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[chris gadsden]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/mark-hume/cohen-commissions-calm-hides-turmoil-behind-scenes/article2079410/

[troutbreath]

I've always thought you should be able to sue people who hide behind confidentiality when they know that they are really trying to keep the general public in the dark. If ISA wipes out the fish here you would think that some heads would roll. But look at the Cod fishery back east and you can see that the exploiters know they will not be on the guillotine. High time for some accountability in the form of lawsuits and jail time.

[chris gadsden]

Please find enclosed a press update including:

 

"Dr. Alexandra Morton, biologist-wild salmon activist: “We don’t realize that we as individual human beings on this planet have the power"" (Kickass Canadians, 1st July): http://kickasscanadians.ca/dr-alexandra-morton

 

"Trekker Cermaqs toppsjef for kanadisk rett - Miljøaktivisten Don Staniford varsler at rettssaken i Canada vil bli brukt til å avsløre norsk oppdrettsindustri" (Dagbladet, 1st July): http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/07/01/nyheter/oppdrett/helse/miljovern/rettssak/17144131/

 

"Cermaq in the Dock in Canada - CEO Geir Isaksen challenged to testify in Supreme Court of British Columbia" (GAAIA, 1st July): http://www.wildsalmonfirst.org/restaurants

 

"Is a Virus Ravaging BC's Sockeye?: As pressure mounts to shine more light on the question, the politics get hotter" (The Tyee, 30th June): http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/30/SockeyeVirus/

 

"Government deceit, DFO disorganization shown at Cohen Inquiry" Responsible Aquaculture, 30th June): http://responsibleaquaculture.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/government-deceit-dfo-disorganization-shown-at-cohen-inquiry/

 

"Norwegian salmon prices seen sliding further - Chilean production surge to flood global markets" (Reuters, 30th June): http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/norway-salmon-idUSLDE75T1LL20110630

 

"Salmon farm comment deadline extended further" (The Westerly, 30th June): http://www.canada.com/Salmon+farm+comment+deadline+extended+further/5028661/story.html

 

"Mainstream using closed containment" (The Times Colonist, 30th June): http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/Mainstream+using+closed+containment/5028717/story.html

 

"UMaine researchers: mussels can combat sea lice outbreaks" (Bangor Daily News, 29th June): http://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/29/news/hancock/umaine-researchers-mussels-can-combat-sea-lice-outbreaks/?ref=latest

 

"The Silence of the Mainstream Media on Private Power, Fish Farms" (The Common Sense Canadian, 29th June): http://www.thecanadian.org/k2/item/874-mainstream-media-private-power-fish-farm-rafe

 

"GLOBE AND MAIL: Confidentiality and the Cohen Commission" (Sea to Sky Report, 29th June): http://seatoskyreport.wordpress.com/tag/alexandra-morton/

 

 

Including an article in Kickass Canadians today - Canada Day - ending with:

 

"The other reason Alex will not give up is that she knows it isn’t too late. She admits that we don’t yet see “how far how far off the cliff we’ve gone.” But while “we’ve boxed ourselves into this,” she says we’ve also developed the science to fix it. “It’s like in The Wizard of Oz. With her slippers, her red, beautiful ruby slippers, Dorothy had the power all along. She went through living hell, but she didn’t know that she just had to click those heels together. I feel like we’re in such a similar place right now. We don’t realize that we as individual human beings on this planet have the power."

 

 

Track the Cohen Inquiry online via http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/Schedule/ - the evidentiary hearings in Vancouver continue until 8th July when there is a summer recess until 18th August (the aquaculture hearings are expected to start on 25th August and run until 9th September).

 

Keep up to date on the Cohen Inquiry online via: http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/cohen

 

And follow via Facebook's "Salmon Inquiry - Cohen Commission Watch".

 

 

Best fishes,

 

Don

[chris gadsden]

Dear wild salmon people:

Over the weekend Don Staniford found minutes of a recent meeting of Cermaq's BC Corporate Team posted on the web.  This posting has now disappeared, but not before we saved it.

In it the Cermaq's BC Corporate Team is asked to keep quiet on the "situation" in BC.

I have explained the context of this in my blog: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

I strongly suggest that if you want to see BC wild salmon survive that you attend the fish farm hearings at the Cohen Commission in Vancouver, August 25 - September 9 (check commission website to confirm as date approaches as they have experienced many delays). I will be blogging about the proceedings. However, if you have a legal or personal interest in wild salmon, nothing is better than witnessing this first hand.

