Michael Price, Biologist, Wild Salmon Program.

Spring is early this year, and signs of its bloom abound. Life on the coast races against time to proliferate before summer sun fades to dark. Less visible are the millions of young sockeye salmon migrating out of their ice-free lakes on route to a salty existence. The majority are travelling down the Fraser River, Canada’s largest salmon producing system. Some have travelled 500 km since the ice retreated; others, 1,000. Their journey has only just begun.   Photo: Juvenile sockeye are infected with sea lice when they migrate past fish farms in the Discovery Islands.Raincoast is in its fourth year examining the health of juvenile sockeye in Georgia Strait. We’ve noted that these fish are more heavily infected with sea lice than pink and chum salmon, and infection of the young salmon increases as they pass salmon farms. We’ve documented the release of blood, tissue, and live sea lice in the effluent from a fish farm processing facility in the region. Although we have yet to understand just how detrimental these factors are in terms of disease and parasite transfer to juveniles, they are clearly not beneficial.

Fraser River sockeye returned in record low numbers last fall, one percent of what they were a century ago. Fishing pressure has not helped. Low ocean productivity may be partly at fault. Loss of habitat and pollution have surely been detrimental. But what exactly has caused the sharp decline in Fraser sockeye, no one can say with certainty. It may be that the resilience and buffering capacity that allowed populations to recover from harsh and unforeseen events in the past, has been exhausted from a century of human abuse. All we really know, and all that matters, is that they are at the tipping point in their existence.

I am new to parenthood, and all my partner Clare and I think of is how to ensure our son is shielded from as many harmful stressors as possible – instinctively, we know this will improve his chances of living a full life. We can’t protect him from everything, but we can avoid the harmful ones. When it comes to salmon, and particularly vulnerable young Fraser River populations, should we not provide them the same protection? If we are serious about salmon conservation, and wish to ensure our children’s children inherit plentiful returns of salmon, we must begin by alleviating as many human-induced stressors as possible.

Compared to the far-reaching threat of changes in ocean productivity associated with climate warming, risks to wild salmon posed by industries such as salmon farming are far more easily mitigated. One way is to simply remove net-cage salmon farms from the migration routes of juvenile salmon.

The challenge for our generation is to act.

Our spring field season has arrived and is led by Dr. Chris Darimont, Raincoast Director of Science

by Chris Darimont

Possessing only a rudimentary knowledge of gravity, delicate little claws for braking, and pure trust in their momma, brand new grizzly cubs are slip-sliding their way down snowfields this month as they emerge from their high-altitude dens.

Just how many of these adorable little puffballs pop out and greet the Great Bear Rainforest, however, remains to be seen. It depends not just on the severity of last winter or how romantic their parents were in June, but on how many salmon their moms ate the previous fall.

Will hope ‘spring’ eternal for grizzlies this season, or will it be another desperate year on a coast that owes the bears its name?

This question means more to me now than ever. I’ve been blessed with my own ‘cub’ this spring (our first). My partner, Alison (aka ‘Momma Bear’), and I were fortunate; we had access to abundant and high quality foods throughout our pregnancy. Maëlle emerged from the womb happy and healthy. The same may not be true for the bears.

Chris Darimont & family prepare for the field season in the Great Bear

My family will travel with me and the Raincoast team to the Great Bear this week. We will embark on the second year of what we believe to be the most important applied conservation work on the coast: counting bears and cubs, and assessing their health in an era of dwindling salmon runs.

Our work is more urgent than ever. At the policy level, we are pushing forward meaningful changes to salmon harvest regulations that now allocate only a tiny amount of salmon to bears and other wild creatures. Plus, our work provides evidence-based arguments for abandoning the grizzly bear trophy hunt.

These gains — if they come — will be the result in large part of our outreach efforts, which have inspired more and more British Columbians to care about the future of wild salmon and the non-human animals who depend on them.

I ask you to join us this spring. Follow our new blog. Drop us an email. And consider helping us help the cubs of the coast. Your donation, however modest, could lead to something invaluable. Consider it an investment in grizzly cubs for future generations like Maëlle’s to appreciate, enjoy and respect.

For the bears and salmon,

Chris

Your support makes this work possible! Click here to support the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Conservation research can lead to unexpected findings. Sometimes these surprises relate to our core questions while other times they belong in a science fiction film.  One of these findings occurred while we were studying diseases that might harm wildlife in coastal BC. Though not what we set out to study, these types of discoveries are part of what makes science fun.

Internal parasites of black-tailed deer are found in wolf scat.

