Wheatley harbour users seek solutions as vessels entering and exiting harbour bottom out

Ships inWheatley harbour are bottoming out, and those who enterand exitthe shallow waterssay it's a safety issue that needs to be addressed.

Fisher and harbour master Bobby Cabral said he and others have been calling for changesfor several years.

"They want to put Band-Aids on something that needs stitches," Cabral said.

Dredging is taking place at the entrance to the harbour right now. It's work that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), which oversees the Small Craft Harbours program responsible for the harbour,said happens several times per year.

Currently, DFOisdredging at the entrance channel to the harbour and a nearby beach area. It says by dredging the beach, a sink is being created to catch sediment coming along the shoreline. Right now, the department said the work is 75 per cent complete.

"DFO will continue to monitor Wheatley harbour and is considering another dredging for March 2024," the department said in awritten response.

But that dredging is not enough, said several users of the harbour CBC spoke with. They saythat the dredging needs to take place farther out in the waterway,which would require a barge.

On a visit to the harbour last week, CBCNews was on board Cabral's vessel as the sand left itstuck for a few minutes.

"That'sfull throttle, she ain't got no more," Cabral said as he attempted to navigate his fishing liner out of the harbour and into open water.

Sediment from the bottom of the lake could be seen shooting up to the surface.

"If I had a four- or five-foot swell, my boat's going down, up and down four or five feet, imagine hitting that sandbar coming down on the swell," Cabral said.

"You can actually break her backbone like the keel of the boat. That's her backbone. You could break it."

He said that posesnot only an environmental threat from the fuel on board the boat,but also a safety threat for those aboard the ship.

Dangerous and costly

Stephen Ingram, president of Hike Metal, a ship building and repairfacility in the harbour,said the issue costs his business money.

"We have brand new boats that have deep drafts and when they go out they hit the sand bar takes all the paint off the keel and the hull and we have to do repairs because we can't deliver a new boat to somebody with damage on it," he said.

"It's an ongoing battle... you're moving sand it's coming back... but there has to be an answer."

Fisher JohnCausaranosaid he's moved his commercial fishing boat from Wheatleyto Kingsville for the past two years becauseof safety concerns. He said he needs at least 1.8 metres (six feet) to get in to the harbour without hitting bottom, but the depth never raises above five feet.

"I can't get in to Wheatley Harbour it's too [dangerous]... it's like a wall," he said. "The boat could go upside down. The boat it can sink. People can get hurt left or right."

His ship carries 12,000 litres of fuel. He said if he were to hit the wall coming in to the harbour, it could cause a big spill.

Causaranoalso wantsto see changes to a breakwater wall built beside the harbour that he said could prevent sand from building up.

DFO said that a 2022 study of sediment management at the harbour found that land-based dredging with larger marine based dredging when needed was the most effective long-term solution.

"The consultant found that a reconfiguration of harbour structures is not a cost-effective method of eliminatingthe infilling issues at the Wheatley Harbour, DFO's response stated.

"All the proposed designs would still require dredging to maintain the entrance channel."

Cabral said that money should not be the concern.

"It doesn't matter how much money it would take," Cabral said. "What's more important? Money or an environmental disaster here? Or losing people's lives here?"