Plunderers from Sea to Sea

 

May he have dominion from sea to sea
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Psalm 72:8 NRSVue -- Canada's official motto 

Joshua summoned them and said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ while in fact you are living among us?  

Now, therefore, you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, woodcutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 

Joshua 9: 22-23 NRSVue

Those of you who follow this blog will know that we recently returned from a wonderful trip to Haida Gwaii, the string of islands off the west coast of British Columbia, next stop, Japan. This is about as far west as you can get in Canada. 

In four weeks we will travel again, and again to islands on another coast, this time off Newfoundland. Change Islands are adjacent to the more famous Fogo Island, next stop, Ireland. This is almost as far east...you get the picture. While these two locations are 7500 kilometres apart and in two different oceans they have some things in common. 

Getting to more remote islands is something of a challenge, including bringing in food and other necessities. The people who inhabit islands tend to be resourceful and they have often made their livings through resource extraction. Both British Columbia and Newfoundland have generated wealth through the lumber industry and the fishery. Of course the actual hewers of wood and drawers of fish from the water have seldom benefitted sufficiently from this hard life. 

As a nation we are considered advanced amidst global economies yet we have depended on these resources, along with oil, to achieve this status. There are next to no examples of having done so as anything more than plunder, clear-cutting and overfishing to the point of devastation. Whatever sophistication we think we have, we have not only depended on these industries for prosperity, we have done so with no view to the future. 

You may seen or heard that the federal government is expanding the quota for cod in the waters off Newfoundland, effectively ending the moratorium imposed in 1992, although the total catch will be limited to 18,000 tons. In the 1960s the annual catch was estimated at 800,000 tons. 

Immediately there was vocal objection to this DFO decision by scientists who study the cod biomass. One of those researchers suggested that the cod fishery should be closed altogether or risk extinction. Often these decisions are politically motivated rather than based on real science. Since the announcement the inshore fleet of smaller fishing vessels has offered its objections to the expansion, asking the so-called "stewardship fishery" be maintained and larger ships be banned.

I look forward to chatting with the people we know there about this, including some who still fish or work at the small fish plant on Change Islands. Cod are a remarkably ugly fish, yet delicious fresh out of the sea. I hope we'll have a meal or two while we're there. 

I would ask the question "when will we learn/" but I really don't want to hear the answer.