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6 stouflvitte suntribune saturday april 28 2007 tstouffville suntnbune 6290 main st stouffvilleonl4alg7 wwwyorttfegionconi 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 tree stump art looks good re no art on tree stumps april 21 i was disappointed to see whitchurchstouffville council decided against turning tree stumps into works of art when our daughter moved to orangeville a year ago she proudly took us on a driving tour showing us the unique features of the town one of those features are the tree stump carvings along broadway street they are whimsical carvings that attract interest in the downtown area not van dals they have been there for years and because they are finished with a varnish they have not deteriorated at all in fact private homeowners who have had trees removed from the front of their property have had artists do carvings on them they are a unique feature of the town if you ever have an opportunity to drive through orangeville i encourage you to seek out these works of art donna mcdowell stouffville more main street vandalism re residents find tires slashed march 31 after reading your report on vandal ism regarding slashed tires on or near main street less than a few hundred metres away it seems the vandalism continues on april 20 before 1015 pm a school bus that regularly parks in the municipal parking lot next to the care share thrift shop had several windows smashed broken glass was strewn around the area and the stores dropoff sign was torn down at 240 am people were running over the roofs of downtown businesses from the savex to the diva hair salon this is a popular spot for throwing items including ice at passing vehicles john rendle stouffville will bulbs be truly banned i have been following the debate over energysaving lightbulbs and find it curious to say the least that there is no mention of having the building codes changed to reflect the banning of incandescent light bulbs as it is the builders will merrily build to the current code which allows the proliferation of the fashionable halogen pot lights i trust the powersthatbe will reim burse all the affected homeowners with the cost of installing replacement fix tures that can accommodate the new bulkier bulbs hardy nissen ballantrae watchdog program puts net on overfishing wwo weeks ago i had the pleasure of sharing the stage with dr daniel pauly a world- renowned fisheries biologist we were at a seachoice event discussing the future of our oceans and how programs such as seachoice could help by giving consumers a tool to make sustain able choices dr pauly was in the middle of his presentation when he popped up a slide that really blew me away well two slides actually the first was a photograph taken from space that showed two little dots with gradually widening lines trailing out from behind them the dots he said were bot tomtrawling fishing boats the lines were plumes of mud and dirt dredged up behind them it was a powerful image because it showed the lasting effect these boats can have long after theyve passed over the water is still clouded with silt letters policy thesuntvibune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribuncrescrvcs the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune box 154 stouffvflle on l4a7z5 jmasondyrmgcom and you can imagine the sea floor looking much worse bottom trawlers drag heavy weighted gear along the ocean floor dredging up whatever sea life is unfortunate enough to be caught in their nets most of those sea creatures are considered trash fish unmarketable and hence tossed overboard most of them also die never mind that many of those trash fish serve as food for the mar ketable predatory fish that most restaurants and consumers like to eat there is no immediate market for them so they are considered worthless this kind of twisted economics simply has no place in todays world in nature where everything is interconnected everything has value but it was the next slide that really made your jaw drop it too was taken from space but instead of being two dots and two lines in a vast ocean the photo graph showed dot after dot and david suzuki line after line filling the frame so much that it looked like fields of wheat being harvested this was a trawling fleet off the coast of china methodically scouring the ocean floor bare that such destructive fishing can still occur at such a scale is shocking especially given what we know is going on in our oceans they are in serious trouble we no longer have the luxury of wasting most of what we pull up or steamrollering over important habitat most of the words fisheries are fully exploited or overexploited and scientists are very concerned about major crashes unless we start changing our practices our poor fisheries management is being supported by increasingly efficient technologies global catches arent plummeting yet because we are getting better and better at finding fish this effectively masks the prob lem of dwindling supply until its too late weve seen this happen before such as with the atlantic cod changing fishing practices and fisheries management is up to our elected leaders we need comprehensive ecosystembased planning processes to phase out destructive fishing gear better manage fish stocks and decide where and when to fish this includes a system of marineprotected areas where no fishing is allowed to give the fish a chance to recover thats the job of our leaders but everyone can help by supporting sustainably caught seafood and choosing not to eat fish that comes from threatened stocks there are several programs to help you choose more sustainable options seachoice seachoiceorg is one it was designed to help shop pers chefs and restaurant owners choose fish that are being harvest ed in a sustainable manner many restaurants are now making note of where their seafood comes from and how it was caught on their menus seachoice can help when i was a boy jigging for halibut off spanish banks near vancouver i could never have imagined needing a tool such as seachoice back then the seas seemed lim itless today you wont find halibut off spanish banks anymore we know the seas arent limit less we just have to stop treating them like they are for more about david suzuki visit davidsuzukiorg editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom distribution manager megan pike mpikeyrmgcom fdsa canadun grcuaooo ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified i80o7433353 fax 9056408778 distribution 9056402612 sunlijbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region media group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thornhill vaughan citizenthe erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing