Atlantic salmon spill in the Salish Sea

I was excited to head out on vacation with my family this week. This year has been non-stop action and we have earned a brief respite before school and the fall legislative session starts up in a couple weeks.

Other than keeping my email inboxes pruned, I was not going to spend much time thinking about work. But, as we were heading out of town I heard the news that Cooke Aquaculture had a fish farm breach and thousands of Atlantic salmon were “spilled” into the Salish Sea.

The Pacific salmon, is very close to my heart. It is featured on my wedding ring and was my campaign logo and they are often the centrepiece of the stories I tell about our connection to our home here in the Saanich Inlet and Southern Gulf Islands.

As many of you who have heard these stories will already know, my heart aches with the decline of the Pacific salmon. I am frustrated that we have not fully invested ourselves at the federal, provincial or local government level to ensure one of the most important renewable resources on the west coast is thriving.

When I heard of the “spill” of Atlantic salmon into the Salish Sea I had to set my family vacation aside for a few minutes to register both my frustration and sadness that our governments, of which I am a part, are letting us down!

“In Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada monitors for escaped Atlantic salmon, according to a statement, but doesn’t use terms like “invasive” or describe them as any particular threat to local fish.

University of Victoria ecologist John Volpe said the problem is it is unknown what the impacts are.
“In my mind it’s really a dereliction of duty in terms of the regulating mechanisms in this country to not have an answer to that question, given that our coast of British Columbia here is literally awash in these potentially invasive species,” he said.

“Nothing good is going to come of these releases, and the … magnitude of negative impacts might be very, very severe.” CBC.ca

This is clearly not good enough. It is time to take action and instead of throwing our hands in the air and giving up on wild Pacific salmon, it is time to invest in renewing our relationship with our salmon relatives as my WSANEC Elders teach us all.

Photo credit: Ellie Kinley (Facebook)