No... I am not stealing this from Alex... I gave it to her to use as she wishes and she is using it wisely! This is a very good letter, which you should read!
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alex ... ngate.html

This is the orignal written 10/15/09... which I think you should also read!

Is this Canada’s “Watergate”? Or, should we call it “Salmongate”?
Watergate refers to, “The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon.” Watergate itself is not what hurt Nixon, but the “knowing of it”, the “lying about it”, and the “cover-up” was his demise and is what eventually brought him down.

“President Nixon refuses to release the tapes and fires the special prosecutor. A decisive Supreme Court ruling is a victory for investigators.”

“The final blow came with the decision by the Supreme Court to order Nixon to release more White House tapes. One of these became known as the 'smoking gun' tape when it revealed that Nixon had participated in the Watergate cover-up as far back as June 23, 1972. Around the country, there were calls for Nixon to resign.”

“November 17 - Nixon declares”, I'm not a crook," maintaining his innocence in the Watergate case.”

July 24 - The Supreme Court rules unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, rejecting the president's claims of executive privilege.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/po ... watergate/
http://www.watergate.info/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/po ... eline.html

There have been several calls for investigation from over 19000 concerned citizens and individuals (mostly Canadians), that is either not being heard, or is just being ignored? I know Alexandra Morton has asked several times for the sea lice and disease records of the individual sites on the out migration of the Fraser River Sockeye to study. To date, I do not believe any records have been released? Unfortunately, I believe I am starting to see similarities between the plight of the “British Columbia salmon fishery” and “Watergate? I am not calling anyone a “crook”, but the similarities, of “secrecy”, half truths”, withholding information”, “not providing information”, “providing incorrect information”, and the list goes on and on… and it all is paralleling the “Watergate Scandal”!

DFO Pacific Region Director Paul Sprout stated these sockeye had a different species of louse than the farm salmon – but this is wrong and he should know this. Marine Harvest timed their treatments to protect the Pinks in Broughton. To protect both Pink and Sockeye the farms would have to do back-to-back treatments as the Pink and Chum migrate in April and May, while the Sockeye migrate later during June and July. I do not believe that happened.

There was so much “heat” concerning the Broughton… I believe all the focus was there and I do not think anyone was really watching or was concerned with (and/or forgot) what was happening in Campbell River? After you read the fish health reports take a look here: http://www.marineharvestcanada.com/farm ... a_lice.php and again start reading. Now go to this site: http://www.marineharvestcanada.com/pdf/ ... _cyrus.pdf The upper chart tends to indicate everything is in tolerances, now page down and look at the 6-Jul-09and 27-Jul-09 count of “CALIGUS”, that would be 16.53 and 12.20 respectfully, (lice) per fish?, on an inventory of 507,792?. Treatment was Not given until 8-Aug-09. Am I reading this right? In addition, this does not count all the lice floating around, not counted and right in the middle of the Sockeye out migration! This is on the Fraser River Sockeye migration route! How many Fraser Sockeye, do you think that migrated in July, got through there in 2009, without being “lethally” infested with sea lice or other diseases?

If you look -RIGHT IN THE FRASER, the Harrison sockeye did very well, the rest of the Fraser sockeye declined by 92%. What is the difference between the Harrison and other Fraser sockeye? A paper by DFO says they migrate out through Juan de Fuca, while the others are known to go north right through the fish farms at Campbell River.

DFO what are you thinking? “there has not been a salmon collapse in the Fraser,” “while this year's sockeye return is the lowest in 50 years, Rosenberger said, “they've rebuilt stocks from worse cases in the past.” Barry Rosenberger, B.C. Interior area director for the DFO's Pacific region, is quoted in The Record: http://www2.canada.com/newwestrecord/ne ... d447340ce8 While on the very same day Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun published the DFO return numbers for the Fraser River and many creeks are showing "zero"? http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/wors ... story.html

You cannot rebuild a genetic stock back from "zero"! ONCE THEY ARE GONE... THEY ARE GONE!

Is everyone in DFO blind to the fact you are losing your "Wild Salmon" and what is actually transpiring? On the other hand, has Canada just written off the "Wild Salmon" in favor of Aquaculture "farmed salmon"?

Here are some things I know and some that I believe.

“Open Net Cage’ Salmon Farming”
“Fish Farms situated in estuarine waters seem to be implicated in the decline of wild fish in both places (Scotland and Canada). The problem is that the dense stocking of farmed salmon in ‘open net cages’ allows the numbers of sea lice to increase dramatically. In natural conditions the fish are much more widely distributed and the parasites, while present, do not usually cause major problems. Young wild salmon and sea trout hatch in freshwater streams and then pass down through the estuaries to reach the sea. As they pass the salmon farms these young fish ‘pick up’ the parasites, which are thought to cause them serious problems.”

“DNA Studies”
“When a wild fish is captured and found to be carrying sea lice it is difficult to be certain where these parasites came from. They might be from the ‘natural’ pool of parasites in the open sea, or possibly from one of the ‘unnatural’ populations that flourish around fish farms. Recent studies in Scotland focused on the ‘Genetic Fingerprinting’ of Lepeophtheirus salmonis attached to wild sea trout and salmon as they returned to freshwater to breed. This work shows that many of the sea lice came from the populations that surround fish farms.”

Fish farms are required to and do keep sea lice data, per site! And, from everything I am gathering, they keep very accurate records. What appears to be happening is a combined report is generated, per sub-zones, which is what is used in the “Fish Health” reports. According to the Fish Health Report, everything is well within tolerances? So, they say… I might have a different opinion. Read the reports and you will see my concerns: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/ahc/fish_health/ The individual site data is not in the reports, nor really discussed. Just a few comments if the sea lice count exceeds the “trigger” it is being “monitored” and treated as necessary… or words to that effect.

As far as I can tell, MHC has been keeping these records since 2003, posting on the webpage since 2004. But, if you go and start looking, the information isn’t there! Why? I was told the farms were “fallow” and they only post current data and remove the information when a farm is fallow. I have that in writing from MHC and I am okay there… but, why are they not willing to release their data per site for 2007? They have the information, why don’t they want others to see it?

If you don’t believe “sea lice” are killing salmon you need to start doing some reading – they are! Here are some places you can start! These are not in any particular order:
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2 ... 1010,79449
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/Leggat ... tfinal.pdf
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr697.pdf
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/ ... ulture.pdf
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi- ... 1&SRETRY=0

I believe under the right circumstances one (1) farm can completely devastate the entire out migration of an entire run. That has been pretty much proven from reports from Norway, Scotland, and Ireland. That is why I am asking for the individual disease and sea lice counts – per site! Everyone else should be doing this also and the farms need to make them a matter of public record! This is the “ONLY” thing that is going to save our Pacific Northwest indigenous salmon from extinction!

Here is a quote to keep in mind:
“Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now before Congress and ultimately the American people”. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox - after his firing, by Richard Nixon, Oct 20 1973.

Oh... If anyone really thinks Alaska has "fish farms"... they really need to do their homework! And... if anyone can "prove" my beliefs are wrong... I will be very happy!