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First Nations come out in defence of salmon farms

First Nations who rely on salmon farming for jobs fear industry is threatened
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From left: John Smith, Harold Sewid, James Walkus, Maurice Isaac. | Nelson Bennett

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Martin Sheen was cleared to enter Canada earlier this week after briefly being detained for two days by the Canada Border Services Agency.

The vessel is back in B.C. as part of Alexandra Morton’s Operation Virus Hunter project, which has been looking for signs of infectious diseases in both farmed and wild salmon.

Last year, Morton – an independent biologist – and some First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago made unauthorized inspections at salmon farms owned by Marine Harvest, looking for signs of disease.

While some First Nations, notably the Namgis, have welcomed Morton and helped facilitate the inspections, other First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago-Johnstone Strait region, where many fish farms are concentrated, are telling Morton to back off.

“I have a message for them,” said Tlowitsis Chief John Smith. “Stay away from our territory, and our partner firms. You are not invited here.”

Smith was one of four First Nations clan or business leaders who were in Vancouver today, May 31, for a press conference, the purpose of which was to defend salmon farming – an industry that faces the prospect of being shut down by the NDP government.

Morton and environmental groups like the David Suzuki Foundation have been campaigning against open-net salmon farming for years, and have been effective in forcing changes in the way the industry operates.

But it is no longer just environmentalist groups that are calling for the industry to be either shut down or put under greater scrutiny.

The Pacific Salmon Foundation recently took a public stance, saying open-net salmon farms should be phased out, and the federal government’s own Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in April slammed the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for failing to adequately manage risks to wild salmon associated with fish farming.

Twenty salmon farming licences are up for renewal, and NDP cabinet ministers Lana Popham (Agriculture) and David Eby (Attorney General) have made their antipathy towards open-net salmon farming abundantly clear.

Last year, after activists occupied Eby’s office, Eby told Ernest Alfred, a Namgis hereditary chief who has taken part in the occupation of fish farms, that it was his government’s intention to shut the industry down.

“Our government is not issuing new tenures and has put a hold on the existing tenures and…there is a full review of, not just the tenures, but also all policies related to this kind of open-net pen aquaculture that led to such a disaster in Washington State,” Eby said.

Eby was referring to a Cooke Aquaculture salmon farm that collapsed last year in Washington, releasing hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon. That incident led the State of Washington to vote in favour of phasing out open-net fish farming.

Anti fish farm activists are pushing the NDP government in B.C. to follow suit. Cabinet ministers like Eby and Popham appear to be listening.

“It’s a big priority for my constituents that we move from net pens to containment inland, if we are to do aquaculture,” Eby told Alfred in a call that was recorded and posted online.

Those who understand the industry also understand that that means shutting it down.

No land-based salmon farm has ever made a profit. And even if it did, the market for farmed salmon isn’t in B.C. – it is mostly in the U.S. – so it would make no sense to build land-based farms here. They would most likely be built closer to their markets.

“I believe they will disappear out of B.C.,” said Harold Sewid, a commercial fisherman and clan chief for the WiumasgumQwa’Sot’Enox.

“The reason is, if they have to go onto land, why wouldn’t these big corporations put them on land closer to their markets? So B.C. will lose.”

Salmon farming generates $1.5 billion for the B.C. economy annually, according to the BC Salmon Farmers Association, and provides 6,600 direct jobs, 20% of which are held by First Nations people, like Maurice Isaac, who has worked for Marine Harvest for 18 years. As a site manager, he is in charge of a crew of seven, five of whom are First Nation.

“It’s very important to us that salmon farming continues because we all rely on it,” he said.

As a commercial fisherman, Sewid said he initially had concerns about salmon farms, when they first started showing up.

He said he warned the industry he would find a way to shut it down, if he thought they posed a threat. So far, he has seen no threat to wild salmon.

“As a commercial fisherman, if I was to allow something to happen to those wild stocks, that would make me a very poor businessman, because I rely on those to make my living," Sewid said.

While many First Nations still make a living from commercial fishing, it’s both a seasonal and cyclical industry, whereas salmon farming provides good, well-paying jobs year-round, said Smith, whose people work with Grieg Seafood in the Johnstone Strait.

The Tlowitsis receive rents from Grieg for their net pens, and band members work on the fish farms.

“They’re providing us a good income we can count on,” Smith said. “I was a commercial fisherman as well. But you can’t always count on it because sometimes it’s not so good. So it was a real blessing when we got the relationship with the fish farming.

“Fish farms are one of the best things that’s ever happened to our nation.”

The salmon farming industry has allowed James Walkus, a commercial fisherman, to grow a business that now employs 30 people full-time.

His company, James Walkus Fishing Co., provides vessels that transport fish from salmon farms in the area to a Marine Harvest fish processing plant in Port Hardy.

Walkus is currently having a new $11 million vessel being built specifically to serve the industry – a transport vessel that moves fish from fish farm sites to a processing plant in Port Hardy. Shutting the industry down would be devastating for his business.

“I’d hate our leadership and our government to say we can no longer support this,” he said.

Asked if she will respect the wishes of First Nations to stay away from the salmon farms in their territory this year, Morton referred the question to Ernest Alfred, who responded by email by saying that Smith and Sewid are not recognized as chiefs.

“The ‘chiefs' who supported this do not have the authority to be issuing such strong statements, nor are they recognized as a chiefs in our territory,” he wrote. “Truth is, they are paid very well to support this filthy industry, and they will be held accountable, in due time.

“Our efforts and focus is on the provincial government to NOT renew the licenses, and we will not be distracted by this attempt by the aquaculture industry.”

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