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~ FUNDY
TIDINGS ~
November 2017 ~ Autumn Issue | |
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1. BoFEP 2017 AGM on November 17 in Sackville, NB The Annual General Meeting of the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership will be held on Friday, November 17th at Mount Alison University, Sackville NB as follows: Management Committee: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm. Wallace McCain student centre, 62 York Street room 125. Annual General Meeting of the Membership: 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Ralph Pickard Bell Library, 49 York Street, room 316. The program will include a presentation about BoFEP’s “Living Shoreline Project”. All BoFEP members and any others interested in the Bay of Fundy are invited to attend. This is also an excellent opportunity to become a BoFEP member or renew your membership. Please complete a membership application form.
2. Twelfth Bay of Fundy Science Workshop - Call for Abstracts The 12th bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership Science Workshop will be held 9-12 May 2018, at the Cox Institute, Agricultural Campus, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS. The workshop theme is “A Changing Fundy Environment: Emerging Issues, Challenges and Priorities”
Oral and poster presentations are invited on any of the following topics
Suggestions for other topics for sessions are welcomed and encouraged.
The deadline for submission of abstracts
is Wednesday,
January 31th, 2018.
3. BoFEP Shoreline Erosion Project (2017/2018) BoFEP is carrying out an Environmental Trust Fund project pertaining to shoreline erosion. There are three main components to the project:
If you are interested in learning more about this project, or have information that you think may be relevant please do not hesitate to contact us at info@ecwinc.org.
4. NGO's and Governments Must Work Together An article entitled "Policy Dialogue and Engagement between NGOs and Governments: Views from the Bay of Fundy" by Sarah Chamberlain offers a BoFEP perspective on a recent book chapter in "Policy Work in Canada: Professional Practices and Analytical Capacities" by Bryan Evans and Adam Wellstead. The chapter explores the working relationship of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government staff in a policy- and decision-making context . Full article.
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B. Partners and other
organizations: 1. Film Features Fundy Whales This week the Sea Dome at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic opened its doors to a film about two North American whales from the Bay of Fundy. The 50-foot geodesic dome offers a 360° cinematic experience and sits next to the Maritime Museum on the Halifax waterfront. Film takes you under the sea for whale of a tale (Chronicle Herald)
2. Salmon Magazine Goes digital The Atlantic Salmon Federation is now producing a digital version of the Atlantic Salmon Journal to complement its print edition. Added features include the ability to directly click through to the websites of advertisers, plus three extra articles: happy 150th, a hundred years and counting, and brave new world. View current digital version.
3. St. Andrews Biological Station Boosts Staff This summer the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced seven new positions at the St. Andrews Biological Station . Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced the jobs along with a continued investment of $8.9 million into the station. The investment will also help upgrade lab facilities, as well as safety and security at the station.
4. New Video on Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has released the fifth in their series of short videos (~2:30 mins) “Gulf of Maine Explained”. The series includes: Trawling, Electronic Monitoring, Anadromous, Eating Sustainably, and Otoliths.
5. Tidal Energy Magazine Tidal Energy Today delivers expert coverage of the industry sectors that matter most to you and your business. This includes news and updates on projects, markets, vessels, equipment, turbines, research, contractors and the authorities dominating these markets. More information.
6. Acadia Receives Tidal Energy Funding A tidal energy project based at Acadia University is in line for some major funding from the federal government - $107,452 to be exact. Lead researcher Dr. Richard Karsten, a mathematics professor working with the Acadia University Tidal Energy Institute, said the incoming grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) will be used to purchase mobile equipment that will help researchers gain a better understanding how tidal energy can be harnessed from various sites within the Bay of Fundy, including the Minas Passage. Full article.
7. More Protection for Coastal areas At a time when news reports about our coastal waters are mostly negative and distressing it is heartening to read about successful efforts to protect areas from degradation by human activities. The Nature Conservancy of Canada, aided by enlightened landowners, has been foremost in this effort. Recently they have expanded their shorebird conservation area in the upper Bay and doubled their migratory bird protected area on Grand Manan.
8. Music Fest to Help Avon River Salmon Musicians, volunteers and supporters from across Atlantic Canada came together on Blue Beach in Hantsport Aug. 25 to 27 to ‘raise the volume’ on concerns for “the future of the unique Inner Bay of Fundy, endangered wild Atlantic Salmon of the Avon River.” The aim of the weekend is to further promote lobby efforts for government “to do the right thing” when it comes to the Avon River and plans to twin Highway 101 between Three Miles Plains and Falmouth. Full article.
