Back in May, when DFO Minister Gail Shea announced a "robust" review of the environmental response operation to the April 8 & 9 Marathassa fuel oil spill in English Bay, Canadian Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas was asked just how "independent" former CCG Assistant Commissioner, John Butler's report could be. Commissioner Thomas stated that Mr. Butler no longer worked for the CCG and that she was "very comfortable" with the advice he would bring forward.

Last Friday, at a press conference in Vancouver, Mr. Butler presented his detailed report which brought to light communication failures, confusion of roles and responsibilities, technological woes and missed opportunities (sounding very much like many other oil spill response reviews worldwide), and made 25 recommendations which the Canadian Coast Guard has said would be put into action immediately* and will no doubt improve the response when inevitably the next spill occurs. Mr. Butler, however, failed to recognize the important role that could have been played by a fully functional centralized coast guard station in Canada's largest port such as the former Kitsilano Coast Guard Station.

Within the report Butler recommends the Canadian Coast Guard ensure it has adequate staff to respond to a major marine pollution incident in any part of its region at any time and that it consider expediting an improved Area Response Plan for the Vancouver region. When asked by Vancouver media if the shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard Station would have made a difference, the former CCG Assistant Commissioner said he did not believe the additional resources would have played a role. We respectfully disagree with this assessment, as he seemed to do when he also said, "Obviously, the quicker you can boom and contain the source of the oil, the quicker you can get response equipment, the better it is."

The most glaringly significant failure identified in the report was the inability of federal resources to detect the source of this major spill in a timely fashion. Despite the early, prolonged presence of a reliable on scene witness, it took 12 hours to eventually identify the source of the spill and install a containment boom around it.

A Port Metro Vancouver patrol vessel was the first federal resource in English Bay to make contact with "Hali", the sailboat that made the initial report of a 200 square metre sheen on the water, which the PMV crew assessed as unrecoverable.

While Mr. Butler's report mentions that there was a second sailboat report of a 250M by .5KM slick 15 minutes after the first, he neglected to interview the skipper, Rob O'Dea, who waited in the area of Marathassa for 3 hours for a coast guard vessel to arrive on scene so he could direct them to the source of the spill. Prior to the closure of Kitsilano Coast Guard Station in 2013 this likely would have been the fire engine red CCG cutter Osprey, easily identified from a distance and recognized by most local mariners.

In an interview with CKNW's Shane Woodford, Mr O'Dea said "Oh, it was absolutely clear where it was coming from, with the way the winds and the currents were, everything was emanating from the stern of the Marathassa; it absolutely, clearly was coming directly from there. I can't imagine any situation, other than showing up in the dark, that they wouldn't have been able to ascertain exactly where the oil was coming from." According to the report, the first CCG responders did not arrive until after dark, after sailor O'Dea and his crew departed, hours after the alarm had been sounded, they were unable to detect the source, and the fuel continued spilling into English Bay well into the next day.  Shane's Audio Report 

The Marathassa at Anchorage 12 was within sight of the former Kitsilano Coast Guard Station. Had it not been closed their crews could have been on scene, in contact with O'Dea within 10 minutes of his report and easily identified the source. Former CCG Environmental Response Officer Tony Toxopeus, who served at the station, has said that it had the equipment and trained staff to have a spill containment boom around the Marathassa within an hour. Sorry Mr. Butler, but there is no doubt the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station would've "played a role" and kept this spill from contaminating Vancouver's beaches and marine environment to the extent that it did

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Mr. Butler for some reason chose not to interview or report on Mr O'Dea; who just happened to sail right into the middle of a local coastal environmental emergency and became a key witness to the actual spill event and its ineffective Canadian Coast Guard response; for an otherwise very thorough and "robust" review. Was this information intentionally omitted from the independent review to avoid making Commissioner Thomas; who spearheaded the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station to save just $700K annually, and in the wake of the spill, even denied it had any pollution response capability; uncomfortable?

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*We encourage DFO Minister Gail Shea to reactivate the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station as a first measure toward implementing Mr. Butler's 25 recommendations. We'll have more on this next week, but in the meantime encourage readers to send an email to Minister Shea supporting this measure.

Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca 

The Jericho Wavechaser takes place out of the Jericho Sailing Centre off the Spanish Bank beaches of Vancouver's south shore.

The race series is run by volunteers from Jericho's paddling community and is only $5 for all paddling classes - no charge for members of the Jericho Sailing Centre Association (annual membership $99). There is a fantastic after race BBQ available to all participants for $5. 

More and more paddlers are discovering how fun the waters off Jericho can be and what an amazing venue the centre is. There is also something about the beach atmosphere that makes the location feel like the Hawaii of Canada. We will have a safety boat at each race and we keep the race course a surprise! Actually, we try to optimize each race to take advantage of the best bumps we can get.