Category Archives: Rivers & Oceans

Rivers & Oceans

‘Come with us’: Expedition explores new ocean floor developments at Juan de Fuca Ridge

By Alexandra Mehl, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Wednesday, June 6, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and Ocean Exploration Trust departed from Sydney, BC on their annual 21-day expedition, where the team could be the first to lay eyes on a newly formed ocean floor.

In early March a series of more than 200 earthquakes per hour, referred to as an earthquake swarm, was detected at a depth of five kilometers and roughly 240 kilometers offshore of Vancouver Island at the Juan de Fuca Ridge site. The earthquakes reached a magnitude of 4.1.

“The spike of earthquake activity at the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge could be a sign of an ‘impending magmatic rupture’,” reads a statement from ONC, quoting marine seismology PhD candidate Zoe Krauss. “A natural phenomena that can form new ocean floor.” 

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Chief Darren Blaney: First Nations need to take back stewardship of natural resources

More than 25 people turned out for the ‘Polycrisis Townhall-Party’ in the Klahoose Multi-purpose building on Friday, May 17. Chief Darren Blaney of the Homalco FIrst Nation, his wife, MP Rachel Blaney, and Cortes Island Regional Director Mark Vonesch were among them. The event was put together by Cortes Island’s  Alternate Director, Max Thaysen. Norm Harry, of the Klahoose FIrst Nation, welcomed everyone to the building. The most newsworthy portion was Chief Blaney’s declaration that First Nations need to take back stewardship of their traditional territories. 

An abridged version of his talk follows.

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Food, Rivers & Oceans

Seafest – Coming to Squirrel Cove Saturday, May 18

Seafest will be returning to Squirrel Cove this Saturday, May 18, with delicious platefuls of locally grown and prepared seafood. with live music.  

“ I think the first one was back in 1990 or 92. It was down in Smelt Bay with Redonda Sea Farms  and the rest of the community and it was a huge event. I think they had walk-on overloads on the ferry. That was really when the Seafood Association was formed.  Its primary mandate being water quality and it was formed in response to new technology that could assess dioxin pollution from the pulp mills,” explained Dave Nikleva.

Julia Rendall added, “I think in the  late eighties, it was to fight the pulp mills.  ‘Water quality’ was our mandate. Then there was a time when some people were a little bit reluctant about  us oyster farmers. They thought maybe we were getting in the way of their pristine scenery. We decided to  show them that we did have a good product for everybody to enjoy and that it is a viable industry on the island and it is necessary.”

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Animals, Rivers & Oceans

The Pacific Herring Spawn and Nurseries Project

A citizen scientist project to photograph Pacific herring spawn along the West Coast, from Alaska down to California, has been underway for close to two months. It is based in the Comox-Courtenay area, and one of its many partners is the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI).

Project lead Jacqueline Huard, a scientist with Project Watershed,  explained, “I work with the Coastal Forage Fish Network. We are very community scientist based and working on a herring project in iNaturalist just was a natural fit for us. I wanted to encourage the folks that we work with to put their data somewhere where they could also access it. The goal is twofold, both to collect some data and address a gap, but also to get it out to the public and have a publicly available data set for the public created by community scientists.”

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