Will Obama help Russia and Salmon? A Letter from NASF

NORTH ATLANTIC SALMON FUND,
Skipholti 35, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland

Ambassador Barry B White,
Embassy of the United States
Henrik Ibsens Gate 48
0244 Oslo
Fax: +47 22 44 04 36

Reykjavik, December 9, 2009

Dear Ambassador White,

We understand that tomorrow President Obama will have a meeting with Prime
Minister Stoltenberg in Oslo. We know that Mr. Stoltenberg has been encouraged to
talk about regional developments in the Barents Sea, the Law of the Sea Treaty and
to seek access to the US market for farmed Norwegian salmon.

If Mr. Stoltenberg is allowed to get what he wants the Norwegian authorities will use
it to increase the very damaging activities that they already encourage and support.
For the record, Norway’s refusal to honour its international obligations has actively
stood in the way of sustainability and biodiversity in the Barents Sea. The
government has broken the rules of the UN law of the Sea. Norway has failed to
cooperate with Russia in the Barents Sea region. In supporting a commercial fishery
that is damaging the wild salmon stocks of Russia and Finland, she is ignoring
international scientific advice.

Norway´s salmon farming policy is increasingly reckless and unsustainable, not just
in Norway but in Scotland, Ireland, Chile, Canada and the US. It is creating plagues
of sea lice in all these countries and the chemicals used in trying to overcome the
damage that is being done raise concern of human health impacts when people eat
the fish the farms produce.

Furthermore, Norway still promotes and operates interceptory mixed stock fisheries
for Atlantic salmon. This has prevented us and our US based partners – the Atlantic
Salmon Federation (US) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Washington
D.C. , from pursuing the official US policy to end all such interceptory fisheries. This
is crucial to the restoration of salmon salmon stocks in the US east coast rivers.
Norway and Scotland are the main culprits standing in the way of international unity
in this respect.

Norway has signally failed to perform its duty to the environment. Far from relaxing
the present curbs on Norway’s behaviour we would encourage you to make the rules
even stronger.

Yours sincerely,

Orri Vigfusson, chairman
North Atlantic Salmon Fund

c.c. Paul Volcker, New York