Unplugging Canada’s worst river
Moncton’s fish are in luck
PATRICIA TREBLE | August 27, 2007 |
When Roly MacIntyre moved to Moncton, N.B., in 1965, the Petitcodiac River was a great place for salmon fishing. But the salmon, shad, tomcod and most other species are gone from what is now Canada’s most endangered river. The problem is a 40-year-old causeway linking Moncton with suburban Riverview. Twice a day, tides from the Bay of Fundy push up the Petitcodiac, reversing the waterway’s flow. But virtually all the sediment and the fish are stopped when the tidal bore reaches the causeway. Only a small meandering channel is left to cut through the sprawling mud flats — which can be rather odorous in the summer — that block 92 per cent of the river’s width near the causeway.