Beach Clean-up finished in the southern Discovery Islands

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Southern discovery islands beach cleanup is now finished.

“The last truck load of debris left our yard this morning. So we're now just into the final stages of cleaning up our own yard as a result of all the little styrofoam balls and things,” said Brianne Quesnel

Her company, Spirit of the West Adventures, was awarded a contract to clean up between 200 and 400 kilometres of shoreline in the southern Discovery Islands through the provincial government’s Clean Coast, Clean Waters Initiative. This is a provincially funded program designed to support B.C.’s coastal communities as they recover from the COVID-19 economic downturn and loss of tourism. There has been a long standing need to collect the plastics, styrofoam and other debris that has been accumulating on beaches.

Quesnel emailed a tally which showed that more than half of the 347 kilometres of shoreline Spirit of the West Adventures cleaned was on Quadra Island. They also cleaned almost the entire circumference of Read and Marina Islands, as well as significant portions of Cortes and Maurelle Islands and 4 km of Grant and Mittlenatch Islands.

“We collected 45 tons over two months. That's a just staggering number for us. About 55% of what we were able to collect was suitable for recycling, which is the really cool part, and then a large amount was also reused by locals for a variety of reasons,” said Quesnel. “Every day was an adventure.”