Read this story from the Edmonton Journal on the letter signed by 625 scientists calling on the Harper Government to cease its plans to gut habitat protections from the Fisheries Act. (March 23, 2012)

Pressure on the Harper government to reject private sector pressure to water down the Fisheries Act mounted Thursday as a letter endorsed by 625 scientists warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper against any move to weaken the federal government’s most potent tool to protect the environment.

The letter’s signatories include 18 fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and was written by David Schindler, the Killam Memorial professor of ecology at the University of Alberta.

“Weakening habitat protections will make Canada look irresponsible internationally,” Schindler wrote.

Two former Progressive Conservative fisheries ministers, John Fraser and Tom Siddon, and the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, which represents 1,000 ecologists and evolutionary biologists, have also condemned the reported move.

Otto Langer, a retired federal fisheries biologist, released last week a leaked internal information spelling out planned changes to the Fisheries Act.

Read article: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Scientists+protest+Fish+changes/6346823/story.html