Category Archives: Rivers & Oceans

Food, Rivers & Oceans

Canada needs to curb its import-export swap to make seafood sustainable

Editor’s note: While only 3 or 3 fishing boats still working out of Cortes Island, Klahoose Aquaculture employs about 20 people during the season. There are 10 or so lease holders belonging to the Bee Islets Corporation in Gorge Harbour and numerous shore leases around Cortes, Marina, Read and Quadra Islands. The photo above shows the fishing boats tied up at Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A deep dive exploring how seafood can reach the tables of Canadian consumers and remain sustainable took place at a recent UN World Food Day event in Vancouver.  

Keeping equity and the environment top of mind while creating a new ocean or “blue” economy was a key theme for panel experts at the day-long conference. 

The pandemic’s disruption of the global food supply chain underscored how vital it is to develop local and regional seafood sovereignty and empower small-scale fisheries, said panel member Claire Dawson, Ocean Wise’s senior manager of its fisheries and seafood initiative.  

Continue reading Canada needs to curb its import-export swap to make seafood sustainable →
Rivers & Oceans

Fish farm giant Mowi suing fisheries ministers, taxpayers for Discovery Islands closures

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

An international aquaculture giant is suing two former Canadian fisheries ministers for alleged damages from a federal decision to close fish farms in B.C.’s Discovery Islands region.

Mowi Canada West, a subsidiary of the Norwegian seafood company, filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in March against the Canadian government that personally names former fisheries ministers Bernadette Jordan and Joyce Murray. 

Continue reading Fish farm giant Mowi suing fisheries ministers, taxpayers for Discovery Islands closures →
Animals, Rivers & Oceans

It’s a new season of whale song on the West Coast

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Autumn is the season of whale song on the Pacific Northwest Coast, says longtime researcher Janie Wray. 

Male humpbacks off the B.C. coast are beginning to get vocal — practising and modifying a supernatural and intricate song that is transmitted and almost simultaneously adopted among themselves before and during their winter migration to warmer climes.

Continue reading It’s a new season of whale song on the West Coast →
Rivers & Oceans

Pink Salmon return to Cortes after 8 years, but water levels are too low

Part 2 of a series, click here for part 1.

Cortes Currents was mistaken in the original version of this story. The Chum run did not come into Basil Creek early this year – these are Pinks.

According to Cortes Island Streamkeeper Christine Robinson there have not been any Pink runs on Cortes since 2015 (when most of them perished in front of the culvert in Squirrel Cove), but there was a huge surplus this year.  Pinks are known to stray and find creeks other than their natal streams, and this may be an explanation for their presence on Cortes Island. They started to turn up in Squirrel Cove Creek two to three weeks ago, and Basil Creek and Chris’ Lagoon around Sept 28, but there does not appear to be enough water in the creeks for them.

Continue reading Pink Salmon return to Cortes after 8 years, but water levels are too low →
Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Will the heavy rains come in time for this year’s Chum run in Basil Creek?

Part 1 in a series of articles about the Fall 2023 Salmon runs; Click here for Part 2.

Very little water is trickling through Basil Creek, where Cortes Island’s principal Chum run occurs in late October. There have been few days of rain on Cortes since May, and some of the area’s shallow wells stopped producing in July. Only about 10 Chum were seen in Basil Creek during the 2022 drought. Unless water levels rise, this may be the second year in a row when there is not a significant creek for the Chum return. 

According to the Pacific Salmon Foundation, BC is going through ‘one of the most extreme periods of drought in recorded history.’ 

Continue reading Will the heavy rains come in time for this year’s Chum run in Basil Creek? →