First Nations, commercial and sport fishing organizations, wilderness tourism associations, municipal governments, environmental organizations, MLAs, MPs the NDP, Conservatives, Liberals, Green Party should all send representatives.  I don't believe in the power of government to work for the people anymore.  I don't believe the Cohen Commission will be able to save the Fraser sockeye without us.  But together, truth can be served.  Justice Cohen has done his part by making the province of BC release their salmon farm disease records.  No one has ever done that before worldwide, but what we do with this information is up to us, the wild salmon people.

If you can donate even the smallest amount of money, we can stay with this until people with real resources realize that it is time for them to step in and help us.

There are no losers here.  We can protect the 1,250 fish farm jobs, but where we are headed now is not serving them either.

Many of us received a huge advertisement newspaper from the BC Salmon Farmers in the mail this week.  They are spending millions to make us think Atlantic salmon we are not allowed near, fed on fish shipped from Chile are better and more sustainable than the millions of wild salmon that flowed home to us every year.   They spread stories that I am a corporation, wealthy, funded by Americans. They are so deep in this now, they don't see what they have become.

Thank you for sticking with me on this,


alexandra morton   

[chris gadsden]

Please find enclosed a press update including:

 

"Farming fish in oil tankers" (Intrafish, 7th July): http://www.intrafish.no/global/news/article289412.ece

 

"The End of the Line: Fish are the last wild food, but our oceans are being picked clean. Can farming fish take the place of catching them?" (Time, 7th July): http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2081796,00.html#ixzz1RQouUSdk

 

"Nova Scotia citizens want answers from Aquaculture Minister" (Responsible Aquaculture, 7th July): http://responsibleaquaculture.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/nova-scotia-citizens-want-answers-from-aquaculture-minister/

 

"52 Questions for Minister Sterling Belliveau about Aquaculture in Nova Scotia" (Save Our Coastal Fishery, 7th July): http://www.saveourcoastalfishery.com/52questions/

 

"Urban aquaculture in Chicago" (Fish Farming Xpert, 7th July): http://www.fishfarmingxpert.com/index.php?page_id=76&article_id=91976

 

"Salmon often mislabeled - University of Washington Tacoma study" (News Tribune, 7th July): http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/07/07/1735663/salmon-often-mislabeled.html

 

"Unique fish farm aims to dash environmental concerns" (CTV, 6th July): http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110706/bc_fish_farm_110706/20110706/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

 

"Cermaq with mistake-leak on the internet - revealed how to deal with troublesome environmental activists" (Dagbladet, 6th July): http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/07/06/nyheter/oppdrettsindustrien/miljo/fiskehelse/soksmal/17210737/

 

"Salmon farming company answers critics" (Fish Farming Xpert, 6th July): http://www.fishfarmingxpert.com/index.php?page_id=76&article_id=91967

 

"SECOND set of ISA tests on Shetland farmed salmon to be carried out in the autumn of 2011" (Seafood Intelligence, 6th July): www.seafoodintelligence.com

 

"Nations finally agree on GM food labelling" (The Vancouver Sun, 5th July): http://www.vancouversun.com/Nations+finally+agree+food+labelling/5052580/story.html

 

"GM salmon needed to combat world food shortage" (Seafood Source, 5th July): http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=10978

 

"MAINSTREAM Canada communicates on internal meeting minutes accidental posting & ‘real ISA situation’" (Seafood Intelligence, 5th July): www.seafoodintelligence.com

 

"There are 15 ISA 'suspicious' salmon farms" (FIS, 4th July): http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?l=e&country=0&special=&monthyear=&day=&id=44119&ndb=1&df=0

 

"“WHAT do we really know about infection between farmed and wild fish?”; Little documented evidence" (Seafood Intelligence, 4th July): www.seafoodintelligence.com

 

"Aquaculture debate: Jerry West looks at how the controversy over aquaculture is affecting the community of Shelburne" (CBC, 4th July): http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns/2011/07/aquaculture-debate.html

 

"Suspicion of infectious salmon anemia in Alta municipality" (Stockline, 6th June): http://www.stocklink.no/Article.aspx?id=80827

 

 

Track the Cohen Inquiry online via http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/Schedule/ - the evidentiary hearings in Vancouver continue today until tomorrow (8th July) when there is a summer recess until 18th August (the aquaculture hearings are expected to start on 22nd August and run until 9th September).   

 

Today's witnesses include Dr. Dick Beamish from DFO.  The public hearing starts today at 9.15am – and is at 701 W Georgia (8th floor).

