Valerie Langer knows firsthand the disastrous effects of oil spills, having helped clean up the 1988 Nestucca barge oil spill.

In that disaster, huge blobs of oil the size of cars washed up on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Langer told ctvbc.ca.

"It was so horrible that those blobs had wings and legs sticking out."

Langer is one of approximately 30 people who attended a Greenpeace vigil in front of Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline office in downtown Vancouver today.

Dressed in black and holding white candles, demonstrators protested Enbridge's proposal to build a 1,170 pipeline that will flow more than half a million barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta's tar sands to the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C.

They gathered in support of communities in the path of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and to warn of the same possible fate in the Great Bear Rainforest.

They are also calling on the Canadian and B.C. governments to legally ban oil tankers from B.C.'s coast in order protect its waters.

Vigil organizer Stephanie Goodwin delivered a letter to Roger Harris, a vice president at Enbridge, asking the corporation not to follow through with the pipeline project.

Harris told her he appreciated the discussion and presence of the organizers outside, but they are still going to enter the environmental assessment phase for the pipeline, Goodwin told ctvbc.ca.

"We respect the rights of those opposed to the Gateway project," Alan Roth said, a spokesman for Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline project. He maintains that the company has engaged with First Nations at every step of the process and kept up a consistent dialogue with groups for at least six years.

Gerald Amos, the director of Coastal First Nations, called his claim "ironic" saying that Enbridge hasn't officially come into his community.

Coastal First Nations, an alliance of First Nations on British Columbia's North and Central Coast, say they will not allow pipelines or oil tankers carrying Alberta's tar sands oil to cross their land or water out of fear that it would lead to an environmental disaster.

Vigil participant Olivia Brooke said she does not understand why the B.C. government or Enbridge would allow the pipeline project.

"This is just ridiculous the risk they're putting on coastal waters," said Brooke.