- Bruce Wark
- Walter Regan, Sackville Rivers Association
Several prominent environmentalists welcomed the release Wednesday of a provincial report on the state of Nova Scotia’s coastline. “On a scale of one to 10, this is an eight,” said Walter Regan, President of the Sackville Rivers Association. “We’ve got to get control over our coastal zones.” Regan added that action on coastal problems is long overdue.
Tamara Lorincz, executive director of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network, also welcomed the report. “This is a great first step, gathering and updating the information and science on the state of our coasts.” She added she’s hoping the report will encourage greater participation in the public consultations the government plans to hold over the next year.
Regan and Lorincz were among environmentalists invited to the official release of The 2009 State of Nova Scotia’s Coast Report at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The report, released by the provincial Fisheries and Acquaculture Department, is designed to provide the public with information about key issues affecting Nova Scotia’s coastline. Aside from the possible coastal effects of climate change I referred to in an earlier post, they include the need to improve declining coastal water quality while protecting sensitive ecosystems and habitats; and, finding ways of ensuring greater public access to provincial coastlines.
Some highlights
• Poor coastal water quality is forcing the closure of popular public beaches where rainwater runoff is causing elevated levels of bacteria. A sharp decline in shellfish harvesting is also evidence of poor coastal water quality. In 2000, two hundred and seventy-eight areas were closed to shellfish harvesting along 3,314 kilometres of coastline, a doubling of such closures since 1985. The quantity of harvested shellfish dropped by more than half in the three years from 2003 to 2006.
• Only about 1,500 kilometres of the Nova Scotia coastline is owned by governments; the rest, 11,800 kilometres, is under private ownership and isn’t legally accessible to the public without permission from landowners. And there are no federal or provincial laws ensuring universal, public access to coastal areas.
Developing a coastal plan
Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau says the province will use the report to generate discussion at public consultations next year. The province is hoping to develop a comprehensive plan for the coasts by December 2010.
Jennifer Graham, coastal coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre, says the report shows “the government must care about our coast.” She noted, however, that, “Nova Scotia’s future and climate change are colliding on a crash course.” Graham says the report on the state of our coasts is 20 years overdue, so the province needs to get its overall plan in place as quickly as possible to stop the destruction of coastal areas on the one hand, while coming up with ways of preserving them on the other.
“We love the coast so much,” she says, “we are loving it to death.”
