A report to be tabled Thursday at a Metro Vancouver environmental and parks committee meeting recommends asking the RCMP’s marine squad to beef up patrols along Wreck Beach before an accident involving swimmers and boaters happens.
Despite plans to increase the police presence, The Wreck Beach Preservation Society argues boaters and Jet-Ski users need to be banned altogether from Vancouver’s famous nude beach.
Beach users want a crackdown on motor boats and other craft they claim are loud and pollute the water.
In the past, Transport Canada has rejected calls to ban personal watercraft (PWC) such as Jet-Skis near the beach or to step up enforcement against unsafe boating near swimmers.
The society wants Metro Vancouver to act because the beach is part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, which is managed by Metro Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver’s Mitch Sokalski said concern has been raised for more than 10 years about the bad mix between the boaters and swimmers who use Wreck Beach.
“We have been dealing with this issue since 2002,” said Sokalski, adding that Transport Canada spent two years studying the problem.
“Transport Canada said they didn’t see any high risk or safety concerns in the swimming area,” said Sokalski.
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To try and maintain a balance between the beachgoers and the boaters, Sokalski said they feel the best solution is to get the RCMP to patrol the area regularly during the busy summer months.
“We are requesting additional marine patrols of Wreck Beach Trail 6 this summer season,” said Sokalski.
Wreck Beach Preservation Society’s Judy Williams said given the increasing number of boats and PWCs speeding in and out of the beach area, it is an accident waiting to happen
“It’s been a long struggle to try to get protection for Wreck Beach swimmers, and just as oil and water do not mix, neither do swimmers and boats, particularly when some of the operators are drunk, abusive and arrogant,” claims Williams.
“It’s just a matter of time until someone is killed or seriously injured, because these guys don’t have a brain in their heads,” Williams told Metro directors at a public meeting in the fall where a petition with more than 2,500 names asking for a boat ban was given to the board.
Besides the risk to swimmers, the PWCs are noisy and the boaters who moor near the beach often have loud music, Williams said.
Complaints have also been passed on to authorities that some of the boaters are gawkers who videotape people on the nude beach.
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