The Port of Vancouver’s planned $2-billion container expansion at Roberts Bank poses a “risk of significant adverse environmental effects” to the habitat of migratory shorebirds, especially western sandpipers, Environment Canada warns.
In a letter produced as part of an ongoing federal environmental assessment of the project, Environment Canada notes that Roberts Bank is one of the most important stopover sites for migrating shorebirds on the Pacific coast.
A thin, but highly productive, layer of biofilm at Roberts Bank is unlike any other in the region and is critical to fuel the breeding migration of hundreds of thousands of sandpipers to Alaska.
“There are no equivalent habitats within the estuary or delta to support their migration in the event that biofilm within the project area were to be compromised,” the letter warns.
Port spokesperson Emily Hamer said the port would respond to the letter through the independent review panel process.
Environment Canada disputes the port’s findings that the container expansion will overall have only a moderate impact on the biofilm and a low impact on the sandpipers.
The letter is signed by Stephanie Johnson, regional director of the environmental protection operations directorate, and directed to Jocelyne Beaudet, chair of the federal review panel for the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project.
Even if the project does not reduce overall biofilm productivity, it’s possible it could impact the specific algae species upon which the sandpipers most heavily rely, Johnson warns.
The biofilm is influenced by salinity and temperature and contains bacteria that form on the intertidal mudflats. The sandpipers feed intensively as far as 350 metres from shore.
Ongoing research suggests that “omega-3 fatty acids produced (within the biofilm) may be critical for shorebirds to undertake long-distance migrations,” the letter reads.
“If migration is compromised, the long-term viability of western sandpipers as a species would be adversely affected given that a large proportion of the species uses the Roberts Bank area as a stopover site during northward migration.”
Johnson added “there would be a high degree of scientific uncertainty associated with mitigating or compensating for biofilm.”
Biofilm represents an estimated 60 per cent of the sandpipers’ diet during migration. A flock of 100,000 slurps up about 20 tonnes per tidal cycle.
