Stop using tax dollars to fund Frankenfish farms

Is this really happening or did we just wake up from a nightmare?

The federal government, represented by DFO Minister Dominic Leblanc, has announced a grant of $4.7 million for the restoration of eelgrass beds in Placentia Bay.

Meanwhile, Premier Dwight Ball and his Fisheries minister intend to turn over $48 million to Grieg Aquaculture of Norway toward a $250-million megafish feedlot that could help destroy the ecology and wild fish species of — you guessed it — Placentia Bay. The N.L. government has tried to push it through without proper environmental assessment that, without doubt, would fail the project miserably if it were truly independent.

All of the MPS in N.L. are Liberal. Do federal and provincial politicians even talk to each other? Poisons, pollution, disease, health risks, greed, corruption, cage smashups, escapes, decline and death to other species are rampant in the aquaculture industry around the world. Grieg, Marine Harvest and Cooke are wreaking environmental havoc on the rivers and bays of B.C. and the Atlantic provinces, yet both federal and provincial governments are throwing multi-millions of our tax dollars at these companies while providing them essentially free access to the oceans. This is total madness!

As a retired scientist fighting this war for the past 12 years, I can’t believe this is happening in Canada. Every open net pen fish farm in this country is contributing to the pollution, poison and disease, and being paid to do so. Closed containment landbased production is the

only way forward. Fred Giffin Hantsport, N.S.