Tag Archives: B.C. coast

DFO contemplating sweeping North Coast salmon fishery closure

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is strongly considering a total shutdown of all chinook and sockeye fishing on the North Coast. The potential 2018 fishing ban will include all First Nation food, social and ceremonial harvesting; all commercial operations; and all charter boat and recreational angling. Even the possibility of such a closure, several groups say, is nothing less than devastating. ,,DFO has been meeting with First Nations, recreational and commercial committees to determine if the closures for both sockeye and chinook are even avoidable.>click to read<17:51

B.C. coast to see historic cleanup of marine debris as Japanese tsunami money runs out

tsunami debris bcA coordinated marine-debris cleanup described as the largest in Canadian history is underway all along B.C.’s west coast, from the remote wave-tossed beaches of Cape Scott and Haida Gwaii to the tourist-heavy Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. It is largely funded by the last of a $1-million package provided by the Japanese government in 2012 for tsunami debris cleanup in B.C. “We can’t burden the island’s landfills,” she said. “We brought in five tonnes of plastic ourselves last year.” This year, the groups are operating as a team, using the helicopters to lift one-tonne loads of debris onto a single barge that will work its way down the coast over about a week in late August to early September. The barge will end up in Steveston, with debris delivered to Richmond’s Westcoast Plastic Recycling, which can accept industrial debris that is not contaminated. Read the rest here 21:10

Fukushima radiation on B.C. coast measured by crowdfunding – Scientists from Woods Hole recruiting ‘citizen scientists’ to collect data

CBC_News_logoPeople along B.C.’s coast are being asked to step in where governments in Canada and the U.S. have not — to measure radiation from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in B.C.’s ocean waters. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Maine, are calling on the public to collect data from B.C.’s oceans for a crowd-funded research project. Read more here  08:20

Sudden disappearance of sardines has serious economic and ecological effects on the B.C. coast

A $32-million commercial fishery has inexplicably and completely collapsed this year on the B.C. coast. The sardine seine fleet has gone home after failing to catch a single fish. And the commercial disappearance of the small schooling fish is having repercussions all the way up the food chain to threatened humpback whales. more@vancouversun 0:21