Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The ocean shelf off Labrador has hit record high temperatures this summer, according to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. St. John's-based DFO research scientist Frederic Cyr told CBC News the summer of 2023 has been "pretty incredible" for the world ocean. "The entire North Atlantic reached record high temperatures," said Cyr — although it's still generally colder than the rest of the ocean, he added.
People can still fish in parts of a Cape Breton river famous for its Atlantic salmon, but other sections are temporarily closed due to warm waters and a local non-profit group says climate change is to blame. Until recently, the Margaree River's cool waters were ideal for trout and salmon, but within the last five years, parts of the river have been closed to angling during the summer, said Paul MacNeil, president of the Margaree Salmon Association.
Lake Pisiquid near Windsor, N.S., which refilled with water following a provincial emergency order last month, won't be drained again anytime soon, according to Premier Tim Houston. "The lake will remain full because that's in the interest of public safety and that's just the way it is," Houston told reporters following a cabinet meeting in Halifax on Thursday. "We will not allow that lake to drain."
Ocean temperatures in Atlantic Canada set record highs again in 2022, according to the latest assessment released by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Results from the annual Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program show surface, intermediate and bottom temperatures were well above normal last year. "It was widespread. It was everywhere," said Peter Galbraith, a DFO research scientist in Mont-Joli, Que. "It was really, really warm across the zone."
Decades of logging activities near rivers in B.C.'s Interior are driving up the temperatures of coho salmon habitats and threatening the species' survival, according to a new study. The study by Simon Fraser University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), published last month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, looked into 28 tributaries of the North Thompson River watershed from Kamloops to Valemount.
A federal decision to shut down 15 open-net Atlantic salmon farms around B.C.'s Discovery Islands is being lauded as a win for protecting wild salmon, and a significant blow to the fish-farm industry — all while reigniting a decades-old debate between industry and scientists. The decision from Ottawa came just weeks after a Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) report found no "statistically significant association" between sea lice infestations among wild juvenile chum and pink salmon and the fish farms they migrate past along the B.C. coast.
The construction of a weir on the Endako River has received authorization from the Department of Oceans Canada (DFO) and is now awaiting provincial approvals, said a representative from Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance (UFFCA). DFO issued the authorization on July 7 and the province’s permitting is ongoing and expected next year, said Lisa Krebbs who is managing the project on behalf of UFFCA.
High water temperatures and declining levels in several central Newfoundland rivers have prompted the federal fisheries regulator to impose restrictions on salmon harvesting in the region. Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced Wednesday that the Exploits, Leamington and Western Arm rivers, as well as Peter's River and Charles Brook in the Bay of Exploits, will be closed to salmon anglers outside the morning hours.
Warming ocean temperatures — especially in deep water — set more records in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2021, according to climate data released Tuesday by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "Everything about the Gulf of St. Lawrence was warmer in 2021," said federal research scientist Peter Galbraith, based at the Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Que.
A decade-long warming trend in the Gulf of St. Lawrence continued in 2020 with deep waters reaching record highs, according to ocean climate data released Tuesday by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Water temperatures at depths of 200, 250 and 300 metres were higher than any measured in the Gulf since records started in 1915, hitting highs of 5.7 C, 6.6 C and 6.8 C. All were well above the normal variations.
