Protesters bring anti-fish-farm message to Victoria

Brennan Clarke
May 8, 2010
The Globe and Mail

As Alexandra Morton watched her supporters pour on to the legislature lawn Saturday, she couldn't help noticing that the final leg of her fish-farming protest walk looked an awful lot like the kind of healthy, wild-salmon run she has spent the past 20 years trying to save.

“I was really, in the true sense of the word, overwhelmed to stand on the legislature steps and see the surge of people coming down Government Street,” Ms. Morton said. “The lawn was full, the streets were pouring. … I felt like I was watching the sockeye go up the Adams River.”

In one of the largest environmental demonstrations the city has ever seen, close to 4,000 people turned out for the culmination of Ms. Morton's 500-kilometre “Get Out Migration” walk that began April 23 in Campbell River.

For Ms. Morton, the event was a turning point in her ongoing battle against open-net salmon farming on B.C.'s coast, much of which she waged in relative anonymity from her home in the Broughton Archipelago, where as much as one-third of the province's farmed salmon is produced.

“I've lobbied government and done the studies and gone through all these steps and nobody would listen. About two months ago, I realized what we need here is the people,” she said.

“I think we're past the point where people are going to sit there and let them take this resource away.”

Research by Ms. Morton and others indicates that farmed salmon pens in the Broughton Archipelago, home to some of B.C.s most important salmon runs, are breeding grounds for pathogens and parasites such as sea lice that infect wild salmon.

Salmon farming companies say they're equally concerned about the region's disappearing salmon stocks, but reject the idea that salmon farming is to blame. 

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories in:

• PQB News; May 31, 2010; "Future of fish farms in B.C. controversial"
• Quesnel Observer; May 13, 2010; "Island fish farm protesters rally"
• The Westerly News; May 12, 2010;""Salmon protest regarded as largest sit-in in legislature"
• The Cowichan Valley Citizen; May 12, 1010; "Morton greeted with 'powerful' rally"
• Watershed Sentinel; May 12, 2010; "The great Get Out Migration against open net pen fish farms in BC"
• Courier Islander; May 12, 2010; "500-kilometre protest walk ends in Victoria" 
• Delta Optimist; May 12, 2010; "Foes join hands to fight fish farms - Cummins and Crey see eye-to-eye over threat to wild salmon stocks"
• Maple Ridge News; May 11, 2010; "Two walks focus on wild salmon"
• The Vancouver Sun; May 10, 2010; "500-km walk protests salmon farms - Demonstrators rally to raise awareness of penned fish farms' impact on wild stocks"
• Cowichan News Leader; May 10, 2010; "Get Out Migration walkers deliver wild salmon message to Cowichan" 
• Examiner.com; May 9, 2010; "British Columbia farmed salmon is under attack"
• BC Local News; May 9th, 2010; "Fish farm protest draws big crowd"
• The Times Colonist; May 9th, 2010; "Sea of people marches to fight fish farms" 
• The Vancouver Sun; May 9th, 2010; "Sea of people marches to fight fish farms"
• Environmental News Examiner; May 9th, 2010; "British Columbia farmed salmon is under attack" 
• Top News (Singapore); May 8th, 2010; "Sea lice fatal to salmon - biologist fears salmon extinction by 2010"
• The Times Colonist; May 8th, 2010; "Walk for the wild side steps up" 
• The Province; May 8th, 2010; Biggest ever B.C. fish-farm protest sends message to Victoria" 
• CHEK News; May 8th, 2010; "Salmon Walk Ends". To view, click the link and type "Salmon Walk Ends"  into the search field
• Global TV News; May 8th, 2010; "Fish Farms Protest"
• BC Local News; May 8th, 2010; "Fish farm protesters rally at legislature"