Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Today (Dec 31) Your Last Chance to Vote Fundy as One of 7 Natural Wonders


The Bay of Fundy is now competing in a worldwide contest to declare the New7 Wonders of Nature.

The Bay of Fundy is one of only 5 Canadian sites (& only Maritime site) selected to participate in this global contest.

Vote online at www.bayoffundytourism.com before December 31, when only one Canadian site is selected to represent our country during the 2009 phase of the contest. We want to be in the #1 spot by Dec 31, when only one site will go on to represent Canada in the 2009 phase of the contest.

If you need some reasons, here’s Fundy’s awesome case for becoming a New7Wonder of Nature:

- home to the highest tides in the world
- world renown geology and palaeontology
- summer feeding area for endangered North Atlantic Right whales
- critical feeding ground for 90+% of world’s semi-palmated sandpipers
- best site in the world for tidal power potential
- UNESCO has recently recognized upper Bay of Fundy as a Biosphere Reserve and Joggins Fossil Cliffs as a World Heritage Site

Currently the New7Wonders of Nature contest has over 400 worldwide sites participating and expects 1 billion online votes by the contest’s conclusion. It’s kind of like the Olympics for nature destinations!!

Canada AM is already planning to film in the winning region... That should be Fundy!!

Remember: you can vote with as many email addresses as you own. Please, if you haven’t already voted, go to our campaign domain address www.votemyfundy.com or use the links on our regular web page (see below).


If you have any questions, contact Bay of Fundy Tourism manager, Terri McCulloch 902-254-2772 or terri@bayoffundytourism.com or visit: www.bayoffundytourism.com

Friday, December 26, 2008

Fundy Bird of The Week - Hawk Owl in Fredericton

This week we've chosen the Northern Hawk Owl that NatureNB members have been reporting from the Fredericton area. It could have been the Snowy Owls that are being reported here and there throughout the area or the Bohemian Waxwings, but this is a favourite of mine. I think Fenwick Landsdown did a great portrait many years ago.

Wikilpedia has the following:

The Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) is a medium sized owl. The term "hawk" refers to its falcon-like wing shape and long tail. It is the only living species in the genus Surnia. The species is sometimes called simply the Hawk Owl; however, many species of owls in the Ninox genus are also called hawk owls.

This bird is 35-43 cm long with a 69-82 cm wingspan. It has a rounded head with yellow eyes, dark brown upperparts and barred underparts and tail. The song is a bubbling lulululu. More ...

Thanks to Wikipedia for the photo.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Fundy Bird of the Week - Painted Bunting at Grand Manan

Painted Bunting (Wikipedia.com)
If you follow the Nature NB listserv postings, you too will be fascinated by the strange and wonderful avian creatures that frequent the Bay of Fundy and its shores. So, we have decided to pick a "bird of the week" from the various postings so that everyone will enjoy these beautiful creatures.

This week it's a male Painted Bunting reported by Laurie Murison at North Head Grand Manan. Beautiful.

Bay of Fundy Nature Park being squeezed by LNG Terminal and Quarry Developments.

The Ganong Nature and Marine Park is the culmination of many years of work by many people and the fulfillment of Whidden Ganong's dream to have his 350 acre country property turned into a nature park. Owned and operated by the St. Croix Estuary Project Inc.(SCEP) there are now fears that years of effort and two million in investment may be negatively impacted by continued pressure from the Bayside Quarry expansion and the proposed Calais LNG development directly across from the Todd's Point site.

A letter of concern has been sent to FERC regarding the Calais LNG proposal at Red Beach and a similar letter is being drafted to submit to the Province of New Brunswick relative to the Bayside Quarry expansion proposal.

The FERC letter can be read at: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20081218-5014

What's the Rush? Dump the Cat?

http://fundytides.blogspot.com Opinion
Item - Bleak future for The Cat
(
The Working Waterfront)

Last month, The Cat made her last trips from Maine to Nova Scotia before packing it up for the season. There's plenty of reason to fear the high-speed catamaran won't be back next year.

