Press

For Immediate Release: May 19, 2004 VICTORIA – The development of a unique and sensitive ecosystem and the disinterring of First Nations ancestral remains are at the centre of a challenge mounted against an aquaculture facility at Walker Hook on Saltspring Island. An eleven-day hearing into the matter by an Environmental Appeal Board panel concluded today in Victoria. Local residents,…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 3, 2004 POWELL RIVER – Today, an environmental group congratulated the federal government for turning down a proposed salmon farm at Raven Bay, Texada Island along the Sunshine Coast. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Transport Canada have completed their review of this site and have denied approval saying that the navigational concerns around the site…

December 20, 2004 – MEDIA RELEASE CAMPBELL RIVER – Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has discontinued its environmental review of a proposed salmon farm in Bute Inlet, saying that the proponent, Heritage Aquaculture, has withdrawn its application. In 2001, the Bute Inlet Downie Range site was proposed as an alternate location for environmentally problematic salmon farms in Alberni Inlet and…

December 28, 2004 – MEDIA RELEASE A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered Marine Harvest, the fish-farming arm of the Dutch multi-national Nutreco, to stop putting Atlantic salmon smolts into its pens at the mouth of Bute Inlet. Peter Grant, legal counsel for the Homalco First Nation, based the application for the injunction before Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield of the…

January 17, 2005 – MEDIA RELEASE – For Immediate Release Victoria, BC – A provincial government plan to reduce sea lice on salmon farms by treating the fish with a toxic chemical will still expose young salmon to fatal levels of sea lice, says the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR). “This plan is essentially the same as the 2004…

January 24, 2005 – BACKGROUNDER The Judicial Review of the process that, in the fall of 2002, led to the approval of the Church House fish farm site commences today in B.C. Supreme Court. The site, which is located directly in front of the traditional village and reserve of the Homalco First Nation, known as Church House, is at the…

March 3, 2005 – MEDIA RELEASE VANCOUVER, B.C. – Justice Powers, a BC Supreme Court Judge, has ruled that the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) erred in failing to properly consult with the Xwemalhkwu (Homalco) First Nation regarding the approval of a species amendment to allow Marine Harvest, the fish-farming arm of Dutch trans-national Nutreco, to introduce…

DFO Failing to Protect Wild Stocks from Disease at Fish Farms Media Release: June 9, 2005 VANCOUVER – Sierra Legal Defence Fund has filed a formal complaint today with the Auditor General of Canada against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Representing the Georgia Strait Alliance, United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU-CAW) and David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Legal claims…

Safe Migration Route Through Salmon Farms Essential Media Release: September 28, 2005 Vancouver – Environmental groups, independent scientists, First Nations, tourism operators and commercial fishermen today called for the provincial government to empty fish farms in order to provide a safe migration route for the wild salmon of the Broughton Archipelago after preliminary numbers of pink salmon returns show another…

Media Release: January 12, 2006 Alert Bay, Campbell River, Sointula, Vancouver Marine Harvest Canada and the nine member groups of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) today announced the completion of a “Framework for Dialogue” that will foster collaborative efforts toward solving the conflicts surrounding open net-cage salmon farming. In recent years there has been heated debate around the…