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-----Original Message----- October 18, 2002 Land & Water British Columbia, VIA MAIL & FAX TO: 250-741-5686 #501 - 345 Wallace St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5B6 Attention:Sean Herbert, Land Inspector Dear Sir: Our organization has participated in Land & Water B.C.'s review process of proposed foreshore leases for three years now. Although this is somewhat beyond the scope of our fishermen's mutual, we felt that our input was important for the commercial fishing industry at large. During this time, we have reviewed nearly 200 applications. Our participation has been time consuming, especially with the increasing number of aquaculture applications, however our involvement is something we take quite seriously. Our organization has always remained neutral in the politics and issues surrounding "farmed" vs. "wild" fisheries. Our participation in your review process has been solely to identify any individual proposed aquaculture farm sites that would impact wild commercial fishing operations or the safety of vessels. We have expressed no objection to the vast majority of applications, however we have objected to sites that would impact: § areas of commercial fishing, § vessel safety, in respect of anchorages of refuge or navigation of narrow channels, and § sites encroaching on fish spawning areas. On occasion, we objected to fish farm sites that were susceptible to extreme weather, thus posing a risk of farmed stock escapement. On a broader view, with some individual proposed sites now approaching 100 hectares, compounded by the increasing number of applications, we have expressed serious concern for massive areas of our coast eventually ending up off limits or unusable for commercial fishing operations. These concerns can only be heightened by your advice that with the moratorium now lifted, newly proposed sites are to be expected. We were assured that LWBC endeavors to accommodate the needs of commercial fishers whenever possible. We were also assured repeatedly that you value our input. In reality however, your assurances appear unfounded. We are disheartened to see that of the posted results now available on your website (www.lwbc.bc.ca), LWBC has approved nearly every application we had objected to. Clearly then, our involvement is futile and a waste of our valuable time. As a result, our Board of Directors wishes to inform you that our organization will no longer participate in the LWBC review process. Yours Truly, Tony Thompson, Secretary - Hon. Stan Hagen, Minister of Sustainable Resource Management (fax:
250-356-8273) |