{"id":81693,"date":"2021-02-26T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=81693"},"modified":"2024-11-11T16:41:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T16:41:15","slug":"killing-10-million-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=81693","title":{"rendered":"Killing 10 million fish & eggs “unfortunate”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine the raging protests that eco-activists would stage if an aquaculture company in BC accidentally killed 10.7 million healthy young fish and fish eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There would be rabid social-media howls from Victoria to Ottawa and back, noisy demonstrations, endless protests on camera, and solemn stories quoting protesters in printed media and on the evening news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will be said, though, if 10.7 million healthy young fish and eggs are instead culled because of a dubious decision by a federal government dooming them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa itself says, “the culling of any fish would be unfortunate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that is exactly what will happen unless federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan backs down on, or at least delays, her decision to close 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area of BC by next summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, culling has already started: Staff at the Big Tree Hatchery near Sayward, Vancouver Island, have begun sedating nearly a million fish, under the supervision of a vet, and then euthanizing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have already questioned the one-sided ministerial decision<\/a> that Jordan declared “reflects the wishes of the seven First Nations in the area.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister failed to point out that this decision spelled doom for more than 1,500 direct and indirect jobs (many held by First Nations people) and threatened plans to invest $1.4 billion through 2050 and create almost 10,000 new jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the aquaculture industry is challenging the decision in court\u2014seeking reconsideration from Ottawa, or at the very least an extension of the shutdown deadline to save fish and eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new report<\/a> from the BC Salmon Farmers Association spells out the damage from the Minister’s decision, and the SeaWestNews<\/em><\/a> service highlights the “devastating impacts” in the report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“<\/strong>BC’s salmon farmers will have to destroy 10.7 million young fish \u2013 the equivalent of over 210 million protein rich meals \u2013 if the federal government does not set aside its decision to force the closure of fish farms in the Discovery Islands area by next summer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closures mean almost $390 million in lost annual economic output, $87 million less in annual salaries and benefits, and 1,535 fewer jobs, mainly in BC’s remote coastal communities where there are few alternative employment opportunities for families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SeaWestNews<\/em> adds that left unaltered, the Discovery Islands decision will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n