Washington state senator Kevin Ranker will introduce a bill
to ban open net-pen fish farming in his state, reports the Times Colonist. Ranker represents Orcas Islands, where more than
100,000 Atlantic salmon escaped from a fish factory farm in July.
The Democratic state senator said that if his legislation
passes, fish farms will be out of Washington waters by 2025, with current
leases expiring within seven years. The bill ensures job training for any displaced
workers.
Senator Ranker is calling on elected officials in British
Columbia to take action as well. “Washington state and British Columbia have to
work together to protect the Salish Sea and all the economic resources that
depend on it, he says.
Earlier this year, a
net at a fish factory farm in Washington failed, allowing thousands of
nonnative Atlantic salmon to get loose. The director of the Wild Fish
Conservancy Northwest called the incident an “environmental nightmare that put
native species at risk of disease.
A disturbing video from a diver in BC has raised concerns
that a nearby fish slaughterhouse is dumping blood and guts into waterways.
Collected samples of the red water tested positive for pathogens potentially
harmful to wild fish populations.
Undercover footage from earlier this year of salmon factory
farms off Vancouver Island revealed unimaginable horror: blind,
emaciated salmon swimming in their own feces. What’s more, a 17-year report
discovered that sea lice from one of the fish farms had been killing young wild
salmon.
Fish factory farms are filthy and overcrowded, making them
perfect breeding grounds for parasites. Last year an outbreak of sea lice stretched from
Scandinavia to Chile. Now nearly half of Scotland’s salmon farms are infested
with the parasite, which feeds on blood, skin, and slime.
Salmon farming is not only filthy and dangerous but incredibly
cruel. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology found
that salmon bred and raised at fish factory farms grow
at such an accelerated rate that more than half of them go partially deaf.
Another study found that many farmed salmon suffer from severe depression.
Known as “drop outs, depressed salmon float lifelessly.
After their miserable lives at factory farms, fish face a
gruesome death. Despite their capacity to feel pain, the seafood
industry treats fish as mere objects.
In 2011 Mercy For Animals conducted an undercover
investigation at a fish slaughter facility and exposed fish being skinned alive. They
thrashed and fought to escape the workers’ knives. As the fish gasped for
oxygen, workers ripped off their skin with pliers.
We can withdraw our support from the cruel seafood industry
by leaving fish off our plates and switching to a compassionate vegan diet.
Click here to learn more. And check out these cruelty-free, sea-inspired recipes.