Hi folks,

Saw this on the Seabird-L list, and thought that it had some interest for
the Tweeters north of 49*. I didn't get permission from Mr. Bradley to
cross-post his message, but figured that any news and actions that may
affect our "Cascadian" birds and birding would be relevant for our list.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net

>>> Russell Bradley <rbradley at sfu.ca> 07/18 11:04 AM >>>
Hello members of the SFU Biology community (and seabird researchers abroad),

For the last 30 years, the provincial government of British Columbia has
maintained a moratorium on offshore oil drilling in our province. This
morning, BC Energy Minister Richard Neufeld of the new Liberal Party
Government made an anouncement that may affect this moratorium very soon.
Yesterday, an independant report commisioned by the former NDP government on
the status of the moratorium was presented to the new governmnet and the
public. It recommended 6 months of consultation with all interested parties
to assess the status of the moratium. The Energy minister and the Liberal
government have rejected this recommendation, and Mr. Neufeld has stated
that hearings on whether to
lift the moratium will be conducted (and completed!) within the next 2
weeks. You can look at this announcement on the CBC news website:
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/07/18/bc_oil_gas010718

Despite my status as a graduate student, I am very aware of the slow,
tedious, bureaucratic process in land and resource management
related to my thesis work. However, it appears that making a desicion of
this magnitude in such a short period of time is not scientifically sound,
considering the potential drastic environmental impacts to the North Coast
and Hecate Strait marine areas of our province. I believe that many of you
may agree with me, especially those whose research is linked to the biota of
the North Coast. I believe that the new Liberal government (Energy and
Environmental Ministers, as well as the Premier) should be made aware that
credible biological scientists, especially those familiar with the marine
systems and species most likely to be affected by potential negative aspects
of the oil industry, have strong reservations about this quick desicion
(will it's lure of potentially $4 billion dollars annually for the
province). Without proper environmental impact assesment, which there does
appear to be some data available for (i.e pelagic seabird distribution), an
economically based descison without credible scientific rational for marine
environmental impacts may be made very soon which will affect our province
for deacdes to come.

I am planning to write a letter to the Environment Minister, Energy
Minister, and Premier regarding this issue. If you would like to sign it
or help me to write/revise it, please let me know. I strongly believe that
as biologists of British Columbia, we need to make a public stand on these
types of political issues, so the public realizes that not only "radical
enviromentalists" may be opposed to hasty decision making in regards to
environmental issues without solid science to back those decisions.

Sincerely,
Russ Bradley
*********************************
Russell Bradley (rbradley at sfu.ca)
Msc Student
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC, CANADA
V5A 1S6
Tel:604-291-5618
Fax:604-291-3496