[mobglob-discuss] Anti Fish Farm Protest

[rick]

What:	Anti-fish farm protest

Where:	Norweigan Consulate
200 Burrard Street, Vancouver

When:	10:00 AM, January 15, 2003

Background:

Omega Samlon, a fish farm corporation owned by Norweigan giant Pan 
Fish, is building an Atlantic Salmon hatchery in Ocean Falls, between 
Bella Bella and Bella Coola (Heiltsuk and Nuxalk Territory). A 
protest is planned for January 15th. Nuxalk and Heiltsuk people will 
attend, as well as other concerned citizens. Simultaneous protests in 
other location - inquire for details.

For more information, contact Clement Lam (F.A.N.) at (250) 973-6274 
or (604) 760-6028.


Want to know the truth about farmed salmon?

* Farmed salmon are raised in large floating open netcage systems in 
the marine waters and impact wild salmon and other marine species by 
spreading disease and parasites.
* Farmed salmon are fed with drugs, pesticides and more antibiotics 
by weight than any other livestock possibly contributing to the 
dangerous increase in antibiotic-resistant disease worldwide. The 
drug-laden wastes from surplus food and faeces pollute the marine 
environment.
* Farmed salmon - mostly alien Atlantic stocks - escape from their 
netcages, often by the thousands,  and can outcompete and displace 
fragile wild stocks from their habitat. Atlantics have been found in 
about 80 rivers.
* Farmed salmon contain higher levels of unhealthy saturated fats and 
lower levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. Farmed Atlantic 
salmon contain 200% more saturated fat than wild Pacific pink or chum 
salmon. Farmed salmon also appear to contain higher levels of PCBs 
and dioxins.
* Farmed salmon represent a 'net loss' of protein worldwide: it takes 
three times the amount of fish eventually 'produced' to feed the 
farmed salmon.
* Farmed salmon have greatly reduced the price of wild salmon, 
directly impacting the livelihood of local fishermen.

Small-scale netcage salmon farming in B.C. began in the early 1970s. 
Today salmon farms are controlled by a handful of multinational 
corporations, mostly Norwegian-based. They are found along the coast 
of British Columbia, with the heaviest concentration in the Broughton 
Archipelago off northern Vancouver Island. They vary in size and a 
single farm may contain up to a million fish.

Unknown tonnage of uneaten fish feed, antibiotics, pesticides, and 
raw sewage from the fish farms are constantly being dumped at sea 
unchecked, untreated and unregulated. The dumping upsets the natural 
balance in the surrounding sea, which leads to the outbreak of 
disease and contamination. In addition, hundreds of tonnes of dead, 
diseased farmed fish and other waste are dumped on land.

Fish farms threaten everything in their path. Bright night lights are 
used by fish farms all winter and spring to promote rapid growth of 
farmed salmon thereby attracting the smolts of wild salmon as well as 
other creatures, setting up a feeding frenzy and resulting in severe 
wounds to the fish and facilitating lice attachment. Fish farmers are 
permitted to kill seals and sea lions which try to prey on the farmed 
salmon: In 2001 alone, 400 seals and sea lions were killed. 
Alternately, some farms are equipped with Acoustic Harassment 
Devices. Those devices are so damaging that they may cause deafness 
in marine mammals and therefore some species of whales are driven 
from their habitat.

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Box 625, Bella Coola, BC, Canada  V0T 1C0
Tel: +1 250 799 5800, Fax: +1 250 799 5830
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