Public funding of fish farms slammed

Nelson Bennett
September 15, 2010
Richmond News

Perhaps they were satiated by an abundance of sockeye, or just tired from catching so many of them.

Or maybe they have seen too many ineffective inquiries before to think anything will change.

Whatever the reason, when given the chance Monday to tell Ottawa via the Cohen Commission what they think is wrong with the Pacific salmon fishery, local commercial fishermen mostly held their tongues. So did anti-fish farm activists, who handed out pamphlets but did not formally address the commission.

Roughly 65 people attended a Cohen Commission public hearing at Steveston-London Secondary School Monday night. But only five addressed Bruce Cohen, a B.C. Supreme Court judge appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to probe last year's Fraser River sockeye failure.

One of the speakers, Vivian Krause, a former fish farm consultant, was challenged on her accusations that scientists, universities and environmental organizations have been paid by American philanthropist organizations to sway the public away from farmed to wild fish.

Eric Wickham, a Vancouver fisherer who wrote Dead Fish and Fat Cats, said he found Krause's "conspiracy" theories disturbing and countered that the Canadian public has been subsidizing the aquaculture industry.

Wickham had been appointed as a "token" fisherman to AquaNet, which he said received "tens of millions of dollars" from Ottawa to support aquaculture research.

Read the full story in the Richmond News.

Related stories:

• Agassiz-Harrison Observer; September 29, 2010; "Cohen Commission meets with ARMS"
• Harbour City Star; September 17; 2010; "Commission examines reason for fish decline - Ironically, it comes at a time when sockeye returns are booming"
• Nanaimo Daily News; September 15, 2010;" Cohen salmon inquiry raises hope to save declining stocks - Few turn out to give evidence to travelling commission following record sockeye runs"

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