9. New Fishery Region in Fundy The New Brunswick government says an amendment creating a new inshore fishery region in the Bay of Fundy will come into effect on Aug. 1. The new Region 4 will consist of Lobster Fishing Area 36, from St. Martins to the United States border and Campobello and Deer Islands. Full article.
10. FERN AGM The Annual General Meeting of the Fundy Energy Research Network (FERN) will be held at Acadia University in Wolfville on Wednesday the 13th of December, 2017. Please mark the date in your calendars.
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Fundy/GOM and
other News:
1. Tensions Rise in Fundy Lobster Fishery The lucrative lobster fishery in southwest Nova has increasingly become a source of tension between indigenous and non-indigenous fisheries groups. Many of the latter feel that agreements with DFO that provide limited access to the fishery by First Nations groups are being seriously abused.
2. More Sharks Visiting Fundy? There seems to be an increasing number of sightings of sharks, including great White Sharks) in the Bay of Fundy and around the coast of Southwest Nova. It's not immediately clear if this is a real increase in numbers or due to the fact that more and more sharks are now sporting satellite tags that make their presence more evident - it's likely a combination of the two.
And once again, Yarmouth persists in holding its annual shark Derby with the support of DFO, in spite of ongoing world-wide efforts to protect shark populations.
3. Salmon Aquaculture Stirs More Controversy New Brunswick based Cooke Aquaculture has been making headlines again. A massive escape of Atlantic salmon from one of its west coast salmon farms proved a major PR headache for the company. Cooke blamed the incident on the solar eclipse and high tides!!!! Meanwhile the less than reassuring response from Nova Scotia's Aquaculture Minister was "We've got newer technology in the cages here in Nova Scotia so we really are not concerned about it" .
Closer to home, escapees from Bay of Fundy fish farms are thought to pose a threat to wild salmon populations in the regions rivers.
The excessive use of antibiotics, the impacts of farm-sourced sea lice on wild salmon, the improper use of pesticides to control the lice, and the impacts of these pesticides on marine life in general are issues that continue to plague the industry.
Many of these problems in the aquaculture are exacerbated by the fact that provincial and government regulatory agencies tend to favour the aquaculture industry at the expense of the environment and often don't enforce existing regulations.
Meanwhile, Cooke Aquaculture made an abortive attempt to purchase land for a fish hatchery in Granville Beach, Nova Scotia. Fierce opposition from local residents, and also from the unsuspecting land-owner, eventually torpedoed the deal and launched a process to consider land-use planning and zoning for this historical area.
4. Sea Urchin Aquaculture in Fundy Deemed "Tricky" A land-based sea urchin aquaculture operation by Quoddy Savour Seafood Ltd of Pennfield, New Brunswick has just received environmental approval. However, a University of Maine Marine Scientist is cautioning Atlantic Canadian groups hoping to get into the "tricky" business of sea urchin aquaculture. As is the case with many other marine species, sea urchin aquaculture is being promoted because wild stocks in many areas have been depleted by overfishing. Sea urchin aquaculture not a sure thing: UMaine expert (CBC News)
5. Unprecedented Mortality of Right Whales on East Coast There have a been a spate of worrying reports about Right Whales dying in unprecedented numbers on the east coast, particularly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is thought that this may be because climate change is causing them to move further north than their traditional summering grounds in the Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin areas. Autopsies suggest that the principal causes of death are ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Large vessels have been ordered to slow down in the Gulf. Fishermen seem reluctant to accept efforts to curtail entanglements by changes to gear or establishment of conservation areas.
6. Fatal Accident Halts Whale Rescue Efforts The tragic death of veteran whale rescuer Joe Howlett as he struggled to cut free an entangled Right Whale in the Bay of Fundy has prompted US and Canadian officials to halt all such rescue efforts in order to safety review procedures.
7. Nova Scotia's Ongoing Forestry Fiasco There is an intensifying debate in Nova Scotia over the province's ongoing mismanagement of its forests. The politicians appear unwilling to stand up to senior DNR bureaucrats, many of whom have backgrounds in the forestry industry. A major bone of contention is the practice of reckless clear cutting, which politicians have long promised to severely curtail. These outdated policies have allowed the pulp industry to degrade the province's forests to even aged monocultures that are only suitable for pulp. Critics argue that mixed, selectively harvested, properly managed, sustainable forests would be far more economically beneficial in the long run.
8. Deployment of Tidal Power Turbine Delayed Black Rock Tidal Power (BRTP) has confirmed deployment of its 2.5MW Triton device at Canada’s Bay of Fundy will be delayed until next year due to an ongoing design review. More details.
