Major Fish Kill In Prince Edward Island

[toolman]

Sad news for Prince Edward Islands flyfisherman. Two of the islands rivers, the Tyron and Dunk, have experienced a major fish kill this past weekend. It is believed that heavy rains have washed agricultural pesticides into the rivers.

Info: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-isl...ll-webster.html

[Grizz]

That's too bad.

 

However, in defense of agriculture, that's the price we pay for food. To suggest as it is by the woman in the latter part of the article that we ban pesticides, is nothing short of ridiculous. After we do that we can expect to pay MUCH higher prices for our food which people will in turn complain about.

 

PEI is a particular region in Canada that is more susceptible to this sort of thing as well, sadly. It's pesticides that allow for higher yielding crops that meet standards of McCain's and Lamb Weston, etc. these higher yields result in french fries that don't cost you 10 bucks a handful (as well as other foods too). When it comes down to it, who is vocal about this stuff? Folks that CAN afford to shop for organic foods and don't frequent fast food places. In GENERAL, lower socio-economic classes of folks feel the need to do fast food and pay less than a jillion dollars for their produce (or eggs, or meat, etc.). How do we provide this to the public? Supply and demand maybe? We need high yields of quality food (including visually) to do that. Canada's agriculture industry has always been quantity based rather than quality based. Therefore it is essential that a producer of food use pesticides & herbicides to remain afloat as a business - PERIOD! Don't like that? Then do some research and come up with a better solution. Too many urbanites shooting their mouths off with what they think are simple solutions to a complex problem.

 

Buffer zones have some science to support their use, but it still remains basically an intuitive response to the problem (makes sense doesn't it?). The problem with legislating a buffer size is like trying to legislate how fast a river will flow. Some buffer zones need to be much much larger than 10m, while others can be as little as a few feet. It is dependant upon the topography and water body.

 

PEI is so very proud of it's agricultural industry/lifestyle, but the trade off is that it has had to keep up to market forces over the last 50+years to remain viable. The trade off to this is fish kills, cancer rates, etc. The larger problem is that WE ALL HAVE TO EAT! If you eat, YOU are a part of the problem with respect to agriculture's impact on the environment. Every time you buy fries, a burger, or a can of peas - REMEMBER! YOU yes you are contributing to that foot print on the environment and one day there will be fish kills in Alberta, Sask. and everywhere else because we don't want to spend 50% of our salary on our food budget, just like we don't want to pay money for water to our homes.

 

As a fisherman, I see that as sad that the fish kills occur in PEI and other places. As a human being who needs to eat, sleep, shite, breathe, etc. I see it as a sad result of our impact on the world. Trust me! People are working their collective butts off trying to find ways to reduce these impacts, but it's not an easy science when you can't eliminate pesticides and remain grounded in the real world. Personally I'd love to F-off to some commune in the Kootenays and grow organic foods, sit around meditating all day, and walk through the forest, but if we all did that the impacts to the world would just be different than the ones we face now.

 

Reality bites!

 

How's that for a real tangent folks?

[rhuseby]

I know what you mean, Grizz. In order to sustain an agriculture you have to use various inputs. In a lot of Asia, human excrement is used to fertilize rice fields. Why, it's the only cheap available fertilizer. India can only support its population of over 1 billion because of the green revolution use of fertilizer and pesticides. We all hate clear-cut logging, but we want to live in our own house. A lot of the environmental community live in nice homes on acreages because they don't like the city life, but that's one of the most environmentally unfriendly ways to live (more required infrastructure like roads and power lines, more fuel needed to commute, etc.). Let's all keep working towards improving things and reducing our impacts, but don't be an idiot like the speaker in the article.

[cowtownscribe]

Sad news.

 

The Dunk was the river I first cut my flyfishing teeth on.

 

Thanks for the post Toolamn.

 

Regards,

 

Frank.

[SteveM]

Some excellent points, Grizz & flyslinger. Little different perspective than what you hear in the media, etc.

Gotta go now, supper's ready; hmmmm!..... shite-rice!