Coastal GasLink and Indigenous partners work together to revive depleted salmon stocks
“When we talk about land, we say we belong to this territory. This land holds us, and we are nurtured from it.” These are the words of Aileen Prince, chief of the Nak’azdli Whut’en First Nation in northern B.C. near Fort St. James. Prince and her community have suffered numerous indignities over the years, including…
Non-Indigenous fishers in Atlantic region need not be worried that Indigenous rights will come at the expense of conservation
A dispute in Ontario may help us understand ongoing tensions over the lobster fisheries on the East Coast and offer a solution. The war over Indigenous fishing rights has played out before in Canada. As we reflect on recent violence in Nova Scotia over the lobster fisheries, it’s important to know if there are any…
It seems strange how little we know about fish, their habits and whether the help we’re trying to give them is actually helpful
Many of us who received our education on fish migration via TV nature programs have missed a few important things. All I remember is that salmon can leap several feet in the air over cascades to get upstream to spawn. Somewhere in these documentaries I recall an industrialist taking full credit for installing a fishway…
Including Indigenous voices in U.S.-Canada water agreement discussions would give the environment a leading role
Salmon used to swim all the way up the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Ore., to the Canadian Rocky Mountains at the river’s headwaters in Canal Flats, B.C. It was an astounding journey of 2,000 kilometres upstream that cut through a landscape of lush forest, dry desert and high peaks. But since…
The end of Canada's federal marketing monopoly opens new doors around the world
Many people expected that the end of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. (FFMC) monopoly would lead to a disaster in Manitoba. It has not, fortunately. In fact, this move by the federal government may revitalize the Indigenous commercial fisheries in the northern part of the province. Manitoba commercial fishers sell about $60 million worth of…
With help from $230 million in funding, the Ocean Frontier Institute sets out to examine the damage to oceans and how they can be saved
Oceans feed the world – but rapid change in our oceans has put the food supplies of billions of people in jeopardy. We need to understand why, and find out what we can do about it. For more than half the world's population, from Africa to Asia and beyond, fish represents in excess of 50 per cent of…
Labelling regulations need to be modified so consumers have final word on the technology
Genetically-modified salmon will soon be on Canada's supermarket shelves, but are retailers and consumers prepared? After four years of testing, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have approved AquaBounty Technologies’ genetically-modified salmon for retail sale in Canada. Given that the mighty U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the same technology six months ago, Canada’s…
Step aside climate change, it is the state of our oceans that is reaching the point of no return
Is climate change really the most urgent environmental threat facing our planet? At the COP21 (Conference of Parties) that concluded last week in Paris, leaders from around the world called for “urgent action” on climate change. But according to the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Mother Earth warmed by…