Category Archives: Rivers & Oceans

Rivers & Oceans, Waste

Canada’s National Observer takes you on a sailing ship with an impossible mission

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

Canada’s National Observer sent reporter Natasha Bulowski to B.C.’s remote central coast for a special expedition this month.

Teams of people are on B.C.’s central coast this week, facing the Sisyphean task of removing marine debris and garbage from remote islands. For every plastic bottle you pick up, there are at least five more buried under the mess of driftwood washed up on the shores. Ropes and nets are even worse: right when you think you’ve freed a section and are ready to move on, a flash of turquoise rope buried in the driftwood catches your eye and condemns you to another 15-minute to hour-long struggle — or “project” as the crew calls these monstrosities.

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Community, Rivers & Oceans

Cortes sailing school offers access, training to underrepresented individuals in an ‘elitist sport’

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

A local sailing company “Calma Sailing” is offering a free sailing course aimed at providing Indigenous and lower-income people an opportunity to learn the sport.

“I think sailing is a bit of an elitist sport,” said Dominik Domanski, co-owner of Calma Sailing. “It seems so inaccessible.”

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Rivers & Oceans

Fishing communities welcome B.C. intention to reform licensing and quotas

Editor’s note: Fishing was one of Cortes Island’s major industries. The museum records the names of 28 boats and 40 individuals active during the 1970’s. Government regulations changed that. According to  the study SET ADRIFT: THE PLIGHT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA’S FISHING COMMUNITIES, 71% of the people working in the province’s commercial fishing industry lost their jobs. “What remains in the commercial fishery is not a vibrant and healthy fleet, but a fleet ravaged by consolidation.” DFO licensing practises “diverted the fish away from the populous small-boat fleet and delivered the resource into the hands of a venture capitalist…”

By Hope Lompe,  Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fishing communities, harvesters and advocates are welcoming British Columbia’s intention to work with the federal government to reform the purchase system for fish licences and quotas for B.C.’s commercial fishing industry.

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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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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

New system alerts coastal First Nations about hazardous spills on land and water

Editor’s note: According to the BC Treaty Commission’s Interactive Map, the waters of Von Donop Inlet and Carrington Bay, on Cortes Island, are within the traditional territory We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum Nations. They also claim Quadra, Read and Raza Islands, as well as Toba Inlet. These are all areas that are within the traditional territories of the Klahoose First Nation. whose principle village is on Cortes Island. The K’omoks and Klahoose First Nations have overlapping claims on Read, Quadra and Mitlenatch Islands.

By Madeline Dunnett, The Discourse,  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new notification system and app that alerts coastal B.C. First Nations about oil or hazardous chemical spills on their lands and waters was recently launched.

The initiative was developed collaboratively between 12 First Nations and the province’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. The process was coordinated by Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative.  

The system uses technology from Alertable, an emergency alert system that is used by various local governments to notify residents about critical alerts in their communities such as those related to floods or fires. 

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