Tag Archives: Bernadette Jordan

Rivers & Oceans

New fisheries minister wades into fish politics, cutting herring harvest in half

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In her first major decision, new federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray has reduced the West Coast commercial herring fishery by half.

Wading into the thick of fish politics Thursday, Murray said the decision is based on an abundance of caution given herring are a critical food for endangered salmon stocks — further jeopardized by the double whammy of fire and floods in B.C. this year.

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Rivers & Oceans

Twelve fish farm applications: are fish farms really leaving BC’s open waters by 2025?

BC Salmon farming companies applied to put in a new fish farm between the Discovery Islands and Broughton Archipelago and expand their existing facilities at 11 other locations around Vancouver Island. 

Two of the expansions, at Dixon Bay and Plover Point in Clayoquot Sound, have already been granted. 

“We had a promise from federal government whereby they said in mandate letters to the minister of fisheries,  they were going to transition the open net salmon farming industry out of BC by 2025,” explained Stan Proboszcz, Science Advisor of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

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Rivers & Oceans

Environmental groups concerned about potential open-net pen fish farm expansions

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coalition of environmental groups is concerned about the potential expansion of open-net pen salmon farming despite a previous promise by Ottawa to phase them out on the West Coast. 

Salmon farming companies have submitted 12 applications — two of which have already been approved — to expand the size or number of net pen operations, and/or to increase the amount of fish produced at sites on the B.C. coast, according to a press release issued by four groups. 

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Finances, Rivers & Oceans

B.C. commercial harvesters “financially devastated” by fisheries closures

By Norman Galimski,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The abrupt closure of nearly 60 per cent of B.C. salmon fisheries this summer has left commercial harvesters “financially devastated,” according to a survey by the United Fishermen & Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU-Unifor).

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Rivers & Oceans

Is Ottawa breaking its promise to close fisheries and protect wild salmon?

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

West Coast conservation groups are worried Ottawa is backtracking on a recent commitment to close the bulk of commercial salmon fisheries as a radical measure to save endangered stocks.

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