Tag Archives: Darren Porter
Highway 101 shut down as Avon River causeway protestors urge action to allow free fish passage
On Nov. 16, Howe was among the dozens of people who gathered to hold a ‘respectful, reduced traffic flow’ on Highway 101. The majority of traffic was detoured but some trickled through, starting and stopping in six-minute intervals to reflect the short time frame that fish have to pass through the gated structure. It was an inconvenience to many motorists – but according to fisherman Darren Porter, it was a necessary move. “At the end of the day, how else do you get media here?” asked Porter, while surrounded by water defenders. Porter has been drawing attention to the limited fish passage in Windsor for several years. >click to read< 07:38
Nova Scotia: Residents raise alarm over causeway’s threat to local fish stocks
“This river is already dying, we’re already losing all of our fish, and along with losing all of our fish, we’re losing our rights as well,” said Nikki Lloyd, of the Annapolis Valley First Nation. Darren Porter, a local fisherman and fishery spokesperson for the Fundy United Federation, said over many years, he’s seen a reduction in productivity for both professional and recreational fishers. Government efforts, he alleged, to improve passage times have fallen short of what’s required to keep the ecosystem healthy. >click to read< 13:08
Fisherman Darren Porter has been keeping a one-man vigil at the Windsor causeway since last Thursday
The Hants County weir fisherman and marine science data collector has been floating in his open boat up to 20 hours a day to raise awareness for the lack of fish being allowed up the Avon River. “About six minutes on a tide,” said Porter of the amount of time the big gates in the Windsor causeway are opened to allow water through. That, he argues, is not enough time to allow the inner Bay of Fundy salmon, shad, gaspereau, striped bass and tom cod to get up the Avon River. That also, he argues, puts the operators of the gates (Department of Agriculture) in violation of the federal Fisheries Act. >click to read< 09:03
Nova Scotia calls tender for Fundy tidal power site
The energy is there and so is the wire. All you need to do is catch it and put it in the wire and the province will guarantee you a subsidized rate for 15 years. But there’s two big caveats on the offer. First you have clean up the mess left by the last company that tried. The province is requiring any responders to a call for tenders to take over Berth D at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy pony up a $4.5 million security for the removal of the 1,300-tonne turbine abandoned at the site. Another caveat is that you have to figure out how to get the energy out of the water hauled through the Minas Passage by the tide. So far no one has been successful. And finally you need to find someone to lend you money to build this machine. >click to read< 09:52
Claim that Annapolis tidal turbine violates Fisheries Act puts science under review
Is the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station killing a lot of fish? The protesters waving placards on the causeway crossing the Annapolis River on Wednesday and Thursday claim that it does. Scientists and stakeholders meeting over the same period at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography were attempting to answer the same question. But even as The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat was performing its review of available data, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Nova Scotia Power may already know whether the turbine is in violation of the Fisheries Act. According to correspondence obtained via a freedom of information request between high level staff at both the federal regulator and the turbine’s owner, both already know it kills fish. >click to read<
Clock ticking on Bay of Fundy tidal turbine removal
Meanwhile fishermen who work along the Minas Passage want the turbine out of the water. – OpenHydro Technologies Canada Ltd. has a month to find someone who wants to pay to lift a broken 1,300-tonne turbine out of the Minas Passage. Once the stay of proceedings granted Wednesday by Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael Wood expires in December, OpenHydro’s creditors can swoop in. They won’t find much – according to court filings the company only has two major assets. >click to read<16:42
Atlantic salmon aquaculture farmers cited as ‘likely source’ of European strain spawning in Fundy waters
Tom Smith says it’s “misleading” to blame Atlantic Canadian aquaculture farmers for European farm salmon spawning in the Bay of Fundy over the past two decades. Fisheries and Oceans Canada published a report Aug. 31 confirming the presence of European farm salmon in the inner Bay of Fundy, saying the fish spawning has created a hybrid species in the Fundy. The Atlantic Salmon Federation released a report Sept. 6 and says it’s “disturbing” that DFO research has found the fish have been spawning in the bay’s inner waters since 1997, and that it identifies Atlantic open net-pen salmon aquaculture as the “likely source.”,,, “[The industry] is in violation of New Brunswick’s Aquaculture Act and the Federal Species at Risk Act and …Canada’s international obligations under the Williamsburg Resolution…, which prevents the introduction of non-native salmon in domestic waters,”,,, >click to read<17:34
“That turbine was put down there in bad faith.” – Cape Sharp Tidal owner files for bankruptcy in Ireland
A week after a massive tidal turbine was placed in the Minas Passage, its owners have filed for bankruptcy. Local contractors, marine service companies, motels, fishermen and other business people are owed an undetermined amount of money. OpenHydro owns 97 per cent of Cape Sharp Tidal, with the remaining three percent owned by Emera, Nova Scotia Power’s parent company.,, Fishermen claim they were told the turbine would not be installed at the Force site in the Minas Passage until the close of the lobster season at the end of July. “They used all these local resources, hired all these local business people, drove right over all that local lobster gear and they never intended to pay nobody,” said Darren Porter, spokesman for the Fundy United Federation, a fishermen’s organization. One contractor, who didn’t want his named used, estimated that OneHydro owes “tens of millions of dollars” to local companies. >click to read<22:11
