Work inches forward on marine trail

Fall 2008

News

Imagine a network of landing and camping havens along the coastline of British Columbia within paddling distance of each other. That's the goal of the new B.C. Marine Trails Network Task Force, a group with its eyes on 12,500 nautical miles of shore and the lofty dream of creating the world's longest water trail.

An alliance of representatives of kayaking clubs from across B.C., in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, is working to develop this vision under the banner of the B.C. Marine Trails Network Task Force. A significant advantage in B.C. is that 90 per cent of the land is owned by the government. Sites on private land where necessary will be included by agreements between owners, communities and the government.

Work towards a marine trail in B.C. originally started in the early 1990s but stalled due to lack of public awareness, and ultimately cutbacks within government. In fall 2007 the first coastal treaty between the B.C. Government and the Maa-Nulth First Nations was ratified, raising the question of how this could affect access for kayaking. It also raised the spectre that access to public land taken for granted could be lost due to private land ownership and various types of commercial ventures – if steps aren't taken to preserve access.

The first meeting of clubs examining this issue took place in December 2007 in Vancouver. Shortly after the meeting, representatives of most of the largest

kayaking clubs on the Lower Mainland of B.C. and Vancouver Island, plus a representative from Outdoor Recreation Council, formed the B.C. Marine Trails Task Force. This affiliation represents the interests of roughly 1,500 kayakers and canoeists. The group's mandate is to work cooperatively with government to develop a series of sites linking the coastline of B.C. to create a group of interconnected

routes. An informational website will eventually be developed as part of the trail progress.

Key to the development is the cooperation of First Nations, most of which still have unresolved land claim disputes on the coast. The Marine Trails Task Force has worked with the B.C. government to develop an informational package to promote the trails network to First Nations and coastal communities along the route, as well as other stakeholders.

Each club has taken on responsibility for a section of coastline, with tasks involving identifying primary routes, some secondary routes and developing a campsite inventory. A section of the West Coast of Vancouver Island, from Tofino to Port Hardy, dubbed the West Coast Marine Trail, has already been proposed and presented to the province. It will be proceeding through various channels in order to get the necessary sites designated as B.C. Marine trails sites.

While the task force eyes greater local and international support, political hurdles remain, particularly a changing political climate and no formal announcement of government buy-in, keeping the future of the trail in limbo.

Island speed record eyed

British kayaker Sean Morley has a new goal in sight: a speed record for circumnavigating Vancouver Island.

Morley, the current world masters surf kayak champion in the high performance category, made history in 2004 by completing the first solo circumnavigation of the United Kingdom, Ireland and all their inhabited islands in a six-month, 4,500-mile (7,200-km) expedition – the longest undertaken by a kayaker in British waters.

The current record for rounding Vancouver Island stands at 23 days 10 hours for a single kayak by Joe O’Blenis in 2007, a trip sponsored by Coast&Kayak Magazine parent company Wild Coast Publishing and sister publication Wild Coast Magazine. The record for a circumnavigation in a double kayak was set earlier that year at 19 and a half days by Kieron Tastagh and Jeff Norville.

Morley's aim is to complete the 700-mile (1,100 km) journey in 18 days. He will be leaving immediately after the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium on Sept. 22, with his itinerary calling for a launch from Port Hardy to await good weather crossing notorious Cape Scott, then a counter-clockwise route to come into the cover of the Inside Passage on the east side of Vancouver Island before the change-of-season storms arrive in early October.

“Vancouver Island can present some of the most challenging conditions a kayaker can face including fierce winds and huge waves off the notorious headlands of Cape Scott and the Brooks Peninsula, high surf and treacherous reefs guarding the remote beaches of the west coast and raging tidal rapids reaching speeds of 15 knots in the myriad of channels separating the Vancouver Island from the mainland,” Morley said in a press release from trip sponsor Kokatat.

Now based out of California, Morley runs River and Ocean LLC, a sales and customer service agency in the paddlesports industry, and is the western region sales representative for Kokatat.

You can follow his progress by following the links on the expedition website

www.expeditionkayak.com and his blog http://riverandocean.blogspot.com/.

Right whales, wrong speeds

Commercial ships along the Atlantic coast may have to go slow to avoid collisions with the endangered right whale.

The federal government is recommending a five-year, 10-knot speed limit for commercial ships within 23 miles of major mid-Atlantic ports, where collisions have been common. Only about 300 of the whales remain, with their territory extending from their breeding grounds in the southeastern Atlantic to their feeding areas off the Massachusetts coast.

Busy shipping lanes cross their migration route.

Hope floats higher at Kayak for a Cure

Kayaks have been mixing paddling with charity in Vancouver for the past three years, with Kayak for a Cure successfully raising money for research initiatives at the Canadian Cancer Society. Kayak for a Cure III proved to be another year of laughs, love and a great day of paddling on the waters of English Bay as 60 kayakers made the trek across the bay.

This year was special for executive director and founder Mark Starkey.

“2008 was a record year for us,” he said. “We certainly aren’t raising millions of dollars yet, but our events have continued to gain momentum and popularity and we were able to raise $50,000 this year as an organization.”

In its third year, Kayak for a Cure also held an event in Victoria, B.C. and Columbus, Ohio. “We’re thrilled to have seen successful growth in two additional venues this year and are so lucky to have leadership in each city within our staff . That’s what makes this special – we have a fantastic team involved in running and organizing Kayak for a Cure events through North America.”

To learn more about Kayak for a Cure events in Vancouver and around North America, visit www.hopefloats.ca or contact Mark Starkey at mark@kayakforacure.ca.

Tanker traffic in strait opposed

A plan in the works to build a tanker port on B.C.’s Inside Passage doesn’t have the blessing of the Canadian public.

The plan would see a natural gas facility built on the north end of Texada Island, fueled by as many as one tanker very five days traveling the Strait of Georgia to the facility.

A poll released by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Georgia Strait Alliance, found seven in ten British Columbians support a ban on oil tankers in British Columbia’s inside coastal waters.

Environmental groups are seeking federal legislation banning oil tankers along the waters of the newly created Great Bear Rainforest Conservation Area.

The poll’s release coincides with a renewed push from pipeline giants to open up B.C.’s inside coastal waters to tanker traffic. Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, two of the industry’s largest players, have recently revived proposals to bring oil to the B.C. Coast from the tar sands by pipeline and then ship it to Asian markets by supertankers. If all the proposed projects go ahead, more than 300 tankers would travel through coastal waters each year, Georgia Strait Alliance says.

Support for a ban climbs to nearly eight in ten for people who live on Vancouver Island and the coast.

More paddling industry news can be found here, while paddling community news can be found here.