Our BC sea environment needs our help now!
This month Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said he doesn't think a moratorium is the most effective way of protecting marine species vulnerable to the huge nets that sweep along the ocean floor. Oh Loyola for goodness sakes! - even Geoge Bush was in favour of the UN moratorium on this. BC fishermen drag the bottom of the sea to send things like sable fish (black cod) to Japan and kill many other useful fish and sea creatures in our haste to make short-term profit at the expense of our future. Bottom trawling involves dragging huge, heavy nets along the sea floor. Large metal plates and rubber wheels attached to these nets move along the bottom and crush nearly everything in their path. All evidence indicates that deep water life forms are very slow to recover from such damage, taking decades to hundreds of years - if they recover at all. I want the oceans to be healthy for our future and our children's futures!! We need to act now to get sensible stewardship of our seas and to promote and demand environmentally sound fishing practises - then we ALL benefit!! Please join me in writing lettters to:1.)Member of Parliament email: Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca 2.)Also Ocean Wise is a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program created to help restaurants and their customers make environmentally friendly seafood choices and they should be encouraged to assist by updating this important information - as our practises are not sustainable. They can be emailed at: oceanwise@vanaqua.org - attention Tara Taylor ; 3.)Also please write to : barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Water Stewardship and Sustainable Communities
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Glad to see you profiling
Glad to see you profiling this issue. Living Oceans Society, based in Sointula and Vancouver, B.C., is working very hard to ensure that Canada supports the proposed moratorium on high seas bottom trawling at this fall's U.N. General Assembly. We have until November 17th to convince the Fisheries Minister to do the right thing. The "Take Action" button on our home page will give you more information on the issue, and allows you to send a free fax to Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.
Sign up for our e-newsletter and watch our website for updates on this issue.
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Sounds like bottom trawling
Sounds like bottom trawling sucks. But when you mention "he doesn't think a moratorium is the most effective solution", you forgot to outline what he thought a better solution was. Perhaps it is a less drastic, but ultimately more sustainable approach? Or perhaps it's ridiculously narrow-sited.
Regardless, it's important to accurately portray all known perspectives on an issue before asking for support one way or another. To be blunt, I'm entirely bored by one-sided eco-rants against the government, but you gained my attention with the wonderfully awful scene you paint with your description of the process.
I did email Mr. Hearn, but only to ask for his perspective on the issue. I couldn't give a 'for' or 'against' suggestion because of the important gap you left in your post. Hopefully he responds to me, but in the meantime, maybe you could post a follow-up with the proposed 'most effective' solutions.
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Have you heard of the Living
Have you heard of the Living Oceans Society? They have a whole program dedicated to Sustainable Fisheries including an Action Centre on High Seas Bottom Trawling
Check out their site, to learn more about oceans issues. And I encourage you to get involved via the action centres. You can help to shape changes to the way industry and government representatives make decisions about our resources related to BC's most pressing marine conservation issues.