A version of this article first ran in the Vancouver Province, January 22, 2010. The B.C. grizzly bear hunt has been a source of unrelenting controversy. Both sides are stuck in an expert-driven argument in which both camps claim science supports their positions. It is time that the debate was conducted within the context of…
Send a letter to environment Minister Barry Penner. A disturbing number of grizzly bears are being shot as ‘control kills’ in BC’s Bella Coola valley. Most of these kills are as a result of humans who don’t secure bear attractants. Despite this, virtually no enforcement action is being taken against individuals responsible for the needless…
B.C.’s policy frameworks fail to take ethical issues into consideration By Chris Genovali, Special to the Victoria Times Colonist, January 21, 2010 A new decade has dawned and in a few months yet another year of grizzly bear hunting will commence in British Columbia. The B.C. grizzly bear hunt has been a source of unrelenting…
Scientific AmericanBy Anne Casselman Scientists are collecting hairs from live bears to prevent population declines as a result of declines in a principal food source: salmon. For most of May, Chris Darimont, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, poured liters of fermented cattle blood mixed with pureed rotten fish guts on…
2008 ranked as one of the worst years for salmon returns on British Columbia’s central coast and the ‘silent fall’ I experienced there last year, while not surprising given the lack of fish, was disturbing nonetheless…
Island Tides By Chris Darimont and Misty MacDuffee How do salmon declines affect coastal bears? And how much salmon is required to sustain wildlife? These are questions that many people are asking
Fully protected safe havens would have positive effect on ecosystems By Chris Darimont and Misty MacDuffee Times Colonist The headlines blare across local, regional, and national media: Nine million Fraser River sockeye salmon missing. At the same time, questions have arisen concerning the status of other Pacific salmon runs
How do salmon declines affect coastal bears? And how much salmon biomass is required to sustain terrestrial species? These are questions many people are asking in light of the increasing number of salmon runs that fail to return as expected to fall spawning streams.
Multiple conservation groups concerned about grizzly bears on the BC central coast have sent a letter to Environment Minister Barry Penner requesting a cancellation of the fall grizzly hunt. Anecdotal accounts of very low bear numbers on fall streams warrants an immediate cautionary response by the government. Since no population assessment or annual monitoring is…
by Chris Genovali Rocky Mountain Outlook September 16, 2009 Re: Is there a need for a bear hunt? (RMO, Sept. 3) It’s mystifying that the province is actually considering lifting the ban on the trophy hunt given the paucity of grizzlies in Alberta.
Watch video here. Reporting by CTV. Raincoast believes that the most serious threat to coastal grizzly bears, both in the short term and into the future, is the lack of security for salmon.
Edmonton Sun September 2, 2009 Re: “Alberta mulls ban on grizzly hunt,” (Sun, Aug. 29). It is mystifying Alberta is actually considering lifting the ban on the trophy hunt given the paucity of grizzlies in Alberta.