A relationship between nature and industry was illuminated when they realized that the treatment process included the same species that were used within the company's products. Although the facility does not have population the size of a municipality, three hours of maintenance every week meet the plants operational requirements. Although well used municipal tax dollars can reverse the direction of the shellfish and ecological depletion on our shores, the incentive do so seems to be absent. In fact, there is no problem as long as shell fish harvesting is not valued within our communities as a staple food source. The odd thing is that seafood is cherished on Haida Gwaii, but the focus seems to be on economic sustenance rather than biological nourishment.
Convenience is a key element to the habituation of shellfish harvesting.
When harvesting becomes inconvenient then people lose the connection to the resource. But an even greater obstruction to the validity of a food-based economy is our desire to supplant a cultural value for a popular market value. We are caught under the shadow of a paradox - our apparent neglect, disconnection and the consequence of devaluing resources found along the shore, show that we have forgotten that ecology is as vital to our health as it is to our economy. We all know that to survive, we need the land and sea the which surrounds us, but by contrast, the land and sea functions quite well without us. The health of BC's south coast has been bridled by its growth in population, but here on Haida Gwaii we are still within reach of restorative measures for shellfish populations.