Herring is something altogether different. It’s far more technological. The herring schools, with thousands of small fish, are tracked with electronic gear. A line of nets capture them in great numbers and, back at the dock, the catch is vacuumed by huge sucking machines into waiting trucks that trundle off towards a distant fish plant. As one local fisherman reports, “Sometimes you can vacuum out 20,000 pounds in twenty minutes.” Maybe it’s the vacuuming part that seems the most offensive. It’s more efficient for sure – takes very little time at all. But, for me, it underscores how industrial fishing can be. It’s as if fishing has taken on the guise of manufacturing.
My own view is that unless we reverse the trend of industrial fishing, we continue down the path of harvest-and-destroy. Alternatives, old or new, need to be found. Scallop harvesting, for example, usually involves dragging the ocean floor with steel claws that damage everything and anything in their path. In the Northumberland Strait, however, some scallop fishermen dive for the scallops instead in areas closed to draggers – areas that have already been severely damaged by the dragging. Sometimes video cameras are used to locate the scallops and then divers go below for a much cleaner harvest and can thus market their catch as “diver scallops” to buyers who share concerns for the preservation of sea life. Clearly, it’s not just the technology that is destructive; it’s how we use the technology that makes a difference.
Long Overdue Solutions – Urban and Rural
In 2007, metropolitan Halifax was still pumping 180 million litres of raw sewage into the harbour from sixty-five outfall pipes at nineteen locations. How bad is that? Very bad.
For one thing, the harbour stinks. Tourists and residents are offended by the smell of raw sewage. Who would have guessed? Also, one summer in the 1990s, the pollution was so bad that several hundred lobsters came ashore in Bedford Basin because the water was lacking oxygen, according to oceanographer David Scott. One of his colleagues discovered that the polluted waters had destroyed many species of seaweed and produced mutant asexual snails. Not good.
But it’s not all bad. Over $300 million has been earmarked for the Harbour Solutions project and construction is well underway, but not without its critics. Some say it’s too little too late . . . but it’s still better than nothing. Activists have argued that millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money has been diverted over the years from bringing about a proper solution much earlier. Northend residents are also up in arms that the city has decided to locate the main peninsula treatment plant in the backyard of an economially disadvantaged and racially mixed part of town. Councillor Dawn Sloane calls this “environmental racism” and local activist Shazza Laframboise states that the Harbour Solutions people have “deliberately misinformed the community.”
But the end result will be one good leg up on a lengthy history of chronic water pollution. Once the “solution” is in place, the planners say the water in the Northwest Arm and at Point Peasant Park will be clean enough to swim in. The water along downtown will still be considered somewhat unhealthy. Several centuries of unbridled dumping in this area means that there will remain a thick residue of ornery sludge down there, but most agree that the city is on a necessary path to recovery that may take the rest of this century.
Since 1998, an organization called Coastal Communities Network has been looking at the state of rural harbours, wharves and the communities themselves along the shores of Nova Scotia. They stated that “A thriving and diverse coastline is critical to our social, environmental and cultural future.” That is as true today as it was 200 years ago. What we need are communities, jobs and resources that are sustainable. It’s an overused word, I know. But those pushing the sustainable envelope are growing in number.
The CCN folks have a vision of Nova Scotia as a place of vibrant small coastal communities. And I share that vision. But, for starters, we need to recognize that only four percent of our coast is publicly owned. It would be a travesty to see Nova Scotian shorelines with severely limited public access due to private ownership, as we see today in Florida or California. The shores and waters beyond are meant to be shared by all and protected for the public and planetary good.
At the same time, we’ll need to recognize the coasts will be continuously changing as the climate continues to transform. Global climate change, meteorologist Richard Zurawski points out, may mean that Nova Scotia will get cooler, stormier and damper as the interior parts of the continent heat up. And as the ice cap melts, the seas will rise. If you are planning to build a house near these shores, best to consider where that shoreline might be in ten or twenty years.
Yet, as I look out my window here at Lawrencetown Beach, the salt marsh before me is wide and lush, healthy and green. The sea is blue and the light sea wind has that familiar tinge of salt. Given our resources, much as a result of the bounty of the sea, I view Nova Scotia as one of the ultimate “sustainable” places on earth. It is a province of abundance and, to a degree, balance. I’m hoping that innovation, diligence and compassion will be part of the formula that will help us to survive and adapt to the big changes headed our way.
