4 ~ Sunday, November 9, 1986 - North Shore News Tove came Bob Hunter ® strictly personal ® NOTES ON maritime matters: After the mighty USS Constellation \eft Vancouver this summer, it made a smal] splash in the media when navy officials reported that the aircraft carrier’s garbage was being picked up in the Gulf of Alaska by Soviet spy ships. It is common for Soviet trawlers to tag along behind American warships, but as a rule they merely observe. Suddenly, last summer, they were hoisting bags of Yankee garbage from the Ocean to examine it, presumably secking useful military secrets. The intelligence office aboard the Constellation made a joke about those crazy Ruskies going to all that effort for so little gain. The garbage bags contained only food, pop cans and ‘everything but fecal matter."" Ho, ho. The air carrier, by the way, was on manocuvres off the Alaska coast along with five other U.S. ships, plus two Cana- dian military vessels. We may presume that all those ships, too, dump their garbage } overboard. You'd think that the Con- stellation, at least, would be able to do better than that. We never did get a straight answer on whether she’s a nuke of not, but she certainly bristled with every other kind of high-tech gear you could imagine. If her jet fighters ever scrambled, they could probably blow away any number of entire cities. Yet the garbage gets dumped overboard, exactly as it used to ‘when the first dug-outs pushed away from the beaches. Come on, guys, shape up! Maybe the Canadians, at least, could set a good example? Of course, the proble:n of the ocean still being used us a giant toilet is a relatively minor catas- traphe at the moment, compared to the latest findings concerning the use of drift nets in the North Pacific. This is one of those horror stories that continues because it takes place out of sight, out of mind. But the fact is some 1,700 Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean fishing boats criss-cross the North Pacific every year, setting giant nets that are as much as 30 miies long. Over the years, the number of marine mammals and seabirds that have been incidentally killed by these nets has been steadily mounting. New figures released by the Washington-based Centre for Environmental Education show that 50,000 northern fur seals are drowning in abandoned and discarded nets cach year, a toll twice that of the annual commer- cial kill for furs. A minimum of 30,000 murres — beautiful big black-and-white diving birds — are dying annual- ly in nets off the coast of California. This adds up to 17 per cen: of the tetal population. The toll among Dall's por- poises, just within American waters, is an appalling 5,500 a year. In all, roughly 100,000 marine mammals, including even great whales, and something like a mil- lion sea birds, including puffins and auklets, dic in these ‘ghost nets,”’ as they are called — for tie good reason that they are all but invisible. The nets aren’t used by ‘Booze who’ on the North Shore RECENT convictions in North Shore courts have resulted in the following fines and penalties for drinking and driving related of- fences. Mandatory licence suspen- sion is in addition to published penalties. NORTH VANCOUVER BRITISH COLUMBIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COURTS: Clifford Keith Kastrukoff, Blackfoot, Alberta, (over .08, $1,000 and six months drivers’ license suspension); Harold William Miller, 9563-125th Street, Surrey, (refused a breathalyzer, 14 days jail and two years’ drivers’ license suspension.) OPEN EDUCATION ACCESS CENTER HANDS ON COMPUTER COURSES Featuring the “FAST TRAIN” Learn at your own pace and select a time frame that satisfies your training needs! 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In- tended to capture salmon, trout and = squid, strangle anything that along. And because they are made of monofilament, they don't decay in the water. They drift, destroy- ing virtually everything in their path, for years. comes From the point of view of sea } life, the nets would be bad enough under any circumstances, but the problem is vastly worsen- ed by the fact that so many of them are lost, and when they are no longer useable, they are often simply left in the water. One scientist estimates that some 145,000 fragments of trawl net are discarded just in the Ber- ing Sea and Aleutian Islands area cach year. No one can even guess what the total would be for the whole North Pacific. The really nasty little fact in all this is that the Japanese ships in- volved are doing something they are not allowed to do in their own territorial waters, Meanwhile, over in the North Auantic, I notice that Capt. John Moore, editor of the influential Jane’s Fighting Ships, has described once-Great Britain's navy as a ‘‘maritime mess." This will come as a shock to many of you, but he predicts that the merchant navy is in such sad shape that if current trends con- tinue, the British flag fieet can be expected to disappear by the year 1990. The number of trained British seamen has dropped an ‘‘alarm- ing’’ 43 per cent in four years. Oh well, on the plus side, it makes you feel ever so slightly better about the Canadian navy, eh? We're not the ONLY mari- time mess. A FUTURE FOR EVERY CHILD. . . IT’S IN THE CARDS BUY UNICEF CARDS PER WON LNMCEF British Colombia 439 West H: gs St. Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1L4 Telephone (604) 687-9096 Or call toll-free 1-800-268-6364 {Operator 509) they snare and | W.V. ALDERMAN GORDON ROWNTREE Served 5 Years as Alderman 96% i: COUNCIL. y ATTENDANCE ... sincerely working to control expenditures that would seriously increase taxes. * Serves as Director of Lions Gate Hospital * Chairman Union Board of Health * Acting Mayor Apriland May ° Chariman Pitch & Putt Tournament * Long Range WV hospital planning committee * Court of Revision * has servedonLibrary Board °* Parks and Recreation On Nov. 15th ELECT BILL RODGERS North Vancouver District Council - resident of North Van for 9 year: ~ martied with a 2 yr. old daughter ~ member of the Canadian Bor Assoc. and the West Coast Environmental Law Assoc. ~ director of Mountain Equipment Co-op (1978-1982) ond Bridge Society for Behaviorally Handicapped Persons. BILE RODGERS WILL WORK FOR NORTH VAN by: - encouraging business development through consistent zoning and planning policies ~ preserving the integrity and character of existing neighbourhoods. - improving youth programs and recreational facilities. BILL RODGERS CAMPAIGN OFFICE #202 1217 Lonsdale Ave., Nerth Vancouver 984-3646 “‘serving you in North Vancouver District’’