988. Lively Island
Qin Shiou's performance in the fishing farm owner tourism insight activities organized by the Ministry of Fisheries won the admiration of local traditional fishing farm owners, so after he made a call, Donald, Andrew and others brought their friends to his fishing farm.
After seeing Qin Shiou, Donald said, "You are right, Qin, if Dow Chemical is built here, once the Chemical Industry City is formed, there will definitely be other chemical plants entering, which will be too devastating to the fishery at that time."
The fishing owners came with fishermen. Their arrival meant that there were more fishing boats on farewell to the island, and some people were carrying weapons, claiming that if Dow Chemistry invited the police, they would have an armed confrontation with the police.
Hu Zhiyuan, president of the DPS Association, had learned the news on Weibo that he had not been here to organize volunteers. This time he brought more than 100 volunteers, including students and white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. These people were wearing uniform clothes with the words "Wild animals pay for economic development" to ironize the Newfoundland government's practice of destroying the natural environment in order to develop the economy.
Butler cares about this matter the most. Daqin brand seafood is now his biggest source of income. If the chemical factory is opened here, then there will be no pollution-free fishing catches in the Daqin fishery, and his biggest sign will collapse.
This is something he absolutely cannot bear, so he contacted a friend in the seafood industry and complained to the Newfoundland provincial government, demanding that if Dow Chemical said goodbye to build a factory on the island, he would have to pay him a high compensation.
The media in St. Johns moved and rushed to the farewell island to follow up and report on the incident. Their reports triggered more reactions from fishermen. People kept coming to the farewell island to support the farewell town protests.
Fishermen are counting on eating in the ocean. They are the ones who hate factories the most. Although Newfoundland fishery has nominally collapsed due to people's indiscriminate fishing, research now believes that the industrial outbreak that began in the 1980s and 1990s is also responsible for this.
Even though the Ministry of Fisheries has provided nearly all-round protection of the fishing grounds, the Newfoundland waters have not yet recovered one-tenth of their peak output value, which is very incredible because the ocean ecosystem should have the ability to heal itself.
The fishermen couldn't find the reason. They rarely fished every year and there were still not many fish in the ocean. So why did the fish reproductive ability so poor? They could only blame the sewage discharge factories, believing that pollutants affected the vitality and reproductive ability of sea fish.
In just a few days, thousands of protesters from all walks of life gathered on the island. Dow Chemical's transport ship was parked outside the town dock, waiting for the company to send people to resolve the protest problem and then enter the town dock.
But now, seeing that the situation is not good, the transport ship immediately turned around and returned to St. Johns Pier.
Fishermen pulled up long banners at the town dock with words like ‘Protesting the government’s inaction to restore fisheries’ and ‘can’t continue to damage the fishing ground’, and people are here to add new banners every day.
Dow Chemical was very angry. They called the police to St. Johns and asked the police to send police forces to ensure that their reasonable investment was carried out normally. They accused the people who bid farewell to the town for being a mob through the media.
The St. Johns Police Department naturally wanted to send a police call when they received the alarm. But Hamre talked to the police chief in advance about this. After the Mounties arrived in the town, they only maintained order and did not participate in the expulsion of protesters.
What Dow Chemical hopes is that the Mounties will clear out the town dock, but the Mounties will ignore these matters. They perform their duties to maintain public order and do not get close to the dock.
The protesters on the dock were all fierce fishermen. They came with guns, and they were real guns and live ammunition.
In contrast, the armed forces of the Mounted Police fell to the disadvantage because their actions need to comply with the law and in accordance with the regulations. When participating in such protests to maintain public order, they cannot bring real guns, only shields, batons and tasers.
In this case, the St. Johns police should ask the Special Police to come forward to resolve the problem. However, Hamre suppressed this incident, because although the protesters possessed weapons, they did not use weapons and were not aggressive, and the Special Police should not be dispatched.
Dow Chemical puts its hopes on the Newfoundland provincial government, which is difficult to manage now. This is related to the Canadian political system. There is no direct jurisdiction between the provincial government and the town. The situation where the mayor of the provincial council does not waste the provincial council often occurs in this country.
Now for Dow Chemical and the provincial government, the most difficult problem is the leatherback turtle habitat reserve. They didn't care about this at the time, thinking that saying goodbye to the island was just a simple island outside of land, and they didn't know that it was involved so many relationships.
Canadians have a strong awareness of wild animals, especially where habitat reserves have been confirmed, and their protection is even more comprehensive.
This incident successfully focused on the eyes of residents in cities along the North Atlantic coast. The topic of ghost ships and the farewell island protests have become the two most talked about recently. The one who has the advantage in public opinion is naturally to say goodbye to the town because they are nominally weak.
Dow Chemical repeatedly stated their innocence to the media: their procedures are not problematic, their pollution discharge meets the standards, and the factory is even bought with money, so why can't we go to the island to build a production line?
It is even more innocent to say goodbye to the town. Why is it necessary to build chemical plants around their lives? Why doesn’t Dow Chemical build production lines near its Ontario headquarters? What, Ontario does not allow agricultural chemical plants? Why does Ontario not allow Newfoundland to allow it?
Qin Shiou took his leatherback turtle habitat protection area to talk about it. He never mentioned the impact of building a chemical factory on his fishing ground. Instead, he said that if sewage is discharged into the seawater, the jellyfish will accumulate toxins when filtering the seawater. The staple food of leatherback turtle is jellyfish, and the one who is eventually injured is still the leatherback turtle.
The two sides started to argue about this matter, saying goodbye to the town doesn't matter, and they talk about whatever they like. They have nothing to do in winter and there are no tourists, so it's time for older children to be idle on rainy days.
They wish this matter could be even bigger. Say goodbye to the island now rely on tourism to support the economy, and the more famous the better.
So after understanding this, the villagers who bid farewell to the town protested even more vigorously, and they had to protest to the media every day.
Dow Chemical cannot withstand it. They have already borrowed from the bank, and have prepared all the talents and equipment. If the production line is not put into production for a day, then they will not make money for a day. For enterprises, if they don’t make money, they will lose money!
But there was no other way to go besides arguing, and the St. Johns police refused to expel the protesters by force. The pier was blocked and their transport ships could not get close to the island to transport equipment.
For the first time, Qin Shiou felt that living on such an overseas island was also good. At least if you encounter problems, you would block the dock, which would be a one-man who could be a pass. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!