Please find a very interesting and significant letter re salmon farms.

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Open letter to King of Norway to stop the killing of wild fish by Norwegian-owned open net cage salmon farms in British Columbia
Aug 17th, 2009 10:07 AM
King Harald V
The Royal Palace
Drammensveien 1
N-0010
Oslo
Norway


14th August 2009

Your Royal Highness,

Protecting wild salmon from open net cage salmon farms

Further to our letter of 15th December 2006 (re-enclosed here), we appeal to you as the King of Norway to stop the killing of wild fish by Norwegian-owned open net cage salmon farms. We ask that you take time during your visit to Trondheim on 18th August when you will be opening the Aqua Nor trade show1 to watch the new film “Dear Norway – Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon” produced by Damien Gillis.

Your visit to the Trondheimsfjord area – one of only two fjords in Norway where salmon farming is completely banned under the Laksfjord regulations – represents an opportunity to hear how Norwegian companies are operating to lower standards in other regions. We think it is important that Norwegians understand their impact on temperate coastal countries worldwide – especially in British Columbia where the Norwegian companies Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg control 92% of salmon farming production2 . We expect a country such as Norway who signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 20073 and who published a white paper on Corporate Social Responsibility Abroad in 20094 to respect the rights of First Nations whose culture depends upon healthy wild salmon populations.

Since our letter to you in 2006, the situation has deteriorated and the weight of scientific evidence linking open net cage salmon farms with declines in wild fish is now overwhelming5. Canada’s largest wild salmon runs are failing every year while in neighbouring Alaska where salmon farming is banned they are harvesting record runs. Another film by Damien Gillis – “Aquacultural Revolution: The scientific case for changing salmon farming”6 – presents the scientific perspective and is recommended viewing in advance of your trip to Trondheim. You may also be interested in watching a sea lice animation recently released by Norges Jeger-og Fiskerforbund7.

In May this year, the Pure Salmon Campaign brought a delegation of First Nation chiefs, scientists, wilderness tourism, labor union, fishing and environmental leaders from Chile, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the United States to Norway to bear witness to the problems of Marine Harvest and Cermaq in particular8.

You may have read Alexandra Morton’s passionate plea published in Bergens Tidende in May which ended with:

“It's still not too late to stop the collapse of wild salmon and social decay here in western Canada. But to do so, it will take the efforts of concerned citizens working across borders, to make it clear to the Norwegian government that salmon farms must not destroy the wild salmon arteries flowing into the coast of British Columbia. In today’s world such behavior is an act of inexcusable immorality as future generations will need life on earth to survive.”9

And you may have read about our visit to Preline’s closed containment farm in Hardangerfjord10. Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish First Nation, who delivered letters to you in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and visited Norway again this year, said:

“It is difficult to put to words how I felt standing on an operating closed containment fish farm, watching Atlantic salmon swimming inside. It was an amazing circumstance for me to speak with the owner of Preline who has developed the closed containment system, and both of us needing something to give hope for our individual yet intertwined dreams”11.

Bergens Tidende also featured the Preline closed containment system in an article published in June12. Representatives from Preline – together with other closed containment companies – will be in Trondheim for the AquaNor trade show and we encourage you to explore these technologies which can protect wild fish from the spread of sea lice and escapes from salmon farms.

During his visit to Norway in May, Chief Robert Joseph of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council said:

“The demise of wild salmon is tantamount to genocide because it reflects the demise of our culture, way of life and spirituality. Since the advent of salmon farming in our territories we have seen an apocalyptic decline in the state of our wild salmon stocks in the Broughton Archipelago. And because Norway is the world leader in salmon farming and the Norwegian Government is the leading shareholder in Cermaq we are asking for their moral leadership to bring about best practices and to mitigate environmental degradation”13.

Public opposition to Norwegian-owned salmon farming companies operating in British Columbia is building with negative press coverage of ‘rapacious Norwegians’ in the international media14 as well as at home in Norway15. You may be aware that this issue was raised in the Norwegian Parliament in May this year via a Parliamentary Question tabled by Heikki Holmås MP with a reply from Helga Pedersen, Norway’s Fisheries Minister16. Public comments were also made in the Norwegian media by several MPs including Peter Gitmark from Hoyre17, Ola Borten Moe from Senterpartiet18 and Heikki Holmås from Sosialistisk Venstreparti19.

