Greg Shea has spent years exploring the stunning fjords, islands and river estuaries of the Great Bear Rainforest as a captain and expedition leader with a small-ship, ecotourism adventure company.
The beauty of this untouched wilderness is jaw-dropping, he remarked, but watching human-made debris – fishing gear, nets, rope, polystyrene floats, and plastic bottles – piling up on its shores has been difficult to witness.
“You’ve got these islands that few humans have ever really walked on and yet there’s a stack of debris," said the Quadra Island resident.
In 2020, when the pandemic halted tourism expeditions globally, a group of B.C. ocean tour guides decided to take action. They started cleaning up the plastic litter and debris that accumulated along these remote coastlines, launching the marine debris removal initiative.
Collaborating with local Indigenous nations, including the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, and Gitga’at Nations, Maple Leaf Adventures, where Shea is employed, and Bluewater Adventures, successfully wrapped up their third annual expedition, removing 32.5 tonnes of debris from the coast.
If left on the coast, all the marine debris poses huge risks to B.C.'s ecosystems, disintegrating into tiny particles known as microplastics and ensnaring wildlife like humpback whales, said Kevin Smith, expedition leader and Maple Leaf Adventures president.
Smith called the accumulation a "slow-motion oil spill."
"This stuff is sort of silently and, almost a hidden way, coming onto our coast," Smith said. "It’s happening where there are no roads, on these outer islands where, generally, the decision-makers, politicians, and even the public don’t know it’s happening."
With funding from the B.C. government, this year's cleanup took place in the Great Bear Rainforest and Great Bear Sea region from July 18 to Aug. 10. The cleanup contributed to the over 327 tonnes that was collected during the two previous expeditions. And almost 80 per cent of the marine debris will be recycled.
Shea found this summer's expedition particularly memorable because his children, Mowat, 18, and Maese, 16, both joined as deckhands, turning the expedition into a multi-generational experience. He said the experience has inspired a passion for marine biology and an interest in environmental issues in his children.
The 48 crew members sailed around Bella Bella, Klemtu, and Hartley Bay on three boats: the 28-metre Maple Leaf schooner, the 42-metre catamaran Cascadia, and Bluewater’s 20-metre ketch Island Roamer. They cleaned up debris from marine and terrestrial protected areas, critical habitats for whales, seabirds, and sea otters and dozens of islands.
"It’s important to get the word out and give people the chance to see the results of what is happening out there, and come to conclusions on how to deal with what’s there now and how to improve our industries and corporations in the future to reduce this amount of debris," Shea said.
