L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R
Too Much Like Oil
In an article of the September Eastern Shore Cooperator entitled “Aquaculture to Nova Scotia Like Oil to Alberta,” Mr. Colwell, the Provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, relates his promotion of open pen finfish farming in this province to the prosperity that was created by the oil industry was in Alberta. This shows you how far behind the times he is. The Alberta economy is in a slump due to its’ continued reliance on an outdated, dirty, environmentally destructive industry. That is the only way that open pen fish farming can be compared to the Alberta oil industry.
Does Mr. Colwell know that Denmark has recently decided not to allow anymore open pen finfish farms there?
Did Mr. Colwell, in his third trip to Norway to “investigate” this industry, think to ask what Norway charges for leases there as compared to Nova Scotia? No comparison.
Does Mr. Colwell know that a finfish farming company that he is courting here (Cooke Aquaculture) was kicked out of Washington state for it’s practices?
Does Mr. Colwell know that another finfish farming company that he is courting (Cermaq) faced huge protests in British Columbia for their practices?
I am weary of Mr. Colwell citing science when he has not produced one shred of scientific evidence to communities that have asked him to justify his support for this industry. And I am very weary of Mr. Colwell pretending that there has been any real substantive changes to the aquaculture regulations stating that they are new and transparent. Our community had 30 days to make written submissions to the department for the renewal of two finfish farm leases and the department gets to choose which submissions are relevant. There are no community representatives on the committee that will review this application.
Mr. Colwell continues to waste taxpayers money on his junkets to Tasmania and Norway to justify his promotion of an industry that rural communities in Nova Scotia do not want. We want industries that actually create jobs (review the departments own statistics on this) and that don’t ruin the environment.
In another article in the same issue Mr. Colwell rightfully credits the fishermen of the eastern shore for looking after the water. He then goes on to say when referring to his departments rejection of a proposed marine protected area that “there’s nothing there to protect from anything.” Wrong, Mr. Colwell! We need protection from you and your provincial government who want to destroy our pristine harbours with your promotion for an outdated, polluting industry that threatens our present livelihoods and future.
Mr. Colwell, you are out of touch with the way that the rest of the world is moving. Time to retire!
Wendy Watson Smith
President, Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore
902-885-2139
236 Mushaboom Harbour Rd., Mushaboom
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Murmansk Run Chronology Reset
In his piece on the suicidal Murmansk convoys in the August issue, Tom Seymour writes that “during the opening days of World War II, when Allied-nation Russia was under attack from Nazi Germany, it became plain to the other Allied nations that, were Russia to capitulate, then Britain would be next.”
The chronology is a little off here. In late August of 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, as Russia was known, signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact. Just days later (exactly 80 years ago as I write this), Hitler invaded Poland from the west, and Stalin’s armies overran eastern Poland and the Baltic republics.
The Nazi-Soviet pact also contributed to the fall of France the following year. The French Communist Party, which represented a substantial part of the French working class, took its orders from Moscow and actively undermined the war effort when Hitler invaded France in the spring of 1940. Britain then found itself completely alone, led by a defiant Prime Minister Churchill, as the last democratic nation in Europe to oppose the unbeaten Nazi juggernaut.
Stalin’s cynical alliance bought nearly two years of uneasy peace with Hitler. British intelligence was beginning to decipher the German Enigma code and Churchill tried to warn Stalin that an attack was imminent in June of 1941. Stalin ignored the warnings and was taken by surprise. But once thrown in with Britain, Stalin badgered his newfound ally with demands for supplies and a second front against Hitler. The brutal Murmansk runs were the first attempts to satisfy Stalin (along with his left wing sympathizers in the West).
Tom Seymour honors Captain Peter MacPherson, later of Northport, Maine, who volunteered for multiple Murmansk convoys. Some years ago I had the pleasure of getting to know the late Judith Schmidt of Washington, Maine, who as a young Englishwoman helped crack the German codes at Bletchley Park.
The selflessness and grit of the generation that faced the great crisis of the 20th century is still impressive at this distance. The broad outline of the looming crisis of the 21st century is becoming clearer: a breakdown of the natural systems of the world that we have so long taken for granted, accompanied by great, chaotic social and political upheavals. Strongman regimes already seem to be on the rise. Our current confusions bring to mind the Biblical phrase Churchill used to describe the years of dithering and denial of reality in the 1930s: “the years that the locust hath eaten.”
Eugene Bryant
Palermo, Maine
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Pushback on Lobster Lines and
Whale Rules
I went to the meeting at NOAA (8-20-2019) regarding the lobster trap lines and the entanglement of the right whales. Last year, three of the six whale deaths that happened in Canada were due to ship strikes, not entanglement. I disagree that doubling traps on the lines is one of the solutions.
More boats could be coming back inshore, as longer trap trawls cause more expensive trawl-gear entanglements offshore. These gear entanglements can lead to cut lines and lost trawls (i.e. ghost nets, etc).
Doubling traps won’t lead to landing more lobsters either. This mandate is an unjust burden on lobstermen. As previously noted in the GDT, Larry Stepenuck brought up the problem of the mussel farms and their spat lines – another potential cause of whale entanglements. What! Is nobody hearing him? I think lobsterman Mike Goodwin also brought up a good point, when he said, “I can find any boat in America on my cellphone. Why can’ t we track these whales? All this technology, and this is the best you’ve got?”
Governor Janet Mills of Maine wrote a great letter to the lobster industry on federal whale regulations. She ended it by saying “My administration will not allow any bureaucrat to undermine our lobster industry or our economy with foolish, unsupported, and ill-advised regulations. I stand with you, and I will do everything I can as your governor to protect your rights and your livelihoods and defend Maine’s lobster industry in the face of absurd federal over-reach.”
Nobody is talking about a study noted in the New York Times (May 2014) regarding the massive kill of plankton from the 200 million gallons of oil that was spilled into the Gulf Stream by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil platform disaster. These plankton represent a vital food source for the whales. Meanwhile, Irving Oil is currently funding the whale research. How screwy is that? The whale researchers were “mum” regarding the detrimental effects on the whales from the oil spill and the applied dispersants as a reason for critical change in whale behavior, food sourcing, and birthing rate. Instead, they are going after the unchanging or declining number of lobster buoy lines.
There is a bigger picture here. The big corporations have raped the land and now they are going after the ocean. It’s a gold mine out there. With their big oil rigs and the seismic testing, wind farms, fish farms, mining of tbe ocean floor, etc., they want a piece of the action. Those pesky lobstenmen are raining on their parade. Governor Charlie Baker should put his foot down on this ridiculous mandate like Governor Mills did in Maine. They don’t care about the whales, they just want the ocean to exploit.
Sue Waller
Rockport, MA