Rochelle Baker

Federal inaction means West Coast harvesters still flounder with unfair fishing regulations, says a parliamentary committee. FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA faces a wave of criticism in a recent report by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO), which reiterated a call to equalize fishing policy on the coasts. For the second time in five years, the committee is pushing the fisheries department (DFO) to make changes so only Canadian fish harvesters with actual “boots on deck” of a boat can own fishing licences or quota on the West Coast. The key recommendation is one of 19 stemming from a recent study by the committee on the effect corporate and foreign ownership of commercial licences and quotas is having on Canadian fisheries. On the Pacific coast, there are no limits around ownership of commercial licences or quota which unlock entry to fisheries and profits in the sector. Yet in the Maritimes, DFO has crafted regulations to limit corporate control and ensure licences remain in the hands of independent harvesters, so fishers and coastal communities benefit from the industry. Speculation and skyrocketing prices for commercial fishing licences and quota (a share of allowable catch) is locking out independent operators from making a living in B.C. waters, said harvesters, First Nations, academics and unions testifying at the committee. Meanwhile, corporations, processors, foreign and domestic investors, or retired fishers benefit, while active fish harvesters must increasingly lease licences and quota at prices or under contract conditions that are unsustainable or put them in the red. The risks of foreign ownership and corporate concentration must be addressed before the nation’s fish and seafood is controlled from boardrooms, here or abroad, rather than by Canadian fishers, the committee stated in its report. “The resources in Canada’s oceans should benefit, first and foremost, the Canadian coastal communities that depend on them.” DFO should develop new criteria around Canadian ownership of licences and transition to the new system in seven years or less, the committee recommended. The need to tackle longstanding concerns about the lack of transparency around who owns and controls commercial licences, quota, and vessels and the need for a public registry was also highlighted in the report. Aside from making it impossible to determine the level of concentration in the industry, poor transparency means the sector could be targeted by criminal elements, the committee heard. Not knowing who owns key resources makes Canadian fisheries vulnerable to foreign state actors, organized crime, and money launderers, Peter German, a former RCMP deputy commissioner, told the committee. As a result, the committee also recommended the sales and purchases of vessels, licences and quota, involving lawyers representing anonymous clients, be scrutinized by FINTRAC, the federal intelligence agency monitoring suspicious financial activity. In addition, deals that might result in an individual or corporation acquiring 20 per cent or more of any given fisheries market should trigger a review by the Canadian Competition Bureau, the committee said. Results from a DFO survey — aimed at determining who benefits directly or indirectly from access to commercial fisheries — was released in September after committee hearings were already finished. Results suggest the level of foreign licence holders or vessel owners on the West Coast is minimal at around two per cent based on responses from 80 per cent of those that held 88 per cent of those licences, the survey report stated. However, before the results were released, the survey was roundly criticized as “flawed” by fish harvesters and many others testifying to the committee. The nationality of someone who “holds” a commercial licence or quota doesn’t translate into who actually “owns” or controls them, critics stressed. Processors, corporations and investors — foreign or domestic — with deep pockets can own licences and quota that they then lease to a Canadian fish harvester or employee. Though the harvester becomes the “holder” of a licence or quota, they can still be locked into lower fish prices or supply agreements with seafood buyers or processors that own those items. How much quota or licences are concentrated in corporate hands will remain unclear if companies don’t have to declare ownership of those assets but can seemingly distribute them to be ‘held’ by harvesters or boat operators, Sonia Strobel, CEO of Skipper Otto Community Supported Fishery, told the committee. In the survey report, DFO acknowledged the complexity and range of leasing practices wasn’t captured “as the intended scope was focused to provide a snapshot of foreign ownership of the named licence holder only.” In addition to a general call for DFO to develop policies to buoy the next generation of fishers, especially in Indigenous communities, the committee recommended Ottawa create a specific fisheries finance agency, similar to Farm Credit Canada, within five years. The new report’s findings mirror the outcome and many recommendations from a 2019 investigation by the committee into fisheries regulations and equity issues on the Pacific Coast. There was a disappointing lack of progress over the past five years on a “made in B.C.” plan reflective of East Coast policies that limit corporate control and stipulate only active harvesters can possess licences, the report stated. Only a single employee had been specifically dedicated to advance a complex set of goals, the committee noted, stressing DFO must prioritize enough resources and staff to move forward with the recommendations. There is risk tied to inaction on foreign ownership and concentration in fisheries, the report concluded, citing questions posed by Greg Pretty, president of the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers union. “Will the future of our fishery be vibrant and sustainable—composed of thousands of small businesses in the water that continue to contribute to the rich fabric of culture and our country’s economy?” Pretty asked. “Or will it be controlled by a small handful of companies, processed offshore or internationally, removing the wealth of our sustainable resources from the adjacent communities that depend on them, in order to serve another country’s bottom line?” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter. This article first appeared in Canada’s National Observer.

The humpbacks’ rebound is a good news story from a number of angles. Iron-rich whale poo fertilizes the ocean, supercharging the food web and the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. WHALE RESEARCHER Jackie Hildering and her colleagues never imagined their work on humpbacks would capture the attention of the globe’s premier documentary series. Or that whale poo would be of such interest to Planet Earth — BBC’s famous nature show. “It’s surreal,” said Hildering, co-founder of the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS). The team was left blinking in surprise at the first call in 2018 about helping the show film a novel humpback feeding strategy identified by MERs in the waters off Vancouver Island. “That there was interest from something that is as big as Planet Earth III was beyond our imagining,” Hildering said. Now B.C.’s humpbacks are featured in Episode 7 of the latest BBC series as heralds of hope for both the planet and people, she said. The episode explores some of the impacts when human civilization and the animal kingdom intersect. The recent return of humpbacks to B.C. waters after being hunted to near extinction, the whales’ clever adaptation to a changing food web, and the myriad ways whales benefit the ocean ecosystem will be showcased, Hildering said. “The story is that the humpbacks of northeastern Vancouver Island are giving hope to planet Earth,” she said. “This is what happens when you give space for nature.” Getting the ‘big picture’ on whale poop BBC Planet Earth filmmaker Fredi Devas interviews Christie McMillan of MERS while in B.C. filming humpback whales. (Photo courtesy of MERS) MERS and the BBC film crew plied the waters of northern Vancouver Island in Hildering’s small boat for six weeks over the course of two summers to get compelling footage that highlighted the importance of protecting the whales. A key objective was to document humpbacks that were trap feeding — a preferred fishing technique used by some whales that return every year to the region's waters to feed, she said. But an inordinate amount of time was also dedicated to filming the humpbacks defecating. “Everything comes down to poo,” said Hildering with a laugh. But whale waste is no joke, she stressed. Planet Earth producer and director Fredi Devas agreed poo was part of the big picture when looking at all the ecosystem services whales provide. Emerging research suggests that nutrient-rich excrement from humpbacks and other great whales not only fertilizes the marine environment but can also help mitigate global warming by locking up carbon from the atmosphere, Devas said. Iron-rich whale poo fertilizes the ocean, supercharging the food web and the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (Image courtesy BBC's Planet Earth III) A process known as the “whale carbon pump” is triggered when iron-rich fecal plumes released to the ocean’s surface spark an explosion of phytoplankton, which absorbs carbon dioxide. In turn, these plankton feed other marine species, like krill or small fish, which also lock in carbon and act as food for an array of other marine animals — including whales. Long-lived whales also store carbon in their massive bodies for upwards of a century. Even in death, the massive marine mammals serve the ecosystem, sinking to the deep ocean where the carbon in their bodies remains trapped or taken up by animals that feed on their carcasses. An early study in the Antarctic Ocean alone suggested the poop of a pre-whaling population of about 120,000 sperm whales could trap 2.2 million tonnes of carbon a year. A more recent study in the same region indicates that if populations of five different species of baleen whale hadn’t been decimated through commercial hunts, 400,000 tonnes of carbon would remain trapped upon their deaths as deadfall on the seafloor each year. While populations are rising with the scale-back of industrial whaling, climate change could curb whale recovery and their carbon capture potential. Carbon captured from whale deaths will likely reach 170,000 tonnes per year with a worst-case scenario of warming of up to 5 C by 2100. But twice the amount of carbon could be stored without global warming. It’s astonishing what climate gains might be achieved by simply protecting great whales and helping them reach historic population levels, said Devas. “It’s this incredible good news story from the natural world that excites me enormously,” Devas said. Dancing the ‘Conger Line’ Conger, the humpback first spotted using the new technique of trap feeding, is a main character in BBC Planet Earth's look at humpbacks. (MERS photo) The B.C. coast, where you can capture images of eagles in the sky, bears wading the shore, and whales leaping from the water at a single location makes it a top destination for wildlife filmmakers, Devas said. However, it’s always an extra thrill to document new animal behaviour — like humpbacks trap feeding, a tactic that surfaced just over a decade ago, he said. “Those animals are doing something no other humpbacks around the world are doing,” Devas said. “So it was a great way to get into our story with something that is very, very new.” Humpbacks in Vancouver Island waters typically lunge feed — where they rush into a dense school or “ball” of herring with their mouths open to capture as many fish as possible, Hildering said. But in 2011, the MERS team observed some surprising behaviour by a well-known humpback named Conger. The whale was hanging vertically in the water, barely moving, with his mouth wide open at the ocean surface. Researchers could see right into the roof of his mouth while he occasionally waved his pectoral fins toward his jaws. It turns out Conger had devised an energy-efficient feeding technique to capture fish that weren’t packed densely together, Hildering said. The unique method involves the whale lounging in the water, mouth agape, while fish fleeing seabirds seek shelter inside their massive jaws. The whales then use their fins to push the fish further inside to trap their meal. Conger may have been one of the first to use the tactic but now 32 whales have learned to trap feed from one another, Hildering said. Conger is definitely a “main character” in Planet Earth’s story on humpbacks, with a lot of time dedicated to following his activity on water. “With the focus on him being the first trap feeder, we often kept him in our sights,” Hildering said. “We laughingly referred to it as the ‘Conger line.’” Depth of MERS humpback knowledge invaluable Whale researchers Christie McMillan and Jackie Hildering of MERS were excited to promote humpback conservation with BBC's Planet Earth. (MERS photo) Hitting the waters with Hildering and MERS’ other co-founder, Christie McMillan, meant the BBC crew secured amazing shots due to the researchers’ depth of knowledge on the humpbacks in their region, Devas said. Their intricate understanding of the whales as individuals with unique traits meant the team could film a range of behaviours. In one instance, Hildering spotted a young whale named Hilroy making a bee-line towards an older male named Corporal floating on the surface, Devas said. Noting this was unusual, Hildering gave Devas the heads-up so he could be ready with his camera. As a result, Devas captured an amazing shot of Hilroy leaping clear out of the water right next to the older male. “I never saw a humpback breach right next to another individual again during that six weeks of filming,” he said. It wasn’t clear what kind of impression Hilroy was trying to make, but Corporal remained unmoved by the spectacle and the younger whale soon swam off. Lots of other questions about whale behaviour surfaced during filming, Devas said. In another instance, the crew was filming in Blackfish Sound when a cruise ship sped through a narrow channel with its immense bow wake buffeting Merge, a humpback nearby. “Merge then breached out of the water nine times in a row,” Devas said, adding it’s not entirely clear why the vessel's ripple effect triggered that reaction or how the whale felt. To add to the mystery, Conger (who was relatively close by) joined Merge and the pair swam in tandem in a looping pattern for upwards of 45 minutes, he said. “They swam side by side, surfacing at the same time. Diving at the same time, just going round and round,” he said. The incident underscored the need to take measures to mitigate key whale hazards like vessel strikes and noise pollution by creating slow zones or protected areas for humpbacks, Devas said. “Was Conger helping Merge calm down?” he asked. “These may be anthropomorphic feelings … but we just know so little about humpback whales. "We’re just scratching the surface of understanding of this species.” Planet Earth III’s Episode 7 “Human” airs on Dec. 3 in Britain, Dec. 16 on BBC America and April 21 on BBC Earth in Canada. Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Canada’s National Observer

