Re: “Trans Mountain pipeline approved,” Nov. 30.
With the decision to approve Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, the federal government has just issued a death sentence to Vancouver Island’s southern killer whale population.
As several commentators have noted in the Times Colonist, the National Energy Board decision giving conditional approval to this pipeline clearly stated that it would likely result in the extinction of the killer whales around Vancouver Island.
This result would not be caused by the very legitimate concerns about the consequences of an oil-tanker spill, but simply due to the massive increase in tanker traffic around southern Vancouver Island and the disruptive effects of that increased traffic on the orcas’ environment and food supply.
Prepare your children and grandchildren for a future where Vancouver Island’s local orcas are no different from the dinosaurs they read about in their books — they will likely never see a killer whale off the shores of Vancouver Island when they grow up.
Guy McDannold
Shirley
