As a proposed project to sink the 115-metre HMCS Annapolis off Gambier Island inches towards the regulators' verdict, government authorities are considering whether the project will cause any net loss to the productive capacity of the fish habitat at the proposed sink site.
In December, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) sent the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia (ARSBC) a letter recommending that the society consider relocating the project away from Gambier Island's Halkett Bay.
"Your project would cover and destroy approximately 1,470 square metres of shallow near shore fine sediment seabed -and the associated fish habitat," the letter, signed by biologist Bruce Clark, said. It added that the new habitat created by the sunken vessel "would not compensate for the loss of the relatively uncommon fine sediment seabed under the footprint of the vessel or the associated loss of fish habitat diversity."
The Gambier Island group Save Halkett Bay, which is protesting the proposed reef project, is calling the letter a "big first step" in stopping the project from going forward.
"We're pleased to see that some level of the federal government is actually focusing on the bedrock issues here about protecting the environment and not altering habitat," spokesperson Gary MacDonald said.
But ARSBC president Howard Robins said the letter is not a setback.
"It's not a setback at all simply because it's not a final decision," he said.
Clark confirmed that the letter is simply an initial notification to the ARSBC that DFO is reviewing their project.
"Certainly there's no suggestion that it's a determination of any kind, interim or otherwise," Clark said.
Robins said the ARSBC is not denying that some fish habitat will be destroyed if the project gets the go ahead.
"The society understands that there is a moment where whatever is occupied underneath the ship is destroyed," he said. "We admit that, because it's a fact."
But Robins argued that the impacts would be mitigated because the sunken vessel would accumulate silt and form the basis for a new marine habitat.
"What happens is the mobile animals that are on the seafloor blindly crawl inside the ship, just by natural course, like a spider crawling up a wall," he said. "They find their way into the ship - starfish, anemones, all kinds of stuff, even invertebrates."
Robins said Halkett Bay already underwent habitat alteration and devastation when it was historically used for log booming and that it has low biodiversity. He said the society made a video detailing the marine life at the proposed sink site as part of the approvals-seeking process.
"If you actually saw the video, you'd be sitting there tapping your finger and going, 'When am I going to see something move?'" he said.
But MacDonald countered that the reef wouldn't "create" more marine life: it would simply lure it from nearby locations -all to serve a clientele of recreational divers, rather than the island's inhabitants.
"All of the studies that we've seen show that such reefs aggregate the sea life, and the ARSBC is careful not to say that they're going to create sea life," he said.
Robins said the ship will shortly undergo a complete environmental inspection, with that report being sent on to the various agencies reviewing the project as "the final piece of the puzzle" before a decision is rendered.
"If history repeats itself, which it should, then we expect to get an approval for the ship to be sunk," he said, adding that the society is still planning for a late 2010 sink date.