Many of us have probably felt a moment of panic at the sight of a little garden slug on a forkful of fresh salad en route to our mouths.  Raincoast scientists together with researchers from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Uppsala have found that wolves may have a similar experience while dining on deer.   The research team first noticed the unusual worm larvae in wolf scat during a survey of parasites in wolves.  Genetic analysis identified the microscopic worms as a parasite common to deer, but not wolves.   The likely explanation for its presence in wolf scat is that the worms were consumed by a wolf feasting on an infected deer and then passed through the wolf’s digestive tract into the faeces.

This result, which has been published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, highlights the value of using genetic techniques to improve identification of parasites in scat.

Download the paper

SPRING HUNT 2010
By Chris Genovali

A new decade has dawned, but this month yet another year of grizzly bear hunting will commence in British Columbia.

The B.C. grizzly bear hunt has been a source of unrelenting controversy. Both sides are stuck in a continual expert-driven argument in which each camp claims science supports their position. Perhaps it is time the debate was conducted within the context of ethical considerations as well.

Captain Brian Falconer leads Raincoast’s Spring and Fall hunts. For more information and to reserve a voyage on the Achiever, please contact brian@ raincoast.org. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to travel in the realm of B.C.'s coastal bears on Raincoast’s research vessel Achiever and experience a different kind of "hunt.”

In his paper, Environmental Ethics and Trophy Hunting, Dr. Alastair Gunn states that “Nowhere in the [scientific] literature, so far as I am aware, is hunting for fun, for the enjoyment of killing, or for the acquisition of trophies defended.”

The compulsion to kill these intelligent, powerful and beautiful animals in order to “bag a trophy” is something poll after poll has shown the average British Columbian cannot fathom.

Raincoast lead the campaign to get a province-wide moratorium on the grizzly hunt enacted in 2001. That ban lasted one hunting season as with a change in government via the spring 2001 election came a revocation of the moratorium. Raincoast’s response was to look for new and creative ways to further grizzly bear conservation – a particularly noteworthy one being the purchase of a 24,000 square kilometer commercial hunting tenure in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Managing and monitoring our guide outfitting territory costs money, as does our efforts to investigate potential additional acquisitions. Speaking of which, we are on the verge of moving forward with another guide outfitting territory purchase – details to come!

We need your support to continue our work to protect bears and other large carnivores on the B.C. coast.

Your support makes this work possible! Click here to support the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

By Chris Genovali

"BC has a dark history of marine mammal exploitation..." said Misty MacDuffee, Raincoast biologist and a report author.

Lessons from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska have shown that even after two decades, some species and fisheries still have not recovered.

This includes killer whale populations, some seabird populations, shellfish harvesting and the commercial herring fishery. If the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is constructed from Alberta’s tar sands to Kitimat, we could see supertankers like the Exxon Valdez in BC waters transporting oil to Asian and American off shore markets.

“Our findings show that a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez, which is not even in the top 50 largest oil spills, would have a profound impact on marine mammal and marine bird populations on the BC coast,” said Dr. Paul Paquet, Raincoast senior scientist and an author of the report.

“BC has a dark history of marine mammal exploitation. Since we stopped hunting whales, sea lions, and sea otters to the verge of extinction, we are witnessing their recovery in our coastal waters,” said Misty MacDuffee, Raincoast biologist and a report author. “Now there is talk of putting tanker routes in their feeding grounds and risk their habitats to the threat of a catastrophic spill. More sea otters died in the Exxon Valdez oil spill than exist on the entire central and north coast of BC.”

“Terrestrial wildlife also face great danger from an oiled coast. Coastal grizzly bears and wolves, which rely on marine foods, would suffer in an Exxon-like catastrophe,” said Dr. Chris Darimont, Raincoast large carnivore scientist and an author of the report.

We appreciate your past support.  Your donation will support Raincoast’s efforts to stop the Enbridge pipeline and keep oil tankers off BC’s north coast.

Your support makes this work possible! Click here to support the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

New report details how tankers and oil spills could reverse years of recovery efforts for BC’s marine mammals

The report, ‘What’s at Stake – The cost of oil on British Columbia’s priceless coast’,  conveys the ecological implications of oil tankers and oil spills to wildlife on the BC coast.  The report stems from five years of at-sea surveys by Raincoast scientists, but places the future of BC’s unique coastline in a broader ecological context.   The surveys were undertaken to fill information gaps around the abundance and distribution of marine mammals and marine birds on the BC coast and inform discussion’s about proposed oil tankers and associated activities.

“BC has a dark history of marine mammal exploitation.  Since we stopped hunting whales, sea lions, and sea otters to the verge of extinction, we are witnessing their recovery in our coastal waters” said Misty MacDuffee, Raincoast biologist and a report author.   “Now there is talk of putting tanker routes in their feeding grounds and risking their habitats to a catastrophic spill.  More sea otters died in the Exxon Valdez oil spill than exist on the entire central and north coast of BC.”

Lessons from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska have shown that even after two decades, some species and fisheries still have not recovered.  This includes killer whale populations, some seabird populations, shellfish harvesting and the commercial herring fishery.  If the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is constructed from Alberta’s tar sands to Kitimat, we could see supertakers like the Exxon Valdez in BC waters transporting oil to Asian and American offshore markets

“Our findings show that a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez, which is not even in the top 50 largest oil spills, would have a profound impact on marine mammal and marine bird populations on the BC coast,” said Dr. Paul Paquet, Raincoast senior scientist and an author of the report.

“Terrestrial wildlife also face great danger from an oiled coast. Coastal grizzly bears and wolves, which rely on marine foods,  would suffer in an Exxon-like catastrophe.  Do British Columbians want to give up the last carnivore stronghold in North America in exchange for the last few bucks in a twilight oil economy?” said Dr. Chris Darimont, Raincoast large carnivore scientist and an author of the report.

Your support makes this work possible! Click here to support the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

The work behind the report and its supplemental material can be found here  Defining and Defending Marine Mammal Habitat.

Related Media:  Giles Slade Oil spill moves north Huffington Post

By Ian Jansma, Research Assistant

Denny Island Field Station

When I signed up as a volunteer on Raincoast’s salmon-carnivore study, I didn’t realize I’d be spending my days up to my armpits in blood. In the moist, pungent darkness of the ‘Blood Shed’, I mix fish oil and cow’s blood into a frothy cocktail with a stench so eye-wateringly acrid, yet so sickly sweet, that it will be irresistible to grizzly bears.Though distasteful to the vegetarians among us (and to the omnivores, for that matter), at least I’m making good use of fishing and beef industry byproducts. Better still, I’m helping with an important and unprecedented grizzly study in the Great Bear Rainforest. Alongside a companion project undertaken by our partner, Coast Watch (a Heiltsuk First Nation initiative from nearby Bella Bella), our studies are providing the first scientific analysis of grizzly bear numbers and distribution on the central coast.

Some of the other volunteers are on their way to remote estuaries, or hiking centuries old bear trails into the rugged coastal mountains. Meanwhile, this is my time to shine. I must act quickly – before the blood coagulates too much – and add the final ingredient: a splash of beaver castor oil.

The beaver oil is bottled for hunters, and we use it for much the same purpose as they do: to attract bears. But, while hunted bears may find themselves between a bait barrel and the barrel of a gun, the bears in our study area will find only an unsatisfying pile of bloody moss that smells strangely of fish and beavers. We don’t desire bear hides on our floor; we want only a few hairs. Our bears will investigate the bait, leave small tufts of hair on a strand of barbed wire that surrounds the site, and move on.

We have a hundred sites across a vast area, and we all work around the clock for six weeks each spring to bait them and collect the hair samples. The hair will go to laboratories where DNA, stable isotopes, and even hormones are extracted. DNA, along with GIS mapping, tell the tale of the coastal bears’ numbers and movement patterns. Stable isotopes are used to calculate the amount of salmon each bear has eaten. Collectively these data, taken over several seasons, will be vital in determining how bear birth and growth rates are affected by changes in salmon abundance. Overall, we will have a remarkably vibrant picture of bear health on our coast.

Having reliable information on the health of bear populations will help direct conservation efforts. It will also inform any debate in which bears are stakeholders, including the debate over trophy hunting. One thing is already clear: bears suffer an increasingly long list of abuses to their way of life, from decimation of their habitat by industrial forestry to depletion of their food source by chronic overfishing, fish farms and changing ocean conditions. Hunters’ bullets and arrows are not the only things killing bears. Still, I’m confident that one result of our work will be to help end the hugely unpopular trophy bear hunt in British Columbia.

While “bear baiting” is not a legal hunting method in BC, trophy hunting is permitted for big carnivores, including grizzly bears. The debate over trophy hunting in our province is unresolved and seems to be at a standstill. The political weight of overwhelming public opposition doesn’t quite outweigh the political clout of trophy hunting lobbies. What’s needed is a good dose of real science to tip the scales.

