When I fished with my dad in the 60鈥檚, we never wondered if the catch was safe to eat.

Same for the butter clams we collected along the shore by the bucket full and roasted on the campfire. We trusted the water was healthy, under the boat and on the beach. That, as we all know, was how things were then. Today, we sometimes pause and consider the source.  

Last November I attended the Baynes Sound Lambert Channel EcoForum. This bi-annual event is held at the Deep Bay Field Marine Station, a Vancouver Island University research and education facility. Attendance is limited to members of the EcoForum Steering Committee, the invited stakeholders, and guest presenters. Many of these individuals are identified on the website Baynes Sound/Lambert Channel Ecosystem Forum, where their mission statement is defined as 鈥渨orking for the long-term well-being of this exceptional marine ecosystem in the Northern Salish Sea.鈥�

Since 2017, the Steering Committee and Forum participants have donated their time, expertise, and heart to convert that mission statement into tangible, practical, effective action. They began not with answers, but in finding the right questions to ask 鈥� and of whom. At one point, Forum participants said, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what we don鈥檛 know.鈥� Where else would you start but from there? Each of the Forums have served to provide a platform for collaboration between people from multiple levels of government, research academics, K鈥櫭砿oks First Nation, Tla鈥檃min Nation, Qualicum First Nation, Denman Island and Baynes Sound citizen action groups, BC Shellfish Growers Association, and many more (see ). Imagine the challenge of inviting all those voices to share their specific interests and knowledge and data about the health of a common body of water and shoreline. Through respectful and informed conversations, the EcoForum has accomplished exactly that, identifying the mutual current of passion that moves people to care what happens next and do something about it.

I鈥檝e been privileged to attend past EcoForums in my capacity as a Past Commodore of the Comox Valley Yacht Club, representing our members who see Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel as our backyard waters. I report back what the EcoForum has achieved and has yet to accomplish, their work both wrenching and rewarding. Yet know that while bad news lately seems the loudest, we have a choir of diverse voices united in the effort to keep our waters safe, beautiful, and blue.