Campaign Urges King of Norway to Protect Canada’s Wild Salmon
New Film Shows Ongoing Destruction Caused by Norwegian-Owned Salmon Farms
Pure Salmon Campaign
August 17, 2009
The Dissident Voice
TRONDHEIM, NORWAY – At Aqua Nor, a biannual international aquaculture trade show, the Pure Salmon Campaign will call upon King Harald of Norway to insist that Norwegian-owned companies operating salmon farms in Canadian waters adopt strict environmental standards to protect British Columbia’s wild salmon populations.
A new documentary by filmmaker Damien Gillis shows how current practices used by Norwegian-owned companies operating in Canadian waters continue to threaten wild salmon and the iconic species that feed on them, including grizzly bears, bald eagles and killer whales. The film, Dear Norway: Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon, also features testimonies from local scientists, fishermen and First Nations chiefs detailing the dangers posed by open-net fish farms to British Columbia’s biologically diverse ecosystems.
More than 50 Pure Salmon Campaign partners and global allies sent a letter to King Harald of Norway asking him to help protect wild fish populations from Norwegian-owned salmon farms. The campaign also invited King Harald to a screening of Dear Norway at Aqua Nor. Norway’s king officially opens this year’s trade show and will be joined by Norway’s fisheries minister, Helga Pedersen as well as the Canadian fisheries minister, Gail Shea. Aqua Nor runs from August 18-21 (The Pure Salmon Campaign’s booth is # B-111C).
“The weight of scientific evidence my colleagues and I have published in peer-reviewed journals shows that sea lice from Norwegian-owned salmon farms are pushing wild pink salmon toward extinction,” said Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station. “I personally invite the King of Norway, together with fellow passionate angler John Fredriksen, to come out to the Broughton Archipelago to bear witness themselves to the poor practices of Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg.
Read the full story in Dissident Voice
Related information:
Letter from Dr. Gordon Harman to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
See the Pure Salmon Campaign's letter to the King of Norway
See the video report (Damien Gillis) - "DFO at AquaNor While Fraser Sockeye Crash"
See the Norwegian national television video clip of letter being handed to the King
To watch Dear Norway: Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon
See The Hook for "Aquaculture trade show draws international protest"
Posted August 17th, 2009
