Malcolm Island's TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup!

Saturday, September 26th dawned clear, sunny and warm - perfect weather to get the 37 participants of our "trash teams" out onto our shoreline here in Sointula and Mitchell Bay to try and make a dent in the ever growing piles of flotsam and jetsam that seems to crowd the shores of Malcolm Island.

This was all part of the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, sponsored by the Vancouver Aquarium and, under the auspices of The Ocean Conservancy, part of an international effort to clear debris from shorelines around the world.

For the Malcolm Island event we had help and sponsorship from Living Oceans Society, The Malcolm Island Lions Club, Sointula Recreation Association and the Regional District of Mount Waddington.


Our hard working volunteers (and their pickup trucks) managed to get an estimated 1875 kilograms of junk off the beaches. Over 80 % went to the 7 Mile Recycling depot/landfill while the rest was directed to the Malcolm Island landfill. Any scrap metal, tires, batteries, recyclable plastics and returnables were sorted from the general trash and destined to be recycled.

In Mitchell Bay/Donegal Head area at the south end of Malcolm Island, 12 volunteers collected a huge pickup truck of trash.
This was the first time that Mitchell Bay had been cleaned up during a TDGCSC event although there is a lot of people all over the island who take it upon themselves to clean up the beaches throughout the year.

A huge thanks to everybody who participated this year.
When the final all Canadian cleanup statiistics come in sometime in October I will post the data on Coastal Voices.

Here are a few photos taken on Saturday.

The TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup!

I hate to break this to you, folks but recent studies have shown that our oceans have become incredibly huge repositories of garbage for both the developed and developing worlds.

Most of the marine debris in the world is comprised of plastic materials. The average proportion varies between 60 to 80% of total marine debris and nearly 80% of this debris comes from land-based sources.


Several earlier postings on Coastal Voices have touched on the "garbage patch" out in the North Pacific Gyre which is actually more of a thin soup of plastic fragments as well as larger pieces of flotsam and jetsam.
It is, as one journalist described it, humanity's own Giant Gyre of Junk!

While it is probably logistically too difficult to go out 1000 miles into the Pacific to attempt to clean up this mess we can all help out here closer to home to try and stem the flow of man made junk getting onto our beaches and further out to sea.

To that end one thing we can all do is to get involved with the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, one of the largest conservation initiatives of the Vancouver Aquarium. What started out as a small beach cleanup conducted by a handful of Vancouver Aquarium employees has now grown into the second largest cleanup in the world. ( The U.S. is in first place - for now!)

So, here in Sointula, Living Oceans Society will be coordinating our community's participation in one of the largest contributors to the International Coastal Cleanup in the world.

What we have done in recent years and are planning for this year is to have volunteers come out on Saturday, September 26, get into small informal groups and hit the beaches, locating and picking up debris.
Your humble scribe for this blog posting, Vern Sampson, will be the coordinator for the Malcolm Island/Sointula beach cleanup. We already have some teams who have come forward with crew and pickup trucks. The Rough Bay Bunch have already staked out their coastal cleanup turf!
What we will be looking for are some Downtown Debris Dynamos and the Kaleva Kleanup Krowd! (Who came up with these names, anyway?)
Look for posters around town with more details or contact me at 250 973-6580, 250 973-2078 or: vsampson@livingoceans.org

If there are folks from other communities who wish to get into some friendly competition or wish to know more about what you or your group can do in your community in the cleanup campaign, by all means contact me or check out the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup link above.

I'll post more details on Sointula's efforts in the next few days.

Happy Canada Day!

I know, I'm a day early. But that's only because I'll be helping to (wo)man the Living Oceans table at the Canada Day celebration in Campbell River tomorrow. In between barbecues, flags, face painting, beer and fireworks, please stop by our LOS table at Ostler Park tomorrow to learn more about the sea that surrounds our great country on 3 sides.

In the meantime, some fun facts about Canada:

Canada has the world's longest coastline (202,080 km)1

The highest tides on Earth are found in the Bay of Fundy, east of New Brunswick. The channeling effect of the bay is responsible for the amazing difference between high tide and low tide, which, during spring tides, can reach 53.5 feet. (That's almost as tall as a four-story building!) 2

Every Canadian province and territory has its own commercial fishing industry. (Yes, even Alberta!)


