Cost to the Coast

Half of the fish caught in B.C. migrate through or originate in the waters between Vancouver Island and Hecate Strait. If any of the proposed pipeline and port mega-projects are approved, oil tankers will be sailing these waters in large numbers.

What's the economic risk for coastal communities?

	Commercial fishermen catch over $100 million worth of fish annually on the North Coast, and over 2,500 North Coast residents work in the commercial fishery. Commercial and sport fishing, and processing wild fish, contributed$396 million to B.C.’s economy in 2001 (the last year for which figures are available). Commercial fishing incomes that year totaled $62million; fish-processing employed 3,900 people who earned an estimated$152 million.
	The province’s salt water sports fishery employs 4,700 people and contributed an estimated $700 million annually to the regional economy in 2003.
	Other coastal tourism businesses include cruise ships, power and sail cruising, whale watching and other wildlife viewing, scuba diving and kayaking. One study of B.C.’s marine tourism industry estimated that cruise ships added $150 million to the provincial economy in 2001. The other marine tourism sectors, excluding sport fishing, brought in an estimated $32 million.
	First Nations have depended on the bounty of the land and sea since time immemorial. Ancient clam middens and terraces around coastal B.C.are evidence of the importance of shellfish to generations of First Nations. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill ten native communities in Alaska lost their traditional food sources and with devastating consequences for the social and economic vitality of their communities.