In the bright November moon, the low tide at Victoria's Gonzales Beach revealed something normally hidden: a slew of wreckage, pieces from derelict boats littered across the sand.
Some pieces were from a boat that lay wrecked on the shoreline for eight months until Transport Canada cleaned up the major pieces in November. For locals, the cleanup was a small victory, but the remnants represent a continual problem, according to a beachfront resident, who asked to stay anonymous.
This individual, believed to be homeless and struggling with mental health issues, has been linked by multiple residents to multiple derelict boats on Gonzales Beach and nearby Cadboro Bay over the past two years.
In March 2024, the anonymous resident saw the man bring a boat into the bay; two weeks later, a storm hit, and the boat ended up smashed on shore. Another boat in the fall met the same fate.
After the first boat lay on the beach for months, the resident wrote one, then two letters to city council and several MPs calling for action.
Despite the efforts of locals, the resident questioned why it took from March to November to remove the first beached boat, considering the safety hazard the boat's shards would pose to barefoot beachgoers in the summer and the environmental toll.
Sixty days notice was given to the owner of the boats in two separate cases in 2024, Transport Canada said. One boat was finally removed in early November, after the residents had organized their own boat cleanup. The other boat was removed before the notice period ended, to avoid further damage before an incoming storm, Transport Canada said.
While the resident was pleased that the boats were eventually removed, she expressed frustration over how much pressuring it took.
The beach is under the jurisdiction of both the City of Victoria and Oak Bay, with different levels of government responsible for different parts of the shoreline. As Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch put it, 'navigating a jurisdictional maze' can make it incredibly difficult for authorities to address the issue of derelict boats in a timely manner.
The municipalities are responsible for the beach above the high water mark, the province governs below the mark, and the navigable waters are a federal concern.
But there's a glimmer of hope that things could get easier.
"We'll almost certainly make some decisions about how we're going to help manage the derelict boat issue around Oak Bay," Murdoch said. "I've already announced that there's going to be a task force that hasn't yet been formed, but I think 2025 will be the year that gets together. The council will have to make some decisions on the future of the shoreline."
Resident Geraldine Glattstein said she is pleased with how the community took action.
"This beach is so precious to us that the community actually went beyond talking. People wrote letters. There were dozens of calls made to MP Laurel Collins' office," she said, adding that she was pleased with the action that Collins took.
'Extraordinarily complex, and it shouldn't be'
In the meantime, derelict boats continue to rack up in storms, with another one happening at Gonzales Beach on Dec. 14.
B.C.'s national inventory of abandoned and wrecked vessels has 935 entries as of December 2024, down from 1,047 in August 2023.
Bob Peart, who chairs Friends of Shoal Harbour in North Saanich and has faced his own hurdles with abandoned and wrecked boats, says that the "situation has built up" since Private Buoy Regulations was transferred from the Coast Guard to Transport Canada in 2004. As Transport Canada confirmed, it never received additional funding or staff when the switch happened.
Despite the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act coming into law in 2019 making it illegal to abandon a boat in Canada, Peart criticizes that only two fines have been issued under it, where there "probably should have been 300."
"It's extraordinarily complex, and it shouldn't be," Peart said. "The fact is, Transport Canada has got the regulations right now to enforce both derelict boats and the control of private moorings, and they're choosing not to enforce the regulations."
Some residents near Gonzales Beach have questioned why the repeat offender hasn't been charged with an offence, which would prohibit him from operating a vessel.
Another complexity is navigating ownership. Local police have the authority to check if a vessel is reported stolen, not the Canadian Coast Guard, said Anna Muselius, communications advisor for the Canadian Coast Guard. But often, the line of ownership is difficult to trace as boats can pass through many owners over years, and boat registrations are not well enforced, explained Peart.
Muselius explained hazardous vessels occupied as dwellings make for more "complex" cases, requiring the Coast Guard to work with multiple levels of government to ensure "occupants are not displaced without having local social support mechanisms."
'An essential part of our lives'
Despite the complexities in navigating to protect it, local resident Andrew Jackson described the beach as a cherished part of their lives.
"I think the people really care for the beach and feel obliged to look after it as much as possible," he said, describing it as an "anchoring point for the community".
"I would say it's an essential part of our lives."
It's why the community mobilized itself to take action and then to clean up the pieces left below the high tide mark.
"The citizens of the bay picked up those pieces and moved them onto the concrete ramp. It's a city jurisdiction. And I've got to hand it to them. They [the City] were there really quite quickly, which is great."
Though some stray fragments still remain behind, Jackson said he is proud of how the community came together. It speaks to the community that surrounds the beach, and their love for it. And while derelict boats may come and go, he hopes their action will make the process a little easier in the years to come.
