Tag Archives: Steelhead Trout

Rivers & Oceans

Under Investigation: Lois Lake Fish Farm

It has been five days since the Watershed Watch Salmon Society issued a press release stating Agrimarine’s semi-closed containment fish farm on Lois Lake, east of Powell River, may have been operating illegally since at least July 21, 2021. 

A provincial bullet point template of that date, from BC’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, states, “DFO has determined that the new infrastructure is not located within the associated FLNR Crown land tenure and therefore (is) in non-compliance.” 

Continue reading Under Investigation: Lois Lake Fish Farm →
Rivers & Oceans

‘Shockingly huge’ steelhead salmon escape fish farm, threatening B.C.’s Lois Lake

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Most B.C. fishing guides would be thrilled if a client pulled a 30-pound rainbow trout from the lake during an expedition.

But the scenario is cause for concern on Lois Lake, said Pat Demeester, who has been an angler and guide in the Powell River region on the Sunshine Coast for decades. 

Massive farm-raised rainbow trout — marketed as sustainably raised Lois Lake steelhead — have been escaping from the AgriMarine aquaculture site into Lois Lake and adjoining Khartoum Lake, southeast of Powell River, he said. 

Continue reading ‘Shockingly huge’ steelhead salmon escape fish farm, threatening B.C.’s Lois Lake →
Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Endangered salmon are left to flounder as Canada hosts COP15

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government is touting lofty goals at the United Nations biodiversity conference underway in Montreal, but Ottawa is failing to save iconic salmon and steelhead trout populations on the edge of extinction, B.C. conservation groups say. 

Continue reading Endangered salmon are left to flounder as Canada hosts COP15 →
Energy, Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Tensions rise as Coastal GasLink blasts a creek near a Wet’suwet’en camp

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Less than one kilometre from a Wet’suwet’en camp and village site, where cabins, tiny homes and a feast hall provide space for ceremony, cultural practices and opportunities to reconnect with the land, is a vast muddy clearing, guarded by private security workers. 

Here, the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline crosses Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek), a tributary of Wedzin Kwa (Morice River). This work requires digging a trench right through the creek to bury the pipe under it.

Ts’elkay Kwe is a known spawning channel for steelhead trout trout and other species, including coho salmon, according to a 2007 land-use plan. But steelhead and salmon throughout the watershed are in decline, in part due to widespread clearcut logging and climate change.

Continue reading Tensions rise as Coastal GasLink blasts a creek near a Wet’suwet’en camp →
Energy, Rivers & Oceans

Dead salmon found at Trans Mountain construction site spark outcry from environmental group

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environmentalists are calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to halt pipeline construction in Hope, B.C., after dead salmon were found at Trans Mountain’s worksite on the Coquihalla River last weekend.

Continue reading Dead salmon found at Trans Mountain construction site spark outcry from environmental group →