Category Archives: Rivers & Oceans

Rivers & Oceans

Pacific Salmon Explorer: tool to help protect BC salmon

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A groundbreaking online tool that illustrates the state of Pacific salmon across B.C. aims to help protect endangered populations and drive future conservation efforts. The Pacific Salmon Explorer is a public data-visualization site that people can use to see what types of salmon are returning to a given area and find available data on the health of the population and the cumulative habitat pressures the fish may be facing.

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Rivers & Oceans

Straitwatch: the Discovery Island’s ‘whale police’

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A putrid stink wafts across the water and engulfs the Straitwatch vessel floating off the southern end of Quadra Island.

The Zodiac’s operator, Alex Forman, wrinkles his nose at the odour that hangs in the air, strongly reminiscent of fermented garbage.

“Whale breath,” he explains. “Humpbacks don’t brush their teeth much.”

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Rivers & Oceans

Tide to table: A Quadra company’s response to COVID

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Cameron Pirie knew his business was facing a watershed moment when the COVID-19 crisis hit the shores of B.C. this past spring.

The pandemic was ravaging export markets and the tourism and restaurant sectors without mercy.

As a result, the president of Walcan Seafood, a family-owned seafood processing company on Quadra Island, suddenly found himself sitting on $2 million worth of product he couldn’t find a market for.

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Rivers & Oceans

Election 2020: What can an MLA do about fish farms?

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One of the reasons that Alexandra Morton is running for the Green Party in this election is that “over the last twenty years, I’ve seen the politics and policies that are killing off the wild salmon of this coast are also destroying our communities.” However fish farms are overseen by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, not the provincial legislature. So I asked Alexandra, what can an MLA do about fish farms? 

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Rivers & Oceans

The DFO responds to questions about minimal risk

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Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) announcement unleashed a torrent of protests from First Nations leaders and environmentalists. How could “nine peer-reviewed, scientific risk assessments” find that salmon farms pose a ‘minimal risk’ to migrating Fraser River sockeye salmon? Two questions from Cortes Currents were amidst the deluge of correspondence they took in. It has taken more than a week, but the DFO finally responded to my questions about minimal risk.

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