GNB to cull sea hawks following June IT crash

Fredericton — Environmentalists are incensed at the Government of New Brunswick’s plan to kill off the province’s ospreys after an IT network crash in June caused by the nesting birds.On June 9 an osprey, also known as a “sea hawk,” was constructing a nest on an NB Power transmission line.

According to an NB Power spokesperson, the bird somehow shorted the line and caused a power loss to the Marysville Data Centre. The site failed to activate the backup generator properly, causing the entire GNB network to “hard crash.” Twice. The system’s error caused massive disruptions throughout the province for days, the costs of which are still being totalled.

After 3 months of research and consultation, a GNB task force pitched their solution to prevent future errors: a cull of the hundred or so ospreys inhabiting the province.

“The sea hawks just need to go,” explained Marc Gatineau of the Internal Services Agency (NBISA). “They are obviously a nuisance and bring nothing but frustration to the people of New Brunswick.”

But others, like Jennifer MacNeill of the New Brunswick Conservation Council, feel a cull is an overreaction.“Listen, are the sea hawks bad? Of course they are,” MacNeill said. “But we can’t as a province just can’t go about wiping out something that upsets the government. They were in this place way before any government body existed. To some degree it’s more their land than ours.”

MacNeill and the Conversation Council have vowed to fight the planned cull in court. They’ve also started a social media campaign entitled “SOS – Save Our Sea hawks” on popular selfie-sharing website facebook.com.