It has been a year since the The Campbell River Business Recovery Task Force described fish farms as one of the city’s three key first dollar industries. Mayor Andy Adams said they are Campbell River’s largest economic driver. This is also a sector being phased out over the course of the next year. In the last of a series about the 2021 Federal Budget, North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney talks about funding for salmon farms
Continue reading Budget 2021: Funding for salmon farmsCategory Archives: Rivers & Oceans
Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971
Born in New York, he chose Canada. Another two years passed before he arrived on a remote island off the West Coast. Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971.
“I originally came here in January of ’71, looking for land. A guy gave me a job for the summer, beginning in April, serving coffee to the fishers and the loggers. There was a little cafe just above Mansons Lagoon, across from what used to be the Barton store – which I understand is now the Cortes Island Museum. It was dragged up the road and put in place to become the museum,” he says.
Continue reading Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971
The Discovery Islands Sea Star Monitoring Program
Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has become the Hakai Institute‘s first partner in a new citizen science sea star monitoring program.
As Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI explained, “”We just launched a really exciting joint project with the Hakai Institute. They are initiating a project to monitor the health of Sea Stars in the Discovery Islands and we can contribute from Cortes Island.”
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Sea Stars – Wolves of the Ocean floor
Kelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute recently described sea stars as wolves of the ocean floor.
The topic came up when I mentioned that they prey upon the oysters in Gorge Harbour, on Cortes Island.
Julia Rendall, President of the Bee Islets Growers Corporation, said they normally eat about a third of her crop. The bottom clusters are “all chewed, eaten.” She remembers the summer that Sea Star Wasting Disease reached the Gorge.
“That was the year I had the very best harvest, for shuck oysters,” said Rendall … I got about $8,000 a raft instead of $5,000.”
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Why Bottom Trawling is a climate disaster
By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Bottom trawling, a common fishing practice where large nets are dragged along the sea floor, is exacerbating the climate crisis, a new study has found.
Continue reading Why Bottom Trawling is a climate disaster