News
Summer Outreach
Surfrider Vancouver Island is out and about this summer. We’re tabling at events throughout Greater Victoria.
Thanks to the folks at Ska Fest for the opportunity to spread the word about keeping our beaches clean, and the chance for Surfrider volunteers to take in some great shows! Up next - August beach clean up and more…
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A note from the Chair…
How’s Your Beach Today?
Everybody I know loves going to the beach. Whether along a lake, a river, or the ocean, this time on the sand can be used for taking photographs, letting the dogs run, surfing some waves, having a beach fire, collecting seashells or pop cans, sun-worshipping, playing guitar, or all of the above. The seaside is a haven of harmony and our realm of relaxation. However this area far too often comes under threat of development, pollution and garbage.
Our monthly beach clean-ups on Vancouver Island over the past six years have uncovered the most unlikely items of trash like car parts, buckets of oil, and sometimes even a neat pile of cigarette butts next to broken beer bottles. Every beach varies with what washes upon it’s sandy shoreline and what is left there by beach users.
This past autumn I had the delight of camping on a remote beach off Brooks Peninsula, N/W Vancouver Island, with Surfrider members Adrian Nelson, Jeremy Klass, and Russel Murray. Over ten days we hiked to a dozen beaches, all incredible, with wildlife and old growth forest. We were amazed by the stunning vistas and mass amounts of flotsam and jetsam piled in the driftwood. It would require a hundred volunteers and helicopters with cargo nets to remove all the foreign items. Everything you can imagine - from plastic, styrofoam, & glass fishing floats, crab traps, boogie boards, thousands of plastic lighters, ocean buoys, and remnants of a Canadian Coastguard vessel. We did our best to use rope and tarps we found to help build our shelter and take this away with us on departure, along with a colourful array of used shotgun shells. The real issue however, is to stop this beach destruction at the source, which is no easy task. Did you know that over 80% of ocean trash is land-based garbage that makes its way to our beaches?
Over the past six years, Surfrider has held annual beach clean-ups at special places close to our hearts like Sombrio Beach, Port Renfrew, and spectacular Jordan River. The last clean-up at “the point” filled a pickup truck overflowing with metal cables from broken log booms along with the regular finds like tires, surf leashes, and fishing nets. Hopefully the recent purchase of this land from Western Forest Products by the CRD of Victoria will reduce the amount of industrial waste that gets dumped into the river and left on the beach.
At Surfrider, we promote the act of riding waves and the right for all people to access the beaches where they break, yet some breaks even on Vancouver Island are off-limits to the public because of private land. Some surfers even claim ownership to the coastline where the best waves are breaking. With the hard work of Surfrider, our most cherished beaches will ebb and flow with clean waves for all generations to come. It can begin with picking up a bottle cap after a surf or campaigning to stop crude oil freighters from sailing through our protected coastline.
Ride the waves, don’t wreck them, and join Surfrider to help your beach today.
Danny Amato, Surfrider Vancouver Island Chair, Victoria
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2009-2010 South Island Beach Clean Up Schedule Posted
Come help our local beaches clean!
