{"id":694116,"date":"2026-05-26T04:44:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:44:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:44:44","slug":"fibreglass-particles-a-potential-forever-contaminant-new-research-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694116\/","title":{"rendered":"Fibreglass particles a potential \u2018forever\u2019 contaminant, new research warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A wrecked, abandoned boat is seen in the Cowichan Estuary on Vancouver Island in April. New research found significant levels of fibreglass contamination in the estuary, which experts say can be traced to abandoned vessels like this one.Jesse Winter\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

A flock of shorebirds burst into the air, circling the mouth of the Cowichan River before settling back onto a rocky sandbar to feed.<\/p>\n

Migratory birds such as Western sandpipers feed on the biofilm \u2013 a fatty surface slime of diatoms and bacteria \u2013 that forms in these intertidal mud flats. The micro-organisms it contains provide crucial nutrients for their epic journeys between Central America, Alaska and Siberia.<\/p>\n

But new research from the Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association, in partnership with British Columbia\u2019s Simon Fraser University, shows that the food source may come with hidden risks.<\/p>\n

Scientists found concentrations of tiny fibreglass fragments in the Cowichan Estuary\u2019s biofilm and even more in the estuary\u2019s sediments \u2013 raising concerns that fibreglass in marine environments could become a new \u201cforever\u201d contaminant.<\/p>\n

Fibreglass particles are tiny, near-microscopic spear-like shards, sometimes coated in plastic or resins, that result from industrial and construction uses, as well as regular boat maintenance. But unlike microplastic pollution, the effects of fibreglass contamination in marine environments is a relatively understudied issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just in the infancy of understanding their potential toxicity for animals and people,\u201d says Juan Jos\u00e9 Alava, a marine eco-toxicologist at SFU and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n

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Retired marine biologist and CERCA board member William Heath told the association that fibreglass particles ‘may be even a bigger problem than microplastics.’Jesse Winter\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association had originally set out to study microplastics in the estuary years ago. But then William Heath, a CERCA board member and retired marine biologist, came across a paper about fibreglass particles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, you know, this may be even a bigger problem than microplastics, and we should look into this,\u201d said Mr. Heath, who has been helping the association study microplastics and other contaminants in the estuary for years.<\/p>\n

And so the organization reached out to SFU for help.<\/p>\n

Researchers took biofilm and sediment samples from 26 different sites around the estuary in 2020 and 2024. They found the highest concentrations of fibreglass contamination in three areas: near the Western Forest Products lumber mill; the Cowichan Bay Marina; and the Westcan Terminal, a decades-old industrial spit that today houses a stevedoring operation and a marine construction company. <\/p>\n

Boats are seen tied up at the marina in the Cowichan Estuary in April. New research by the Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association found elevated levels of fibreglass particle contamination near the marina, and in several other sites around the estuary.<\/p>\n

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Juan Jos\u00e9 Alava, a marine eco-toxicologist at SFU and lead author of the study says the contamination in the estuary\u2019s sediment could also pose a hazard to urchins, bivalves and other shellfish that are key food species not just for birds and wildlife.Jesse Winter\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The results of the study, published in March in the peer-reviewed Marine Pollution Bulletin, provided one of the first baseline assessments of fibreglass contamination in Canadian ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The findings have implications for sites of critical biodiversity across B.C. The Roberts Bank mud flats, near Tsawwassen First Nation south of Vancouver, are another vital biofilm location and stopover for migrating birds: Scientists believe that every Western sandpiper in the world will visit there to rest at least once in its lifetime. <\/p>\n

The contamination in the Cowichan Estuary\u2019s sediment could also pose a hazard to urchins, bivalves (such as clams and oysters) and other shellfish that are key food species not just for birds and wildlife, but for people, Mr. Alava said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a basic principle in environmental toxicology that the dose makes the poison. But we don\u2019t know \u2013 even for microplastics \u2013 what that dose is yet,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know that they are in the brain, in several tissues of humans and animals, but we don\u2019t know the toxicity \u2026 the effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the biggest unknowns is whether fibreglass bioaccumulates through the food chain the way some scientists believe microplastics do, Mr. Alava said.<\/p>\n

