Ahousaht First Nation Blockade Open Net Salmon Farm

Sep­tem­ber 11th, 2015

TOFINO, B.C. — Mem­bers of a Van­cou­ver Island First Nation are vow­ing to risk arrest rather than allow an inter­na­tion­al fish farm­ing com­pa­ny to anchor an open-net salmon farm north of Tofi­no.

Mem­bers of the Ahousaht First Nation say they set up a boat block­ade Wednes­day at the site of the new farm, owned by Nor­we­gian-based Cer­maq.

The Ahousaht say the com­pa­ny holds 17 salmon farm tenures in Clay­oquot Sound and applied for two new tenures in the same area last year.

The First Nation believes the appli­ca­tions sig­nal a new round of fish farm expan­sion on the West Coast, with the Ahousaht Fish Farm Com­mit­tee pre­dict­ing a four-fold increase in the indus­try over the next 15 years.

Pro­test­ers oppose any new fish farms in the area.

They fear pos­si­ble dis­eases bred in fish with­in the open nets could be passed to clam beds or wild salmon trav­el­ling to and from near­by spawn­ing grounds.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/first-nations-blockade-halts-anchoring-of-tofino-area-salmon-farm‑1.2556934

First Nations blockade Clayoquot Sound salmon farm

This is a media release from UBCIC.

Mem­bers of Ahousaht First Nations are cur­rent­ly blockad­ing the attempts of Cer­maq to install a new open-net salmon farm at Yaak­swi­is, north of Tofi­no BC.

On Wednes­day Ahousaht mem­bers took boats out to the site and pre­vent­ed Cer­maq from anchor­ing the con­tro­ver­sial new farm, which was assem­bled off-site and towed to Yaak­swi­is.

“Wild salmon are in decline every­where salmon feed­lots are in oper­a­tion around the world. We will stop any future activ­i­ty at this loca­tion”, said Tom Paul, an Ahousaht mem­ber. “We will stay out there until we are moved—we will be arrest­ed if need be” he added.

The Ahousaht Fish Farm Com­mit­tee strong­ly opposed any fish farms at the Yaak­swi­is loca­tion, due to con­cerns about prox­im­i­ty to rich seafood resources such as clam beds and wild salmon rivers.

Cer­maq is a Nor­we­gian-based cor­po­ra­tion recent­ly acquired by Mit­subishi. They cur­rent­ly hold 17 salmon farm tenures in Clay­oquot Sound, which was the site of major log­ging con­fronta­tions in 1993.

Cer­maq applied in 2014 for two new tenures in Ahousaht First Nations ter­ri­to­ries. The Depart­ment of Fish­eries and Oceans approved one appli­ca­tion in late July this year, and one was refused.

The salmon farm­ing indus­try is poised to increase four-fold on the BC coast by 2030. These new appli­ca­tions are the first round of this major expan­sion.

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/first-nations-blockade-clayoquot-sound-salmon-farm