Outdoor Nova Scotia: "The Best Way to be Informed."

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by Dave Caulfield                                                                                                                   

December 11th, 1998 Halifax, N.S. - Ever since Pearl Island was rumoured as a possible memorial site for the victims of Swissair Flight 111, Maritime environmental groups have been scratching their collective heads trying to make sense of the idea.

"The whole thing just started without anyone thinking it through," says
Blake Maybank, who runs the Bird Information Line for the Nova Scotia Bird Society (NSBS).

The scenario: Pearl Island is anchored about an hour's boatride from
Peggy's Cove. By all accounts, it's the closest swath of land to the crash
site. However, in addition to being a protected Wildlife Management Area, it's also a summer home for one of Nova Scotia's two puffin colonies, which Maybank says are very sensitive to human contact. Docking boats on an island like this is generally prohibited anyhow, Maybank says, though he does mention one exception in New Brunswick.

The legality issue aside, docking boats at Pearl Island is pretty much
geographically impossible. Maybank says the safety considerations alone make it a poor site for a memorial. Thus, the latest brainstorm involves building a helicopter pad. Local environmental groups-- namely the NSBS, Halifax Field Naturalists and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust-- theorize that building a helicopter pad, not to mention actually landing choppers on the island, might be kind of noisy and a tad of a shock to the puffin colony's timid constitution.

Displacing the birds would put a tragedy on top of a tragedy, Maybank
reasons.  Like many others, he thinks Peggy's Cove might be a better and more accessible site for a memorial.

Wherever the site, local groups have letter-writing campaigns to the
provincial government in the works to make sure Pearl Island's puffins
aren't evicted.

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