider affects upstream and downstream along this living corridor. This simple shift in vision would create social and ecological maturity with enormous possibility. Today's governments appear blind and deaf to this, but the right government could ensure long term prosperity and health.
Democracy means the ultimate power is vested in the people. If we elect agents to administer our needs, if we want a future where humanity prospers we need a government that is free and unencumbered who can deliver this. The longer we delay the less we have to work with to rebuild our home, this election is crucial this is not a dress rehearsal!
I am going to be campaigning this spring for wild salmon. I am posting candidate responses to the question - will you stand for wild salmon and remove the salmon feedlots from British Columbian waters?
Wild salmon are a living icon of democracy and we choose their name to represent us.
Salmon Are Sacred because they support all the living world around them
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