The B.C. NDP came to power last year promising to protect wild salmon and keep fish farms away from wild salmon migration routes like the Broughton, an archipelago where ocean currents funnel past hundreds of rainforest islands, bringing nutrient rich water to a plethora of sea life.
On Wednesday — in a sometimes unclear and other times downright confusing announcement that Agriculture Minister Lana Popham described as a “bold” new approach to salmon farming — government unveiled two new rules that will affect the renewal of salmon farming tenures in B.C. waters.
Media reports have described the new rules as amounting to a First Nations’ veto power over fish farms. But that’s been contested by government. Others were expecting B.C. to cancel fish farm tenures in the Broughton, where First Nations have protested their existence for years. But the new rules won’t apply to those farms.
Sarah Cox – Narwhal – June 21, 2018.