Schwarzenegger’s bill may not support Alaska salmon

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just passed a bill (AB 1217 – October 12, 2009) that will see the Ocean Protection Council develop standards on sustainable fishing practices.  The California bill’s intention is to support

"Hasta La Vista" Alaska salmon

 fishermen who fish sustainably and provide a labelling system for seafood that may meet these standards. Sounds great.

But, it may not include 40% of Alaska’s annual salmon catch.

The bill will “prohibit seafood produced through aquaculture or fish farming from being certified as sustainable”. And as this blog clearly points out – 40% of the salmon catch in Alaska (2008 figures) were raised in hatcheries and net pens for a large portion of their lives. This is aquaculture.

It should be no surprise to readers of this blog, that the bill was written with assistance from the staff at Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program. If you don’t already know, the aquarium has long “de-marketed” aquaculture products and have purposely ignored the fact that Alaska salmon is produced through aquaculture facilities.  In MBA’s own words, “This new law will encourage more sustainable fishing in California and help our fishermen compete in global markets that increasingly demand seafood from sustainable sources”.  (we have added the emphasis for obvious reasons – it’s really all about marketing).

Perhaps no one has told Mr. Schwarzenegger that he has been duped into signing a bill that is merely an extention of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s protectionism and marketing program for Alaska salmon?

But to be honest, who would want to tell Conan the Barbarian that he is oblivious to fact. Oops, we just did.

Alaska fingerprints all over the “Smoking Gun”

It has long been accepted practice for U.S. philanthropic foundations to support environmental groups who have a hate on for salmon culture.

Let’s ignore for a moment that Alaska is one of the largest salmon culturers in the world. 

A new report now clearly shows that there is a strong link between these U.S. Foundations and the Alaska salmon fishery. It’s no secret that Alaska has hated competition from salmon farmers (again, let’s ignore that Alaska farms 1.5 billion salmon each year). But, it is now becoming clearer that Alaska has enjoyed the support of these wealthy foundations to create a “smear” campaign against the competing farmers.

Bruce Lloyd, columnist, writes:

In a nutshell, an American fishing industry organization named ”SeaWeb” has paid in excess of US$8.5 million to co-ordinate a program called “Seafood Choices”

This marketing strategy puts pressure on such stores as Wal-Mart and the like to only sell seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council which is primarily Alaska salmon.

The overblown claims and constant attack on fish farms that we have witnessed here in B.C. has in large part been proof of the veracity of the old adage that “if you say something long enough it becomes fact” to be sure.

Never mind that such “green” organizations – such as the Packard Foundation and others - have drawn monies from this “innocent” industrial fund to pay for “research” that runs contrary to a lot of the peer-reviewed research other organizations have been doing.

Check out the full piece at;

http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/64003957.html