Cleaning up the shoreline from Comox to the Discovery Islands

Cortes Currents

English - October 17, 2021 19:46 - 12 minutes - 28.2 MB
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Previous Episode: Beach clean-ups in southern Discovery Islands

Next Episode: Newts - a 20 year celebration of Cortes Island’s most celebrated salamander

Roy L Hales / Cortes Clean-up - The Campbell River Association of Tour Operators finished (CRATO) cleaning up Vancouver Island’s shoreline from Comox to Chatham Point, at the entrance of the Johnstone Strait, and is now working in the northern Discovery Islands.

“It is such an inspiring story to see how the tour operators of Campbell River came together to not only clean things up, but train a whole new generation how to do that,” said Mary Ruth Snyder, Executive Director of the Campbell River & District Chamber of Commerce.

CRATO was awarded the contract, to remove marine debris, garbage and used fishing and aquaculture gear from about 350 kilometres of shoreline by the BC governments the Clean Coast, Clean Waters Initiative.

They started the clean-up in Comox, last month. Bill Coltart, President of CRATO, attributes the progress of their first five days to the fact they were working in an area that was heavily populated.

“We did find a lot of debris, don’t get me wrong, but the sheer volume relative to what we are seeing now was significantly less. What that tells me is that people that live along the waterfront, between Comox and Campbell River, do a lot of their own beach clean-up on a regular basis,” he explained. “We were certainly seem some large pieces: large tires, blocks of foam, large pieces of plastic - that aren’t easy to remove - but we’re seeing a much denser volume of marine debris the further isolated we get.”

They expected to be loading a barge every week, but found it only takes a day to a day and a half of beach cleaning.

CRATO had collected about 15 tons of debris by the time Cortes Currents caught up with them at Chatham Point, and Coltart expects to have between 50 and 80 tons when this project ends.

“As tour operators: we’re in those waters every day, be it kayaking or whale watching. You just don’t see what’s up in that high tide line. What’s hiding behind those logs. Once you have the opportunity to walk those isolated stretches of beach, it becomes a bit shocking - at the volume that is hidden there that you just don’t see from the boat,” he said.

The debris is taken to sorting facility in Campbell River. When they have a truckload, Coltart guesstimates 80-85% of the debris will end up in the Ocean Legacy Foundation recycling facility in Richmond. A small amount, 7-8%, goes to landfill.