Victoria Harbour and Prince Rupert Harbour are the top toxic hot spots of 100 tested sites. NEWLY IDENTIFIED TOXIC METAL HOTSPOTS on the West Coast further threaten endangered killer whales and their key food source, a recent study shows. Southern resident killer whales and the chinook salmon they depend on for survival are both already in a dangerous state of decline, said Ocean Wise research scientist Joseph Kim. Less food and more boat traffic, noise and pollution all jeopardize the survival of the remaining 75 members that make up the unique population of killer whales. The orcas ply the coast from California to Alaska but primarily frequent waters around southern Vancouver Island, Washington state and Oregon in the U.S., and the Salish Sea on both sides of the border. The majority of coastal chinook stocks in the whales’ core range are also struggling as a result of habitat destruction, overfishing and climate change. However, exposure to high levels of mercury, cadmium, lead and copper in critical habitats only compounds the concern and threats to the salmon and the orcas, Kim said. An extensive sediment survey from nearly 100 locations along the B.C. coast also assessed six toxic metals in areas where juvenile chinook live, feed and grow before heading out to sea, and the whales feed on the salmon. The source, mix and concentration of toxic elements in sediment can vary depending on a location’s conditions — like air and water currents and the types of human activities taking place, said Kim, the study’s lead author. Maps of concentration hot spots (top left to bottom) for mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) from recent coastal sediment research. Kim, Delisle, Brown, et al (2023) The research is part of the long-standing Ocean Wise Pollution Tracker program, the first coast-wide contaminant-monitoring program in Canada. The program aims to monitor the buildup of chemicals in the marine ecosystem over time to identify the source of the worst pollutants with risks to marine life and maps where they are found. Victoria Harbour and Prince Rupert Harbour are the top toxic hot spots, with an overlap of problematic metals as well as other worrisome chemical contaminants, which are likely tied to industrial and urban activity in these highly populated areas, the tracker shows. Lead levels in sediment were especially high in Prince Rupert and Victoria harbours compared to the rest of the coast, the recent study showed. Victoria Harbour’s mercury levels are also high enough to likely harm small seabed creatures at the base of the food chain for salmon and, ultimately, whales. Victoria Harbour also has high levels of some toxic industrial chemicals used as flame retardants in things like plastic, textiles, manufactured goods and polystyrene foams in the construction industry that can get into the ocean by leaching from landfills or into wastewater systems, past research for the pollution tracker shows. Illustration showing how toxic pollutants can compound in the food chain of killer whales. (Miller et al. 2020) / Ocean Wise Relatively high concentrations of mercury were also measured in Burrard Inlet, Prince Rupert Harbour, and Haida Gwaii, according to Kim's latest study. “I can’t really say what comes from one specific source or another,” he said, adding contaminants can be a mix depending on the type of industrial and urban discharges. Mining, metal smelters, refineries, pulp and paper mills, sewage, stormwater, runoff from roads, ship traffic and corrosive paint on vessels can all build up contaminants. Toxic metals also have natural sources that accumulate in coastal sediments — think forest fires, volcanoes or eroding bedrock. Less-populated sites like Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Island's coast, Georgia Strait and B.C.’s north and central coasts are also hot spots for mercury, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, copper and lead, the study noted. Sampling at the Bischof island chain near Haida Gwaii and Ardmillan Bay near Bella Bella had the highest concentrations of cadmium, also at levels likely to impact microscopic seabed marine life. It was a surprise to see such high levels in a remote area like Haida Gwaii, Kim said, adding the cadmium concentrations might be the result of a natural source for the metal. But cadmium is also tied to metal smelting and fuel burning and the wastewater is readily absorbed by plankton, with toxic effects throughout the food chain at high levels. However, many pollutants and toxic metals can often travel great distances on air and ocean currents and accumulate more in some spots than others, Kim added. “The characteristics of the sediment and characteristics of the pollutants themselves can have a combined effect.” The levels of toxic metals in the study were compared against Canadian sediment quality guidelines to determine risks to salmon and whale habitat. The survival rate of juvenile chinook can drop due to toxic metals in the sediment where they reside and if they don’t die, these metals can accumulate in their bodies and affect the whales that eat them, Kim said. Toxic metals like mercury and other persistent contaminants can also build up in the endangered whales through nursing and be absorbed through the lungs or the skin. Mercury can build up in an orca’s liver and brain and cause anorexia, loss of co-ordination and death. Identifying where toxic metals build up, particularly from human activity, illustrates the need to curb the source of pollutants and possibly clean up operations to reduce the risks to chinook and the whales, the study concluded. Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada's National Observer. Opening photo: Southern resident killer whale eating salmon, by Astrid Van Ginneken / Center for Whale Research.

Four First Nations are hailing a landmark agreement with a logging company that will increase their role in forestry operations on northern Vancouver Island. THE TLOWITSIS, We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum and K’ómoks First Nations and Western Forest Products (WFP) announced Tuesday they’ve crafted a deal with the First Nations paying close to $36 million for a 34 per cent interest in the company’s mid-island forestry operations, part of WFP’s wider Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 39. The new partnership involves 157,000 hectares of forest — or Block 2 of TFL 39 — within the First Nations’ territories on northeastern Vancouver Island near Campbell River and Sayward. The deal — which allows the logging of 904,540 cubic metres of timber annually and includes a long-term agreement guaranteeing timber supply for WFP’s coastal manufacturing operations — will likely be finalized in early 2024. The agreement is a significant step forward for First Nations historically excluded from the forestry sector and any economic benefits despite stewarding healthy, abundant forests for millennia before colonization, said Dallas Smith, president of Na̲nwak̲olas Council, which helped conclude the agreement along with its four member nations. The deal comes after decades of work by the member nations looking to achieve sustainable management of forests in their territories, Smith said, noting the long process involved five premiers and approximately 11 different WFP chief executive officers. “Any journey takes time when you bring in other partners. It takes patience. It takes collaboration, it takes relationship-building,” Smith said. “I applaud the [First Nations] for taking this step. I acknowledge Western for stepping up into the partnership and thank B.C. for helping make this happen.” The agreement will transfer forestry tenure into First Nations’ hands and ensure they help devise land use plans that are sustainable for future generations, Smith said. The First Nations’ decision-making around land use to ensure forestry is sustainable will build on previous projects, such as the cultural cedar protocol that protects monumental trees to create totem poles, traditional big houses or canoes. Forestry operations will be monitored by a growing team of Indigenous Guardians, he said. Wei Wai Kum Chief Chris Roberts and Dallas Smith, president of Na̲nwak̲olas Council, speaking on a new forestry deal between four First Nations and Western Forest Products on Tuesday. (B.C. government photo / Flickr) However, moments of conflicts helped spur change and sped up the negotiation process, Smith said, citing Wei Wai Kum Chief Chris Roberts’ courage and refusal to back the renewal of forestry operations in the nation’s territory until its interests and concerns were addressed. “Sometimes these relationships take some friction to push them over the line,” Smith said. Concerns around the wealth of resources being drained from traditional territories with no benefits and decision-making power for First Nations had been raised repeatedly over generations, Roberts said in a statement. “We took a stand four years ago that this must stop,” Roberts said. “We could not support the replacement of forest licences in our territory that don’t have commitments to address our concerns.” After “at least two years in the trenches,” a shared commitment to achieve sustainable management of the land base resulted in the agreement, Roberts said at the press conference. “We feel encouraged … that our territory and our lands and resources are being managed in the way they were intended to be by our Creator.” In addition to generating economic benefits for the First Nations, forestry revenue tied to the agreement will continue to drive the region’s economy and create predictability for Western’s forestry operations and more employment for contractors and workers in the sector, he said. Both Roberts and Smith praised the B.C. government for its commitment to reconciliation, saying the provincial incremental treaty process, legally enshrining the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and former premier John Horgan’s promise to increase First Nations’ role in the forestry sector helped seal the agreement. Historically, the forestry sector has been characterized by conflict, racism, court battles and short-term transactional relationships, Premier David Eby said. But partnering to boost First Nations as stewards of their territories will drive stronger communities and greater economic development on northern Vancouver Island where forestry is the lifeblood of the region, Eby said. “This announcement today means that these benefits are on the way for communities in northern Vancouver Island now, rising the tide so that all boats are lifted.” Steven Hofer, WFP president and CEO, said the deal is a template for sustainable, successful forestry operations that will share economic benefits. “We’ve worked together to pioneer a new model of shared business ownership in a way that we believe is unique, not just in our sector, but among established companies all across Canada,” Hofer said. Reconciliation, adhering to UNDRIP and shifting operations to a stewardship model is the future framework for forestry operations, he said. “We recognize that our future lies not only in the products that we make, but the relationships that we build,” Hofer said. The agreement is the second partnership Western has crafted with First Nations. The first was a 2020 deal that saw the Huu-ay-aht First Nation purchase controlling interest in TFL 44 on western Vancouver Island in the Port Alberni region. More agreements are expected as Western continues to engage with other First Nations with TFLs in their territories to foster reconciliation and ensure clarity in the sector and continued access to timber and supply for its operations, Hofer said. “From our perspective, this is the path forward of how our industry needs to operate here in British Columbia,” said Hofer. “When we think about our business and the traditional territories that we operate on there is no other option.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer.

“There’s less old growth in B.C. and Vancouver Island than when we poured our coffee this morning. That’s just how it goes without a real moratorium.”—Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee CONSERVATION GROUPS are alarmed that endangered old-growth forests continue to fall three years after B.C. promised to protect the ancient ecosystems and transform the Province’s approach to forestry. The Province hasn’t fully met any of the 14 recommendations of the 2020 Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR), said Torrance Torrance Coste, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee. The OGSR recommendations urged the immediate deferral of logging in the most biologically diverse at-risk areas, protecting more massive trees while working with and involving First Nations and communities in forestry decisions, and improving public transparency and reporting in the industry. Most egregiously, the government has failed to fully defer logging in the key old-growth areas most immediately at risk of being cut down, Coste said. Conservation groups and many First Nations have repeatedly documented logging in areas identified as priority at-risk deferral areas by the old-growth technical advisory panel in Nov. 2021, he said. Since the government commitment in 2020, environmental groups doing ground checks have confirmed clear cuts or road building in the at-risk hotspots both on Vancouver Island and the B.C. Interior, Coste said. Additionally, the amount of at-risk forest disappearing is being detected by Forest Eye—a new technological system developed by Stand.earth that relies on satellite imagery to gather data and send out user alerts about forestry operations in the priority areas. The forestry experts made it clear the province couldn’t risk the loss of any remaining productive old-growth, Coste noted, but logging continues. Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee stands on a old-growth stump and surveys a clear cut in Nootka sound region in 2022 within an area prioritized for logging deferrals. (Photo by Alex Tsui, Wilderness Committee) “Any old growth [inventory] map is obsolete the day you make it,” he said. “There’s less old growth in B.C. and Vancouver Island than when we poured our coffee this morning. That’s just how it goes without a real moratorium.” Such slow progress on the third anniversary of B.C.’s promise to protect ancient forests is a particularly bitter pill after a summer of unprecedented drought and record wildfires, said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC. Old growth is increasingly precious as fires—exacerbated by the climate crisis and industrial logging—have scorched more than 2.2 million hectares of land across the province, he said. “I’m shocked by the escalating price we are paying for [government] delays and the loss of benefits only old-growth forests can offer,” Wieting said. Old growth forests reduce the risk of drought, heatwaves, floods and wildfires and provide habitat for at risk species. Today, only a single spotted owl exists in the wild in B.C. and the province’s endangered caribou populations are also on the cusp of being extinguished as logging continues to undermine critical habitat, he said. These three years show us that present and future generations will pay an ever-growing price for inaction, and we can’t continue on this path,” Wieting said. The Province announced logging deferrals in April 2022 that covered 40 per cent of the protected 2.6 million hectares identified by the expert panel in 2021 as the most at-risk, oldest, rarest or most ecologically important in the province. However, there’s an appalling lack of transparency, Coste said. It’s not clear where priority deferrals are taking place, if they overlap with timber harvesting areas, and how much, if any, old-growth slated for logging has been prevented since 2020, he said. Nor is it clear how much at-risk old growth has been logged since B.C. announced its new approach in 2020, Coste added. It’s not for lack of asking by conservation groups or the public for those numbers, Coste stressed. “We raised these questions to the ministers themselves again and again,” he said. “If the numbers were in their favour…Why wouldn’t they tell us?” Data conclusively showing the deferral process is working while the Province negotiates with First Nations to come up with permanent old growth protections would be good news for everyone, he added. The Province doesn’t provide information on where priority old-growth areas have or haven’t occurred to respect the confidentiality of talks between the Province and First Nations, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said in an emailed statement. The ministry did not clarify the total amount of logging that has taken place in priority old-growth areas to date. Former Forestry Minister Katrine Conroy previously stated the province wouldn’t impose deferrals unilaterally on First Nations and old-growth logging would continue in territories that did not agree to them. But conservation groups and First Nations have repeatedly criticized the B.C. NDP for not offering compensation to Nations to defer logging in their territories, putting them in the position of sacrificing critical revenue to protect forests for everyone else’s benefit. First Nations are at urgent crossroads after rampant wildfires destroyed numerous communities this summer and others are still rebuilding from blazes in the past, said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in the joint press statement. “The sheer number of forests that we have lost to the climate crisis already, is devastating,” Phillip said, noting the OGSR recommendations were meant as mere stepping stones to greater protections for old-growth forests. “At this rate, there will be nothing left for our children,” he said. “The BC government cannot ignore this any longer; stop logging our old growth trees and help us start rebuilding in an ethically and environmentally friendly manner.” Communities across the province are mobilizing for a day of action on Sept. 28 to demand politicians uphold the NDP’s old growth pledge, Coste said. “People can connect the dots between the biodiversity and climate crisis and irresponsible forest management,” he said. “Thousands remain committed to reminding the NDP of the promises they seem to be hoping we’ll forget.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer.

“We need to be thinking about drought response, not as a surprise and emergency, but instead as just a reality of living on the West Coast in 2023.”—Oliver Brandes B.C.’s SMALL RURAL COMMUNITIES striving for water security as droughts become the norm still sink or swim without much assistance from the Province, policy experts say. Most of the province has been in the clutches of unprecedented—but long anticipated—climate-induced drought for most of the summer. About 55 per cent of B.C.’s water basins are at Level 5 on the provincial drought scale—the point when adverse socioeconomic or ecosystem impacts are almost certain. Rural residents concerned with water security get little help from the Province as water levels drop and severe summer droughts plague the Vancouver Island region for a third year running. (Photo Rochelle Baker) Vancouver Island, renowned for its rainforests, has experienced prolonged severe or extreme drought for the past three summers. In an effort to preserve water for people, fish, livestock and growing food on central Vancouver Island, the province has imposed temporary water restrictions in watersheds for the Tsolum River and Koksilah and Cowichan rivers. Industrial water users and farmers growing water-intensive forage crops have had to shut off their taps. It has also imposed similar measures in the Thompson Okanagan region for hundreds of water licence holders. However, B.C.’s reactive, piecemeal approach at the height of a water crisis is ineffective, said Oliver Brandes, a lead with the POLIS Water Sustainability Project at the University of Victoria. “When your home is on fire is not the time to be thinking about how to fireproof the house,” he said. “We should have been doing a whole bunch of stuff in advance in November, not August.” Droughts are no longer a “surprise” emergency Drought response and water security require comprehensive and proactive advance planning along with clear direction and resources from the Province, says water policy expert Oliver Brandes. Drought response and water security require comprehensive and proactive advance planning along with clear direction and resources from the province, says water policy expert Oliver Brandes. (Photo submitted) The extended drought late last fall set the table for today’s province-wide crisis and was predictable given the rising pattern of drought over the past decade, he said. The Province regulates the ground and surface relied on by water rural users who aren’t tapped into municipal systems. But typically, the Province only restricts usage when the situation is dire, Brandes said. “We need to be thinking about drought response, not as a surprise and emergency, but instead as just a reality of living on the West Coast in 2023,” he said. Small communities and many First Nations looking to improve water security as climate-induced drought becomes increasingly common still lack the power, capacity or information necessary to monitor, protect or regulate the vital resource they depend on despite long-standing promises for change, Brandes said. Monitoring and mapping important water sources and developing a solid understanding of how much exists, how much is being used and who is using it and when needs to be better understood at the provincial level, he said. “When you have that information, then you can start thinking really about a coherent conservation [approach] and response,” he said. Rural communities left to figure out water security Robyn Mawhinney, Quadra Island director for Strathcona Regional District on Vancouver Island, said there’s room for the Province to help develop water security in smaller communities. Most of Quadra Island’s 2,700 residents rely on well water, but there’s little information available for the community or the district to determine how demand and climate change are stressing vital groundwater resources. The Province has determined the island’s single observation well is suffering a large rate of decline, with water levels dropping 12 centimetres annually. To boost the community’s water security and climate resilience, volunteers with Quadra’s Island’s Climate Action Network (I-CAN) have launched a years-long attempt to evaluate water supply and demand. The end goal is to try to determine thresholds for sustainable water use on the island, said Nick Sargent, a retired hydrogeologist and one of the project leads. Quadra is fortunate it has a dedicated pool of volunteers with the expertise to tackle water security issues, but not all rural areas have those resources, Mawhinney said. “Really, [the Province] is asking the communities to figure it out themselves,” she said. “The Province has a role to play in understanding our aquifers and ensuring that our water resources are conserved and managed for the benefit of residents.” Regional districts aren’t able to limit water use or enact conservation measures to preserve groundwater during droughts, Mawhinney noted. The district can pass bylaws that incorporate wise water methods in land use or zoning decisions, she added, but granting water licences and regulating the extraction of groundwater and its use by agricultural, industrial or commercial users falls to the Province. The district can’t implement staged watering restrictions and can only appeal to residents to undertake voluntary conservation efforts, like not watering their lawns or running sprinklers unless residents are hooked into municipal or district water systems. The Province also controls industrial land use, like forestry operations or clearcut logging, which has wide-scale impacts on a forest or watershed’s ability to absorb and conserve groundwater, Mawhinney added. “Industrial forestry regulations need a broader scope, which includes water storage capacity and downstream community impacts,” she said. Some regional governments, like the Regional District of Nanaimo, have developed cohesive drinking water and watershed protection action plans to advance water security. The district has also come up with a rainwater management strategy to mitigate flooding and runoff during storms, protect water quality, and capture rainwater as a resource. The district’s Green Building Incentives also provide rebates and incentives for irrigation upgrades, rainwater harvesting, wellhead upgrades, well water testing and septic upgrades. Although I-CAN on Quadra hopes to accumulate quality data to allow for water use decisions, some level of government would ultimately have to shape any regulatory response, Sargent said. Presumably, the Province or the Strathcona Regional District, which are both aware of the community’s efforts, would step up to shape a water budget or water use plans for the island, he said. In the meantime, the community isn’t waiting to take a proactive approach to gather the data it needs to make water-smart decisions as climate change advances. “I guess you can have the attitude [that] it’s all up to government,” Sargent said. “Or you can say, let’s just get on with it, and at some point, the government will get involved.” Province has stepped forward but progress is slow B.C. recently committed $100 million to a provincial watershed security fund and is in the final stages of creating a province-wide watershed security strategy, which is due out this winter. The Water Sustainability Act was beefed up in 2016, giving the Province new tools to prioritize essential household and environmental needs during water shortages. But it took six years after those revisions for the Province to impose a long-awaited deadline in March 2022 for historic non-domestic groundwater users to apply for a water licence. Those that didn’t, now face the risk of being ordered to turn off the tap or might lose their seniority access to water to newer users that applied for licences. However, there are still large numbers of unlicensed users—like ranchers, farmers or small businesses—drawing unknown quantities of water. Nor is it clear how much water users that do have licences are extracting, Brandes said. Meanwhile, individuals and households are being told to take shorter showers and water their gardens with dishwater. “I’m happy to do that, but I want to see others reducing. I want it to be done systematically,” Brandes said. “And if you have an unregulated user, they’re basically the equivalent of water poachers, but no one’s enforcing the rules.” For small rural communities and even municipalities with water systems, the Province needs to develop clear guidance through a watershed governance framework that includes direction, funding and resources for local watershed boards or entities, he said. Additionally, incentives or subsidies to adopt prohibitively expensive low-flow appliances or toilets, or to develop community-wide systems, such as large-scale rainwater harvesting with large capacity cisterns, need to be available. “The Province probably has to build capacity, not for every little dinky region to have their own experts, but to provide access to expertise by different communities,” he said. “That would support existing or developing modest [water security] programs that can be then amped up,” he said. “Communities aren’t worth living in if they don’t have access to water,” he added. “But we only take water seriously in the height of drought, and we have very minimal choices at that moment.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer.

