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Alex Morton's Victory for Salmon - Press Conference
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 09:14

Save Our Rivers Society is pleased to present this 5 minute video featuring Alexandra Morton - renown fish biologist and researcher on the impacts of open-cage fish farms on wild salmon - from the steps of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver, discussing her recent landmark legal victory for wild salmon. Morton, along with co-plaintiffs from the eco-tourism and commercial fishing industries, successfully challenged the BC government's legal and constitutional authority to license and regulate salmon farms.

Over the past decade Morton and other researchers have produced a mountain of scientific evidence that fish farms and the sea lice they cultivate in large quantities are directly contributing to the collapse of wild salmon stocks on the coast, especially in the Broughton Archipelago (near Knight Inlet, where the highest concentration of fish farms is found). According to Morton's recent press release on February 9, 2009, hours after the BC Supreme Court judge's decision came down: "The fish inside the farm are now considered a fishery, not agriculture and thus the federal government has exclusive right to regulation. The court suspended the ruling for a period of 12 months to allow the federal government to bring in proper legislation."

Morton predicts salmon farms and their devastation of wild salmon will be a key issue in the upcoming provincial election, as she calls on British Columbians to "Vote for the Salmon." The video also features comments from the Lead Counsel on this historic case, Greg McDade, and from co-plaintiff Brian Gunn of the Wilderness Tourism Association.

Also, watch "Glendale Grizzlies: In the Absence of Salmon," an 8 minute video about salmon collapsing on the coast, featuring the beginning of Morton's court case.

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