Tag Archives: Cortes Beach Clean-up

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

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Rivers & Oceans, Waste

A new marine waste pick up service gets underway

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

The Comox Strathcona Waste Management Centre on Vancouver Island is launching a new marine waste eco pick up service next week.

Services Coordinator Stephanie Valdal says the centre will send trucks with large bins to communities to pick up marine waste that has been collected by individuals, community groups and First Nations. She adds that at this point the service will be by request and will be monitored to measure demand.

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Waste

This past year at FOCI, an interview with Helen Hall

Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) recently had its AGM. This is also Helen Hall’s seventh year as Executive Director. So Cortes Currents asked her for an overview of this past year and how the organization has changed during her tenure. 

Helen Hall: “That’s a big question, FOCI has always been doing a lot of different projects. I act as the central point for FOCI, but there’s a lot of work going on with volunteers and our contractors.” 

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Rivers & Oceans, Waste

Cortes Island family donates a portion of its profits towards marine conservation

Click here for ‘Mothers Day Beach Clean-up on Cortes Island’

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Inspired by the enthusiasm her teenage sons shared after being on hand for a high school presentation nearly 10 years ago, Cortes Creations owner Leslie Mack-Mumford got creative. The family business was looking for a way to generate enough money to donate towards marine conservation initiatives.

And so 10,000 Whales was born, a wing of Cortes Creations, the local health and natural skin care products enterprise.

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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.

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