Race Rocks: Legislative Gaps in Protecting Inshore Marine Protected Areas : Ken Dunham

Ken Dunham, a graduate of Pearson College UWC,  now enrolled in a Law program at the University of Ottawa has submitted the following as a class assignment in Natural Resources Law, CML 1105H for Professor Stewart Elgie.

See the complete paper in this PDF: Race Rocks Legal Analysis-1

Introduction

Canada is a country of incredible natural beauty and ecological diversity, a significant portion of which has been protected under a system of national and provincial parks and other reserves. One might think that it would be a straightforward matter to similarly protect another unique ecological zone. Especially if it was small, located in a relatively remote location, and there was no suggestion that it should be used for anything else.

This paper explores why this is not so simple in the context of inshore marine areas. Canada’s constitutional / legal framework creates several gaps and overlaps with respect to the environment. The broader issue is not with any particular piece of legislation, but rather the sometimes-narrow context in which each was devised. This is further complicated by how the various statutory pieces fit together (or not) under the division of powers outlined in Canada’s constitution.

These issues can frustrate even the most straightforward project that attempts to carve out a little bit of nature for the benefit of future generations, as exemplified by Race Rocks.

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Conclusion

From a legal and constitutional perspective, the most comprehensive protection for Race Rocks would involve the Province of British Columbia transferring the islets and neighboring seabed to the federal government, followed by designation of Race Rocks as a Marine Conservation area under the CNMCAA.93 This would place stewardship of Race Rocks under one government and one minister.

The alternate approaches all involve significant legislative, constitutional, and ministerial gaps that leave major eco-systems at Race Rocks without complete protection.

An outright fishing ban within the boundaries of the Race Rocks reserve would greatly simplify enforcement and prosecution.

Regardless of the approach taken, continued involvement of the local First Nations is essential, given their Douglas Treaty fishing rights and various Aboriginal claims currently being negotiated. The First Nations perspective is that they should be one of three governments sharing decision-making authority as equals, and not merely labelled as just another stakeholder to be “consulted” (i.e. possibly ignored).

See the complete paper in this PDF: Race Rocks Legal Analysis-1

 

Day 3

morning weather: wind W 15kts  sea 1ft Chop  Sky clear

Out of curiosity I have been looking at the solar panels output throughout the day. With a clear sky at 1340hrs we were producing 2410 Watts and adding charge to the batteries after accounting for the island load.

1440hrs Float plane low overflight. Likely Fisheries observers; I thought I recognized the plane from past years.

Started work on cleaning and lubrication of the boat cradle wheels.

winds up in the evening to 40kts

Day 2: Solar panel maintenance

Wednesday June 5/13
Day two: Fog and moderate winds early in the morning. A good part of the morning was spent cleaning the Solar panels on the roof of the Energy building of all the accumulated bird guano. I took note of the power output pre-cleaning : 650W;  it jumped to 980W after being cleaned.

One pleasure boat in the Reserve this morning 0945hrs

We were visited by BC Parks’ new Area Supervisor to familiarise herself with the site and the Race Rocks File; and to meet the crew.

Bertha is Back

And more beautiful than ever!

Bertha and gang avoiding the strong Westerlies

Bertha and gang avoiding the strong Westerlies

Bertha's Scar

Bertha’s Scar

This morning 5 elephant seals were on the island, probably seeking some degree of shelter from the 35 knot Westerly wind that has been blowing all day. 4 are juveniles, but in the middle of the pile lies Bertha looking sleek and glossy-brown. She is easily identified by the large scar on her chest and her clouded left eye. Last year she arrived on Great Race on April 15th. I think she has been in the reserve for a little while now but I had not been able to identify her while she rested on Middle Rocks.

 

 

 

Biding their time...

Biding their time…

 

We appear to have about 300 Glaucous-winged Gulls on the island this spring. My estimate is that there are about 25% fewer individuals than last spring, when I counted about 200 breeding pairs. Other animals noted in the past few days have been several Dunlins, a small flock of Barn Swallows, a Whimbrel and what resembled a Solitary Sandpiper. I also saw for the first time a Mink (Mustela Vison) on Great Race; quite a swim for the little athlete!

