Tag Archives: Ronnie Heighton

OPINION: #NoPipe activists won’t pipe down

Lobster traps are out of the water now, as fishermen along the Northumberland Strait wrap up a successful season. The wharves are quieter than they were a year ago, when 200 fishing and pleasure boats and 3,500 people readied for the #NoPipe Land and Sea Rally on July 6 in Pictou Town and Harbour. From three provinces and Pictou Landing First Nation, opposition to Northern Pulp’s proposal to discharge 60-80 million litres of treated pulp effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait was visible and strong. >click to read< 08:48

Weather delays lobster season opening for Nova Scotia, P.E.I. fishers

Setting day in lobster fishing areas 24 and 26A has been delayed with high winds being blamed for the postponement. “We’re fishermen, we expect things like this really. We’re weather dependent,” said Alan MacCarthy who is a lobster fishermen out of Caribou Wharf in Pictou County, and member of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association.,,, “Environment Canada says that Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be good days but it’s giving wind again for tomorrow and again for Wednesday,” said Ronnie Heighton, vice-chair of the Gulf of Nova Scotia Planning Board. >click to read<09:34

Lobster Fishermen say $6M in taxpayer dollars for N.S. effluent plant is conflict of interest

Nova Scotia taxpayers have contributed $6 million toward design work and engineering studies for a new wastewater treatment plant that will handle effluent discharged from the Northern Pulp paper mill in Pictou County. Those against the plan to dump what comes out of the facility into the Northumberland Strait are not happy the province is picking up part of the cost. Those against the plan to dump what comes out of the facility into the Northumberland Strait are not happy the province is picking up part of the cost. “It’s a conflict of interest. A direct conflict of interest,” said Ronnie Heighton, a lobster fisherman and president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association.>click to read<15:50

Fishermen prepare for lobster season

Warren Francis and his family were in high spirits as they readied their brand-new fishing boat at Pictou Landing’s wharf under a sunny spring sky for the upcoming lobster season starting next Monday.,, But fisherman Ronnie Heighton, who sits on the Gulf of Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, said that fishermen plying the Northumberland Strait for catches can “live quite happily.” “There’s never a bad day when you fish lobster,”,, However, Heighton states that danger lies ahead for fishermen who rely on the Strait for their livelihoods.>click to read<12:00

Changes to act mean more fishing wealth headed back to Pictou County

A local fisherman is cheering proposed reforms to the federal Fisheries Act that he says will bring more industry profits back into Pictou County. The changes mean that fishermen may only hold one licence for each species and must make their own catches, taking wealth away from big fishing corporations in favour of local independent owner-operators. That’s according to Ronnie Heighton, a River John fisherman and president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 10:40