The high degree of concentration of ownership by foreign entities of West Coast fisheries licences and quota are “alarming”—and lack of transparency makes them targets for money laundering. THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY about who owns or controls commercial fishing licences, quota and vessels in Canada makes them attractive targets for criminals looking to launder money. That warning was issued by lawyer and former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German in testimony at a House committee meeting in late May, 2023. In May, former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German (pictured above in 2019) advised a federal committee that B.C fisheries may be a target for those looking to wash dirty money. File photo / BC government German—who authored two explosive Dirty Money reports for the B.C. government detailing the depth of money laundering in the province—spoke to the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) as part of its ongoing investigation into foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing licences and quota. German stressed his expertise lies in scrutinizing money laundering, organized crime and corruption, not fisheries policy. However, he noted the lack of transparency and the federal government’s marginal understanding of who owns or controls West Coast fishing licences and quota are red flags that have been raised at FOPO repeatedly. Additionally, in B.C. there are no apparent conditions on ownership of licences or quota, which control access to Canadian fisheries, German said. “When you don’t have a transparent ownership system, in which the public is able to see who the ultimate, beneficial owners are of fishing licences and quotas, you are vulnerable to the involvement of [foreign] state actors, organized crime and money launderers,” German told the committee. The purchase and sale of West Coast fishing licences and quota were flagged by the province as points for investigation during German’s second report on money laundering in 2019, which highlighted the use of luxury cars and real estate transactions to wash illicit money, he said. “It is worth noting that the linkage between fisheries, organized crime and money laundering is a subject which has been studied internationally, including by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime,” German told FOPO. Criminality tied to the fishing industry hasn’t been a focus of major investigation in B.C., according to the 2019 Dirty Money report. However, the high degree of concentration of ownership of West Coast fisheries licences and quota—a set share of allowable catch—revealed during research for the report was “alarming,” German said. As was the degree of ownership by foreign entities and non-citizens. The top four “visible” owners of quota in the groundfish trawl, halibut and sablefish fisheries are foreign entities or individuals who don’t work the deck of fishing boats but own up to half of the B.C.’s quota for those species, the report concluded. Its findings were based on interviews and data from Ecotrust, a public policy group focused on the well-being of rural communities that also presented to FOPO earlier in May. Owners of commercial fishing licences in B.C. are listed in a registry but often as numbered companies, which makes determining who owns or controls the licence difficult, the report said. This protects licence-holders from public scrutiny. On the Pacific coast, there are also no citizenship or residential conditions or vetting of the buyers or the money used to purchase licences, quota or even fishing boats (which can all value into millions of dollars). Money-laundering concerns aren’t as prevalent on the East Coast because the federal government has regulations that limit ownership of commercial licences to local fish harvesters who operate their vessels, German said. As a result of B.C.’s money-laundering investigations, the Province has created a landowner transparency registry to curb money laundering in real estate, German noted. The federal government is also in the process of developing a public corporate ownership registry to tackle money laundering, tax evasion and prevent the funding of terrorist groups. “The same should apply to the fisheries,” German stressed. “We cannot simply allow our fisheries to be sold to unknown persons using unsourced funds.” Establishing laws or mechanisms to prevent money laundering will be ineffective unless dedicated staff and funds are also deployed, he added. “It's a case of having enforcement agencies that are resourced and enabled and prioritize this type of work.” Transactions involving fishing licences, quota and boat sales also don’t have to be filed with FINTRAC, the federal intelligence agency monitoring suspicious financial activity, German added. “This is regrettable, as it eliminates an important source of intelligence for investigators seeking to ensure that the fisheries are not being used by organized crime,” German said. “Dirty money must be laundered and it will inevitably move to areas of less resistance.” The committee asked German for further detail on the possible links between quota ownership and money laundering uncovered during his investigation. “[There] was an individual who had purchased a large number of quotas and was also a whale gambler in our casinos,” German said, adding that alone doesn’t demonstrate a connection to organized crime. “That’s not a conclusion that we could draw,” he said. However, the example highlights potential concerns when the provenance of money used to purchase fisheries and quota—or any other commodity—is vague and unknown, German said. It’s a problem faced in various sectors, including the sale of luxury cars or boats, he said, adding unvetted funds were at the root of B.C.'s casino money-laundering debacle, which ultimately prompted stricter rules in the gambling sector. “Is the source of funds legitimate?” German asked. “Or are the fisheries being used as part of a broader attempt to invest money obtained through crime, or avoiding overseas capital controls or evading taxes?” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer.

