These criteria are met by David Thompson. David has been a director of the Conservation Council for over 20 years. Now living in Saint John, he was born and  lived until recently in Chance Harbour, a small fishing community on the Fundy north shore. David began his working life as a commercial fisherman, fishing salmon, lobster, herring and groundfish on the north shore of the Bay of Fundy. In the early 1970s, he went to work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) as a Fisheries Officer, responsible for enforcing fishing regulations in the Bay of Fundy. He was then appointed by the commercial fishing organizations in the area to serve as their liaison with DFO on a whole range of issues from fisheries management to wharf and harbour maintenance. Since the early 1980s, he has worked on various environmental projects and campaigns for the Conservation Council.

    David's environmental activist career began in the mid-1970s with the proposal to build the Point Lepreau nuclear plant in the community neighbouring Chance Harbour. He became very active in the Maritime Energy Coalition, Canada's first anti-nuclear organization formed to oppose this project. He quickly became a self-taught authority on CANDU reactors and nuclear power issues. Along with organizing marches, rallies and protests, he participated in Canada's very first federal environmental impact assessment, a review of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in 1976.

    Since then he has participated in literally dozens of hearings and assessments on a variety of projects affecting the Bay of Fundy. This includes National Energy Board hearings on the export of electricity from Point Lepreau and the export of natural gas from the Sable Island fields off Nova Scotia. He represented CCNB in federal environmental assessments on high level nuclear waste management and the natural gas pipeline which runs from Nova Scotia through southern New Brunswick into Maine. Most recently, he was a member of CCNB's intervention team for the Public Utilities Board hearings on the reconstruction of Point Lepreau and the conversion of the Coleson Cove thermal generating station to burn Orimulsion® fuel. He has also represented CCNB in a federal review of environmental assessment legislation, as well as in many reviews of provincial environmental legislation and policies such as the proposed coastal areas protection policy and the wetlands protection policy.

    In the late 1970s, David was a primary player in a coalition of fishing organizations, concerned citizens and environmentalists to successfully oppose an LNG terminal and plant in the Musquash Estuary, between Chance Harbour and Saint John. He played the same role in the late 1980s, when a coal off-loading facility was proposed, and defeated for the same estuary.

    David has intervened in offshore dumping proposals, alerted authorities to oil spills at the Canaport pump-out facility near Saint John, and has advocated for double-hulled tankers. In the early 1990s, David ran two campaigns for CCNB – the "Zero Loss of Salt Marsh Campaign," the goal of which was to prevent any further loss of Bay of Fundy salt marsh, and the "Clean the Bay Campaign, " with the goal of getting marine industries to bring waste ashore from marine operations and boats. This included successfully lobbying government agencies to establish solid and oil waste receptacles at wharves. He also carried out an oral history project with 50 residents of the Bay of Fundy for CCNB's book, Voices of the Bay (Wilbur and Harvey, eds. 1992).

    For the past several years, he has led CCNB's campaign to have the Musquash estuary designated a Marine Protected Area [www.musquashmpa.ca]. In this campaign, he has built and maintained community support, including that of commercial fishing organizations, and kept a constant presence with both provincial and federal agencies. He has served as a watchdog in the estuary, ensuring that existing and proposed activities there do not degrade the area while we are waiting for the MPA designation.  He currently serves as President of Friends of Musquash, a local community organization working with

    David has lifelong knowledge of the Bay of Fundy, its communities and people, and its ecosystems. The combined experience of fisherman, fisheries officer, fishermen's liaison and environmental activist has situated him in midst of Bay of Fundy issues for the past 35 years. Combined with his skills as an amateur naturalist, this makes him particularly well-suited for the role of Fundy Baykeeper.