Following the subject TV program article I sent this off to 60 Minutes. Perhaps we need to get some dialog started on a simple solution to taking the controversy out of salmon farming.
I watched with great interest your excellent article on salmon farming in British Columbia. I live in Campbell River, B.C. which is at the heart of B.C. salmon farming. Of course people here are quite polarised on the subject because a lot of people make a good living from salmon farming and others are concerned about its possible long term impact on the wild fishery and attendant impacts on the ecosystem and birds and mammals on the food chain that depend on wild salmon for at least part of their existence.
Although there were arguments pro and con from all sides, everyone in your article agreed on one thing – there is a certain level of uncertainty about what impact long term salmon farming will have on wild stocks due to possible transfer of diseases.
We are taught in school and by our parents to practice safe sex. If we are not certain about our sexual partner, “wear a condom” we are told. Shouldn’t the same advice be practiced by fish farmers? Put a membrane instead of a net between the farm salmon and the wild salmon and the possibility for spreading disease goes away. Duh!! We have the technology.
So why don’t they do it? Because it costs more and therefore impacts on the bottom line.
Conclusion, there is a solution but we allow our ecosystem to be put at risk for private profit. That is obscene!
Marv Everett,
Campbell River
