The psychology underlying people's behaviour is as fascinating as the things they do. “Change blindness” is a case in point. Psychologists describe it as the inability of people to notice anomalies, differences and the unusual in their surroundings. The obvious, it seems, is not always obvious...For example, we seem to have an inherent inclination to overlook or rationalize as normal the weather abnormalities that arise from global warming. If this strategy doesn't serve to diminish the significance of an extreme weather event in our minds, we excuse it by extending the range of normality — a once-in-a-century event occurring once every ten years is deemed normal.
Justice Cohen ruled today that he will not reopen his Inquiry into the Decline of the Fraser Sockeye citing the amount of work the commission team is faced with to meet the twice-delayed September 30, 2012 delivery date. The Commission notes that they have heard evidence on disease. The application to reopen the Inquiry was made by the Aquaculture Coalition (Alexandra Morton) after discovery that nearly 100% of BC farm salmon are testing positive for the Norwegian piscine reovirus. Research published as recently as April 12, 2012 confirms association between this virus and a disease called Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI).
Read this profile by the Globe and Mail's Mark Hume of marine biologist Alexandra Morton's decades-long struggle against the Norwegian open net salmon farming industry. (April 20, 2012)
Alexandra Morton sits at her kitchen table and tries to ignore the e-mails pouring in to the laptop open in front of her. She is looking out the picture window at Rough Bay, which is tranquil this morning, reflecting a vivid blue sky and the snow-capped mountains of northern Vancouver Island.
“That's where I want to be,” she says wistfully, as if the sea, which washes ashore 10 metres from her tiny cabin on Malcolm Island, is somehow unreachable because of the life she has chosen.
Her idea of a perfect day is to rise at dawn and head out in her boat, Blackfish Sound, wandering until she finds a tide line where a rich seam in the ocean currents is marked by a ribbon of flotsam. Then she turns off the engine and drifts with a hydrophone hung over the side of the boat.
“You can hear herring. They sound like lemons being squished. You can hear the whisk, whisk, whisk of otter feet,” she says. “You can hear whales, and you can even hear the rocks rolling on the pebble beaches.”
But the days when she can escape to that idyllic world are few, says Ms. Morton, who is tied to her computer, afraid that if she rests, she may fail at her self-appointed task of removing open-net salmon pens from coastal waters.
"And that's what we monkeys did here at The Tyee a couple of weeks ago. We launched
a new award called The People's Order of B.C., a cheeky response to the
controversy surrounding this year's actual Order of B.C. selections
where we asked you to nominate and then vote for your favourites...Originally from Connecticut, Alexandra Morton is a marine biologist best
known these days for her studies focusing on the impact of salmon
farming in the waters off British Columbia. Not only did Morton garner
the most votes, but she also garnered the most nominations -- 20 in
total." (October 31, 2011)
Written by Damien Gillis
- Thursday, 20 October 2011
While US lawmakers are calling for an emergency plan to address the discovery of deadly ISAv in wild BC sockeye, the Campbell/Clark Government is preoccupied with attacking the reputation of the world's top ISAv testing lab and covering their own butts..."This is no longer a matter to leave to our backward, incompetent, self-interested BC Liberal Government. This is an international issue of grave import, as our neighbours to the south and north are reminding us. We have a duty to work with them to address this matter with the utmost sense of urgency."
Read this story from the New York Times on the recent discovery of wild Pacific sockeye infected with the European strain of the deadly ISA virus.
"A lethal and highly contagious marine virus has been detected for the
first time in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest, researchers in
British Columbia said on Monday, stirring concern that it could spread there, as it has in Chile, Scotland and elsewhere. Farms hit by the virus, infectious salmon anemia, have lost 70 percent
or more of their fish in recent decades. But until now, the virus, which
does not affect humans, had never been confirmed on the West Coast of
North America". (Oct. 17, 2011)
Written by Administrator
- Thursday, 08 September 2011
Read Mark Hume's take in the Globe and Mail on yesterday's pivotal session at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser sockeye.
"Brock Martland, associate commission counsel, set the stage for a
free-wheeling debate when he opened with 'a big question,' asking the
panel if they thought DFO could successfully both regulate and promote
the aquaculture industry, while protecting wild salmon stocks. 'I
don’t believe that’s possible ... those two [mandates] are in conflict,'
shot back Ms. Stewart, who believes the industry damages wild salmon by
spreading sea lice and disease. She said the regulation of fish
farms should be handed off to some other federal agency, such as
Agriculture Canada or Industry Canada, while DFO should be charged with
managing and protecting wild salmon." (Sept 7, 2011)
Written by Administrator
- Thursday, 08 September 2011
Read this report from Black Press' Jeff Nagel on the first of two days for Alexandra Morton on the stand at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser sockeye.
"Morton said returning Fraser sockeye began to nose-dive in 1992, the
same year many salmon farms began operations on the migration route. 'In the biological world, you rarely get patterns this bold,' she said. She also noted Harrison Lake sockeye are an anomaly
among Fraser River runs in that they have bucked the downward trend and
done surprisingly well. That run migrates around the west side of Vancouver
Island, avoiding the main cluster of salmon farms on the east side, she
said."
