 Seeks Canadian Action to Protect Pacific Wild Salmon April 30 ,2002
"Today, I join a growing chorus of American and Canadian scientists, environmentalists, and fishing families whose livelihoods depend on Alaska's commercial fishing industry in urging you to leave the moratorium on new Atlantic salmon net-pen farms in place," Knowles said. "Additionally, I urge you implement measures to make BC salmon farming biologically safe and environmentally sustainable." Following discussions last August, Knowles hoped Canada's moratorium on new fish farms would remain in place until Alaska and Canada have initiated and completed a full collaborative scientific review of the effect of salmon farming on our wild fisheries. Last Friday, the BC government announced that the seven-year moratorium would remain in place, but only temporarily as regulations are finalized. "A simply delay is insufficient. Alaska requests that the moratorium become permanent," Knowles said. "I also urge you to adopt the recommendations of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and the Leggatt Inquiry to move existing salmon aqua-culture to fully contained on-shore farms by a date certain. While the transition to fully contained, on-shore farms is underway, I urge you to implement the recommendations of ADF&G for reducing the risk of biological pollution by increasing monitoring and reporting efforts, and improving coordination between Alaska and British Columbia." Since Knowles' first discussions with the Premier on the matter, problems associated with net-pen salmon farming in British Columbia have increased rather than abated. Serious problems have developed with regard to salmon diseases, and continued escapes of Atlantic salmon pose an invasive species threat to Alaska's healthy wild Pacific salmon populations. In February of this year, seven cases of infectious hematopoetic necrosis, a highly contagious and deadly disease to wild salmon also known as IHN, were confirmed at salmon farms on the British Columbia coast. Also this year more Atlantic salmon than ever are escaping from net-pens in British Columbia. Escaped Atlantic salmon have been documented spawning in Canadian rivers and are being caught by fishermen in both BC and Alaska in increasing numbers. Salmon farm escapees pose an invasive species threat to wild Pacific salmon, through direct competition, by potential hybridization, and as vectors of infectious diseases and parasites. "As Governor, I have a constitutional responsibility to sustain the abundance of wild Pacific salmon for all Alaskans," Knowles said. "Alaska's commitment to salmon conservation has a strong history, including the passage of legislation banning fish farming in our state. While I support your effort to strengthen the Province's economy, the current salmon farming practices in British Columbia present Alaska with an unacceptable level of risk to our shared wild salmon resource." Knowles urged the BC Premier to heed specific recommendations to protect the wild Pacific salmon resource for which the state and the province share a stewardship responsibility. Specifically:
"I pledge my administration's full cooperation to British Columbia for the implementation of all of the State of Alaska's recommendations," Knowles concluded. "Certainly in the Pacific we should combine our best efforts to ensure the long-term abundance of our valuable and marvelous resource of wild Pacific salmon." Knowles concluded his letter to Campbell by appealing, once again, for Canada to join Alaska in a bi-national watershed assessment and planning effort for another shared wild salmon resource, the Taku River. "The Taku is one of the top trans-boundary salmon producers, and it is threatened by a proposed gold mine at the old Tulsequah Chief site just upstream of the B.C.-Alaska border," Knowles said. "For years I have called for a collaborative watershed effort under the auspices of the International Joint Commission or similar entity, and the time for a mutual BC and Alaska commitment to such an effort is long overdue."
Source of News Release & Digital Photo:
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Saying
Alaska will not equivocate when it comes to sustaining our wild
Pacific salmon and their important habitat, Gov. Tony Knowles
today called on British Columbia (BC) to leave its salmon farming
moratorium in place and implement recommendations to make existing
salmon farms environmentally sound. Knowles requested the actions
in a letter sent Monday to BC Premier Gordon Campbell.