For Immediate Release

November 1, 2007 – Vancouver, Winnipeg, Victoria - The nine-member Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) and the Wilderness Committee are honouring the spirits of B.C.s dying wild salmon today as Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebrations “haunt” Safeway stores in three Canadian cities.

The events, part of a Global Week of Action, highlight the need for the grocery giant to take responsibility for their continued support of open net-cage salmon farming, an industry whose practices are responsible for the spread of sea lice that kill wild salmon, contamination of marine ecosystems and marine mammal deaths.

“Safeway paints itself as a caring corporation yet it chooses to cling to the profits from a very marginal portion of their overall sales rather than using their buying power to pressure farmed salmon suppliers to clean up their industry,” said Catherine Stewart of Living Oceans Society, a CAAR member group. “Wild salmon are the backbone of our coastal communities. It is shocking that Safeway continues to invest in the destruction of this species and the way of life it supports.”

Activists in salmon skeleton costumes are converging in Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg. In Victoria, a funeral procession will lead to Safeways doorstep. In Vancouver, a banner stating “Safeway Farmed Salmon: Profiting from Extinction” will greet customers as a “Safeway vampire” stalks the costumed protestors, mimicking a blood-sucking sea louse stalking wild salmon.

“Governments are failing our salmon and the Norwegian-owned aquaculture industry isnt going to fix the problem – it comes down to the retailers who are profiting from farmed salmon,” said Geoff Senichenko of the Wilderness Committee. “Were calling on Safeway to be the leader it claims to be and take a stand today by demanding a more sustainable product. Tell the industry you will stop selling farmed salmon until they improve their practices.”

The evidence that substantive action is needed continues to grow. This month, the latest peer-reviewed paper investigating the threat of sea lice to wild salmon illustrated, through mathematical modeling, that increasing sea lice exposure of juvenile pink salmon (often the case with aquaculture) can quickly lead to pink salmon population collapse.

Scientific findings such as this spurred the B.C. Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture to recommend a complete transition from open net-cage technology to closed containment systems within five years. Safeways buying power could help jump start this transition.

The Day of the Dead events today are being held in coordination with allies in the US, Chile, Scotland and Norway who are taking part in the Global Week of Action to expose the impacts of salmon farming worldwide. Canadian groups will be on-site at Safeway stores handing out information to customers and encouraging shoppers to tell their Safeway store manager to stop supporting the open net-cage salmon farms and support an industry-wide transition to closed containment.

Vancouver: Thursday, November 1st
2315 West Fourth Ave. (at Vine St.)
11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Victoria: Thursday, November 1st
Contact info below.

Winnipeg: Thursday, November 1st
River Ave. (at Osborne St.)
6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

For more information contact:

Catherine Stewart, Living Oceans Society, Vancouver: 604-916-6722
Geoff Senichenko, Wilderness Committee, Vancouver: 604-992-3099
Jessi Junkin, Wilderness Committee, Victoria: 250-388-9292

For Canadian actions and information visit:
www.FarmedandDangerous.org
For global actions and information visit:
www.FarmedSalmonExposed.org