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Images captured with a scanning electron microscope show tiny shards of fibreglass contamination found in the biofilm and sediment of the Cowichan Estuary.Simon Fraser University\/Supplied<\/p>\n

More study is needed to fully understand the risks, he added, but \u201cwe don\u2019t have to wait until the pollution is in the environment to really take action. It might be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Heath said the CERCA\/SFU research is believed to be the first time such a study of marine fibreglass has been done in North America. Even globally, it marks one of the few times the risks of contamination have been highlighted.<\/p>\n

A similar discovery happened in the south of England eight years ago, when British researcher Corina Ciocan set out to study microplastic concentrations in Chichester Harbour, a popular sailing destination.<\/p>\n

The area used to be so famous for its oysters that Queen Victoria reportedly would order batches of them. But by 2018, the shellfish had died off and the fishery closed. Ms. Ciocan wanted to understand why, and teamed up with a local conservation group to study the harbour\u2019s estuary.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of microplastics, we actually found fibreglass,\u201d Ms. Ciocan said. \u201cThere were those tiny, transparent tubes that you can see under the microscopes. We had no idea what they were, because nobody had reported those previously in the scientific literature.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wrecked, abandoned sailboats are seen in Vancouver\u2019s False Creek. The federal government’s most recent numbers show there are 1,355 abandoned boats across the country, with nearly 70 per cent of them in B.C. waterways.<\/p>\n

Jesse Winter\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Ms. Ciocan has since been trying to raise the alarm. After cataloguing the scale of contamination, she and her team conducted lab experiments to study how the fibres affected marine life such as mussels, zooplankton and water fleas.<\/p>\n

She found that even at relatively low concentrations, the fibres embed in the tissues of bivalves, causing inflammation and \u2013 at the concentrations her lab tested \u2013 rapid mortality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found fibreglass and plastic in the digestive gland, so they clearly ingested the material. The digestive tubules were absolutely clogged with this material. So the animal was probably doomed to starve,\u201d Ms. Ciocan said.<\/p>\n

Her research identified abandoned vessels as a significant contributor to fibreglass pollution. The vast majority of modern pleasure boats and sailboats have hulls and other components made of the material, which eventually breaks down.<\/p>\n

Both Ms. Ciocan and Mr. Alava\u2019s research highlighted marine boatyards as a potential source of contamination. Keeping a fibreglass sailboat in working order means scraping barnacles and other buildup from the hull, plus sanding (and repainting) it every few years. <\/p>\n

But even inactive vessels can be a significant source. Across Canada the federal government tracks reports of abandoned boats and logs them in a publicly available database. The most recent numbers show there are 1,355 abandoned boats across the country, with nearly 70 per cent of them in British Columbia waterways.<\/p>\n

Getting rid of the vessels is often challenging and expensive; even just tracking ownership can be tedious work. Enforcing cleanup falls to the Canadian Coast Guard, which began implementing heavy fines in 2019 to help address the problem. <\/p>\n

Since then, around 800 vessels have been removed, and the federal government has issued nine fines against vessel owners totalling more than $120,000, according to a federal database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Western Forest Products sawmill in the Cowichan Estuary. Researchers found high concentrations of fibreglass particle contamination near the mill.Jesse Winter\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Mr. Alava\u2019s research with CERCA also found high concentrations near the Cowichan Estuary\u2019s industrial sites, where the exact source of contamination remains unclear. Why, for instance, would there be high amounts of fibreglass in the sediment near a lumber mill, which is not involved in fibreglass manufacturing or vessel maintenance? Mr. Alava and the team from CERCA hope to find those answers with further rounds of research.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he wants to see much more stringent regulations adopted in Canada to try to address the growing concerns now, before the problem gets any worse.<\/p>\n

In particular, he would like to see tighter controls around sanding and cutting on slipways and boat yards, stronger regulations around derelict vessels, improved runoff control for marine industrial sites and the development of \u201cgreen chemistry\u201d alternatives to fibreglass that can reduce ecological harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust knowing these particles are present in an estuary that supports shorebirds and shellfish \u2013 and is central to Indigenous food security \u2013 is enough to justify preventive, precautionary actions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A wrecked, abandoned boat is seen in the Cowichan Estuary on Vancouver Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-694116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}