Seafood News - Industry Events - Seafood Market

CNW Telbec    28/11/2004 10:28:53

A grass roots group is calling David Suzuki a hypocrite for praising Alaska's "salmon ranching" industry in his latest book, while continuing to do everything in his power to eliminate BC's sustainable salmon farming sector.

"There is very little difference between salmon ranching and salmon farming," said Laurie Jensen, president of the grassroots aquaculture group, Positive Aquaculture Awareness in speaking of the passage in Suzuki's new book, "The David Suzuki Reader."

"In fact," she said, "ranching is a type of farming. For Suzuki to condemn one industry while praising the other only proves how irrational and scientifically baseless his condemnation of our industry is," Jensen said.

"Both these industries raise salmon in hatcheries until they are ready for saltwater, both industries continue to grow salmon in pens in the ocean, both use the same type of feed and both industries help to take pressure off the wild stocks," said Jensen.

"The biggest difference between what's done in BC and what's done in Alaska, is that the Alaskans release 1.5 billion farmed salmon into the open ocean after a year, while British Columbians keep their salmon in pens throughout their life-cycle, where escapes have become rare," she said.

According to Jensen, salmon farming in B.C. requires less feed per salmon than salmon ranching because of greater efficiencies, including feed monitoring and controlled diet.

By keeping salmon penned for their entire lifecycle, B.C. salmon farmers are also able to keep hatchery raised salmon separate from wild salmon which reduces the risk of so-called 'genetic pollution,' an issue anti-aquaculture activists, including Suzuki, have often raised.

"In terms of sustainability, salmon farming is every bit as sustainable as salmon ranching," said Jensen. "Maybe it's the millions of dollars in American foundation money going to the David Suzuki Foundation that causes Suzuki to praise the Alaskan model while he condemns the very similar and equally sustainable approach being taken in his home province," she said.