Coast guard criticized for disturbing porpoises just south of B.C.
Washington environmentalist says hovercraft transits feeding grounds
By Larry Pynn, Vancouver SunMay 24, 2010

The Canadian Coast Guard is being criticized for routinely roaring its hovercraft through important feeding habitat for harbour porpoises off Point Roberts, Wash., just south of the border with B.C.

The harbour porpoise is a shy marine mammal and a candidate for listing as threatened or endangered by Washington state.

Peter Hamilton, founder of the environmental group Lifeforce and an observer of vessel and marine life interactions off Point Roberts since 1993, says there is no justification for the coast guard's continuing actions.

He said the hovercraft, which is forced to temporarily navigate U.S. waters off Point Roberts when travelling between its Richmond base and Boundary Bay, could easily give the area a wider berth without significantly losing time but instead stays close to the shoreline and disturbs the porpoises. Even when the hovercraft is returning from a call or is not in a hurry it takes the same route, he added.

"It's a very important ecosystem," he said of the waters off Point Roberts, which can also draw in killer whales. "For the sake of the wildlife and public safety, I don't know why they're cutting so close to the shore."

A Vancouver Sun reporter witnessed the 28.5-metre-long hovercraft Siyãy pass loudly along the Point Roberts shoreline one evening earlier this week. Numerous harbour porpoises vanished below the water, and did not surface and resume feeding for several minutes until the hovercraft had sped around the point and into Boundary Bay.

Joe Gaydos, a marine scientist with the SeaDoc Society on San Juan Island, called harbour porpoises "amazingly shy animals" and said the continuing conflict between vessels and marine mammals and birds emphasizes the need to zone local waters, much the same way zoning regulates conflicting land-based activities.

"How much is too much?" he said of human disturbance. "You might not see animals die immediately, but maybe they're not going to have the energy they need to reproduce or to resist disease."

The Canadian hovercraft is capable of speeds of about 110 km/h based on four Caterpillar diesel turbo-charged engines generating 3,779 horsepower.

The harbour porpoise is considered a species of concern by Canada, the U.S. and B.C., but is a candidate for listing as threatened or endangered by Washington state.

The 28.5-metre-long Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft Siyãy off Point Roberts, Wash., where it is accused of disturbing harbour porpoises.
Photograph by: Peter Hamilton, Lifeforce