canadian newspapers canadian government canadian senate canada politics canada federal government online canada newspaper - Vindicator.ca - Shutting the barn door when the salmon have fled

Shutting the barn door when the salmon have fled

The spirit Sir Boyle Roche is alive and well, and living in Ireland. As every school person of whatever sex knows, Boyle Roche was the most prominent foot-in-mouth parliamentarian of his day. He it was who once famously asked: "what has posterity done for us?", and on another occasion harking on the danger of the French Revolution being imported into Ireland warned: "if these Gallican villains should invade us, sir, 'tis on that very table, maybe, these honourable members might see their own destinies lying in heaps on top of one another! Here, perhaps, sir, the murderous Marshal-law-men (Marseillais) would break in, cut us to mince-meat, and throw our bleeding heads upon that table to stare us in the face!"

While the topic under discussion, the plight of the wild salmon in Ireland, merits serious treatment, it cannot have escaped the attention of many who read an article in the Irish Independent of August, that calamities can give rise to a mixing of metaphors.

For a number of years efforts by salmon anglers' associations have been focused on curbing the catch of wild salmon by drift-net fishermen. The anglers, in turn, have been blamed for part of the decline in salmon stocks.

This year the Department of the Marine has ruled that commercial salmon fishing season will not be extended, and that from September 1 a ban will be imposed on anglers killing salmon. From that date all salmon caught by rod and line must be released back into lake or river.

This has been described by one anglers' group as "a classic example of shutting the barn door after the horse has fled".

Salmon have hooves? Boyle Roche would be proud.

As noted, the plight of the wild salmon is worth serious consideration. It is a subject which has been treated with in many previous issues of this e-zine. The dangers posed by commercial salmon farming to the survival of the stock are well documented.

Further information has been released by the Hites' Laboratory at Indiana University on its recent study of dangerous chemicals found in farmed salmon sold worldwide. Readers may find the following advice, and graph, worth their attention:

"Children (particularly young girls), women of childbearing age, and women who are pregnant or nursing should be more concerned about exposure to these substances. Children's developing systems are more vulnerable to a variety of toxic exposures. And since these substances persist in a person's body for many years and can be passed on to a fetus during development - potentially causing several harmful effects - it is particularly important that young girls and women of childbearing age avoid excessive exposure to these substances."

The graph details the concentration of PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in salmon used in the HITE study.

Seeing is believing. This concerns the health of us all.

--30--