After more than a decade of U.S.-funded attacks targeted exclusively on B.C.香蕉视频直播檚 salmon farm industry, the tide is finally turning. The fake-news tactics of hired protesters have become so obvious that even some news media aren香蕉视频直播檛 biting any more.
Noted marine biologist Pamela Anderson wasn香蕉视频直播檛 able to assist this summer香蕉视频直播檚 second season of the Sea Shepherd Society香蕉视频直播檚 unreality show in the Broughton Archipelago. That香蕉视频直播檚 the island group between northern Vancouver Island and the mainland.
This year Sea Shepherd was reduced to begging for 香蕉视频直播渆mbedded香蕉视频直播� 香蕉视频直播渏ournalists香蕉视频直播� to join them aboard the MV Martin Sheen, a floating vanity mirror for another faded celebrity. They hoped their first season of propaganda visuals and guerrilla visits to B.C. salmon farms would be featured on National Geographic TV, but producers checked it out and passed.
This season, two Marine Harvest farms have been occupied since late August by local aboriginal people, organized and publicized via Sea Shepherd.
Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc was in Victoria last week to speak to a . You saw nothing in the city media because organizers can香蕉视频直播檛 publicize the event, lest the protesters and descend.
LeBlanc warned that the recent escape of Atlantic salmon from a Washington state farm is the kind of 香蕉视频直播渟loppy practice香蕉视频直播� Canada can香蕉视频直播檛 afford, even with B.C.香蕉视频直播檚 superior standards. There was a brief round of hysteria about this, but it香蕉视频直播檚 long been proven that even millions of released Atlantics can香蕉视频直播檛 compete with Pacific salmon or colonize B.C. rivers.
I found out about the industry meeting as I followed up on Premier John Horgan香蕉视频直播檚 quiet visit to Alert Bay, the remote island community near where the occupations have been staged. Horgan was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser and Transportation Minister Claire Trevena, who lives on Quadra Island. All have drunk the evil-salmon-farm Kool-Aid for years.
Horgan香蕉视频直播檚 office issued a terse statement after visiting the 香蕉视频直播橬amgis First Nation at Alert Bay. It said Popham would 香蕉视频直播渟hare the concerns香蕉视频直播� about these farms with LeBlanc香蕉视频直播檚 department, and noted 香蕉视频直播渢he industry now generates nearly $800 million in annual value, while supporting several thousand jobs in rural and remote coastal areas.香蕉视频直播�
Popham didn香蕉视频直播檛 show at the industry conference, where she would have heard about rapidly evolving technology and research to make farms more secure, in B.C. if not in the U.S. and Chile.
She would have heard from LeBlanc that he intends to break one of the deadlocks between the industry and its opponents, making public federal inspection data for aquaculture operations.
She would have heard from Norway香蕉视频直播檚 Ambassador to Canada, Anne Kari Ovind, who described the next steps her country is taking in an industry it pioneered 50 years ago.
Ovind said Norway is launching a new regulatory regime based on the work of former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who led a landmark 1987 study of sustainable development, and served as director-general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003.
Ovind noted that the world香蕉视频直播檚 population is expected to peak at 9.7 billion people by 2050, and expanded aquaculture will be needed to feed everyone. Earth香蕉视频直播檚 surface is 75 per cent water, but that area is producing only five per cent of human food.
香蕉视频直播� This brings me to the delicate matter of aboriginal participation in these protests, and the foreign-directed tactics against logging and petroleum. I香蕉视频直播檒l deal with that in a subsequent column.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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