Select Bibliography
Africville Genealogical Society. The Spirit of Africville. Halifax: Formac, 1992.
Armour, Charles. Sailing Ships of the Maritimes. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1975.
Barkhouse, Murray. Famous Nova Scotians. Hantsport, NS: Lancelot, 1994.
Bell, John, ed. Halifax: A Literary Portrait. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1990.
Bell, W.P. Foreign Protestants and the Settlement of Nova Scotia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961.
Bird, Michael J. The Town That Died. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962.
Bird, Will R. Atlantic Anthology. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1959.
Bird, Will R. This Is Nova Scotia. Toronto: Ryerson, 1972.
Blakeley, Phyllis. Nova Scotia: A Brief History. Toronto: Dent and Sons, 1955.
Brown, Craig. The Illustrated History of Canada. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987.
Clarke, G.E. Fire on the Water. Volumes 1 and 2. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield Press, 1991.
Degen, Terry. The History of Lawrencetown. Lawrencetown, NS: Lawrencetown Historical Society, 1979.
De Volpi, Charles. Nova Scotia: A Pictorial Record. Toronto: Longman, 1974.
Doane, Benjamin. Following the Sea. Halifax: Nimbus, 1987.
Elliott, Shirley B. The Nova Scotia Book of Days. Halifax: Province of Nova Scotia, 1979.
Fingard, Judith. The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1989.
Forbes, E.R., and D. A. Muise. The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
Grant, Ruth Fulton. The Canadian Atlantic Fishery. Toronto: Ryerson, 1934.
Halpenny, Frances. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.
Howell, Colin, and Richard Twomey. Jack Tar in History: Essays in the History of Maritime Life and Labour. Fredericton: Acadiensis, 1991.
Jobb, Dean. Bluenose Justice. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield Press, 1989.
Jobb, Dean. Crime Wave. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1991.
Laurier, La Pierre. Canada, My Canada: What Happened? Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1992.
MacMechan, Archibald. At the Harbour Mouth. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1988.
McCreath, Peter, and John Leefe. A History of Early Nova Scotia. Tantallon, NS: Four East, 1982.
McKay, Ian. The Quest of the Folk. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1994.
Morrison, James, and James Moreira. Tempered By Rum: Rum in the History of the Maritime Provinces. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1988.
Nova Scotia: Gazetteer of Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Board of Geographical Names, 1961.
Pacey, Elizabeth. Historic Halifax. Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1988.
Paul, Daniel. We Were Not the Savages. Halifax: Nimbus, 1993.
Payzant, Joan, and Lewis. Like a Weav
er’s Shuttle. Halifax: Nimbus, 1979.
Peabody, George, et al. The Maritimes: Tradition, Challenge and Change. Halifax: Maritext, 1987.
Raddall, Thomas. Footsteps on Old Floors. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1988.
Raddall, Thomas. Halifax Warden of the North. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971.
Reid, John. Six Crucial Decades. Halifax: Nimbus, 1987.
Roland, Albert E. Geological Background and Physiography of Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nova Scotia Institute of Science, 1982.
Roland, A.E., and E.C. Smith. The Flora of Nova Scotia. Halifax: The Nova Scotia Museum, 1969.
Ryan, Judith Hoag. Coal in Our Blood. Halifax: Formac, 1992.
Spicer, Stanley T. Masters of Sail. Halifax: Petheric, 1968.
Thurston, Harry. Atlantic Outposts. Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1990.
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. Stories from the Six Worlds. Halifax: Nimbus, 1988.
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Micmac History 1500-1950. Halifax: Nimbus, 1991.
Illustration Credits
Illustrations have been removed from this edition of the book. Please refer to the print edition for illustrations.
Index
A full index is available in the print edition of this book. Please use the search function of your digital reading device to find information specific to your query.
To order the print edition of Nova Scotia Shaped By The Sea (Revised), please contact Nimbus Publishing at 1-800-Nimbus9 (1-800-646-2879) or refer to ISBN 978-1-895900-94-1
www.LesleyChoyce.com
www.PottersfieldPress.com
Nova Scotia Page 37