But one stubborn farmer isn't listening
Fish farms are expected to become so popular in B.C. that over 200 of the
normally unobtrusive production units should dot the province's coast by
1995. At least half will be along the fjord-riddled Sunshine Coast north of
Vancouver. That's a blessing for the area's work force, which suffers a 40%
unemployment rate. But a handful of idyllic waterfront landowners near
Sechelt (pop. 1,500), 30 miles north of Vancouver, grabbed headlines two
weeks ago by enlisting their sometime neighbour, Fort Macleod, Alta.-born
singer Joni Mitchell, 42, in a protest against a $2-million salmon farm
being started nearby. The artist, whose 1,100-square-foot stone-faced
retreat sits on 60 acres facing the Strait of Georgia, grumbled to the
Vancouver press from her Los Angeles digs that she thought she'd "purchased
a piece of wilderness, but it's being corrupted by industry." And that drew
the ire of Clark Hamilton, 38, vice-president of Scantech Resources Limited
which is putting the project together. "I doubt she's even been up here
this year," he says. "If she had, she'd realize her place is over a mile
away, and that she can't even see it. This is a smear campaign."
In fact, only two of the 15 houses along the cove between Miss Mitchell's
12-year-old isolated estate and the farm are in sight of the project. And,
says Mr. Hamilton, Scantech owns 10 acres of land facing the venture, "so
the farm is in front of our property, not anyone else's." He thinks most of
the controversy stems from the project's acceleration. Even though the
quarter-acre of water the four fish pens are located in is zoned for
mariculture, provincial bureaucratic red tape held the project up so long
that the 110,000 chinook and coho salmon earmarked for the farm were nigh
blanched in shallow 25-degree C "smolting pens" nearby. So when temporary
approval was finally received in late June, Scantech scrambled to move the
young fish or "smolts" into their rearing pens. The obligatory
advertisement companies must place to invite public discussion of such
projects appeared simultaneously with the farm's start-up, rather than
weeks in advance as it usually would. "It's been implied that we bamboozled
everyone," says Mr. Hamilton, "and that's not true. Our property was
properly zoned, and our fish would have died if we didn't act fast." Miss
Mitchell sniffs that "since commerce rules all," she doubts landowners have
any recourse. Mr. Hamilton applauds her flash of wisdom. "She should check
out the facts," he says. "The coast isn't Joni's paradise; it belongs to
everybody."
Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website. Permanent link: https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=11
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