The Canadian Sablefish Association calls on BC Premier Gordon Campbell to respect Alaska Governor's request to stop sablefish farming

For immediate release - October 22, 2004

As BC allows the world's first sablefish farms to proceed blindly ahead of both environmental and socio-economic impact studies, Alaska is becoming urgently concerned about the threat to their wild sablefish stocks and successful fishery worth well over $100 million annually.

In an October 11th letter to BC Premier Gordon Campbell, Alaska's Governor Frank Murkowski asks BC to delay the start of sablefish farming until proper precautionary measures are taken. Citing risks such as disease transfer, genetic interaction and predation the Governor noted that migratory patterns of the sablefish stock back and forth between BC and Alaskan waters put their stocks at risk too.

Murkowski referred to recent cooperative efforts on major economic ventures such as gas pipeline developments and railway extensions when expressing confidence that by working together and using sound science, BC and Alaska can find a way to simultaneously develop both of their resource-based economies in a manner that will not adversely affect one another.

Representatives of Canada's wild sablefish fishery commended Governor Murkowski for maintaining Alaska's commitment to protect wild fish stocks from irresponsible fish farming and called on the Premier to respect Alaska's request to safeguard one of their most valuable fishery resources.

"In 2003 Premier Campbell promised that issues associated with fish health, escapes, and wastes are being addressed in advance of the development of sablefish culture industry" said Eric Wickham, Executive Director of the Canadian Sablefish Association (CSA).

Disappointingly, the CSA has since discovered the transfer of approximately 40,000 farmed sablefish from Sablefin Hatcheries on Saltspring Island to at least two farm sites on the BC coast in August of this year - ahead of any regulations for sablefish farming.

But it's not too late and with only two of the forty-seven approved fish farms actually stocked with farm sablefish, now is a critical window of opportunity for Premier Campbell to remove these fish from the water and halt further development until proper studies are completed, as requested by Governor Murkowski.

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For more information please contact:
Eric Wickham, Executive Director 604 790-6371 or 604 915-9117
Chris Acheson, President (250) 537-0910