Where are the shale bass protests?

When the father out in Hillsborough put his young son in the media warning against the perils of shale gas development and its impact on our water, I wondered why he wasn’t up at arms about the current water crisis in Albert County.  When they tested the wells out there around for the Apache project they found half the wells had contaminants well above the provincial guidelines.

I think they have taken it down but there used to be a billboard in Rogersville with the cute “Hello shale gas, goodbye salmon” on it.   Now I hear from fishers that bass infiltration of the rivers is threatening Atlantic Salmon.  Where are the protests?  Where’s the outrage?

It’s kind of tongue in cheek but is it?

If we have real threats to our water and fish, shouldn’t we protest them rather than the theoretical threats?

7 thoughts on “Where are the shale bass protests?

  1. If you get 300 anglers out to a consultation meeting that’s some serious grass roots concern and involvement.

  2. If the bass were being imported by SWN, no doubt there would be protests. And I am sure that the water in Albert Cty is highly valued for it’s ‘added-value’ nutrients ; would not surprise me to find that it is being bottled and sold as ‘organic’.

  3. Dude, I live in ONTARIO and I’ve heard about Albert County protests. They’ve been protesting for YEARS. Perhaps the media there have been ignoring it for the simple reason that a lot of the current oil and gas industry is centered there-which explains the poor well quality.

    Check out this blog from there:

    http://protectalbertcounty.wordpress.com/

    “Several years ago, our village dug 35 wells before finding two that would give us reliable water. Good water is hard to find in hydrocarbon-rich Albert County. “we understand Hillsborough sits on a significant oil reservoir. Below the oil lies what a Corridor Resources spokesman calls “the largest known shale gas play in North America by an order of magnitude.”

    As for fish, well, fish ain’t water. But its a good point, there are lots of industries that hurt water supplies but people arent’ protesting. However, from most media accounts it is natives who are doing the bulk of the protesting, and the ‘spokesman’, has said that they are by no means against fracking but only pushing their constitutional right to consultation. In short, if there are going to be benefits they want to ensure that the reserves get their fair share. However, a lot of people from Albert County have gone to the protests to support them.

    It takes a LOT to get people protesting. There is the constant hue and cry every time there is a protest insinuating that the same people are protesting, but that’s hardly the case. The abortion protestors aren’t the same as the shale gas ones, and the NBPower sale had MY elderly parents out protesting, and they hadn’t been to a protest before in their life.

    But its a good question to ask the salmon fishers. Perhaps they remember well what happened when natives were protesting DFO policies. You would think given what happened to the cod that protesting DFO decisions would be pretty common, but like I said, people don’t like protest unless they see it as the last option. That says more about our government than protestors, but given recent political scandals, I don’t think it reflects well on Canadians that we don’t have MORE protests.

  4. Like Richard says, I don’t think the government is actively working to import bass into the Miramichi. As it is, there is certainly a lot of concern being expressed. I think if people found the government and some company were actively involved, the protests would dwarf the shale protests.

    So – this post of yours is what they call in the literature a ‘cheap shot’.

  5. Pretty sure it was mostly tongue in cheek. Actually, the DFO are pretty heavily involved in virtually EVERY aspect of fisheries. There are several regulations on fisheries, but if you go to the link about the bass report, it clearly says that most fishery regulations don’t apply to bass, which helps explain their numbers. So its EASILY a reason for a protest.

    As for ‘companies’, its FAR worse than that. New Brunswick is virtually the ONLY province in Canada, in fact in North America I think, where people can OWN sections of waterways through leases. This virtually never comes up in the media, but to my mind its FAR worse than I suspect gas well damage would be, just not in the same way. A leaseowner could probably show up and dump nuclear waste and the RCMP wouldn’t bat an eye-but if you are in a rowboat drinking a Moosehead you’d be arrested just for being there.

    So to the main point, there is LOTS to protest about. I’m pretty sure there’s probably numerous studies done on how protests get started and what makes them hit public consciousness and critical mass, I’m sure governments are WELL aware of them.

  6. “I think if people found the government and some company were actively involved, the protests would dwarf the shale protests.”

    But its perfectly OK if it was just the ‘good ole boys’ doing the importing. Like the SJ clowns involved in bringing in turkeys from Maine, or the fine folks raising deer ‘as a hobby’. What would happen if the govt was to do what they should, and jump on the necks of those clowns? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If the ‘bad actors’ are corporations, or govt, then its a global conspiracy – call the Council of Canadians!!! They’re stealing our precious bodily fluids ! Where is my tinfoil hat?

  7. That’s a bit of a stretch dude. Go look at most comments on the deer story and most agreed with you. And bringing in some turkeys is a bit different from developing a huge gas industry wouldn’t you think? Maybe your tinfoil hat is a bit too tight.

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