INAPPROPRIATE OPTIMISM BY DEP'T OF FISHERIES & OCEANS?

For the last few days there have been a number of articles both in our local paper the Waterloo Region Record as well as others regarding fish and other mass die-offs in the Halifax area. These die-offs have included bottom dwellers as well as fish and perhaps coincidentally a dead whale has also washed up on shore. Yesterday's article in the Record was titled ""perplexing" Nova Scotia fish kill not too worrisome: ocean officials".

What has me concerned is not only the large die-offs but also the fact that multiple tests have all come back negative. Officials have been testing for toxic algae, contaminants, dissolved oxygen, salinity and other indicators as to why this has happened. Maybe it's about time that both our federal officials as well as our provincial Ministry of the Environment become more honest with Canadians. The fact certainly seems to be that science can only see and understand so much. There are many other factors that to date science is either unaware of or simply have not mastered yet. Given time we will eventually better understand our natural ecosystems and be able to pinpoint causes of conditions that result in massive die-offs of previously healthy populations. To date we continue to poison our environment and then hide behind incomplete scientific proof as to what the cause is.