Our region's long-haul ferries had a brutal season. Battered by sky-high fuel prices and a downturn in U.S. travel to Canada, the private-sector car ferries that bridge the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy are on government life support, while prices have soared on the government-run services that connect Newfoundland to the rest of the continent. More at: http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Parallel-44/12743/

The Way I See It

When I was a wee youngster it seems to me I vaguely remember something about being constantly cautioned that "moderation in all things" was the way to go. I guess no one out there has heard about this or, perhaps like me, it was scoffed at or ignored. Well, looks like another fancy development might crumble this year. The sad thing is that proven, long-term solutions are "tarred with the same brush" and may collapse as well.

It's a short century since we moved from "environmentally friendly"and "sustainable" sail as a method of shipping our goods to huge, fuel guzzling ships that frantically move us and our precious goods back and forth across the globe. I hear we even ship our fish to China so that they can process them (more cheaply) and sell them back to us ... all the while consuming precious, limited fuel. The Cat is a high speed transportation system that zooms between Maine and Yarmouth consuming about 1,300 gallons of fuel per hour. Well, in the current economic climate the users are not coming and the cost of fuel has been and will continue to be, a serious limiting factor; not to mention it is a diminishing resource that some folks estimate will be in limited supply within 25 years.

Unfortunately, traditional ferries are suffering during this crisis as well, the result of big-time government divestiture. So now we see privately owned highways, railway, generating stations, ferries, airlines, and the list goes on. Encouraged by their friends in business, it seems that governments on all levels have sold off our essential public utilities and services, apparently to profit private companies; many of which seem to be constantly in trouble. Well smart folks in charge, your predecessors were wise enough to realize that some services SHOULD be publicly owned and operated. They knew this because private land owners once set up their own toll fences where they charged travellers for passing over their lands and essential transportation was subject to the whims of business. So they all worked hard to protect their constituents and succeeded in placing essential services under public control or regulation. Today we are selling this all when we should be controlling essential services for the people of Canada. More particularly, we desperately need to build business expertise in government, examine alternate "sustainable" strategies for the future, and get on with it before we totally consume this planet in our headlong rush to consume!

Let the Cat go. Check out assisted sail for our short-sea shipping needs and let's all slow down a bit. There's no need to rush to oblivion!

Photo from wikimedia.com. More information about the Cat at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Ferries

Thursday, December 18, 2008

SPB Canada Speaks Out about LNG Threat

LNG Tanker compared to large freighter currently
using Passamaquoddy Bay


Save Passamaquoddy Bay Canada (SPB-C) bills itself as the organization that "... was formed to inform Canadians of the LNG proposals for Passamaquoddy Bay – St. Croix Estuary, to provide a voice for Canadians who oppose these proposals, and to ensure that voice is exercised in appropriate fora." SPB-C was a rocky spin off of the original community organization Save Passamaquoddy Bay-USA which, together with its Passamaquoddy counterpart Nulankeyutomonen Nkihtahkomikumon ("We Take Care of Our Land") continues to do the heavy lifting and is actively engaged in the front-line battle against LNG along the Maine shore of Passamaquoddy Bay.

Unfortunately, at least 2 individual environmentalists who are perceived by many as representing a radical fringe position, were seen to be representing SPB-C at the Calais LNG scoping session last week. According to newspaper articles, they were accorded a less than friendly welcome by those in attendance; a further crumbling of the once co-operative international community that once circled the Bay.

While LNG proponents have been less than charitable in the past, SPB-C needs to broaden its community base if it ever wishes to cast off its image as a bunch of radicals that represent their own best interests not that of the community they purport to represent.

That said, SPB-C has certainly put together an impressive array of documents and submitted them to FERC. While I haven't had the time to review all of them, those that I checked appear to be well constructed and thoughtful expressions of concern relative to the Calais LNG proposal. Check the links below for the full list of submissions.

There's always room for your comments here. So let's hear them.

Cheers
Art

LNG FERC scoping letter - Calais 2008.DOC
Cultural Impacts of LNG in Bay.DOC
Ecological issues.PDF
Fisheries Issues.DOC
LNG impacts on lifestyle - Susan Lambert.PDF
Municipal.PDF
Navigation.PDF
Passamaquoddy Nation.DOC
Safety and Security paper - Jan Meiners.DOC
Tourism Impacts.DOC
STATEMENT of LESLEY PINDER.DOC

Composite photo created by Art MacKay. Original freighter photo from Bangor Daily News, LNG tanker from online source.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Will Saint John Continue to Turn its Back on its Heritage ... and its Old Friends?

