The recent decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to charge West Vancouver property owners with alleged violations of the Fisheries Act will be felt most acutely by the owners themselves, but perhaps the province should also bear some of the department's ire.
The land the offending breakwater sits on was originally Crown property - some of it actually underwater - leased to the owner. Traditionally, anything below a high-tide mark belonged to the provincial Crown.
There are good reasons for this. The area between a high and low tides contains habitat crucial to the overall health of the ocean ecosystem. It's sensitive and easily damaged.
On the other side of the tideline, waterfront owners have long considered themselves to have an interest in what happens in front of their land. Too frequently that has extended to overstepping the bounds of what is permitted.
Both fisheries and municipalities have done their best to keep tabs on this sensitive habitat - not always successfully. The province's willingness to wade into the area of selling off the foreshore to private landowners only makes this harder.
With ownership comes a certain mindset towards that foreshore - usually focused more on property rights and retention or expansion of that land than checking in with fisheries.
By allowing private owners to buy this sensitive habitat, the province has made it that much more likely that damaging activities will take place within it and that much harder for other levels of government to enforce regulations.
