Salmon Farms: 25% of a promise kept

All of the signs are pointing to an early fall election and it’s a critical one for wild salmon. Our next federal government inherits salmon and herring teetering on extinction, whales still starved for want of Chinook salmon and something on the order of 93 salmon farms yet to be closed down.

The current government was elected on a promise to “work with the province to develop a responsible plan to transition from open net pen salmon farming in coastal waters to closed containment systems by 2025.” Thanks primarily to the efforts of First Nations, 27 industrial salmon feedlot sites are scheduled to close over 2022-2023 in the Broughton and Discovery Islands. But that’s only about a quarter of the job done and time, as they say, is a-wasting.

We need your help to pull out all the stops during this election cycle, to ensure salmon farms are removed from B.C. waters before all of the salmon and herring are gone. Your donations allow us the freedom to lobby politicians for the change you want and right now, it’s the most effective thing we can do to protect wild salmon. Can you help us with a donation today?

All of the federal parties are putting their platforms together right now and they’re taking the pulse in every province.  B.C. voters have already told the pollsters that the salmon crisis is top of mind. We need to tell all parties that you understand the salmon crisis has a lot of causes, but that you expect them to fix the big one that’s relatively easy to reverse: closing salmon farms has immediate impact on wild salmon survival.

Help us to reach out to the public and the politicians to ensure that nobody standing for election in this province is in any doubt: their success depends on the strength of their commitment to removing this menace from our waters; and working on restoring ocean health.

Argentina did it--just the other day, their legislators passed a bill unanimously banning open netpen salmon farming, making it the first country in the world to do so.  Hats off to our friends at Rewilding Argentina, who pulled together a diverse base of support and demanded action from their representatives.  It can work...but only if we speak up.  Read on in this Oceans Update to find out how to send a letter to your MP!

As always, thanks for all you do.