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6 stouffinlle suntribune saturday april 14 2007 tstouflville mm suntnbune 6290 main st stouffvileonl4a7z5 wwwyortoegioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor better to teach belief system re funds provided to catholic schools should be usedfor real needs letter to the edi tor by matt douris april 12 first of all one would have to agree more funds are needed for educating our children where they can be found is as good a question as any secondly it is everyones choice to direct your education funds to public or catholic school boards so if you see this as redundant or unjus tifiable change your tax forms and lastly as an educator of young chil dren and a parent of four i believe in this day and age our youth need more guidance than ever before if that guidance comes from an imagi nary being and i cant imagine you were referring to our lord as that then let them believe in super heroes to help them sleep better let them believe in saints to help them be better beings and let them beheve in fairies and dragons to help them have an amazing childhood as for the catholic issue some of the most inspiring and worldchanging people practise the religion and to put down its virtue and meaning to those of us who believe in it is both insulting and unneces sary we all have a right to believe in what we want to believe and maybe the school sys tem should focus on teaching all beliefs so our children can have wellrounded and tol erable beliefs about everyone but isnt it better we teach them some thing to believe in rather than nothing to believe in i would expect that whatever mr douris believes in he would want all of us to tolerate it sue luff stouffville people are strongest asset with national volunteer week beginning tomorrow the canadian cancer society would like to thank each and every one of its 750 dedicated volunteers in the markham and whitchurchstouffville thanks to the support of our volunteers we are able to fund lifesaving cancer research and vital support services that help people living with cancer in markham unionville whitchurchstouffville and milliken mills our volunteers have integrity they are caring they have courage and they are pro gressive these values are at the core of everything they do we invite those interested in volunteer ing to call 9052945925 to find out how you can make a real difference in the fight against cancer together lets make cancer history bruce burgess and nancy brouillard canadian cancer society oh get we both knew it wouldnt last scientific community has lost great interpreter on march 30 science one of the worlds most respected scientific jour nals published a paper about how the overfishing of big sharks in our oceans has led to an increase in ray and skate popula tions which in turn is having cas cading effects down the ocean food chain its a fascinating piece of work one of those bigpicture studies that helps connect the dots and shed light on the complex inter connections between various species in an ecosystem but what makes this particular piece of science so important to me is the lead author ransom myers of dalhousie university in halifax dr r a myers ram to his friends died earlier that same week the science paper is typical of rams work he was a brilliant sci entist who became a tireless advo cate for conservation after finding disturbing trends in our oceans those trends led him to raise alarm bells over mismanagement of the atlantic cod when he was with the canadian department of fisheries and oceans for his efforts he was first ignored and then reprimanded the fact he was later proven right im sure offered him little consola tion as he watched the fisheries collapse more than 15 years later it has yet to recover in 2003 ram published a paper in the journal nature that earned him worldwide recognition the report was a culmination of years of work with his colleague dr boris worm together they had carefully dis sected decades worth of fishing data and found that major large predatory fish the ones we most like to eat such as tuna cod and swordfish had seen their popu lations plummet by some 90 per cent in just 50 years the paper was controversial especially in the fishing industry david suzuki because it warned many more fish eries would face collapse if we dont seriously cut back on what we are taking out of the oceans but ram was never one to back down from controversy in fact controversy probably helped the story earn media attention around the world shedding light on a problem that for many is outof sight outofmind it was this sort of big picture thinking that helped make ram such a giant in his field in 2005 fortune magazine named him one of the worlds top 10 people to watch he was indeed a distinguished scientist an engag ing public speaker and leading advocate for change sadly we will now never know what else he may have accom plished his death from a brain turn at just 54 came at the height of his scientific career and at a time when the world needs him most in february i was fortunate enough to be able to visit ram in the hospital by then he could only say yes or no but he under stood everything that was going on and what was being said i hope i was able to adequately convey just how much he had accomplished and how much he had done for science and for con serving nature for future genera tions rams science paper on the demise of sharks seems to be get ting good publicity as it should rather than merely being mind less man eaters sharks are an inte gral part of the oceans web of life as the report shows killing them off for shark fin soup has allowed other species such as rays to thrive but booming fay populations are now decimating their favourite food source scallops and since scallops help filter water their loss has actually resulted in poorer water quality in some areas dr myers was at the leading edge of conservation biology he consistently strove to dig deeper and go further in the search for answers to pressing ecological issues his efforts raised understand ing of the plight of our oceans and he inspired a generation of marine biologists his work will be sorely missed and so will he david t suzuki chairperson of the david suzuki foundation is an awardwinning scien tist environmentalist and broadcaster visit davidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribuncrcscrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune stouffville on l4a7zs jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interacttve media marketing advertising manager dawna 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