prenera emea en ene yee ee er aes B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 1, 2006 MARGARET SPEIRS BASKEENA ANGLER SEE "ANGLER 7 — ROB BROWN _ Fish oil h fish, wild, wondrous creatures, so fine > to catch with hook and line, so fine.to fry “lightly:i in the oil squeezed from olives, SO replete with Omega-3, that salutary ‘fat, that premium grade « oil for your cardiovascular . “car! Generations of mothers, with the innate wisdom : mothers have, promoted the healthful effects of fish oil. Validation for this matronly wisdom has arrived . thanks to medical research into the causes of heart: ‘ attacks ‘and strokes as scientists discovered that oil- ing our arterial highways was best done with fish fat because the fat of terrestrial animals stuck .to . them like asphalt. , _ Fish are oiled inside and out. They are covered’ with a fine film with a viscosity that trumps sun- - tan oil and enables them to Slip, all but frictionless, through their. watery environs while it affords pro- - tection from infection at the same:time. ‘The piscine; world’is permeated with oil, but _ when. crude ‘oil or its refined products are. stirred “into the mix, the effects are toxic. © - It’s not surprising that should be 50. . The first of the many crude impacts crude oil has. : -on fish, begins during the exploratory phase. ' Seismic. testing is used-to locate oil. Seismic testing in the marine environment uses air guns to fire compressed air at the ocean floor. This high-energy explosion sends shock waves ‘through the water and the rock layers beneath the ocean floor. These.are then reflected from different layers, at various intervals, back through the rock | and water, and are recorded by hydrophones and seismographs. These recordings are then mapped, providing a ~ picture of the geology being studied. The Batholiths project, a U.S. “led enterprise proposed for our Central coastline, and set to com- _[; mence in 2007, pending approvals, gives a good example of how destructive such explorations can ' be. During the exploratory phase, a vessel will tow an array of air guns three kilometres in length just off the coast line, blasting a sound approximately 10,000 times that of a shotgun blast every 30 sec- * onds. - These blasts have the potential to cause deafness or death to marine mammals, fish and invertebrates. The list of potential victims includes salmon, her- ring, octopus, squid, bears, wolves, sea lions, otters, |. dolphins and whales. The proposed tests also include a, terrestrial component that involves detonating explosives” on land, specifically blasting along the Bella Coola River valley while salmon are spawning and eggs are incubating, posing a threat to egg survival. ~ Once oil is found it has to be taken to refineries. - That transmission engenders another brood of prob-. lems for fish. First there must be road building and the. suite of problems that accompany that activity sedimentation, landslides, plugged and perched culverts, increased traffic — to name a few. _ Dr. Stanislav Patin, perhaps the pre-eminent scientific authority on the impacts of gas and oil, gives a list of the chemicals in oil a page long in » Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas ‘Industry, the Bible.on that subject. : Some of those chemicals are water soluble and lead, ultimately, to the death of aquatic fauna and fish, These chemicals persist for decades, Dr. Jeep " Rice, the man in charge of studying the long range effects of the Exxon Valdez spill for the U.S.’s Na- tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told me. ‘Six years ago a spill resulting from a rupture in the Pembina pipeline near Chetwynd released a _ million litres of crude oil into the Pine River, killing ° thousands of fish, as well as water foul and riverine wildlife, The enormity of this threat cannot be over- stated, especially considering that there are about 600 pipeline failures in Alberta each year. Alberta is.a flat place for the most part and al- though it has some notable trout rivers, they are few. The pipeline proposition being pushed for our backyard will cross hundreds of fish bearing streams - in the Fraser watershed and traverse Morice/Bulk- ley and Copper/Clore systems before following the Kitimat to the sea. The last part of its proposed route will be built through the most rugged and volatile country ever attempted i in North America. The construction will be as rough and difficult as an oil pipeline that runs over the Andes. It may well be the most difficult feat of engineering and construction ever attempted. Imagine for a moment a pipeline rupture high up in the jagged mountains that preside over. the head waters of Clore River in midwinter with 10 feet on snow on the ground and the wind howling. It’s hard to imagine a meaningful response from a small team of people based in Burns Lake. Players and coaches have a blast at ringette tourney By MARGARET SPEIRS 7 FOR THE NOVICE ringette ‘team, most of the fun had nothing to do with the games and coach Don Leblond had - > almost as much. fun as his ~ players at the tournament. here Oct. 20 to 22. The players didn’t care about scoring, just about having‘a good time. : _ “Yeah, you. know, when I asked Shaydon afterwards. ‘ how: many goals, she got, ’ she had no idea. They were ~ just having so much fun,” he » said, referring to his daugh- ter. Even ‘though it ended up ‘on the losing end of a !op- sided score, 14-1, the Prince -°George squad took no notice _ of the scoreboard either. . “We were -beating them considerably at the break and they all lined up in front -of the bench and did a cheer. was either,” he said, adding ringette is “totally different” than hockey. -The