July 12-27 2021
July 14, 2021- Open Line Host Emeritus Dave Carr and local fishing advocate Darrell Choronzey discussion only leads to more questions
https://www.560cfos.ca/2021/07/14/wednesday-in-the-world-with-dave-carr-32/
I listened with much amusement to the radio show with Darryl Choronzey - he certainly is entertaining and is obviously versed and experienced in radio talk show formats about fishing. It will be interesting to see if he has given me good advice on local hotspots for stream fishing with my boys and I will withhold my judgement of his character until we’ve been out fishing. Regardless, he can rest assured he would never receive calls from me in the middle of the night as he alluded to on the show.
I have listened to the show a few times since hearing it live as it was broadcast. I have also reviewed the transcriptions and notes I made while speaking with Darryl and the emails that he sent in the past month or so.
Our main objective is to ensure that this proposal and process of approval (if pursuit of such approval ensues), is publicly examined with full disclosure of players and influences. Achieving a public understanding of the scope of the economic, property value, social, infrastructure and detrimental environmental effect such a project will have upon the Wiarton and the wider Bruce community is of paramount importance. Many questions still remain unanswered and it is hoped that Darryl can help find the answers to them, since he has been so close to the industry for so long.
His disdain and lack of confidence in Fisheries and Oceans and MNR seems to be a theme in all of his dialogues:
“I had a very, very long discussion today with some of my contacts who seem to have been involved in this farce and as usual, they seemed out of touch and uninformed with a lot they hearing and doing. But that's not surprising.”
And
“Like I said I work with the folks on the west and east coast. I preach for on land, contained pen operations something like this as a matter of fact..
Still the 'must' have more the just screens on the outflow to trap sewage but also the viruses that run ranpent on this farms. The Fisheries and Oceans does a shit job managing the aquaclulture industry period!!!!”
“Still they are pushing this Bruce location way too fast and the local governments are definitely trying to shove it through without any reall background checks... the water coming in during the winter will give them massive headaches, it will definitely have to be heated...and the afflluent going out will have to be 'totally' cleaned and that's for all diseases. Folks up here all drink that damn stuff one way or another...And remember the people behind this presently just use our oceans and Great Lakes as 'free' septic tanks.“
I would agree the abysmal results of any project these agencies has been involved in is not confidence inspiring-yet here we are with the potential impact of this project being left to the very departments we both despise.
On the radio show Darryl asserts that he would drink the water being returned from the fish farm over the water in the bay, -this may be acceptable to some, I guess. I believe the risk of water being put back in “pretty much the way they took it” does not provide the assurance, support of scientific evidence, or confidence that people seek prior to being receptive to a fish factory. The risks are too great and the damage irreversible if there is a slight oversight or they just “get it wrong”.
The following is taken directly from the GBIG website:”The buildout is based on a three-section design consisting of Hatchery, First Feeding and Grow Out Facility that when completed will allow for fresh product to be transported off site to a processing facility for processing and packaging.”
This is contradictory to repeated dialogue about good paying jobs cleaning and processing fish on site, and again raises the question of increased traffic and carbon footprint as heavy trucks laden with the live fish are transported to processing plants and jobs elsewhere… How much real truck traffic is going to be created and who will pay to upgrade and maintain the road infrastructure that will be subjected to that truck traffic...weighing HOW much per load, especially if the company is shipping live fish in trucks full of water?
Shipped to WHERE? If shipped live in water, what happens to the water at the other end of the shipping process?
What are the company’s specific plans for disposal of fish offal, fecal material, and potential contaminants from the discharged water? Darryl has mentioned that septic systems are the source of hormone discharge, antibiotic discharge, and similar non-processed chemicals. Perhaps he can suggest ways for all of us to clean up that collective discharge of unwanted contaminants into Georgian Bay before we endorse an industrial level of discharges into such a vital body of water that has been so important to his passion all along.
The move to land based aquaculture is no doubt being hastened by the recent closure of the salmon fishery and the disastrous impact of east and west coast open water farming. Until the technology has advanced to the point where there is zero effluent discharge, this industry is nothing short of yet another disaster in the making. Long after the profits have been made and these corporations have moved on, the cleanup will remain.
Dan Boisvert
July 27, 2021
Is Georgian Bay Innovation Group seeking any form of Provincial or Federal funding for this project?
Time for Bill Walker to respond. Inquiries to MPP Walker's office by several concerned residents has yielded no conclusive answers. This article from 2019 discusses some of the changes to policy that may be helping facilitate the issuance of licenses and permits for Georgian Bay Innovation Group to set up in the area and may offer some explanation to their quick acquisition of an aquaculture license.