Vancouver Island native, model, and entertainer Pamela Anderson is expected to be aboard the RV Martin Sheen “protest flotilla” this Saturday, 27 July, voicing her opposition to fish farming in British Columbia, Canada.
The protest, called the Wild Salmon Flotilla, is being put on by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and will also feature Laichwiltach First Nation Chief George Quocksister Jr., as well as Green Party MP Paul Manly. Anderson serves as the international chair of the group.
The protest is expected to be held at Venture Point, a fish farm owned by Cermaq Canada. According to Sea Shepherd Media and Campaign Coordinator Clancy Walker, the location was chosen because of its proximity to the Campbell River, where environmental activists are concerned that the open-net farms will spread viruses and sea lice to native wild salmon populations.
“There’s a huge abundance of sea lice in the water this year, particularly around Clayoquot Sound,” Walker said. However, Fisheries and Oceans Canada data from 2011 to 2018 did not reveal that sea lice quantities exceeded the legal threshold in recent years.
A Facebook event page for the protest encourages community members to bring “vessels, signs, friends & family” to join the RV Martin Sheen in the protest.
“Wild salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest are in critical decline due to the devastating impacts of open-net pen salmon farms along wild salmon migration routes,” a poster for the event said. “This self-proclaimed ‘sustainable’ industry uses entire waterways to freely dispose of pathogens, parasites, pesticides and effluence spilling from their open-net pens. Research shows that viruses, sea lice, and pesticides from fish farms not only kill off our wild salmon, but also threaten every community, creature and ecosystem that relies on wild salmon for survival.”
Image courtesy of Frederic Legrand - COMEO/Shutterstock
