NEWS

August-September 2005

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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The 4th Annual Indian Arm Paddle-A-Thon Fundraiser for Thwaytes Landing will be held Sunday, September 18, starting at 9:30 am at Deep Cove Canoe & Kayak, 2156 Banbury Road, North Vancouver, BC. This unique event brings friends, family and strangers together for a fun day of paddling and fundraising, plus a post- paddle festival that will greet paddlers and boaters upon their return to Deep Cove. Entrance fee is $25, or $50 if a kayak rental is required. An optional boat tour for non-paddlers departs Deep Cove at 10:30 am for $25/ person. Thwaytes Landing is an impressive 130-acre site including 1,100 meters of shoreline, cliffs with rocky outcrops, streams, waterfalls, mature coniferous forest and an accessible beach that is a favorite rest area for boaters, kayakers and canoeists. The site is managed as a park by Greater Vancouver Regional District Parks, in partnership with The Land Conservancy and the District of North Vancouver. For event details call 604-733-2313 or email vancouver@conservancy.bc.ca.

First Prize in the Georgia Strait Alliance’s GREAT SUMMER RAFFLE is a Greenland II double Folbot folding kayak. 2nd prize is a trip with Coast Mountain Expeditions (www.coastmountainexpeditions.com). 3rd prize a night at Sooke Harbour House (www.sookeharbourhouse.com). For more information, see www.GeorgiaStrait.org, email gsa@GeorgiaStrait.org, or phone 250-753-3459. Tickets $6 each or 3 for $15. Proceeds to marine conservation. Hurry! Ticket sales end noon September 13th.

two paddlers in Folbot greenland 2 Kayak

Greenland II double Folbot folding kayak. Tickets only $15.00.

To celebrate its 15th anniversary and welcome in the next 15 years, the Georgia Strait Alliance will be holding a GALA DINNER AUCTION the evening of Saturday October 22, at McMorran’s Beach House in Victoria, BC. The event will include an elegant dinner, live and silent auctions, entertainment, refreshments and lots of surprises and bargains. Items on the auction block include kayaking trips and gear, great getaways and outdoor adventures, home and garden supplies, theatre and other event passes, native art, other fine art, recreational equipment, books, luxury items and a wide range of services. The event is a key part of GSA’s 2005 fundraising campaign for The Next 15. Tickets will be available early September. Check www.GeorgiaStrait.org for details.

Racing Kayaks at Bowen Island's 7 th annual race

The 7th Annual Round Bowen Island race, in June, attracted 90 competitors, who competed in eight classes and smashed previous time records. A significant contingent came from Washington State, giving the event an international flavor. Martin Clarke of Bowen Island Sea Kayaking organized the race smoothly and precisely.

Conditions were good for the 38 km course and but for the wind against tide conditions in the closing 5 km, the record would not only have been severely broken but the race would have been a sustained sprint. Winner, Joost Seegers, with a time of 2 hours, 34 minutes and 36 seconds, said, “I kept thinking I might go over in those last few miles. From Hood Point to the finish, the conditions were grim.”

Close to a third of the entrants paddled high performance craft and dominated in their classes, but there were also a large number in regular sea kayaks, both singles and doubles, who determinedly raced for their own class honors. Racers and supporters were so appreciative of the efforts of all competitors that the last kayaker across the finish line received a resounding ovation!

Thanks to Chris Banner, Seaward Kayaks.

29 teams crossed the finish line July 4th to end the Saskatchewan Centennial Canoe Quest. 25 teams arrived by mid-afternoon but the 1500 spectators waited patiently for almost two more hours for the last four teams. It turned out that the Ciman Challengers, the RCMP team and the Lakeland College teams had overturned in Rat Rapids, damaging some of the canoes and shaking up the teams quite badly. The team from Stanley Mission stayed to help everyone.

The ultimate Canoe Quest finish was when these four teams arrived together and crossed the finish line at the same time, holding onto each others’ boats, capturing the spirit of the event in that final moment. All teams were recognized for their great accomplishments and prizes were awarded to the first six teams. www.saskatchewancentennialcanoequest.info/

A Canoe & Kayak Sail-In event was held at Porteau Cove Provincial Park, BC in June, with seven sailing canoes and seven sailing kayaks. All seven sailing canoes were BC boats with home built rigs. Six of the sailing kayaks were commercial boats from Washington, including an Easy Rider kayak and a number of Triaks, plus one local boat with a home built rig. For three of the canoe rigs, this was their maiden voyage.

