Fisheries

For Immediate Release - November 7, 2016

West Coast Environmental Law reacts to federal marine safety announcement

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – West Coast Environmental Law Association issued the following statement in response to the federal government’s announcement today regarding new marine safety initiatives:

Federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau says the sinking of the tugboat Nathan E. Stewart shows that oil spill response resources on Canada’s West Coast are inadequate.

In a meeting with the leaders of the Heiltsuk Nation on Sunday, Mr. Garneau also promised he will deliver a promised ban on oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s North Coast by the end of the year. In fact, an announcement on spill response is expected as early as Monday.

Audio recordings reveal how first responders struggled to get a clear picture of an unfolding disaster, reports Justine Hunter

VICTORIA The Globe and Mail Last updated: Friday, Nov. 04, 2016 12:38PM EDT

[audio available online]

Crews fighting to contain fuel leaking from a sunken tug near Bella Bella, B.C., have had to deal with just the kind of conditions predicted in a spill response analysis filed with the National Energy Board in the Trans Mountain pipeline hearings.

That analysis warned that if an oil spill occurred on the West Coast during winter months, high winds, turbulent seas and delays in response time could combine to make it impossible for crews to recover more than 15 per cent of spilled oil.

For Immediate Release

October 26, 2016 (Bella Bella) – A statement just released by Canada’s fisheries minister has left Heiltsuk Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett angered and dismayed.

For Immediate Release

October 26, 2016 (Bella Bella) – A statement just released by Canada’s fisheries minister has left Heiltsuk Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett angered and dismayed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Booms leaking diesel, contaminating beaches in Heiltsuk Territory

October 25, 2016 (Bella Bella) – Crews continue to attempt to recover spilled diesel from contaminated beaches near Gale Creek/'Qvúqvái today as diesel has been discovered leaking from booms that broke Saturday and washed ashore.

Cleanup and salvage efforts have been hampered by storms on the British Columbia coast, where a sunken tug continues to leak fuel 11 days after it ran aground near Bella Bella, in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Matt Woodruff, information officer with the industry-funded unified command group that is handling the operation, said fuel spill containment booms failed at one point, allowing slicks to escape from around the grounded tug, Nathan E. Stewart.