t was a coal mining area for more than 60 years, and in the
middle of this time a shellfish industry sprouted and eventually
became the engine that drives the economy of bays called Union,
Fanny, Deep and Buckley.  The coal trains and ships stopped
moving in the mid part of the last century, but now the
shellfish industry employs more than 600 people in the region.
Baynes Sound produces more oysters than anywhere else in Canada,
not to mention the scallops, mussels and clams.  So, ponders the
uneducated mind, if coal didn’t kill the industry before - in
fact, the shellfish industry grew exponentially during and after
the presence of a coal mine and coal wharf right in its front
yard - why so much opposition from shellfish growers this time
around in response to the Raven coal mine project?  After
Matthew Wright, the communications manager for the B.C.
Shellfish Growers’ Association, reminded us this was 2012 and
not 1912 - ouch - he explained why his group is so adamantly
opposed to the Raven project.  It’s a