Grieg and Marine Harvest of Norway are about to set up camp in our bays and communities. They could choke up our precious ecosystems and wild fish stocks with their open-net pens, farming fish that are an inferior food source to our organic resources. One even wants to use pressure bombed mutated fish.
Ever wonder what the Vikings are doing back in our waters after all these centuries?
It’s called the lure of the almighty dollar.
In their homeland, to obtain a licence to set up a fish farm, these billionaire fake-fish magnates would have to pay $56 million per 3,300 metric tonne lease site.
To be more specific, these super-rich companies would have to fork out over C$15.4 million per 780 metric tonnes of fish produced on a lease site. Moreover, the fees are rising by 2-plus million Norwegian krone annually. That’s a hefty dent in their profit margins.
So, these filthy-rich transnationals get in their Viking ships and sail over to Newfoundland and Labrador — it’s still wide-open territory like it was 1,000 years ago. Instead of L’Anse aux Meadows, they’re heading to places like Rushoon, Red Harbour, etc., and other historic places on the south coast.
Why? Because our government is selling off our resources that support us and our next generations for nothing!
So, these filthy-rich transnationals get in their Viking ships and sail over to Newfoundland and Labrador — it’s still wide-open territory like it was 1,000 years ago.
It will only cost the Norwegians an insanely low fee of C$1,140 per 3,300 metric tonnes to come in and wreak havoc with our livelihoods, bays and our future. Not the $65.2 million it would cost them in Norway. For the 11 Grieg sites proposed and the 23 Marine Harvest sites already purchased from the bankrupt Gray Aqua, this tallies to C$2.2 billion! No wonder Marine Harvest just bought out our last remaining leases from Northern Harvest Sea Farms that will nearly double this tally of ridiculous freebies to almost $4 billion! They are also freed of the many restrictions placed on them in Norway regarding sustainability and environmental damage mitigation.
We can’t blame the Vikings — it’s in their blood to conquer new territories.
But let’s start holding the government we elected to represent our people responsible for their super short-sighted decisions to welcome foreigners with open-arms access to our natural resources — and then promote and invest in their destructive ways. Ways they have been forced to abandon in Norway.
If anyone else sees how this is “The Way Forward,” you are either a corporate Viking or a N.L. politician.
If you are still in your right mind, and see how N.L. is again being stripped of its resources by outside interests aided and abetted by our own elected representatives, rise up and cry “No more giveaways!”
Bill Bryden
Lumsden
