THE GREEN BOATER · video

What this video covers

Skookum Yacht Services operates a free mobile holding-tank pump-out service in False Creek, Vancouver, funded by the City of Vancouver.▶ 1:38 Bruno interviews Stephen, co-owner of Skookum Yacht Services, at Granville Island about how the service works and why it exists.▶ 0:07 False Creek has roughly 1,500–1,600 resident boats plus thousands of summer visitors, a narrow entrance, poor tidal flushing, and documented E. coli spikes when boaters discharge waste overboard — illegal under Canadian law but rarely enforced.▶ 2:13 The pump-out boat is 17 feet and reaches any anchored vessel; the operator boards, locates the deck fill, connects an adapter, and empties the holding tank at approximately one litre per second into the service vessel's own tank, then offloads at Burrard Civic Marina.▶ 6:52 The entire job takes about five minutes.▶ 7:32 Boaters contact Skookum by text with a boat name and location; no other effort is required.▶ 5:09 Service days are typically Sunday and Monday.▶ 5:17 Coverage is limited to False Creek — not English Bay or Kitsilano Beach.▶ 5:37 Information is at vancouver.ca/marinas.▶ 9:24 The service exists because fixed pump-out stations at docks are awkward for visiting boats to use, and removing that friction is what drives compliance.▶ 8:10

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