The coalition challenged the constitutional legality of the B.C. government regulating the same salmon farms whose rapid expansion it enthusiastically promoted. Debate over the threats to wild salmon has been always there, particularly in the Broughton archipelago at the north end of Vancouver Island where research links sea lice infestations in domestic pens to declines in wild stocks that must migrate through adjacent, parasite-laden waters.
Biologist Alexandra Morton informed that the Wilderness Tourism Association, the Southern Gillnetters Association, the Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association of B.C. and the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society are petitioning to have the province’s right to regulate ruled constitutionally invalid.
Gregory McDale, environmental lawyer representing the petitioners, told that a legal skirmish over arcane technicalities, it’s a signal that the conflict is both escalating and polarizing competing economic interests in a way that seems certain to draw into the fray other heavyweights affected by aquaculture.
There is no doubt that salmon farming had lessen pressure on wild stocks severely affected by federal and provincial mismanagement that resulted in overfishing, loss of genetic diversity and habitat destruction, all amplified by climate change. Fish farms and processing facilities are said to be crucial to the economies of coastal communities but now it pose threat to other business in the area.
