The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has announced that a pilot program to prevent freighters from arriving and departing at night in the Southern Gulf Islands has been made permanent.
The port on Thursday touted the year-long pilot as a success in reducing the effect of ships at anchor on coastal communities, saying more than 50 ship operators participated.
Each one adjusted their transit times and helped reduce the number of nighttime arrivals and departures at Southern Gulf Islands anchorages over the past year by more than 50 per cent compared with 2022, the port said in a statement.
“Strong collaboration between the port authority and ship operators over the past year resulted in nighttime ship movements at Southern Gulf Islands anchorages — and associated noise disturbances for those living nearby — being cut in half,” said Sean Baxter, the port authority’s acting director of marine operations and harbour master.
However, a group that represents Southern Gulf Island residents says this voluntary procedure won’t stop the unhealthy decibel level of the commercial ship generators. The Cowichan Bay Ship Watchers Society is also concerned because the waters of the Gulf Islands and Cowichan Bay are sensitive ecosystems and these ships cause pollution and underwater noise that disrupts marine animal communication.
The group’s president, Peter Holmes, previously told Postmedia News that when the ships drop an anchor chain in the middle of the night the sound “makes you jump out of bed.”
Under the port authority’s new arrival and departure window, ship operators will be asked to arrive at or depart from anchorages off the Southern Gulf Islands between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., to help reduce noise disruptions from ships lowering their anchors in the area at night.
There are some exceptions still in place, such as for ships seeking safe refuge from bad weather or needing to make a berthing window at a terminal.
This specific measure is intended to help reduce noise disruptions from ships at anchor but not designed to address long stays, said Alex Munro, the port’s senior communications adviser.
Under international navigation laws, cargo ships are allowed to anchor in locations outside the Vancouver port “for a reasonable period of time,” including around the Southern Gulf Islands. There is no time limit on how long freighters can be anchored, although the federal government has proposed a 14-day limit as part of a bill which is now before the senate.
Before 2009 there were no commercial vessels anchoring in the narrow passages of the Gulf Islands but now there are 33 designated anchorages.
