Biologist takes aim at fish-farm company

Robert Matas 
September 17, 2009
The Globe and Mail

A prominent B.C. environmentalist has started a private prosecution against the province's largest aquaculture company, alleging that migrating salmon fry were ending up in fish farms along the West Coast.

The court case stems from an incident on June 16, when several people reported seeing small pink salmon mixed in with much larger salmon from a fish farm operated by Marine Harvest Canada Inc., biologist Alexandra Morton said yesterday in an interview from Port McNeill, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

Pink salmon are from a highly protected population, she said. “The taxpayers spent huge amounts of money protecting [the pink salmon] and now they [the pink salmon] are in the farm and in the [fish farm's] boats, and I cannot even get an answer from the Fisheries Department: Did they go look? How many are there? What are you going to do about it? Is it happening on all the farms?”

Ms. Morton, who has lived around fish farms for more than 20 years, said she reluctantly decided to challenge the company after seeing incidents involving many fish farms that she believes were infractions of federal regulations.

“These are things that are going to affect the whole area I live in, and, ultimately, the whole coast of B.C.,” she said.

In the court action filed Tuesday in B.C. Provincial Court, Ms. Morton alleges that Marine Harvest Canada possessed wild pink salmon without a licence. Ms. Morton is represented by Jeff Jones, a lawyer in Port McNeill who prosecuted violations of Fisheries regulations on behalf of the federal department from 1983 to 2004. 

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related story on The Tyee, September 15, "Morton takes Marine Harvest to court"

Read related story in the North Island Gazette, September 22, "Morton files charges against Marine Harvest"