It’s been two years since the tugboat Nathan E. Stewart, on its way south from Alaska, missed its turn, ran aground off British Columbia’s Athlone Island and spilled more than 100,000 liters of diesel and engine oils into Gale Creek near Bella Bella, a town of 1,450 people in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nation. But the Heiltsuk Nation, which for millennia has relied on these waters for their lives and livelihoods, is still reeling from the devastating impact of the spill. Despite prohibition of oil tankers through their marine harvesting areas, the massive spill proved nearly impossible to contain and polluted an area of extraordinarily high cultural and commercial value.
IMAGE: Aerial view of oil spill contamination near Bella Bella; image courtesy of Coastal Stewardship Network, First Nations.
In its report on the spill, the Heiltsuk Tribal Council stated: “We watched diesel pour into our waters and onto the shores of our ancient village site of Q’vúqvai – onto clam gardens abundant with clams, other shellfish, and near shore fish species that our ancestors stewarded for millennia and our community relies on for food sustenance. Many hours passed before spill response equipment arrived. When it did, equipment that was not broken was poorly deployed and failed to contain the spill.”
Coastal Guardian Watchmen
Randy Carpenter was among the first responders when the Nathan E. Stewart went under on October 13, 2016. Not only does he continue to monitor the effects of the oil, but for nearly twenty years he has served as a Coastal Guardian Watchmen, a group of First Nation environmental stewards who monitor and ensure that marine resources are sustainably managed, that rules and regulations are followed and that land and marine use plans and agreements are implemented effectively.
Carpenter has spent most of his life on the water, having started as a commercial fisherman at 15. But with the decreasing salmon and herring populations, he eventually found other work before becoming a Guardian Watchmen in 1999. Today, he’s one of six Heiltsuk watchmen who monitor the marine and terrestrial territory for his Nation. His duties run the gamut from collecting water and soil samples, to observing the sockeye hatchery, reseeding the clam population along nearby beaches, and protecting off-limit areas from commercial fishing.
Image: Courtesy of Coastal Stewardship Network, First Nations.
The Coastal Guardian Watchmen are essential to ensuring the continued success of the Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast (MaPP), an initiative between 17 First Nations and the Government of British Columbia that was developed to create opportunities for sustainable economic development, support the well-being of coastal communities and safeguard the marine environment along BC’s North Pacific Coast. Since 2012, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, through its Marine Conservation Initiative, has been supporting MaPP development and now implementation.
According to foundation program officer Meaghan Calcari Campbell, “Because of their extensive knowledge of their territories, which has been passed down for generations, the Guardian Watchmen play an essential role in conservation stewardship and in ensuring that the MaPP is effectively implemented.”
Like land-use and urban planning, a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach to marine planning is occurring worldwide. “Marine and geographic response plans are essential not only to avoid and manage oil spills when they happen but also to protect waterways and sea life from increased commercial and recreational activity generally,” explains Calcari Campbell.
MaPP has become a model for more effective management of deep water and coast resources.
While the Coastal Guardian Watchmen is a regional initiative of BC’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, each Nation has developed its own program to monitor its territory and carry on its stewardship practices. For the past ten years, the Watchmen have held annual conferences, together with other members of each Nation’s stewardship offices. They also meet for monthly phone calls and on a more casual basis to exchange information and experiences.
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IMAGE: Coastal Guardian Watchmen; courtesy of Coastal Stewardship Network, First Nations.
Though each First Nation has its own environmental and cultural priorities, they share a common heritage in their ancestral home, more recently termed the “Great Bear Rainforest,” the largest intact old-growth temperate forest in the world. This fragile ecosystem has been home to First Nations for over 10,000 years. The “Great Bear Sea” completes an interconnected land-sea ecosystem with the rainforest. It extends from Campbell River on Vancouver Island to the border of BC and Alaska and is one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. Not only does the sea provide a habitat for salmon, herring, humpback whales, seabirds and unique deep-sea sponges and coral reefs, the integrated ecosystem also supports wolves, grizzly bears and the spirit bear, a rare black bear with creamy white fur.
Like all environmental stewards, the Coastal Guardian Watchmen are contending with the effects of a changing climate — erratic rainfall, warmer ocean water and changing migratory and spawning patterns. “We’re seeing ducks with chicks in January and February instead of spring. A lot of weird stuff out there,” reflected Carpenter. On August 28, 2018, he posted to the Heiltsuk Guardian Watchmen Facebook page, “Hoyette creek walk - no water in the system and no salmon holding in the estuary.”
In the face of these unprecedented changes, the Coastal Guardian Watchmen continue to stay vigilant, monitor the effects of commercial development and activities, and see to it that a holistic approach — one that has been passed down for generations — remains alive and integral to their land and sea stewardship.
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