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Deadline for Public Comments: January 10, 2019

Do you have time? The best way is to write your own email to the Authorizing Agency (clicking this link will open your email app and automatically enter the Agency’s email address). Make sure to include the Application number 1414788. Otherwise, your email will not be officially recorded.

If you don’t have time, you can use the form below, or edit it and click “Send.”

Send Email to the Authorizing Agency

Using this form, you can easily send an email message to the Authorizing Agency who oversees the Application for the shellfish farming.

Your Email Address*
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Personalizing the email gives it more weight in the eyes of the Authorizing Agency, even if it’s just one sentence at the start.
Authorizing Agency Nanaimo Section Head Aquaculture Ministry of Forest, Lands and Resource Operations To whom it may concern: I am writing to express my serious concerns arising from this proposed commercial shellfish aquaculture operation which would impact 13.6 hectares (33 acres) of a shoreline that is home to a wide range of birds, mammals, and native marine organisms living in a complex and delicate ecosystem. The corporation's foreshore licence application is based on an activity, commercial shellfish farming, for which most of the area is not zoned. Many of us, locals and visitors alike, are able to enjoy the foreshore running approximately one kilometre from the mouth of Booth Canal, along Baker Beach, to a point several hundred metres past the CRD's Quarry Trail for a variety of activities including swimming, paddle-boarding, kayaking, dog-walking, and pleasant leisure strolls which currently have a minimal impact on the natural environment. All of these activities would be curtailed should the foreshore be covered with plastic predator netting, as called for in the foreshore tenure application. Much of the proposed area is already officially designated by the Province as Conservation Lands. The proposed commercial aquaculture operation would: • conflict with Conservation Reserve Areas (Crown Lands File Number 0244728 and Conservation Lands ID 10724) the larger of which is labeled as "withdrawn from deposition under the Land Act" • threaten areas of habitat especially eel grass, spawning grounds for sand lance and smelt, and other marine habitats as identified by the Islands Trust; • require extensive “grooming” of the foreshore to remove boulders and driftwood that play important roles as habitats for foreshore and intertidal organisms; • involve Pacific Oysters and Manila Clams, both introduced species; • interfere with feeding and other activities by at-risk species such as Great Blue Herons, as well as Bald Eagles, Oyster Catchers, and other shore birds, resident River Otters and Seals, and Orcas; • see large areas of exposed bedrock, where no shellfish farming could ever take place, covered with anti-predator netting, as shown in the Application, that would impede such recreational activities as dog-walking, strolling, and swimming along the shoreline; and • end any jurisdiction of Islands Trust regarding activities of the corporation on this foreshore as approval of a tenure of occupation and rezoning of the covered area would effectively grant them permanent tenancy, subject only to not violating DFO or provincial guidelines if enforced. I urge you to reject this Application and delay any decision until fully informed, evidence-based public discussions can take place. Respectfully yours,
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