Background: Problem Vessels Meeting

On April 9th, 2018 the first Problem Vessel meeting was convened by Bonny Brokenshire from Bowen Island Municipality, Manager of Parks and Environment & Senior Bylaw Officer. View this Youtube video produced in 2016 for a history on clean up in Mannion Bay. There were 20 individuals present from societies, Squamish Nation, government agencies and a private contracting company. There were three presentations during the meeting: Mannion Bay, Bowen Island presentation (Bonny Brokenshire); Private contractor presented some case studies from efforts in the District of Squamish (Jeff Levine) and Canadian Coast Guard presentation (Christina Sharun)

The discussion/information gathering portion of the meeting was focused on identifying gaps in legislation, enforcement, education and financial responsibility with respect to floating structures, abandoned vessels, live-boards and mooring buoys.

Next Steps were identified as follows:

·         Consolidate management models from jurisdictions throughout Howe Sound

·         Conduct vessel and mooring buoy inventories and share data

·         Map areas prone to problem vessel accumulation throughout Howe Sound

·         Advocate for BMP’s and regulations for dock construction (e.g. minimize Styrofoam usage)

·         Collaborate with Transport Canada to develop a comprehensive strategy regarding conducting annual mooring buoy sweeps in key areas where problem vessels are known to accumulate

This February 28th, 2020 Workshop co-hosted with Bonny Brokenshire, Bowen Island Municipality will:

• Update on current Federal legislation related to Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels (WAHVA):

  • Speaker - Jason VanderValk -

    VOC Officer, Vessels of Concern (VOC)

    Canadian Coast Guard Western Region 

    Incident Management

• Mooring buoys - regulations and recommendations

  • Speaker - Brent Magee, Navigation Protection Officer,

    Navigation Protection Program. Transport Canada

• Sharing of information on current vessels of concern and marine debris, specifically resources for removal.

• Verify inventory available here on the Atl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound Marine Reference Guide. For updates email howesoundguide@gmail.com. Any additional observations, please make the subject line "Marine debris and problem vessels in Howe Sound", attach a photo of the debris/vessel, a description of the data, and GPS coordinates (if available) in the email. 

• discuss implementation of best practices for dock construction and management. A Best Practices document is under construction, please contact us if you would like to participate.

To participate in person or by web conferencing, or volunteer to help with this event contact us.

If you are joining remotely, you are invited to a Zoom meeting. Register in advance for this meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJQpfuGsqj4uTKYF-tMO2lTY49lAFRClXA After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.