 

Keep up to date on the Cohen Inquiry online via: http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/cohen

 

And follow via Facebook's "Salmon Inquiry - Cohen Commission Watch".

 

 

Best fishes,

 

Don

[chris gadsden]

Recieved today.

> Superheroes 4 Salmon, 13th July 2011
> DFO's "Shoddy Science" Revealed at Cohen Inquiry
>
> An internal DFO memo from 2003, finally made public today by the Cohen Commission, provides a damning verdict on DFO's sea lice science and Dr. Dick Beamish's integrity and scientific credibility in particular.
>
> "This really is shoddy science," wrote DFO's Dr. Brent Hargreaves in an internal memo following a meeting with the BC Salmon Farmers Association.
>
> Dr. Hargreaves wrote that he agreed with criticisms of DFO's sea lice science in the scientific community and the public media.  "I think to a large degree it was the inadequacies of Beamish's research and conclusions that led to the lack of public confidence in DFO science," wrote Dr. Hargreaves.  "There is no acceptable or legitimate excuse for Beamish's behaviour."
>
> The memo went on to describe Dr. Beamish's scientific research as "unethical", "unprofessional" and a "'lapse' in judgment".
>
> Download in full via the Cohen Commission's web-site: Memo from B Hargreaves re Nov 20 2003 Meeting with BC and BCSFA on Preliminary Sea Lice Results, undated - CAN386274 (Exhibit #1342 - from 8th July).
>
> Or click online here.
>
> In his testimony to the Cohen Inquiry last week, which saw his career flash before his eyes like Klingons off the starboard bow of the Star Trek ship 'The Enterprise', Dr. Beamish said: "Maybe it's aliens" before adding unbelievably: "Obviously I don't believe in aliens".
>
> Dr. Beamish certainly doesn't believe that sea lice from salmon farms are killing wild salmon and spent his career staunchly defending the Norwegian-owned salmon farming industry.  At last year's 'Sea Lice 2010' conference in Victoria, Dr. Beamish refused to answer questions on sea lice from salmon farms.  This was even more incredible since Dr. Beamish was the plenary speaker in a session on 'Wild/Farmed Interactions'.
>
> The audience in the public gallery at the Cohen Inquiry last week were left in no doubt which side Dr. Beamish was on when he greeted Mary-Ellen Walling, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.  "My inspiration," he gushed as he hugged her like an old flame.
>
> "This is bad science?" asked lawyer Greg McDade as he ripped apart Dr. Beamish's scientific work.  Thankfully, Dr. Beamish recently called last orders on his career with the DFO.  His future scientific credibility would be in jeopardy otherwise.
> Read more background via "Beamish Me Up Dicky"
> Article in full with photos online via: http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/blog/dfos-shoddy-science-revealed-cohen-inquiry
> See also on the Cohen Inquiry:
> "Heatwave as Cohen Inquiry Heads for Summer Break" (7th July)
> "Cohen's Countdown on Disease Time-Bomb" (29th June)
> "Cracking the Cohen Code, Deciphering the Disease Conundrum" (27th June)
> "Cohen Clampdown on Confidentiality" (24th June)



(cc'ing to wild salmon circle, et al-- document attached everyone-- this is the kind of thing we've been fighting against-- good to know that there are heads within dfo who feel the same)







:

