Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A 2014 study estimates there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. There is also a great deal of polystyrene. These are two of the most prevalent types of ocean debris washing up on our beaches. The Ocean Legacy Foundation decided to do something about it and partnered with the qathet Regional District to open up BC’s first Ocean Plastic Depot in Powell River.
This is the first of a series of two interviews with Abby McLennan from Let’s Talk Trash in Powell River. Let’s Talk Trash is both an hour long monthly radio program broadcast over Power River Community Radio, CJMP 90.1 FM, and, since 2011, also the qathet Regional District’s Waste Reduction Education Program.
The quathet Regional District stretches from the ferry terminal at Saltry Bay, north along the coast to Toba Inlet. Hernando, Texada, Savary, and Lasqueti islands are all within its boundaries. More than 65% of the inhabitants live in Powell River (2016 pop: 13,157).
Savary Island, the village of Lund and smoke from the mill at Powell River can all be seen from the eastern shore of Cortes Island. They are also within the broadcast area of Cortes Radio, CKTZ, 89.5 FM.
The Ghost Fear Fund
“The $8.3 million Sustainable Fisheries Solutions and Retrieval Support Contribution Program, known as the Ghost Gear Fund will fund 22 projects in Canada and four internationally over the next two years. All projects fall into at least one of four categories: gear retrieval, responsible disposal, acquisition and piloting of available gear technology, and international leadership.” - press release from Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada.
The First Ocean Plastic Depots
“The Ocean Legacy Foundation was successful is getting some funding, we partnered with them and that is how this Ocean Plastic Depot came into being. It’s really a vision of the Ocean Legacy Foundation. They want to have these satellite depots all up and down the coast, so there is a place to bring the material for recycling, and not just disposal, when [beach] clean-up efforts happen. This is the first depot in BC, and I believe in Canada … A second one has just been installed in Tofino,” said McLennan.
