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Juan de Fuca brush
'Freighter almost ran boat down'
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Gulf and Fraser Fishermen's Credit Union
805 East Hastings
Tel. 254-6266
"I've been cursing hake for 20 years, but that night they may have saved my life."
The speaker was UFAWU Sun-bury Local fisherman Harry Tangedal, recounting his hair raising experience in the early hours of August 31 when a large freighter of unknown registry almost ran him down about four miles west of Port Renfrew.
He had spotted the vessel coming up at a distance of about three miles on his radar screen just before starting to pick up.
He had picked up about 50 fathoms when he stopped to extricate some hake, thus stopping the reverse movement of his boat and, he believes, keeping him narrowly out of the freighter's path.
As it was, the vessel swerved
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sharply to avoid smashing into his 38-foot Evelyn, tearing over his net about 40 feet off his stern and damaging perhaps 50 fathoms of it.
Tangedal claims he was "roughly" four miles off the beach when the freighter closed on him through thick fog sometime between midnight and 2 a.m.
The outbound voluntary traffic separation lane in Juan de Fuca Strait is one mile wide and runs north of the international boundary adjacent to it. Tangedal says the freighter had no business being where it was and travelling at a speed he estimates at between 16 and 18 knots.
Fishermen from time to time have expressed misgivings over introduction of the traffic separation scheme, particularly over the lack of consultation when routes were drawn up. Tangedal, however, is downright opposed. He says coho fishermen have to set right up to the international boundary about six miles off the beach — "or they might as well stay at home."
He admits frankly that Canadian fishermen ignore the lanes when fishing is good. Sockeye migrate closer to shore but coho range from three miles right out to the boundary, he explains.
"We go as close to the six miles as we dare for coho at this time of year ... there are too many boats and not enough room and fishermen like to set their nets where the fish are."
As a member of the union's standing committee on navigational aids and safety at sea, Archie Kaario has participated in numerous government meetings over the past few years at which plans for the inbound and outbound lanes gradually were unveiled. He is acutely aware of the hazards that occur when fishermen insist on their right to fish or freighters veer out of their lanes too close to shore.
But what bothers him currently is Canada's handing over regulation of the outbound lane in Juan de Fuca Strait (in Canadian waters) to the U.S. Coast Guard in Seattle. Canada in exchange handles some shipping in U.S. waters further in.
"It's a sort of a trade off but it puts us in a bad situation in Juan de Fuca," he says.
Kaario sees the danger of weakened sovereignty when the traffic lanes are made compulsory, presumably when very large crude carriers from Valdez, Alaska, start plying the strait.
• This 35-foot coastal fishing vessel will be shown for the first time at Fish Expo 76 by Viksund of Guasvik, Norway, which claims to be the largest small boat builder in Europe, with an annual production of ISO vessels. A 15-ton multi-purpose boat, it is constructed of molded reinforced fibreglass and has a maximum speed of 20 knots with keel, 30 knots without. A prototype has been developed for the North American Atlantic coast.
Coastal service
Council wants gov't to continue service
A plea for continuation of the $3.1 million federal subsidy to Northland Navigation in order to maintain "essential services to northern coastal areas" has been sent to federal transport minister Otto Lang by the CLC-chartered Pacific Coast Maritime Council.
The council, representing maritime unions on this coast, responded vigorously to the Canadian Transport Commission's announcement that it was cutting off the subsidy on October 31. The commission, it noted, had announced no alternative plans to provide the services now given by Northland Navigation and, it contended, there was "no substitute for sea-going and passenger service" to coastal communities.
At the same time, Don Lock-stead, New Democratic MLA for Mackenzie, whose constituency is directly affected by the commission's decision, is criticizing the provincial government for its failure to take needed action.
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He ' charges that provincial transport minister Jack Davis "was well aware of the danger of the subsidy being cut off as the matter had been under discussion when Davis was a member of the federal cabinet.
"Even after the federal government extended the subsidy temporarily last year, Davis failed to put any pressure on Ottawa to protect the subsidy and guarantee service to coastal communities."
The Pacific Coastal Maritime Council advances these arguments for retention of the subsidy in its statement:
— Our members and friends live in these northern communities and rely on fast sea-going cargo and passenger service.
— Air charter services are unreliable because of weather conditions,
— Roads are far and few between, if there are any at all.
— Three hundred union workers will be laid off if Northland withdraws its passenger-cargo freighters.
— Subsidies are being continued on the East coast to provide essential services. Why not here?
— There is not enough volume for private business to service isolated communities without subsidy.
— No adequate alternative service is being substituted.
Lockstead, in his statement, cites the provincial government's sale of the Prince George as an indication of its short-sighted view of the problem.
"This vessel could now have been brought into service to replace the Northland ships if they had to be taken off because of the lack of a subsidy," he declares.
"The Social Credit government seems to think of coastal British Columbia as a pretty landscape for the enjoyment of tourists in the lounges of foreign-registered luxury liners.
"They don't realize that there are people living there, working there, trying to build communities there. For these people, coastal freight and passenger services are essential."
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MARINE & LAND COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION l*"""'/ 1460 VENABLES ST., VANCOUVER, B.C. (604) 253-5551 □ 10524—106TH ST., EDMONTON, ALTA. (403) 426-5901 □ Nanaimo (604) 753-8521 □ Victoria (604) 384-4233 □ Port McNeill (604) 956-3633 □ Calgary (403) 243-7751
2/THE FISHERMAN — SEPTEMBER 10, 1976
ALBION BOAT WORKS LTD.
FISHING BOATS BUILT AND REPAIRED
23284 McKay Street R.R. 1, Maple Ridge
Off.: 463-9727 or Res.: 462-7505
