Forging relationships with salmon farmers
In a landmark development, the David Suzuki Foundation and our colleagues in CAAR have entered into a framework agreement with Marine Harvest Canada, a major aquaculture operation in B.C. We are working together to research the effects of sea lice on wild salmon, the viability of closed tank systems, and the monitoring of net-cage farming. The agreement has already led to the temporary removal of adult salmon from one farm in the Broughton Archipelago in an effort to reduce sea lice infestations on vulnerable juvenile salmon during their migration out to sea.
For more info:
http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/?action=d7_article_view_folder&Join_ID=82887

Slowing to a trawl
The dangers of trawling are well understood. Dragging heavy nets across the ocean floor has been compared to forest clearcutting. It destroys sensitive habitat, damages deep-water corals and other marine life, and scoops up all living things in its path. While some species slip through the nets, few survive the trauma. Others are hauled up in the nets as bycatch and thrown overboard when they are dead or dying. In many fisheries the bycatch may even be greater than the catch of the targeted species.

The Foundation recently attended a DFO meeting in which international research findings were reviewed. The findings are conclusive: bottom trawling has a significantly greater impact on marine benthic environments than any other fishing gear type.

In an effort to curtail trawling, several countries have proposed a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling that’s supported by an international coalition of environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, called the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition The moratorium is being proposed via a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly in November 2006.
For more info: http://www.savethehighseas.org/trawling.cfm

No protection for struggling Interior Fraser River Coho
Despite the endangered state of Interior Fraser Coho Salmon, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans failed to list them under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA). The minister’s decision was made despite recommendations by his own department's scientists to give coho salmon SARA protection. By not listing these coho salmon, the minister has increased the chance that we could lose these unique wild salmon forever.
For more:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Campaigns_and_Programs/Salmon_Aquaculture/News_Releases/newsaquaculture04120601.asp

Greenwashing salmon?
Last month, one of the U.S’s largest food store chains, Wegmans, advertised “Food You Feel Good About: Farmed King Salmon.” The ad promised that “customers can be confident that our farmed salmon is safe, healthy and raised in a way that protects the environment.“

Wegmans worked with a U.S.-based environmental organization, Environmental Defense, to identify problems with farmed salmon production and came up with salmon farm operating standards to address these issues. The company then identified a salmon farm in B.C. that they felt met these standards.

The David Suzuki Foundation, along with our colleagues in the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) reviewed those standards and found them to be weak and unenforceable, offering what appears to be a stamp of approval on current destructive farmed salmon practices. Additionally, there is no way to verify that fish farms are even meeting Wegmans’s standards. These fish may come with a label that says they are environmentally preferable, but we believe that salmon farming practices have a long way to go before they can be considered sustainable.

View our comments on the standards at:
http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/?action=d7_article_view_folder&Join_ID=82887

New Captain of the DFO ship
Canada has a new Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) minister. Loyola Hearn was formerly the Conservative critic for this ministry, and has been a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.

Minister Hearn has met with David Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups, and has said on a previous occasion that “fisheries should not be destroying critical ocean habitat.” We hope his encouraging words will translate into action that truly helps our oceans and fisheries.

Events

The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
For the past 15 years, environmental scientist Dr. Riki Ott has researched the effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill which devastated Prince William Sound in Alaska. The disaster killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and mammals.

Please join Dr. Ott as she tells us about her disturbing conclusions in her new book Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 26, 7:30 pm
WHERE: Vancouver Public Library, Peter Kaye room
COST: $5/$8 at the door

Smart seafood

Greenfish: Dungeness Crab
Crab generally live on sandy ocean bottoms at depths of up to 50 metres. They grow by moulting, losing their hard outer shell and gradually developing a soft shell that swells and hardens as it takes on water. B.C.’s crab fishery appears to be sustainably managed. However, there are concerns that juvenile, female and soft-shelled crabs are being harvested illegally.

Redfish: Pacific cod
Pacific cod live on the ocean bottom and feed on invertebrates and other fish. Their numbers are extremely low in most areas off the B.C. coast. Habitat damage and bycatch are chief concerns within this fishery, and as a result, it should be avoided.

Take action
Write Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) minister Loyola Hearn, and ask him to back up his words with action:
Stop issuing new open-net pen aquaculture licenses and encourage the industry to move closed-tank containment
Express Canada’s formal support for an international ban on deep-sea bottom trawling
Start the Marine Use Planning process that manages our oceans with ecosystem integrity and increases Canada’s marine protected areas from 0.1% to at least 5% by 2010.

E-mail: Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca
Webiste: http://www.loyolahearn.nf.net

Read about the David Suzuki Foundation's new vision for Canada: Sustainability within a generation

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