Our Fundy Baykeeper, Matt Abbott, spoke with CBC News about the proposed expansion of the potash terminal in Saint John.
The proposed expansion would see potash ship traffic in the Bay of Fundy double from 60 ships per year to more than 120.
“As we increase traffic, it’s going to become more like jay-walking at rush hour for whales getting across the shipping lanes,” Abbott told CBC News.
Abbot said current studies of the bay show noise from ships inhibits the ability of whales to communicate with each other.
Abbot went on to say that proposed projects like the potash terminal expansion, the Energy East pipeline, and converting Canaport LNG into an export terminal would all increase the marine traffic in the bay, but are being looked at on case-by-case basis.
“We really need some mechanism for looking at these expansion projects together, so that we have some sort of understanding of what our bay can handle in terms of noise and traffic,” he said.
Read the full article here. The story was also covered by Radio-Canada.