After 14 years of Community Beach Cleanups, the little Gulf Island of Denman Island continues to battle with an unending stream of industrial plastic debris washing up on its beaches.
This year it looks like the largest amount of plastic debris yet will be collected; perhaps as much as six tons. Ninety per cent of the plastic debris comes from the shellfish growing industry, while the rest is from various sources.
Each year over 150 volunteers from Denman Island come out to roll up their sleeves to tackle this ongoing pollution of their beautiful shoreline.
debris pile :18 from Stella Mer Productions on Vimeo.
Denman is located between Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel, just south of Courtenay. Baynes Sound produces 50 per cent of B.C.’s commercially grown oysters and clams. Due to local winds and tides, a huge amount of shellfish growers’ gear and equipment is driven onto Denman Island’s western shores. This includes oyster trays, anti-predator netting, plastic fencing, plastic net bags, plastic floats, styrofoam floats for rafts as well as thousands of pieces of rope.
That’s a lot for any community to clean up!
The week of September 15 - 22nd was the 14th Annual Community Beach Cleanup, organized by the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS) and joined by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the BC Shellfish Growers Association. The beach cleanups have been expanded to include all of Baynes Sound, but the amount of plastic debris arriving on Denman’s shores still shocks and overwhelms volunteers from the island community.
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As explained by one Denman volunteer, “There is just so much plastic debris continually washing up on our beaches. We just finished cleaning the whole Island last September and there was another smaller cleanup for Earth Day in the spring, and now we are still collecting truck load after truck load just a few months later.”
Denman volunteers worked all week collecting marine debris from shores all around Denman Island, while simultaneously Comox Valley volunteers cleaned up the beaches of Baynes Sound west. Over forty students from Denman Island Community School participated and they were joined by more than 100 community volunteers who collected debris from local shores on foot and by boat.
All plastic debris is sorted by volunteers for pickup and transport back to Vancouver by Ocean Legacy, a nonprofit plastics recycler, with very little going to the landfill site. All reusable gear and equipment is returned to the shellfish growers whenever possible.
All three organizations (ADIMS, DFO, BCSGA) recognize that marine debris, particularly plastic debris, is a serious environmental concern. Marine debris comes from many sources, including storm drains, fishing gear and shellfish aquaculture facilities. Regardless of the source, it is important that we remove debris from marine environments to prevent the degradation of important habitat.
In addition to being the centre of BC’s shellfish growing industry, Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel support a wide range of species and are important spawning and rearing grounds for Pacific herring. The beauty and ecological health of these waters benefit local communities through tourism, fishing, and recreational opportunities.