Got something to add? Comment with your interesting Canada/Ocean facts below!



1. CIA World FactBook, Canada, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/CA.html, accessed on 29 June 2009
2. http://www.bayoffundy.com/highesttides.aspx

Otesha Sunshine Coast Bike Tour 2009

The Otesha Project Sunshine Coast Bike Tour stopped in Sointula once again this year, as a part of the North Island leg of a 2,000+ kilometer tour that stops in towns and educates youth through theatre about the impacts that our choices have on the world around us.

The group performed at AJ Elliot Elementary School on Friday, June 12 and came back over to Malcolm Island to perform at the community hall on Sunday, June 14. I was thoroughly entertained by the performance, and was very impressed by the group's incredible energy. Otesha's goal of empowering youth to make their own positive life choices is very commendable.

The Otesha team was a joy to host in Sointula. I have had numerous community members remark about how nice it was to see all these smiling cyclists on the island over the weekend! Thanks for stopping by, Otesha, and please make sure to swing by Sointula again next year!

Happy World Oceans Day!

A happy World Oceans Day to everyone! Living Oceans celebrated World Oceans Day a little early in Sointula. On Saturday we had an Oceans Festival with a free seafood chowder lunch, games, ocean crafts, prizes, and some interesting displays from Straitwatch and DFO.


Our new summer student, Sointula's own Kirie McMurchy, roamed the event with the video camera, so you can look forward to a new video blog this week as well.


Today, the Living Oceans Society launches the Finding Coral Expedition in Vancouver. Bon Voyage!

The Deep Sea

This weekend, in the lead-up to World Oceans Day, we will be showing "Deep Blue" at the Pioneer Theatre in Port McNeill. This movie is a compilation of the best clips from BBC's "Blue Planet" and is incredibly worth your while, if you're in the area.

I've shown this film up in Haida Gwaii, so I've had the chance to see it more than once. No matter how many times I watch it, I continue to be mesmerized from start to finish. While the killer whale seal-hunting scene tends to be the crowd favorite, I always look forward to the scenes from the deep sea. More people have walked on the moon than have seen the oceans deepest floor. Home to some of the strangest looking animals as well as some of the most beautiful, the deep sea really is a world of its own. My favorite deep sea creatures are the colorful deep sea jellies.

My fascination with the deep sea makes it even more exciting that our very own Jennifer Lash will be diving in search of deep sea corals in less than two weeks' time. Hopefully, in addition to finding coral, Jennifer (in photo, taken at sub training earlier this month) will get to see firsthand the deep sea creatures that most of us can only marvel at in a BBC documentary. Do I sound jealous? Of course I am.

Kind of.

Until I think about the feeling of utter claustrophobia that I would get, going down to a place so deep that not a speck of natural light penetrates...
Alone and confined inside a one-man submersible submarine...
Would it be worth it to see my beloved jellies? Yeah, probably.
Would it be scary as hell? Absolutely.

For now, I'll wait for Jennifer to get home and tell us all about her adventure before I decide to add deep sea diving to my bucket list. Until then, join me at the Pioneer Theatre this weekend, and we can all marvel at the wonders of the ocean together.

Giant Blue Whales are Back on the West Coast!

The first known migration of giant blue whales from the coast of California to areas off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since commercial whaling ended in 1965 has been documented by marine mammal scientists.

A blue whale spouts off Moresby Island, British Columbia. Photo by: John Calambokidis, Cascadia Research Collective.

In all the years that I have been, “messing about in boats,” from the Gulf Islands to Alaska, I have seen most of the marine mammals that frequent our coast, including close encounters(not intentionally!) with grey whales, humpbacks and orcas, but I've never seen a blue whale.

Researchers from Cascadia Research Collective in Washington, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California, and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans used the blue whale’s distinctive pigmentation patterns of their skin color and the shape of the dorsal fin to positively match individuals seen in the north Pacific with those off of California.

Researchers identified individual blue whales by the shapes of their small dorsal fins. (Photo by John Calambokidis courtesy Cascadia Research Collective)

Reaching lengths of nearly 100 feet, the blue whale is the largest animal on Earth today and the largest known to have ever existed.

They were nearly hunted to extinction throughout the world and are currently listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the Canadian Species at Risk Act, and on the authoritative IUCN Red List.

