Strait's fate still unsettled Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 It's been almost eight years since The Vancouver Sun launched its award-winning Fate of the Strait series to highlight sustainability issues in the Strait of Georgia, our great inland sea. Our series, which began in 1998 and was last visited in 2002. Since 1998, the federal government has spent at least $40 milllion in funding to address environmental concerns and other pressures on Georgia Strait. Starting today, The Sun launches a three-part series updating the Fate of the Strait - - - Peter Sara rails against proposed fishing restrictions in popular Active Pass in the Gulf Islands. He fumes over the lack of action to control natural marine predators: "How about a bumper sticker: Shoot a seal and save a cod?" But when the spokesman for the Association of Mayne Island Boaters complains that "extreme radical conservationists" such as the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society are seeking to ban fishing on the entire B.C coast it is more than federal Parks Canada planner Bill Henwood can tolerate. "Bull....!" he asserts, clearly no invertebrate bureaucrat. Henwood calls Sara an "intelligent man" who knows full well that CPAWS -- as well as the federal government, for that matter -- is not seeking such dramatic protection measures, but is simply trying to create a sustainable ocean so "guys like you can fish." Caught by the hook of reality, Sara seeks to squirm his way to a fast retreat. "Okay, don't print that," he concludes, turning to The Vancouver Sun. "It was a bit of an exaggeration." Henwood is holding a "marine mixer" at the historic Gulf of Georgia cannery in Steveston, an opportunity for Parks Canada to explain a federal proposal to create B.C.'s first national marine conservation area covering up to 1,000 square kilometres of ocean in the southern Gulf Islands. The initiative comes as the federal government simultaneously wrestles with the creation of a series of conservation areas to protect rockfish along the B.C. coast. What might seem long-overdue objectives to one person are another's bureaucratic nightmare. John Bulmer, a commercial fisherman and whale watch captain, describes Ottawa's efforts as akin to someone moving next to an airport then complaining about air traffic. "It drives me nuts. Now they're in the Gulf Islands complaining about too many boats." One more gross exaggeration, yet indicative of the stormy emotions that continue to beset B.C.'s great inland sea. It's been almost eight years since The Sun launched its award-winning Fate of the Strait series, in June 1998, to highlight environmental issues and to promote sustainability in the Georgia basin. There have been some positive steps since that time: Lingcod stocks are improving thanks to a three-year ban on sport and commercial fishing, Pacific hake stocks are up, humpback whales continue to make a comeback from a wanton commercial slaughter a century ago in the strait, and senior governments worked to create Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in 2003. Still, much remains to be done in the Strait of Georgia and in Washington state's Puget Sound, shared waters that are home to at least 63 marine species officially at risk from threats such as over-harvesting, habitat loss, and pollution. In their new book, Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest, Andy Lamb and Bernie Hanby lament that the extensive system of land-based parks in B.C. has so far not extended to the marine environment. "Time is running out," they warn. "Action is needed, now." Rockfish and Pacific cod stocks in the strait remain low, as do runs of Fraser River oolichan; basking sharks have effectively been wiped out; and an endangered population of southern resident killer whales are the most polluted marine mammals in the world. Today, The Sun takes another look at the fate of the strait, launching a three-part series beginning with a look at the federal marine conservation area and its goal of improving fish stocks and achieving sustainability in local waters. The concept is to zone the ocean surrounding the islands (B.C. would have to agree to transfer the seabed to Ottawa as a prerequisite) to include everything from core areas with complete protection to other areas in which sustainable sport and commercial fishing could occur. Oil and gas exploration, along with dredging and dumping, would be prohibited. Other details on how these marine conservation areas would be managed, how the applicable conservation laws would be enforced, what it might cost federal taxpayers, and the impact on people already at work and play in these areas is still not entirely clear. Henwood agreed that conservation won't solve all the strait's ecological ills, noting that 80 per cent of marine pollutants come from land and that species such as killer whales spent much of their time in areas such as Puget Sound, where levels of long-lived chemicals such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are several times higher than in the Strait of Georgia. But he said a marine conservation area can help boost stocks upon which higher predators depend, can work to reduce pollution by restricting dumping of raw sewage by recreational vessels, create mooring buoys to protect the ocean bottom, potentially restrict personal watercraft, consult with municipalities on coastal land-use planning, and perhaps provide refuges for killer whales similar to Robson Bight ecological reserve in the salmon migratory corridor of Johnstone Strait. At the Steveston meeting, a female kayaker offers support for the conservation area, along with the concept of a marine trail for paddlers through the Gulf Islands. Others scoff at some of the proposals, arguing Ottawa isn't stopping the city of Victoria from dumping raw sewage into the ocean, so shouldn't take it out on recreational boaters. Officials with Vancouver Whale Watch, a killer whale ecotourism operation based out of Steveston, express concern about increased regulation of their industry, and fear that areas of the Gulf Islands might be closed to whale-watch boats in the absence of supportive science. Cedric Towers, owner of the company, argues the whale watch industry already has its own rules to avoid disturbing the whales and doesn't need another layer of bureaucracy. "We feel our guidelines are the most stringent in the world. If we are going to change something we want to know why." Peter Hamilton of Lifeforce, an environmental group that monitors the behaviour of boaters around the killer whales, counters that the industry -- especially Vancouver Whale Watch -- could do a better job to ensure vessels do not approach within 100 metres and do not deliberately put their vessels in the path of oncoming whales. Meanwhile, a coalition of environmental groups that include middle-of-the-road CPAWS has endorsed a Baja California to Bering Sea Initiative that would establish a network of selective marine protected areas that would prohibit fishing to allow rebuilding of stocks and enhance fishing opportunities in waters outside. The coalition would also ban destructive bottom trawling. "We don't want business as usual," said Sabine Jessen, B.C. conservation director for CPAWS. "But we also don't want to close down the coast." Although the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act was passed only in 2002, Ottawa has talked about such protected areas since 1995. Parks Canada will complete its three-year feasibility study in 2007, on an annual budget of about $300,000. With public support, a marine conservation area could become law as early as 2009. Ottawa is also already committed to creation of a similar conservation area in the Queen Charlottes Islands-Hecate Strait area on the north coast. Ottawa's rockfish conservation initiative would overlap with the marine conservation area. Gary Logan, rockfish specialist with the federal government, said Ottawa in recent years has cut annual commercial rockfish catches in the Strait of Georgia to 32 tonnes from about 100 tonnes, and in the recreational fishery has reduced the daily recreational bag limit to one from five. He said there are presently 102 rockfish conservation areas on the B.C. coast in which the taking of rockfish is illegal. In outside coastal waters about 20 per cent of rockfish habitat is closed, he said. The goal in the Strait of Georgia is to increase the level of protection to 30 per cent of habitat from the current nine per cent. It could take a decade to realize the benefits from these closures; assessments of habitat and population status will be monitored with remote cameras. "Rockfish continue to struggle," he said. "It's not a good story." Vicky Husband of the Sierra Club argues that even the daily bag limit of one rockfish is being abused; fishermen throw back small rockfish dead and keep fishing until they land a big one. "It really doesn't stop the fishery. They're catching babies. And there is nobody enforcing the activity." The environmental group is seeking a complete ban on targeted fishing for rockfish in both recreational and commercial sectors. lpynn@png.canwest.com © The Vancouver Sun 2005