Formed last January, the Wild Salmon Alliance (WSA) is fighting all levels of mismanagement of CanadaÂ’s saltwater fisheries on the West Coast of British Columbia. The litany of abuse includes:
- management based on political decisions made in Ottawa that are aimed at benefitting the bureaucracy rather than decisions based on good science to benefit fish and their habitat
- severe cutbacks to field-level enforcement staff, fisheries technicians and biologists
- the closure of local Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) offices
- curtailment of the Salmonid Enhancement Program
- closing salmon hatcheries
- permitting open net-pen salmon farms to flourish along the outward migration routes of juvenile pink, chum and sockeye salmon, which has resulted in severe depletion of entire year classes and is leading to their potential extinction
WSA’s first priority is to force the saltwater aquaculture industry to eliminate open net-pens that degrade habitat and devastate wild salmon stocks (and even juvenile herring on which the salmon feed).
More information about saving wild salmon can be found at Calling from the Coast, Farmed and Dangerous, and Rafe MairÂ’s Web site.