In April 2023, the Canadian Federal Government approved a proposal by the Port of Vancouver to build a second container ship terminal at Roberts Bank. The project will destroy 177 hectares of the last intact estuarine habitat in western Canada, where over 100 species at risk depend on the habitat for survival, including the western sandpipers. Specifically, the sandpipers will lose access to the essential nutrients contained in the biofilm of the mudflats, and it is predicted that the species will become endangered within 10 years with cascading negative effects on the entire ecosystem, impacting commercial fisheries such as salmon and crab, and apex predators such endangered southern resident killer whales.
What are the existing Port facilities at Roberts Bank?
The port’s existing facilities at Roberts Bank consist of Westshore Terminal, a coal-export terminal first commissioned in the early 1970s that now ships more than 33 million tonnes of coal per year, and Deltaport, Canada’s largest container terminal with three berths with the capacity to handle 2.4 million, 20-foot-equivalent-units (TEUs) per year that first opened in 1997.
What is the Roberts Banks Terminal 2 (RBT2) project?
The Port of Vancouver proposes to build a new three-berth container terminal capable of handling an additional 2.4 million TEUs of containers, expand the existing road and rail causeway to Deltaport and Westshore Terminals, and scoop out a deeper tug boat terminal to handle the additional shipping traffic. The approved expansion is predicted to increase the number of container shipments to the terminal by 50 percent.
Construction of the terminal requires the filling in of an additional 177 hectares at Roberts Bank to create the additional land for the facility.
What does the science say about this project?
The construction of the Terminal 2 will result in the destruction of sensitive habitat in an intertidal zone that is vital for the survival of shorebirds, migrating birds, pacific salmon, and southern resident killer whales
For the past decade, conservation organizations, scientists, and local community groups have urged the federal government not to approve the Terminal 2 project.
Specifically, Environment and Climate Change Canada has predicted that the RBT2 project will remove the salinity trigger for high fatty acid production by diatoms in biofilm on Roberts Bank and have species-level consequences for western sandpipers. These effects are deemed to be permanent, irreversible, continuous and un-mitigable.
RBT2 will restrain outflow from the Fraser River and reduce the salinity of water over the intertidal mudflats of Roberts Bank during the spring migration period. These salinity changes are predicted to impact both the quantity and quality (especially fatty acid production) of biofilm which will, in turn, negatively affect the migration success, reproduction, and survival of western sandpipers.
What will happen to western sandpipers if the project goes ahead?
The decrease in salinity resulting from RBT2 is predicted to markedly accelerate the current rate of western sandpiper decline by compromising their access to biofilm and essential nutrients during migration. As a result, it is probable that the species will be listed as endangered within approximately 10 years.
As there are no equivalent large intertidal mudflats in the Fraser River Estuary and Delta that can be created to compensate for Roberts Bank, the loss of this site in the chain of migratory stopover sites would effectively “hemorrhage” the entire species. The birds would need to fly at least an additional 300 kilometers from the nearest southerly stopover, with a commensurate reduction in overall migration and breeding success.
Will RBT2 only impact western sandpipers?
The effects from RBT2 are not just about western sandpipers. These shorebirds are the window into the ecological functioning of the Fraser River Estuary and reveal that the ecological integrity of the last remaining natural large intertidal bank will be compromised. Curtailing fatty acid production from intertidal biofilm on Roberts Bank will have cascading negative effects up the food web, impacting commercial fisheries, including Chinook salmon and Dungeness crab, and iconic Salish Sea species such as the Southern Resident killer whales.
In 2018, the Canadian federal government determined that Southern Resident killer whales already face an imminent threat to their survival and recovery under existing conditions. The Southern Resident killer whale population is listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA), and the US Endangered Species Act (ESA). Only 73 of these animals remain.
In total, this project will threaten over 100 species at risk, while accelerating the combined biodiversity and climate crises, increasing tanker traffic, underwater noise, and oil spill risk.
It also has the potential to negatively impact the cultural practices of the Tsawwassen, Musqueam, Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations.
Is it too late to save Roberts Bank?
RBT2’s approval by the federal government is subject to 370 binding conditions to protect the environment, local wildlife and land-use activities of Indigenous Peoples. These conditions include over 100 measures meant to protect local wildlife such as developing habitat creation programs to support western sandpipers and other shorebird populations.
As many people may not have spotted, there is a “poison pill” buried in the 370 legally binding conditions imposed on RBT2 (Article #10.4). Under this condition, the Port of Vancouver is required to monitor the impact of the project on the biofilm the birds depend on for their survival over the next three years under the scrutiny of an independent scientific body. If the data indicate that the biofilm is compromised, the federal government can require RBT2 to be either reconfigured or decommissioned.
This “poison pill” is a powerful opportunity to stop this project and save the birds. It is also the last opportunity we have.
How can the public be involved?
At a time of a devastating global biodiversity crisis exacerbated by the climate emergency, governments must do everything they can to protect species threatened with extinction.
The documentary SANDPIPERS’ LAST SUPPER will support an impact campaign led by Birds Canada and other outreach partners to place the importance of Roberts Bank on the international map and to ensure that science prevails under the close scrutiny of public pressure.
The condition that requires the Port of Vancouver to monitor the impact of the project on biofilm under the scrutiny of an independent scientific body is unprecedented in that it can stop the project (as effective biofilm mitigation is not scientifically possible) and presents a huge opportunity to obtain definitive scientific answers on the project’s effects on biofilm and western sandpipers.
This last chance of conserving the system can only be realized if the scientific assessment is rigorous and confirms Environment and Climate Change Canada’s concerns that have already been stated. The next step is the creation of an independent scientific body appointed by the federal government. If the scientific committee is inadequate and/or manipulated by the Port, the biofilm monitoring and testing will produce only ambiguous results that will allow the project to proceed.
The public needs to know now how the the federal government intends to establish the independent scientific committee as well as its terms of reference and composition. While the battle for the project approval has been lost, the war may still be won, but only if the best possible science prevails.