July 2024 CM letter

June was action-packed, for sure. One day we’re on the remotest of B.C.’S shores, removing harmful debris from the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area and the next, responding to Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s bombshell announcement regarding salmon farm licensing. We filed a petition for an emergency order to save Southern Resident Killer Whales from tanker traffic and launched a new campaign urging restaurants and fish sellers to take farmed salmon Off the Table.  Everything seems to land in June, as the prospect of summer holidays beckons. 

It’s looking unlikely that we’ll be taking much of a vacation, given the right mess that salmon are facing. Another five years of salmon farming, with business pretty much as usual, means that we’re going to need to be extra vigilant to detect and demand action on farms whose practices are harming wild salmon. And we face yet another round of consultation on the draft Transition Plan, due for release at the end of July. You can read all about our take on the situation in this issue of Oceans Update. 

The foundations that funded us, historically, for the salmon farming campaign have long since moved on to other issues. We’ve been relying on private donations to see this 30-year campaign through to the finish and it looks like the Minister just moved the goalposts five years out.  Will you help us today to keep the campaign going until we have actually closed down the last salmon farm? Your support would be very gratefully received!