PORT HARDY, B.C. — Members of two British Columbia First Nations say they have occupied a salmon farm on a small island on the province’s coast, the second such protest to be held in the past week.

Chief Willie Moon, also known as Okwilagame, said about 16 members of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw and the Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwamis arrived at the Wicklow Point salmon farm on Thursday afternoon.

He said about five protesters plan to stay until the provincial and federal governments revoke permits for the facility on Broughton Island, about 50 kilometres east of Port Hardy.

British Columbia’s new NDP government campaigned on a promise to transition the province’s fish-farming industry away from open-sea pens to land-based sites, but First Nations are pushing for more aggressive action. They want the province to revoke the licences of unwanted salmon farms operating in their territorial waters.

B.C.’s aquaculture industry was once again in the spotlight last week after thousands of Atlantic salmon may have escaped a Washington State fish farm near the border.

August 24, 2017. For immediate release.  Ernest Alexandra Alfred and a small group have peacefully occupied the Marine Harvest salmon farm, Swanson Island.  They state that they will remain on the farm until their chiefs are satisfied that the Province of BC has cancelled that farm’s Licence of Occupation and thus it has to leave the territory. The farm is located 17km east of Alert Bay.

At the Eleventh-Hour, BC’s Wild Salmon in Crisis

(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.

The UBCIC and the FNWSA have continuously advocated for the removal of open net-pen salmon farms in our waters and for BC and Canada to support a transition to on-land closed-containment aquaculture.

Widespread disturbances dispel the notion of a nation of pristine waters

Posted: 04/21/2015 5:22 pm EDT Updated: 06/21/2015 5:59 am EDT

This month's bunker fuel spill in Vancouver's English Bay was a stark reminder of just what is at stake as resource industries lay claim to more and more of our coastline. The accident has already re-energized the debate over the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and the increased tanker traffic that will accompany it. But, notably absent from this debate is the one group most Vancouverites look to on issues affecting our oceans -- the Vancouver Aquarium.

Even if twinning the Kinder-Morgan pipeline doesn’t go ahead, the Salish Sea will not be saved — unless something bold, principled and practical is done, and soon.

The endangered southern resident Orca whales, the depleting fisheries of Puget Sound, the sewage dumps into Juan de Fuca Strait, the toxic leachates from old mineshafts and coal-storage pits along the Island’s east coast, and the plans that would see industrial sites such as an LNG plant located in Howe Sound: these all point to incremental destruction. As it stands now a long, slow death awaits the Salish Sea.

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a lifelong, pretty old British Columbian who loves his province with the same passion I’m sure people in Trois Rivières love theirs. Your inferential calling BC’s patriotism into question because we will vigorously oppose your approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline demonstrates clearly that you’re quite unable to understand this, your connections to BC notwithstanding.

Leaders of a B.C. First Nation and a biologist have responded to a lawsuit alleging trespassing on a salmon farm.

Three Dzawada’enuxw leaders Willie Moon, Joe Willie and Farron Soukochoff filed a Response in B.C. Supreme Court, joining with biologist Alexandra Morton in a lawsuit initiated by Marine Harvest. 

At issue is First Nation trespass on a salmon farm within the Dzawada’enuxw territory.

Published Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 12:01AM EST

More than 1,000 early-career scientists from across Canada have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and key members of his cabinet urging the government to do a better job of assessing the environmental impacts of developments.

The scientists say they are “concerned that current environmental assessments and regulatory decision-making processes lack scientific rigour,” and that the health of Canadians and the environment are being put at risk.