A Smoking Gun on Athabasca River: Deformed Fish

[JohnyCanuck]

Cross posting from DU Environment and Energy forum:

A Smoking Gun on Athabasca River: Deformed Fish
Top water ecologist cites evidence of extreme pollution near oil sands.

By Andrew Nikiforuk, 17 Sep 2010, TheTyee.ca

Armed with photos and ice-filled tubs of deformed fish from Lake Athabasca, a broad coalition of aboriginal communities, scientists, fishermen and local politicians asked the Canadian government yesterday to fund a comprehensive fish monitoring program on rivers and lakes downstream of the controversial oil/tar sands.

At the University of Alberta in a room packed with nearly 100 reporters and onlookers, David Schindler, one of the world's most celebrated water ecologists, explained that he had never seen so many deformed fish from one region in his long career as a freshwater scientist except on polluted rivers feeding the Great Lakes nearly 30 years ago.

In addition to photographs of deformed fish with large back tumors, reporters could also examine several ice-filled tubs displaying suckers with stomach abnormalities, burbot with snubbed faces and white fish with shortened tails and odd-looking lesions. All had been pulled from fishing nets on Lake Athabasca and the delta over the last two years

Given the regularity with which fisherman now catch deformed fish, Schindler suggested that a federally funded fish health study on the Athabasca River "should be a much higher priority than funding hockey rinks and new fighter jets." Aboriginal communities and leaders downstream of the oil sands have been calling for such studies for nearly a decade.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/09/17/AthabascaDeformedFish/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=200910

[Spazito]

1. I am glad they are pushing this...

but until we dump the harper cabal, little will change, sadly. That said, I hope I am wrong and enough pressure can be brought that they will have to act.