CVRD board should send letter opposing freighter anchorages
Dear CVRD board chairman and area directors:
I urge our board to send a letter, once presented by staff, to federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau urging him to act concerning giant, unwanted cargo ships parking regularly in Cowichan Bay.
This letter follows a logical, fact-packed presentation to the board recently by Peter Holmes of the Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society. The fact any ship — especially huge, ocean-going cargo vessels — can anchor at all, let alone for free, in our eco-sensitive bay is outrageous, perhaps illegal. These unwelcome ships generate no jobs nor economic benefits, yet provide plenty of noise, water, air and light pollution in their wake. They have no place in our tourist-oriented bay where residents, visitors and Cowichan Tribes folks had hoped to harvest shellfish by 2020. That goal date will sadly never be reached thanks to unwelcome ship activity, other pollution and habitat harm in our beloved bay.
Please do all you can, and are elected to do, to work with senior levels of government toward ridding our waters of these hideous, free-loading vessels parked in the bay’s eight anchorages.
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan