Opinion: Canada's Mass Firing Silences Ocean Scientists

"Canada is dismantling the nation's entire ocean contaminants program as part of massive layoffs at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans."

"Among the scientists terminated are ones who have conducted landmark research about global pollutants for decades: Peter Ross, who is among the world’s leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants, Gary Stern, a mercury expert whose work focuses on the Arctic, Michel Lebeuf, who studies the highly contaminated St. Lawrence belugas and Michael Ikonomou, who researches flame retardants and other endocrine-disrupting contaminants in salmon and other ocean life. Ross told EHN that his main concern is the 'wholesale axing of pollution research' that will leave Canada, and much of the world, without the scientific knowledge to protect whales, seals, fish and other marine life -- as well as the indigenous peoples who rely on them for their traditional foods."

Peter Ross explains in an opinion piece in Environmental Health News, while editor Marla Cone puts the move in context May 24, 2012.

SEE ALSO:

"B.C. Killer Whale Expert Out of Work as Feds Cut Ocean-Pollution Monitoring Positions" (Victoria Times Colonist)

"Program Monitoring Ocean Pollution Closed" (Metro)