Thanks to Jim Hartwick.

Innova Kayak’s Seaker inflatable sea kayak has been selected for a Real Deal Award from Hooked on the Outdoors magazine in the paddling category. “This inflatable kayak won over our skeptical testers with its high performance.” The Real Deal Award honors practical excellence in gear design. Testers considered value, ease-of-use, durability, versatility, comfort, fit, reliability and performance. The 16-foot Seaker features high-pressure chambers, Kajak Sport deck hatches, a SmartTrack rudder, a standard spray skirt compatible cockpit, and a 15-minute setup time.

Long-time kayak industry stalwart, Rupert Wong sends his heartfelt farewell and thanks to the many friends and colleagues he’s met since joining the industry in 1989. Since 2000 and the birth of their first child, Rupert and wife Wai Ling (a medical doctor) have become jugglers, like all parents. “Growing a family is all consuming,” confesses Rupert, “and we want to make the most it.” With his full-time environmental consulting, Rupert will continue to work with the talented fisheries and labor crew in Kyuquot. He’s very proud that in conjunction with other environmental professionals, the logging company Interfor, the community and government, an estimated $1 million has been raised and invested towards habitat restoration projects in the Kyuquot area since 1996 giving rise to more than 2,000 person days of work for the community and outside professionals. Rupert was also a key member of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Strait Alliance for several years.

Rupert is pleased to introduce Mike Simpson & Kim Letson of Courtenay, BC as the new owners of West Coast Expeditions (WCE). Over more than four seasons working as guides for WCE, Mike and Kim have grown to appreciate the magic of the Kyuquot environment, the community and the business. Rupert is confident that the community, clients and paddling industry as a whole will benefit from the enthusiasm they bring to WCE.

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) will open its eleventh store next spring in Victoria, BC. The announcement ends months of speculation about when and where the popular outdoor co- op would open a store in the city. “MEC members in Victoria and elsewhere on Vancouver Island have been asking for a store of their own for several years,” said MEC chair Linda Bartlett. “We’re delighted that soon there will be one.” As a member- driven organization, MEC develops new stores where a sizeable membership base already exists. More than 46,000 MEC members live on Vancouver Island, of which over half live in or around Victoria. The 15,000 square-foot store will occupy the main floor of a mixed-use redevelopment in a registered heritage building fronting Government and Johnson streets. The store will employ approximately 40 people, with hiring to begin early next year. Experienced outdoor enthusiasts who are familiar with outdoor recreation opportunities on Vancouver Island and who have a strong service ethic would make ideal candidates. MEC is Canada’s largest retail co-operative, providing products and services for self-propelled outdoor recreation. Established in 1971, MEC has more than 2.2 million members throughout Canada and around the world. www.mec.ca. MEC will join existing outdoor stores in Victoria, such as Ocean River Sports and Pacifica, among others.

The Kwakiutl Band Council is advising paddlers that certain restrictions apply to kayakers accessing Deer Island in Beaver Harbour, adjacent to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. Deer Island is owned by the Kwakiutl Band of Fort Rupert and is a cultural and heritage site used by the Kwakiutl Band for those purposes. Any persons wishing to visit Deer Island are asked to contact the Kwakiutl Band Office prior to landing on the Island. Reasonable access to the Island will be granted as long as visitors undertake to respect the Island’s natural environment and the Band-owned facilities. It is strictly forbidden to remove any artifacts of any kind from the Island. Stephen Olson (Band Manager): 250-949-6012 or manager@kwakiutl.bc.ca.

Check out www.google.ca/maps for map and satellite images which you can zoom in on to get an amazingly detailed view of almost anywhere on the planet. Very useful for upcoming trips!

