Category Archives: Animals

Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Whale Blitz teaches locals how to report entangled humpbacks in the area

By Louis Belcourt, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

= Cortes Island was included in the third annual Oceanwise Conservation Association’s 2024 Whale Blitz, which included events all over the Vancouver coast, educating people on whale information and how to spot whales and report on their sightings.

A booth hosted by the coordinator of the Oceanwise Conservation Association provided information on whales in our area and encouraged people to report their whale sightings to the Whale Report App.

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Animals, Energy, Rivers & Oceans

Feds urged to use emergency order to save endangered orcas

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Emergency protections for endangered southern resident killer whales are urgently needed because of increased oil tanker traffic from the expanded Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, says a coalition of conservation groups.

Six environmental organizations are formally petitioning Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier, urging them to recommend that cabinet issue an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to save the remaining 74 whales, said Margot Venton, nature program director of Ecojustice, a legal charity working for the environmental groups. 

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Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Our Grey Whales Are Getting Smaller

There are several whale watching companies in our area and one of the treats they offer are Grey Whale sightings. Campbell River, Cortes and Quadra Islands are in the middle of a migration route. Thousands of  Grey Whales pass through BC, en route to Alaska, during the spring and return in the fall, while heading for the warm waters of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Most appear to go by the west coast of Vancouver Island, but there are also sightings in our area. About 240 Grey Whales spend their entire summer feeding in the shallow waters of BC and Washington state. They are often close enough to the shore to be seen from the land. However few people seem to have noticed that they are getting smaller. 

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Animals

Study finds Black Bears are #4 in Wolves’ diet

Over the past few years there have been increasing reports of wolves preying on black bears. There have been no reports of this on Cortes Island, and a lot of residents first heard about it at the 2024 Wildlife Coexistence Gathering, at Linnaea Farm.

Todd Windle of Wild About Wolves explained that the evidences of wolves preying upon bears in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve go back to the reappearance of wolf population in the area. 

Continue reading Study finds Black Bears are #4 in Wolves’ diet →