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July/August Marine SceneAlex Morton named Conservationist of the Year by BC Wildlife Federation Alexandra Morton has another award to put on her mantle: Conservationist of the Year. According to the BCWF, this annual award is “the greatest honour the Federation can bestow on any individual for an outstanding contribution to conservation over the years”. Alex has been studying the impacts of sea lice from fish farms on wild salmon in the Broughton Archipelago for years. Through her perseverance, sea lice are now acknowledged to have a significant impact on wild juvenile salmon migrating past open-net-pen salmon farms. Congratulations, Alex! Click here to see the news release about her award. Last year, Alex won the Murray A. Newman Award for Significant Achievement in Aquatic Conservation from the Vancouver Aquarium. A Deep Dark Secret
The California-based media research group says Ms. Whitty's comprehensive article was one of the few to cover “the collective acceleration of ocean damage and cross-pollination of harm”. Mother Jones followed up on Ms. Whitty’s feature story with a five-part, web-based series called “Ocean Voyager” . The series comes complete with video and interviews.
Concerns about the health and management of some groundfish stocks in B.C. -- which include rockfish, halibut, sablefish and lingcod -- have led to reforms in the way that the Pacific groundfish fisheries are managed. See the Fisheries and Oceans Canada backgrounder here. As of April 2006, these fisheries are integrated under a single management plan in Canada. Prior to this, one licence type was not permitted to keep the target species of another licence type if they were to capture it. As a result the fishers were being forced to discard perfectly marketable fish, most often dead. Now fishers are each given a small quota of the species they are likely to encounter. If they exceed this quota they either need to purchase additional quota from other fishers in the fleet or stop fishing. To ensure that each fisher is complying with the rules (i.e., not discarding or high-grading species), each boat is equipped with a camera or a DFO staff member to monitor 100 per cent of the fishing activity. We applaud the commitment of these B.C. fisherman and DFO for taking a critical step toward creating healthy groundfish fisheries in B.C. We hope that, as a result, we will eventually see more groundfish on the green list of sustainable seafood choices (www.seachoice.org). Who Made the List and Who Didn’t
The Foundation is also concerned that species with scientifically defined conservation problems are not getting the protection they need because of short-term political considerations. Our recommendations aim to ensure that when scientists agree, politicians must take action. Which marine species got left off the list and what can be done? Download a PDF of the full report to find out (PDF-328 KB, 18 pages) . To get a printed copy of the report contact Alaya Boisvert, marine program assistant, at aboisvert@davidsuzuki.org; 604-732-4228 x 241. Listen to the DSF podcast about this issue. What can you do? Let federal Environment Minister John Baird know that it's time for Environment Canada to bring the Species At Risk policy in line with the scientific research that backs it. Minister Baird can be reached at: Redfish - Greenfish: Smart seafood choices for a sustainable planet
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A recent DSF study showed that the scientific identification of a species at risk does little to ensure its protection under Canada’s Species At Risk Act. This study, called Left Off the List, points out that the major barrier to legal listing of marine species identified as threatened or endangered is the method that the federal government uses to measure how much legal listing would cost to Canadians. The report states that “the methodology readily identifies the ‘costs’ associated with forgoing present day fishing opportunities, but ignores non-market benefits of protecting species and their habitat (i.e., ecosystem services, intrinsic value of preserving a species, and even future harvest opportunities).”
Redfish: 
