Submission 0750-ALEKSICH

Submitter: Denise Aleksich

Community: Sointula

Date Submitted: September 27, 2011

Summary:
If there is any chance that the fish farming industry is harming sockeye stocks, how can the reward be worth the risk of losing such an invaluable resource?

Submission:
I've been a part of the anti open pen fish farm campaign ever since it became clear that they were changing the environment around them and we have no idea how long lasting or devastating those changes will be.None that I know of are positive changes.I don't understand how a few bodies in power for the moment can decide the fate of an entire ecosystem.My family has lived here for more than a hundred years and it sickens me to know that someone in my generation is gambling with the future of so much natural richness. I naively thought that there was a government agency that worked to protect our environment from new industry by having them prove that they did no harm. This did NOT happen. My two questions are " If there is any chance that this industry is harming our sockeye stocks in any way , how can the reward be worth the risk of losing such an invaluable resource ? It does not make any sense that the helpless sea creatures have to prove that they are being harmed , why does not the industry have to prove that they do not harm them ?