Saving Seafood

Shellfish Farmers Fear Ocean Acidification May Affect Harvests in 2016

January 8, 2016 — Ocean acidification was blamed for the shutdown of the Washington oyster fishery last year and B.C. could be next, partially for the same reason, said Rob Saunders, owner of Island Scallops at Qualicum Beach.

Speaking to TheProvince, Mr Saunders said that Island Scallops, which provides seed oysters and scallops for farmers, lost 90 per cent of its oyster larvae last year.

Acidic water affects the oysters’ ability to grow a hard shell. It takes two years for oysters to mature for harvest, and Mr Saunders said oysters may be in short supply this year.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Protesters threaten to renew blockade in B.C. fish farm dispute

September 21, 2015 — Protesters who had been attempting to block a fish farm on Vancouver Island say they will return to their camp unless the Norwegian company behind the site removes its docks and equipment, as protesters had expected.

Protesters who call themselves the Yaakswiis Warriors said representatives from Cermaq, an aquaculture company with operations in Canada, Chile and Norway, recently promised to remove the installation at a site near Ahousaht, B.C., on Monday morning. A small group of opponents had been blockading the site, located north of Tofino, since Sept. 9, citing potential environmental damage that could result from the plant.

But while Cermaq vessels were nearby, nothing was moved, even though protesters who had previously blockaded the site and their supporters waited several hours in the hopes of seeing some activity.

“About 15 of us went out on four boats this morning just before first light, about 6 a.m. and we waited out there for near six hours,” said Sacheen Seitcham, a spokeswoman for the protesters. “They were about 10 minutes away… the barge was there, with the crane on it, and the tugboat was there.”

Read the full story from The Globe and Mail

 

Three fishermen dead after boat sinks off Vancouver Island

September 7, 2015 — A commercial fishing boat sank Saturday off the west coast of Vancouver Island, killing three of the four crew members.

The boat capsized and sank in the ocean about 55 kilometres west of Estevan Point, north of Tofino, said navy Lt. Nicole Murillo with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

The Coast Guard was called out around 10 p.m. Saturday. Two men were discovered Sunday morning and confirmed dead, said Murillo, while the search continued into Sunday afternoon for a missing third crew member.

The missing man’s dead body was spotted by a helicopter and recovered around 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Murillo said.

Read the full story at The Province

 

Japanese fisherman preparing to reunite with his boat in B.C., four years after tsunami

July 3, 2015 — After the earthquake, a 23-metre-high tsunami ripped through the Japanese port town of Ofunato, destroying houses, tumbling cars like toy blocks and capsizing ships in the harbour. Stacks of freight containers were swept off the docks and sent hurtling through the town. People fled up the steep streets around the harbour, and the air was filled with the terrifying screeches of buildings being torn apart.

This was how the great earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, arrived in Ofunato, a town of 41,000 that, through the miraculous journey of one small boat, has become linked to the tiny fishing village of Klemtu, population 450, on British Columbia’s Central Coast.

When the wave of water that rose along coastal Japan that day swept back out to sea, it left more than 15,000 people dead and took almost five million tonnes of debris with it. Lost were about 1,000 vessels, including many of the boats in Ofunato harbour. Most of the debris soon sank, but an estimated 1.4 million tonnes drifted offshore.

Four years later, fragments of the communities shattered in Japan continue to reach North America’s West Coast, raising pollution concerns but also serving as touching reminders of what was lost. Everything from small plastic toy soldiers that washed up on beaches to a 50-metre fishing boat that eventually sank in the Gulf of Alaska has made the crossing. Most of the debris can’t be traced, but occasionally serial numbers allow a connection to be made.

Read the full story at The Globe and Mail 

Massive Pacific Coast Algal Bloom Dissipates from BC Coast

July 8, 2015 — The threat from a large toxic algae bloom, which settled off the B.C. coast in May, has abated, according to scientists.

The Pacific Ocean bloom had sparked concern along the coast from California all the way to Alaska.

Though the situation in B.C. waters wasn’t as bad as further south, the bloom was serious enough to cause shellfish closures. At the time, researchers were concerned that shellfish and other marine life, including razor clams, crabs, hake and West Coast sardines, could have elevated levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning.

Read the full story at the CBC

 

Boy vs. fish: 9-year-old catches huge sturgeon in B.C.

July 2, 2015 — A nine-year-old boy from New Jersey has earned some big bragging rights, after he landed a massive fish 10 times his weight on British Columbia’s Fraser River.

Kegan Rothman hooked the 272-kilogram sturgeon during a B.C. fishing trip with his dad. The boy says he struggled with the fish for two hours before he finally managed to reel it in.

“I felt like I was going to pass out,” he told CTV Vancouver. “I really didn’t think I was going to make it, but I actually did.”

Read the full story and watch the video at CTV News