Camille Andrews, habitat management co-ordinator for Greenways Land Trust, says a tugboat operated by Coast Island Marine hauled the tires off the beach on Monday to a nearby marine terminal.
“It really felt like such a special thing to be a part of having the whole community come together like that,” Andrews said, adding that nearly 30 volunteers had already come out the week before to pick up bits of Styrofoam from the beach.
The land trust says the tires will be craned out of the water and loaded onto trucks for disposal at a landfill.
Andrews says the land trust is working with the City of Campbell River and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on creating a task force to establish a plan for how to respond to situations like these.
The land trust says one of the main concerns about the tires was that they were filled with Styrofoam, which easily breaks up into smaller pieces that birds and marine species can ingest.
Keely Dodds with the Greenways Land Trust in Campbell River, B.C., explains how large pieces of Styrofoam can break down into problematic pieces for birds and fish.
Getting rid of the tires was a challenge not only because they each weigh about four tonnes, but also because they weren’t located near a vehicular access point to the beach.
The tires were chained into two groups. The land trust says they were likely used as a dock or barge.
The organization says nine agencies and companies worked together to remove the tires.
DFO contributed by offering a qualified environmental professional to monitor the removal.
The federal department says two officers tried to identify who owned the tires, but they were unable to.
“DFO’s conservation and protection team is continuing to look into this incident and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time,” it said.