Dear Members of Parliament
In a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands in May I was told there is no plan in place to prevent drug resistance developing in sea lice in salmon farms operating British Columbia's waters.
In this article, Dr. Larry Hammel director of the Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown says, "Sea lice do not wait for fish farmers, pesticide companies, researchers and regulators to catch up."
Salmon farmers using eastern Canadian waters are now demanding new drugs ASAP, - before this summer - which means powerful corporate lobbies will successfully rush approval of an "arsenal" of drugs all of which kill marine organisms with shells. This includes zooplankton the foundation of our marine food chain and highly lucrative fishery species such as lobsters, prawns, crabs, and shrimp.
In my opinion these same fish farm companies are being aided by our BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands in doing nothing, until the last moment when they will call again for emergency drug release and the public will be forced to accept more toxic chemicals into our ocean because we "need" their low paying jobs even if it risks the independent economies of our coastal towns and future of the eastern Pacific.
Please put an end to this nonsense. There is no "emergency" this is their way of doing business and it is not acceptable. I suspect they know that without the "emergency" we would never accept these drugs in our oceans. Get these corporate feedlots out of the highly productive waters of British Columbia.
Alexandra Morton
