{"id":28793,"date":"2015-11-01T00:42:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T00:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.wildsalmoncenter.substancedev.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2025-10-25T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:44:47","slug":"lelu-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/2015\/11\/01\/lelu-occupation\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupation Lelu Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inside the daily struggle to protect the Skeena from a poorly-planned gas terminal.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The rain pelted down and a low fog hovered over the water as we slowly made our way to northern British Columbia\u2019s Lelu Island on a recent fall day. Known as Lax U\u2019u\u2019la<\/a> to the Lax Kw-alaams First Nation, the coastal island at the mouth of the Skeena River sits in their traditional territory. Our boat captain, Donnie Wesley (pictured above), is the Lax Kw\u2019alaams Hereditary Chief, a fisherman and now the ferryman to the occupation camp on Lelu where he and a small coalition from local First Nations are reasserting their title to the island. Today, he is ferrying his son Joey, myself and Kim Kosa from Wild Salmon Center, and our partners Kirby Muldoe and Quinn Barabash from SkeenaWild Conservation Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SkeenaWild’s Quinn Barabash in the captain’s cabin as we approach Flora Bank | \u00a9 SkeenaWild<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From the captain\u2019s cabin I can see a 110 ft ocean-going vessel drilling and collecting samples for a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal. The $36 billion project led by Malaysian state-controlled Petronas would construct a terminal on top of Lelu Island here at the Skeena\u2019s mouth. The Skeena<\/a> is one of British Columbia\u2019s most important salmon and steelhead rivers, with annual returns reaching 10 million fish. The eelgrass bed of Flora Bank, next to the island, is used by an estimated 80% of juvenile salmon and steelhead as they migrate to sea each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donnie comes to a stop just hundreds of yards from the vessel. “They couldn’t have put [this project] in a worse possible place,\u201d Donnie says. \u201cIt’s right at the mouth of the second biggest salmon-bearing river in British Columbia. Do we really want to give that up?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site for the gas terminal was chosen without consulting local First Nations and Skeena communities. Then in May Petronas\u2019 local affiliate offered the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation $1.25 billion to buy their consent<\/a> on the project. Incredibly, they unanimously voted against the offer, citing concerns about salmon habitat. But the BC government allowed the developers to begin exploratory work anyway. Members of the Lax Kw’alaams decided to file for aboriginal title to the island. They began exercising their aboriginal rights \u2013 and moving to prevent further research and development \u2013 by occupying the island on August 25. SkeenaWild,<\/a> a close partner of Wild Salmon Center, has been supporting the Lax Kw\u2019alaams through this difficult but important time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"LNG
A drilling vessel collects samples for a proposed LNG terminal at Flora Banks near the mouth of BC’s Skeena River | \u00a9 Wild Salmon Center<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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