Tag Archives: Chief Bob Chamberlain

Rivers & Oceans

Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Originally published by the Parliament of Canada

On 1 February 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (the Committee) agreed to undertake a study to “examine how the Department of Fisheries and Oceans prioritizes, resources and develops scientific studies and advice for the department, how the results of scientific study are communicated to the Minister and Canadians, and how the minister applies data and advice provided by the department and other government departments to ministerial decisions.”The Committee heard from 57 witnesses over nine meetings held between 26 April 2022 and 7 October 2022.

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Rivers & Oceans

‘Writing on the wall’ for West Coast fish farms, conservationists say

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Open net-pen fish farming on the Pacific coast took a one-two punch after operations closures were announced in both B.C. and Washington state this week. 

The shíshálh Nation said Wednesday that aquaculture giant Grieg Seafood is removing salmon farms from the nation’s waters along B.C.’s Sunshine Coast by February 2023. Meanwhile, on Monday, Washington state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said it’s not renewing Atlantic Canada’s Cooke Seafood’s last two open-net pen leases in Puget Sound and farm operations will end by Dec. 14. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Controversy over the 2022 Ahta River Run

More than 11,000 Pink Salmon are said to have returned to the Ahta River this September. This is more fish than the river has seen for many years and Alexandra Morton believes this is because Glacier Falls and Burdwood salmon farms were removed from their migration route.

She is not the only one suggesting that this year’s numbers are a result of removing salmon farms from the Broughton Archipelago. In August, Chief Bob Chamberlain of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance told the Vancouver Sun they haven’t seen these numbers in decades. 

Ruth Salmon, Interim Executive Director at the BC Salmon Farmers Association, calls this statement a mixture of ‘misrepresentation’ and ‘speculation.’ 

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Rivers & Oceans

Waiting for DFO to decide the fate of open-net pen fish farms

Sometime in the next three weeks, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Joyce Murray, will decide whether the licenses for 79 fish farms will be renewed. 

“I heard a rumour that the minister laid out her options or her ideas to cabinet and cabinet has the plans right now. They’re  figuring out what to do. We can expect an announcement quite shortly on the plan around the transition of farms out of British Columbia and also the licensing decision,” said Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance calls DFO a ‘captured regulator’ of the fish farm industry

(Click here to access other presentations taken from the Committee.)

One hundred and two British Columbian First Nations are calling for fish farms to move onto land. The Klahoose, Tla’amin, Homalco and K’omox First Nations are among them. On May 12, Chief Bob Chamberlain, Chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans that DFO is a captured regulator of the fish farm industry 

Chamberlain began by addressing the committee in his native tongue.

This is a transcript of the rest of his opening presentation.

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