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Video Report: DFO at AquaNor While Fraser Sockeye Crash
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 09:58

Starring Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea & the King of Norway

Watch the 7 min video here: high resolution medium resolution


DFO's booth at AquaNor

Something is fishy in Norway.

Damien Gillis confronts the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans at the world's biggest fish farming trade show in Trondheim, Norway.  Gillis asked Minister Shea how she responds to criticism of the optics of DFO being in Norway while the iconic Fraser River Sockeye run collapses, with possible links to the salmon farming industry.  "I'm here in Norway to support our aquaculture industry in Canada because it's a very important part of our economy," responded Shea.

What about WILD SALMON, the department's constitutional responsibility to protect it, and the piles of scientific evidence that suggest serious impacts from open-net salmon farms on the lynchpin of BC's coastal ecosystems?

While Minister Shea acknowledged possible links between salmon farms and the collapse of the Fraser sockeye, she said there wasn't enough information to be certain.  What's missing in this discussion is the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE, to which Canada is committed as a signatory of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.  The precautionary principle says that when there are significant risks to the environment or public, we must err to the side of caution.  The weight of evidence connecting salmon farms to the decline of wild salmon - coupled with the recent discovery of sea lice from salmon farms infesting wild Fraser sockeye smolts - to warrant immediate action to protect wild stocks from possible impacts from salmon farms.

According to Otto Langer, who left the department after a 32 year career over its stance on fish farms, "They have a great conflict of interest within that agency.  They are promoting fish farming, and yet they have the Fisheries Act which says they have to conserve and protect fish habitat and protect wild fish." With DFO set to retake responsibility of regulating fish farming from the BC government - thanks to Alexandra Morton's recent landmark legal victory - the public is left to question how seriously it will take this responsibility and whether it is capable in its current form of preventing a total collapse of wild salmon on BC's coast.

Watch "DFO at AquaNor while Fraser Sockeye Crash"

And Gillis' short documentary with the Pure Salmon Campaign - "Dear Norway: Help Save Canada's Wild Salmon"


   
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