Dear Editor:
The Canada Day letter to the editor about a proposed Ecclestone dock (page 4 of the print edition) is unfair.
Let’s shed some light on a typical part that beguiles with bits of truth while leading astray. It begins, “Allowing such private docks with anchor blocks dragging the sea floor. . . .” The blocks part is a false premise. In context, the installing of anchor blocks would draw on Kingfisher Docks, AquaTerra Environmental, Underwater Angel Diving and BIM planners. They’re experts, not nitwits.
In the letter, the false “dragging the sea floor” supposedly “undermines current efforts to restore marine habitat in Deep Bay where volunteers are planting eelgrass. . . .” In reality, the dock location is far from the eelgrass restoration area at the head of Mannion Bay (Deep Bay). It’s hundreds of metres from the closest eelgrass bed—near the west end of the Robert road allowance.
Furthermore, the letter signers must not have read the AquaTerra “intertidal and sub-tidal habitat assessment” before urging everyone to fight the dock application based on it. Of course, the experts’ report shows no eelgrass in a wide area around the dock site. It states, “No environmentally sensitive intertidal or subtidal communities of eelgrass were observed” (pages 12 and 26).
Debunking the rest of the Canada Day letter would take all day.
By the way, I only got into this out of civic duty to read the 1160 Ecclestone proposal and send BIM Council my input. I knew little about it and had no opinion. After an hour or so of pondering, I decided it was thoughtful, ecological and fair for all. I still think so.
Jim Wright
