Six derelict boats have been removed from Cowichan Bay in recent weeks.
But the water logged and decrepit vessels were not taken away under the federal government’s new $6.85-million Abandoned Boats Program that was announced earlier this month.
Instead, three companies operating in Cowichan Bay decided to get together and grab the bull by the horns.
Western Forest Products, Western Stevedoring and Pacific Inustrial & Marine took the last two vessels out of the water on June 21 with two logging helicopters hired from Heliquest, an international helicopter charter company.
PIM’s owner Brian Thacker said the companies were tired of waiting for someone else to remove the boats from the bay.
“There has been a lot of talk about the problem of derelict boats, but no one seemed ready to take action,” he said.
“That’s why a number of us got together and took matters into our own hands.”
Thacker said four of the vessels were able to be removed using company boats and equipment, but the water the two that required the helicopters was in was too shallow for them to be towed so they had to be airlifted.
He said the three companies are splitting the approximately $50,000 that was spent in total removing the six vessels.
“We got them all now, and we’ll keep our eyes open for new ones,” Thacker said.
“They weren’t impeding our operation or anything, but we just wanted to clean up the bay area. Leaving the boats where they were posed a risk of fuel leaks and safe navigation, as storms and high tides can cause the boats to drift.”
About 600 boats have been ditched and abandoned on Canada’s coasts, including dozens over the years in Cowichan Bay and Ladysmith harbour.
There was cautious optimism that the the federal government’s new program to deal with derelict vessels would see a surge in efforts to remove them, but it is getting a cool reception locally.
Sheila Malcolmson, the NDP MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith, has said the Abandoned Boats Program doesn’t come close to covering the potential costs of removing abandoned and neglected vessels along Canadian coasts.
“The cost of removing just one vessel in Ladysmith was more than the annual budget for vessel removal (in the new program),” she said in an earlier interview.
“It’s a drop in the bucket.”