beemer
Well-Known Member
Is DC Reid joking?
Fishermen need to unite to save whales
By D.C. Reid, Times ColonistMarch 10, 2009
There was a time I was proud to be the generation that put itself vicariously with Greenpeacers in their orange zodiacs on the high seas placing their bodies between harpoons and whales. How we relished breaking up the world of the old guard and their destructive paternalism we were sure was destroying everything.
Move forward to the late 1990s and, staggered, I found one of the same mother ships, the Sea Shepherd with its Picasso-painted white dove on the fo'c's'le a burned out hulk in the Broken Islands Group of Barkley Sound. As they say, Jesus wept. I was told that Greenpeace had jettisoned its boat of glory because Paul Watson refused to pay its bills in Ucluelet. The boat had burned to the gunwales and was sold for a dollar for scrap. I have a whole roll of snaps taken so I will never forget the great boat's ignoble end.
Move forward to the end of the first decade of the third millennium. The resident orcas we are so fortunate to have in our waters are apparently starving to death, their heads taking on the shape of 'peanuts'. Instead of getting in their zodiacs for a half-hour sound-bite trip from Oak Bay, Greenpeace and eight other environmental organizations, decided to take DFO to court to make them do something. The problem with this method is that it may take several years to get anywhere, in which time the whales may be dead. You will recall the article I wrote suggesting we fisher people go out and catch -- or buy -- salmon and feed them to the whales.
We may have to do just that. You see, I sent along my article to some who are on the list of complainees taking DFO to task. I was hoping they would come forward and help immediately to save the beautiful mammals they have sworn themselves to protect. I sent my note to: the Suzuki Foundation; Greenpeace Canada; International Fund for Animal Welfare; the Wilderness Committee; and the Sierra Club in the USA that referred me to Sierra Legal Defence, now renamed, Ecojustice, in Canada, asking them to come forward and help keep the whales alive.
It could be a long time because DFO, though it just quietly issued a species at risk order regarding destruction of orca habitat, hasn't done anything else. I waited, holding my breath for the environmentalists to come on board. But after some months, not a single one got back to me saying they would help. In fact, only one noted that it received the missive and would send it to one of their scientists. He never called. So, again, I sit here stunned, watching the animals perish. What has happened to the movement that we started in the '60s?
I sure hope that's not it. And it isn't for lack of money. Recent annual budgets of the noted organizations are, respectively: $6.9 million; $10.6 million; $111.1 million; $2.3 million; and $40 million, not including endowments. If you add to it Greenpeace International's revenue for 2007, a truly staggering $341 million, the total is: $501.9 million.
I think that it's time for sport fishermen, to get in their boats and do something. The Chinook fishing this winter has been ho-hum at best, so we may have to go down to the fish monger and pick up some fish. It does appear plain that neither the environmental movement nor the federal government seems to appreciate the need for action right now.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Fishermen need to unite to save whales
By D.C. Reid, Times ColonistMarch 10, 2009
There was a time I was proud to be the generation that put itself vicariously with Greenpeacers in their orange zodiacs on the high seas placing their bodies between harpoons and whales. How we relished breaking up the world of the old guard and their destructive paternalism we were sure was destroying everything.
Move forward to the late 1990s and, staggered, I found one of the same mother ships, the Sea Shepherd with its Picasso-painted white dove on the fo'c's'le a burned out hulk in the Broken Islands Group of Barkley Sound. As they say, Jesus wept. I was told that Greenpeace had jettisoned its boat of glory because Paul Watson refused to pay its bills in Ucluelet. The boat had burned to the gunwales and was sold for a dollar for scrap. I have a whole roll of snaps taken so I will never forget the great boat's ignoble end.
Move forward to the end of the first decade of the third millennium. The resident orcas we are so fortunate to have in our waters are apparently starving to death, their heads taking on the shape of 'peanuts'. Instead of getting in their zodiacs for a half-hour sound-bite trip from Oak Bay, Greenpeace and eight other environmental organizations, decided to take DFO to court to make them do something. The problem with this method is that it may take several years to get anywhere, in which time the whales may be dead. You will recall the article I wrote suggesting we fisher people go out and catch -- or buy -- salmon and feed them to the whales.
We may have to do just that. You see, I sent along my article to some who are on the list of complainees taking DFO to task. I was hoping they would come forward and help immediately to save the beautiful mammals they have sworn themselves to protect. I sent my note to: the Suzuki Foundation; Greenpeace Canada; International Fund for Animal Welfare; the Wilderness Committee; and the Sierra Club in the USA that referred me to Sierra Legal Defence, now renamed, Ecojustice, in Canada, asking them to come forward and help keep the whales alive.
It could be a long time because DFO, though it just quietly issued a species at risk order regarding destruction of orca habitat, hasn't done anything else. I waited, holding my breath for the environmentalists to come on board. But after some months, not a single one got back to me saying they would help. In fact, only one noted that it received the missive and would send it to one of their scientists. He never called. So, again, I sit here stunned, watching the animals perish. What has happened to the movement that we started in the '60s?
I sure hope that's not it. And it isn't for lack of money. Recent annual budgets of the noted organizations are, respectively: $6.9 million; $10.6 million; $111.1 million; $2.3 million; and $40 million, not including endowments. If you add to it Greenpeace International's revenue for 2007, a truly staggering $341 million, the total is: $501.9 million.
I think that it's time for sport fishermen, to get in their boats and do something. The Chinook fishing this winter has been ho-hum at best, so we may have to go down to the fish monger and pick up some fish. It does appear plain that neither the environmental movement nor the federal government seems to appreciate the need for action right now.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
