War on salmon

tony eberts
The Great Outdoors
  Anyone who recognizes the great value of our wild salmon--for our life style, as a major factor in our tourism industry, for the commercial fisherman, for coastal native communities--it's time to join in a war.
  It is as if the right-wing governments of B.C. and the U.S. have indeed declared war on the salmon. The Campbell government is tearing down the regulations and organizations created to protect the fish and their habitat, and encouraging the disease and destruction of netcage Atlantic salmon farming.
  In the U.S., salmon farming is outlawed but in case after case dams and other industrial activities take precedence over the wild fish.
  In March the Bush administration agreed to cancel habitat protection for 19 endangered West Coast salmon runs despite the outcries of fishermen and conservationists. The decision would remove habitat designations considered critical to rebuilding the already dwindling runs.
  Threatened are an estimated 150 watersheds, rivers, bays and estuaries in Washington state, Oregon, California and Idaho.
  The decision to withdraw the habitat designations came in a lawsuit brought by "developers and others" who argued that the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service had failed to properly consider the economic impacts of the fish protection.
  In other words, industrialists see a chance to make a bunch of money, so to hell with the salmon.
  By a remarkable coincidence, that is also the rallying cry of the short-sighted buck-worshippers in the Campbell administration. Some of them may even be envisioning the day when all those pesky wild salmon runs have been wiped out and Big Business can get on with damming the Fraser River.
  By then, we'll all be used to eating those genetically degenerated netcage fish with their chemical-laced, artificially dyed flesh.
  The dam-builders, of course, can always switch to lobster. Picture of a wild chinook -- Daryl.