200 POUNDS OF DEAD SALMON DUMPED IN FRONT OF LEGISLATURE.TWO PEOPLE ARRESTED

ìNO NEW FISH FARMS,î DEMANDS F.A.N.

Friday, July 19 2002 Victoria, British Columbia - To urge the provincial government to maintain the ban on new salmon farms, activists dumped 200 pounds of dead Atlantic salmon in front of the British Columbia legislature. Heavy security prevented another 400 pounds from being dumped. Police arrested two members of the Forest Action Network (FAN).

Members of FAN and people of the Namgis, Kwi-kwa-sut-enox, Tsa-wa-da-nuq, Songhees, and Heiltsuk First Nations attended in support of the protest.

ìDumping fish farm waste does not happen in our backyards. By doing what we are doing today, we are trying to bring a fraction of the reality of this industry to the Government. We are also raising the serious economical, social and environmental questions about the lifting of the moratorium on new salmon farms,î said Clement Lam of the Forest Action Network.

Salmon farms are found along the coast of British Columbia, with the heaviest concentration in the Broughton Archipelago off northern Vancouver Island. They vary in size and a single farm may contain over a million fish. Hundred of tonnes of dead, diseased farmed fish and other farmed fish waste are dumped on land.

Unknown tonnage of uneaten fish feed, antibiotics, pesticides, and raw sewage from the fish farms are constantly being dumped at sea unchecked, untreated and unregulated. The dumping upsets the natural balance in the surrounding sea, which lead to the outbreak of disease and contamination.

The provincial government was expected to lift the five-year moratorium on the April 30, 2002, but it has been delayed again and again because regulations for waste removal that meet the federal Fisheries Act have not been finalised.

Forest Action Network opposes all aspects of fish farming and is working with other environmental groups, First Nations, and fishermen to uphold the fish farm moratorium, eliminate all fish farms and promote sustainable wild species fishery in British Columbia.