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Urge the B.C. Government to:
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enact emergency interim measures to save wild salmon
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invest immediately in the development of closed containment technology
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devise a transition plan to move the salmon farm industry off the wild salmon migration routes and into more sustainable closed tanks
YOUR MESSAGE
Dear Minister Hansen,
I am writing to urge your government to enact emergency interim measures to protect wild salmon from the impacts of open net-cage salmon farms and to invest immediately in the development of closed containment technology. Furthermore, I ask that your government devise a transition plan that phases out open net-cages and supports more sustainable closed tanks.
Sea lice from open net-cage salmon farms are killing many of B.C.’s out migrating juvenile salmon and the coastal ecosystem is beginning to unravel. Salmon are the life blood of the entire rainforest. Bears, eagles, coastal wolves, myriad insects and over 100 other species depend on the wild salmon for survival. Even the ancient cedar and spruce depend on salmon carcasses to nurture their growth.
The impacts of open net-cage aquaculture are cause for growing concern amongst B.C. citizens. A March, 2007 poll found that over 80 percent of British Columbians would support a transition from current open net-cage practices to closed containment. In B.C. there is growing awareness in business and financial circles that in order to maintain long term economic competitiveness, industries must not allow the negative costs of their operations to be borne by society or the environment.
The investment in closed containment is consistent with your government’s Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade—specifically to “Lead the world in sustainable environmental management,” and “Create more jobs, per capita, than anywhere else in Canada.” By providing stimulus funds to entrepreneurs to build and operate commercial-scale closed containment projects, your government would set the course for a greener future and facilitate competition and private investment in forward thinking, environmentally responsible development.
I strongly encourage your government to take advantage of this great opportunity to stimulate the growth of an economically successful and sustainable aquaculture industry that will help to secure the future for wild salmon and our children’s children.
