Fish farmers and First Nations work together now

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Fish farm owners, operators and workers from across Vancouver Island gathered in Nanaimo Feb. 8 to protest against alleged "misinformation campaigns" from anti-fish farm activists.

Not wanting to be left out of the protest spotlight, the fish farmers were essentially protesting the anti-fish farm protests, and to make things even more confusing, there was a protester in Nanaimo protesting the fish farmer's protest organized to protest against anti-fish farm protesters.

Six Ahousaht members attended the rally, and Rod Sam spoke to the 400 protesters at Swy-a-lana Lagoon about the protocol agreement between Ahousaht and Pacific National Aquaculture (PNA).

"We were involved in protests, civil disobedience and court action against the fish farm companies in our territories," said Sam. It was clear that the fish farms weren't going anywhere, and we certainly weren't going anywhere, so we negotiated and developed a protocol agreement to work with fish farms and make things better," he said.

Displaying signs such as "Aquaculture Feeds My Family" the protest was relatively peaceful except for a couple of flare-ups between the pro-aquaculture mass and two lone anti-aquaculture protesters.

"The fish farms have had a positive effect on our Nation," said Sam. "The unemployment rate has dropped, and Ahousaht and PNA can walk down the road together as we work towards economic and environmental sustainability for the industry," he said.