CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. - Pollution charges have been laid in connection with a barge that overturned in a sensitive killer whale reserve off Vancouver Island.
The barge carrying a fuel truck loaded with 10,000 litres of diesel, logging equipment and buckets of hydraulic oil tipped into Robson Bight off Vancouver Island's east coast last August.
A total of 10 charges have been laid against Gowlland Towing, the owner of the barge, Ted LeRoy, the company that hired the barge and Carl Strom, the skipper of the tug towing the vessel.
The charges, including unlawfully discharging oil in an area frequented by fish, have been laid under the Shipping Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Fisheries Act.
Jennifer Lash, of the environmental group Living Oceans Society, says the charges send a message that companies can't get away with putting B.C. wildlife in danger.
Robson Bight is one of the few spots in the world where killer whales rub their bodies on the pebbles along the beach.
