Canada’s Tories Axe Marine Scientists
B. McPherson Will these magnificent creatures go extinct because of pollution? Who will watch for them? In a ham handed move the federal Conservative government has gutted the pollution reporting system for all three oceans that border Canada – the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. They have given notice to 215 Pacific Region scientists and support staff, leaving five junior scientists to monitor pollution in all three oceans. Eventually more than 1000 positions in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be terminated. One of the casualties of this money saving will be scientists Peter Ross, an acknowledged expert on killer whales. He has sounded alarm bells about the high levels of pollution in the tissues of the local orcas especially PCB contamination. Ross also monitors and reports on other forms of contaminants in the Pacific coastal waters, watching out for sewage, chemical leachates, pesticides and salmon stocks, and this is speculation only – perhaps the e...