CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag | Listen to the science Dear Sir: » Underlying all of federal fisheries minis- ter Geoff Regan’ s:respsonse to Mary Dalen’s letter is the fact that the department of Fish- eries and Ocean: Canada is in a basic con- flict of interest. At the same time that DFO is supposed to be protecting wild salmon and . other marine fish stocks, the department, and in particular this minister, are actively pro- moting and supporting the industrial produc-. tion of farmed salmon that research suggests endangers wild fish. Regan’s dismissal of this research as not having. proven “cause and effect” between the prevalence of sea lice in ocean aquacul- ~ ture stocks and the infestations of sea lice on wild salmon fry that pass by the fish farms _ is specious. The same lack of proven “cause and effect” between smoking and lung’ can- ' cer is cited by the tobacco industry,as a rea- " son not to constrain cigarette sales or warn buyers. Two decades of peer-reviewed sci- , entific research in Norway, Scotland, Ireland . and southern B.C. cannot be ignored. Wher- “ever salmon farms exist, wild salmon runs - have been lost. « ’ Arguing about.the validity of the sciénce at this point won’t help stop the Skeena from becoming another Broughton. Common sense dictates that if there is a very real pos- sibility that something you are about to do ‘will have harmful results, you don’t do it. __._ When DFO fallowed the fish farms in the: , Broughton in 2003 at the recommendation | Worried about crime It seems like nowadays Dear Sir, about fish farming | __ of the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conserva- tion Council, the rate of sea lice infestation on migrating fry dropped from 92 per cent in. Previous years to about 3pr cent, with the av- — erage number of lice per fish dropping from seven-10 to about two, The resulting’ returns of pink salmon in 2004 in the Broughton were again healthy, ° as they had been in other areas of the‘coast \”: without fish farms. Despite calls to repeat the fallowing, Regan is unprepared to ‘ask _ the industry to spend millions of dollars on fallowing certain areas or using chemical treatments (to kill sea lice).” What clearer evidence can. there be of | DFO’s conflict of interest? Wild salmon~ stocks and the First Nations, ‘commercial fishermen and sportfishing operators that de- _ pend upon them must take a back seat to the - aquaculture industry. ; Mr: Regan’ Ss own department Tecently published a ‘paper showing that 66 per cent of wild salmon fry near fish farms in the Broughton were infected with sea lice. The question is why did Regan wait to ‘publish these results until after the- provincial elec- tion in which salmon farms were a major ~-issue? Mr. Regan should be fired and the re- sponsibility for aquaculture should be trans- ferred to the Ministry of Agriculture so that DFO can. live up to its mandate to protect ' wild salmon. Andrew Williams . | Chair of Friends of Wild Salmon the persons that committed ° The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 29, 2005 -'A7 HealthwaTtcH They say that when one door closes, another opens And that’s certainly true when it comes to your pharmacy needs. “on OS | On July 18 y we will be transferring j your confidential prescription: and personal health records from our. — Skeena Mall location to our Shoppers Drug Mart® | location at: | TERRACE SHOPPING CENTRE 4635 Lakelse Avenue © - Tel: 250-635-7261 Is our law and order. sys- _tem slowly starting to fade “away? Is there such a thing 2 any- : more? Sometimes it makes us wonder with these crime reports on T.V. . people almost get away with anything. ° What about driving of- fences, running stop Signs, - red lights. etc. Then’ we have a flawed court system that favours the crime. hook. What kind of a system a are we living in here?” Mark Bain — Terrace, B.C. 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