2,400 scrapped tires were removed from a small B.C. island. No one's sure how they got there

A mountain of scrapped vehicle tires has been removed from anislet inB.C.'s Sunshine Coast region.

Staff and volunteers with the Ocean Legacy Foundation and Let's Talk Trash program moved 2,409 tires off the islet near Nelson Island over the course of two days last month.

The organizations received a grant through the province's CleanCoast, Clean Waters Initiative Fund, which aims to support marine shoreline cleanups and the removal of derelict vessels.

Abby McLennan, co-founder of Let's Talk Trash Powell River Regional District's Waste Management Education Program says funds for cleanupsaren't typically in the budgetof many organizations.

"Conservation officers ...natural resource officers, department of fisheries and oceans, it's all outside their scope, so that's why they've been sitting there for so long," she said.

During the cleanup, volunteers formed a human chain and passed tires down to a waiting barge as the sloped rocky shore couldn't accommodate machinery.

McLennan said some volunteers were "flabbergasted" by the scope of the project.

"I think a few people were like, 'I don't know if you're going to be able to move all these tires in two days,' but we did."

The tires will eventually be recycled by thenon-profit Tire Stewardship of B.C.

But how did they get there?

McLennansaid the group had to speak to DFO to ensure theisletis Crown land,and made efforts to see if the tires belonged to anyone.

Shesays they are not sure how the tires ended up on the islet, but thinks the origins of the dump site dateback to the 1990s. She's heard a couple of theories about how the tires got there, she said, but they seem implausible.

One theory she heard isthatthe tireswere being transportedfor recycling on abarge thatstarted to sinkso the tires were moved onto the island.

In a statement, the Transportation Safety Board saidit"could not identify the occurrence" McLennan was told about.

McLennan says she's still curious about what happenedandhopes media attention will lead to "more stories coming out of the woodworks."

"They seem very sort of meticulously placed and placed well," she said of the scrapped tires.

"So yeah, I don't know how they got there. It still remains to me a mystery."