RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

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Salmon a Symbol of What?

The Vancouver Sun published my letter to the editor in their May 27 Opinion section. I wrote it in response to the May 18 Opinion Editorial by Iona Campagnolo in which she discussed the idea of making wild salmon an official symbol of British Columbia.

My letter reads:

I am excited to hear about the call to make wild salmon a symbol of British Columbia. I just hope it can remain a symbol of our powerful and diverse ecology and not be a reminder of what we have destroyed.Wild salmon populations up and down the West Coast are in trouble. There is a need for radical action to protect their populations, migration routes, food sources and spawning grounds. We need to halt activities that have been shown to have impacts, such as open-net-cage fish farming, and protect areas that still have healthy abundant runs, such as the Taku Watershed.

Wild salmon would indeed be a worthy symbol of this province: ecologically, salmon are integral to rivers, forest ecology, and other terrestrial and marine ecosystems; culturally, they have part of the history and the present of our fabric here, for all generations of BC residents; and economically, they support commercial fisheries, and recreational tourism, as well as supporting subsistence needs for many individuals and communities.

The growing amount of press coverage, the attendance of the Get Out Migration, and active public concern over salmon issues shows how key this species is to our province – and our planet. But still, more action is required, and fast, to protect our dwindling salmon populations. Because of their interconnectedness to so many ecosystems, salmon are impacted by many factors as well: disease, food shortages, climate change, river development, and pollution to name a few. However, instead of sitting back and waiting until we can address all those factors individually, we need to act on ones we know are key right now. One of those of course is open net cage fish farms, which are spreading disease rapidly among wild populations as they swim their migration routes. Another is protecting salmon habitat – spawning, rearing, and feeding grounds. Rivers Without Borders is working to do just that in the Taku Watershed, and keep mine development away from some of the richest salmon rearing habitat in the country – in the Pacific for that matter. 

What is alarming is that even with all this public pressure, the Province of BC is still trying to push through practices and plans that will clearly jeopardize salmon. Please take action to let government officials know that salmon are too important to gamble. Let’s let salmon be a symbol for BC, a symbol of the passionate action of BC’s people to protect this inheritance from the past, this legacy for the future. 

Take action at www.takulegacy.org