The Written Word: Rafe Mair July 15th

By Rafe Mair

I sense that the fish farm issue is finally turning around. The companies and both governments have been lying through their teeth from the beginning and my sense of it is that the public is wizening up...

Just for the heck of it, let’s pretend that we had none and today you were to be the jury to decide whether or not Atlantic Salmon Fish Farms would be a good thing for British Columbia. Here are some of the questions you would, I think, ask along with the fish farmer’s honest answer.;

Are they healthy to eat? While most of the world’s scientists and nutritionists say they are not, what would these pointy-heads know/?

Are they as tasty as wild salmon? Don’t pay any attention to those blind taste tests that have been unanimous that wild fish taste better. Besides, when the wild salmon are gone there’ll be nothing left to test against!

Where does the excrement go? With hundreds of thousands of fish in one place the answer is clear – to the bottom.  But for the average fish farm the sewage is only as much as a city of 10,000 produces. It goes to the bottom where it reduces the surplus crab and shrimp population

How do you ensure your fish don’t get sick and kill off wild salmon? The answer is that we put antibiotics in their feed and hope for the best – which doesn’t always happen...

Do you add anything else to the feed? Yes, we put colourants in the food so that people can get the colour they want.

But what’s the matter with the dishwater grey they are now?That’s an impertinent question I’m not going to answer.

What is the feed given? It comes from millions of anchovies taken out of South American waters and made into pellets.

Is the food appropriate? Well, speaking truthfully, it takes 5-7 pounds of South American anchovies to make one pound of farmed fish but what the hell, it’s not BC anchovies we’re taking here! Besides we’re going to have to find substitutes because there aren’t any anchovies to speak of left in South American waters after we’ve got through with them.

Where does the excess fish food, including antibiotics and colourants not consumed by the caged salmon, go? Into a big pile of shit under the farms but “out of sight, out of mind is our motto”.

We’re told that your fish escape into wild salmon waters? The answer is nonsense; the alternative answer is that the people of BC will be amply rewarded when our escapees (which we don’t admit escape) take hold in your waters and drive all those wild salmon pests away.

We’ve taken the time to talk to authorities in Norway, Scotland and Ireland where you have fish farms and they tell us that the sea lice which infest the waters around the fish cages slaughter migrating salmon and sea trout and that we can expect the same thing but worse; worse because our Pink salmon smolts are much smaller than theirs and that unlike the European smolts, ours haven’t developed the protection of scales yet. What do you say to that? Stuff and nonsense made up by neo communists who are against progress and capitalism. Even though all the world’s independent experts in this matter make these claims, they’re all socialist trouble makers. Besides, we use liberal amounts of SLICE to get rid of the lice we don’t have.

 But SLICE is a federally controlled poison, isn’t it! And doesn’t it kill lice because it kills crustaceans including crabs and shrimp?What’s the matter with you … didn’t I tell you that we’ve already killed all the crabs and shrimp with fish shit?

Gee, Mr. Fish farmer, I guess the good news is that as your Atlantic salmon kill off the Pacific salmon we’ll need more and more of your product? You’re a smart lad … It’s rather like the Viet Nam war where they had to destroy villages in order to save them

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how do you vote? Do we let Atlantic salmon fish farms into British Columbia waters or not?

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