PATAGONIA is a brand I respect and admire, especially for the important awareness and support they are bringing to environmental issues like the destructive industry of open net-pen salmon farming. I spent a large part of personal time in 2019 working with a local group in our town fighting expansion of net-pen salmon farms in our bay. It was November 2018 when I first became involved, we knew then it was only the beginning of what our Minister of Fisheries & Aquaculture, Keith Colwell had planned for the industry throughout Nova Scotia. Flash forward one year later and we’re facing wide spread expansion on the South Shore - the latest announcement being that the entire coastline of Lunenburg County spanning from west of La Have to Peggy’s Cove is now being scoped for multiple open net-pen salmon farms operated by Cermaq, a Japanese owned Norwegian operated corporate giant. To be clear, these are not farms - these are submerged industrial feedlots that are the equivalent of straight piping the sewage of a small city directly into our ocean unfiltered, along with tons of antibiotic laced feed pellets and chemicals to control sea lice.
SAVING MARTHA. What do Tasmania & Nova Scotia have in common? Atlantic Salmon farming. Atlantic salmon is farmed in non-native waters around the world including the Pacific coastal waters of B.C. Tasmania has a similar economy and rural coastal demographic as Nova Scotia. Tasmania has been executing an aggressive 20 year expansion plan of salmon farming in their coastal waters for several years, imposed on the communities and inshore fisheries whether they want them or not. Nova Scotia’s Minister Colwell is so impressed with Tasmania's plan that he travelled to Tasmania in February 2019 with a contingent from Nova Scotia to *promote* his vision for a rural Nova Scotia populated with salmon farms. Before returning home he even signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tasmania’s Minister of Fisheries Guy Barnett. So watch this short film, read the blog about the film, and know Guy Barnett will be sharing his best insider secrets to Minister Colwell on how to pollute the ocean with industrial feedlots and get away with calling it job creation and economic growth. For a glimpse of what the future of rural NS will look like if Keith Colwell gets his way and what communities are facing today,,,,, just look to Tasmania and the story of King Island featured in this documentary. Here’s a link to a Blog post about Saving Martha from Patagonia’s website.
excerpt from the blog: “World Heritage listed Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast has been the flashpoint, as the once-pristine waterway has degraded significantly as salmon stocks in the harbour have exploded.”
“The island might only be home to 1723 people, but it is also home to a thriving primary industry brand that creates almost full employment. King Island dairy, beef and seafood is internationally renowned, and islanders are concerned the dirty reputation of the salmon farming industry will not only ruin Martha Lavinia Beach, it will trash the island’s reputation.”
What brings this video even closer to home is knowing that Canada’s newly appointed Federal Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and Coast Guard, is Bernadette Jordan, also the MP for South Shore - St.Margaret’s here in Nova Scotia. This massive proposed expansion is happening right in her backyard. Now, she is the new Federal DFO Minister but her constituents at home shouldn’t be complacent thinking she’ll save your Bays, she has never voiced concern against the industry or publicly stated her position on fin-fish farms (not even during the recent election). Let’s hope she changes course.
Please come to the event in Mahone Bay this Sunday at 2pm to learn more about the proposed expansion in Lunenburg County and get involved. I’ll be there with a lot of my friends.
MORE INFO: Patagonia has a longer feature film related to this topic called Artifishal, now streaming free on Youtube. For a list of more must watch documentaries on salmon farming visit the ‘Learn More’ page on Protect Liverpool Bay.org which is a website I voluntarily created for PLB and our community last summer. One of these films will be partially screened at Sunday’s event.
For the love of our oceans and all that relies on keeping them natural and healthy I sincerely wish the residents of King Island all the strength and power to fight this impending threat to their environment and quality of life.
Thank you Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia for all that you aspire to do.
Join and support Nova Scotia coastal communities and Say No to open net-pen Fish Farms. And please, don’t eat the salmon.