9. Federal Funding for Tidal Energy Projects The federal government has invested $1 million for a project that aims to address knowledge gaps associated with tidal energy. Among the key concerns are monitoring environmental impacts (turbine effects on fish, marine mammals, seabirds, lobster, ambient noise); cost reduction and innovation (common challenges to foundations, moorings, materials and methods); and specialized marine operational capacity (innovations in vessel deployment, research, equipment recovery). Full article.
10. NS Opens Whole Bay of Fundy to Turbines The McNeil government is keen to send the signal Nova Scotia is open for business, and is paving the way for companies that want to test small tidal turbines to have almost unlimited access to the world's strongest tides. The province will only issue permits to a maximum of 10 megawatts worth of overall power generation. Permits will last five years, with the possibility of extensions, but none will last longer than 18 years. Full article.
11. Maritime Waters Warming Reports of warming water temperatures on the Scotian Shelf, Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy are becoming too frequent to ignore. A recent DFO report highlighted some of these changes in 2016. There is growing evidence too of seemingly associated impacts on the distribution and biology of a number of species of marine and freshwater organisms in the region.
12. Energy East Pipeline Cancelled The controversial proposal to construct a pipeline to ship diluted Alberta tarsands oil to Saint John NB for shipment oversees has been withdrawn. This project not only threatened watercourses and wetland across the country but also greatly raised the risk of spills into the Bay of Fundy as well as promising a major increase in tanker traffic in the region. TransCanada pulled the plug on the proposal after the federal government required it to factor in the true environmental costs of extracting, shipping and using the tarsands oil.
13. Bay of Fundy - Art, Education and Tourism Thriving Tourism around and on the Bay of Funding is booming as opportunities such as trails, whale-watching and adventure activities (such as kayaking, tidal bore rafting and fishing) are expanding. So too are educational opportunities for residents and tourists alike. Artists are also recognizing that the Bay of Fundy is a very special place with much to offer in the way of artistic opportunities. A few recent examples:
14. New Book on Tides and Fundy A new book entitled "Tides, the Science and Spirit of the Ocean" by writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. Inevitably, the Bay of Fundy also features prominently in his narrative.
15. Ballooning Problem in Fundy the Last Straw People who work in the Bay of Fundy say the waters between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are teeming with discarded balloons this year, garbage that's a potentially deadly attraction for wildlife. One whale-watch tour operator said he's seen more balloons in the Bay of Fundy this year than in the last 30 years, combined. Full article. In a similar vein, a video entitled "Straws' focuses attention of the broader threat posed by plastics, particularly drinking straws, in the world's oceans. Preview and info about the video.
16. Province OK's Quarry Expansion A controversial quarry expansion proposal in Colchester County, N.S., has been approved by the province's environment minister. Irving-owned Osco Aggregates Ltd. filed an application to the province in May to expand its aggregate quarry in Glenholme from four hectares to about 30 hectares. This is the latest example of companies launching quarries just under the size limit that triggers an environmental review and then revealing their real intent by subsequently greatly expanding the quarry size. Full article.
17. Elvers Lucrative Fishery in GOM Maine is implementing a new lottery system for licenses to fish for baby eels, which are worth more than $1,000 per pound on the worldwide sushi market. Baby eels, called elvers, are a major fishery in Maine. Full article.
18. Removing Dams in Maine Brings Back Fish River herring – in the midst of a dramatic comeback in Maine’s rivers with the recent removal of dams that blocked their spawning runs for decades – had a banner spring run this year, with millions of fish traveling up the Kennebec and Penobscot and the best run in decades recorded on the St. Croix. Maine river herring making dramatic comeback.
19. Salmon Threatened in Saint John River The 673-kilometre Saint John River is a haven for fisheries, ferries, farms and many more, but faces an uncertain future, as energy development and diminishing fish populations imperil the future of those that depend on it. Full article.
20. Wild Salmon Released in Fundy Park This October, a thousand adult wild salmon were released into rivers in Fundy National Park as part of a program to restore the severely depleted population. Researchers from the University of New Brunswick and Fundy Salmon Recovery are tasked with monitoring the released fish.
21. Fundy Seabird Colony Decimated by Mystery Predator An unidentified "weaselly" predator (weasel, Mink, Otter?) has been killing seabirds on a small island near the mouth of the bay of Fundy. White Horse Island, home to dozens of black-legged kittiwakes, is the southernmost colony of the bird in the Western Hemisphere. Full article.
22. Shorebird Feeding in Bay of Fundy An article in the Portland Press Herald by Herb Wilson of Colby College entitled "Birding: On the move, shorebirds fill up" describes how migrating shorebirds such as plovers and sandpipers build up their energy reserves on the mudflats of the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy.
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