Monthly Archives: March 2015

Horses on Taylor Beach

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horseonbeach

The holes punched out by horses can be up to 25 cm. in depth.

The Metchosin Community has a considerable population of recreational horses. It is accepted that to criticize anything horse-related might not be politically correct in Metchosin.

The pictures included in this post represent an extreme example but they are useful in order to point out the potential environmental impact of this activity. Let alone making it gf-sandlance-july1320154difficult to walk on until the next high tide comes in to smooth it out, the real issue is what is happening to the habitat of the forage fish. Both Pacific Smelt and Sand lance inhabit intertidal zones on Taylor beach. When they spawn, these forage fish deposit eggs  just under the surface of the sand . They are vulnerable to compaction and excessive drying out before they are carried out by the tide.  Given the lack of protection afforded the habitat of these fish and the over-harvesting in the herring fishery, these essential small fish of the food web are challenged enough already.

horsehoof

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Horse hoof punctures in the sand right down in the area where sand lance are depositing their eggs in burrows.

 

Winter foraging seabirds still off Taylor Beach

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On my daily walks on Taylor Beach since the fall, I have noticed that there has been a constant presence of the diving ducks off shore which rely on the forage fish from Taylor Beach.  It will be interesting to see when they depart to go to their nesting grounds, usually to the North on Inland lakes.
Today a common loon, several red-breasted mergansers, buffleheads and surf scoters are still scattered over the waterfront.

No estimate is available on the number of diving birds that winter along the waterfront around the southern end of Vancouver Island depending on forage fish for survival but the sum total would probably be considerable given what we are regularly seeing in this area off Taylor Beach. In our efforts as intervenors on behalf of Friends of Ecological reserves, we have been aware and questioned the importance of the over-wintering population of seabirds in the area which would be severely affected in the event of a catastrophic oil spill.   Unfortunately the level of environmental impact assessment by the pipeline and oil transport company in this area which is a few miles from the intended vessel traffic lane does not exist.

In our recent Round 2  intormation requests , we tried to get KM/ Trans Mountain to acknowledge the importance of modelling a spill of their toxic diluted bitumin off Victoria. They have refused to do so so far .

SInce Taylor beach is a spawning beach for two forage fish, Pacific Smelt and sand lance  which provide food for these marine birds, one might reflect on the way we humans use and abuse the beach, the habitat of the forage fish. Numerous randomly placed beach fires  and  horse traffic which punches up the beach  are concerns which should be addressed in Metchosin .