Mannion Bay is on its way to being in shipshape order again.
Bowen Island Municipality has applied for $10,000, under a federal abandoned boats program, to remove and dispose of two derelict vessels from Mannion Bay.
The problematic boats in question have been in the Bay for more than two years, according to Bowen manager of parks and environment, Bonny Brokenshire, who is optimistic the federal funding will come through. The money would add to the abandoned boats education work and clean-up efforts already underway in Mannion Bay.
“It may be a positive sign that all the money and time invested over the last five years is actually working …,” Brokenshire said last week. “That’s a testament to the direction of council that it has deemed the issue important enough to deal with out of municipal funds.”
The federal government announced last week the first funding recipients under its abandoned boats program, but Bowen is still waiting to hear where it stands.
“As soon as we hear back we could then start to deal with the vessels in question,” said Brokenshire.
The District of Sechelt, meanwhile, is getting $70,000 to assess 14 boats in its jurisdiction. The money is part of a $1.3-million package of funding through the abandoned boats program and a program to pay for the removal of boats abandoned in small craft harbours announced March 12 by federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau.
Marc Garneau tabled legislation last fall to deal with derelict and abandoned vessels, saying Bill C-64, the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, would proactively deal with the problem by giving the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks the force of law in Canada.
The bill would also: prohibit vessel abandonment; strengthen owner responsibility and liability for hazardous vessels and wrecks, including costs for cleanup and removal; and empower the federal government to take proactive action on hazardous vessels.
Containments leaked into the water from abandoned boats, including fuel, can pose a serious environmental hazard and threaten marine life.
Longtime Mannion Bay resident Bruce Russell welcomed the news this week that the municipality has applied for funding to remove the derelict boats.
“… Believe you me, (as) somebody who has endured the problem for over 10 years, I can tell you there are some boats there that just do nothing that are a blight on the community,” Russell told the Undercurrent.
Bowen obtained a Licence of Occupation for Mannion Bay, effectively giving the municipality jurisdiction over those waters so it can move forward with a plan to restore environmental and community well-being to the area.
“I fully support Bonny and the municipality in saying, the day after we got the Licence of Occupation, they weren’t going put the sledgehammer down and say: ‘OK, the way it was isn’t the way it’s going to be,’” said Russell. “There’s got to be a transition period. And while some people would like to see them move quicker, I realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
That said, Russell added as the summer season approaches “we don’t want to see more of the problematical or unacceptable boats coming back into the Bay.”
“Boats just get parked there,” said Russell.
But strides to deal with abandoned boats have been made, he acknowledged.
After more than two decades, the 28-metre steel hull sailboat Black Eyes made a permanent departure from Mannion Bay last spring. This was a long awaited event for Russell, a waterfront property owner and founder of the Friends of Mannion Bay, who had been watching the boat deteriorate for years.
Black Eyes would fall over on its side and paint would scrape off into the Bay and contaminate the waters, according to Russell’s account. If Black Eyes had sunk it would have cost $100,000 to salvage it and get it out of the water, adds Russell, according to information from friends in the marine salvage business.
Friends of Mannion Bay put some money up, along with BIM, to help with the $2,000 cost to tow Black Eyes off the island. But other abandoned boats remain in the area, including, said Russell, one mostly sunken vessel with its mast sticking out of the water by about two metres.
“I think it’s a navigational hazard,” said Russell. “The abuse and misuse of the Bay by the people who don’t follow common sense rules for the benefit of everybody is most disappointing.”
The area is looking more shipshape these days and shedding its “junk bay” moniker, added Russell, thanks to the efforts of residents and the municipality. He said residents took a stand to clean up the iconic bay which was once a hub for family activities and steeped in Bowen history dating back to the Union Steamship era.
“And so we finally said, ‘Let’s get back to the way that it was as best we can,’” said Russell.
– with files from Sean Eckford, Coast Reporter
