Keep oil and gas activity off Sable Island

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:10:46 -0300 (ADT)
From: Mark Butler <ar427@chebucto.ns.ca>
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
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Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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Keep oil and gas activity
off Sable Island

For Immediate Release						May 26,
1999

The Ecology Action Centre is strongly opposed to a proposal by Mobil Oil
and its partners to conduct seismic work on Sable Island.  Says, Mark
Butler of EAC, "some areas are too sensitive, too important in which to
allow oil and gas activity to take place".

Mobil, Shell, and Imperial, the major partners in the Sable Offshore
Energy Project, want to put a crew of 20 people on Sable Island from late
June until October.  The crew would slowly move across the island,
continuously laying down and picking up sensor cables. Geophones attached
to the cables would pick up seismic signals produced by equipment on the
island and vessels offshore.  The intent is to determine whether there is
oil and gas under and around the island.

People walking over the island, daily helicopter traffic, motorized
vehicles, and sound generating equipment could adversely affect nesting
birds on the island as well as the fragile vegetation.  Sable Island is a
breeding area for a number of seabirds, including three species of tern,
one threatened, and the only nesting site in the world for the Ipswich
Sparrow, a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow.  

During the Joint Public Review Panel of the Sable Gas Projects the same
companies, as part of the Sable Offshore Energy Project, solemnly stated
that they did not anticipate frequent landings on the Island. (See p. 40
of the Panel's Report.)  Yet, at the time of the hearings, these companies
must have known that they wanted to conduct substantial seismic work on
the Island in the near future.

This is not the first time the oil industry has been on the island, but
the growing amount of oil and gas activity in the area, plus the interest
by the tourism industry in landing on the island should signal
caution--lots of it.  Approval of this project would be used to justify
more activity on the island.

The oil companies are seeking approval from the Canada-Nova Scotia
Offshore Petroleum Board and DFO which regulates access to the island
under the Canada Shipping Act.  EAC is asking that the Petroleum Board,
and in particular the Federal Fisheries Minister, David Anderson, not
allow the companies to do seismic work on the island.

At present Sable Island is a Migratory Bird Sanctuary, but it needs better
protection, perhaps as a National Park. 
-30-
For more information contact Mark Butler, 429-2202.



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