The NoRigs 3 Coalition of fishermen, fishing groups, environmentalists and Aboriginal groups is calling on the Nova Scotia government for a permanent ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank.
Representatives of the NoRigs3 Coalition will meet with Premier Darrell Dexter early in September to press for a permanent ban.
The coalition says such a ban is the only rational choice for the government in light of the exceptional nature of the rich fishing ground and sensitive ecosystem on Georges Bank and in light of ongoing oil spills that prove the industry is not safe and cleanup not easy.
Spills in the last year include the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the West Atlas Montara blowout and spill in the Timor Sea in Australia and the Enbridge oil pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The coalition notes the spills have done billions of dollars of damage and the full environmental and economic impact of these spills remains unknown.
“The clean-up costs and damage to the Gulf fishing and tourism industries are increasing every day,” says Denny Morrow, NoRigs 3 chairman. “Plus, damage to seabirds, turtles and other non-commercial species can't even be estimated yet.”
This spring the Nova Scotia government extended a ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank to the year 2015. It was to expire in 2012.
But given the proof by the BP spill that the most up-to-date technology for preventing oil pollution were ineffective in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the NoRigs 3 Coalition will be asking that the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments to place a permanent ban on oil and gas development on Georges Bank.
While Georges Bank is a shallow bank, the Georges Bank moratorium lands cover deep water as well. NoRigs 3 says an oil rig blowout on Georges Bank could easily result in similar damage costs of $1 billion per year to Canadian and U.S. fisheries on the Bank and in the Gulf of Maine.
The New England tourism industry from Cape Cod to Maine could also be vulnerable if a blowout occurred on the Canadian portion of Georges Bank, as strong, counter clock-wise “gyre” currents on the Bank would likely carry the oil pollutants to Cape Cod and New England shorelines. BP is one of two companies currently holding leases on Georges Bank.
NoRigs3 member and long-time fishing company manager Claude d’Entremont says that at least two blowout disasters over the past 12 months have exposed the myths that oil and gas development technology is risk-free, that the forces of nature can always be controlled and that government regulations can prevent human error and malfeasance from triggering these accidents.
“At least two major spills have occurred in this time,” d’Entremont says, “spilling more 700,000 tons of oil into the sea.”
“Instead of chasing the very last drops of oil into the most sensitive marine environments like Georges Bank,” adds Mark Butler, policy director with the Ecology Action Centre, “it is really time for North America to speed up the transition to a renewable energy economy.”
