Salmon Farms - Tenures Expired
by Salmon are Sacred
While the BC government
appears to support salmon feedlots in the ocean, they have not renewed
the land tenure agreements that give each feedlot
legal access to anchor over the seafloor in the Broughton Archipelago.
“Some of these operations
have not had a valid tenure for several years,” says BC biologist, Alexandra
Morton. “They are operating on a month-to-month arrangement. This is rather
huge. No one can figure out why and that concerns us.”
It is unclear whether the
problem is failure to win First Nations approval, failure to clear Transport
Canada, constitutional matters that prohibit privatization of ocean spaces, or
liability issues. But as it stand the Broughton Archipelago is legally salmon
feedlot-free.
Echo Bay, B.C. – Six days ago “A Digital Gathering”
began and 2,098 people have signed.
Two thousand people call on the BC government to
concede that they have failed to renew salmon feedlot land tenures - it is
time to remove the pens
“Out of respect for the
law of this land, the Broughton First Nations and future generations, we
recognize that the land tenures under the salmon feedlots in Broughton have
expired. We the under-signed affirm that the region known as the Broughton
Archipelago (between and including Kingcome and Knight Inlets and west through
Drury Inlet) is therefore legally salmon feedlot-free. We call on the Province
of British Columbia to honour this reality that they caused by not renewing the
salmon feedlot leases and remove the feedlot equipment from Broughton so that
wild fish can thrive in these waters to the benefit of all.”
“How can the federal
government authorize an industrial activity that appears unable to get legal tenure to
the physical sites they occupy,” asks Morton?
“Legally, constitutionally and
biologically this industry never quite fits and we in the Broughton
live with the day-to-day consequences of this. If the province can’t tenure this
industry what is it doing in the ocean? Legally Broughton is salmon feedlot-free and the province needs to own up to that.”
For Immediate release –
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