The Wild Salmon Defenders Alliance continued our quest to educate government officials about the impacts of open net fish farms today, at the office of Health Minister Adrian Dix. WSDA sang and drummed the sacred songs and delivered a letter to the Minister on the health impacts to First Nations communities being deprived of a traditional wild salmon diet due to record low returns over the past few decades. The letter discussed scientific papers that show farmed salmon are higher in PCBs than wild salmon and land-based farm animals. Contaminants in farmed fish have been linked to gestational diabetes in pregnant women and type 2 diabetes in children. Clearly, removing open net pen fish farms from the ocean and working to restore wild salmon to their former high levels is an important public health issue and as such, we ask that Minister Dix support efforts to cancel fish farms tenures due in June and transition the farms onto land containment where they will not impact wild salmon.
We will continue to hold rallies at government offices until the government finally acts to protect wild salmon.