Stepping Up: With season cancelled, ecotourism group tackles marine waste

This is part of Stepping Up, a series introducing Canadians to their country’s new sources of inspiration and leadership.

“We had the chance to give back to the place that gives us our life force,” says Mr. Smith, co-owner of Maple Leaf Adventures, by satellite phone from aboard one of the ships in Fitz Hugh Sound. Like other tourism enterprises, members of the Small Ship Tour Operators Association of B.C. were hit hard by the COVID-19 shutdown. Even now that some sectors of the tourist trade have restarted, it’s almost impossible to maintain physical distance on a traditional ship. Plus, closings of Indigenous territories – where many of the boats travel during tours – have prevented operators from switching to serve a local clientele.

that ensured the vessels would stay away from populated areas. While the ships cleaned the outer shores, 75 members from the Nations would use their own boats to clean around villages and sacred sites, as well as their critical food-harvesting areas. “This is exactly what a government should spend money on,” says Sheila Malcolmson, B.C. parliamentary secretary for the environment. The MLA for Nanaimo, who’s also passionate about the problem of marine debris, recently completed a multimonth report titled What We Heard on Marine Debris in B.C., which outlined the coastal issues and offered up several solutions, from removing derelict boats to recycling useful parts of abandoned fishing gear.

I would say 98% of all this comes from China and south east Asia.

This kind of work should be full time and well paid. Every harbour and beach needs to be cleaned up. Lots of unemployed sitting at home wishing for a better life. We can afford to do it.

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