An international aquaculture organization is calling King Harald V of Norway to make Norwegian fishing companies protect western Canada’s wild salmon.
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This is part of the organization, Aqua Nor’s, campaign called Pure Salmon. It’s biannual meeting is taking place in Trondheim, Norway this year starting on Tuesday. Prior to this, Pure Salmon sent a message to the King of Norway.
It reads:
As both the King of Norway and a wild salmon angler on the River Alta yourself, Your Royal Highness surely has an interest in protecting wild salmon both in Norway and internationally as well as preserving Norway’s international reputation.
The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held along the shores of the Fraser River where the wild sockeye salmon that run past Norwegian-owned fish farms have been closed to fishing again this year.
When you meet with Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg, the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries, Helga Pedersen, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, Gail Shea, and Scotland’s Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, during Aqua Nor we therefore encourage you to ask why Norwegian companies are still being allowed to kill wild fish not just in Norway but also in Canada, Scotland and Ireland.
At Aqua Nor’s trade show, there will be a film, called “Dear Norway: Help Save Canada’s Wild Salmon,” to be viewed. It is supposed to be about how salmon farming is harming not only the fish, but also the wild animals that feed on them, such as the grizzly bear.
“The weight of scientific evidence my colleagues and I have published in peer-reviewed journals shows that sea lice from Norwegian-owned salmon farms are pushing wild pink salmon toward extinction,” said Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station. “I personally invite the King of Norway, together with fellow passionate angler John Fredriksen, to come out to the Broughton Archipelago to bear witness themselves to the poor practices of Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg.”
More than 90% of British Columbia’s salmon farming production is controlled by Norwegian fishing companies.
“It is ironic that the King of Norway is opening the world’s largest farmed salmon trade show in one of only two fjords where wild salmon are fully protected from salmon farms,” said Geir Kjensmo, chairman of the Norwegian Salmon Association. “In view of the declines in wild salmon and sea trout stocks and rise in sea lice infestation here in Norway, the Laksfjord protection in the Trondheimsfjord and the Tanafjord must be extended to completely cover other fjords. And the message coming loud and clear from Canada is that wild Pacific salmon must be afforded protection from Norwegian-owned open net cages misplaced on migration corridors.”
King Harald will be opening the trade show. It is not known if he will see the film, or make any comment in regards to the Pure Salmon campaign.
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