> Superheroes 4 Salmon, 13th July 2011
>
> DFO's "Shoddy Science" Revealed at Cohen Inquiry
> An internal DFO memo from 2003, finally made public today by the Cohen Commission, provides a damning verdict on DFO's sea lice science and Dr. Dick Beamish's integrity and scientific credibility in particular.
>
> "This really is shoddy science," wrote DFO's Dr. Brent Hargreaves in an internal memo following a meeting with the BC Salmon Farmers Association.
>
> Dr. Hargreaves wrote that he agreed with criticisms of DFO's sea lice science in the scientific community and the public media.  "I think to a large degree it was the inadequacies of Beamish's research and conclusions that led to the lack of public confidence in DFO science," wrote Dr. Hargreaves.  "There is no acceptable or legitimate excuse for Beamish's behaviour."
>
> The memo went on to describe Dr. Beamish's scientific research as "unethical", "unprofessional" and a "'lapse' in judgment".
>
> Download in full via the Cohen Commission's web-site: Memo from B Hargreaves re Nov 20 2003 Meeting with BC and BCSFA on Preliminary Sea Lice Results, undated - CAN386274 (Exhibit #1342 - from 8th July).
>
> Or click online here.
>
> In his testimony to the Cohen Inquiry last week, which saw his career flash before his eyes like Klingons off the starboard bow of the Star Trek ship 'The Enterprise', Dr. Beamish said: "Maybe it's aliens" before adding unbelievably: "Obviously I don't believe in aliens".
>
> Dr. Beamish certainly doesn't believe that sea lice from salmon farms are killing wild salmon and spent his career staunchly defending the Norwegian-owned salmon farming industry.  At last year's 'Sea Lice 2010' conference in Victoria, Dr. Beamish refused to answer questions on sea lice from salmon farms.  This was even more incredible since Dr. Beamish was the plenary speaker in a session on 'Wild/Farmed Interactions'.
>
> The audience in the public gallery at the Cohen Inquiry last week were left in no doubt which side Dr. Beamish was on when he greeted Mary-Ellen Walling, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.  "My inspiration," he gushed as he hugged her like an old flame.
>
> "This is bad science?" asked lawyer Greg McDade as he ripped apart Dr. Beamish's scientific work.  Thankfully, Dr. Beamish recently called last orders on his career with the DFO.  His future scientific credibility would be in jeopardy otherwise.
>
> Read more background via "Beamish Me Up Dicky"
>
> Article in full with photos online via: http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/blog/dfos-shoddy-science-revealed-cohen-inquiry
>
> See also on the Cohen Inquiry:
>
> "Heatwave as Cohen Inquiry Heads for Summer Break" (7th July)
> "Cohen's Countdown on Disease Time-Bomb" (29th June)
> "Cracking the Cohen Code, Deciphering the Disease Conundrum" (27th June)
> "Cohen Clampdown on Confidentiality" (24th June)

[chris gadsden]

Pulling Together For Wild Salmon: Rally organizers plan to encircle the Cohen Commission building August 30 to have their voices heard" (The Valley Voice, 20th July): http://thevalleyvoice.ca/Voice%20Stories/July%202011/Pulling%20Together%20For%20Wild%20Salmon%20-%20Unbroken%20Circle%20of%20Hope%20-%20July%2020%202011.htm

 

"Cermaq Challenged to Come Clean in Chile and Canada - Non-Disclosure on Diseases Misleads Shareholders and Investors" (GAAIA, 20th July): http://www.wildsalmonfirst.org/restaurants

 

"Op Ed: Congress Ramps Up Opposition to Genetically Engineered Fish" (Triple Pundit, 20th July): http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/op-ed-congress-ramps-opposition-genetically-engineered-fish/ 

 

"Why Did Dick Do This?" (Alexandra Morton, 19th July): http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2011/07/on-july-6-8-dr-dick-beamish-was-on-the-stand-at-the-cohen-inquiry-beamish-is-a-very-influential-recently-retired-dfo-s.html

 

"Are new viruses ravaging BC’s wild salmon stocks? Despite the Cohen Commission, no answers are forthcoming" (Geoff Meggs, 19th July): http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2011/07/19/are-new-viruses-ravaging-bcs-wild-salmon-stocks-despite-the-cohen-commission-no-answers-are-forthcoming/

 

"Sockeye salmon run will fall far below last year's" (CKNW, 19th July): http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1459543

 

"ATAMANENKO: Genetically Engineered Salmon, not worth the risk to health or the environment" (The Rossland Telegraph, 19th July): http://rosslandtelegraph.com/news/general/atamanenko-genetically-engineered-salmon-not-worth-risk-health-or-environment-12664

 

"The Trouble With High-Tech 'Sustainable' Aquaculture: Why genetically modified fish and other seafood innovations don't address the root of the world's fisheries crisis" (The Atlantic, 19th July): http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/07/the-trouble-with-high-tech-sustainable-aquaculture/242189/

 

"Lawmakers Tell FDA to Back Off on GE Salmon" (Food Safety News, 18th July): http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/07/a-bipartisan-group-of-lawmakers/

 

 

Including from Alexandra Morton in her blog yesterday:

 

"Be there: If you want wild salmon attend the aquaculture hearings at the Cohen Inquiry August 22 – September 9. When you have senior DFO scientists behaving in this manner we have got to realize wild salmon survival is up to us. I do not want to be your only source of information on what is being said about our fish at these hearings. First Nations, fishermen, local people, youth, environmental organizations, sport fishing clubs, tourism, tackle shops, wild fish processors, and any who want to step between government and the demise of wild salmon need to witness these proceedings themselves".

