Clear the Coast 2023 Adventures

Our intrepid volunteers tackled some new areas of Cape Scott Provincial Park on Vancouver Island in June, removing over 2 tonnes of plastic debris in two and a half action-packed days! 

In mid-June, we shared a helicopter with the Park Operator, using it to fly a crew of 9 into Guise Bay. Quickly establishing base camp there, we set out to clean this lovely, sandy beach just southeast of the Cape Scott Lightstation. With its turquoise waters and soft white sand, Guise Bay could easily be mistaken for a tropical paradise. 

Under the influence of the southeast gale that blew up that night, it was anything but tropical! Some of the crew passed a very wet night; but the wind changed to the northwest as predicted and dried us all out the next morning. 

We didn’t have to go far before we began spotting debris from the Zim Kingston containership spill—the items now so familiar and stubbornly persistent in these waters. Where last year we were recovering intact coolers, refrigerators and vacuum cleaner parts, this year we recovered their damaged remains. By next year, much of what remains will be plastic fragment that will be eaten by marine mammals and seabirds. 

Photo Caption: the identifiable debris from the Zim Kingston spill, recovered from the eastern half of Guise Bay. 

Finishing up Guise Bay, the crew headed across the isthmus to Experiment Bight, which was not heavily impacted except at its eastern end, known as Bowen Beach. Some members stayed to deal with that, while others walked on to Nels Bight, a very popular campsite that is unfortunately burdened with both plastic marine debris and the garbage left by uncaring campers. 

Not content with having spent the entire day on their feet, a group decided to take a walk up to the Lightstation after dinner one night, stumbling (literally) onto a beach we’d never been to before.  The trailhead was piled so high with debris that it was impossible to access the beach without walking on water bottles! Our sincere thanks to all those who went before us and collected that material safely above the high tide line. 

On our last day, we were packed and prepared for our lifts by 08:30 and…no helicopter. It transpired that our pilot was new to the job, the coast and longlining in general; and he couldn’t find Guise Bay.  He had apparently been texting Karen for information, unaware that there would be no cell signal on the west coast. He worked it out by about 10:00 and we began what proved to be an extremely long day of hurrying up and waiting! 

We did all, eventually, get off the beach and back to Port Hardy for a night at the North Coast Trail Backpackers’ Hostel, where we have been kindly received for several years now. Shout out to Anne, the extraordinary proprietor, who can solve any problem! 

Returning a week later with the trucker to pick up the bags of debris, we found an inquisitive bear had torn open one of the bags (likely on account of some food waste left behind by those uncaring campers) and had strewn the contents all over the place. It took us the day to recover the debris from the ditch into which the pilot had dropped it and load the truck; and another day to sort the content at the new Marine Debris Depot at 7-Mile Landfill. This excellent facility provides a convenient place to sort the various streams of recyclables and transports them to reprocessors. Another shout-out is due to Depot staffer Falyn and son Pierce, who mucked in with Karen and David to separate all of that material. At the end of the day, only 4 of 24 bags were relegated to the landfill. 

Later in the season, when seabird chicks have fledged, we will take on Cox Island in the Scott Islands group as well as lending a hand to David Jensen of Lonepaddle Conservationist Society, who plans to spend yet another summer living mostly off the land and collecting debris on the northwest coast of the Island. 

We are so grateful for everyone who helped on this cleanup adventure.