2013 Boycott Farmed Salmon Campaign This Christmas

DUBLIN LAUNCH TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 10 AM

GOOD FOOD IRELAND ANNUAL CONFERENCE - SHELBOURNE HOTEL STEPS, ST STEVEN’S GREEN, DUBLIN
Opponents of plans to expand open salmon rearing cages along the west coast are demonstrating at the annual conference of Good Food Ireland.

Open Letter to Good Food Ireland Annual Conference 2013

REPRESENTATIVES FROM 12 ORGANISATIONS

BANTRY BAY TO LOUGH SWILLY

Open Letter to Good Food Ireland Annual Conference 2013

Dear Chairman, Conference Speakers, and attendees;

We have come to your Annual Conference to ask you to boycott farmed salmon this Christmas and arrange for substitutions by products that are less harmful to the environment, to wild fish – and indeed to the consumer’s health.

The arguments and scientific research that supports our concerns are detailed on our website, wildfish.ie and on the websites of many other groups here in Ireland and around the world. Many arguments - such as the impact of farmed salmon lice on wild salmon mortalities - have been well known and documented by eminent scientists here in Ireland, across Europe, and in Canada. They have been the subject of ignored scientific recommendations to separate farmed salmon from wild salmon since 1994.

For that is all we are asking for. We are not against aquaculture. We are not against salmon farming. We are against open net pen salmon farms in our bays that are on the migratory path of the wild Irish salmon.

Disease, parasites, pollution – all of this could be controlled if farmed salmon were raised in contained systems which could be located in many derelict sites in harbours around along our coast, providing much needed employment without damaging anything. The additional cost of running these units is balanced by their ability to capture the faeces and use it to produce energy to power their systems rather than relying on the natural environment as a waste repository – something authorities would never permit on land.

On animal welfare grounds alone it is hard to support this form of farming. Tens of thousands of farmed salmon were killed this summer by a mass of jellyfish. While Government agencies were quick to point out that this is a ‘natural’ phenomena, it is not natural to trap millions of salmon in cages and have them stung to death when in the wild they would have ‘naturally’ avoided these jellyfish.

Slow Food internationali does not support the use or sale of open pen farmed salmon. No true organic standards support the use of biocides as a regular treatment for parasites as is the standard practice in this industry under the guise of ‘veterinary medicine’.

We urge you to protect your own valued name as the standard bearers of good Irish food by supporting our boycott and saying with us – ‘Not On My Plate This Christmas’.

Thank you,
Wildfish.ie

Contacts:

An Taisce 087 2411995

Aran Against Salmon Farms 086-8274636

Coastwatch 086 8111684

Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers [FISSTA] 074 9730300

Forest Friends 087 619 8265

Friends of the Earth 01-6394652

Friends of the Irish Environment 087 2176316

Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages

Irish Seal Sanctuary 01 8354370

No Salmon Farms at Sea 087 2746755

Salmon Watch Ireland 086 826 9222

Save Bantry Bay 087 7949 227