Salmon Farming: What You Can Do

Have Your Say on New Aquaculture Regulations

The Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has drafted new federal regulations for aquaculture in BC. These regulations would not improve the way open net-cage salmon farming is currently being done in BC in any significant way. The public has until September 8, 2010 to submit comments.

Learn more about the problems with the draft regulations and visit the DFO website to read the proposed regulation and regulatory impact analysis statement.

Please contact DFO with your concerns. Emails must be submitted in the following format:

Email address: PAR-RPA@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Subject: Pacific Aquaculture Regulations Re: The Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 144, No. 28 - July 10, 2010
Attention: Ed Porter, Team Leader, Regulatory Operations, Aquaculture Management Directorate
Body: your comments and suggestions 

Help Prevent Open Net-Cage Salmon Farms from being Certified Organic 

The Canadian General Standards Board is currently considering draft Organic Aquaculture Standards that would see open net-cage salmon farming certified as organic. Such weak standards threaten the integrity of the organic label and negate others' efforts to produce truly organic products. This standard violates the very principles of what an organics label should mean, and expose the Canadian government's irresponsible management and promotion of open net-cage aquaculture. Standards that allow business-as-usual salmon farming to slap on an organic label are unacceptable.

Learn more about what's wrong with the proposed Organic Aquaculture Standards. The public comment period ends on August 30, 2010. To view the standard and download a comment form, go to the Canadian General Standards Board website. 

Make a Submission to the Cohen Inquiry

The Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River is accepting submissions from the public. There is an online form making it easy for you to quickly make a submission to the Inquiry, and you can also comment on others' public submissions posted to the Inquiry's website. 

Join Us on the Wild Salmon Express!

Georgia Strait Alliance will be joining our friends at The Ripple Effect on their Wild Salmon Express. The 2010 Wild Salmon Express will travel the Fraser River Basin from August 1 through Aug 31, 2010. These wild salmon supporters will cycle through the Fraser's 13 sub-watersheds with a mission of connecting the voices, the stories, the knowledge, the concerns and the people who live near the waters of the Fraser River, enabling people to take concrete action based on watershed wisdom to promote the sustainability of salmon stocks for future generations.  

Join us in the fun and come sign and deliver postcards addressed to MP Fin Donnelly supporting Bill C-518 calling for closed containment for fish farms. 

Emergency Measures Needed in the Wild Salmon Narrows

Five open net-cage salmon farms must be permanently removed from a salmon migration route in the northern Georgia Strait in order to protect thousands of juvenile salmon from sea lice and other potentially fatal diseases.

Georgia Strait Alliance, with our partners at the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, are demanding that all fish farms be removed from Okisollo and Hoskyn Channels along the east and north of Quadra Island in the Wild Salmon Narrows. This is a necessary emergency measure to protect wild salmon, including Fraser River Sockeye, from sea lice infection from fish farms.

Sign our urgent action to demand the closure of the five active fish farms. Interested organizations can sign on to our Wild Salmon Narrows Declaration.

Write a Letter

If you would like to write your own letter, rather than sign our petition, we have prepared some talking points and contact information to help you out. 

Help Spread the Word

Help spread the word that our wild salmon need to be protected from open net-cage salmon farms.

Order free "Say NOrWAY to Uncontained Salmon Farms" stickers-and get the word out to friends, neighbours, associations, and political forums.

Just send an email to info@FarmedAndDangerous.org.