Tag Archives: Hakai Institute

This past year at FOCI, an interview with Helen Hall

Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) recently had its AGM. This is also Helen Hall’s seventh year as Executive Director. So Cortes Currents asked her for an overview of this past year and how the organization has changed during her tenure. 

Helen Hall: “That’s a big question, FOCI has always been doing a lot of different projects. I act as the central point for FOCI, but there’s a lot of work going on with volunteers and our contractors.” 

Continue reading This past year at FOCI, an interview with Helen Hall

Long Story Shorts with Hakai on FolkU @89.5FM

Explore the magic of scientific storytelling with the creators and scientists from the Hakai Institute who join host Manda Aufochs Gillespie and Cortes Island Academy students on this Friday’s Folk U Radio at 1 p.m.

We will discuss science communication done well and Hakai’s new short video series, including:

Continue reading Long Story Shorts with Hakai on FolkU @89.5FM

Monitoring Dungeness Crab larvae in Cortes Bay

Last April, Cortes Island became part of an international monitoring project for Dungeness crab larvae. There were 20 light trap stations in the Salish Sea and 17 in the Puget Sound. Three of these traps were within our  listening area. Surge Narrows School had a trap on Read Island. The Hakai Institute and Quadra Island community had another on Quadra Island. Kate Maddigan and Mike Moore coordinated volunteers looking after the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) trap in Cortes Bay. 

Continue reading Monitoring Dungeness Crab larvae in Cortes Bay

Why media like the Cortes Island Academy

A tiny education program on Cortes has been getting a lot of media attention lately.

“We were featured on the National Observer with our local journalism initiative reporter, Rochelle Baker.  She did a fabulous piece on this program that was picked up by the Vancouver Sun and then was picked up by some Vancouver radio stations and by the CBC. So as nearby as Cortes Currents and as now far away as the reach of CBC,” explained Manda Aufochs Gillespie, one of the organizers of the Cortes Island Academy.

Continue reading Why media like the Cortes Island Academy

At the Gallery: Water/Colour from the Bute Inlet landslide

More than 12 years of research lie behind local artist and historian Judith William’s exhibition, which opened in the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery on Friday, August 26. In an interview with Cortes Currents, three months prior to the Bute Inlet landslide, Williams spoke against the installation of power lines in that area because it is too avalanche prone. The Bute Inlet slide is featured in ‘Water/Colour,’ but the exhibition really  focuses on a series of paintings she made using the water she has been collecting in that region since 2010.

Continue reading At the Gallery: Water/Colour from the Bute Inlet landslide