British Columbia Salmon Extinction? A Reality Check.

http://www.AquacultureFacts.org

Anti-salmon farming critics have repeated claims of wild salmon extinction in British Columbia. Is this true? Are salmon going extinct?

Not at all. Not even close. In fact, Fraser River Sockeye (near Vancouver) just returned in high numbers not seen in 100 years.

First the activists said salmon farms were driving the Pink salmon to extinction. But since these erroneous claims were made, Pink salmon have returned to BC rivers in record high numbers.

To divert attention away from record pink salmon returns, activists then said that the Fraser river sockeye were at risk - again because of BC salmon farms. But again, the 2010 return of sockeye salmon was the highest witnessed since 1913.

Activists such as Alexandra Morton and John Volpe have repeated these extinction claims - claims that were designed to tarnish the reputation of BC farm-raised salmon and ultimately threaten the livelihood of thousands of hard working British Columbians.

This video was produced to capture these claims and provide the public with the truth.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• salmon farming in bc
• farm-raised salmon
• salmon extinction
• alexandra morton
• wild salmon
• alaska salmon farming
• hatchery salmon
• fraser river sockeye
• bc salmon farming
• adams river sockeye
• pink salmon
• broughton archipelago
• william shatner
• bill shatner
• 100 year record
• slammin salmon
• slamon
• cohen commission
• bruce cohen
• fraser river sockeye inquiry
• 2010 salmon returns
• best fishing
• sockeye salmon

[MsTokies]

showing news reports from tv anchors does not proof facts it proofs news. fact 1 big ass lice clouds when baby fish pass the fishery shouldn't be there. fact 2 we don't fully know the impact of having that many farms plus the over fishing we already do. nobody wants any industry to put the waste of there industry directly into "natural" water ways. The salmon your farming is no longer "wild" its becoming domesticated salmon. Yet those by products of the salmon domatciation is hitting the water.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@MsTokies The news anchors are simply reported on fact - the fact that 2010 was a record run of Fraser river sockeye. 35 million.

We agree with you that no one wants to ruin the natural waterways, and because salmon farmers use those same waterways, they have a real keen interest in keeping the surrounding environment healthy.

We can't even understand your final sentence.

[Alaskrab]

I get to sick to my stomach when I read this stuff. It all boils down to this. Salmon farming in British Columbia only employs about 1200 people - whose jobs are valuable. However, the vast majority of the province has been crying out that they want fish farms gone. Why then are they still here? Because large, wealthy, multinational corporations have got the DFO and the Canadian government in their back pocket...yikes. You guys are peddling a product that isn't sustainable or healthy for BC.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@Alaskrab Or...how about salmon farming in BC is a legitimate business that operates within some of the strictest agriculture regulations in the world. Healthy and sustainable. As you are also a fishermen, you should understand the importance of aquaculture on our coast - and that includes hatcheries, salmon ranches and farms. All types of aquaculture has some risks that need to be managed and some massive benefits.

[CommonSenseCanadian]

What do you do when Slice invariably fails? And how do you explain the correlation between low sea lice levels around your Broughton farms in 2008 during the out-migration of this year's recently returned Fraser sockeye (only 4-7% lice loading on out-migrating smolts, compared with much higher numbers in previous years) and the health of that return? Finally, if there's n problem with your industry then you have nothing to hide - why not release all your testing data for the Cohen Commission?

[AquacultureAwareness]

@CommonSenseCanadian Hey! Funny that you claim low sea lice levels were found in 2008, because you and your friends said the opposite back then! You claimed 2008 lice levels were really high back then and that it would result in extinction. Ooops. So now you change the story. Cute.

Oh, and all data has been released to Cohen Commissions. All good.

And for fairness, how about you don't block comments from your YouTube site? You are not beyond challenge and questions, are you?

[TheMyfancypants]

Alexandra Morton is NO scientist just a well paid manipulator who has been proven wrong time and again. Go home lady.

[Folkboat11]

Miss Morton said pink salmon will go "extinct" They didn't. She said Atlantic salmon will decimate wild spawning grounds. They havent. She says BC salmon farmers are Norwegian. They're not. Does she ever get it right? You bet, when she said.

"I don't have a great set of credentials."

[Folkboat11]

@MsTokies Every thing you talk about is true. Yes I said it here first. It is all true. Aquaculture is the result of the truth you talk about, not the cause of it.

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness There are a lot less aqua life in our water ways and sea these days from what many explores discribe. be glad people care and they are watching instead of poking holes because its likely those same people who clean off animals when oil spills happen. who work to keep indigonius wild life populations alive.

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness There are very few human systems of domestication that doesn't have some sorta unforeseen fall out. History and time has taught us that. The key is managing that fall out. We don't know what it is yet for salmon farming but with the hits that aqua life has taken for the last 75 or so years maybe a little more care and a whole lot less roll the dice. farm fishing may save us all and aqua life but working towards close loops systems.

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness i don't care about the jobs because it takes more effort time and expense to FIX a broken system than for you to look for another job in a different industry. ruining natures system is the work of years while fixing nature is the work of generations. farm fishing is a great idea and if we could get it to work better and be more sustainable without it being so broken id have no problem with it. "IF this system was close loop WE WOULDNT BE TALKING ABOUT THIS AT ALL"

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness [Last sentence "domestication" was the word sorry i was writing at 2am.]

Better return on commercial fishing when new and better ways of fishing has been worked on since the industrialization of fishing doesn't really impress. It still doesn't make comical fishing, and farm fishing anything but a tick on the back of wild life populations. Also the best run in years doesn't mean much since who was telling you that but the fishing industry. it's news not scientific fact