Raising the alarm on ocean debris

Pink plastic unicorns, green dinosaurs, cologne bo les, grey rubber mats, and Styrofoam wash up on beaches

By Melissa Renwick Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tofi no, BC - In early December, Nicole Gervais said chunks of Styrofoam started washing ashore on the northern end of Long Beach, near the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation community of Esowista on Vancouver Island. That section of beach, entitled Tayus, has been closed to non-residents since 2020 to keep community members safe from COVID-19. Free from the disturbances of visitors and dogs, Gervais said large fl ocks of birds have returned to the beach to feed on bloodworms and sand fl eas. But as the Styrofoam breaks down into smaller pellets after each high tide, Gervais said she’s increasingly worried about the Sandpipers and Oystercatchers. “They eat the broken bits of Styrofoam and it kills them,” she said. Gervais has been living on the edge of Long Beach since 1987 and said that she’s used to seeing plastic water bottles wash ashore, but she’s never seen this amount of Styrofoam. Unlike the Styrofoam used for docking fl oats, Gervais’ daughter, Gisele Martin, said the pieces that now litter the hightide line all the way to Schooner Cove have edges carved into them. It’s packing material, she suggested. Parks Canada said it’s aware of the Styrofoam and other materials coming ashore, which are typical at this time of year due to higher tides. But some coastal peoples, like Gervais, are concerned that the Styrofoam is a consequence of the Zim Kingston container spill from Oct. 22. Only four of the 109 shipping containers that were knocked from the cargo ship off the coast of Vancouver Island have been located. The Canadian Coast Guard believes the rest have sunk. During a media briefi ng after the spill, Canadian Coast Guard Deputy Federal Incident Commander Mariah McCooey said the watertight integrity of the overboard containers is “not that great.” It’s only a matter of time before the 105 missing 40-foot shipping containers rupture, said Alys Hoyland, Surfrider Pacifi c Rim beach clean coordinator. “The stuff that’s inside of those containers will start washing up on beaches,” she said. But without any way of tracking the Styrofoam, there’s no way of knowing where it came from. It’s “diffi cult” to identify the source of Styrofoam or packing materials, the coast guard said, adding that packing materials were not included in the ship’s manifest. The manifest, which identifi es the contents of the overboard containers, has not been made public, and none of the local clean-up organizations, such as Epic Exeo, Ocean Legacy, Rugged Coast or Surfrider, have received a copy. Hoyland said that without knowing what’s inside the shipping containers, it’ll be “incredibly hard to prove the extent of the spread,” or to hold the ship’s owner accountable. Clean-up eff orts have been ongoing on the north coast of Vancouver Island, where the four of the shipping containers were found. “To date, approximately 27,360 kilograms of debris has been removed from northern Vancouver Island beaches by the contractor, First Nations, and volunteers,” the coast guard said. Jurassic Point is in the fi nal stages of being cleared and the beaches where debris was reported are now “considered to be clean,” the coast guard added. “The ship’s owner will continue to check the known accumulation sites for debris every few months and remove any debris likely to be from the MV Zim Kingston,” the coast guard said. Ashley Tapp is the co-founder of Epic Exeo, a non-profi t organization based out of Port McNeill that focuses on clean-ups along the north coast, where the containers were found. “We’re a little upset that they think they’re done,” she said. On Dec. 14, Tapp returned to Cape Palmerston and Grant Bay, where cleanups were held. Pink plastic unicorns, plastic