B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 26, 2005 MARGARET. SPEIRS ROB BROWN: | | Stormy weather wo years ago lidal swells ripped open some cages ina Scottish fish farm'near Orkney and 200,000 farmed Atlantic salmon es- -caped into the wild. Many more of the pa- _ thetic imprisoned fish‘were crushed as their prisons collapsed on them. ne When a.wild fish dies it’s quickly and benefi-” cially absorbed by the marine environment, “Because they’re full of nasty things like pesti- cides and: hormones, farmed fish make poor fertil- ‘izer, so poor that the Scottish authorities ordered an immediate cleanup to avoid the pollution haz- -ard that would have been caused by their rotting corpses. When the cleanup was done, the fish were . ground into fish meal.: Thus, it appeared that the small problem of lo- ’_calized.contamination had been taken care of, but, as British watchdog organizations were quick to point out, nothing had, or could be done about the .. much larger and’ potentially devastating problem . _ posed by the 200,000 escapecs. | _. Given the experience of Norway, where escaped “farmed fish carried a deadly kidney discase into the finest Norwegian salmon ‘streams causing an out- _ break of the disease that ultimately forced the Nor- - wegian Fishéries Authorities to poison the entire good reason to fear that Scotland’s famous salmon rivers could suffer the same fate. , ‘Environmentalists contended that the escaped salmon were also potential vectors for inferior ge * netic material, : y%: This phenomenon i is of. much greater moment in. ” Scotland than it is on’ this coast since the escaped’ finny contaminants are the same species as the wild fish and therefore more likely to interbreed with them. Disease and lice are 2 rife on salmon farms, De- spite assurances by the aquaculture corporations operating in the turbulent seas off the coast of Scot- land, outbreaks of deadly pathogens are a perennial worry. Right now an investigation has been undertaken by the Fisheries Research Service in Aberdeen into -a possible outbreak of infectious salmon anemia on North and-South Uist’ This particular disease “causes darkening of the skin and a swollen belly as the fish’s gut fills with fluid. Should this nasty germ ride into the wild in- side an escaped farm fish, not only salmon but also Scotch sea trout populations could be devastated. oaebe world were caught up and swept away by the media coverage of the killer waves in Southeast Asia. a » Vicious storm lashed Scotland’s west coast. The Western Isles bore the brunt of the 124 mph _lines. Road and rail networks in the north and west of Scotland were thrown into chaos, ferry services to many islands were canceled and schools and offices remained closed. Electrical lines were knocked down «leaving 50,000 homes without electricity. A family of five people was killed fleeing their home. Three Irish motorists perished as the storm battered the coast there. — And of course, out there in the raging Atlantic, in the midst of a storm worse that anyone had seen in 50,000 fish each, were submerged. In the Western Isles alone, ° approximately 500,000 fish escaped. Recovery operations were . undertaken as soon as it was possible to do so with- out endangcring life and limbs, in a futile attempt to catch the farmed fish before they reached open sea. When seas had calmed and the wreckage totted . up, somewhere in the area of | ,000,000 farmed and dangerous fish had found freedom. “Paul Knight, executive director of the Salmon & Trout Association, was bang on when he told | the press that the debacle demonstrated i in the most vivid way that there is no such thing as a secure system for marine fish farming. - While he acknowledged “the severity of the storm, he was quick to add that such storms nearly as enormous have occured every ten years and that it’s quite reasonable to assume a similar escape at least once-a decade. The spokesman for the Salmon Farm Protest Group, Bruce Sandison, called for the Scottish Government to do something about the crisis. - “This is disastrous for the wild salmon popula- tion. What is going to happen is that the salmon which have escaped are going to degrade the ge- netic integrity of the wild salmon. This is not a new occurrence - it’s been happening for years. Salmon escape from the farms frequently.” Scotland’s fish farming woes, and in fact. the chequered history of fish farming in that country, should be should be viewed as a cautionary tale by everyone on the north coast. ‘run that year to eradicate the infection, there was — This. month, while most of the people in the» - winds that toppled trees, telegraph poles and power - decades, possibly the worst ever, were fish farming . ’ operations.. Dozens of cages, which usually contain” C e’re going to the RIVER KINGS celebrate a a goal in their home game against the Houston Luckies on Jan 15. Although they lost that game 5-2, they returned 7 “to the ice the next day to win n 10- 2 and secure themselves a playoff. position. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO Kings qualify in final regular season home game of first CIHL season. By MARGARET SPEIRS THE RIVER KINGS biew away the Houston Luckies 10-2 to make the playoffs in their: first Season in the CIHL on Jan 16. With'the win, the:River Kings are’ “guaranteed at least fourth place in the league, the last qualify- ing playoff spot. Coach. Trevor Hendry, who played centre, said, “To make the playoffs our first year in the league is a (beautiful) thing. “At the beginning, everyone had us |finishing| seventh or cighth,” he said. The Kings got on the board early in the game. In addition to Darcey Allison's goal and four assists, Chad McKay scored twice and Richie Rodgers bagged a hat trick. _ Troy Farkvam, Davey Jones, Troy Ka Ryan Muldoe scored one euch. Only about 400 to 450 fans showed up to wil- ness their winning moment. ‘At the end of the first period, the River Kings led 6-1. .? he second period progressed slow! y with ye and Houston scored their final goal within the lirst five minutes of the third. Skaters win medals an ALEX LSSIMORE won one silver, three bronzes and three awards at the Cariboots ‘n’ Blades Freeskate Competition Jan 16. The 10-year-old, who’s only been skating for two years, is currentiy working on her axel jump. The River Kings added three more for the win. In Jan 15’s game, the Kings showed signs of coming together as a. cohesive unit, playing as a “téam ‘and holding Houston to:2-2, until the third period when defenceman Davey Jones started pounding a Lucky and got booted from the game. After his departure, the Kings’ defence unrav- ciled. Houston scored to take the fead 3-2 and never looked back. A second fight erupted and Howie O'Brien was out of the game. Terrace and Houston smacked the puck back and forth down the ice without scoring. Carlsen made a great save with cight minutes left, - 6 Terrace sprang back to life for a few minutes with wo hard shots on goal that went wide. - “Terrace acting coach Mario Desjardins pulled » Carlsen in the final fading minutes, hoping to capitalize on the extra man advantage: however, it was not to be. A shot from the face off got away from the Kings and Houston dumped it into the empty “net with less than one minute left to take the 4-2 lead. ; With 30 seconds left, another Lucky banged it in for the.5:2 final.:: mae Despite the loss, Desjardins was pleased. “People got their value for their money to- night,” he said. “We! re coming to the end of the season and the team’s starting to really gel,” he said, adding he hoped their gelling didn’t come too late in the ~ year. » the defensive line. Carlsen played an excellent game, he said. The goalie supported his removal from net, “We really wanted two points or one point to cinch a playoff spot,” Carlsen said. After Sunday’s game, the River Kings donated their portion of the weekend’s 50/50 draws, just over $1,000, to the sportsplex. “We really desperatcly need a second stink,” Carlsen said. As of Jan 22, the CIHL league standings put Kitimat in first place, Houston second, Terrace third and Burns Lake fourth. The playoffs begin Feb. 8 or 9. four awards. Alex Lissimore brought home one silver. three bronze and three awards. Jessica Baverstock took home | SIX awards. Jenna Pavao won one each of gold, bronze and one award. Kelsey Minhinnick garndered three gold medals. Medals were given for the first three placings and awards for fourth, fifth and sixth place. Kitimat skater Amanda Billingsley, who travelled with the Terrace team, scored a silver and three awards. Princé Rupert's Emily Melntyre | It | | : er s Sport Scope f | ts aW ard S . : ; VVC , Peewees score second f rhs iad . . eee “RR “fF 2 wah . 1S SVL ye 2 , Va », « e SIX SKATERS from ‘Terrace brought FERRACE RIVER Industries peewee rep team scored a i home 16 medals and 1} awards from /urnament second place finish and followed with a huge a the Cariboots” ‘hn’ Blades Freeskate YU. 7 Competition in Williams Lake over The AA team competed in a AAA tournament in Fort St. “4 Jan [4 to 16, John and narrowly beat Whitehorse 9-8, won over their host 2 Jorden Hendry scored a gold. two | 9-4 and tied Grande Prairie 5-5, a ‘ . . 44 silvers, one bronze and four awards. In the final game. they shut out Dawson Creek 11-0. Pe ~ Hadley Hendry won four silver and | Terrace and Grande Prairie finished with a 3-0-1 record.’ iw == Jovy Rajan S THE G have fu When g behind their northern Alberta opponents. In their next outing on Friday Jan 14, they tied Prince Rupert 3-3. Brandon Merrit, Rajan Sangha-and William Fisher scored for’ Ferrace. A Saturday slam followed as the peew ces dominated their host | 1-4. Cormano socked away. five goals, Brandon Merrit — scored two, and Cory Hubbard, Reed Turner, Taran Lillian and oals for and against were tallied, Terrace came second angha each put one between the posts. Ringette fun in Quesnel OLD Pan Tournament saw Terrace ringette teams n regardless of the score. layoffs! He said that losing Jones in the third depleted won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal. The skaters competed in 40 events ‘and ‘Terrace Skating Club coach Jen- nifer Kuchne was pleased with — their performances. Next up. Hailey Hendry, Lissi- more. and Minhinnick will compete in the Northern BC Winter Games in Dawson Creek from Feb. + to 6 with teammates Kaitlyn Colongard, Heath- er Hanna, Joanne Homenuik. Julianne Lenuik, Janet Lewis, Samantha Nyce, Kelsey Owen, Jamie Penner, Ashley Thandi and Kelsey Wilcox. The Petite Raincoast Ringers finished first undefeated. Kermode Cubs novice won one, tied two and lost one. The Tween McTerrace Ring Wraiths played, although short five members, and lost to Quesnel and Prince George. Tween coach Allen Hampton said his team “wiil be look- ing to even the score” their next time out. All three teams travel to Kelowna for the Sweetheart ‘Tournament Feb. 10 to 13. Midgets bombed, stormed TERRACE MIDGET Reps played hard but couldn't manage a win in Kitimat’s recent tourney. The Kitimat Legion Bombers trounced Terrace 8-6 and the Smithers Midget Storm blew away Terrace 8-2. ean a ee