During the early 1900s in the North Pacific and along the West Coast as far south as Baja California, blue whales were nearly wiped out during commercial whaling activities. Because they were the largest whales, blue whales were a prime target for whalers.

John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective, who has a long history of blue whale research, said of this study, "We document 15 blue whale sightings off British Columbia and in the Gulf of Alaska made since 1997, and use identification photographs to show that whales in these areas are currently part of the California feeding population."

The scientists are still not certain why blue whales are now beginning to migrate from southern California to the North Pacific Ocean, although changing ocean conditions may have shifted their primary food source of krill further north.

Living between 70 and 80 years, blue whales reproduce every two or three years. There are an estimated 5,000 to 12,000 animals surviving today, with the largest population of approximately 2,000 off the U.S. West Coast.

Click here to view the research paper, "Insights into the population structure of blue whales in the Eastern North Pacific from recent sightings and photographic identification."

On a similar note click here to see one of the first underwater videos of a blue whale calf in the waters off Puerto Rico.

Coral Coldwater and the Finding Coral Expedition!

I am excited to announce that on June 8, 2009, Living Oceans Society will launch the Finding Coral Expedition. On this expedition, a blue-ribbon team of scientists will dive in mini subs to explore the dark depths of Canada’s Pacific in search of some of the most important, yet poorly-understood, organisms in the ocean: deep sea corals.

When most people think of corals, they think of tropical coral reefs. Recently, however, scientists have realized that there are vast amounts of coral growing in cold, dark waters away from the tropics. The deep sea waters off of the coast of British Columbia have these deep sea corals, which are known to provide critical support for many other marine species.

You can join the expedition on Facebook by adding Coral Coldwater (our unofficial expedition mascot) as your friend. Through Coral, you can follow the expedition’s progress - plus learn more about the trials and tribulations of a single, middle-aged deep sea coral just trying to make a go of it in the increasingly difficult world of the deep sea.

You can add Coral as your friend and after becoming friends with her, please invite your other Facebook friends to join the Finding Coral Expedition by adding Coral Coldwater as their friend too. Then, together, we will set out on the sea and search the darkest depths of Canada’s Pacific until we find Coral.

Living Oceans Society is working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to develop strategies and policies to protect critically important ecosystem features like deep sea corals. However, these strategies and policies won’t be of much use if we don’t even know where those corals are, and what roles they play in the marine ecosystem. Living Oceans Society has spent the past five years asking the government to protect deep sea corals, with little success. This is why we’ve decided to take the initiative by jump-starting deep sea coral research.

World Oceans Day

Come and celebrate with the Living Oceans Society in the lead-up to World Oceans Day.

On Saturday, May 30 at 3:00 pm, bring your whole family to the Pioneer Theatre in Port McNeill for a free matinee screening of Once Upon a Tide and the BBC's Deep Blue.

Then, on Saturday, June 6, stop by the Fire Hall in Sointula for our World Oceans Festival from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. At the festival, we will have games, an art station, educational activities, and even a free seafood chowder lunch. As an added treat, our friends from the Go Wild Kayak Expedition will stop by to show us some pictures and to talk about their trip!

Both of these events are free, and everyone is welcome to attend. If you are not able to make it to the North Island area, check out the official World Oceans Day website to find an event near you!

United Nations Declares June 8 as World Oceans Day

It has been celebrated unofficially for years, but this year the United Nations has officially recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day. This is great news, as it demonstrates our leaders' increasing commitment to ocean conservation worldwide.

Click here for the link to the UN resolution recognizing June 8 as World Oceans Day.

Deep Sea Mining of Hydrothermal Vents

One might describe the ocean as a "precious jewel", or perhaps a "treasure box of life" but less metaphorically, our ocean is actually home to extractable deposits of silver and gold (copper, zinc, and lead too). So... what shall we do with this wealth?

The Canadian (and BC-based) company, Nautilus Minerals has emerged as a major player in the exploration of deep-sea mining possibilities, most notably through its activities related to mining the waters off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Nautilus is also interested in mining areas offshore from Vancouver.

Last week, Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution hosted a Deep-Sea Mining Workshop to promote interdisciplinary and international collaboration on deep sea mining issues. While there was only modest media coverage of this 100-person, invite-only event; deep-sea mining is becoming a hotly-contested issue for many people who are concerned about the health of the oceans. Rick Macpherson, a scientist based in San Francisco, offers some interesting reflections on the workshop.

