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.
Many others, in Lake Babine Nation and beyond, share Charlie’s concern. The Babine River is an integral tributary for Skeena sockeye, which is a major sockeye run in B.C., second only to the Fraser River. Skeena sockeye are central to Lake Babine Nation health and economy. Every bad year has future ramifications. If fewer salmon return to spawn one year, it can mean a lower return four or five years down the line — the length of the sockeye life cycle.
Zebra mussels, an invasive species that kills native mussels and chokes drinking water systems, have been discovered in the Saint John River in New Brunswick, the farthest east in Canada they've been positively identified. Fisheries and Oceans Canada said last week in a release that environmental DNA tests over the summer had detected the presence of the small Eurasian freshwater mussels with the telltale striped pattern in parts of the river as far apart as Edmundston, Grand Falls and Nackawic, communities that span more than 200 kilometres.
Biologists are lending a helping hand to salmon in the B.C. interior that are struggling to make it to their spawning grounds due to severe drought conditions. Jason Hwang, vice-president of salmon with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, has joined Sarah Ostoforoff, a habitat restoration biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, at Kamloops Lake to reconnect it with Tranquille Creek so pink salmon currently trapped in the lake can start their spawning journey.
From great white sharks around Quebec's Îles-de-la-Madeleine to lobsters conquering new territory, oceanographers say the warming of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is having an impact on the creatures that live in its unique ecosystem. Data from Fisheries and Oceans Canada show that deepwater temperatures have been increasing overall in the gulf since 2009. In 2022, gulf-wide average temperatures hit new record highs at depths of 150 to 300 metres, and passed the threshold of 7 C at 300 metres for the first time. Average monthly temperatures at the sea surface also set new records in August and September, the data showed.
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.
Ocean temperatures off Nova Scotia hit record highs last summer, eclipsing the record-breaking temperatures set in the Atlantic a decade earlier. "It's pretty alarming," said Fisheries and Oceans Canada research scientist Chantelle Layton. Layton is part of the DFO team analyzing results from the annual Atlantic Ocean monitoring program in eastern Canada. Canadian scientists are discussing the 2022 data this week.
Parks Canada says genetic traces of zebra mussels found in a recent water sample taken from Clear Lake aren’t cause for undue concern. Although tests for environmental DNA for the invasive species came back positive last month, it could have come to the lake on a boat, water toy or other source, without the transfer of any living mussels. Living organisms like zebra mussels, which originated from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine and were introduced to many countries worldwide in the 1980s, shed DNA all the time, says Borden Smid, resource conservation manager with Parks Canada.
A chemical used in the production of toilet paper and 'forever chemicals' have been found in the bodies of orcas in B.C. , including the endangered southern resident killer whales. The Institute for the Ocean and Fisheries at UBC, British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists analyzed tissue samples from six southern resident killer whales and six Bigg’s whales stranded along the coast of B.C. from 2006 to 2018, according to a recent study. They discovered that chemical pollutants are prevalent in killer whales, with a chemical often found in toilet paper one of the most prevalent in the samples studied, accounting for 46 per cent of the total pollutants identified.
Oil is leaking again from a sunken United States Army transport vessel, the Brigadier General M.G. Zalinski, in Grenville Channel, about 100 kilometres south of Prince Rupert. Guardians noticed a “small amount” of oil on the water near the wreck site in September, the Canadian Coast Guard said. It completed an assessment of the site and found three leaks releasing slow but regular drops of oil into the water.
The City of Hamilton estimates 337 million litres of sewage — roughly 135 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of sewage — flowed into the harbour since 1996. That's roughly 13 million litres per year for 26 years. "City staff developed this estimate based on the water meter usage data for all of the properties connected to the combined sewer pipe," read a media release from the city on Monday morning, adding this method was identified as the most accurate way to represent the discharge over the 26 years.
Has received full authorization pursuant to the federal Fisheries Act from Fisheries and Oceans Canada for the Valentine Gold Project in central Newfoundland. Receipt of this authorization allows Marathon to proceed with all site activities regulated by the Fisheries Act, such as dewatering of small freshwater ponds for open pit mine development, changes in flow due to site water management, and placement of water intake and effluent pipes. The authorization follows the successful completion of the federal Environmental Assessment process in August of this year. Marathon Gold Corporation shares T.MOZ are trading unchanged at $0.89.
After opponents stopped the project last year, chemical spraying to wipe out an invasive bass population in Miramichi Lake is set to take place later this summer. Last year's attempt to eradicate smallmouth bass was halted because Wolastoqey grandmothers and mothers concerned about the environmental impact of the spray took to the lake in canoes. It is unsafe to spray rotenone, the fish-killing pesticide being used, when people are on the water.
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.
Montrealers can expect around 5 centimetres of snow today and a storm surge warning is in effect for Quebec City. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said Fisheries and Oceans Canada issued a coastal flood warning in the Quebec region Sunday with higher than normal water levels expected near the coast in the afternoon and evening.
Have you ever wondered what happens when an unwanted pet goldfish gets released into the wild? It turns out it grows and grows until it becomes a comically large version of its former self. Fisheries and Oceans Canada posted photos to Facebook that show some of the humongous, large-bellied goldfish that were found in Ontario’s Hamilton Harbour.
The use of disposable face masks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more microplastics in waterways, a recent study from Canadian researchers has found. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that are less than 5 millimetres long and are created through the degradation of discarded plastic-containing products. These particles have been observed polluting various natural ecosystems, particularly aquatic environments.
BC Hydro has updated its water supply forecast for the summer. There’s continued dry weather conditions within the Puntledge River watershed, though the ongoing snowmelt is helping to move the Comox Lake Reservoir water level upward, and achieve its goal of a full reservoir in June. The amount of precipitation in the upper Puntledge watershed for February was 38 per cent of normal, March 97 per cent, April was at a very low 30 per cent, and May to date, 44 per cent of normal. The snowmelt is providing a major part of the recent water inflows into the watershed.
Many government agencies knew about the suspicious well water in Ramsay Meadows, a small subdivision halfway between Almonte and Carleton Place. But none of those agencies told the residents. The 49 homes stand across the street from the National Research Council’s national fire lab, which does research on firefighting. In late 2013, the lab bosses learned that their firefighting chemicals had contaminated their property’s groundwater, probably in the late 1900s.
As of Wednesday morning, water levels on Lake Ontario at Cobourg exceeded those seen in the historic 2017 flood. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the water level at Cobourg is 75.92 metres above sea level. At its highest in 2017, the level was 75.88 metres above sea level. “We’re approximately 40 centimetres above normal,” Cobourg Mayor John Henderson said. “With the rain we got this week, I expect that 40 centimetres will be higher, approaching 60 centimetres.”
B.C. Hydro is preparing for lower water levels in some Vancouver Island reservoirs and watersheds in the coming months, after a particularly dry winter.
Both the Puntledge and Campbell rivers are running low and that impacts everything from salmon runs to boating tourists, as well as electric utility operations.
