HEADLINE: The Importance of Protecting Canadian Coastal Marine Life From Oil and Gas Tankers
Subheading: Gitga’at First Nations in Kitimat Inform and Rally British Columbia’s Residents, Through Marine Education Zoom Seminar
DATELINE: Kitimat, BC – November 5, 2021
CONTACT: Contact Anita Hamilton, Press Contact Person for the Gitga’at First Nation, (ahamilton@gitga’atfirstnation.ca).
ABOUT THE GITGA’AT FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITY
- The Gitga’at First Nation band has inhabited the Kitimat area in British Columbia for generations.
- Kitimat is a small town located at the border of the Pacific Ocean, on the west coast of Canada
- Believe that people should protect and preserve the natural world around them.
- It is a community that is highly connected to the ocean, marine life, and the natural world
- Whales are prominent in this nation’s culture, stories, and history
GOVERNMENT & CORPORATE
- The Canadian Federal Government supports mass exportation of oil to Asia from BC’s Great Bear Rainforest.
- First Nation Band members are speaking against oil and gas companies’ risking the whales’ safety.
THE PIPELINE
- The Pipeline is expected to increase capacity “from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of tar sands crude oil a day—AND increase vessel traffic… sevenfold,” indicated the Friends of the San Juans in a news article about the expansion of the Pipeline.
- The Pipeline is proposed but not yet built.
RELATED MARINE BIOLOGY RESEARCH
- Marine Biologists study various species of whales near the Kitimat region.
- Orcas are very present in this area
- The whales are at risk primarily due to pollution, sonar interruption, and physical collisions with tanker boats.
THE WHALES VERSUS OIL TANKERS EDUCATION SEMINAR
- It is an online Zoom conference to educate and raise awareness of how oil transport puts whales in danger.
- The conference will be held digitally on Zoom on December 1st, 2021, from 1 pm – 3 pm PST.
- It is the responsibility of all British Columbians to convince the natural resource companies to investigate safer, alternative transportation methods.