Congratulations to WaveLength’s Florida friend Fritzi Olson and her environmental organization Current Problems, which has been awarded the Water Conservation Organization of the Year Award from the Florida Wildlife Federation. The group is best known for its Adopt A River program, and was inspired by local paddlers appalled by trash they encountered. Fritzi’s group is now undertaking a Restore A Shore program, encouraging people to plant native vegetation near waterways in cooperation with city and county agencies. www.currentproblems.org.

The US Marine Mammal Commission says that inaction by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is condemning the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale to extinction. The Commission claims that for the past year NOAA has been sitting on proposed rules that would require reduced ship speeds, re-routing and channel restrictions to minimize ship traffic in sensitive calving, mating and migratory areas. Ship strikes are the largest known cause of death for the Right Whale, considered one of the planet’s most endangered species with fewer than 300 animals left. In the past several months, five percent of the total female breeding population has been lost, as well as two near-term calves. Alarmed by a rash of Right Whale deaths last fall, NOAA issued a press release in December announcing a “summit” of federal agencies “to seek immediate voluntary actions” to make “East Coast waters safer” for Right Whale. This summit never occurred nor did any actions to make the waters safer. www.mmc.gov.

NOAA has announced plans to open the nation’s oceans to overfishing, says Matt Rand, director of Conserve Our Ocean Legacy. If NOAA’s plans become law, the ‘overfishing standard’, a fundamental conservation measure, will be stripped of its ability to protect the nation’s fish populations and the ocean ecosystems of which they are a part. The overfishing standard is the cornerstone of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the principle law governing US fisheries, and is accompanied by a set of regulatory guidelines that provide the details necessary to implement it. The agency’s proposed changes would weaken the standard by: explicitly allowing overfishing on already depleted fish populations; lengthening allowable timeframes for rebuilding fish populations; allowing fishery managers to ignore scientific recommendations; and valuing commerce over conservation. ”The writing’s on the wall,” said Rand. “When it comes to managing the nation’s wild fish stocks, NOAA has decided to throw in the towel. The agency isn’t just giving up on the fisheries it’s supposed to protect; the agency is giving up on the nation’s fishermen.” www.oceanlegacy.org.

Bright lights from mansions and hotels that shine out hundreds of feet onto the ocean will no longer be allowed in Hawaii. A new law prohibits large floodlights and spotlights from shining out into the ocean. Lights needed for harbors, airports and other government operations are allowed, as well as lights from hotels as long as they do not cast light beyond 30 feet from the shoreline. The Sierra Club Hawaii chapter, which lobbied for the law, says such artificial lights have been documented as causing the death of hatching sea turtles, fledgling shearwaters, nocturnal flying sea birds and migratory birds. Other new laws protecting Hawaii’s environment include providing additional recycling centers through a rebate program, increasing clean energy use by expanding the net energy metering program and state energy efficient vehicle requirement, and prohibiting golf courses on farmland. www.hi.sierraclub.org.

Celebrating World Ocean’s Day (June 8th), the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre announced that TD Canada Trust has become the title sponsor for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Now known as the ‘TD Canada Trust Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup’, this volunteer driven environmental initiative, coordinated by the Vancouver Aquarium, reaches across the country from Tofino, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland. This year, the cleanup will run from September 10th to 18th. The Shoreline Cleanup began as a community beach cleanup 11 years ago in Vancouver to contribute to the International Coastal Cleanup held every September around the world, and within a few years, expanded to other provinces and became a national event. In 2004, more than 30,000 volunteers participated at events in every province and territory, including Nunavut. All of the items collected during the cleanup are recorded and the data is returned to the Vancouver Aquarium for tallying. This information is then passed on to the Ocean Conservancy, which compiles worldwide results as part of the International Coastal Cleanup. To register your cleanup or to volunteer, you must sign up by August 31, 2005. For more information, visit: www.vanaqua.org/cleanup.