green dinosaurs, cologne bottles, baby oil, grey rubber mats, Styrofoam and packing materials remained on the beaches, she said. “You can’t just go and clean a beach and then wipe your hands of it,” Tapp said. “[Debris] keeps coming back.” Grey rubber mats linked to the cargo spill have also started washing up in Florencia Bay and in the Hesquiaht Harbour, said Hoyland. By December Ray Williams reported that large chunks of Styrofoam started washing onto the beaches around Yuquot. Similar reports are being made from Haida Gwaii, said Hoyland. It’s “troubling” that this isn’t being considered an environmental disaster, she said. “This is not just a case of some missing goods,” said Hoyland. “This is an environmental catastrophe that’s playing out on our shorelines right now.” The coast guard said it continues to work with the ship’s owner and that they’re taking “all measures considered proportionate to the hazard posed by the overboard containers.” “The owner is working on a plan to conduct a sonar scan of the area where the containers went overboard, around Cape Flattery, and an assessment of risk that the overboard containers could pose to the environment,” the coast guard said. As shipping supply demands increase, Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns said there are more cargo ships traveling through the Strait of Juan de Fuca than ever before. And with the frequency of extreme weather events rising, “we know more incidents are going to happen,” he said. The federal government needs to create a tactical response plan so that companies are held accountable, said Johns. Currently, the delegation of authority falls in the lap of the shipping company, who often doesn’t have local ties to the area, he said. Indeed, contractors hired by the owner of Zim Kingston to organize beach cleanups on the north coast were not local and were unfamiliar with the geography of the area, said Hoyland. “It was more than a week before any kind of clean-up eff ort started,” she said. “And the longer it took for the clean-up to start, the worse it got.” Contents from the four containers “were spreading further and further with every tide,” Hoyland said. Despite having extensive knowledge of the area, Tapp said it took at least a week before she was asked to coordinate cleanups south of Palmerston Beach and Raft Cove. While accommodation, food and fuel were covered, wages were not. Moving forward, Hoyland said emergency response plans need to be developed in consultation with the First Nations whose territories are being impacted, as well as with the “environmental non-profi ts that have been leading clean-up eff orts like this for decades on these coasts.” “We’re living in a changing climate,” she said. “We really need to start looking at these big picture changes that we can make in order to keep the environment and the ocean safe for future generations.” The coast guard said that Quatsino, Ehattesaht, Kwakiutl and Tlatasikwala First Nations were all brought on by the ship’s owner to assist with beach cleanup eff orts and to identify resources at risk in the impacted areas. Back on Long Beach, Gervais said she picks up what she can, but the amount of Styrofoam that’s tangled in kelp and driftwood is too big of a job for one person. As the Styrofoam breaks apart and becomes more diffi cult to remove from the ecosystem, Martin questions its impact on the intertidal food and medicine her nation relies on. People travel from all over the world to look at the scenery outside Gervais’ living room window. It’s beautiful, she admits, but it’s also a responsibility. “The ocean is alive,” she said. “It’s got a life of its own and we need to respect it. It’s a responsibility to notice what’s happening and raise the alarm.” The public is asked to report any sightings of marine debris they believe is from the MV Zim Kingston to the coast guard by calling 1-800-889-8852.

