Neighbours concerned about environmental damage after boat smashes on Qualicum Beach

Neighbours say they're concerned nothing is being done about a boat that smashed on Qualicum Beach in early July. The post Neighbours concerned about environmental damage after boat smashes on Qualicum Beach appeared first on CHEK .

People in Qualicum Beach are concerned about environmental damage after a boat was smashed and strewn across the shoreline. At low tide, Sunday walkers could see the remains of a 38-foot pleasure craft. “There’s at least three batteries.

There’s an engine there. There’s a fuel tank over there. There is a gas powered stove,” pointed out James Austin, who documented dead crabs he attributes to spilled fuels.

Watch below: Loading the player... A sheen could be seen on pools of water the smell of fuel hung in the air Sunday. Austin says the boat was floating at an unauthorized buoy just offshore from Qualicum Beach before someone cut it loose.

Neighbours reported the vessel was listing to the Canadian Coast Guard June 30, when it was still intact. The Coast Guard confirms its staff attended the boat July 3 and removed 95 litres of diesel and put a boom around it, but it still ended up smashing to pieces. “Somebody should be responsible for cleaning it up, whoever owns it,” said Al Geoghegan, who walked by what remains Sunday.

There’s eel grass in the area and Austin, a commercial fisherman, says it’s an important area for herring and other seafood. “This area is area 14-4, statistical fishing area, that was open until a few weeks ago and now it’s closed for chemical contamination and the only reason I’m told from DFO is that it’s because of the sinking boat. It’s closed the whole beach down past French Creek so nobody can harvest anything,” said Austin.

The region’s NDP MP Gord Johns says people have notified his office with their concerns about the lack of response from the Coast Guard. “It’s way cheaper to get ahead of it and the government needs to get ahead of it right now,” said Johns. “We’ve got over 900 vessels that pose an immediate threat to our coast that need to be removed and recycled.

The government needs to roll out a plan and let coastal British Columbians know what that plan is.” Johns says federal programs to deal with derelict vessels lack appropriate funding . “I flagged with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in mid-June the impact of them not funding those programs adequately and I didn’t get any response from her in a face-to-face meeting,” said Johns.

The boat’s owner tells CHEK News he bought it about a year ago for $7,500. He says he was trying to right the ship on July 3, the day the Coast Guard took out the diesel, but he ran out of opportunity with a change in the tide. He says that night, a storm and waves smashed the boat into pieces.

He says he never intended to make an environmental mess and he intends to clean up the beach. To report a marine pollution incident to the Canadian Coast Guard click on the following link . Commercial fisherman and neighbour James Austin points out some batteries among the wreckage on July 12, 2026.

The post Neighbours concerned about environmental damage after boat smashes on Qualicum Beach appeared first on CHEK .