Environmentalists are celebrating this week's BC Supreme Court ruling that appears to place control of coastal fish farms in the hands of the federal government. Opponents of the farms seem to feel that Ottawa will take action to shut the farms down, or at least impose stricter regulations on them, whereas the provincial government has shown time and again that it will not.
I hope this is not an instance of being careful what you wish for. For starters, why should we believe that a federal department of fisheries that everyone seems to agree can't manage the wild fishery will be able to do a better job managing fish farms?
I am no fan of salmon farming -- in fact I think it is a blight on the environment -- but I am a fan of local control; i.e. local solutions worked out locally. I just hope the court decision doesn't end up creating a worse situation than already exists.
COMMENTS:
It is ironic to see this move being welcomed by environmentalists after all the evil things they have said about the DFO mismanaging the fish lice issue in the Broughtons and a host of other failures to act on behalf of wild salmon. I guess it's a measure of just how much worse the province has been.