Alexandra Morton Wins Conservation Award

From the North Island Gazette
May 3, 2007

Echo Bay citizen Alexandra Morton has been named Conservationist of the year by the BC Wildlife Federation.

Morton won the Barsby Award during the group’s convention held Apr. 19 to 21 in Dawson Creek. The award is given annually to a BC resident for conservation work.

Alexandra Morton’s impressive list of achievements include a number of books on whales, says a press release, but she is best known for her research and outspoken criticism on the impacts sea lice from fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago are having on seaward-migrating juvenile salmon.

When Morton began publishing her findings she was dismissed as an activist opposed to the benefits of fish farms, says the release. She persisted in her research, discovering lethal infestation rates of sea lice on juvenile pink and coho near fish farms in the area.

She wrote 10,000 pages of letters, published 12 articles and appeared on 16 television and radio shows attempting to raise awareness among politicians, resource agencies and anyone else who might listen, says the release. It is largely because of her public exposure of the sea lice problem that the federation now opposes open net pen fish farming.

But it was not for her prodigious list of publications or even her research that this award was presented, says the release. Rather it is for her perseverance in the face of criticism from industry and government that she deserves to be recognized by those who have pledged to defend from waste the natural resources of this province, it adds.

Alexandra Morton is a member of Georgia Strait Alliance's Advisory Council.