A report on ocean acidification by the Royal Society was released in June. “If CO2 from human activities continues to rise, the oceans will become so acidic by 2100 it could threaten marine life in ways we can’t anticipate,” said Dr. Ken Caldeira, co-author of the report and a newly appointed staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, California. Marine plants soak up CO2 and convert it to food during photosynthesis. Organisms also use it to make their skeletons and shells, which eventually form sediments. With the explosion of fossil-fuel burning over the past 200 years, it has been estimated that more than a third of the human-originated greenhouse gas has been absorbed by the oceans. While marine organisms need CO2 to survive, work by Caldeira and colleagues shows that too much CO2 in the ocean could lead to ecological disruption and extinctions in the marine environment. The acidity could negatively impact calcifying organisms, such as phytoplankton and zooplankton, some of the most important players at the base of the planet’s food chain. Scientists calculated that over the past 200 years, the pH of the surface seawater has declined by 0.1 units, which represents a 30% increase in hydrogen ions. If emissions of CO2 continue to rise as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s IS92a scenario, there will be another drop of .5 units by 2100, a level that has not existed in the oceans for many millions of years. In addition, the changes in the ocean’s chemistry will reduce the ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, which in turn will accelerate the rate of global warming. “This report should sound the alarm bells around the world,” remarked Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Department of Global Ecology. “It provides compelling evidence for the need for a thorough understanding of the implications of ocean acidification. It also strengthens the case for rapid progress on reducing CO2 emissions.”

In British Columbia, BC Hydro has cancelled the Duke Point Power Plant on Vancouver Island following strong public opposition to the plan. According to the new BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA), there are many other more sustainable ways to meet any possible power shortages on the Island without resorting to a gas-fired plant which would have released 800,000 tonnes of greenhouses gases and other pollutants every year. See www.bcsea.org. The Canadian Minister of the Environment, Honourable Stéphane Dion, has said that Bill C 15, which came into force on June 28th, will allow Canada to more fully protect its marine environments from polluters. Making the announcement in St. John’s, with Tom Osborne, the Minister of Environment and Conservation for Newfoundland and Labrador, Dion said, “With Bill C-15, which effectively strengthens our environmental protection laws, Canada is sending a message to the world that we value our marine resources and will protect them by all necessary means.” Environment Canada’s research shows that an estimated 300,000 sea birds are killed each year off the coast of Atlantic Canada alone, as a result of oiling incidents. Research is currently under way on numbers of birds being killed and injured elsewhere. Minister Osborne said, “The illegal and deliberate dumping of bilge oil off our coastlines is an issue that our government takes very seriously.” Support for marine pollution surveillance is also provided by the Canadian Space Agency through the Integrated Satellite Tracking of Polluters (ISTOP) program which uses Canada’s Radarsat remote sensing satellite. See www.ec.gc.ca/media_e.htm.

According to global assessments conducted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), boat and land-based whale watching operations now exist in 90 countries and territories, contributing more than one billion dollars in direct and indirect tourism revenues to coastal communities worldwide. Dr. Joth Singh, IFAW delegate to the IWC meeting in Korea said, “Whale watching is a win-win solution for whales and people, bringing terrific economic opportunities to coastal communities worldwide. It’s the 21st century alternative to whaling—a truly sustainable use of whales.” A copy of the new IFAW report is available at www. ifaw.org.au.

U S Senator Patty Murray (D- Wash.) has secured $1.4 million for the Northwest Straits Commission. Murray helped launch the innovative grassroots approach to marine protection in Washington State seven years ago and in the past six years has secured over $4 million for the restoration efforts. In 1997, Murray brought opposing stakeholders together to create an advisory commission to address local issues. At a time when few thought the experiment would work, their coordinated efforts created an innovate model of restoring and protecting marine habitats. As a result, the Northwest Straits Commission was created a year later as the best approach to restoring the marine resources of the Northwest Straits. In April 2004, a national evaluation panel of experts chaired by Bill Ruckelshaus, said. “They have used local ideas and sound science to come up with useful, effective accomplishments.”

Commenting on the funding, Senator Murray said, “The success of the Northwest Straits Commission proves that when our communities come together to protect our environment, the result can be extraordinary.” For more on marine conservation work in Washington, see www.pugetsound.org.

Check out www.oceansonline.ca for info, issues and action on Canada's west coast marine environment.


WaveLength columnist Alex Matthews and Rochelle Relyea were married this spring in an event at the Vargas Island Inn near Tofino, BC which Alex decribes as ‘a west coast hippy wedding’.	Meanwhile, in Florida, WaveLength columnist Bryan Nichols married Amanda Linville, a native of Florida.