Author: Dan

DFO wants your input

This is a critical year for wild salmon, as Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray maps out how to fulfill her mandate to ‘transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal BC waters by 2025’. DFO’s transition

Unpacking the fish farm decision

Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray announced what could be the beginning of the end for open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia.

Herring in salmon farms killed by Hydrolicer

In early March this year, herring spawned near Tofino. I was sitting at home looking out the window, when the water out front began to turn turquoise. While this used to be a common event,

Tofino Flotilla 2022

Wild salmon flotilla—Do not renew in ’22!

Sometimes in politics you have to demonstrate your people power, to show the government that there is public support to take action. With all salmon farm licences in British Columbia expiring on June 30th, now

Sea lions trapped!

You know your story has really taken off when media starts calling—from Poland! Two dozen sea lions trapped in an open-net pen fish farm near Tofino in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region were covered

Salmon farms are herring farms

A week ago last Saturday I was at home drinking coffee with Bonny, when the ocean out front began turning turquoise. There had been lots of sea lions swimming past in recent weeks, so we

Fish Farms: Yes or No DFO?

by Dan Lewis with Alexandra Morton Every fall for the past quarter century, I’ve eagerly anticipated the return of Chum salmon spawners to a handful of tiny creeks in the Wah-Nah-Jus/Hilth-hoo-is Tribal Park on Meares

Part 2: War in the woods

(Read Part 1 here) In 1992 in Tofino we decided to switch to a Gandhian style of peaceful resistance. We would sit or stand on the road and stop the logging trucks from getting through

The war in the woods

Mist rising off the lake, jagged silhouettes of remnant ancient cedars piercing the skyline as the sun clears the ridge. People milling about in the dust and gravel, waiting tensely. The rumble of approaching trucks,