News Item, Telegraph Journal - Wildlife Officials of cash-strapped facility say it may be in jeopardy without stable support - Common council wants surrounding municipalities to help fund the financially strapped Cherry Brook Zoo .. more ...

The Cherry Brook Zoo's financial woes are back in the news and I continue to wonder if the "movers-and-shakers" in Saint John really understand that in their excitement to create THEIR vision of the future, they are turning their back on the colourful history and heritage of a city that is one of the important foundations of our culture in Southwestern New Brunswick.

Saint John is no longer the "Loyalist City", the Reversing Falls are about to spiral down in a "Vortex" and the "Loyalist Man" replacement looks more like "Clip Art Man" with a serious back problem. And with the old hospital gone, the skyline has gone from interesting and dynamic to condo heaven.

I remember when the Hungarian refugees arrived in Saint John many, many years ago. It was winter and the city looked dismal. I suspect that many tears flowed as the arrivals questioned their choice of this bleak and dismal land. The City is changing, that is for certain and in may ways that is a good thing as the old city becomes alive again. The harbour-front trail system is spectacular, the condos are well designed and attractive, the new plantings along Route 1 are beautiful, and future plans are encouraging. But turning your backs on your history, heritage, and old friends is not!

The Cherry Brook Zoo is an important component of Saint John and people from other areas as well. We come, we pay our admission, and some of us donate. But the City of Saint John is ultimately responsible. To suggest that somehow the poor of the city will suffer if the paltry $175,000 annual need is provided to the Zoo is a cheap shot of the lowest order.

Get it together Saint John! If you think that you are building a modern, dynamic city then realize that you have to take care of the entire fabric not just the gaudy and slippery silks.

Art MacKay



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

EXPLORE - Turning Tides - Opportunities and Challenges for Ecotourism in the Bay of Fundy

By Frances Figart
More at Seascape web site, www.seascapekayaktours.com
 
How can people know that they need to protect a place unless they experience it fully and gain an understanding of its inhabitants?
A kayak is an excellent vehicle from which to experience a marine ecosystem. And here in the Quoddy Region of the Bay of Fundy, marine life is as diverse as the famous Fundy tides are dramatic.


The Quoddy Region is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy on the Border between Maine, USA, and New Brunswick, Canada. The eco-economy here approaches one billion dollars annually, employs thousands of individuals, and includes whale-watching, birding and kayaking as well as a number of well-known tourism staples: St. Stephen, famous for Ganong Chocolates; St. Andrews, a spectacular resort town; Campobello, where FDR's summer cottage and International Park are located; Black’s Harbour, home of the world's largest sardine factory; and Grand Manan, an island known around the world for its spectacular scenery.
Close by and lesser known, but all the more precious because of its remoteness, is Deer Island, where TIES member Seascape Kayak Tours has its base of operations May through October. The Seascape residence and shop – where wilderness first aid and introduction to sea kayaking courses are taught – look out over Northwest Harbour on the Bay of Fundy. Twice a day, the water comes right up to the rack where stable fiberglass tandem kayaks are housed, and then several hours later, recedes 26 feet or more, revealing rock formations, seaweed and hardy intertidal invertebrates. Vacationers coming into this environment have the opportunity to experience a unique ecosystem that supports over 2,000 species of plants and animals.


Bruce Smith built Seascape 14 years ago on the philosophy that small group travel is imperative to minimize any environmental impact on fragile coastal ecosystems and to allow for a more authentic and enriching personal connection to the biodiversity of the Bay of Fundy. Group size rarely exceeds eight, and the guide-to-client ratio is one to four or less. Launching from the protection of the harbor, paddlers on Seascape’s half- or full-day trips are certain to see Bald Eagles that nest on many of the Fundy islands, and groups of curious and playful Harbor Seals and Grey Seals. Most of July through September, sea kayakers also encounter vast charms (not a familiar term to me – school or pod?) of Harbor Porpoise, listed as a "species of concern" by the Canadian Government; a prime porpoise nursery is nestled at the mouth of the Head Harbour Passage area. And, during much of the summer, Seascape’s ecotourists are also graced with Finback and Minke Whale sightings. All these animals are here to feed on copepods, krill and other planktonic species that comprise a complex food web that supports what scientists have identified as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.