squad numbers only two boys and the rest are - gitls, including Leblond’s .two daughters, who brought him to the sport this year af- tera few years: of. coaching his.son’s hockey team. “Tt just went so good,” he said. “It was really. exciting for me. It’s such a change . from hockey, the whole as- sociation it’s not about win: ning, its just . about: every. body having fun. - “They had the potluck Saturday: night and every- body just showed up and- -ate. Everybody mingled and all had fun.” The novice team has watched the midget and ' bantam reps run around the rink before their games and wanted to do the same.. “They brought music to the dressing room and did a big dance and ran around the rink,” he said. , “They were so excited, they just wanted to do all the fun stuff they see everybody — » else do.” When the team was” ‘on the ice, the fun continued. The: Novices won all three of its games, thrashing Houston 8-0, Prince George 14-1 and slipping past Ques- nel 4-3 in a back-and- forth match. ° TERRACE STANDARD. Leblond heard: that the Novices were a’strong team but he didn’t know what to. “expect. The team had. practised _ really | hard and then just walked over its competition, - he said. Coaches tried to keep. the he said. “In the. first two games, we told the girls’ they . couldn’t score anymore after » they scored,” he said. “I think everybody but two kids scored,” he added ‘about the game with Prince: *. George... OO . They practised all year. They . . didn’t care what the score. ” ’ Bunnies | Bunnies coach Hoornenborg said the high-- - score from going overboard, . John light of the tournament was an end-to-end drive by one first-year player who scored, but with not. quite the de- sired result. “One of our said. “No, no, they’ re preity easygoing at that. age,’ he added, referring to the team’s lack of a negative re- action to the goal. Players are allowed to : score, three goals and. then -they have to pass to their’ teammates. The Bunnies (ages five to seven) beat Houston all . three times they met. Most of the games were under the squad’s control. The team is a mix of boys and girls who play well to- gether. “They have fun and that’s our job: just to keep it fun at that age,” he said. Petites Andre Quelizza, Petite coach, said his team always: has a good time on the ice. “They worked as: hard players © ‘scored on.our own net,” he TERRACE NOVICE ringette players crowd around goalie Dion Johnston, above, in celebration after beating Quesnel 4-3 at the ringette tournament in the arena Oct.: . 21. Below, the Novice team in action on the ice. ‘MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTOS , as they could and they had fun,” he said. The Petites (ages 10 and ~.11) tied Houston 4-4, lost to Prince George 4-3; whopped. ~ the Quesnel C team 5-2 and fell to the Quesnel A/B team — 10-0. This year’s scores have been more: consistent than last year’s lopsided results. Only the’ Quesnel A/B game was a blowout. “When you play an upper level team, that happens,” he said, The newcomers are gell- ing weil with their new teammates. Every first-year player scored goals in the - tournament which “kicks. up their spirit and makes them JENNIFER WALLINGTON serves for the Thornhill Junior Grade 8 sits squad while teammate Montana McKinnon watches at the volleyball play day in the Skeena Junior Secondary gym Oct. 21. Thornhill and Skeena teams com- peted against Prince Rupert Secondary, Charles Hays and Mount Elizabeth. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO want to play again.” “Win or lose, that’s great, you want to have fun,” he said. Tweens and Juniors In other ringette action, the Tweens (ages 12-13) lost . to Quesnel 12-0 and Prince ' George 10-4 and beat Hous- ton 12-4, s The Junior squad (ages 14-15) notched two. victo- ries against Quesnel and © Houston. Bantams split four games in first road trip THE TERRACE Bantam rep hockey team watched a new _ player score, struggled for an amazing comeback and showed off for the scouts at the first tournament of the season in Quesnel the weekend of Oct 20. The team returned with a two-win, two-loss record. The squad best Whitehorse 8-4 with four goals coming from the stick of Ben Reinbolt. David Lewis. one of the new “Smurf line” players, netted his first goal. Will Fisher added. a single and Joey Cormano scored two. The squad then mounted a come- from- behind 5-4 vietory against Salmon Arm after starting out rather flat. , Although they were down by four goals going into. the. third period, the boys took up the challenge and played their best period of the year, said Amos. “They just kept pushing and pushing,’ “he said. Fisher and Cormano netted one each and Rajan Sangha nailed two goals. Conditioning came into play against Quesnel where the | Bantams kept up until the third when they ran out of gas and lost 9-3: . “It was actually a 5-3 game until the last f four minutes,” said Amos, adding that Cormano scored all three goals. The refereeing \ was consistent, although they failed to call penalties according to the new tules and “seemed to let them play more.’ Fort St. John whipped Terrace 5-2 in the final game. Cor- mano and Turner scored the goals, Scouts were on hand at the tourney and expressed interest * in some of the players. The second-year players are eligible for the Bantam draft in the Western Hockey League, which could mean a trip toa lond did last summer. " training camp, similar to what former Bantam Chapen Leb- Scouts asked about Reinbolt and Jeremy Vandenbroek, big players who skate well — two qualities that scouts have trouble finding together — and Cormano for his scoring abil- ity and work ethic. Cont'd Page B10 638-7283 Den be ee