Some victims don’t have voices.
Off the coast of BC, wild salmon started dying by the millions.
Chris Bennett runs Blackfish Lodge 300 kilometres north of Vancouver. He was leading a group of tourists on a boat tour when he looked into the water and noticed young salmon — called smolt — acting strangely.
He’d found a clue.
He took it to an unlikely detective — a whale biologist, Alexandra Morton — who’d be pulled into a battle against government, industry and multinational corporations.
A story like this one should have been a hero’s tale. An Erin Brockovich moment. But it didn’t quite play out that easily.
This is the fascinating story of a 20-year battle to save Canada’s wild salmon.
We are crowdfunding to cover the cost of this podcast.
Special thanks to the North Family Foundation for their generous support of Season Two of The Salmon People. Thank you also to the McConnell Foundation for their contribution to Season One and episode 15.
Sandra Bartlett is an award-winning reporter and producer based in Toronto. She worked on the ICIJ project Secrecy for Sale and Skin and Bone. Bartlett worked as a producer and reporter in NPR's Investigative Unit based in Washington where she collaborated on projects with PBS Frontline, ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity, the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as individual journalists in Canada and Europe.
In 20-plus years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as an editor, a reporter and producer, Bartlett covered daily news, foreign assignments and special programming. She worked in London, Europe, Israel, Cuba and Pakistan.
