Nova Scotia's abandoned vessel issue spurred on by poor metal prices

A long-time scrap dealer says low metal prices are contributing to the number of abandoned and derelict vessels being left in harbours along Nova Scotia's coastline.

Mike Parsons of Duncans Cove has managed and dismantled vessels for nearly 50 years and has watched the price for scrap metal drop drastically.

"It's gone down the lowest I've seen it in forever," he told CBC News.

Parsons said the price of pan-sized No. 1 steel hit a high in 2008 of $260 per tonne. Pan-sized means pieces 1.5-metres long by 45-centimetres wide and at least .6-centimetres thick. Right now, he said it's selling for $75 a tonne.

A recent CBC Nova Scotia Investigation found one scrap metal dealer, Tracy Dodds, is currently embroiled in three Federal Court cases where wharf owners in Nova Scotia say they are owed tens of thousands of dollars in berthing fees.

In each case, the owner of the wharf has asked Dodds to remove his ship without success. One of the vessels is the Farley Mowat, which sank in Shelburne Harbour last year. An extensive operation overseen by the Canadian Coast Guard was needed to raise it.

The problem, Parsons said, is scrap metal dealers who own vessels can't afford to maintain them.

"They can't afford to tie them up at a wharf, if they can find a wharf to tie them up at, and they'll sit around until the market goes up or they break free and end up somewhere else," Parsons said.

Parsons said one way to reduce the number of unwanted vessels is for wharf owners to ensure the ships are insured before anyone ties them up.

Last week, Sheila Malcolmson, the NDP MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith in British Columbia, introduced a private member's bill that would make the Canadian Coast Guard receiver for all wrecks. It would force the government to create new rules for the "removal, disposition, or destruction of abandoned vessels or wrecks."

Parsons, however, said there's no simple solution to the problem.