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The plans have been in place for a long time, but looking across any of southern Vancouver Island’s straits now, it’s clear to see the industrialization of the Salish Sea has arrived.
The sharp increase in tanker and freighter traffic though is not only effecting Victoria and Sidney, gateway to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the open Pacific beyond; up the island, between Gabriola and the Sunshine Coast, there’s a scheme in play to make of the foreshore there an overflow parking lot of sorts to relieve Vancouver’s lengthening line of backed-up freighters.
Franz Gigl is with Gabriolans Against Freighter Anchorage, or (GAFA), an Island-based group behind the AnchorRage campaign opposing Pacific Pilotage Authority plans to create five anchorages for coal and other commodities freighters off the picturesque Gulf Island.
Franz Gigl in the first half.
And; it’s not only the straits of the southern end of the island experiencing the negative effects of industry’s hyperactivity; just off Campbell River, in the Johnstone Strait, the Ocean Eagle, a barge-hauling tug ran aground last week. It seems so far, yet another fortunate near-miss for the northern reaches of the island, with the Ocean Eagle reportedly not spilling its load of fuel and/or “general cargo” into the environment. Last August a fuel barge was run aground in Surge Narrows, its 60,000 litre load of fuel narrowly avoiding being spilled into the straits.
Ingmar Lee created and maintains the Facebook site, 10,000 Ton Tanker, the only sustained media effort to bring attention to regular foreign oil tanker traffic within BC’s supposed tanker moratorium area. A long-time BC-based environmental activist, Lee is campaigning to address the maritime risks going unaddressed along the province’s Inside Passage.
Ingmar Lee and what the Ocean Eagle’s hard landing at Chatham Point tells us about the way BC manages its waterways in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news of some of the good things coming to the streets of our town, and beyond, in the coming week. But first, Franz Gigl and Gabriola’s rage against the maritime machine.
