Rocking the boat to save West Coast salmon

Christina Toth
May 4, 2010
The Abbotsford Times

You could hear their singing before you could see them clearly.

The big canoe looked tiny as it floated down the middle of the muddy Fraser, its 10 paddlers urging their vessel downstream into the Mission Harbour on Thursday evening.

On board were Sto:lo Nations members from the Chilliwack and Hope areas, Mission residents and others who want to save the West Coast salmon from extinction.

In a 10-day river voyage spearheaded by Mission's Elena Edwards, paddlers from several communities along the river are out in support of salmon researcher Alexandra Morton's campaign to protect the species. Morton has documented the negative effects on juvenile salmon from the sea lice that thrive around commercial fish farms on the coast, and she says the lice are killing the young salmon just as they head out to sea.

Read the full story in the Abbotsford Times

Read related stories:

• Times Colonist; May 2, 2010; "'Near-misses' alarm fish-farm foes"

Click here to read related stories prior to May 1st.