Salmon Are Swimming Around Our Fence

The small fence getting it's first coat the primer.

Finally I finished painting the small hay bale fences. For two years I have been fretting and worrying about what I would paint on the fence. I had a few ideas, but the fence is so big I was a bit overwhelmed at the prospects of painting a mural  on the fence. The biggest fear I have to overcome is believing in what I can do. It's one thing sitting up in my attic room sewing or painting but the fence is so public. I really enjoyed talking to people as they passed by and made positive comments on the Salmon.

The Shuswap river is the main attraction in Enderby and the Salmon give life to the river. The Salmon have been feeding humans, bears, eagles for thousands of years. Human greed is causing the Salmon to decline. For more information on what is happening to the Salmon read Alexandra Morton's blog she has been studying fish for a long time. Alexandra is a Salmon Hero. The Norwegian fish farms on the BC coast line are giving the wild Salmon lice, viruses, and creating a toxic sludge under the nets. Don't eat farmed Salmon. I stopped eating the Salmon, it is more important to the Aboriginal, bear, and the Eagle than is is to my diet. River Days are September 30TH what are you doing that day? Respect the rivers they give us life.

This is the first fish I painted on the inside wall of the small fence. 

First color is painted, second color started.

Waiting for the final touches.

Salmon swimming around the corner on our fence.

Alexandra Morton

Salmon, How Sacred Are They to You?

Salmon Are Sacred

Salmon have a great sense of smell, if they could smell a Hero they would award Alexandra Morton with the honor of “Salmon Hero”. No one wakes up on any morning and says I am going to be a hero today. Alexandra Morton is a Reluctant Hero of the Salmon, as a marine biologist she wants to be out on the water watching the whales. The Salmon have called to her, for 22 years she has been trying to get the Salmon feed lots off wild Salmon migration routes. The Salmon, Alexandra, First Nations, bears, and the Eagles all need our help.

The Salmon are dying from viruses that have been introduced by the Salmon farms owned and operated by Norwegian companies. Some of the viruses have been 100% fatal to Salmon. For more info on the viruses go to www.alexandramorton.typepad.com

What can you do ?

Stop buying farmed Salmon.

Write to your council and Mayor, “Please put a moratorium on Farmed Salmon in our Municipality.”

Talk to your grocer about not supplying Farmed Salmon

A $100 donation will send one fish to a lab to be tested for the ISA virus.

Write letters to anyone you think can help.

Join www.salmonaresacred.org

Salmon Are Sacred

Karen and Alexandra, The Ok/Shuswap Federal NDP organized a tour for Alexandra, I went to the one in Enderby at the Seniors Center. Well done a good number of people turned out and the chocolate zucchini cake was exquisite.  I gave Alexandra the envelop with a cheque for $100 from the Ok/Shuswap Green Party of Canada. It will send one Salmon to a lab to be tested for the ISA virus.

general Inquiries e-mail: info@salmonaresacred.org

The poster

This is the cover of a hand out with graphs and more info on the three viruses killing Salmon.

This is the back page of the handout, love the picture of Alexandra shopping for fish, to be tested.

I stopped eating Salmon when they started to decline, as a vegetarian it was easy, I also felt the bears, eagles and First Nations should have first choice.
I can not imagine a world with out Salmon. They give so much to this earth and are integral to the ecosystem. Please help the Wild Salmon. No more fish farms on our oceans.

Have a lot of respect for the Salmon

Stepping out onto the porch in the morning I take a deep breath of the crisp air and the scent is of spicy wood and rotting Salmon.

2010 will be a year to remember for the largest Salmon run in years, many years.

Last week the little dog Mateo and I took a drive to the Kingfisher Interpretive Center to see the Salmon on the Shuswap River. In one of my past lifetimes I spent many hours mended gill nets that caught Salmon. Last week was the first time I had seen the Salmon in the rivers at the end of there lives, in such great quantities. The smell is over powering from the river, and I hear so many people exclaiming how they have never seen anything like it, so many dead Salmon. My emotions were confused as to how to feel seeing all these fish dead or soon to be dead.  

This fish has a tag on it

Death is life and I turned my emotions to the beauty of the river and the forest that surrounds it. As we walked the trails the smell of decay was ever present but the trees smelled so good. Mateo loved walking the trails but was spooked by the tents with sleeping bags inside and boots placed by the entrances. He would not walk past them. I was grateful he didn't do a dog roll in any of the rotting fish!

By the way, if you think rotting Salmon smell bad you have never smelled a rotting stare fish. But that is another story.



The tents were protected under this building




A heart rock took my focus away from the death of the fish



Most people have a great deal of respect for the Salmon. You can see all around us, with towns like Salmon Arm, roads called Old Salmon Arm. Salmon adorns our streets in sculpture, on banners, in paintings, as address signs to name a few. Salmon are a large part of the ecosystem and if the Salmon were to disappear what would the bears eat, or all the other creatures that depend on the Salmon returning year after year?

Along with respect there is disrespect. Norwegian companies are farming fish in Canadian waters. These fish farms, are killing all life around them, and the young salmon that pass by are infested with lice. Are these fish farms the reason the Salmon have been in decline for so many years? And why is this year different?

Please check out this web site and sign the petition that will help the salmon. Alexandra Morton is a hero to the fish and to me.

Respect all creatures.

Thank you

 http://www.salmonaresacred.org/about-alexandra-morton