Pure Salmon Campaign Gears up for Cermaq, Marine Harvest Shareholder Meetings
WASHINGTON - When members of the Pure Salmon Campaign travel to Oslo, Norway later this month for the annual general meetings of Cermaq and Marine Harvest, the coalition will ask the world's two largest producers of farmed salmon to end environmental degradation and adopt systems that keep the farmed fish separate from wild salmon. At these meetings, they will highlight the support for such changes generated by the "Get Out Migration," a 250-mile journey through Vancouver Island, British Columbia, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Pure Salmon Campaign.
The "Migration" started April 23 and is led by Alexandra Morton, the renowned scientist, whale researcher and activist. Participants are calling for the removal of Norwegian-owned open-net cage salmon farms from waterways critical to local British Columbia wild salmon populations. Disease, pollution and escapes from open water salmon farms threaten the environment, including wild salmon and all those species that rely upon healthy salmon for their survival.
"We're not just walking to Victoria, we're going all the way to Oslo," said Don Staniford, global organizer of the Pure Salmon Campaign who has been with Morton since the start of the "Migration." "Enough is enough. The world's farmed salmon industry giants need to get their operations out of the water and into closed systems before they wipe out British Columbia's wild salmon."
"The time has come to get open-net cage salmon farms in the Wild Salmon Narrows off the water and out of the migration routes for wild salmon," said Darren Blaney, former Homalco First Nation chief councilor. "I'm going to Norway in two weeks to bring that message directly to Cermaq and Marine Harvest. I am tired of hearing from industry that fish farms feed families when it is those same farms that are destroying wild salmon populations that impoverished First Nations rely upon for food and as a mainstay to our cultural identity."
On Saturday, May 8, the "Migration" will hold a rally right outside the British Columbia Legislature in Victoria. At that time, "Migration" participants - including Staniford with the Pure Salmon Campaign - plan to speak with several members of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly to encourage them to remove open-net cage salmon farms from British Columbia's waters and relocate them to closed containment facilities.
"Widespread outrage at the impact of salmon farming demonstrated by the ‘Get Out Migration' will continue to build," said Bartlett Naylor of the Pure Salmon Campaign. "We will join our Norwegian allies and take this energy straight to the boardrooms in Oslo to ask for change."
The Cermaq annual general meeting will take place in Oslo, Norway on May 20. The Marine Harvest annual general meeting will occur in Oslo on May 27. The Pure Salmon Campaign has filed shareholder resolutions with both companies.
The Pure Salmon Campaign is a global project with partners in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Chile all working to improve the way salmon is produced. To learn more, go to www.puresalmon.org.