Tag Archives: kelp

Rivers & Oceans

Some species benefited from BC’s 2021 heat dome — but at an enormous cost, study finds

Editor’s note: Millions of marine creatures may have perished in the Discovery Island’s during the 2021 heat dome. Their remains covered the beaches at places like Smelt Bay, Mansons Lagoon and Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island. Dr. Chris Harley, from UBC, initially told the media that more than a billion mussels, clams, sea stars and other invertebrates may have cooked to death in the area between Campbell River and Washington state. The article that follows cites his initial estimate. As more data became available, Harley revised that figure to possibly as many as 10 billion.

By Hope Lompe, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Some plants and animals are better off than they were before the 2021 heat dome, despite a week of record-breaking heat intensity across Western North America. 

In a study of approximately 50 species, researchers from across Canada found more than three quarters were negatively affected by the heat dome, while about 25 per cent actually saw a positive outcome. 

Continue reading Some species benefited from BC’s 2021 heat dome — but at an enormous cost, study finds →
Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

$240,000 kelp restoration project aims to rebuild salmon abundance in Clayoquot Sound

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Clayoquot Sound, BC – Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation has partnered with Redd Fish Restoration Society (Redd Fish) and West Coast Kelp Ltd. to undertake a large-scale kelp restoration project on the Pacific Coast. 

The total project budget is roughly $240,000 with a large portion of the funds coming from the provincial government, plus a patchwork of grants from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, World Wildlife Fund Canada, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, according to Redd Fish.  

Continue reading $240,000 kelp restoration project aims to rebuild salmon abundance in Clayoquot Sound →
Politics

How Aaron Gunn Riles Foes in a Coastal Riding

By Andrea Bennett, Originally published on the Tyee

It’s a packed house at the federal all-candidates meeting in Powell River, with one very notable absence: Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn.

Outside the Evergreen Theatre, campaign volunteers staff a table stacked with placards bearing Gunn’s name and face, perhaps with the idea his supporters may hold them up in the crowd, conjuring the idea of his presence.

Inside, four candidates — the NDP’s Tanille Johnston, the Green Party’s Jessica Wegg, the Liberals’ Jennifer Lash and Independent Glen Staples — answer questions about crime, the toxic drug crisis, reforming the RCMP, Israel and Palestine, and what they’d do to ensure Canada implements the recommendations emerging from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Continue reading How Aaron Gunn Riles Foes in a Coastal Riding →
Rivers & Oceans

Ships to use AI to protect whales from underwater noise pollution

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Marine researchers are diving into the world of artificial intelligence to help solve an invisible problem: noise pollution, and the effect it has on local marine life.

Non-profit organization Clear Seas is researching how machine learning can help reduce the noise emitted from ships, with the goal of creating an underwater vessel that will tune and adjust its noise to adapt to whatever marine mammal, especially in regards to whales, is nearby.

Continue reading Ships to use AI to protect whales from underwater noise pollution →
Rivers & Oceans

The ocean’s kelp forests are worth serious coin

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Underwater forests represent an average of $500 billion annually in benefits to commercial fisheries, ocean pollution removal and carbon absorption, a new international study shows.

The study is the first to examine the value of kelp’s ocean canopies — found along a third of the world’s shores and on all three of Canada’s coasts, said Canadian co-author Margot Hessing-Lewis, a researcher with the Hakai Institute and the University of British Columbia. 

Continue reading The ocean’s kelp forests are worth serious coin →