Sea floor mining on a large scale has never been attempted before, so we can't fully understand the environmental implications of such a practice. What we do know is that deep sea systems are vulnerable and are often slow to recover from damage. One of my specific concerns is that there are many different kinds of marine life that exist near the hydrothermal vents and if we are not careful, deep sea mining could alter or harm the ecosystem upon which these creatures depend.



What are your thoughts on deep-sea mining? How would you feel if deep-sea mining occurred on the Pacific coast of Canada?

Launch of the Go Wild Kayak Expedition

On Saturday, May 2nd at 10 am, the Go Wild Kayak Expedition will launch from the shores of Gig Harbor, Washington. People in the area are encouraged to rent a kayak (discounts are available) and paddle with Phil and Apryle for the first few miles of their journey. Each paddler will be identified with an orange balloon. Visit the Go Wild website for more information about the launch.


The Go Wild team will also be stopping in Sointula during our World Oceans Day Festival on June 6th to talk about the expedition and show us some pictures from their journey. Stay tuned for more information about this in the weeks to come!

Millions of Pounds of Trash!

The Ocean Conservancy has just released the results of its 2008 International Coastal Cleanup - and it's pretty gross. On a single day last September, nearly 400,000 volunteers at 6,485 sites in 104 countries and locations picked up trash along the world's ocean and waterways.

The yuckiest statistic for me: Volunteers picked up more than 1.3 million cigarette butts in the USA alone.



Cigarette butts were closely followed by plastic bags and food wrappers / containers as the most prevalent types of trash documented.

Not only does trash render our beautiful coastline esthetically unappealing, but marine debris also sickens, injures, or kills large amounts of marine animals. The Ocean Conservancy states that marine debris "degrades ocean health and compromises the ocean's ability to adapt to climate change."

There are many beach clean-ups that take place on the North Island throughout the year, but I would love to see clean-ups become a thing of the past. If we want to make a commitment to healthy oceans and healthy communities, we need to reduce, reuse, and recycle. If we can't avoid making trash - we need to make sure that we dispose of it in an appropriate manner so that it doesn't end up in the oceans in the first place.

Until ocean clean-up events are rendered a thing of the past, make sure you stay tuned to this blog for announcements of upcoming clean up events planned for the North Island. Check out the Ocean Conservancy for the full report of the 2008 clean-up and to find out how you can take part in 2009.

PNCIMA Dates!

For those of you who have an interest or a stake in how the government plans the use of our local marine resources, you might be interested in attending the PNCIMA Forum in Richmond, on March 26 and 27th. There is funding available for stakeholders from the North Island to attend, if you apply for the funding before March 9.

On Thursday, March 5 from 6:15 - 9:00 pm the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be holding a community meeting in Port Hardy, at Malone's Oceanside Bistro. The purpose of this meeting is to:

• Give the community an overview of the PNCIMA initiative
• Offer an opportunity for input on engagement, values and issues specific to the PNCIMA initiative
• Inform the community about the PNCIMA forum to be held in Richmond on March 26 and 27

Anyone from the community is welcome at both the March 5 event and the March 26-27 event. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Blue is the New Green - Family Film Nights on Haida Gwaii

BBC's Deep Blue Trailer

This weekend, Haida Fisheries and the Haida Oceans Technical Team offered a Family Film Night in Masset on Friday and in Skidegate on Saturday. Living Oceans Society helped to sponsor this event, so I was able to go up to Haida Gwaii to talk about Living Oceans and to watch the videos in both communities.

The first movie shown was "Once Upon a Tide" - a fantastic 10-minute animated film created by the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. This film tells the story of a young girl's first trip to see the ocean. To watch this video you can visit the Once Upon a Tide website.

The second film that was shown was the BBC's Deep Blue (see above for the video trailer), a 90 minute film comprising of amazing footage of the incredible life found in our oceans around the world.

After watching these two films, it is hard to remain indifferent about our oceans. I hope that the community members who took part in the film night will also plan to attend Gaaysiigang - An Ocean Forum for Haida Gwaii on January 22-24.

