Shortly after noon on June 5, Cpl Nancy Joyce of the Bowen Island RCMP got a call about a group of people illegally harvesting oysters on Sandy Beach. This was not the first time local police has been alerted to activities like this. But this week, the information arrived in time to take action.
"We headed down there right away and on the way we got another report from someone else who had phoned to report that there were 20 people taking oysters." This estimate turned out to be inaccurate according to Joyce who found six men at Sandy Beach. Brian Biddlecombe, owner and operator of Cormorant Marina had also stopped to check out the situation.
"The men had arrived in a van and one had a 15 to 20-litre-cooler full of oysters," Joyce said, adding that they were on their way back to the beach to return the shellfish. "Someone had obviously told them to take the oysters back," Joyce explained. "They had also thrown a bag of oysters into the bushes. We told them to go and find it." Joyce explained that the men had to make their way through blackberry brambles to retrieve the bag to return the oysters to the beach.
"They were clearly coming here to take oysters," Joyce said, adding that the men held fishing licences and stated that they hadn't been aware that this activity was illegal on Bowen Island. "A lot of people come to Bowen thinking that they can harvest oysters, clams and mussels and they don't check the regulations before they get here," Joyce said, adding that she told the group to check local regulations because all of Bowen Island is a closed area for any amount of bivalve harvesting.
Joyce said that the six males have not been charged and none of them were known to the RCMP or the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
Bowen Island RCMP had previous reports of people taking buckets or garbage bags of oysters, according to Joyce, but there wasn't enough information to intercept the perpetrators. "If there is a vehicle involved, we need to get a license plate number, a description of the vehicle and the description of the people," Joyce said. "We may be able to get to them in the ferry line-up. And if we are not able to do anything, the DFO has people all over the lower mainland who can follow up on the information."
Joyce welcomes the initiative of the Bowen Island Fish and Wildlife Club to put up signs at local beaches. "It's a collaborative effort between the municipality, the Fish and Wildlife Club, the block watch in the [Sandy Beach] area and the RCMP," Joyce said. "The people have been very engaged."
Bill Newport, president of the Fish and Wildlife Club, said that the idea for putting up signs started when concerns of Sandy Beach neighbours were brought to the club's attention earlier this year. "We started communicating and thought it was a good time to start signage," he said. "Beverly Lindsey, who lives in the area, arranged a meeting with the DFO, the RCMP, the municipality's auxiliary bylaw officer and the Fish and Wildlife Club at Sandy Beach by the side of the road."
The group discussed next steps and Newport learned that the DFO, the municipal bylaw officer and the Bowen Island RCMP would all respond to calls about poaching. "It's great to know we have support on Bowen as well as from the DFO," Newport said.
Newport, on behalf of the Bowen Island Fish and Wildlife Club, committed to produce (and pay for) the signs. Tim Pardee, a club member and volunteer, coordinated the design and manufacture and reported that the signs will be delivered to the municipality next week.
Pardee said that he had heard about poachers filling bags of oysters from witnesses who did not know how to respond. "I talked to Bill [Newport] to see how we can help to educate people and empower them to protect our beaches." Pardee believes that poaching has been going on for many years regardless of the ban on harvesting shellfish.
Pardee said that he is pleased to hear about the response from neighbours to the incident on Tuesday. "We wanted to empower people and it's good to hear that this is what happened," he said.
"The bans throughout Howe Sound are based on health concerns," says Pardee who thinks that some of the poachers might sell the oysters to restaurants. "The first step was to empower people on Bowen and get the word out that the ban on harvesting shellfish will be enforced locally. The next step is to create awareness that shellfish is contaminated and there are health warnings against consuming it."
The Fish and Wildlife Club will make a presentation to council about this issue at the Monday, June 11 council meeting.
