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Pacific offshore oil and gas science review reconvenesOctober 27, 2003 - VANCOUVER – On Tuesday Oct. 28, the second round of scientific workshops examining the 31-year federal moratorium on West Coast offshore oil and gas drilling resumes through Thursday, Oct. 30. The hearings are held at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, 1128 West Hastings Street. The review is being conducted by the Royal Society of Canada, which was appointed by Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal. The Society chose the four-person panel that is hearing the submissions and which scientists it would hear from. And while the public and media can attend the hearings, no public record of the proceedings will be made available. Also, media cannot record the proceedings by any means: tape, film or photograph. “Besides our concerns over industry bias in these hearings, we are very concerned over the lack of transparency,” said Otto Langer, director of the Suzuki Foundation’s marine conservation program. “British Columbians should be able to access transcripts from these hearings if they want to know what industry, government and independent scientists are saying about the possible lifting of the moratorium.” Suzuki Foundation staff are attending the hearings and taking notes so there will be some sort of public record, but for such a serious issue, transcripts should be made available, Mr. Langer said. This week’s presentations will focus on the biological effects of exploration and drilling. Scientists specializing in whales, salmon, seabirds and marine habitat will appear before the panel. One of Canada’s leading whale biologists, Dr. John Ford of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will address the panel as will Dr. Paul Spong of Orca Lab, located off northern Vancouver Island. Some of the other leading researches appearing include Dr. Andrew Trites of the UBC Fisheries Centre and Dr. David Welch of DFO. The sessions held Oct. 15 to 17 focussed on risk assessment and physical environment issues like geology and seismic testing. When: Tuesday – Thursday, October 28-30 Media Contacts: Tamara Nowakowsky or Jean Kavanagh
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