Dear Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society,
Thank you for copying me in on your email to the Transport Minister Lisa Raitt regarding your concerns about the presence of the regular parking of large commercial ships at anchorages in
Cowichan Bay. I’m sorry for the delay in replying.
As you may be aware, I have been raising this issue with the Minister of Transport for a number of years. I have attached our correspondence for your information.
Constituents’ opinions help shape and influence policy directions and I appreciate you including me in your correspondence. I would appreciate being kept appraised of any response from the
Minister.
Thank you for taking the time to raise this issue.
Kind regards,
JEAN CROWDER, MP
Nanaimo-Cowichan www.jeancrowder.ca
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From: Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society [ mailto:cbsws820@gmail.com
]
Sent: July 6, 2015 12:35 AM
To: Crowder, Jean - M.P.
Subject: Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society response to Capt. Stephen Brown B.C. CEO B.C.C.o.S.
Importance: Low
Dear Ms Crowder,
For your awareness, we are forwarding an email that was sent to the Minister of Transport, Lisa
Raitt.
From: Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2015 2:11 PM
To: Minister Lisa Raitt
Cc: 'Stephen Brown'
Subject: Fw: Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society response to Capt. Stephen Brown B.C. CEO B.C.C.o.S.
Dear Minister Raitt,

We are http://cowichanbayshipwatchsociety.com/ and represent a large community of residents and businesses in Cowichan Bay, on Vancouver Island, B.C.
We have attached a letter in response to a letter by Captain Stephen Brown, recently published in our west coast ‘Pacific Yachting’ magazine, (also attached).
We are very concerned about the presence of the regular parking of large commercial ships at anchorages in Cowichan Bay. These anchorages have been here since 1970 but have been almost unused until 2010. The number of ships here have been increasing steadily and during 2014 we had 58 ships here. We understand that these anchorages are popular for their various attributes and that it is difficult to place them elsewhere.
These ships present an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic fuel spill in the estuary, inlets and foreshore habitat in this mostly enclosed body of water. In light of the recent oil spill in Vancouver, the contamination from bunker fuel in these areas could do irreparable damage to all marine life and foreshore birdlife especially in the estuary sanctuary. The Cowichan River and Finlayson Arm at either end the end of the bay and Satellite Channel are on the top ten most important salmon rivers in
North America.
Local work is taking place on improving healthy shellfish life and harvesting possibilities are increasing after years of previous industrial contamination.
Anchor chain drag from these massive 300 meter ships, tear up the ocean floor.
An anchor loss would almost surely result in a grounding, due to the extremely close proximity to shore and with no Canadian emergency response vessels with the ability to prevent this from happening anywhere on Canada’s west coast.
These ships cause, massive disruptive, social impacts of smoke, noise, and lights; The community has grown 1800% since these anchorages were charted in 1970 and the ships have also grown exponentially in overall size. They arrive at all times of the day and night and drop anchor, reverberating against the high terrain surrounding the bay and run their noisy generators 24/7 causing residents to have sleepless nights.
The Cowichan Valley also has dangerous levels of pollution during the colder months, causing serious respiratory conditions. This is also when vessels park in
Cowichan Bay, they incessantly emit highly toxic smoke from their bunker fuel driven generators .
We would very much appreciate a response as to your thoughts and possible solutions to our concerns. We have met with the authorities responsible for ship traffic in our area including, Capt. Stephen Brown, Kevin Obermeyer, CEO P.P.A. and Kelly

Larkin of T.C. They have made some efforts in our regard by recently reducing and repositioning some of the anchorages in the bay, as well as working on new anchorages in the gulf islands.
We understand that there are supply chain issues and that there are plans in the works, to expedite loading of these ships to help relieve these conditions somewhat.
This we hear, is in the future but we need a sense of urgency for the high risk potential for devastation of this small Cowichan Bay community. There must be a solution as according to projections, shipping on the west coast is going to increase in numbers.
There are three Cowichan Tribes that adjoin the bay that also have great concerns and support our work.
With our thanks appreciation for your attention in this matter,
CBSWS.