Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, marine biologist Alexandra Morton left Sointula on her "Get Out Migration" walk down Vancouver Island to raise public awareness about the effects of industrial fish farming on wild salmon.
People around the world are paying attention and demanding that our government recognize that salmon are sacred and protect wild runs. Lax regulating of open-net salmon farms along wild salmon migratory routes has resulted in the transfer of sea lice and disease, contamination of the seabed by waste products and the takeover of habitat by escaped fish.
Canadians, especially in my riding of Nanaimo—Cowichan, want the federal government to apply the Fisheries Act and ban open-net salmon farming near these routes, so we do not lose the food security, thousands of jobs and millions of dollars that wild salmon bring to our province. Alexandra Morton is calling for moving the industrial production of fish to land-based operations away from wild salmon.
Salmon farm families do not have to be left behind. We can have our fish and eat it too, by firm regulation of industrial fish farms and protection of wild salmon runs.