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Press
BC Supreme Court Delivers Ruling in Fish Farming Case
ONE FOR THE WILD SALMON! February 9, 2009 Vancouver, B.C. – Today BC Supreme Court ruled that the BC government does not have the right to regulate salmon farms – the BC regulation of fish farms has become unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. The fish inside the farm are now considered a fishery, not agriculture and thus the federal government has exclusive…
Read more »Sierra Club and Georgia Strait Alliance Join Orca Lawsuit
Feds Lose Round 1 of Battle to Protect Orca Habitat January 26, 2009 Victoria, BC – The Federal Court has ruled that Sierra Club of Canada and Georgia Strait Alliance may join a recently filed lawsuit against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, after DFO tried to block the two groups’ participation. The lawsuit, filed by lawyers with Ecojustice, alleges that the…
Read more »Tiny Minnow Takes on Federal Government – Round 2
Dept of Fisheries and Oceans facing second suit over critical habitat protection January 21, 2009 Vancouver, BC – From the small streams of southern BC, an endangered minnow continues to expose the federal government’s reluctance to protect endangered species. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is now facing a second lawsuit after ignoring its duty to protect critical habitat…
Read more »Salmon Farm Companies Seek Massive Expansion of Current Open Net-Cage Production Sites
If the industry can’t go north, they’ll go big November 19, 2008 Vancouver, B.C. – The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) has learned that fish farm companies are seeking approval to roughly double current licensed production on several farms in critical wild salmon migration routes such as the Broughton Archipelago and the northern Georgia Strait. This follows a provincially imposed…
Read more »Harper Breaks First Election Promise
Feds end sewage prosecution despite claim to be ‘tough on environmental crime’ November 18, 2008 VANCOUVER – Just one month after re-election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already broken an election promise, as his government today shut down a sewage prosecution in the same city where he vowed to crack down on environmental crime. The prosecution had alleged that the…
Read more »Strathcona Regional District Passes Resolution in Support of Funding Salmon Aquaculture Closed Containment
August 12, 2008 NANAIMO, BC – Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA) congratulates the Strathcona Regional District for joining the call to the Province of BC to fund the development of closed containment aquaculture. At their July 31 meeting, the Strathcona Regional District passed a resolution asking "that the provincial government allocate funds toward the establishment of a closed system aquaculture innovation…
Read more »Municipal Leaders Applauded for Demonstrating Environmental Leadership
October 1, 2008 Vancouver, BC – A coalition of 14 leading British Columbia environmental organizations are applauding the passage of several important environmental protection resolutions at last week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Penticton. Key among these resolutions was a call for a moratorium on coal bed methane development in BC’s Sacred Headwaters, and a ban on Liquefied…
Read more »Documents reveal governments acting to undermine species law
Federal and provincial officials agreed not to identify critical endangered species habitat September 8, 2008 Vancouver, BC – In a closely-watched lawsuit about the endangered Nooksack dace, leading environmental groups will present new evidence in Federal Court tomorrow (Tuesday, September 9 at 11 a.m. at 701 West Georgia Street in Vancouver) that the provincial and federal governments have colluded in…
Read more »Salmon Aquaculture Industry in Compliance with Woefully Weak Regulations
July 10, 2008 NANAIMO, BC – Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA) denounced the BC Government’s 2007 salmon aquaculture regulatory compliance report released today. Regulations of the salmon farming industry are woefully inadequate and even full compliance would not adequately protect our marine ecosystems from the negative impacts. "High industry compliance with inadequate regulations that fail to protect wild salmon and the…
Read more »Farmed fish escapes preventable: closed containment needed now
July 3, 2008 COURTENAY, CAMPBELL RIVER – Georgia Strait Alliance and Homalco First Nation expressed their dismay and anger today about the Canada Day escape of 30,000 Atlantic Salmon from the Fredrick Arm Marine Harvest farm in the northern Georgia Strait. "The problem this farm is having with the corner of the net being submerged is similar to problems at the…
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