Panmure Island residents call for action after foam buoys pile up on their shores

Some Panmure Island residents are involved with the rising quantity of fishing buoys and different waste piling up on their shores and say nobody appears to be accountable for cleansing it up.

Residents say the buildup of fishing buoys manufactured from expanded polystyrene foam (EPS), extra generally often known as Styrofoam, is out of hand this yr.

“It is loopy in some ways in which we ban plastic baggage within the grocery store … but we enable tons of Styrofoam to enter our ocean yearly,” stated Lucy Robson, who has lived within the space for 12 years.

“And I imply actually tons. And this is only one location on Panmure Island. There are numerous places like this, and I am certain there’s many places round P.E.I.”

Resident Kellie Lockhart stated she and her husband counted 1000’s of froth fishing buoys alongside the shoreline again in January, when the particles was “at its absolute worst.”

“This tells people who Prince Edward Island doesn’t care concerning the surroundings, the wildlife in any respect,” she stated.

“It appears actually, actually unhealthy. You bought vacationers that is coming in the summertime. First impression of our lovely island, you stroll down the seaside and that is what you see.”

Lockhart stated she’s not against aquaculture on P.E.I., however polystyrene foam can break down over time into tiny items of waste that find yourself within the mouths of fish, birds and different wildlife.

“It’ll be moving into ingesting water. It will get into the fish. They begin consuming it when it is floating within the water not realizing it isn’t meals. The birds eat the fish. It is simply an ongoing downside,” she stated.

‘Nobody actually needs to personal the issue’

Peter Warris, director of initiatives and trade liaison for P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, stated the non-profit takes complaints from the general public critically, with shoreline waste being one of many high 5 points this yr.

There are not any legal guidelines or laws from both the provincial or federal governments that require polystyrene foam fishing buoys or different waste to be eliminated.

The P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance launched a program final yr aimed toward transitioning to a tough plastic different, which is extra sturdy and fewer prone to break aside and add to shoreline waste.

Via its Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Replacement Program, the alliance changed 87,000 Styrofoam buoys with the extra environmentally sustainable possibility.

However Warris stated this system shouldn’t be lively this yr.

Polystyrene foam buoys are used primarily by mussel farmers, he stated, and members have informed him there haven’t been any new purchases for the final 10 years or so, which implies the waste at Panmure Island is from the fishers’ present stockpile.

Lockhart and Robson say they’ve filed complaints with their MLA, Cory Deagle of Montague-Kilmuir; the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance; the Division of Setting; the Division of Fisheries and Communities; the premier’s workplace; and the Opposition.

They are saying they’ve both acquired no response or been redirected to an company they’ve already complained to.

“Nobody actually needs to personal the issue,” Robson stated.

The Cleansing our Shoreline initiative, a provincial program that hires college students to take away particles and waste from P.E.I.’s coastal shoreline in the summertime, is predicted to renew within the coming weeks, when college students wrap up their educational semesters.

The Division of Fisheries and Communities stated in a press release that it “continues to work with the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance and the fishing sector to switch remaining Styrofoam buoys with longer lasting plastic buoys.”

The assertion provides that “the division will proceed to work with trade to hopefully totally discontinue the usage of Styrofoam buoys within the coming years.”

However Lockhart and Robson say that is not adequate.

“We want some motion earlier than the tip of June,” Lockhart stated. “We simply bodily cannot do all of it on our personal.”