Cermaq – whose largest shareholder is the Norwegian Government – is now the subject of a complaint filed with the OECD in May by Norges Naturvernforbund and ForUM20. In the same month, Norway was criticized by First Nations groups for failing to adhere to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with respect to Cermaq’s operations in Canada21. In October 2008, Cermaq’s operations in Canada were criticized for blatantly violating their licences after years of over-production22. And NRK reported only yesterday that Cermaq was encountering local opposition in Norway with a petition signed by 6,000 people objecting to expansion in Ofotfjorden23.

Marine Harvest’s operations in Canada have also been subject of growing controversy and legal action in the B.C. Supreme Court24. Grieg’s plans to expand in the Georgia Strait in British Columbia have angered local residents, fishermen and tourist operators alike25. And in June, the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform called for the emergency closure of five farms operated by Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg to protect migrating wild salmon26. The issue will only continue to heat up at the expense of Norway’s reputation.

Nor is Canada the only region where Norwegian-owned companies are experiencing local opposition. In Ireland, where Marine Harvest control over 50% of production, Salmon Watch recently filed a complaint with the European Commission contending that salmon farms are responsible for the generation of high levels of sea lice infestation in juvenile salmon migrating from rivers to their feeding grounds in the sea27. And in the UK where Norwegian-owned companies control in excess of 80% of salmon farming production, the Salmon and Trout Association (whose patron is Prince Charles) have organized a petition calling on the Scottish Government to move salmon farms away from the estuaries of major rivers28.

We hope that you agree with John Fredriksen, owner of Marine Harvest, who in July 2007 when he was fishing on the River Alta called for salmon farms to be moved out of the path of wild salmon29. In September 2007, over 30 fishing and environmental groups including Norsk Lakseelver, the Norwegian Salmon Association, Granvin Fiskarlag and Nausta Vernegruppa, wrote to Marine Harvest urging them to follow Mr Fredriksen’s wise advice30.

As both the King of Norway and a wild salmon angler on the River Alta yourself31, Your Royal Highness surely has an interest in protecting wild salmon both in Norway and internationally as well as preserving Norway’s international reputation. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held along the shores of the Fraser River where the wild sockeye salmon that run past Norwegian-owned fish farms have been closed to fishing again this year. Yesterday’s Globe & Mail newspaper in Canada reports that “the Fraser River is experiencing one of the biggest salmon disasters in recent history with more than nine million sockeye vanishing”32 with The Straight newspaper reporting that “fish farms could be a contributing factor”33. Today’s Globe & Mail also featured the issue34.

When you meet with Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg, the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries, Helga Pedersen, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, Gail Shea, and Scotland’s Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, during Aqua Nor we therefore encourage you to ask why Norwegian companies are still being allowed to kill wild fish not just in Norway but also in Canada, Scotland and Ireland. And if you have time to view the new film “Dear Norway – Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon” please come and visit the Pure Salmon Campaign at booth # B-111C at Aqua Nor to arrange a private viewing.

Yours sincerely,




Bob Chamberlin, Chief of the Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish First Nation and Chairman of the Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk Tribal Council, Canada

Alexandra Morton, Director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, Canada

David Suzuki, Executive Director of David Suzuki Foundation, Canada

Brian Gunn, President of the Wilderness Tourism Association of British Columbia, Canada

David Lane, Executive Director of the T Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation, Canada

Damien Gillis, Save Our Rivers Society, Canada

Darren Blaney, Homalco First Nation, Canada

Geoff Meggs, Councillor, City of Vancouver, Canada

Valerie Langer, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Canada

Rafe Mair, Official spokesperson for Save Our Rivers Society, Canada

Shannon Ellis, Bella Coola Grizzly Tours, Canada

Steve Lawson, National Coordinator, First Nations Environmental Network, Canada

Des Nobels, Chair of Friends of Wild Salmon, Canada

Blake Covernton, President, Wild BC Salmon, Canada

Michael Price, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Canada

Evan Loveless, Executive Director of the Wilderness Tourism Association of British Columbia, Canada

