Fiona's Lesson

Oyster cages, ropes, cables, and debris strewn along coast lines and in navigation routes  

This is the reality for PEI and parts of Nova Scotia following Hurricane Fiona.  Had TPCI’s plan to put 23,000 cages, 52km of ropes, cables and countless buoys at the mouth of Antigonish Harbour been approved, this gear could easily be all over our Harbour and likely St. George’s Bay as well.  The storm surge and north winds could have pushed this gear far into the Harbour toward the Landing.

TPCI’s application documents claim that its gear can withstand winds of 96 km/hr and waves of .7 meters.  Even if TPCI’s assertions are true, Fiona’s fury far outstripped these parameters with windspeeds between 136 and 171 km/hour in Antigonish County. 

TPCI boasts of its ability to quickly sink its oyster cages/grow units in advance of storms.  Lets do the math.  Each of TPCI’s 23,000 grow units contains a piece of buoyant material.  To sink each unit this material must be manually removed.  Assuming TPCI started sinking its units 4 days in advance of the storm hitting Nova Scotia, working 24 hours per day, sinking one float per minute would take 383 hours or 16 days.  Any way you adjust the numbers, it simply does not work.  TPCI would not be able to sink its units (or the associated 52 km of ropes/cables/buoys, etc.) on time.  Shallow depths in Antigonish Harbour, high clean-up costs, potential blocking of navigation channels all add to the risk.

Aside from the myriad other environmental, social, and economic reasons why TPCI’s plan would be bad for Antigonish, Fiona just proved the point.  Why should the community take on these risks in exchange for speculative benefits which flow overwhelmingly to one family?