Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Team,
My entire life I’ve hidden what my father does for work. Not because he’s doing something harmful, or shameful, or illegal, but because countless people in my life, including friends, school teachers, coworkers and other members of the public have always told me my father is a bad man because he is a fish farmer.
Based on the information about salmon farming that many of these people have, this response makes sense. However, this information is almost always incorrect. And now over a thousand jobs in B.C. will be terminated, and millions of salmon euthanized (without the possibility of harvesting them) due to a decisions DFO is making based on this incorrect information supplied by Alex Morton.
Out of the hundreds of government and industry funded studies done examining salmon farming’s impact on the ocean, none of them have been able to validate the studies carried out by Alex Morton or people who work for/with her. There is no scientific evidence suggesting that salmon farming is harmful to the ocean.
Furthermore, after a thorough investigation into where Alex Morton and her group’s funding comes from, it was found that it originally comes from various Alaskan Salmon Ranching companies, B.C. Salmon Farming’s direct competition. I realize that this information may not matter to you, and that it’s unlikely you’ll even read this, but I’m saying it to communicate that the actions being taken to terminate B.C. salmon farming is based on biased and financially motivated information that has been unable to be reproduced by neutral third parties.
Thousands of jobs will be lost, millions of fish will be euthanized, and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue and economic input will be lost based on this one decision DFO is carrying out.
Please, at least look at research presented by anyone that is not working for or affiliated with Alex Morton, you will see that the decisions to remove these farms are baseless, and their impact is devastating. Children will have parents who lose their jobs, the economy in these small coastal towns that rely so heavily on the industry will be rocked, and millions of salmon will be killed and will not be able to be harvested. Please, this decision matters.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Henry Osborne