MarineBio

Education in Victoria, British Columbia

But what about our beautiful province that you have decided is yours to tamper with by approving this pipeline? What messages can you hear from the people who oppose the Kinder Morgan Pipeline?

I'd like to encourage you, if you haven't already to travel to our Gulf Islands; Mayne, Salt Spring, Galiano, Quadra, Denman, and to the Queen Charlottes, to Port Renfrew and Sooke. Come back to Victoria's own Inner Harbour and take a look around. Take your family vacation on these beautiful chunks of land that dapple themselves through our waters. Surf in the ocean in Tofino. Hike through Whistler. Watch a sunset from an inner tube in the ocean off the coast of Cortez Island. Scuba dive and snorkel on our coast lines to experience the world renowned diving spots we have here. Go to these places and experience the pure power of nature at its finest. Now, imagine them another way; filled with tankers, oil, sunken dilbit covering the sea floor, dead sea birds, rotting fish on the shores, the destruction of one of BC's largest sources of income...tourism, dead Orca babies carried by their mothers for 17 days.....

Which brings me to my point....I bet you knew to some extent, I would end up talking about Tehlequah. I am begging you to reconsider your choice to approve Kinder Morgan. Many will say it is the federal governments responsibility to protect our already endangered southern resident orcas and our forests, our coast lines... and it is, but more importantly it is everyone's responsibility. We can all make a change in our every day lives to improve the state of our beautiful planet, but we can't have our voices heard if our countries leader is taking a stand against us.

I speak to you, not as a Canadian to his Prime Minister but as a human to another human...I wish you could hear the impact that Tahlequah has had on the people who live on the west coast. I wish you could hear the conversations I over hear on the bus about how heartbreaking it has been to watch an animal mother mourn the loss of her child for so long. I wish you could witness these magical, and intelligent animals in their natural habitat...maybe then you would understand.

Tahlequah is mother nature's way of crying out to us as humans and making a statement about the sad state of the world she lives in because of us. I have watched her since the day her baby was brought into the world, which as a reminder to you was the first birth from this particular pod in over 3 years. It has been heart wrenching. People have said that it is unusual for a mother orca to mourn the death of her child for so long. Have you known humans to stop mourning the loss of a child within 17 days? I think not. I cried when I found out this baby had been born and then passed away. I cried when Tahlequah continued to carry her dead calf around on her head. But as she continued to carry her dead calf longer and longer, I could just tell that she was trying to send a message to us; the most deadly animal on this planet...the 'killer humans'. A message that we are killing her family. I can only imagine the grief she must be experiencing. She has shown just how intelligent the animal kingdom is. By forcing her calf out of the water into plain site for all of us to see, she has made a statement just how awful humans can be to mother nature.

There is already an island of garbage in the middle of our oceans the size of France. Now you want to run a pipeline into our oceans, and through our rainforests. Why? So Canada can make more money. What good is money if we have destroyed everything in our world that brings us joy...peace...serenity. We humans have forgotten how to love. We have forgotten how to care. Sadly... because we are human, it is in our nature, because of our consciousness...to always want more. We have become so greedy and so selfish. Eventually that selfishness and greediness will catch up with us and we will not be able to attain more because we will have destroyed our planet.

I want to see that Canada becomes a leading member of a new trend...the love of planet earth, and ALL of it's living beings. We have a choice to make. We as 'intelligent beings' have the ability to think. We think so highly of ourselves that we figure no other being on this planet can think like we do. Even though that has been scientifically proven to be wrong, why not use this arrogance we have to make better choices for those who we believe cannot think? We have an opportunity to be a advocates for nature, for the environment, global warming, etc. and to stand against the destruction of our beautiful coast line and forests here in BC. We still have the ability to turn things around. Fix what we have done. We can give our oceans and everything living in them a second chance. Saying no to Kinder Morgan and the thousands of tankers it will bring to the waters around BC, will make it known to the world that Canada has itself and the world in its best interest. That Canada cares.

We have watched with great sadness as a mother has carried her dead calf through our waters, isolating herself from her own family for periods of time. We have watched as her family has returned from feeding rounds, time after time to comfort and assist the grieving mother in her time of need. We stand idly by and continue on with the construction of the very thing that will inevitably wipe wild life from existence in our waters. There are only 75 Southern Resident Orcas left in existence. I can't watch as a pipeline destroys the last of their food supply and they slowly start to die off. It is too heart breaking to have experienced this grief that Tahlequah has shown in isolation, let alone if we combine it with everything else that has happened to nature and will continue to happen if we move forward with Kinder Morgan.

I say all this knowing full well that people before you have made choices that they felt were right, that may not have been in the best interest of the greater good. I am also saying this knowing full well that there will be people after you who do the same. However, I am begging you, sir, as a human who cares for the environment and for the world his children and his children children will grow up in...make a new choice. Save these beautiful animals. These magical, mystical, intelligent beings. They deserve a safe place to reside in. I want to see them around for years to come, not watch them die off in my lifetime because the 'killer humans' have taken over. Help save our rainforests. Save our fish. Make conservation and environmental awareness a priority for us again. Give BC confidence that we can trust our prime Minister to make good choices when it comes to maintaining our natural beauty. Allow BC to keep its slogan, "Beautiful British Columbia". Break down the dams and make it possible for salmon to return to our oceans. Salmon that are not contaminated or genetically modified and grown in farms.

Hear what we have to say. Hear what Tahlequah has said. Hear the message her and her dead calf have to say.

Thank you for at least hearing what I have to say.