Expert sounds alarm on salmon farming
CBC News
February 17, 2010
A former Norwegian cabinet minister says B.C. can learn from his country's experience that open-net salmon farming can probably never successfully co-exist with wild salmon populations.
A judge, former attorney general and one-time head of the Norway's Great Wild Salmon Commission, Georg Rieber-Mohn made his opinions public in an editorial circulated on the internet Tuesday.
"I fear Canada will teach Norway a lesson ... on the Olympic ice rink but I hope Canada can learn the lessons of Norway with respect to wild salmon and open-net cage salmon farms," he wrote.
The commentary was highly critical of what he believed is Norway's inadequate regulation of salmon farming.
"Our error is to give the … salmon farming industry too much freedom in developing," Rieber-Mohn told CBC News.
Many causes of decline
In 1999, Rieber-Mohn presented a plan to prohibit salmon farming in some of the most important fjord systems. But he said it was watered down after intense lobbying by the industry.
Norway is now dealing with the consequences, he said.
"We have a remarkable, huge decline [in wild salmon stocks]."
Read the full story on CBC News
Posted February 18th, 2010
