Marine Environmental Protection

Our Purpose:

To practice new solutions dealing with the maritime environmental safety and biological issues plaguing our local waters and beaches.

We specialize in difficult to reach areas and islets using RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems with Advanced Pilot) technology with other special techniques to detect, assess and remove these environmental hazards.

VAP's recent Salish Sea Project detected detected, documented and removed various marine debris. High quality data was gathered. VAP offers contract and volunteer services for these environmental services.

While our primary mission is photography, survey & documentation, we also wade ashore to retrieve items including buoys and other debris and take a closer look. We will also coordinate and manage a process to remove boats from the beaches. 

Summary of the source and nature of the problem we address:

ABANDONED AND/OR DELAPITATED VESSELS: The abandonment of vessels causes both environmental and economic impacts. Environmental concerns including include water contamination caused by fuels, oils and greases, anti-fouling paints and toxic materials found on boats. The delpitated boats need hazardous material surveys completed while boats must be stripped of metal, wires before landfill accept them.

Efforts must be made to find the owners and raise accountability.  The BC Government has some programs and funding to deal with this.

MOORING BUOYS: Several groups in the study noted that the lack of regulation and enforcement of private mooring buoys (putting up a buoy for personal use) is contributing to the problem of abandoned vessels and associated marine debris (e.g. dock material, ropes, other debris). Private mooring buoys are creating more locations where older vessels can be moored and then abandoned when repair, maintenance, or disposal is too costly for the vessel owner, or they cannot sell it/loose interest. 

GHOST FISHING GEAR: Ghost fishing gear is gear that has been lost or abandoned in the marine environment; this includes nets, oyster traps, and long lines from the commercial fishery and aquaculture industry and debris from recreational activities such as crab and prawn traps and floats. The gear causes the death of marine life, and a hazard to boat navigation & crews. Broken down microplastics that can enter the food chain.

Ghost gear comprises a much larger percentage of remote beach clean-up debris over that in urban settings.

AQUACULTURE DEBRIS: Rope, antipredator netting, buoy balls, plastic net bags, oyster trays, lead line (used to hold netting place) and PVC pipes (used in inter-tidal geoduck aquaculture) were identified as sources of marine debris, and particularly marine-sourced plastics. Many of the materials break down with saltwater and sun exposure, contributing to the problem of microplastics. 

 POLYSTYRENE FOAM: Polystyrene foam (known under the trademark name StyrofoamTM) makes up a large proportion of marine debris. Polystyrene foam has been used as flotation for docks, floats, aquaculture facilities, and other marine infrastructure, but breaks up easily in the marine environment into small pieces that can be ingested by wildlife and contribute to microplastics pollution. Combined with tiny pieces of plastic, polystyrene foam is the most common form of garbage found during shoreline clean-ups. 

 Industry is moving towards alternatives to unprotected polystyrene docks; however, legacy issues of exposed StyrofoamTM remain even as new ones are being installed. https://cleanbc.gov.bc.ca/plastics/. 

References: Notes cited from the BC Government Report:  https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/waste-management/zero-waste/marine-debris-protection/marine_debris_what_we_heard_report_final_web.pdf

 National Geographic Article on Marine Pollution    Education for Kids on oncean plastics pollution 

Our Actions:

At VAP we are concerned with the marine environment and want to help in various ways. We use education, skills and proper training and equipment. We want to help clean this mess and we need your help!

We are partnering with volunteer, community organizations, contractors and with government oversite.  

Our VAP Pipeline and Workflow is as follows:

1.      Scout, Survey, Document and Assess Problems:  Using professional RPAS in combination with our small vessel, we can accurantly scan/map and geolocate the debris location for future actions. We can also document known sites for changes/movements.  

2.      Anchor and Close-In Assessment: We can then anchor (beach) ashore for a closer look at any marine debris, dilapidated/derelict boats. On the ground we can identify it for potential recovery operations or immediate threats noted. 

3.      Recovery of Debris: At this stage, with boots on the ground, we can gather smaller floats, debris, foam, buoys, line etc. and load them onto our small vessel for disposal. Our last 2-day expedition recovered a considerable amount  of floats/debris (see photo). During the pilot project, we were not prepared to recover nearly all what we observed.

4.       Plan for Dilapidated Boat Removal: Of course, the major problem is abandoned vessels. During our recent expedition in December 2024 (from South James Island to Moresby Island), we documented no less than 5 dilapidated, derelict boats on beaches. One large and publicly visible motorboat/liveaboard was observed leaking oil (see drone photo top). With Transport Canada oversite, we can manage,  & coordinate  a firm plan for the responsible recycling and disposal smaller (under 20') abandoned  boats (once all efforts at finding the owners are exhausted). Larger ones we can track and report.

We  need support from partners and stakeholders to make this effort a reality. Our aim is to maintain the lowest cost possible. Together, we can make an impact!

5.       Education: With our photos, reels, videos and stories/shorts, we want to also be invovled with the public education campaign as together we raise awareness of the problem. We will seek partners and work together to enhance public compliance with rules and regulations to protect our beaches and waters.  Education for Kids on oncean plastics pollution 

About us:

Our RPAS (Both M300 and DJI Phantom 4/ MAVIC Thermal Drones) produce very high-resolution imagery both in RGB and Thermal.

RPAS flights are preauthorized by Nav Canada in our flight areas noted. RPAS Advanced pilot Carlos has over 3500 hours of flight time since 2012. Our M300 drone is equipped with floats for enhanced safety.

We are currently looking at ways of using the drone logistics to sling plastic debris off beaches to help save time, costs while improving safety of crews.

The Small Vessel owned and operated by VAP is perfect for our beach clean-up efforts. It is equipped with HR depth sounders and GPS Maps/charts, VHF Radios, 2 anchors and a T/O/ landing area. and other equipment. Power comes from a hyper-efficient, economical, EFI Yamaha 4-stroke engine.

Crew are Transport Canada commercial SVOP/ and MED Lifeboatman Qualified and trained, with years of experience in the marine environment including as fishing guide, as deckhand on BC Ferries and serving on Coast Guard vessels.  

 If you are interested in this initiative or want more information on our pilot project, please reach out:

David Carlos at 250 507 6421 or email me at straightline8@gmail.com 

 Note: All copyrighted photos were taken by VAP during a marine scouting operation in the Salish Sea December 11, 2024.