Birders and biologists are pushing the B.C. government to increase the size and amount of wildlife habitat areas in Vancouver Island old-growth forests to save the threatened marbled murrelet. BIRDERS AND BIOLOGISTS are banding together to urge the B.C. government to protect ancient forests on southwestern Vancouver Island in a bid to save threatened marbled murrelet nesting sites. Around a dozen citizen scientists are documenting the rare robin-sized seabird, which raises its young in old-growth forest found in tree farm licence (TFL) 46, which includes the Fairy Creek region near Port Renfrew, said team leader and avid birder Royann Petrell. The Fairy Creek region was at the centre of a series of long-standing old-growth logging blockades a couple years ago, with police making more than a thousand arrests at the site. The conflict peaked in the summer of 2021 and is believed to be the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The team of birders has documented murrelets on more than 300 occasions in and around the Fairy Creek watershed, and recorded another 75 sightings in the Gordon and Camper Creek watersheds during the summer nesting season in 2021, Petrell said. The citizen scientists, backed by four murrelet experts on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, are pushing the province to protect 996 hectares of old-growth from logging to enlarge or create new wildlife habitat area (WHAs) for the birds, which lay a single egg on large moss-covered branches of massive coniferous trees. The proposal submitted in December suggests adding 828 hectares to an existing 603-hectare murrelet habitat area in Fairy Creek to protect nearly all the watershed as well as contiguous forests. The plan also proposes a new 168-hectare WHA in the Gordon and Camper watersheds. Map detailing proposed expansions and creation of new wildlife habitat areas to preserve marbled murrelets in TFL 46 on Vancouver Island. Petrell, a retired University of British Columbia scientist who lives in the Comox Valley, visited Fairy Creek out of curiosity in 2021 when the blockades were underway, but never participated in the protests. During her initial visit, she heard western screech owls on several occasions and was motivated to discover what other species at risk of extinction existed in the region. Over time and after she documented murrelets, more and more avian enthusiasts came on board, she said. Dr. Royann Petrell (right) and citizen scientists examine images taken in unprotected forest in the Walbran Valley. (Photo: Deborah Freeman) “We’re birders, not blockaders,” Petrell said. “We started recording [the murrelets] for proof, and more and more people joined me in doing it.” Petrell said she noticed the province’s digital mapping system didn’t include data on murrelets in Fairy Creek, so she decided she had better register her findings. “The system is only useful if people put information in there,” she said. Forestry companies, such as Teal Cedar, which controls TFL 46, are supposed to determine what threatened species are present in their region when developing logging plans, Petrell said. But wildlife surveys aren’t actually required before logging gets underway, she added. “That disturbed me,” Petrell said. “I said to myself, if surveys aren’t required, I’d better do it because there is so little old-growth forest left.” The province has confirmed it has received the proposed murrelet WHAs submitted by Petrell and her colleagues, but the government has provided no information on whether the proposal will be considered or timelines for a decision on potential action by the province. The marbled murrelet is deemed to be vulnerable on a global scale, with all of Canada’s population found only in B.C. It was first deemed threatened in Canada in 1990, and reconfirmed as such in 2000 and again in 2012. The bird was registered under the federal Species at Risk Act in 2003. Yet, the little bird’s plight has only worsened, not improved, over time, Petrell said. The fast-flying birds, reaching speeds over 70 kilometres per hour, spend most of their time on water and feed on small fish near ocean shores but travel long distances inland to nesting sites. Murrelets are secretive and very hard to spot, given they tend to fly in and out of forests in the hours before dawn; they are largely detected by sound or radar surveys, Petrell said. The global population is found along the length of the North Pacific coast, but it is estimated to be between 263,000 and 841,000 birds, at least 50,000 of which are in Canada. They need tall trees greater than 250 years old because fledglings in particular aren’t great fliers and need a high jumping-off point and be able to avoid other trees to remain airborne, Petrell said. Marbled murrelets nest on wide branches, high above the forest floor, and lay only one egg. (Photo: Peter Halasz) “They have just one chance,” she said. “If they touch the ground, they can’t get up because their legs are not suitable for walking on land,” she said. The greatest danger to the birds is the continued habitat loss of old-growth forests, estimated to be declining by more than 20 per cent for the last three generations of the birds. Other cumulative threats include increased shipping in coastal waters, being caught in fishing nets, and changing marine conditions. The murrelets’ most recent protection plan, created in 2021, now outlines the need to also protect critical marine and terrestrial habitats. But despite the birds’ long-standing threatened status, projected population losses are expected to exceed 30 per cent over the next three generations of the species. Using the province’s latest 2019 murrelet habitat maps, Petrell has found there is a mismatch between the older, established wildlife habitat areas in TFL 46. On average, only 25 per cent of existing WHAs contain suitable nesting habitats. The creation of the two new WHAs would help save a larger proportion of the old-growth nesting trees, she said. A number of eminent conservation biologists—including Peter Arcese, who helped create previous murrelet recovery plans, and U.S. researcher Martin Raphael, who tracked birds south of the border migrating to the Fairy Creek forests—support the proposed wildlife areas, Petrell noted. There is no valid rationale for continuing to cut old-growth stands on Vancouver Island, said Arcese, a forestry professor at the University of British Columbia, in a statement. “Because [their] habitat is extremely rare in B.C., every additional site that is lost reduces the likelihood that marbled murrelets will continue to persist in our region,” he said. Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, funded by the Government of Canada, working with Canada’s National Observer.

A new study shows the many reasons—from carbon sequestration and absorption of excess nitrogen and phosphorus to biodiversity preservation—of maintaining healthy kelp forests. 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. Scientist Margot Hessing-Lewis contributed to an international study that found the economic value of the ocean’s kelp forests is equivalent to the GDP of Sweden. Kelp forests — with a value equal to Sweden’s annual GDP — are worth about three times more than previously thought. The study provides initial baseline estimates, which are highly conservative, Hessing-Lewis said, noting other economic factors, such as the seaweed’s value as a food source, in pharmaceutical or medical applications or for boosting tourism, weren’t evaluated. Researchers analyzed the distribution of six of the most common kelp forests in eight ocean regions, including fish and seafood surveys, the market value and harvest rates of commercial species as well as the uptake of nitrogen and carbon. The study helps quantify a growing understanding of the importance of healthy kelp forests beyond their vital role in supporting regional biodiversity, she said. “These values are really helpful for policy decision-making or a cost-benefit analysis around the restoration or preservation of kelp systems,” Hessing-Lewis said, adding without such economic evaluation, there’s the risk of undervaluing kelp. As the climate crisis advances, a lot of recent research is focused on kelp forests’ role as a carbon sink, she said. The recent study estimates kelp forests collectively remove at least 4.91 megatonnes of carbon from the planet’s atmosphere each year — the equivalent of Croatia’s annual carbon emissions. Kelp values for fisheries and pollution greater than carbon sequestration It is somewhat surprising that kelp’s benefits for fisheries production and the absorption of excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the ocean due to human activity have more significant economic values, Hessing-Lewis noted. “Everyone is talking about kelp and its role in carbon sequestration, but the potential fisheries yield is actually way higher,” she said. “Even the nutrient filtration piece provides more value to kelp than carbon [services].” Nitrogen and phosphorus occur naturally, but excess amounts running off the land from fertilizer use, farmed animal waste, sewage or other human pollution find their way to the ocean. Once there, this “nutrient pollution” acts like fertilizer that can spur the rapid growth of algae — including some types toxic to marine life — which consumes large amounts of oxygen that can also kill animals such as crabs, oysters or fish. The value of kelp averaged $73,000 per hectare annually for the uptake of nitrogen and $29,000 per hectare in supporting commercial fisheries, the study said. However, the specific value amounts for the beneficial services varied according to kelp types and the ocean regions studied, Hessing-Lewis noted. Map of kelp’s economic value in ocean regions around the world. While the B.C. coast features more than 30 different species of kelp, the most dominant kinds of kelp (Laminaria) were studied, including sugar, giant and bull kelp (Saccharina, iMacrocystis and Nereocystis) on North America’s Pacific coast. Kelp’s highest values for commercial fisheries along the Pacific coast are tied to invertebrates like sea cucumbers, sea urchins and abalone, rather than fish, Hessing-Lewis said. But overall, the kelp values for fisheries in the Pacific region are significant at the global scale. “They’re not top-end but mid-range, and even in B.C., the fish value for kelp is quite high.” Despite the benefits kelp provides, the seaweed forests are withering due to climate change and large marine heat waves on the West Coast in recent years. Having more information on the economic benefits of kelp will encourage governments and communities to protect or restore important areas and include them in future marine conservation sites so the underwater forests stay resilient as the ocean gets warmer, Hessing-Lewis said. The research may prompt new marine management, sustainable development and conservation strategies worldwide, like establishing a credit system for offsetting emissions, said lead author Aaron Eger at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The study isn’t aimed at commodifying kelp forests, Eger said, but highlights the need for more investment in their preservation. “Putting the dollar value on these systems is an exercise to help us understand one measure of their immense value,” Eger said. “It’s important to remember these forests also have an intrinsic, historical, cultural and social value in their own right.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) reporter with Canada’s National Observer. The LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.

Styrofoam, used widely by the marine industry, breaks up into micro plastic beads, and kills wildlife all over BC’s coasts. LIGHT, BUOYANT AND CHEAP, polystyrene foam is commonly used for docks, buoys, pontoons at marinas and other water activities throughout Canada. But the plastic, oil-based product is causing a wave of pollution in oceans and waters across the country, says BC NDP MP Rachel Blaney. The federal government needs to ban the use of expanded polystyrene (ESP) and extruded polystyrene (XP), commonly known as Styrofoam, in floating structures in both freshwater and saltwater, said Blaney, the MP for North Island-Powell River. Polystyrene foam never breaks down, but degrades into thousands of small puffed plastic fragments that travel long distances and are extremely hazardous to aquatic environments, she said. “It’s just so harmful to our beaches, fish in the ocean and to wildlife on the shores,” Blaney said, adding polystyrene foam is a top complaint from communities in her riding involved in coastal cleanups. “As it breaks into those smaller and smaller microbeads, it’s absolutely impossible to clean up,” she said. “It’s crazy to think in this country that we’re putting foam into the water purposefully — we shouldn’t be doing that.” BC NDP MP Rachel Blaney has tabled a motion to ban polystyrene foams when building aquatic infrastructure to prevent a tide of plastic pollution. (Photo submitted) Blaney has tabled a motion to ban the use of polystyrene foams to build floating structures and phase out their use in existing ones and has partnered with ocean conservation groups, including Surfrider Canada, on a letter-writing campaign supporting the ban. The federal government included Styrofoam takeout containers when it launched the phaseout of six single-use plastic items in December, Blaney noted. “But there’s just so much more that they could do,” she said, adding it’s not just a coastal issue. “It’s everywhere. Communities across Canada that are inland are having their lakes, rivers and waterways being polluted.” After Blaney submitted a petition to Parliament in the summer calling for a ban, the federal government said it wasn’t looking at prohibiting polystyrene foam in marine ecosystems. However, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault noted Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) had new regulations obliging shellfish growers to encase any foam floats in hard plastic shells. Blaney said while the government doesn’t see the need for further action, coastal communities do. “We see the need,” she said. “I see it all the time in my constituency on the beaches and in the water, so that doesn’t work for me.” Banning foam floats a ’no-brainer’ Even if community volunteers remove large chunks of polystyrene foam from beaches, the most destructive microplastic puffs remain. (Photo by Quadra Island Beach Clean Dream Team) Banning the use of polystyrene foam in aquatic infrastructure is a quick and relatively easy way to make a positive impact on marine ecosystems, said Peter Ross, senior scientist and director of water pollution