Terry Anderson, Canadian Wild Salmon Alliance Society, Canada

Luanne Roth, Marine Director of the Prince Rupert Environmental Society, Canada

Geoff Senichenko, Research Director of the Wilderness Committee, Canada

Craig Orr, Executive Director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Canada

Stan Proboszcz, Fish Biologist, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Canada

Ruby Berry, Salmon Aquaculture Program Coordinator, Georgia Strait Alliance, Canada

Michelle Young, Salmon Aquaculture Campaigner, Georgia Strait Alliance, Canada

John Volpe, Professor, University of Victoria, Canada

Corey Peet, David Suzuki Foundation, Canada

Lawrence Dill, Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Catherine Stewart, Salmon Farming Campaign Manager, Living Oceans, Canada

Kim Petersen, co-editor of Dissident Voice, Canada

Tiffany Hilman, Markets Campaigner, Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, Canada

Susanne Hare, Tofino citizen, Canada

Mat Lawson, B.C. citizen, Canada

Misty Lawson, B.C. citizen, Canada

Quoashinis Lawson, B.C. citizen, Canada

Oren Lawson, B.C. citizen, Canada

Peter Dimitrov, lawyer and concerned citizen, Canada

Kevin Bruce, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Canada

Tom Rivest, Great Bear Nature Tours, Canada

Leonard Ellis, Bella Coola Grizzly Tours, Canada

Vegard Heggem, wild salmon conservationist, Norway

Geir Kjensmo, Chairman of the Norwegian Salmon Association, Norway

Sondre Båtstrand, Spokesperson for the Norwegian Green Party, Norway

Frode Strønen, Marine Spokesperson for the Norwegian Green Party, Norway

Lawson Devery, Scottish Field Officer, the Salmon and Trout Association, Scotland

Bruce Sandison, Scottish Sporting Services, Scotland

Colin Kirkpatrick, Environment Committee Chairman, Orkney Trout Fishing Association, Scotland

Brian Fraser, ghillie from Wester Ross, Scotland

Fiona Cameron, Sea Trout Group, Scotland

Frank Buckley, Society for the Protection of Salmon and Sea Trout, Scotland

Andrew Graham-Stewart, Writer on wild salmon conservation issues, Scotland

Jenny Scobie, Rhidorroch Estate, Scotland

Niall Greene, Chair, Salmon Watch Ireland, Ireland

John Mulcahy, Save The Swilly, Ireland

Noel Carr, Secretary, Conaidhm na Slat Iascairi Bradan & Breac Geal (Federation of Irish Salmon & Sea Trout Anglers), Ireland

Bill Bakke, Executive Director, Native Fish Society, United States of America

Anne Mosness, Go Wild Campaign, United States of America

Neil Frazer, Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States of America

Bartlett Naylor, Capital Strategies Consulting Inc., United States of America

Don Staniford, Global Coordinator, The Pure Salmon Campaign, United States of America



Cc:

Her Majesty The Queen

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway

Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway

Helga Pedersen, Fisheries Minister of Norway

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

Gail Shea, Fisheries Minister of Canada

Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia

Trevor Swerdfager, Director General, Aquaculture Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Jillian Stirk, Canada’s Ambassador to Norway

Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland

Roseanna Cunningham, Minister of the Environment for Scotland

Heikki Holmås, Member of the Norwegian Parliament

Ola Borten Moe, Member of the Norwegian Parliament

Peter Gitmark, Member of the Norwegian Parliament

Hallgeir Langeland, Member of the Norwegian Parliament

Thank you Admin for bringing this matter up. It's a worthy subject and certainly King Harald V, an active salmon angler, will certainly now be aware.


« Older Entries «Norwegian King Urged to Protect Canadian Wild Salmon
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

An international aquaculture organization is calling King Harald V of Norway to make Norwegian fishing companies protect western Canada’s wild salmon.

http://www.royaltyinthenews.com/category/norway/

This is part of the organization, Aqua Nor’s, campaign called Pure Salmon.
It’s biannual meeting is taking place in Trondheim, Norway this year starting on Tuesday. Prior to this, Pure Salmon sent a message to the King of Norway.

