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Debating the Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area

Updated: April 20, 2019. Welcome to the Cooperator’s web page on the debate over establishing an Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area. Here you will find all of the Cooperator’s stories about MPAs, plus links to a selection of documents, podcasts, and videos from other sources that we believe are helpful in understanding the debate over the proposed Eastern Shore MPA. If you have a document that you think should be included, please email the link to richardbell@easternshorecooperator.ca. Most recent additions: Fish Farm Surprise on Eastern Shore, Eastern Shore Cooperator web, July 16, 2019 DFO's Wilkenson on MPAs: Community Management, No Deadline, Eastern Shore Cooperator web, May 12, 2019 Report on the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest: a report on a flawed proposed Marine Protected Area, March 11, 2019, Stephen Richardson BSc. author. MPA Opponent Rips "Group of Three," Eastern Shore Cooperator, April 2019 DFO Director General: No "Imposed" MPAs, Eastern Shore Cooperator, April 2019 Tasmania and Nova Scotia Sign MOU on Aquaculture, Eastern Shore Cooperator, March, 2019 Is DFO Really Listening, Tammy DeWolfe, Letter to the Editor, Eastern Shore Cooperator, March, 2019 Quick Overview: The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced on March 22, 2018 that a 2,000 square km area off the Eastern Shore as a new “Area of Interest” (AOI) under the provisions of the Oceans Act Marine Protected Area (MPA) program. The proposal encompasses the waters around the 30km of islands between Clam Harbour and Mushaboom. Since then, a fierce struggle has emerged, birthing a new society, the Association of Eastern Shore Communities Practicing Environment and Historical Access (AESC-PEHA)that opposes going forward with the current MPA process. AESC-PEHA has held several well-attended meetings, and has plastered Highway 7 with large and small NO-MPA signs.The Eastern Shore Fisherman's Protective Association has also come out against the MPA as proposed by DFO.

July 17, 2019

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Fish Farm Surprise on Eastern Shore

When did you find out that the province was asking for public comments on two fish farm lease renewal applications from Snow Island Salmon Inc., one for a 36-hectare site in Owl’s Head Bay, and one for a 3.35-hectare site in Ship Harbour?

July 16, 2019

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Open the Aquifer! --Editorial

Any time you start talking about getting water to the core of Musquodoboit Harbour, you hear the same groans I heard at the June meeting of the Musquodoboit Harbour & Area Chamber of Commerce: “Oh no, we’ve been talking about that since I was the chair of the Ratepayers Commission back in the 1990s.” Only to be topped by an even louder groan, “I was sitting here 50 years ago talking about water.”

June 30, 2019

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Church Closings Provoke Strong Opposition

By Richard Bell Archbishop Anthony Mancini’s announcement on June 16 of the closing of five of the eight Catholic churches on the Eastern Shore has ignited a powerful protest from the parishioners of St. Anslem’s in West Chezzetcook, including the formation of a new society, the Friends of St. Anselm’s Society, dedicated to re-opening the church. The society has already appealed to Mancini to reverse his decision about St. Anselm and plans to appeal all the way to Rome if necessary, a process that may take several years.

June 30, 2019

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A C&D Dump by Any Other Name

By Richard Bell What do you call a construction & demolition debris (C&D) recycling plant if you can’t get HRM’s Planning Department to approve its construction? How about a Used Building Material retail outlet? Don’t laugh.

June 30, 2019

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Selecting a New High School Site

By Richard Bell Bits and pieces of the Department of Education’s new school siting policy are finally beginning to dribble into view, more than a year after Minister Zach Churchill announced that the province would be building a replacement for Eastern Shore District High School.

May 29, 2019

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What is Atlantic Gold Afraid Of?

By Richard Bell As the June issue of the Cooperator was heading to the printers, we got word that an RCMP officer had violently arrested a local environmentalist who was attending a public meeting that Atlantic Gold had called in Sherbrooke on Thursday, May 23 to do a presentation on the disposal of mine tailings, the massive amounts of material left over after gold has been extracted from the pulverized rock. The failure of tailings dams at mining sites around the world has been the cause of massive environmental damage and the deaths of people living downstream from the tailings dams.

May 29, 2019

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Making Trails for our Shared Future

By Mona Bordage People in the Gaetz Brook area might have noticed recent changes on the path behind the Legion. Shore Active Transportation Association (SATA) Trails volunteers have been out in force raking and clearing brush along the Gaetz Brook Greenway despite cold rainy spring weather. Under a letter of authority from the Department of Natural Resources, SATA is restoring the rail bed through Gaetz Brook to be used as an “active transportation” (AT) trail, a trail that will be open to bikers and walkers, but closed to motorized vehicles. (See “Overflow Crowd at ATV Meeting” in this issue for a different perspective.)

May 29, 2019

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Overflow Crowd at ATV Meeting

By Richard Bell The Nova Scotia Share Our Trails Association (NSSOTA) took a major organizational step forward at a meeting on May 22 at the Lake and Shore Community Centre in Porters Lake. An overflow crowd of more than 200 people heard from the leadership of NSSOTA, as well as from HRM Councillor David Hendsbee, MLA Kevin Murphy, and MLA Barbara Adams.

May 29, 2019

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Will DFO Ban Fish Farms in MPAs?

By Richard Bell In an interview during his visit to East Ship Harbour last week, DFO Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said DFO might very well end up including fish farms on the list of industrial activities that would be banned in marine protected areas (MPAs). Given the long history of opposition to fish farms on the Eastern Shore, the addition of fish farms to the list of banned activities could make the MPA proposal more attractive. And the ban would throw a monkey wrench into the plans of the provincial government and major aquaculture companies for a huge expansion of fish farming around Nova Scotia.

May 18, 2019

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