at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. “It’s an easy fix, especially when there are alternative materials available. It should be a no-brainer,” Ross said. The degradation of foam, either over time or set loose by stormy weather, is a chronic source of pollution and causes harm to animals that feed along the shore or on the surface of the water, like birds, fish, turtles and even marine mammals feeding or coming up for air, he said. This can lead to starvation or blockages that can eventually kill an animal, he said. “These microplastics float, which is a little bit different than many other plastics,” he said. “When you’ve got these tiny white things floating around, many, many species are going to mistake them for food.” And if the plastic foam beads are “biofouled” — darkened and covered with algae, bacteria, plankton or other organic matter after being in the water for an extended period of time — it’s going to mimic food to an even greater degree, Ross added. “Then it really starts to resemble, and even taste, like natural food,” he said. “It really brings up the risk of surreptitious consumption by some poor creature that thinks it’s actually something nutritious.” Stopping the flow of plastics before they enter waterways and oceans is the most effective way to tackle the scope of the problem, Ross said, adding technology and cleanups can’t keep pace with the amount of pollution entering the ocean. Foam pollution demoralizing for cleanup volunteers Members of BC’s Clean Coast, Clean Waters beach cleanup in the Discovery Islands collect polystyrene foam for transport. (Photo courtesy of Spirit of the West Adventures) Quadra Island resident Nevil Hand, who organizes regular beach cleanups in his community, agreed. Large or small, cleaning up foam is especially difficult, said the retired firefighter who organizes the Quadra Island Beach Clean Dream Team. In November, community volunteers cleaned up the island’s beaches, and within a month, winter storms had erased any sign the teams had been there, he said. “This winter, it seemed like an entire marina exploded to the south of us,” he said. “We’ve got big pieces of dock flotation here this year in amounts we’ve never seen before.” Clean team volunteers, now holding a spring cleanup contest, have been stacking up foam debris at beach trailheads for pick up, Hand said, adding it’s unsettling to see how much there is. “Foam is so fragile. It’s disgusting the way it breaks up so easily along our shores,” he said. Some volunteers just found a 12-foot-long piece of foam that they hope will dry out in the coming weeks so they can remove it. “The problem is we can only really deal with the bigger pieces,” he said. “Even then, when we’re handling it, it’s breaking up in our hands and we’re making even more of a mess.” It’s demoralizing because the small pieces are the most destructive to the environment, he added. “That’s what the birds and the fish are going to ingest and [it] will harm our wildlife with stomach poisonings and who knows what.” The environmental costs are high because people and marine industries want to continue using cheap materials, Hand said. “We don’t want to see it used in the marine environment. It just doesn’t belong here.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer. Local Journalism Initiative reports are licensed under Creative Commons. (Top photo courtesy of Spirit of the West Adventures)

A Freedom of Information investigation shows that an experienced RCMP officer quit the force's Community-Industry Response Group over "unjustifiable" actions taken against protestors at Fairy Creek. By Jen Osborne / Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter AT LEAST ONE POLICE OFFICER joined protesters, journalists and politicians raising alarm bells over RCMP enforcement tactics during the peak of conflict at the Fairy Creek old-growth blockades in B.C. during the summer of 2021. The officer, a former member of the RCMP’s specialized team that deals with resource extraction protests, resigned from the task force over concerns about “unjustifiable” police behaviour during an August crackdown on activists, a freedom-of-information (FOI) request shows. The resignation from the RCMP’s controversial Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) came in an email dated Sept. 5, 2021, after the officer, with 13 years of experience, was sent to the long-running protest in the Port Renfrew area on southeastern Vancouver Island. The officer, whose name was redacted, remains a member of the RCMP, according to FOI documents obtained by freelance photographer Jen Osborne, who works with Canada’s National Observer. After he left the task force, the officer wrote a report outlining his concerns over some tactics used to enforce a court injunction against the August blockades. RCMP officers smashed the windows of vehicles parked in the injunction zone, seized and possibly trashed protesters’ personal property and improperly handled protesters, he said in a Sept. 22 report sent to Sgt. Antonio Hernandez. Officers wore thin blue line patches, were ordered to remove their name tags and socialized inappropriately with Teal Cedar workers and members of the forestry company’s private security force, he added. The company, a subsidiary of Teal Jones, secured a court injunction to halt the blockades in its logging licence area. Officers posted at Fairy Creek talked with loggers and security “non-stop,” the officer said. “Jokes and stories about ‘fucking hippies’ and how much they stink were common.” The officer said he wasn’t privy to all the reasons for the decisions made at the blockade. “That being said, I saw enough to know that I did not want to be involved and actions were certainly a departure from what we practise at our home detachments.” The concerns raised by the officer mirror long-standing complaints by legal and rights groups, journalist associations and activists about the RCMP’s policing of dissent tied to resource extraction industries, especially when dealing with Indigenous Peoples. Criticism of the C-IRG in particular isn’t limited to Fairy Creek and includes the unit’s role at pipeline protests in Wet’suwet’en territory and more recently, logging protests near Argenta in the B.C. Interior. The officer’s first report entry notes his arrival at the Fairy Creek blockade’s Mesachie Lake camp for a briefing by outgoing officers the day after a highly publicized incident between the RCMP and protesters where officers used pepper spray and force to break up and arrest protesters on Aug. 21, 2021. Numerous videos of the incident surfaced on the internet showing RCMP officers emptying large canisters of pepper spray into people’s faces at close range and forcefully pushing and pulling to break up a blob of protesters, who’d grouped together and linked arms to make their arrests more difficult. In some videos, an officer in a green uniform can be seen pulling COVID-19 masks off protesters. In other instances, people being arrested had their backpacks cut off or removed by officers, who then threw the bags to the side of the road. The pepper spray incident was a flashpoint of public concern, with protesters alleging regular use of excessive force by police, federal politicians calling for investigations and a slew of complaints filed with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), the federal oversight body for the RCMP. The month before, the B.C. Supreme Court roundly condemned the RCMP for violating Charter rights and freedom of the media because police used vast exclusion zones, checkpoints and other measures to restrict the movement and ability of journalists reporting on the blockade. Media and public access to the injunction area continued to be highly controlled by police during the course of the blockade, with RCMP citing civilian and officer safety as the reasons. Smashed windows, trashed backpacks and custody concerns The resigning C-IRG officer said during his initial briefing the day after the pepper spray incident, two officers reported smashing car windows to clear vehicles that remained parked in a gravel pit and along the Granite Main Road to make sure no one was inside. “In my 12-plus years of service, I have never done this. I do not agree this was necessary,” the officer wrote in his report. In another instance at the blockade’s Red Dress Camp, the C-IRG member described the improper handling of both personal property and arrestees after protesters blocked Granite Main Road. A woman lying on the ground with her backpack was refusing to walk to a police vehicle, the officer’s report said. An officer, whose name and rank are redacted, told her if she got up and walked to the car, she could keep her belongings, but if not, they’d be thrown in the garbage. When she refused to comply and police carried her away, the C-IRG member picked up the backpack and informed her he would give it to a friend to keep. But the other officer involved took away the backpack, said no to the plan and threw it into the back of a police truck. It’s not clear where the backpack went or if it was ever returned to the owner, the officer reported. “I understand the difference between abandoned property and personal property,” the officer said. “The backpack was not abandoned and should have been given to the owner upon release.” He also referred to following up on a later complaint from a blockade organizer about backpacks going missing. “I spoke with two different Teal Cedar workers who said all the backpacks they received from the RCMP were being thrown out.” Eight people were arrested and placed into two police vans for transport while the officer was on site. The officer was driving one van with four male occupants, while the other was transporting the women in custody. He and the other driver were told to release all those arrested without charges — but rather than transport them to nearby Port Renfrew, they were directed to take them to Lake Cowichan, about an hour’s drive away. “The reasoning was to make it harder and more inconvenient for them to return than simply taking them out of the injunction area,'' the officer wrote. “Holding someone in custody to make things more inconvenient and driving them down the highway when they are to be released without charges is not justifiable.” The officer said he’d talked to another officer in a separate instance who’d also been told to drive a detainee to Duncan, a full two hours away from the injunction area. Questions on impartiality and inappropriate conduct A member of the C-IRG since 2021, the officer noted he’d been formerly deployed to Houston, B.C., on three separate occasions in 2019 and 2020 during RCMP enforcement of court injunctions tied to the years-long blockade and protest activities by hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs and their allies to halt construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline. “When I was in Houston, we were given fairly clear directions that we were not to be visiting and chatting with CGL security or workers,” he said, noting the need to remain impartial. The member also worried that officers didn’t respond in a timely way to Fairy Creek protesters’ allegations that industry workers were threatening them. The officer said he witnessed protesters approach police three times to report threats by an industry worker, noting they had video proof and the alleged offender was in the area. But they were told to make a report at the nearest police detachment an hour away, he added. “It is obvious this can result in a loss of evidence and does not show that we are impartial,” he said. “This also leaves a person who uttered a threat in the same area as the victim with no conditions.” RCMP members were ordered to remove name tags and given controversial thin blue line patches to wear on duty, the officer said. The patch, which shows a Canadian maple leaf with a blue line through the middle, is reportedly a symbol of solidarity between police officers. But the image is opposed by numerous civilian groups and political fronts — such as the Indigenous Land Back and Black Lives Matter movements — which argue it conveys division, colonialism and racism, particularly given the symbol has been appropriated by white supremacists. Numerous police forces, including the RCMP, have directives not to wear the insignia but have faced pushback from officers and unions. The officer witnessed a box of the patches at Fairy Creek, and the insignia was handed out to police, he said. “We were told the blue line patches piss off the hippies, so wear them,” he said, adding one officer had three of them on his uniform. RCMP response to allegations A total of 250 police complaints related to the Fairy Creek blockades have been filed with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), the federal independent oversight agency said Wednesday. Of the total, 108 met the commission’s mandate and are subject to an RCMP investigation, and potentially a CRCC review if complainants aren’t satisfied with police findings. RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Chris Manseau confirmed C-IRG leadership and the RCMP professional standards unit were informed of the allegations made by an officer tendering a resignation from the task force. “The matter was not pursued by the member who made the allegations, and they later volunteered again to deploy to Fairy Creek, as a non-CIRG officer,” Manseau said in an email. C-IRG leaders provide clear direction that officers are expected to remain impartial when dealing with all individuals at protests, he said. Officers can choose not to wear their numbered badge because several members have been targeted and harassed online, himself included, when their names are provided, Manseau said. Blue line patches were worn at the beginning of enforcement at the blockade. But the practice stopped shortly after it was determined the public viewed it negatively and the RCMP commissioner provided clear direction on the patches, he added. People taken into custody were transported to the nearest RCMP detachment, Manseau said, noting the measure wasn’t intended to be punitive or burdensome. Complaints were coming from Port Renfrew about the number of people being released into the small community, he said. Allegations of individual policy violations are taken seriously and investigated appropriately, Manseau said, including wilful destruction of property. “Our enforcement actions are well-documented, including the use of body-worn cameras, which we are prepared to disclose as part of evidence in criminal proceedings, or as part of a complaint process.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for Canada’s National Observer.