It reads:

As both the King of Norway and a wild salmon angler on the River Alta yourself, Your Royal Highness surely has an interest in protecting wild salmon both in Norway and internationally as well as preserving Norway’s international reputation.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held along the shores of the Fraser River where the wild sockeye salmon that run past Norwegian-owned fish farms have been closed to fishing again this year.

When you meet with Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg, the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries, Helga Pedersen, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, Gail Shea, and Scotland’s Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, during Aqua Nor we therefore encourage you to ask why Norwegian companies are still being allowed to kill wild fish not just in Norway but also in Canada, Scotland and Ireland.

At Aqua Nor’s trade show, there will be a film, called “Dear Norway: Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon,” to be viewed. It is supposed to be about how salmon farming is harming not only the fish, but also the wild animals that feed on them, such as the grizzly bear.

“The weight of scientific evidence my colleagues and I have published in peer-reviewed journals shows that sea lice from Norwegian-owned salmon farms are pushing wild pink salmon toward extinction,” said Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station. “I personally invite the King of Norway, together with fellow passionate angler John Fredriksen, to come out to the Broughton Archipelago to bear witness themselves to the poor practices of Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg.”

More than 90% of British Columbia’s salmon farming production is controlled by Norwegian fishing companies.

“It is ironic that the King of Norway is opening the world’s largest farmed salmon trade show in one of only two fjords where wild salmon are fully protected from salmon farms,” said Geir Kjensmo, chairman of the Norwegian Salmon Association. “In view of the declines in wild salmon and sea trout stocks and rise in sea lice infestation here in Norway, the Laksfjord protection in the Trondheimsfjord and the Tanafjord must be extended to completely cover other fjords. And the message coming loud and clear from Canada is that wild Pacific salmon must be afforded protection from Norwegian-owned open net cages misplaced on migration corridors.”



King Harald will be opening the trade show. It is not known if he will see the film, or make any comment in regards to the Pure Salmon campaign.

Alexandra Morton Charges Marine Harvest with illegal possession of wild salmon

If government is not going to apply the laws of Canada to fish farms, it is up to the people to do so.

Port Hardy, September 15, 2009

Biologist Alexandra Morton laid charges under the federal Fisheries Act against fish farm giant Marine Harvest Canada Inc. for illegal possession of wild juvenile salmon from an endangered stock.

On June 16, 2009, hundreds of small salmon were seen spilling onto a dock in Port McNeill during a transfer of live Atlantic salmon brood stock from the fish farm vessel M.V. Orca Warrior into tanks on a truck. The vessel’s registered owner is Marine Harvest.

“When I received photos of the incident minutes later,” says Morton, “I was really surprised the fish lying on the road were young pink salmon, I could not understand what were they doing in Marine Harvest’s boat.”

“Marine Harvest emailed stating that the young wild salmon had come from the Potts Bay fish farm, just west of Glendale River in Knights Inlet,” says Morton. “They were apparently in the farm salmon pens and were scooped up with the Atlantic salmon. We have no idea how many pink salmon ended up going down the highway in the tanks on the truck.”

When Morton took her boat to the Potts Bay fish farm she saw large schools of pink salmon leaping inside the pens. “While millions of tax payers dollars and environmental donations have been spent to protect the Glendale River pink salmon from fish farms, last fall was the lowest return yet. These are the offspring from that generation and far from safe, they are right in the farm and in their fish packers,” said Morton.

Morton has published 15 scientific papers on juvenile pink salmon.

Morton’s lawyer, Jeffery Jones corresponded with DFO for 6 weeks about this incident but the Department still has not taken any action.

“I have received many reports over the years of herring, black cod and wild salmon in farm pens. The escaped Atlantic salmon that fishermen bring me often have wild fish in their stomachs. Are Norwegian farm salmon fattening up on wild BC fish? What happens to the wild fish when the nets are pulled? What happened to the pink salmon that may have been in the truck? DFO has often charged commercial and sport fishermen with illegal possession to protect wild fish and why wont they charge fish farms for the same violation,” said Morton.

Morton asks that anyone with information on wild fish in fish farms to contact her at www.adopt-a-fry.org <http://www.adopt-a-fry.org> . 18,000 people and counting have signed a letter on this website saying the laws of Canada must be applied to fish farms.

For more info and pictures:

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

__________________
C & R since 1963