Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

pink salmon

Low creek levels on Vancouver Island threaten spawning salmon

Low creek levels on Vancouver Island threaten spawning salmon

It’s the time of year when salmon are returning to freshwater to spawn, but across the Island, fish are holding out in the ocean, waiting for the seasonal rise in creek levels to take hold and allow them to complete their life cycle. On average, Victoria sees about 88 millimetres of rain in October; so far there has been none with no precipitation in the forecast for the next week. In fact, it’s been weeks since the Island had any sizable amount of rain at all. Greater Victoria alone has only had 2mm since July 8, and water levels are falling across the region.

Drought Kills Tens of Thousands of Salmon in a Single Canadian Creek

Drought Kills Tens of Thousands of Salmon in a Single Canadian Creek

More than 65,000 salmon have died before they could spawn in just one Canadian stream. The die-off of two species, mostly pink and some chum salmon, hints at a potentially devastating season for the fish, local people, and the wider ecosystem throughout the region. Researchers from Simon Fraser University came upon the mass fish calamity in the Neekas river in British Columbia’s remote Central Coast on September 29. The waterway is near the community of Bella Bella, within Indigenous Heiltsuk Nation Territory. The full video shows a 360 degree view of the carnage.

‘This is ridiculous’: BC Hydro questioned after mass stranding of salmon on Cheakamus River

‘This is ridiculous’: BC Hydro questioned after mass stranding of salmon on Cheakamus River

The death of potentially thousands of pink salmon in the Cheakamus River has prompted questions about how BC Hydro manages water levels in some of its reservoirs. It happened Thursday night and into Friday morning, when the Crown corporation reduced the spill release from the Daisy Lake Reservoir into the river, stranding fish who had moved closer to the banks. “I was taken aback, I couldn’t believe what I saw,” professional angling guide Clint Goyette told Global News. “The amount of dead and dying fish was something I’d never seen before in the adult phase of life of these pink salmon.”

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