Page 18 - Johnstone Strait News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

An ambitious project to map and monitor sea kelp forests along the entire B.C. coast is afoot, and scientists are using seemly disparate tools — both ancient and modern — to do it. Researchers are using centuries-old British sea charts and advanced technology, such as camera drones and satellite images, to trace shifts in the abundance and distribution of kelp beds over time, said geographer Maycira Costa. Like rainforests, B.C.’s canopy-forming kelp beds are critical and extensive ecosystems that shelter and feed a host of marine life, including juvenile salmon and marine mammals such...

In 1919 Walter and his wife Nell started Wanderwell Expeditions, a round-the-world endurance race with competing teams trying to log the most miles in their 1917 Ford Model Ts. In 1922 he and Nell separated, and he sought a new filmmaker, driver and secretary. The schoolgirl who responded to the advertisement spoke French, German and some Italian. After the tour she would speak some Japanese and Russian also. She was fit, strong, and six feet tall. Her mother gave her permission to join the tour on the condition that she change her name for it to safeguard the family name. And so, Aloha Wan...

  VICTORIA -- After more than 20 years, a celebrated orca family has ventured back into an old haunt near the North Island. The A5 pod has returned to the Broughton Archipelago, their traditional winter hunting ground, with a brand new baby in tow. They had still spent time around the North Island in places like Blackfish Sound and the Johnstone Strait, but avoided going further north into the archipelago and the long inlets on the mainland. Department of Fisheries and Oceans researcher, Jared Towers was trailing them on Jan. 5 through Blackfish Sound south of the archipelago when the fa...

This Year May Decide the Fate of BC’s Wild Salmon UPDATED: Today’s federal government decision to close Discovery Islands fish farms offers some hope for the survival of our West Coast icon. Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more. SHARES A young wild salmon infected by sea lice migrating through Discovery Islands in May 2020. Photo by Tavish Campbell. [Editor’s note: Andrew Nikiforuk filed this breaking news update on the afternoon of Dec. 17,...

  CAMPBELL RIVER -- What's being described as a natural glacial slide has resulted in widespread flooding and navigational problems that could last for months in the Bute Inlet area of coastal British Columbia. "This looks literally like a bomb went off," says Quest Water Taxi owner Leigh Nelson. "We have everything from sawdust to bark to sticks to pieces of trees. All the parts and pieces are there, they're just not their in full tree form anymore." Nelson was heading to Toba Inlet on Sunday and had to divert to Bute Inlet when he came across massive debris fields affecting local water...