A diesel spill last month from a north Island fish farm into Esperanza Inlet has dispersed with recent storm activity, according to the mayor of the nearby community of Tahsis.
The Dec. 14 spill of up to 8,000 litres of fuel spread in three directions, but Mayor Martin Davis said there has been no evidence of fuel reaching his community, which is about 20 kilometres by water from the spill site.
“We are connected to it by water but it’s through a narrow channel,” Davis said. “I think that most of the spreading of it was over closer to Zeballos.”
Experts say diesel tends to sink eventually, Davis said.
An update from the province on Friday said a technical specialist had led recent cleanup assessments along the shoreline, with assistance from local First Nations and the provincial and federal governments.
Both a waste-management plan and a wildlife-management plan have been finalized, as well as drone surveys of the affected area.
The fuel spilled from an open-net-pen salmon farm owned by Norway-based Grieg Seafood during a fuel-transfer procedure, in what the company called a case of human error.
The company, which has 22 fish farms and a hatchery in B.C., hired Strategic Natural Resource Consultants to oversee its response to what is being called the Lutes Creek spill.
It issued a statement immediately after the spill saying it’s looking into its routines for how fuel is transferred so a spill doesn’t happen again.
The Nuchatlaht, Ehattesaht and Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations are involved in the response, along with the Village of Zeballos, the Village of Tahsis, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Mount Waddington and Strathcona regional districts.
The Nuchatlaht have called for quick action by the provincial and federal government on the Salmon Aquaculture Transition Plan, an initiative to move away from open-net pen salmon aquaculture in B.C.
The federal government has indicated that open-net pen salmon farming is to be banned along B.C.’s coast by June 30, 2029. Davis said his council is on record as opposing open-net fish farming.
He said that although sport fishing is a big part of the Tahsis economy in the summer, most of it is offshore.
The spill triggered a clam-harvesting alert by the Ehattesaht.
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