CAMPBELL RIVER -- Workers and business-owners at Campbell River's small craft harbour are puzzled at what prompted a person to illegally dump garbage bags filled with fish and food products into the ocean Tuesday morning.
Abby Morris is the owner of Crabby Bob's Seafood at the marina where the garbage bags were found floating in the water.
"It just doesn't make sense to me why you would dump your actual garbage bags into the harbour," Morris said. "It would be one thing if you just showed up and dumped a bunch of food in the water because, of course, the creatures would take care of that, but they don't take care of plastic."
A surveillance camera captured the man backing his pickup onto the dock and then dumping a plastic barrel full of trash off the edge of the dock, followed by several tied garbage bags.
Phyllis Titus is the marina's manager and reviewed video of the incident, which occurred at 5:27 a.m. on July 7.
"He dumped what looked to us, (to be) frozen food that thawed from a freezer. There was fish, there was bread, apples, all in plastic zip-lock bags and then also inside plastic garbage bags," Titus said.
The incident happened right next to an open dumpster, which Titus found puzzling. She posted an image from a surveillance camera on Facebook and tips from the public started coming in immediately.
"Even though it's a large town, it's a small town at the same time and everyone wants to protect the ocean," she said.
Dock attendant Rylan Fisher was tasked with helping retrieve the bags from the water and the rocks under the pier.
"It was brutal," Fisher said. "It was the worst smell I have ever encountered. There was a few full fish in them, there was sausages, dry freezer bags and random food items."
The dumping left Morris disappointed.
"It actually made me embarrassed to be a human being yesterday," she said.
Titus reported the incident to various agencies which she said are looking into the matter. She said she'd also like to have a talk with the person involved and hopes he'll come and make his amends to staff that had to clean up the mess he left behind.
