VANCOUVER

B.C.'s Haig-Brown Conservation Award goes to Calgary resident

The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, July 16, 2019 8:57AM PDT

A worker throws a sockeye salmon back into the river after counting it as the salmon make their way up the Adams River in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park near Chase, B.C. Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Jonathan Hayward)

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VANCOUVER - A Calgary man is the recipient of a high-profile conservation award in British Columbia.

Eric Hobson has received the 2018 Haig-Brown Conservation Award, named after author, angler, conservationist and magistrate, Roderick Haig-Brown.

B.C.'s first flyfishing club, Totem Flyfishers, was formed under Haig-Brown's guidance, and the club's president Tom Johannesen says that Hobson's work on sustainable aquaculture and wild salmon conservation embodies Haig-Brown's spirit.

Johannesen says Hobson has been a leader in the drive to transfer fish farms from the ocean to land, and has worked to build the Kuterra land-based salmon farm in partnership with the 'Namgis Nation on Vancouver Island.

Hobson is also credited with founding the Save Our Salmon Society, volunteering countless hours with groups examining fish farm impacts on wild salmon, and raising thousands of dollars for scientific investigations and indigenous court challenges.

Past Haig-Brown Award recipients include from biological sciences expert Martin Rosenau, former B.C. politician Tom Perry and former angling columnist Lee Straight.