East Coast has much more tanker traffic

Re: “Anti-pipeline message in Colwood,” photo, April 29.

The Dogwood group used 200 signs to display the length of the Aframax oil tankers that would pass through B.C. coastal waters. If they had used signs to display the size of the Ultra-Large Crude Carrier oil tankers that safely traverse the eastern coast of Canada, they would have required at least 350 signs.

According to clearseas.org, these ULCC tankers can carry up to four million barrels of oil, while the Aframax tankers used in our waters can carry approximately 850,000 barrels of oil.

Eighty-five per cent of all tanker movements in Canada take place on the Atlantic coast, compared with about seven per cent on the Pacific coast. I believe that our eastern coastline is just as important for their Indigenous people, their fishing industry and their tourism industry as our coastline is for our residents.

The tankers on the East Coast, St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes pose a far greater risk than what we would be exposed to on the West Coast, due to the winter ice, confined waters and greater marine-traffic density.

We need pipelines and we need tankers to get our natural resources to world markets. It must be recognized that if we are not willing to do it, our neighbours to the south will, and they already are. We must be willing to accept a minimal risk with every ship that moves on the seas, and recognize the economic value of our resource industries and international trade. P.M. Linn Parksville