August 12, 2019 

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Via Email: [email protected] 

OPEN LETTER: Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Policy Not to Test for the Piscine Orthorevirus (PRV) Before Transferring Atlantic Salmon to the Open-Net Fish Farms (the PRV Policy) 

Dear Minister Wilkinson: 

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) writes in support of the ‘Namgis First Nation’s position that the DFO should prohibit introductions of Atlantic salmon infected with PRV into open-net fish farms. The scientific evidence continues to show that PRV was likely introduced to British Columbia (BC) from Europe and is a foreign virus that can cause significant harm to populations of native, wild Pacific salmon.  Unfortunately, the DFO continues to ignore this risk even though it is unassailable: 

NEWS RELEASE

FNLC Supports Broughton Area LoU re. Fish Farms

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver – June 28, 2018) The First Nation Leadership Council (FNLC) applauds the Broughton Area Letter of Understanding (LoU), signed yesterday between the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis, Namgis and Mamalilikulla First Nations and BC.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – June 20, 2018) The UBCIC applauds today’s announcement as an initial step on the pathway to preserve and safeguard the future of wild salmon consistent with the rights, cultural practices and economic livelihoods of many First Nations throughout BC.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – May 14, 2018) Citing dangerously low numbers of wild salmon returns, the recreational salmon fishery in the Skeena River has been forced to completely shut down. A ban has also been placed on recreational salmon fisheries in the Nass River watershed, with further limits being placed across various salmon fisheries along the entire north coast. 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – August 24, 2017) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA) are shocked and infuriated by Cook Aquaculture’s release of 305,000 specimens of an invasive salmon species into the waters of BC and Washington.

Dear Minister Tootoo and Minister Wilson-Raybould:

We are writing in regard to the circumstances surrounding the 2015 legal decision Morton v. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Marine Harvest. It has come to our attention in British Columbia that in your capacity as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada you appear as a co-appellant with the salmon farming corporation, Marine Harvest, to appeal that 2015 legal decision. We find your decision very disturbing and we ask you to immediately reconsider your participation.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. - January 07, 2016) A recently released study, published in Virology Journal, reports evidence that the virus most feared by the international salmon farming industry is now present in our wild fish in British Columbia, Canada.