Meanwhile the bears try to go on as they have for millennia. For some bears we realize the science will not come soon enough. That’s why we also encourage everyone who cares about bears to take action and demand more from our government. After I scrub off the smell of stale blood and fish oil, I’m going to write my MLAs demanding they take the health of our bear populations seriously, for there is blood on their hands as well. After all, it’s an ethical issue as well as a scientific one, and a groundswell of public support increases the impact of our recommendations.

In the meantime, the lab technicians need not worry that they have the least glamorous part of the research. But if from the Blood Shed I can help inform better fisheries management, inspire people to share resources with bears, and of course end the bloodshed, then I do it gladly.

Click on the Canada Helps button to support this work.

Three pillars form the underpinnings of Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s mission: informed advocacy, scientific research, and environmental ethics. Informed advocacy drives all Raincoast’s conservation efforts; it’s a distinctive approach that has earned us a unique niche in the environmental movement. Our advocacy is informed by rigorous scientific research and guided by environmental ethics. This allows us to broaden the knowledge of our fragile coast but also deliver a strong conservation message.

As a long standing supporter of Raincoast, I encourage you to invest in their science and research protecting coastal wildlife in British Columbia. Dr. Bristol Foster, Raincoast Board Member Emeritus and Raincoast Donor

For example, Raincoast is re-defining animal welfare. We believe the philosophical boundaries that have traditionally defined animal welfare should be broadened to include protection of wild species and their habitat. In our view, securing the life requisites for marine and terrestrial wildlife is the quintessential application of animal welfare.

Safeguarding carnivores from the trophy hunt.  Protecting species from the dangers of oil spills. Ensuring animals are not deprived of critical food resources, like spawning salmon. Advocating for strategies that will help wildlife survive in the face of climate change. In our view, these are all animal welfare issues.

Raincoast continues to implement creative strategies and pursue innovative and practical solutions in 2010 and beyond – from science like our Salmon Carnivore research that links salmon abundance with bear health, to acquiring additional guide outfitting territories, to bringing our conservation message to millions through traditional and new media sources.

Your support of Raincoast enables this work. It protects coastal wildlife, it builds science literacy in youth, and it inspires ambassadors and protectors of our precious coast line.

We hope you will consider a donation today to our annual Fall appeal. Please do not hesitate to call me with any questions or comments at (250) 655-1229 extension 225.

Sincerely,

Chris Genovali
Executive Director
Raincoast Conservation Foundation

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

click here

Marine mammal abundance paper.pdf

Survey Design Paper.pdf

Hibernation paper pdf

download pdf

by Mike Price

Biologist, Raincoast Aquaculture Campaign
September 2009

The headlines continue to blare across local, regional, and national newspapers: 11 million Fraser River sockeye missing; poor early marine survival blamed.

Earlier this summer, Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s aquaculture field crew was searching the waters among the Discovery Islands at the northern end of Georgia Strait for juvenile sockeye. An unexpectedly beautiful and rich waterway off Vancouver Island’s east coast, the Discovery Islands host one of the largest salmonid migrations on the planet. It is also now home to BC’s highest concentration of salmon farms. There is growing concern that farm-origin sea lice are infecting migrating juvenile sockeye from the Fraser River; hence, our study.

The now missing Fraser sockeye were on course to migrate through this region in the summer of 2007, the first year of Raincoast’s sockeye project. Roughly 60% of the sockeye smolts we sampled that spring were of Fraser River origin, with Chilko and Quesnel stocks dominating the samples. Chilko is the largest producer of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River, and over 78 million fry left the lake in the spring of 2007 heading towards the Discovery Islands.

Even at a low survival rate, the return from these fish alone should have been 1,000,000 sockeye. Since ocean conditions were considered favourable for marine survival during the 2007 out-migration, DFO predicted high spawner returns of over 10 million sockeye. Yet, these fish have failed to show.

Could sea lice infection be the reason so many sockeye of Fraser origin failed to return, just as pink salmon populations have shown declines in another farm region? We are currently trying to answer this. One idea emerging from the scientific community is not that juvenile salmon necessarily die as a direct result of being infected by lice, but rather indirectly. For example, juveniles infected by lice show slower swimming speeds and ‘loner’ behaviour, two characteristics that encourage increased predation risk; more juveniles infected with lice from farms, more food for natural predators, less returning salmon.

Poor early marine survival is the likely cause for the missing Fraser sockeye – question is, are salmon farms the culprit. At Raincoast, we hope our Discovery Islands sea lice research will shed some light on the Fraser sockeye issue.

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