Lack of transparency and stringency in cruise ship wastewater regulations will not protect Canada's waters and marine habitat, say critics. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT says cruise ships operating in Canadian waters have overwhelmingly met the more stringent wastewater guidelines put in this spring. However, critics say Transport Canada’s report is very light on details and the industry’s largest source of water pollution remains untreated. Transport Canada reported that 47 cruise ships travelling Canadian waters between April 9 and June 5 voluntarily reported on their compliance with the new thresholds for the treatment and dumping of wastewater, and only one failed to meet the new guidelines. A ship visiting ports in the Quebec-St. Lawrence and Atlantic regions only partially followed the new environmental measures because it did not have a grey water treatment system that could meet the new measures, and had to discharge grey water inside the minimum distance from shore to ensure the boat’s stability, Transport Canada said. Some vessels visited multiple regions, with 35 cruise ships travelling the Pacific coast, another 13 vessels visiting the Quebec-St. Lawrence and Atlantic regions, and five on the Great Lakes, Transport Canada said. In April, the federal government announced new voluntary discharge and treatment guidelines for sewage (black water) and grey water — which includes kitchen water, laundry detergent, cleaning products, food waste, cooking oils and grease as well as hazardous carcinogens and other pollutants — that are slated to become mandatory in 2023. The cruise ship industry injects more than $4 billion annually into the Canadian economy and creates about 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, particularly in the tourism sector, the federal agency said. “Cruise ships are an important part of our economy and tourism sector, and we must all work together to reduce their impact on the environment and keep our waters safe and clean for everyone,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. However, the cruise ship industry’s adherence to the guidelines is voluntary and the sector is allowed to self-report its compliance with the new wastewater measures, said Anna Barford, Stand.earth’s shipping campaigner. Anna Barford, Stand.earth’s shipping campaigner, says Ottawa's report on cruise ship compliance with new wastewater pollution guidelines lacks transparency. (Photo courtesy of Stand.earth) The Transport Canada report lacks critical data needed to ensure the protection of Canada’s coastlines, Barford said. “It’s shocking… There’s simply no information in it,” she said. For example, there are no details about which ships were in Canadian waters, their treatment systems, where they dumped wastewater, or how the federal government independently verified or ensured compliance, Barford said. It’s also not clear if the number of ships that voluntarily reported on compliance measures equals the number that travelled in Canadian waters. Compliance with the new measures is verified during formal port inspections of vessels, Transport Canada spokesperson Sau Sau Liu told Canada’s National Observer in an email. However, the email did not clarify if, when or where any port inspections took place. When requesting the reporting data supplied by cruise ships to the federal government, Canada’s National Observer was informed Transport Canada will only publish aggregate data to demonstrate participation rates for the industry as a whole. Aside from transparency concerns, Canada’s new regulations don’t prohibit the discharge of sewage water, treated or not, in environmentally sensitive zones or marine protected areas, Barford said. U.S. Pacific states north and south of B.C. have more stringent rules, she said. California prohibits wastewater dumping less than three kilometres from shore and in National Marine Sanctuaries, and Washington state has established a sewage no-discharge zone in Puget Sound to protect the shellfish industry and human health. What’s more, it appears the Canadian government failed to include regulations for scrubber wastewater, the largest source of water pollution, in the new guidelines after pressure from the cruise ship industry, she said. Scrubber discharge is created when cruise ships use dirty heavy fuel oil (HFO), but employ exhaust cleaning systems, or scrubbers, that use water to “wash” pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, carcinogens and heavy metals from exhaust and then flush them into the ocean rather than the atmosphere. The dumping of scrubber water is entirely avoidable if ships simply used, or were mandated to use, cleaner-burning fuels to meet international emission standards, Barford said. The acidic discharge includes heavy metals, which can accumulate in the food web and harm marine life, such as endangered southern resident killer whales, Barford said, adding more than 90 per cent of wastewater dumped by cruise ships involves scrubber discharge. Transport Canada did not clarify if it had a concrete timeline for addressing scrubber wastewater. The federal government will continue to work with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to establish and harmonize rules on scrubber wastewater and intends to get input from industry and other partners on the issue this fall, Liu said. The recent wastewater measures exceed those set out by the IMO, said Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray, and demonstrates the federal commitment to protect oceans and create a more sustainable course for the tourism industry. But the federal government is comparing itself to the lowest thresholds of wastewater regulations, Barford said, adding Canada needs to at least match the more-stringent bar set by neighbouring Pacific coast states. “Canada has one of the longest coastlines of any nation-state in the world and we have thriving internal seas,” Barford said. “But if we continue to look for minimum standards and opportunities to pollute, instead of to protect, our ocean economy and coastal communities are at risk.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Canada's National Observer.

FOR MILLENNIA, THE SALISH SEA—the shared body of water linking northwestern Washington state and southern BC and encompassing the Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Strait of Georgia—was abundant with salmon. The keystone species is the bedrock of the entire ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest. All seven species of Pacific salmon populated the Salish Sea—sustaining a host of other iconic animals, such as bald eagles, southern resident killer whales, and grizzlies, along with their surrounding aquatic and terrestrial environments and scores of Indigenous nations and cultures. But, says Isobel Pearsall, director of marine science at the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF), beginning in the late 1970s, salmon survival, particularly for chinook, coho, and steelhead—which migrate to the ocean like salmon, but can spawn multiple times—began a mysterious downward slide, especially in the marine environment. Some populations in Salish waters have plummeted as much as 90 percent, says Pearsall, and limiting fisheries, restoring habitat, and improving hatchery practices weren’t making significant differences. It’s clear juvenile fish are particularly vulnerable, and that there is something particular to the Salish Sea impacting survival of the three species, which aren’t facing the same pattern of decline in other regions, she says. So, in partnership with Long Live the Kings, another non-profit foundation south of the border, PSF launched a five-year research initiative involving 60 different entities to understand what was driving some salmon stocks to extinction and what could be done to reverse it. A scientist involved in the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project scans juvenile salmon in Sansum Narrows in the Strait of Georgia (photo courtesy of Pacific Salmon Foundation) Pearsall believes that despite the dire situation salmon face, the key findings of the recently completed Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, which she co-ordinated, can act as a roadmap for priority action, research, and policy. “It’s very easy to get pulled down into the doom and gloom of what we’re seeing around salmon declines,” Pearsall she notes. “But the [survival project] has highlighted the areas that we really want to focus on and that we know are crucial.” The Salish Sea is weathering some significant changes due to the climate crisis, such as warming waters, increasing risk from harmful algae and pathogens, shifts in the marine food web, and the decimation of estuary and foreshore habitats, the study found. Many of the changes impacting salmon are interlocked, says Pearsall. “One might hope for a smoking gun and that there would be one major thing you could change to solve the whole issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case,” she says. However, the initiative concluded that salmon food supply and predation of young salmon are two key contributors to the declines of chinook, coho, and steelhead when they first enter the marine environment. The Salish Sea Marine Survival Project identified the key stressors causing declines of juvenile salmon. Changes to the Salish Sea affect when, where and how much food is available for young chinook and coho, which influences their growth and mortality. Drops in zooplankton and forage fish, especially herring, put young salmon at increasing risk, a situation compounded by the destruction of estuaries and nearshore habitat, which provide hiding spots and food for both the fish and their prey. The finding suggests that protecting and restoring estuary and forage fish habitats on the foreshores of the coast should be a priority, says Pearsall. As well, increased efforts to boost declining herring populations and study their distribution and movements are important. Young salmon are also under pressure from a growing number of harbour seals in the Salish Sea, the project found. While chinook and coho are a limited portion of the seals’ diet, the number of seals negatively impacts salmon survival rates, already under strain from human-caused climate change, notes Pearsall. The study doesn’t advocate for widespread culls, which would require the elimination of up to 50 percent of the seal population, and the constant removal of a significant proportion every year after, to have any real effect on salmon, she says. “It’s just untenable to make such a drastic move in an ecosystem that nobody fully understands,” says Pearsall, adding other pressures and changes are also at play since abundant salmon stocks existed alongside large seal populations in the past. “I think we need to look at the anthropogenic changes that we’ve made that make the salmon more vulnerable to predation,” she says. That could include removing infrastructure like log booms in estuaries where seals can hang out waiting for salmon without fear of being eaten themselves. Or by changing hatchery practices, such as the release of large groups of juvenile fish upriver, often in low water, which make young salmon easy pickings for all sorts of creatures, including raccoons or herons. Implementing solutions that could ensure higher river or stream flows to provide more cover and cooler water to young salmon would also give them a fighting chance against predators and increase their survival, Pearsall adds. The holistic, collaborative nature of the Salish Sea project has resulted in a framework for stakeholders on both sides of the border to respond more effectively in a co-ordinated manner to make gains in restoring endangered salmon stocks, says Pearsall. While the study tallies the range of pressures on salmon, it has also pointed out some practical action.“We’re letting people know that what they’re doing can have impacts, both negative and positive,” says Pearsall. “There may be some things that are out of our control, but there are many immediate actions we can take.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

