Dear Editor,
With this election, we will finally move on to a new chapter in the history of Bowen Island. For more than a decade, we have witnessed an ongoing political battle between two groups: environmental activists versus the pro-development gang. Both groups band together, especially at election times, to keep their side in power. Over time, this has been well meaning, but has, perhaps, not necessarily productive. Despite our current approach, we remain in a deficit position now and the predicted trend is not good. This needs to change. We need to work together moving forward so that we do not miss critical opportunities that now stare us in the face.
In the coming months, we will have a new mayor and several, perhaps, all new members on council. And, as we try to sort through the myriad of ads and paper hand-outs, posters and signs, smiling faces and short-term promises from those running for office, it is crucial that we have a much longer term vision of where we could be as a community in another decade or so. Stale ideas and old approaches just don’t cut it anymore. The world is moving rapidly around us and traditional partisan politics just will not work. Now, we, as a community, need to think big and look forward. We need to consider what would fit here and how we can go about getting it. And, in this election, we need to seriously look at all of the youthful energy and enthusiasm that is being offered to us.
Just consider this: as an island community, we are very unique in British Columbia, even in Canada. Our municipal boundaries are marked entirely by a shoreline joined to the ocean depths of Howe Sound, not solely by lines on a map that separate one suburb from another on the continent. Indeed, our suburbs are, for the most part, small uninhabited islets. We are not an isolated community in the hinterlands, but find ourselves next to a major metropolitan center, yet we are really independent from it or should be. These features alone suggest the potential for something unusual and pretty special to evolve here: a privately-funded marine research-education center.
An institution such as this could result in a very different island in a decade or so. It would occupy a very small footprint, or perhaps several small foot prints in a multi-site campus. The main stage, however, would always be the ocean depths below us. Howe Sound is really our resource, the real research laboratory for this enterprise. Although it is now constantly being threatened by different industrial proposals, from gravel pits to the serious threat of tanker-transported liquid natural gas, our community has witnessed a massive change, really a “sea change”, during the term of this last council. Pods of killer whales, humpbacks (one, at least, with a name, Cassieopia), grey whales and hundreds of dolphins beckon us. They are seen almost every week. There have been many theories as to why this has happened from climate change to the efforts of local stream-keeper groups but really, truly, there is no definitive explanation. That alone is an important message.
It goes beyond the preservation of Howe Sound as a conservation area. It begs us as an island community to make a case now for a real life marine-focused industry centered on the island that will carry us forward into the next century. No one else will do it for us. Remember, most of what we see is in on the surface, or at best, less than 50 meters down. But, our Howe Sound is deep, very deep, hundreds of meters down. What lives there? We need to know.
We need a focus in our community, like Wood’s Hole Institute in the US (www.whoi.edu) that raises our attention to discovery and investigation. Such an enterprise would create employment for many islanders. It could bring more young bright families here. Many of our island children would see this excitement of discovery every day, and eventually, some of our own might become marine biologists and oceanographers, themselves. And, most of all, we would gain an even greater appreciation for these beautiful creatures that inhabit the ocean depths around us, like the glass sponges, and some, of course, that we haven’t even met yet.
I believe that Bowen Island has this potential, this opportunity for such a development. We have the potential here for a truly independent community with a marine focus, a real “Republic of Bowen Island”, on the edge of discovery.
Let’s do this…together.
Dr. Hugh Freeman
