Tag Archives: Alaska

Rivers & Oceans, Waste

West Coast infrastructure is on the rise to stem the wave of ocean plastics

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: FOCI volunteers carried out a ‘Mother’s Day Beach Clean-up of the beach between Hollyhock and Seaford Road, Cortes Island on May 9, 2022.

Coastal community cleanup groups on eastern Vancouver Island have been itching for the opening of B.C.’s newest ocean debris recycling depot. 

The Cumberland site, operated by Comox Strathcona Waste Management (CSWM) in partnership with the Ocean Legacy Foundation, opened in mid-June to tackle the tonnes of plastic washing ashore in the region, said Stephanie Valdal, CSWM’s waste management services co-ordinator. 

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Industry, Rivers & Oceans

Mining risks for Pacific Northwest salmon murky due to lack of transparent data

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The impact of mining on key salmon watersheds in northwestern Canada and the U.S. is impossible to gauge because of a lack of transparency and access to data.

That was one conclusion of a cross-border study involving a team of experts in salmon ecology, watershed science, mining policy that surveyed the intersection of mining risk with important salmon habitat, ranging from Montana to Alaska as well as B.C. and the Yukon.

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Rivers & Oceans

Climate change could spark international fish fights

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tensions between countries are likely to rise with the global temperature as valuable fish stocks fleeing warmer waters cross into different national boundaries, a new study suggests.

The climate crisis will push 45 per cent of the world’s shared fish stocks away from historic habitat ranges and migration routes by 2100, posing a challenge for international co-operation, said senior author William Cheung.

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Rivers & Oceans

Alaskan commercial fishery ‘plundering’ threatened B.C. salmon

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Commercial fish harvesters in southeast Alaska are netting significant amounts of threatened B.C. salmon even though the bulk of Canada’s Pacific fleet is stranded on shore to conserve plummeting stocks, a new study suggests.

Some of B.C.’s largest salmon runs navigate the waters of the Alaskan Panhandle just north of B.C. as they return to Canadian rivers to spawn, said Greg Taylor, fisheries expert and one of the authors of a new technical report for the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust.

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Children, Indigenous languages

‘Raising Sm’algyax’: Tsimshian mothers reclaim the language through nursery rhymes for toddlers

Terrace Standard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Dr. Mique’l Dangeli’s toddler, Hayetsk, is the first among two successive generations in his family to have Sm’algyax as his primary language. 

Dangeli jests that his maternal grandmother worries she might find it difficult to communicate with her grandson who knows more of the language than she ever has her whole life. 

“I tell her not to worry, Hayetsk will teach you,” said Dangeli whose battle to revive the dialect of the Tsimshian people is slowly materializing as a tiny army of toddlers begin to adopt it as a first language. 

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