Membership month at CCNB is all about encouraging long time and new supporters alike to be part of our work. By becoming a member, a monthly donor or renewing your membership you join hundreds of your fellow New Brunswickers who help us speak up for the environment, advocate for rewarding clean energy jobs, and find practical solutions to our most pressing problems.
Last week we featured our freshwater program. This week, we turn to our marine environment.
New Brunswick’s rich coastal waters have supported people and communities for thousands of years. The Bay of Fundy, sporting the highest tides in the world, is an exceptionally rich and diverse ecosystem, drawing comparisons to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and at times described as a ‘marine oasis.’
Coastal waters around the world, however, are under severe stress — and the Bay of Fundy is no different. Long term impacts from pollution and industrial activities, as well as emerging threats like ocean acidification and temperature increases caused by climate change, all put this dynamic ecosystem at risk.
With support from people like you and by developing relationships with those who live near, work on, or study our coastal waters, we work to protect the Bay of Fundy from both emerging threats like TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline and long term threats such as marine debris and pollution.
This summer we released a report about risks to the Bay of Fundy from the Energy East pipeline project. The report, which was downloaded more than 300 times, talked about how the project could impact the estimated 5,000 sustainable jobs in fisheries and tourism in New Brunswick, and what increased tanker traffic and the risk of an oilsands bitumen spill would mean for the endangered North Atlantic right whale and other marine animals in the Bay of Fundy.
For more than a decade we have been patrolling the bay, tracking large marine debris and securing cleanups of the worst sites. We are excited to work with the traditional fishery, aquaculture industry, provincial and federal governments, and other NGOs on a marine debris reduction strategy for southwest New Brunswick.
In order to accomplish our goals we know that we need to be on wharves learning from those who are on the water every day; in board rooms talking about the issues; in community halls meeting with neighbours; and on the water in our patrol boat.
With your support, we’ll continue to take the pulse of our precious coastal waters and work to give them the protection they deserve.