Coming soon to a fishing bank near you : its not an aboriginal, its a windfarm

The first windfarm on the UK’s famous Dogger Bank in the North Sea will produce as much power as the gigantic Churchill Falls site.

Even on a global scale, that’s super huge and there are plenty more planned for the Dogger Bank, formerly famous only as a place for fishers to get their catches.

So why the push on to put windfarms on the fishers’ precious fishing banks ?

The windmills are there for the same reason the fishers are there - though the banks tend to be offshore a bit, they are still decidedly shallow - usually less than 150 feet deep. Adult fish find far more food in the shallow waters than in the deep and baby fish find it a better place to grow up.

A windmill screwed into the bedrock, conveniently not that far below the waters of fishing banks, is far more secure and far cheaper than a floating model facing the stormy waves of the ocean.

Windmills in the shallows close to shore sim ply face too much negative feedback from claims they are ugly, untrue, and noisy at times, true.

So I repeat : who owns the public waters : us the public or a few local families lucky to hold old fishing licenses?

If the fishers are planning to go out with shotguns to stop windfarms on “their” fishing banks they better bring the deed to the water lot they purchased - or be prepared to buy the water lots at a competitive open auction.

Or they can dial back the aggression and cut a deal : the public ownership of the ocean and ocean bed means all sorts of Canadians have a right to venture out on it, to try to make a living...