Tag Archives: Liveaboards

Transportation

Vessels of Concern: Signs of the Times

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Originally Published February 2, 2020

The grounding of “March Wind” in January 2020 prompted Roy Hales to write a story about boats adrift. I’d like to dig (or dive?) a little deeper under that story and consider some of the factors that have led to the increasing number of derelict and dilapidated boats on the BC Coast.

Continue reading Vessels of Concern: Signs of the Times →
Food, Rivers & Oceans

Oyster update

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From the Cortes Island Seafood Association

First, some relevant facts —

  1. Under the Pleasure Craft and Non-Pleasure Craft Sewage Pollution Prevention Regulations, Gorge Harbour has been a no-discharge-zone for boater sewage waste since June, 2000.
  2. Under the terms of the CSSP (Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program), the presence of actual or potential pollution sources, which includes transient boats, warrants a preventive closure recommendation.
  3. In 2012, Environment Canada made a preventive seasonal closure on the west end of the Gorge due to the presence of recreational boats; this was not a pollution event.
  4. In early Dec 2024, there was an illness report on oysters shipped from a Gorge Harbour oyster farm to Vancouver.  An illness report goes to Coastal Health, the BC Centre for Disease Control, the Canada Food Inspection Agency and back to the Federally Registered Shellfish Plant. Inspection and testing at the restaurant is done by Coastal Health. In this case, a Michelin star restaurant in Vancouver served only oysters from Gorge Harbour, ie., there were no other oysters involved.
  5. Today, we have 55+ boats anchored out, some with people living in them. And more seasonally moored liveaboards will soon be moving into the harbour.

The pressing problem now —

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

‘I wish we had our territory back’: Influx of float homes in Clayoquot Sound forces Tla-o-qui-aht families to go farther for traditional foods

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

This is article is part of a series of stories on Nuu-chah-nulth clam gardens.

Clayoquot Sound, B.C. – From the captain’s seat of his fishing boat called ‘La Fortune’, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (TFN) fisherman Leo Jon Manson popped the lid off the proverbial can of worms labelled ‘float homes’. 

Float homes are encroaching cultural and harvesting sites in Tla-o-qui-aht territory, says Manson. One spot in particular, Lemmens Inlet, a protected body of water located just north of Tofino that cuts into Meares Island, has succumbed to the region’s “laidback” regulations on float homes.

“We still have some spots in our territory, but we have to travel farther away from Opitsaht or Načiks (Tofino). We have to go farther back in the inlets. Our local grounds are gone, pretty much,” Manson said.

Continue reading ‘I wish we had our territory back’: Influx of float homes in Clayoquot Sound forces Tla-o-qui-aht families to go farther for traditional foods →
Housing

Tofino Harbour Authority shuts office due to standoff with long-standing float home residents

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tofino, BC – Locked security gates are coming to some of Tofino’s docks, according to the harbour authority’s manager, an inconvenient safety measure that has resulted from liability concerns over float homes at the harbour.

The Fourth Street Dock will remain “fully accessible”, according to the District of Tofino, but a different situation is expected at the Crab Dock, where a dispute has been brewing over people living on a floating home.

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Arts, Community, Food

Another ‘Excellent’ Seafest

The official count isn’t in yet, but more than 300 people turned out for this year’s Seafest. This is the annual celebration and fundraiser of the Cortes Island Seafood Association, which was held in Squirrel Cove again this year. 

“We come back every year. This is our 10th time. We love it every year. It’s awesome. There’s amazing food and amazing people and weather’s gorgeous,” exclaimed Jason Thompson. “One thing that stuck out for us was there was only a lineup on one side this year. In the past, it’s been both sides, and there was always a little bit of confusion, and, ‘oh, I didn’t get that’. So people would come in  and get their food, and you’d look at them going, ‘get out of my way,’  but no, it’s beautiful. It’s run really nice, and the music’s perfect.”

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