As a lover of whales, Alex Morton left eastern plains of Connecticut for the mountainous rainforest of British Columbia. Setting out to study Orca whales, her research soon became more like of a "study of absence," with the whales becoming increasingly rare. She knew the food source of the Orcas was what really needed needed protection: B.C.'s wild salmon. Since there were few people advocating for wild salmon, she became an activist and a scientist.
Short film by Twyla Roscovich
Since 1984, she has written more than 10,000 pages of letters to politicians, written several books, has been profiled in the New York Times, founded a conservation group (adopt-a-fry.org), spoke to the Queen of England in person and led a recent Supreme Court case — yet the fight to protect B.C.'s wild salmon continues.
The problem is fish farms, specifically salmon fisheries. Many people see fish farming as a solution to our 2050 crisis, in which it's predicted the world's wild fish stocks will be depleted because of rising demand and poor management. According to Morton, however, fish farms are more harm than help. Many wild fish are used as pellet food for farmed fish, killing off wild fish populations in the process. Fish farms operated offshore also have the side-effect of infecting wild fish with diseases and parasites.
In British Columbia for example, many Norwegian companies, such as Marine Harvest, operate salmon aquaculture offshore in the south coastal channels, including the Fraser River. Sea lice flourish in these feedlots and attach themselves to baby wild salmon (called "fry") that migrate through the channels. The fry are highly vulnerable and susceptible to infection as they have undeveloped scales. And while parasites, such as sea lice, are a natural occurrence for salmon, the high level of parasite infection coming from fish farms is unnatural. The infection rates are disrupting growth and propagation of the wild salmon and killing off the last of their population.
According to Science magazine, wild pink salmon are likely to become extinct due to offshore fish farming. But the problem does not end with the fry; the fish farms affect the larger B.C. ecosystem, too. Wild salmon are food for such animals as grizzly bears, eagles and Orca whales. Many local communities in B.C. depend upon the wild salmon fishery too. Starting in 2001, Alex Morton watched her community fall apart with the depletion of wild salmon in Echo Bay.
"In Echo Bay, there was once a large community, a school for children and mail delivered three times a week," she says. "Today, there are less then ten people in the community, the school is shut down and there is no mail delivered."
Because there has been no political will to protect wild salmon, and in turn the ecosystem and economy, Morton, in her 50's, decided to take her own direct action. In 2008, Morton founded the Adopt-A-Fry organization, originally with the aim to single-handedly evacuate the wild fry away from the farm-infected areas with her small boat. Since then, last February, her group has gone to the B.C. Supreme Court in a case against one of the largest Norwegian fish farm companies, Marine Harvest, in an attempt to get them off water and on land. Currently, Adopt-A-Fry is collecting signatures on a petition to end offshore fish farming in Canada.
"Farming salmon in Canadian waters is unconstitutional because no one is allowed to privatize ocean spaces, nor schools of fish," says Morton. "Canadian law needs to apply to these Norwegian fisheries."
So far, Morton's petition has gone largely ignored in political circles: B.C. premier, Gordon Campbell and federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea have both remained silent on the issue. Despite this, the petition has rapidly grown, from 100 signatories in winter 2008 to over 13,000 today. Morton believes that when the petition closes in nearer to a million signatures, the politicians will be forced to listen.
"Somewhere between 13,000 and one million, we will get Canada to follow its own laws," says Morton.
Please visit the group's website to sign the Adopt-A-Fry petition.
No comments:
Post a Comment