SUNDAY
May 5, 1996

4 tJ Days for
{ the price of

Fisheries minister
brings good news
to Seymour facility

BY [AN NOBLE
Nows Reperior

BACK-SLAPS AND bear hugs
greeted Seymour River hatchery
savior Mary-Sue Atkinson after the
feds put away the budget axe Friday.

At the hatchery, Fisheries and Oceans
Minister Fred Mifflin annourtced his ministry will
restore $153,000 to the local outlit and $3 million

“to hatchery funding province-wide.

The heavily criticized cuts to hatcheries would
have cut annual B.C. hatchery production of adult
fish from nine million to 8.5 million.

“A half million salmon is a half million
salmon and we have to remember that.” Mifflin
said to a sain-drenched gathering of school chil-

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THIS PORSCHE sports car was blown up cn Wednesday for a scene in the TV series, Sentinel. The car was parked near
the bottom of St. Georges Avenue in Lower Lonsdals. A nearby apartment was damaged. See story on page 5.

dren, hatchery volunteers, media, federal, provin-
cial and local politicians.

However, funding has only been restored until
the 1997-98 fiscal year. Mifflin said he would
review the salmon enhancement program's effec-
(iveness over the next one to twos years.
Discussing future funding, Mifflin said; “We'll
have a Took at the salmon abundance and see
where it is. We'll have to cross that bridge when
we come to it”

He congratulated Atkinson on her hatchery-
saving efforts and said he'd received hundreds of
letters on the planned closure.

Atkinson's offensive began carly in 1996,
when she heard about government plans to chop
funding and close the hatchery in 1997. The
sport-fishing fan faunched a tetter-writing and
phone campaign that resulted in Friday's funding-
restoration announcement,

“We weate all those Jeuers and they listened.”
said an elated Atkinson, busily receiving and giv-
ing congratulations. “Its so incredible to get a
response.”

At the same time, i's a shame that funding
campaigiers had to go to such an extent, she said.
“hey never should have thought of closing this

Photo Stephen Mullins

facility.”

She noted that billions of federal tax dollars
are going to what is now a decimated East Coast
fishery.

“We don't want that to happen here.” she said.

One letter writer was Grade 6 Westview elc-
mentary student Neclam Kassam. She worries
about declining salmon numbers with the closure
of enhancement facilities.

“You don’t want the animals to become
extinct.” she said.

Kassam said her classroom contains fish fry
received from the hatchery. Hasti Vahidi, also a
Grade 6 Westview student. said if the hatchery is
closed future students won't receive the sume
benefit.

Others also greeted Mifflin’s news with glee.

Bill McLallen, president of the Seymour
Salmonid Society, said the funding will allow the
hatchery to continue ifs salmon enhancement and
educational efforts “without having to look over
our shoulder” for financing.

Mark Angelo, the program head for BCIT's
fish and wildlife program, said students and staff
built the facility in 1977. He said the Seymour

See Seymour page 3

Weather

Mondey: Cloudy. sunny periods,
High 22°C, low 13°C.

BY ANNA MARIE D’ANGELO
Nowe Reporter

DID YOU race down the hall
in a panic to get to your kids
during the earthquake Thurs-
day night?

Were you ready to bolt outside if the
loud creaking of your house got any worse
during the quake?

Did you do stay where you were
throughout the entire shaking?

If the answer to any of the previous
questions is yes, you've failed the earth-
quake test.

And if you think there are going to be
No More tests, you're wrong.

We are overdue for a major earth-
quake. Cail it the final earthquake exam.

“It is just as likely to happen tonight as
it is 200 years from now,” North Shore
Emergency Program coordinator Ross
Peterson said on Friday.

Thursday's 22-second quake registered
5.3 on the Richter scale. The quake was
centred 48 km (30 miles) northeast of
Seattle.

The “moderate” quake was felt in
Nanaimo, the’ Okanagan and in the
Kootenays. No damage was reported on
the North Shore. .

Seismologist Bob Homer, with the
Geological Survey of Canada, said that a
quake like Thursday’s happens yearly in
this part of the world. ;

He said 6.0 earthquakes, the official
jevel where destruction and injuries are
expected, can hit here within 20 to 30.
years, statistically speaking.

As far as what to do in a quake,
Peterson advises people to head immedi-
ately under a piece of heavy furniture for
protection. Don’t come out until the shak-
ing stops, ;

Don't go outside because just moving
through a home can be dangerous in an
earthquake. A person cunning outside can
be hit by broken glass or flying objects.

Peterson said Thursday's earthquake
should remind people that we are fiving in
earthquake country.

Southwest B.C. is near the edge of two
giant earth plates. The plates are broken-
up fayers of ruck from the earth's crust,
the size of continents. Plates slide around,
collide, push and move undemeath each
other.

Earthquake preparedness brochures
are available at municipal halls.

MIDLAND _WALWYN

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