Category Archives: Rivers & Oceans

Energy, Rivers & Oceans

Tide-powered clean energy could help West Coast communities ditch diesel

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new tidal energy pilot project to reduce dependence on diesel in B.C.’s remote coastal communities is set to launch after getting some critical funding. 

The aim is to advance and deploy a small-scale tidal turbine project in the waters off West Thurlow Island to showcase the technology for other off-grid coastal communities interested in generating clean electricity with ocean energy, said Ben Whitby, program manager at PRIMED, a marine renewable energy research lab at the University of Victoria (UVic).

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Arts, Food, Rivers & Oceans

Seafest returning to Squirrel Cove Saturday May 20

 Seafest is returning to Squirrel Cove on Saturday, May 20, 2023. 

“SeaFest is coming out of hiatus. It ran for over 20 years and then we shut it down during COVID. We were going to start it up last year at the Gorge, but then the Gorge was going through a lot of changes. This Sea Festival is coming back to Squirrel Cove. The view is spectacular. I think it’s got the best view on the island and it’s got a rustic feel about it too. The old store has been there for a hundred years. The interpretive centre is there. This Seafest probably won’t be as big as it was the last few years at the Gorge. It will be more like a community get-together. We’re going back to good food, good entertainment, and a lot of locals coming,” said Julia Rendall, Secretary of the Cortes Island Seafood Association.

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Rivers & Oceans

The ocean’s kelp forests are worth serious coin

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Underwater forests represent an average of $500 billion annually in benefits to commercial fisheries, ocean pollution removal and carbon absorption, a new international study shows.

The study is the first to examine the value of kelp’s ocean canopies — found along a third of the world’s shores and on all three of Canada’s coasts, said Canadian co-author Margot Hessing-Lewis, a researcher with the Hakai Institute and the University of British Columbia. 

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Kelp forests, foundational to coastal ecosystems and Nuu-chah-nulth culture, are at risk

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

Thriving in cool water temperatures, kelp forests cover over a quarter of the world’s coastlines, with Canada having the longest, says Marissa Ng, Seaforestation Project Coordinator for Ocean Wise. 

Of Canada’s 243,042-kilometre long coastline, British Columbia makes up 25,725.

“In the Pacific Northwest, kelp forests are a foundation species. Similar to salmon, they’re important for the health of the coastal ecosystem,” said Ng. “They’re also foundation species because they’re so abundant up and down the coast and much like forests on land, marine forests – kelp forest – they provide food and shelter for thousands of marine species.”

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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.” 

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