DAVE NIKLEVA WALKS THE SHORELINE of a Cortes Island beach nudging oysters with the toe of his boot. “Dead. Dead. Dead,” Nikleva mutters as he goes along. The shellfish farmer stoops over to pick up one bigger specimen for inspection before tossing it back on the beach. The stench along this stretch of Gorge Harbour at low tide is tremendous. But it was even worse two weeks ago when a record-breaking heat wave cooked thousands upon thousands of oysters in their shells in the final days of June. “They still had meat in them then,” Nikleva said. Cortes Island shellfish farmer Dave Nikleva surveys the damage after a recent heat wave decimated his oysters. A perfect storm of extreme heat paired with extra-low midday tides left Nikleva’s south-facing oyster lease baking in the sun for six hours at a time. BC clams and oysters were reduced to stinky goop after they got cooked in a recent heat wave. Now many of the feathery shells of the baby spats and small to medium oysters are empty having already been picked clean by crabs and gulls. But some of the bigger oysters are still dying. Shells still mostly closed, they gush water and putrid goop when disturbed. Nikleva’s oysters are just a fraction of the one billion marine intertidal animals that likely perished on the shores of the Salish Sea during the extreme heat event. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Nikleva, who has been producing oysters and clams for 35 years. Oyster farmers on the front line of climate change BC’s shellfish producers have been struggling with the slow burn of climate change for years as warming waters spur harmful bacteria and ocean acidification, among other changes, in the marine ecosystem. “If you went back 20 years ago and told farmers they were going to experience 20 per cent mortality, they would have thought that was crazy,” said Jim Russell, executive director of the BC Shellfish Growers Association. “But now that's kind of normal. And this normal keeps changing.” But the record-breaking heat saw some areas on the typically temperate coast reach close to 40 C—double the seasonal average. And it led to some catastrophic losses for many shellfish farmers. But those losses appear to be varied, depending on local conditions, said Russell, adding a full understanding of where and who suffered the greatest hits won’t be known for another couple of weeks. In addition to the damages reported in Gorge Harbour, the hub of shellfish aquaculture on Cortes, there appears to be some big losses in Baynes Sound next to Denman Island and in Okeover Inlet on BC’s mainland. It’s concerning since Baynes Sound produces more than 50 per cent of the shellfish coming out of BC, Russell said. And Okeover Inlet is reportedly the hardest hit, with some farmers with beach leases reporting up to 100 per cent mortality. “It’s quite devastating for some of the farmers that have talked to me.” Shellfish producers already battered by COVID-19 BC produced 9,684 tonnes of shellfish, valued at 27 million, in 2019. Oysters alone generate 56 per cent of that revenue. The West Coast is big nationally, too, growing over half of Canada’s oysters and clams. It remains to be seen how badly the sector will be impacted by the heat wave, Russell said. But the nasty irony is that shellfish farmers had already been hobbled by COVID-19, which shuttered restaurants and export markets last year Many producers left last year’s oysters stockpiled on their beach to sell when markets improved as the pandemic lifted, Russell said. Now, some farmers will take a double hit. Plus, it takes two or three years to raise an oyster to market size. “It’s devastating when you consider the crop cycle, and they’ve lost all three years,” he said. “It’s going to be a major setback.” After preliminary surveys, Nikleva figures he has seen at least a 30 per cent die-off along his seven-acre stretch of beach. And mortality among the prized, smaller half-shell oysters destined for restaurants appears even greater. Nikleva lets out a sarcastic snort when asked if there are any government programs to help oyster farmers weather crop disasters. He figures he’ll lose a third of his income off this beach for the next three years. Yet, he considers himself somewhat fortunate since not all his shoreline oyster sites are directly exposed to the sun, and his deep-water oysters, growing on trays suspended from rafts, are OK. Despite his losses, Nikleva is glad the heat wave and its dire impacts have truly seized the wider public’s attention at last. “I’m glad we’re talking about climate change,” he said, “We’ve been breaking heat records year after year for decades. It’s happening, and we’re not immune.” All food producers are struggling to adapt to the changing climate, he said. If faced with low tides and extreme heat again, Nikleva is considering using a pump and to spray seawater over the oysters to cool them. Or experiment with mesh pouches or bags for the oysters to see if they provide extra shade and retain some pooled water. Scientists are also at work to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the shellfish industry. Ocean acidification, which occurs as increasing carbon in the atmosphere gets absorbed by the ocean, poses a problem for shellfish, said Timothy Green, a researcher at Vancouver Island University (VIU). Acidification drops the levels of calcium carbonate in the water that baby oysters and other shellfish need to build their shells. Oysters are also vulnerable to increased levels of bacteria and new pathogens brought about by warming oceans and global transport, said Green, a Canada Research Chair in shellfish health and genomics. Studying the genetics of shellfish adaptation to climate stressors and disease, Green is running a selective breeding program to make the Pacific oyster more resilient. Three years into the project, Green hopes he’ll see some results at the five- and 10-year mark. The research team is also experimenting to see if various types of farming practices can drop the mortality rates associated with climate change. “We need to come up with solutions,” Green said. “It hurts that we can’t help industry and say, ‘here’s the solution’ just yet. But that’s the end goal.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada's National Observer. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS STRUGGLING TO SAVE diminishing ancient forests on Canada’s West Coast are hopeful after BC announced a new old-growth advisory panel staffed by respected foresters and scientists. “The technical panel is a very welcome positive step forward,” said Andrea Inness of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “It really gives me a glimmer of hope the Province is going to listen to science around the state of old-growth forests.” The new technical panel will ensure the province is using the best science and data available to identify at-risk old-growth ecosystems and prioritize the areas slated for old-growth logging deferrals, said BC Minister of Forests Katrine Conroy on Thursday. “We are committed to a science-based approach to old-growth management, and our work with the advisory panel will help us break down barriers between the different interpretations of data that are out there,” Conroy said in a press statement. The panel includes ecologists Rachel Holt and Karen Price, forest policy expert and environmental economist Lisa Matthaus, and foresters Garry Merkel and Dave Daust. The appointments come as the NDP government is facing mounting public pressure, both at home and abroad, to make good on its promise to protect the most at-risk tracts of BC’s iconic ancient forests. Protests calling for action have been occurring across the province, and over 300 activists have been arrested at old-growth blockades in the Fairy Creek watershed on southwest Vancouver Island in Premier John Horgan’s riding. The choice of panellists suggests the Province is finally acknowledging the data and science behind the independent Last Stand report written by Holt, Price and Daust that indicates the dire state of at-risk forest ecosystems in BC, Inness said. The report, often cited by environmental groups (ENGOs), suggests that only three percent of BC’s remaining old forests support massive ancient trees. “To date, we have not seen or heard the Province accept those scientific findings or embrace and make decisions based on them,” Inness said. The inclusion of Merkel—an author of the old-growth strategic review that includes 14 recommendations the government has committed to implement to shift forestry away from a focus on timber extraction to prioritizing biodiversity—is also a positive sign, she added. “I hope this signals a turning point in the Province’s approach to implementing the old-growth [review] recommendations,” she said. “And that the Province understands we can’t get anywhere if we don’t see eye-to-eye on the crisis at hand and the state of old-growth forests.” The Province has come under fire by ENGOs, which suggest it has grossly exaggerated the amount of at-risk old-growth it protected through logging deferrals in nine areas across the Province made in September. Inness hopes the panel’s input will rectify the government’s claim it has protected 200,000 hectares of old-growth. “I still have concerns, because we continue to see the Province use misleading figures around the state of old-growth forests and what they’ve done so far,” Inness said. “You know much of that forest is not what the average British Columbia would consider old-growth. It is low-productivity forest with smaller trees, and much of that area is already protected.” The panel will be providing advice around high-priority areas for deferrals, but won’t be making any decisions, which will result from government-to-government discussions with Indigenous nations, Conroy said at a press conference on June 24, 2021. Ecologist Rachel Holt is a member of BC’s new old-growth technical advisory panel. In addition to identifying high-priority at-risk areas for deferral, the panel will help develop a common understanding of the broader issues around at-risk forest ecosystems, Holt stated. “We’re hoping along the way we can increase the understanding and transparency of information around the issues of old-growth forests in the province,” Holt said. There has been a lot of different or competing data presented from various stakeholders around old-growth forests, and it’s resulting in public mistrust, she said, noting the old-growth review called for better public information on at-risk forests. “We’re hoping the panel can clear up a lot of that miscommunication, and really help the public, so everyone has a baseline understanding of the state of old-growth in the province,” Holt said. “What really is and isn’t at risk. How much there is. You know, all these questions there’s been a lot of conversation about over the last couple of years.” However, Conroy would not clarify when or if the panel’s information around the priority deferral areas would become public, saying, eventually some information would be released. “The advice will be confidential, but it’ll help us to inform those really important government-to-government discussions on future deferrals,” Conroy said, adding more deferrals are expected this summer. Jens Wieting of Sierra Club BC said he hoped the panel appointment signalled the provincial government would no longer delay action around the promised paradigm shift in forest stewardship. Interim old-growth deferrals are vital to ensure the most at-risk forests aren’t being logged as discussions with First Nations occur, Wieting said. “But I’d like to repeat how important it is that the government act quickly, and announce funding with the explicit purpose to increase protections, and give First Nations and communities some hope they’ll be supported through this transition,” he said. That’s a sentiment echoed by activists leading the blockades in the Fairy Creek area. Caycuse old-growth, before and after logging (photo by T.J. Watt) Kathleen Code, a Rainforest Flying Squad organizer, said “Work should begin immediately to transition away from old-growth logging while the panel develops strategies to move forward.” She noted that the two-year timeline means hundreds of hectares of old-growth forest could disappear before the panel is able to develop a strategy for old-growth management. The Rainforest Flying Squad promises to continue to stand as the last line of defence for these rare old trees. Code said, “Really there has been enough research to demonstrate that all remaining stands of old growth forest need to be protected and in fact provide greater benefits overall when left standing.” Intact, endangered old-growth forest in Fairy Creek area (drone photo by Alex Harris) Logging has continued in areas adjacent to Fairy Creek since the two-year logging deferral was announced on June 9. Andy MacKinnon, forest ecologist, professional forester and professional biologist (retired) stated, “The Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel is an excellent panel with an excellent mandate. It’s composed of well known and respected scientists and they will make excellent recommendations. But it follows another excellent panel with an excellent mandate, the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel, that made excellent recommendations.” MacKinnon added, “There hasn’t been much will demonstrated to implement those recommendations. What is needed is a commitment to implementing the panel’s recommendations, otherwise it’s just stalling.” Holt hopes the panel’s work will mark a shift in forestry policy in the province. “The government taking the step of putting this group together really helps us move along that track,” she said, adding little progress has been made to date. “I want to be optimistic that this is the beginning of the paradigm shift. And time will tell us if that is correct.” Rochelle Baker is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Canada’s National Observer. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. With files from Leslie Campbell.