On August 4, 2006, the Westwood Anette, a large forest products carrier, was leaving a pulp terminal in Squamish when a steel fitting on the dock punctured the side of the ship, rupturing the ship’s day tank. The ship leaked 50,000 litres of black oil into the Squamish estuary, and was threatening to enter nearby Howe Sound.
The Canadian Coast Guard and WCMRC promptly arrived on the scene, deployed containment booms and set up an Incident Command Post in the Squamish municipality. WCMRC recovered the product through booming and skimming. Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams were deployed to direct the shoreline operations. WCMRC worked to mitigate damage to the estuary, where some oil was trapped to prevent it from entering Howe Sound. The response was guided by maps of local environmental sensitivities that had already been developed by WCMRC.