Colossal cleanup effort in Pacific Rim National Park – WesterlyNews.ca
Ucluelet joined Alaska in a major shoreline clearing event last year involving a roughly 100-metre barge. The district is set to participate in a similar effort this month.
Local volunteers will take part in a massive shoreline cleanup this month.
The Vancouver Island Marine Debris Working Group has organized a coastal cleaning event that will see a barge carry debris collected from across B.C.’s shores to a recycling plant in Richmond.
“In British Columbia, it will be the largest ever cleanup event so it’s very historic,” Ucluelet’s manager of emergency and environmental services Karla Robison told the Westerly News.
The coast-wide project is expected to use up the remaining funds from a $1 million donation from the government of Japan to B.C.’s Ministry of Environment in 2013 to help the province handle the expected influx of debris headed for B.C.’s coast after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011.
“The Government of Japan was gracious enough to provide the funding to help keep our shorelines clean,” Robison said. “We’ve signed an agreement with the Ministry of Environment who’s administering those funds to spend those dollars effectively and efficiently and then also provide some educational opportunities for different folks to really learn about tsunami marine debris and the story and the legacy that’s entailed.”
The Haida Gwaii Tsunami Debris Committee, Living Oceans Society, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, District of Ucluelet, Ocean Legacy Foundation, and Surfrider Foundation are all on board to participate.