Photo by Melissa Renwick Styrofoam is entangled in the kelp and driftwood along the high tide line on the north end of Long Beach, near Tofi no, on December 16, 2021.

“There are more cargo ships traveling through the Strait of Juan de Fuca than ever before. And with the frequency of extreme weather events rising, we know more incidents are going to happen.”

~ Gord Johns, Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns

Early forecast expects lean returns for most fi sheries, with exceptions for chinook on some of island’s west coast

By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor

The future of pacifi c salmon will depend on how eff ectively global greenhouse gas emissions can be controlled, according to a 2022 forecast on West Coast returns delivered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. With an emphasis on the continued eff ects of global warming - including higher ocean temperatures, drier streams, increased forest fi res and heavy fl ooding - this year’s overall returns are expected to be below the historical average. However, some exceptions are expected from this bleak outlook, including a nearaverage chinook run for parts of the west coast of Vancouver Island, including the Somass River. Delivered on Dec. 16, the DFO’s Preliminary Salmon Outlook serves as an initial forecast to inform harvest management plans that will be issued by the federal department. A more detailed outlook of expected returns across British Columbia will follow in April. During her presentation on environmental conditions that infl uence salmon migration, Sue Grant, head of the DFO’s State of the Salmon Program, pointed to events from the previous six months that created widespread eff ects: a recordbreaking early summer heat wave, large forest fi res in parts of the B.C. interior, followed by heavy rainfall and extensive fl ooding in November. “All these events just drive home the fact that climate change is happening, it’s with us, we’re seeing things we’ve never seen or experienced before on this scale - especially all at once in the last six months,” said Grant. “We should expect more of this to occur in the future, more surprises and things we didn’t expect to see.” The presentation pointed to the continued eff ects of forests fi res on salmon habitat. Recent years have brought some of the worst seasons on record in B.C., including 2017 and 2018, which entailed over 120,000 and 130,000 hectares of forest burning respectively. “Loss of forest canopy due to fi re, pine beetle and logging has pushed a number of streams over the ‘tipping point’ and there is considerable loss of stability,” stated Richard E. Bailey, head of the DFO’s Chinook/Coho program. On Vancouver Island low snowpacks have been a factor in contributing to more shallow, warmer streams for salmon to migrate through. From 201820 the region recorded less than 50 per cent of the average snow basin in the island’s mountains. This has resulted in stream temperatures sometimes reaching 20 C by the summer. Warmer, shallow streams can pose a risk to the survival of salmon, said Grant. “Times where you can see very dry conditions can, in worst case scenarios, lead to dewatering events that can strand juveniles and eggs,” she said. “That’s one of the consequences of having very dry conditions for our salmon.” Warmer conditions have also been seen in the ocean, which absorbs 90 per cent of the earth’s excess heat as temperatures rise around the world, stated the DFO presentation. This heat is retained for a long time, and by the second half of 2013 scientists began noticing an area west of B.C.’s coast where temperatures where 3 to 5 C above normal. What became known as “the blob” extends approximately 200 metres down from the ocean’s surface, changing the food chain and the organisms salmon feed on as they migrate. “Normally in the northeast Pacifi c in cooler ocean years we see these larger zooplankton species, and they’re considered quite nutritious for salmon,” noted Grant. “What happens in these warm marine heat wave years is these southern zooplankton move in from California, and they’re considered less nutritious for salmon, so they reduce growth rates and reduce survival for these animals.” These environmental conditions have resulted in severe reductions in the harvesting of Pacifi c salmon over the last century. An annual average of 24 million salmon were once caught in the 1920s and 1930s, but over the last decade this has declined to 4 million. “We’re seeing coastwide salmon declines, and this is from Washington all the way up to Alaska,” said Grant. But after generations of stock declines and fi shery closures, those who traditionally rely on salmon for subsistence are warning that the DFO’s science will not be enough to adequately manage the species in the future. On Nov. 10 a letter was sent to Joyce Murray, the newly appointed minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, urging her department to better incorporate traditional knowledge from First Nations that call the west coast of Vancouver Island their home. “[W]e urge you and your offi cials to listen to our Ha’wiih (Hereditary Chiefs) and our knowledge holders when they speak to you about the crisis in Pacifi c Salmon,” reads the letter signed by Nuuchah-nulth Tribal Council President Judith Sayers and Cliff ord Atleo Sr., chair of the Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries. “Nuu-chah-nulth have lived in harmony with salmon for thousands of years. The collapse of salmon stocks in recent decades is a challenge that your department cannot address on its own based on scientifi c knowledge.” The letter points to the need for collaboration on managing the harvesting of herring, which are a keystone species in the food chain that Pacifi c salmon survive on. “For many years now, we have been telling your departmental offi cials that our herring stocks cannot be fi shed until they have recovered,” wrote Sayers and Atleo. “Each year in the herring planning process, the possibility of a commercial herring fi shery on the west coast of Vancouver Island is put up for consideration. We have told previous DFO ministers and staff , and we are telling you, that our herring stocks are not ready for that.” As Nuu-chah-nulth nations work on their fi shing plans for 2022, below average returns are expected when sockeye salmon reach the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Somass River, according to the DFO’s Preliminary Salmon Outlook. Chinook are expected to be at a wellbelow-average, “critical” level in Nootka and Kyuquot sounds, but the DFO forecast is most optimistic for when the large salmon reach coastal areas in the central and southwest of Vancouver Island. Returns are forecast to be near average in the Somass, Burman and Sarita rivers.

Photos by Eric Plummer Tseshaht boats fi sh on the Somass River in September 2021 (above). By late summer one can easily walk halfway across the Somass River at low tide without getting wet (below). Shallow streams are an ongoing concern for those who monitor salmon habitat. Warming ocean temperatures have reduced the size of zooplankton (bottom), which Pacifi c salmon feed on, according to a recent presentation by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.