Strait Rocks

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The Strait of Juan de Fuca was quite windy on Friday so I got out for a few minutes to make pictures.

The wind in the neighbourhood added to the glum mood brought on by the possibility that a cargo ship might wash ashore on Haida Gwaii (fortunately that has ended well).


Canon 5D MkII, with Canon 50mm/f1.4 lens, ISO100, f22, 2.5 seconds +/- 2.0 E.V.

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14 thoughts on “Strait Rocks”

    • Hi GGNB – three of tow lines broke – i am guessing they ran out because they stopped towing after the last one. They did a good job of getting it out of immediate harm’s way. I understand the ship is repaired and has departed Prince Rupert for Russia.

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    • It might have been in the trade journals in Texas, the ones to do with oil. It will reverberate a bit as it is likely to have an effect on already hardened attitudes to do with shipping oil through this area. Which means Texas money is probably going to be affected.

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    • Val, you have a lot of this stuff in you head don’t you? Must have been that boarding school education, memory aided by the application of a cane! Or maybe you just have a good memory.

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  5. I have not seen any news stories about the cargo ship. I had to read about it here. I thought it was important but evidently the top stories here involve ebola. And teachers compensation.

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    • We have just done with our near-annual teacher’s strike, so we had a few column inches for the environment.

      The reason it is such a big deal around here, other than that it would have ruined a beautiful place, is that there is a huge controversy about a proposed pipeline to ship tarsands oil, diluted with condensate, to Kitimat on the mainland of BC. It would then go via tanker to Asia at a rate of 500,000 barrels/day, with +200,000 barrels/day of condensate coming back in “empty” tankers.

      There has been a moratorium on tankers in the Hecate Strait for decades, and Kitimat is on the other side of Hecate Strait. Not only that, Kitimat is at the end of a very long deep fjord without any anchorages that opens into a coastal archipelago full of rocks and reefs and turns. The ships would be in a confined channel for ~135km before entering Hecate Strait. The tankers would have to be escorted by tugs and this would be the longest escorted waterway in the world.

      Hecate Strait has large tides (24 feet) and is shallow bottomed with notoriously bad conditions – some of the worlds largest waves have been recorded there, up to 105 feet high. They arrive out of nowhere when the trending peaks are “only” 40 feet – without warning. And it is a long way across Hecate Strait to get clear of Haida Gwaii.

      So, you can imagine that the environmentalists and numerous First Nations along the pipeline and shipping route (about 25 territories involved) are not pleased.

      And, the proponent made matters a great deal worse with a cack-handed, inept and quintessentially Alberta-oil approach to consultation with all communities along the route – they made a terrific mess of it, and consequently has stretched out into its 9th year now. And none of it has gone to court yet, which surely is next, and surely not just one case or one litigant.

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