Denman Island Marine Stewards

About Us

In 2014, ADIMS received the Islands Trust Community Stewardship Award

The award program recognizes people for work that supports the Islands Trust mandate to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique environment and amenities

What we face

Intensifying aquaculture industry

In the late 1990s, ADIMS was primarily concerned with the negative impacts of the expanding and intensifying shellfish aquaculture industry on our foreshore. Now, most of the Baynes Sound shoreline, including estuaries of numerous salmon bearing streams, is under tenure for shellfish aquaculture. Over 90 percent of Denman Island’s western foreshore is also now under tenure to shellfish aquaculture. This intense industrialization has had a profound effect. Methods and practices damage essential fish habitat, alter the natural state of the intertidal zone, and degrade the habitat of many resident species.

What we do

Work within our community

ADIMS is a grassroots Denman Island organization that has advocated for the protection of our marine environment for 25 years. We have successfully raised awareness about what constitutes a healthy marine environment, and about the cumulative impacts of intense shellfish industrialization and aquaculture practices. We have fostered a sense of community-based stewardship of our marine environment, and continue to create opportunities for community members to protect its wellbeing.

Form alliances to create a unified voice and vision

We have supported the Local Trust Committee in its decisions to limit the expansion of tenures for raft aquaculture along Denman’s western shore. We have worked together with scientists, advocates, First Nations, environmental lawyers, community members, and politicians and government agencies. Our alliances have strengthened our ability to speak on behalf of our community and our local marine environment.

Advocate for ecosystem-based management

In 2016 we began a campaign to make these waters a Marine Protected Area, based on its identity as an Ecologically and Biologically Significant Area (EBSA). The core goal of our campaign is to co-create an ecosystem-based management plan with other key stakeholders around Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel.

Promote community stewardship

We are proud of our work and accomplishments. We honour members of Denman Island’s community who have repeatedly supported our efforts, and who have voiced the high value they place on the ecosystems of our beaches and off-shore waters. Together, we celebrate the beauty and social richness our surroundings contribute to our shared island life.

Strive to ensure a healthy, thriving ecosystem for the future

We act to secure the well-being and sustainable management of the annual herring spawn, the survival of local salmon runs, and the protection of forage fish spawning habitat around Denman Island.