International Investigation into CDN Fish Farms Petitioned for Under NAFTA Side-Treaty

February 7, 2012 by Anissa

Alexandra Morton, scientist, activist, and co-founder of the Salmon Are Sacred people's movement was recently approached by the California Center for Biological Diversity due to growing concerns about the health and protection of BC wild salmon, which with the flick of a tail, are US wild salmon. The concern is related directly to the presence of salmon feedlots on the coast of BC.

US and Canadian groups submitted a foraml petition under the NAAEC or the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation "asserting that Canada is violating and failing to effectively enforce the Canadian Fisheries Act". The 50 page petition can be downloaded here and starts,

"Despite mounting evidence of harm to British Columbia’’s wild salmon runs and severe threats to wild salmon in Canada and the United States, Canada has permitted more than 100 commercial salmon feedlots to operate in the narrow migration routes used by wild salmon of British Columbia and the United States, including the Fraser River, exposing wild salmon to amplified levels of parasites such as sea lice, viral and bacterial diseases, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste. Canada’’s apparent violations of its own Fisheries Act are allowing commercial salmon feedlots to erode the capacity of the British Columbia ecosystem to support wild salmon. The potential for British Columbia salmon feedlots to introduce, amplify and spread pathogens also jeopardizes the health of every other wild salmon run along the Pacific Coast, as well as the entire West Coast salmon fishing industry, because these stocks co-mingle."


You can read more about it from Alexandra Morton's blog.