This year's historic Fraser River sockeye run is a heartening reminder of how plentiful wild salmon used to be every year in hundreds of rivers across BC. But one good run in a hundred years is not enough.

Our coastal communities, First Nations people, and ecosystems deserve salmon runs like this every year, where the rivers team with wild salmon returning home.

We can not turn our back on wild salmon. From hydro dams on rivers, and clear cuts beside them we are staking the odds against wild salmon stocks. We need to take immediate action to get rid of the factors that are clearly hurting wild salmon - and that means getting rid of polluting fish farms.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a powerful opportunity to protect wild salmon. This December, jurisdiction over fish farms and aquaculture will transfer from the province to the federal government due to a successful court case by Alexandra . The are in the midst of developing new regulations to set out a new vision for aquaculture on the coast of BC.

We hoped that the feds would take the need to protect our wild salmon seriously. We hoped that they would step up where the provincial government had failed.

But instead of using this as an opportunity to protect wild salmon the federal government is dropping the ball on regulating industrial salmon farms on BC’s wild west coast. The proposed federal aquaculture regulations are putting fish farm profits ahead of wild salmon. are putting the fish farm industry before wild salmon. The new regulations don’t have much in the way of details, and even less in the way of protection for wild salmon.

These regulations will allow for expansion of industrial fish farms and the further erosion of public oversight. The regulations outline guidelines that could be included in a license, like having to report on diseases and control pollution, but the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans a blank slate to determine what guidelines each individual license holder has to follow. Right now there are no provisions for No public comment, no industry wide standards, and no protection for wild salmon and oceans.

The draft regulations are a step backwards for wild salmon, and a clear deviation from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans mandate to "conserve and protect aquatic ecosystems". The last thing wild salmon need is a regulatory regime that makes it easy for industrial fish farms to operate.

We know what the problem is. We know what we need to do. It is time for that our government to take this issue seriously and take immediate action to get industrial fish farms off our coast. We have until September 8, 2010 to comment. Please stand up for BC’s wild salmon: write in and express your concerns today!

Thank you for your help,

Tria Donaldson | Pacific Coast Campaigner
Wilderness Committee