Ren Louie’s Kidlit Books

Indigenous author, Ren Louie (left) is set to release an adaptation of his book for younger audiences, about his childhood journey of connecting with his culture through a drum gifted by his mother.” FULL STORY

 

#11 The Rapture

June 11th, 2014

The Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society has released a report which says China protects a greater percentage of its marine areas than Canada does. They looked at ten countries with the longest coastlines and, guess what, we come in last. Dead last.

China protects two per cent of its coastline. Australia protects thirty-three per cent. The USA does almost as well, they protect thirty per cent. We protect one per cent of our coastline.

I don’t make this stuff up.

Harpy spent millions on the Cohen Commission and now he has ignored the findings. He has not implemented the recommendations. He has instead eroded the Fisheries department and given the green light to the fish feedlot industry. Does this guy hate wild salmon? Has he got something against halibut and cod? Why is he declaring war on our oceans?

I have a theory. Hey, I have many theories. I probably have theories I haven’t even used yet. My theory on the fish feed lot farce is that our leader belongs to some otherwise obscure sect or cult or congregation or religion which firmly believes in The Rapture.

The Rapture is when the good folks will be lifted to heaven “as if on the wings of eagles” and the rest of us will be eradicated by Armageddon. And The Rapture will only happen when conditions on earth are as bad as they can possibly get.

If you go on the internet you might think The Rapture is an indie rock band from New York, but, no, it’s a term in Christian eschatology arising from 1 Thessalonians 4:16. We who are alive and remain will be “caught up in the clouds” to meet “the Lord in the air.” Lots of fundamentalist Christians believe this stuff, especially in the States.

Like I said, I don’t make this stuff up.

My theory is that Harpy is working overtime to bring on The Rapture. He’s going to do everything he can to make things as bad as they can be so that he and some others can be lifted to Heaven to sit on the right hand of God.

Ironically, for almost two thousand years, maybe longer, the symbol for Christianity has been a stylized fish. Now Harpy, who reminds us often that he is a Christian, is going out of his way to wipe out wild fish stocks. Also ironic, or maybe just downright weird, is that if a person believes God created this earth and all that live on it, why would they then not respect the creation, honour the creation, even try to protect the creation of their own creator?

The Cohen Commission has looked at the alarming state of the wild salmon stocks and made recommendations, among them a suggested moratorium on fish feedlot development. Now the government has sent letters to some of the First Nations groups, including those in the Broughton Archipelago, advising them that they are considering applications which would increase the number of fish being raised in the net pens.

Already taxpayers have given the Norwegian companies millions of dollars to help them over the shock of losing so many of their fish farm fish to disease. Increase the numbers of farmed fish and it increases the chances the diseases will flourish and we’ll get to give Norway even more money.

Virtually all baby fish (fry) hatched in the Fraser or other rivers on the east coast of Vancouver Island have to swim through the Broughton to get to the open ocean. This means they have to swim past the net pens where Atlantics are dying of diseases and where sea lice swarm. And Harpy wants to increase the number of penned stock.

Years ago, when my kids were young, I stood on the bridge over the Tahsis River and watched, awed, as the fish returned to spawn. Day and night, the river was full of fish. From one bank of the river to the other, coming from the sea and heading up, up, up to the spawning beds, fish, fish, fish, a seemingly endless swarm of fish. I could understand, and even see, why some people claimed there had been years when a person could have walked across the river on the backs of the fish.

But not five years ago there were THREE fish counted in the Tahsis River.

We have a small but very active Salmon Enhancement Society in Tahsis, volunteers who work year-round to improve conditions and help the fish. They have built their own small hatchery, they harvest eggs and milt, they hatch ittybitty fishlings and care for them until they are old enough and big enough to turn them loose.

A month and a half ago a friend and I took the dogs on our not regular Therapeutic Perambulation, down to the river. The dogs whipped around on the riverbank, Min went for a swim but Smiley doesn’t do that, he will only walk in the water until it touches his whizzer and then he recoils and heads for the bank again. He has short legs so he doesn’t go in very far. At first we thought the black mass was the shadow of the trees on the opposite bank, but then my friend, Deb, blurted “My God, they’re fish!” They were all facing the same way, swimming at the same speed, heading up the river.

I could feel tears slickering down my face. To go from three fish to this in just five years! Well done, Salmon Enhancement Society! Very well done, indeed. Someone who knows about such things estimated more than five thousand fish went up to spawn in the Tahsis River this year.

But if Harpy gives permission for the Norwegian-owned fish feedlot companies to use eggs and smolts known to be infected with a virus never found on this coast before, we can kiss all five thousand goodbye.

Stupid mismanagement cost us the Atlantic cod and at this rate the Pacific salmon will follow the cod into the extirpation list.

Seems an odd way to honour the Creator.

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