Coastal patrols log a record season of vessel traffic in Fitz Hugh Sound

The stewardship patrols that log vessel movements through Fitz Hugh Sound counted nine hundred and forty transits between April and July — the busiest season in the record, up almost a third on last year, and most of the growth is one category: small expedition cruise vessels.

The pattern is the industry's open secret. The big ships hold their inside-passage lanes under pilotage rules written decades ago; the growth is underneath them, in hundred-passenger vessels that anchor in the small bays, land guests on the estuaries, and operate — legally — in a zone that has monitoring but no marine plan to enforce.

The patrol logs are quietly becoming the region's de facto traffic authority. Operators now radio the stewardship offices with itineraries the way they would a harbourmaster, and the offices' seasonal guidance — which estuaries are closed for feeding season, which anchorages are asked to stay empty — is followed, per the logs, most of the time. "Most of the time," the coordinator noted, "is a courtesy, not a rule. Courtesies have capacity limits."

The federal marine planning process that would turn guidance into rules has been "concluding" for three years. The patrols' season report, released this week, attaches the traffic curve to a one-sentence recommendation: finish the plan before the curve does.