Written by Damien Gillis
- Thursday, 08 September 2011
Yesterday, on the penultimate day of the Cohen Commission's hearings on aquaculture and diseases, Alexandra Morton finally took the stand. To say the event lived up to its billing is an understatement, as the Inquiry often characterized by technocratic tedium was jolted to life in its final rounds. At the heart of the conflict lay the pattern of breathtaking industry-government collusion and secrecy that has characterized the aquaculture issue for decades - to a degree even I didn't fully fathom until now.
Written by Administrator
- Wednesday, 07 September 2011
Read this blog from Alexandra Morton as she prepares to take the stand at the Cohen Commission into disappearing sockeye.
"I can see how the Fraser sockeye got where they are today. I want to
know if Salmon Leukemia is infecting the Fraser sockeye. I want to know
why only the runs that pass salmon farms are collapsing and rebounding
in unpredictable patterns. I don't see DFO accepting this
responsibility. Dr Mike Kent - ex-DFO retracted ten years of his own
work on this disease when he was on the stand. Then Dr Mark Sheppard,
DFO said he does not think it exists and will never report it even when
presented the clinical diagnosis. Dr. Marty BCMAL also does not think
it exists even though he has reported the symptoms in 587 farm salmon.
Dr. Saksida was on the stand yesterday she says it does exist. Dr.
Miller, DFO is trying to confirm all this and DFO has taken away her
funding to work on sockeye!!"
Written by Damien Gillis
- Monday, 05 September 2011
Read this blog by Alexandra Morton on another recent development at the Cohen Commission - the charge that she and others observing fish farms up close are somehow trespassing in open waters.
"How dare these Norwegian corporations suggest 'unwanted trespass'!!!! If
we do not stand up to this now, they will erode our freedoms until we
are all serfs of the corporations. The ocean waters of Canada are not
the private property of anyone! The chiefs of the Broughton have given
me their blessing to travel freely through their territories. I rarely
get angry anymore - it takes too much energy to stay in this fight - but
this is so fundamentally wrong it needs strong opposition." (Sept. 5, 2011)
30 year-old William Housty's powerhouse presentation to the National Energy Board's Enbridge hearings in his community of Bella Bella. William describes the history, language and culture of his people in fascinating detail - and how the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and Tar Sands supertankers transiting the waters of his people's territory would destroy their traditional way of life.
Highlights from this week's National Energy Board hearings in Bella Bella on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and supertankers on BC's coast. Powerful testimony from three members of the Heiltsuk First Nation, sharing their experiences with the sea.rn
The Heiltsuk First Nation learned late Monday that scheduled National Energy Board hearings on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline will resume Tuesday in Bella Bella, following their cancellation Monday in the wake of a peaceful demonstration to which the Joint Review Panel overreacted.
Close to 2,000 people turned out on a rainy Monday afternoon in Vancouver last week to speak out against Tar Sands oil tankers on BC's coast. The occasion marked the 23rd anniversary of the disastrous Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The crowd gathered at the Art Gallery to hear from guest speakers like 350.org's Bill McKibben and members of the Heiltsuk First Nation of Bella Bella, who coorganized the rally, along with ForestEthics and Greenpeace.
Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) First Nation and Ben West of the Wilderness Committee discuss Kinder Morgan's quiet plan to twin its existing Trans Mountain Pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to Vancouver - which would result in up to 300 supertankers a year plying the waters of the Burrard Inlet and South Coast.
Eleven year-old Ta'Kaiya Blaney of the Sliammon First Nation sings her hit song "Shallow Waters" to some 2,000 people outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. She tells the audience one year ago on this day she was chased from Enbridge's Vancouver office when she tried to present her song to company officials.
World renowned climate activist Bill McKibben of 350.org lent his voice to the "Our Coast, Our Decision" rally in Vancouver Monday. McKibben told the crowd of close to 2,000 outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, "This is one of these great moments in human history and you guys are absolutely at the white, hot centre of it."
Rafe Mair pulls no punches in this, the second of a two-part interview with BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix - grilling the potential future premier of BC on Liquid Natural Gas, fracking, the proposed Enbridge pipeline and salmon farms.
Marven Robinson, a spirit bear guide from the Gitga'at Nation of Hartley Bay, speaks to Damien Gillis in Prince Rupert the day after the big rally he helped organize against Enbridge on Feb. 4, 2012.
In the first of a two-part interview, Rafe Mair grills BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix on private power, Site C Dam and BC's flawed environmental assessment process. What will the NDP do with existing and future private river power projects (a.k.a. IPPs) if they form the next government - and where do they stand on Site C Dam?
The beating of drums echoed throughout the seaside community of Prince Rupert, BC, on February 4 as thousands of First Nations and BC citizens banded together to express their opposition to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway twin pipelines from the Alberta Tar Sands to nearby Kitimat on BC's central coast.
The various spokespeople for supposed "grassroots" pro-Tar Sands and pipeline organization EthicalOil.org have steadfastly maintained their campaign has no connection to the oil and gas industry or the Harper Government. But as the links between these groups continue to pile up, that contention becomes harder and harder to swallow.
In the wake of the bogus deal Enbridge attempted to foist on the Gitxsan people of Northwest BC last month to help pave the way for its controversial proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, the community has banded together in inspiring fashion - with camcorders and the Web as their weapons of choice.
Watch this series of clips by independent filmmaker Craig Delahunt from the Cohen Commission, including a key hour of testimony from the final day of ISAv hearings and interviews with experts outside the Commission.
See how the Gitxsan are banding together in a moment of crisis, following the unauthorized deal with Enbridge signed by rogue treaty negotiator Elmer Derrick.
