(Photo: Kelly Roebuck)
The foodies have spoken to help recover wild salmon populations.
Open net-pen salmon farming has been a contentious issue in B.C. for more than 30 years.
The evidence shows that densely populated open net-pen salmon farms can result in both farmed and adjacent wild fish becoming unhealthy, primarily from piscine reovirus and sea lice.
In many areas, there is also strong Indigenous community opposition to the farms, as many farms are operating in First Nations territories without free, prior and informed consent.
On April 5 in Vancouver, more than 50 of B.C.’s top chefs came together to lend their voice to the debate. With the support of scientist David Suzuki and the David Suzuki Foundation, the chefs penned a letter to the B.C. government calling for an end to all open net-pen salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago that are opposed by First Nations.
Many of these farms’ leases are coming up for tenure renewal this June, providing an opportunity for the government to begin a transition away from open net-pen farms to a more sustainable system that reduces the risks to wild salmon and hopefully puts many salmon runs on a path to recovery.
Learn more about the chefs’ campaign here:
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Always grounded in sound evidence, the David Suzuki Foundation empowers people to take action in their communities on the environmental challenges we collectively face.
