Fish farms. (Black Press file photo)

LETTER – Ocean health should outweigh corporate profits

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Re: #CoastalJobsGone [and] Ottawa has put our communities at risk (paid advertisement/sponsored page, Dec. 30, 2020 Comox Valley Record)

And so, it begins. The big advertising dollars flow as the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BFSA), a lobbying group, and their large corporate boosters, including Norway’s MOWI and Minnesota-based Cargill, lament the decision by the federal government and the Federal Fisheries Ministry which closes Discovery Island coastal water fish farms by 2022.

What galls this reader the most is how BSFA acts as though they didn’t see the writing on the fishnet when, back in 2012, the report by the Cohen Commission strongly encouraged the closure of fish farms due to their toxic by-products, like sea lice and PRV virus, which infect, to devastating effect, salmon smolts.

In fact, the advertisement sounds like a country-western song minus a hound dog and a Chevy truck.

We weren’t consulted,

No, we had no clue,

We need you to lobby for us,

We beg you – put up a fuss.

Don’t be fooled. Support the federal decision that all Discovery Island fish farms be closed before wild salmon stocks suffer any more harm. Corporate profits be damned.

Pat Carl,

Comox

Comox Valley Record