When longtime Lake Cowichan resident Joe Saysell brought up the affect the plethora of tubers in the summer months have on the Cowichan River and the potential harm they are doing to the heritage river with their sunscreen, the folks at the Tube Shack sprang into action.
The popular river tubing business became keen to offer river-safe sun protection for purchase by its clients.
“We did a bunch of research about the chemicals that shouldn’t be in [the sunscreen] and we found one. Or at least we thought we did,” explained Tube Shack owner Aaron Frisby. But things didn’t work out according to plan.
“We basically found the sunscreen that we thought was the safest for the river,” Frisby began.
Aside from being expensive and tested on animals, it turned out not to be river-safe at all.
“We learned it had zinc in it but I guess zinc is not river-safe and then somebody told us that it was tested on animals. So, we stopped selling it,” he added.
By Aug. 31 Frisby had found a new river-safe sunscreen: Stream2Sea, a mineral sunscreen.
“We are 100 per cent sure that this sunscreen from Stream2Sea is safe for humans, fish and rivers,” Frisby said. The company is also challenging mayor and council to restrict the sales of dangerous sunscreen in Lake Cowichan.
