The Wild Salmon Defenders Alliance, just back from the Wild Salmon Caravan, brought its message to NDP MLA Lisa Beare’s Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge constituency office on Friday: act now to end open net fish farms and restore healthy wild salmon returns.
Alliance president Eddie Gardner wants the provincial government to remove open net pen fish farms from territories of Musgamagw, Namgis, and Mamalilikula Nations.
He and others delivered a petition to the Beare’s office at 20130 Lougheed Highway, Maple Ridge.
The petition is signed by people who participated in the Wild Salmon Caravan from Vancouver to the spawning grounds in Adam’s River.
WSDA is in solidarity with the fish farm occupations by the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw, Mamalilikula, and Namgis First Nations.
“The indigenous people there have not been properly consulted, accommodated, nor have the hereditary leaders in those territories given their consent to have fish farms in their unceded territories,” Gardner said. “Their indigenous rights and title have been violated for the past 30 years, and this must end with removal of open net pen fish farms from their territories.”
At least 90 other First Nations are in support of the occupations, he added, and the demands put forward to address the crisis of wild salmon:
• no restocking of existing empty pens or sites;
• no use of hydrogen peroxide to be used to treat sea lice infestations;
• no renewal of licenses or tenures;
• and for the industry to remove all open-net cage fish farms sites from the collective territorial waters.
The ‘Namgis First Nation has a solution, Gardner said.
“Their Kuterra fish farm is a land based closed-containment aquaculture business and is an environmentally sustainable option that can be characterized as an opportunity to be a world leader with appropriate supports encouragement and promotion.”
Furthermore, he said, ecotourism was identified for creating sustainable employment in the future – an industry that already contributes 3.8 billion in value to B.C.