Tag Archives: Aquacultural Waste

Waste

2023 Cortes Island Beach Clean-up

Eleven volunteers turned out for the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) annual Beach-Clean-up on Saturday, June 17. 

“Most of what we collected today is styrofoam, which is used for floats. That’s obviously washed up on the beach, which is great to get off because it breaks up. We got a whole truckload full of styrofoam. We’ve also picked up a lot of the little black plastic trays they use on the oyster farms, tires with styrofoam in them, a few buoys and then just some sort of trash, but mainly styrofoam,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI

Continue reading 2023 Cortes Island Beach Clean-up →
Rivers & Oceans, Waste

Quadra Island’s ‘Dream Team Beach Clean-up’

Quadra Island’s 3-month-long beach clean-up finished over the weekend.

“Once a week, usually on Wednesdays, we would go on a remote beach hike,  to different areas on Quadra that were hard to access.  We had to go hiking for maybe an hour or so to some of these places and then collect and leave debris, and then we’d have to return by boat another day,” explained Nevil Hand, who organized the campaign.

Continue reading Quadra Island’s ‘Dream Team Beach Clean-up’ →
Rivers & Oceans, Waste

West Coast infrastructure is on the rise to stem the wave of ocean plastics

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: FOCI volunteers carried out a ‘Mother’s Day Beach Clean-up of the beach between Hollyhock and Seaford Road, Cortes Island on May 9, 2022.

Coastal community cleanup groups on eastern Vancouver Island have been itching for the opening of B.C.’s newest ocean debris recycling depot. 

The Cumberland site, operated by Comox Strathcona Waste Management (CSWM) in partnership with the Ocean Legacy Foundation, opened in mid-June to tackle the tonnes of plastic washing ashore in the region, said Stephanie Valdal, CSWM’s waste management services co-ordinator. 

Continue reading West Coast infrastructure is on the rise to stem the wave of ocean plastics →
Rivers & Oceans

Mothers Day Beach Clean-up on Cortes Island

On Mother’s Day (May 8), a dozen volunteers removed two pick-up truck loads of debris, from the beach between Hollyhock and Seaford. 

“We’ve had a winter’s worth of storms, blowing things up, and this beach that we’re working today from Hollyhock, basically up to Seascape Road. this is a huge collector facing the southeast, the open Strait of Georgia with Victoria, east Vancouver Island and all the Sunshine Coast communities. Anything that gets put in the water ends up right about here,” explained Mike Moore, one of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) volunteers.

Continue reading Mothers Day Beach Clean-up on Cortes Island →
Rivers & Oceans, Waste

Coastal communities ‘fed up’ with B.C. shellfish sector’s plastics problem

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Coastal communities are tired of paying to clean up plastic and debris from the B.C. shellfish industry to protect the marine environment, stewardship groups say.

The amount of garbage being retrieved from beaches in areas where shellfish aquaculture is concentrated grows year after year, and there’s little apparent enforcement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to deal with the issue, said Dorrie Woodward, chair of the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS).

Continue reading Coastal communities ‘fed up’ with B.C. shellfish sector’s plastics problem →