A monster looms on the ocean's horizon in southwest New Brunswick Could LNG ships threaten local aquaculture?

摘要

EASTPORT, ME - The aquaculture industry in New Brunswick and Maine has survived winter kill, sea lice, ISA -even low prices - but a new threat looms on the horizon that could be its greatest foe yet. Recently, the Passamaquoddy Tribe which lives at aplace they call Sipayik just minutes outside Eastport, Maine, voted in favour of allowing a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminal to be located on their lands. If the project goes ahead, the LNG transport ships will have to ply the waters past Grand Manan, through Head Harbour Passage, past the coasts of Deer Island and Campobello, make a sharp turn at Eastport before heading up the coast to Gleason Cove at Sipayik. In this area, there are 27 United States aqua-culture sites and 26 Canadian sites. Many of them would be directly affected by these ships' huge wakes and or their extensive "exclusion" zones. These transports are 940 feet long, 250 feet wide, nine stories high and can carry between 130-200,000 tons of LNG.