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.
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.
Kamloops is implementing stricter water use regulations amid worsening drought conditions in the Thompson River, a situation one conservationist says is putting salmon habitat at risk. The new water conservation measures the municipality in B.C.'s Interior is putting in place include a ban on water sprinklers for lawn irrigation. However, watering is still permitted with handheld spring-loaded nozzles.
Scientists are taking a close look at a bright orange algae bloom found in the ocean off Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. Svetlana Esenkulova, a biologist with Pacific Salmon Foundation, is trying to determine if the phytoplankton bloom is negatively impacting salmon. “Noctiluca blooms can disrupt the overall balance of marine ecosystems as they ‘steal’ food from zooplankton,” she said. Under a microscope, the organisms "look like giant watermelons with pigtails and they wave those pigtails," said Esenkulova, who has a sample of the orange ocean water in her kitchen. When the water is cold, she can see the organisms trying to catch food.