We see so many amazing creatures from our kayaks, but we keep a respectful distance from the animals to minimize their stress,” said Smith, whose Fundy paddling trips have also crossed paths with Northern Right Whales, of which only some 300 still survive. This species comes here each year to feed and raise their young, and there is a Right Whale Sanctuary off Grand Manan. Although Right Whales have been protected from hunting since 1935, they are still on the brink of extinction due to being hit by ships.


And that threat could be heightened if plans proceed to allow huge tankers carrying liquidified natural gas (LNG) to sail right down Head Harbour Passage. Three separate proposals to build gargantuan marine terminals on the Maine shoreline threaten to turn a traditional tourism, fishing and aquaculture economy into an industrial zone fraught with the emission of six tons of greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals on a daily basis. Gigantic tankers, each accompanied by a gunboat to protect the potentially hazardous cargo, could soon change the land and seascapes for tour operators, fishermen and fish farmers who depend on the pristine nature of the area.


These massive boats would have a devastating effect on the wildlife in the area and the presence of this huge offloading facility in our backyard would have an enormous environmental impact,” said Smith. “Seascape would be a part of the exclusion zone, so every time a tanker comes through we would have to be off the water for at least a 90-minute period, not that we would want to be out there in the bay with something this size.”
Indeed the size of the tankers is hard to imagine, but they would be about the size of the Queen Mary (1,000 feet long and 12 stories high) and these monsters would pass through whale and porpoise feeding areas, breeding grounds and nurseries, as well as through aquaculture sites and fishing grounds for salmon, haddock, cod and pollock.


Highly controversial, fish farming began in 1979 on Deer Island. It has since grown into a major industry that employs large numbers of coastal residents. Patural International on Deer Island is the world's largest shipper of lobster. “The local fishery has sustained generation after generation and is worth about $173 million on the Canadian side alone,” says Art MacKay, director of the Quoddy Futures Foundation, which seeks to steer the local community away from industrial initiatives such as the LNG tanker proposals and back to its original eco-economy and sustainability. “This is an economic contest with a huge environmental backdrop. It's a choice: an economy based on our natural resources or heavy industrial development and loss of autonomy.”
Seascape’s tours take visitors past a series of herring weirs, a traditional method of fishing traced to the ancient Passamaquoddy Tribe that involves catching herring in a trap made from poles, brush and nets. These weirs formed the foundation of the Connors Brothers plant in Black's Harbour, the world's largest producer of sardines. Educating visitors about the local fishing culture in the Quoddy Region is an essential part of Seascape’s commitment to providing opportunities for contact between visitors and coastal inhabitants as a means of involving local communities in tourism. But the values of an ecotourism kayak tour operator and a traditional fisherman are often in conflict, says Smith, who has suffered through seal shootings by fishermen who do not want to share their potential catch with opportunistic marine life.


Part of Seascape’s environmental approach to waste management includes collecting and strapping onto sea kayaks trash and fishery debris left on the islands or in the ocean, which goes back to headquarters to be recycled. The company is also involved with local conservation efforts, spearheads marine ecosystem education initiatives and organizes annual beach sweeps and coastal cleanups for school groups and the community. A partnership with the Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station is afoot to raise funding to protect the endangered Harbor Porpoise.


Protection is an element of ecotourism that desperately needs attention here,” Smith said, pointing out that in Costa Rica, where Seascape has made its winter base of operations for the past 13 years, the national parks system preserves 27 percent of land mass in protected areas and national parks. “The Quoddy Region in the Bay of Fundy – a marine environment every bit as diverse as a rainforest ecosystem – is crying out for such protection.”


And that’s precisely why Seascape places an emphasis on interpretation of the natural and cultural history of the Quoddy Region – and on its current challenges. “As an ecotour operator, we have an incredible opportunity to give folks who paddle with us an authentic understanding of all the living things in this unique marine ecosystem,” said Smith. “But this understanding has to include not only the marine mammals, coastal birds and beautiful scenery, but also an awareness of the conflicts, challenges and threats to the health of this special marine environment, as this is the only way to engage visitors in its future protection.”


Many facts and statistics in this article were provided by Art MacKay, Director, Quoddy Futures Foundation. To read more about the proposal to bring liquid natural gas tankers into the Passamoquoddy Bay, see the LNG slide show on the Links page of the Seascape web site, www.seascapekayaktours.com