Annual Tribal Canoe Journey Targets Ocean Pollution
The two guys sailing across the Pacific in a Kon Tiki-style junk made of actual junk aren’t the only ones taking to the waters this month to call attention to how humans how fouled the seas. The annual Canoe Journey of the Coast Salish Nation of Washington state and British Columbia is also getting under way with a science-based environmental mission.
This year’s journey of 100-plus canoes across the Salish Sea to Cowichan First Nation in Duncan, British Columbia, will include five canoes carrying water-quality probes and global positioning systems (GPS) for measuring various aspects of Salish waters: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved solids, turbidity and pH. Leading the study will be Sarah Akin, a scientist with the Swinomish Tribe. Two scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey — Eric Grossman and Paul Schuster — are also advising the project at the request of the Coast Salish.
This is the first time the canoe journey has taken on a scientific flavor, but it comes not a moment too soon.
“Over the last 100 years, people have looked at our most sacred site (the Salish Sea) as a dump site,” said Brian Cladoosby, Swinomish Chairman. “You have everything - heavy metals, toxins, farm runoff, nonpoint pollution - and it ends up in the Salish Sea. It’s up to this generation and future generations to make everyone aware of the conditions. We as Coast Salish have decided no more and we are stepping forward to restore and protect our most precious waters of the Salish Sea.”
The information gathered during this year’s journey will provide a baseline for future water quality tests, as well as help tribal and other governmental agencies decide on ways to best protect and revitalize the Salish Sea.
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