Editor:
Two recent letters (Coast Reporter, May 7) from Jane Degnan and Edwin Keeling both decry the fish farming industry. It would seem that they are embracing the stance of Alexandra Morton and her crusade to eliminate fish farms in her corner of the world. Her concerns may be most valid in her eyes but fail to appreciate the full situation.
Eliminating fish farms will not save salmon. There are more factors at work than a few fish farms. One has to consider the following obstacles that salmon of today must overcome. The major hardship that salmon have to endure in their migrations up river is today’s population and their penchant for habituating waterfront areas. This colonization brings with it a major pollution factor, which is foreign to salmon.
Two other factors include predators and Mother Nature. The most populous predator on our Coast is the seal population. They do more damage and eat/destroy more salmon than anyone could imagine. In former days, most fishermen packed a 30-30 in their boat cabins in order to exterminate the seals, a bounty being paid by the Department of Fisheries for proof of extermination. There is no such program today, with the result that the seal population is most rapidly appreciating.
The most important factor is Mother Nature herself. I would suggest the return of sockeye salmon to the spawning grounds in 2013 will be so minimal that it will necessitate a no-fishing moratorium for 2013.
One last factor — salmon environment is water, not land. I am wondering whether there might be a touch of NIMBY in Ms. Morton’s crusade.
Stanley Fleetham
Sechelt