 

And from Geoff Meggs in his blog yesterday:

 

"Ominous reports of potentially-devastating viruses raging through BC’s wild salmon stocks, perhaps linked to the salmon farming industry, seem no closer to resolution despite the countless hours logged in a Vancouver courtroom by the Cohen Commission inquiry into the decline of Fraser sockeye"

 

The Cohen Inquiry reconvenes after a summer recess on 18th August.  From 22nd August to 8th September the Cohen Inquiry will focus on salmon farming and the disease issue – for a list of witnesses and schedule visit: http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/Schedule/ (schedule not currently available)

 

For more background on the Cohen Inquiry including a rally on 30th August see: http://www.salmonaresacred.org/cohen-inquiry

 

 

Best fishes,

 

Don

[chris gadsden]

Hello

In early July a very senior and celebrated government scientist, Dick Beamish, was on the stand at the Cohen Inquiry. What transpired is a travesty, theater of the absurd.

See my blog http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

Second on my blog are photos I took yesterday of lice - infested young herring off the north end of Vancouver Island.

Our fisheries are in big trouble under current management.  Please consider attending or sending your own representatives to the aquaculture hearings at the Cohen Inquiry in Vancouver August 22 - September 9.  My concern is that the proceedings will be unbelievable unless people hear it for themselves. I do not want to be your only source of information on this.

www.cohencommission.ca

Thank you all who donated, you are keeping us going for the next couple of months.  If you want to help out:

Pay Pal via www.salmonaresacred.org

or

Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society
Box 399
Sointula, BC V0N 3E0

Consider joining our 100,000 voices for wild salmon www.salmonaresacred.org

If we don't step between government and our fish, our children (and theirs) will lose a major food resource and essential part of the natural world. If a senior DFO scientist can behave like this we should consider ourselves warned. I sincerely hope that the people with resources and interests in wild salmon step up soon and straighten this out.   Ottawa cannot manage our fisheries.

Until then - onward

alex

[chris gadsden]

Please find enclosed a press update including:

 

"Scientist muzzled over missing-salmon study: Privy Council Office gags B.C. biologist, dismisses her findings, blacks out documents" (The Province/Vancouver Sun, 27th July): http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Feds+silence+scientist+over+West+Coast+salmon+study/5162745/story.html

 

"Importing salmon eggs increases disease risk" (The Times Colonist, 27th July): http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Importing+salmon+eggs+increases+disease+risk/5165569/story.html

 

"ISA 'suspicious' salmon farms have risen" (FIS, 27th July): http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear&day=27&id=44736&l=e&special&ndb=1+target%3D

 

"Real danger is salmon farming" (Cowichan Valley Citizen, 27th July): http://www2.canada.com/cowichanvalleycitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=2a432011-66da-4fcd-9e4e-c9f3b311ad00

 

"Another closed containment expert emerging" (Fish Farming Xpert, 27th July): http://www.fishfarmingxpert.com/index.php?page_id=76&article_id=92102

 

"Salmon disease would hurt fish farms" (The Times Colonist, 26th July): http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/Salmon+disease+would+hurt+fish+farms/5159188/story.html

 

"SARF supports new algae based fish feed research" (Fish News EU, 26th July): http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/scottish/6283-sarf-supports-new-algae-based-fish-feed-research.html

 

"Study: GM Atlantic Salmon Can Breed With Wild Fish" (OPB News, 26th July): http://news.opb.org/article/study_gm_atlantic_salmon_can_breed_with_wild_fish/

 

"Transgenic salmon farmer condemns senators' 'paranoia'" (FIS, 26th July): http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?l=e&country=0&special=aquaculture&monthyear=&day=&id=44728&ndb=1&df=0

 

"Crony Capitalism Strikes the Salmon Industry" (Conservative Blog, 26th July): http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2011/7/26/crony-capitalism-strikes-the-salmon-industry.html

 

"Skway meeting gets wild salmon activists fired up about August aquaculture hearings" (Sea to Sky Report, 21st July): http://seatoskyreport.wordpress.com/tag/alexandra-morton/

 

 

Come to the Cohen Commission – it reconvenes after a summer recess on 17th August and from 22nd August to 8th September will focus on salmon farming and the disease issue.

 

'Diseases' will be discussed on 22nd, 23rd and 24th August; 'Aquaculture' will be on the agenda on 25th, 26th, 29th, 30th and 31st of August and then following the long Labour Day weekend again on 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th and 8th September.  For a list of witnesses and schedule visit: http://www.cohencommission.ca/en/Schedule/ (names of witnesses will be posted soon)

 

For more background on the Cohen Commission including a rally on 30th August see: http://www.salmonaresacred.org/cohen-commission and http://www.superheroes4salmon.org/cohen

 

 

Best fishes,

 

Don