On a personal note: I found my weekend up in Haida Gwaii quite valuable as well. Seeing a new place on the PNCIMA coast and being able to talk to the intelligent, invested, and gracious people who live there helped me to (once again) see the value in integrated marine planning. As the movie demonstrated, we all rely on the ocean to provide us with many different vital services. Planning for our oceans needs to incorporate the interests of everyone (and everything) that shares our coast. And what a beautiful coast it is!

Pictures from the 10th Anniversary Masquerade Ball in Sointula

This year Living Oceans Society celebrated 10 years of marine conservation advocacy in BC. On December 5, 2008, we held an Under the Sea Masquerade Ball on Malcolm Island to celebrate LOS' birthday and its Sointula roots. At the event there was a live bluegrass band, door prizes, a live auction, a costume contest, and lots and lots of dancing! The event had an impressive turnout and raised money for a great cause. Check out some of the innovative costumes in the pictures below:

Together on the Coast: North Coast Sustainable Community Development Forum

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to attend a conference held in Prince Rupert by the North Coast-Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society.

The objectives of the meeting were to:

* Inform and enhance the engagement of North Coast communities in Marine Planning.
* Initiate dialogue among numerous levels of government and stakeholders in the North Coast on issues affecting marine ecosystems.
* Inform the public of the planning activities currently underway by First Nations.
* Provide case-studies of how community engagement can be an important and successful part of marine management decision-making.

The most interesting part of the meeting for me came at the very end when there was a discussion about the need for an ocean champion - someone who helps shepherd the changes around ocean management and conservation that need to happen through a marine planning process. As people spoke about their experiences, their passions, and their dedication to ensuring that the ocean continues to provide for their families and communities, it became very clear that we already have ocean champions. Everyone in that room was a champion. The trick now is harnessing that passion and energy to ensure that we get a marine planning process that will benefit our resources and our future.

For more information on the conference go to:

http://www.togetheronthecoast.org/

Save The Date!

The Living Oceans Society will be celebrating ten years of marine conservation work in British Columbia with an Under the Sea Masquerade in Sointula on December 5th, 2008, from 7:30 pm to 1:30 am.

From 7:30 - 9:30 pm, there will be live music, door prizes, a live auction, a cash bar, and prizes for the best costume. A dance will follow these events at 9:30 pm.

Tickets are $10 each and are available from the LOS Head Office or from any LOS staff member. You must be 19 years of age or older to purchase tickets.

Hopefully I will see you there!

First night on the road a success

Our first night on the road tonight and our first screening...in Campbell River. We had a good turnout and a great mix of people. Our guest speaker, Victoria, showed us the most amazing underwater footage. We could actually hear the clicks of the sperm whale as it checked out the sablefish on the line. They intensified and then the jaws of the whale filled most of the frame. What was so amazing was to see how the whale got the fish off the line. He put tension on the line and then it was almost like he was running his teeth along it to get the fish to snap off. I've never seen anything like. Actually, I don't think too many people have had the pleasure of seeing footage like this. We are really lucky on the North Island to have the chance to meet Victoria O'Connell. I of course highly recommend coming to a screening near you!

Tomorrow we are driving back up island to Port Hardy, hopefully with a stop at the Whale Interpretive Centre on the way to be reminded just how massive sperm whales are. See you in Port Hardy!

Last of this year's coastal speakers series

I will be touring around North Island communities again in the last of this year's coastal speakers series. This time we are holding a coastal film night and will be featuring a film called "SEASWAP". This film was produced in Alaska and is about sperm whales in Southeast Alaska taking black cod off of longline gear. The film is an interesting look at what a collaborative project between fishermen and scientists can look like, and is also appealing because of what I learned about sperm whales, creatures that inhabit the coastal waters of BC, but which we don't have the privilege of seeing very often.

The film will be followed by a discussion with Victoria O'Connell, one of the principle investigators on the SEASWAP project. In her previous job as Groundfish Manager with Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, she brings a wealth of knowledge to the coastal film night and I hope that we will get to learn more, not just about sperm whales, but about the various commercial groundfisheries in Alaska.

We will be on tour from October 8th to 11st, and will be in the following communities:

Wednesday, October 8th: Campbell River Campbell River Museum
Thursday, October 9th: Port Hardy Cafe Guido
Friday, October 10th: Alert Bay Inner Coast Natural Resources Centre
Saturday, October 11th: Sointula (2pm) Old Fire Hall and Port McNeill Black Bear Resort

All screenings will be at 7pm apart from the Sointula "matinee".