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fishery & Tourism, Protest Minister Dhaliwal Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Orcpt: rfc822;"|/csuite/etc/majordomo/wrapper resend -l sust-mar -h chebucto.ns.ca sust-mar-mml" Sender: sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca Precedence: bulk FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24, 2000 FISHERMEN DEMAND HELP FROM FISHERIES MINISTER HERB DHALIWAL-- "REVERSE OIL AND GAS PERMIT !" Cheticamp, Nova Scotia: Federal minister of fisheries, the Honourable Herb Dhaliwal, will be met by a chorus of protests today as he visits the Cape Breton fishing community of Cheticamp. A demonstration will take place in support of the fishery and tourism industries, as he meets with fishermen in the area. Last summer a permit was granted covering 600,000 acres of seabed, from the western shoreline of Cape Breton towards Prince Edward Island in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, to allow Corridor Resources exploration rights for oil and gas. "We are demanding that the Minister to exercise his legislated authority to protect our sensitive fishing grounds from an oil industry grab, " said Percy Hayne, chair of the Gulf of Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board. "There's been no proper environmental assessment. Just a decision by unelected members of the Canada/Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board to proceed before identifying what is at stake for the ecology and economy of Nova Scotia and the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence." Fishermen's organization have been joined by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs representing all First Nations in the Maritimes, as well as by environmental groups, tourism operators, the local clergy, and other concerned citizens. They have formed a coalition (Save Our Seas and Shores) to oppose the shoreline permits on both sides of Cape Breton Island. "It is essential that native and non-native fishers and communities unite to protect our environment and our fishery," said Mi'kmaq spokesman Allister Marshall. "The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council has already recommended to Minister Dhaliwal that no exploration activity be allowed in the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence until independent study through a transparent process is done to determine the short and long term negative effects of blasting and drilling on sensitive fish stocks and the ecosystem," noted Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "The Minister must face the fact that one federal law, the Canada/Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord, completely undercuts the Minister's responsibility to protect marine biodiversity under the Oceans Act." SOS Coalition spokesperson Mary Gorman summed up the fishermen's concerns, "This is an inshore, coastal permit, totally different from what the industry is dealing with on the Scotian shelf at Sable. This places an annual billion dollar renewable fishing industry employing 20,000 people in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in serious jeopardy," she went on to explain, "From our research, it is clear that even the exploration phase with seismic air guns can kill and disturb fish and other marine life, such as whales and migrating stocks that don't return. The 'produced' (contaminated) waters from drilling is also toxic to fish." Minister Herb Dhaliwal is in the region after meeting with Newfoundland shrimp harvesters yesterday. He agreed to meet with SOS representatives following his scheduled meeting with the fishermen's roundtable. Contact: All spokespersons in this release will be available for comment by 5 p.m. Monday at 235-2440. On Monday a.m.: Elizabeth May : 902-235-2584 Mary Gorman/Percy Hayne: 902-926-2128 or cel:(902)928-8558 Alastair Marshall:(902)535-2426 -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Sponsors: Chebucto Community Net http://www.chebucto.ns.ca Sierra Club - Chebucto Group http://www.sierraclub.ca Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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