POESB breaks records with Harbour Clean-up for World Ocean’s Day 2024!

By Lookout Production on Jul 03, 2024 with Comments 0

DND and Babcock crew collected garbage from Inskip Island.
L-R: Mel Lacelle (Babcock Canada), Jean-Guy Mayer (POESB Fire Services), Graham Keehn (Babcock Canada), Lieutenant (Navy) Brayden Casper (POESB BaseOps), Chris Davis (Babcock Canada), Kurtis Briggs (Babcock Canada), Kate Bandura (Lookout Newspaper), Christina Pullen (Babcock Canada), Carolina Montes Valenzuela (POESB Auxiliary Fleet), Masha Vasiuta (POESB HQ).

Lorraine Crinkley,
Branch Environment Officer,
Port Operations and Emergency Services Branch

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CFB Esquimalt’s Port Operations and Emergency Services Branch (POESB) celebrated World Ocean’s Day on June 5th by completing their annual harbour and shoreline clean-up. POESB teamed up with the Esquimalt Graving Dock, Victoria Shipyards – Seaspan, Point Hope Maritime, and Babcock Canada in removing approximately 498kg (981 lbs) of waste from Esquimalt Harbour and its beaches. This is a new record for waste removed during the annual World Oceans Day clean-up for POESB.

Debris was collected from the harbour, with a focus on the beaches around Munroe Head, Dallas Bank and Inskip Island. The most predominant types of waste removed were wire and wire cabling, vehicle tires, and scrap metal. Other types of waste included hard plastics, styrofoam, glass, and rope.

Tires are composed of synthetic rubber that degrades and leeches over time, contributing to microplastics and heavy metals in the marine environment. It was common practice to throw tires into the ocean before their effects on the marine environment were widely known.

If you are interested in participating in one of POESB’s ocean or beach clean-ups, or you would like help organizing one within your own unit, please reach out to Lorraine Crinkley, POESB Environment Officer, at lorraine.crinkley@forces.gc.ca.

Happy World Ocean’s Day!

Inset: Garbage collected by the Esquimalt Graving Dock (EGD), Victoria Shipyards – Seaspan (VSL), and Point Hope Maritime (PHM).
L-R: Joe Walsh (EGD), Kevin Creighton (EGD), Kyle Lake (VSL), Jenna Olsen (EGD), Chris Gates (EGD)(back), Bill Utterson (VSL), Oliver Tonagel (PHM), Tia Cournoyer (PHM), Cameron Yakimoich (EGD), Mellissa Piasta (EGD), Ryan Kennedy (EGD), Catherine Munro (EGD), Nicola Greeley (EGD).