MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY for Wild Salmon

Mar 31st, 2011 2:58 AM

Media Release Alexandra Morton echoes distress call to stop feedlots spreading diseases Rally at BC Legislature (Echo Bay, B.C. March 31, 2011) Following revelations at the Cohen Inquiry that government suppressed information on critical viral infections in Fraser sockeye, the Get Out Migration marches on with 'Mayday for Wild Salmon.' Starting on 14th April in Vancouver, Alexandra Morton and the Wild Salmon People will travel to communities asking people to lead government by flying the flag for wild salmon with events in Campbell River, Cultus Lake, Harrison River, Fish Lake, Horsefly, Quesnel Lake, Adams River, Saltspring Island, Nanaimo, Chilliwack, Sointula, Clayoquot Sound, Gilford Island, Duncan, Sechelt, Powell River, Vancouver and a 'May Day' 24-hour vigil in Victoria on 1st May leading into Election Day (2nd May). 'Mayday for Wild Salmon' will feature a Mother's Day blessing (8th May); Global Day of Action (17th May); visits to the Cohen Inquiry; legal interventions; flotilla protests; swims around salmon farms; and celebrations to honour coastal communities on the front line and the guardians of the spawning grounds. "I'm calling the Wild Salmon People," said Alexandra Morton. "Government judgment on fisheries is impaired. DFO is blindly following out-dated policy that salmon farms are good for us, prompting senior scientists to state government is repeating the mistakes that robbed the east coast provinces of their Atlantic cod. We don't have to let wild Pacific salmon - a B.C. icon - go down on our watch. The public has a right to know if the Conservative Government has allowed Norwegian-owned salmon farms to release lethal salmon viruses into B.C. waters." "Salmon Are Sacred is calling on the Wild Salmon People to join digitally and in person in protecting wild salmon. Join us in an intervention. We will be issuing mayday alerts for wild salmon and serving legal notice that the salmon feedlots have to get out of B.C.'s waters. Wild Pacific salmon need us to re-establish safe passage for them to sea." Interventions including citizen's arrests, private prosecutions, legal action and peaceful demonstrations will take place against the Provincial and Federal Government, as well as the Norwegian companies who control 92% of B.C.'s salmon farms. The first 'intervention' will take place on 14th April at DFO's office in Vancouver. 'Mayday for Wild Salmon' is the next public opportunity to stand up for wild salmon following the 'Paddle for Wild Salmon' down the Fraser River to the opening of the Cohen Commission in October and walk down Vancouver Island where thousands of people came together in a rally in Victoria outside the B.C. Parliament in May 2010. "Until salmon farms get out of B.C.'s waters, every day is a Mayday for Wild Salmon," said Anissa Reed, creative genius behind Salmon Are Sacred. "Wild Pacific salmon are the backbone of the B.C. coast and the lifeblood of the Fraser River watershed. Yet the government is putting my family's future at risk by promoting the expansion of open net cage salmon farming. The Wild Salmon People need to stand together to help lift the sea lice burden off baby wild salmon smolts as they run the gauntlet past dozens of disease-ridden farms. Please respond to our SOS by flying the flag for wild salmon in your community or joining us in person in Victoria on May Day (1st May)." "Wild salmon travel for over 1,000 kilometres from the streams of their birth in our territory through Takla Lake, Stuart Lake, Nechako River and down the Fraser River just to reach Vancouver," said Margo French of Takla Lake First Nation in the headwaters of the Driftwood River watershed. "After such an exhausting journey, to the ocean the juvenile salmon need to navigate through a minefield of diseased salmon farms like a hole in the head. It is a critical time for wild salmon - the 2011 out-migration is the precious progeny of the 2009 run which was the lowest in recorded history and prompted the Cohen Inquiry. All our hard work as guardians of the headwaters will be in vain if sea lice and infectious diseases from salmon farms are allowed to decimate wild salmon." For more details of 'Mayday for Wild Salmon' including an itinerary please visit: www.salmonaresacred.org For full release with graphics, please visit http://huffstrategy.com/MediaManager/Media/Text/1301572718_Mayday+Press+Release+31st+March.pdf. Graphics and high resolution images are available upon request - please email: info@salmonaresacred.org A new film -"Rise of the Salmon People" - will premiere in May. Watch a trailer online: http://www.rockethub.com/projects/1031-rise-of-the-salmon-people-the-movie Contact: Alexandra Morton: 250 974 7086