First Fine Issued for a Derelict Boat in Victoria’s Cadboro Bay

There are an estimated 1,700 derelict boats scattered around BC and many thousands more linger on Canada’s shores. The wrecks are often dangerous, leak fuel and other harmful products and damage the ocean’s plants and animals. Wrecks located on beaches in urban locations can lure people aboard which can lead to injury. In the past, wooden boats decayed, eventually returning their fibre to the earth. But fibreglass vessels, like diamonds, are forever.

To deal with this scourge, in 2019 the Federal Government passed “The Wrecked, Abandoned, or Hazardous Vessels Act,” which made abandoning boats illegal, and “recognized the responsibility and liability of owners for their vessels.” Before then, there were few consequences for abandoning vessels.

After the Act became law, it developed regulations, including the imposition of fines on those who abandon boats. The Canadian Coast Guard assesses the condition of abandoned vessels and determines when they pose environmental threats or navigation hazards.

On June 27, the first fine of $15,000 was levied against Ryan Brackenbury who’d failed to remove Akoo, a 27foot powerboat after it washed up in Cadboro Bay on March 31. The Coast Guard had notified Brackenbury numerous times and had noted the boat had discharged polluting substances and its fractured condition presented a public danger. Brackenbury was ordered to clean up the wreckage but has not complied as of this writing.

I spoke with Rob Menzies of Salish

Sea Industries (who have removed many derelicts from our coastline), who told me they had already removed a previous sailboat belonging to Brackenbury that had also washed up on Cadboro Bay’s beach and that another boat he’d occupied had burned. Menzies added that his company had submitted a bid to remove Akoo for an estimated cost of $20,000.

When I googled Brackenbury’s name, I found a Go-Fund-Me page he created in March in which he asked for financial help to buy yet another boat, which would again serve as his home. The fundraiser was not successful.

Brackenbury has 30 days to pay his fine or he must ask for a hearing with the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada. Time will tell whether a law prohibiting the abandonment of boats can successfully levy fines on people with limited means, or those who cannot afford to pay BC’s high rents.

I have often wondered if the persons who have sold a decrepit boat for a beer or a few bucks because they don’t want to invest in upgrading their vessel or to pay for proper disposal should also be fined. Many derelict boats end up ashore because the next person occupying them has neither the knowledge nor the funds to maintain them. But as the last owner, they’re on the legal hook for disposal, while the previous owner also bears responsibility. Is there a gap in the Wrecked, Abandoned, or Hazardous Vessels Act?

—Marianne Scott