All posts by Rochelle Baker

Rochelle Baker is a staff reporter with Canada’s National Observer, thanks thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative of the Government of Canada. She previously worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in BC’s Lower Mainland for over 7 years.
Rivers & Oceans

Canada hopes to lure more nations into fighting illicit fishing on the high seas

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada aims to tackle illegal international fishing and lead global commitments on marine protected areas with the close of the United Nations Ocean Conference last week. 

Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), headed a delegation at the five-day summit in Lisbon with a focus on sharing science and data to solve the ocean crisis driven by climate change, overfishing, biodiversity loss and pollution. 

Continue reading Canada hopes to lure more nations into fighting illicit fishing on the high seas →
Forests, Parks

New land trust creates a rare climate zone ‘backbone’ that stretches Saturna Island

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new land conservancy on Saturna Island has created a significant green corridor that includes B.C.’s rarest climatic zone.

The Nature Trust of B.C. has purchased 143.5 acres for the Money Creek conservation area on the southwest corner of Saturna, which falls in the moist maritime Coastal Douglas Fir (CDF) bioclimatic subzone, part of the smallest and rarest of the province’s 16 ecological zones

Continue reading New land trust creates a rare climate zone ‘backbone’ that stretches Saturna Island →
Waste

Recycling isn’t the ‘panacea’ that will save oceans from plastic at UN Ocean summit

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada has the opportunity to position itself as a leader in tackling the world’s marine plastics problem at this week’s UN Ocean Conference, experts say. 

However, to effect real change, Canada and its international partners will have to aggressively wean themselves off unnecessary plastics and accelerate the development of a global circular economy to make sure plastic pollution doesn’t end up in oceans. 

Continue reading Recycling isn’t the ‘panacea’ that will save oceans from plastic at UN Ocean summit →
Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

‘We’ll do it ourselves’: Weary of waiting on Ottawa, First Nation sets up marine protected area

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A First Nation in B.C. celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day by taking action where the federal government has not by establishing a new marine protected area in the Great Bear Coast. 

Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation (KXFN) elected Chief Doug Neasloss and the nation’s hereditary chiefs formally and unilaterally announced the Gitdisdzu Lugyeks (Kitasu Bay) Marine Protected Area (MPA), a 33.5-square-kilometre ocean protection zone in their traditional territories near Laredo Sound, 500 kilometres north of Vancouver.

Continue reading ‘We’ll do it ourselves’: Weary of waiting on Ottawa, First Nation sets up marine protected area →
Cost of Climate Change, Indigenous Nations History

Ancient fish bones may help us adapt to climate change

Editor’s note: Quadra, Cortes and the other Discovery Islands were probably settled 13,000 years ago. The oldest known site, Yeatman Bay on Quadra Island, dates back about 11,000 years.

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The study of 5,000-year-old fish bones on the West Coast is revealing how Indigenous people adapted to warming oceans — information that could shape present day adaptations and fisheries management as the climate crisis advances, University of Victoria researchers say.

Continue reading Ancient fish bones may help us adapt to climate change →