Erik and I did an oil and filter change on the generator. Hopefully it will be the last one and we will soon be able to afford to install a wind generator to provide the last 20% of energy we require. We run the generator about 2.5 hours a day this time of year.

We had 3 groups of student this month, 2 roofers, 3 techs from Environment Canada, and several college staff. Tour boats and fisherfolk are being seen more regularly in the reserve as the nicer weather begins. We had to ask one group of fishers to pull their lines and leave the Reserve. Infractions are almost always due to ignorance and I am lobbying the government to post a few signs which, unattractive as they may be, could go a long way towards ameliorating those infractions.

Birdyfull Sunset

Birdyfull Sunset

Roofing, Flooring

I returned to the island on March 26 after spending about a week off island.  While I was away a 55+ knot wind hit the island. The Guest house has been losing shingles all winter, this time it took a whole section of the roofing and tar paper off and blew it all over the island.  The guardian said he heard pieces hitting the main house.  A roofing crew has been out here each day since Tuesday and have nearly finished installing a new metal roof.  There has also been two guys working on installing new vinyl floors in the guest house.

Flooring for Science Centre

After a few weeks of waiting for the shipment to arrive, we were finally able to bring the new flooring for the Science Centre out to Race Rocks. In the process of loading the packages from the truck to the boat at the Pearson College maintenance dock one of the wheel barrels got out of hand and dumped some of the floor into the ocean. With the aid of an old dry suit, my friend Marc was able to retrieve them. We gave them a fresh water rinse and lay them out to dry.  Once at Race Rocks we used the crane to offload the flooring to the crane deck and then wheel-barrelled them to the science centre. It took two boat trips and most of the day to get all the flooring out, luckily the weather was calm and sunny.

Project Week

cleaningTowerThere have been 6 Pearson College students staying at Race Rocks this past week for Project Week.  They have been helping out with various projects on the island including scrubbing algae off of the siding of the buildings and painting baseboard trim for the guest house. On Friday Garry Fletcher visited the island to talk with students about history and biology.

During their stay there have been some stormy days with wind speeds gusting over 40 knots from the West.

painting

cleaning cleaningSign

Crane work

Erik was out today to help fix the crane and offload garbage from removing old carpet and linoleum from the guest house.  The cable had come off the upper pulley so Erik climbed the boom to get it properly seated again while i belayed him off the diesel transfer tank.

ErikCrane
Once fixed we were able to offload the two bulk bags and sling load onto Second Nature while at a low tide of 5.6 feet.  I went off island to unload the waste from the boat into a dump bin on campus.

RenovationWaste

 

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 10.44.14 AM

Winch house and sling load. Image captured from web cam (5) by Garry.

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 10.49.11 AM

Image capture from tower web cam by Garry

Bird Notes

Bald Eagle on Gosling Carcass

The nesting gulls continue their vigil over their eggs. Oystercatcher couples furtively watch over their scrapes located just above the high-tide line, while Pigeon Guillemots incubate their eggs within the cracks and fissures of the rocks. Ironically the blasted rock, remnant of Coast Guard efforts to create more level terrain has provided habitat for them! Caspian Terns remain in the area but have not been noticed to land on the island. Cormorant are seen in the local waters but none appear to be nesting on the island this year.

Canada Geese

This season 4 pairs of Canada Geese hatched 20 goslings; a concern for us as this species that is not native to the West Coast can be quite destructive to some habitats. So far though they have had little effect on the grass (most of which is also introduced), and to date 10 of the goslings have been predated by eagles and ravens.
The West wind has stopped for a couple of days; a big relief and an opportunity to do some work that requires still air. Climbing ladders and cleaning the tower camera for example. I think we managed to solve the problem of intermittent outages of Camera 5 as well.