Something fishy in B.C. The latest foe in the war over salmon farms? Rapacious Norwegians.

Last summer, Norway’s richest man, John Frederiksen, went fishing on Norway’s legendary Alta, one of the world’s richest salmon rivers. Frederiksen made his first fortune running oil tankers to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. He is now the silver-haired principal shareholder of Marine Harvest, which controls 20 to 30 per cent of the worldwide salmon farming industry. An avid angler, he told the reporter who was along on the trip that he was “concerned about the future of wild salmon,” and that fish farms shouldn’t be allowed near wild salmon runs because of the pollution and disease they spread in the open ocean.

What’s bad for Norway may be just fine for B.C., however, where Marine Harvest and two other Norwegian firms control 92 per cent of the $320-million salmon farming industry. Many of the farms are situated smack in the middle of key wild salmon runs, including the Fraser River run, which, this fall, recorded a 60 per cent decline in returning fish. Over the coming decade, the firms are projected to double production in B.C. Profits are destined for Oslo