Cortes Currents
1,486 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago -Cortes Currents is a news platform that asks what's current in Cortes and the Discovery Islands. Web articles & radio podcasts: Cortes Island, Quadra Island, Discovery Islands, Campbell River: news, lifestyle, local politics, affordable housing, economy, food security, health, ferries, tourism, history, culture, environmental issues, sustainable forestry, oyster farming, the arts, First Nations, energy, climate change, overshoot
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Episodes
Folk U 50th Awakeneers 2 - Jul - 2021 Podcast
July 19, 2021 18:58 - 1 hour - 233 MBManda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Folk U Radio celebrates 50 with the Awakaneers Folk U Radio celebrates 50 live shows on CKTZ 89.5 FM this Friday at 1 p.m. Please join host Manda Aufochs Gillespie and Cortes's local musicians the Awakeneers (developers of the Folk U Radio theme song Think!) for live music and a peak "back stage" into the music-making lives and inspiration of these neighbours. Folk University has brought hundreds of neighbours together to share their interests, skills, and ...
RCMP may have gunned down an innocent man
July 19, 2021 16:03 - 10 minutes - 24.1 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Campbell River RCMP may have gunned down an innocent man when they killed Jared Lowndes on July 8, 2021. A really old warrant, from a case already resolved The Independent Investigation Office informed Cortes Currents they could not discuss the warrant RCMP were attempting to enforce, when they killed Lowndes. The National Police Federation said they were pursuing him for an outstanding warrant for weapons offences. “The warrant was really old, an outstanding...
Folk U: Making it on Cortes
July 18, 2021 11:33 - 43 minutes - 28.6 MBManda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - Chief Kevin Peacey of the Klahoose First Nation presents Klahoose Success and Strong Leadership and answers neighbours questions. Then Colin Funk gives a brief update on the Cortes Economic Development Association and Carrie Saxifrage gives an update on the Community Forest. This was part of the Making it on Cortes forum, providing resources and a network for neighbours making a life and a livelihood on Cortes.
Covid Update July 16, 2021
July 16, 2021 13:41 - 3 minutes - 2.47 MBAnastasia Avvakumovah/ CKTZ News - There are currently four confirmed active cases of COVID-19 on North Vancouver Island, at least three of them situated in the Greater Campbell River region. British Columbia government’s news channels reported a total of 29 cases in the Vancouver Island Health Authority by the afternoon of Thursday July 15. Of these, one is known to be in critical care and two are hospitalized; others are recovering in self-isolation. In an effort to track the COVID-19 var...
The shooting of of Jared Lowndes
July 15, 2021 19:48 - 9 minutes - 21.2 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News -There are many questions surrounding the death of Jared Lowndes, a 38-year-old indigenous man, at the hands of the Campbell River RCMP. “Our investigation will determine what actually happened. Just because it is on social doesn’t mean it is, or isn’t, factual. We’ll do our best to determine what happened and if appropriate, before we complete our investigation, we will consider releasing some facts,” said Ron MacDonald, Chief Civilian Director of the Independent Inve...
Manson's Lagoon not spared in Marine life die-off
July 15, 2021 15:26 - 6 minutes - 14.4 MBAnastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - The lagoon at Manson’s Landing is yet another location on Cortes, which experienced alarming rates of marine creature die-off in the wake of the recent heat wave — the sand dollar population being hit the hardest, with losses as high as 95 per cent. “My guts tell me, everything I see tells me that climate change is hitting us, and it's just going to speed up. We're going to see more of these events, I am sure of it. And it is going to change things -- it alr...
Campbell River may be erecting billboards for two key industries, not three
July 14, 2021 16:36 - 2 minutes - 5.92 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Campbell River may be erecting billboards for only two of its three pillar industries: aquaculture and forestry – but not tourism. With fish farms being phased out in the Discovery Islands by 2022 and the provincial government moving to curtail old growth logging, city counsil felt a need to show its support for these two sectors. At their June 14th meeting, City Council decided to erect three 8×16 foot billboards, promoting all all three sectors at the Southern e...
From the mouths of the defenders: A Fairy Creek Chronology
July 13, 2021 15:07 - 14 minutes - 32.1 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Using interviews, video footage and written accounts, CKTZ News has drawn up a Fairy Creek chronology. “We don’t have a lot of old growth to lose. We’re down to about 2% of our productive old growth, of what we once had. Vancouver was once covered in trees that had the girth of a good third of my house. Those forests are gone. We’re now down to forests with large trees and forests with very large trees,” Rainforest Flying Squad spokesperson Carol Tootle told CKTZ N...
Visiting Fairy Creek: A Cortes Islander's impressions of the blockade
July 12, 2021 15:49 - 10 minutes - 23.1 MBRoy L hales/ CKTZ News - Marine tourism operator Mike Moore is one of the most recent of what appears to be a steady stream of Cortes Island residents visiting Fairy Creek and the logging blockades. He stopped there on July 4th, during a cruise around Vancouver Island. Moore has not sailed on the west coast of the island since he left the Coast Guard, 25 years ago. He was shocked by the amount of clear cutting that has been carried out. There were no longer any deep green valleys until hi...
The Amazing Neuroplastic Brain
July 10, 2021 17:31 - 1 hour - 274 MBManda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Join Host Manda Aufochs Gillespie and Howard Eaton in discussion about the Amazing, Neuroplastic Brain. What if learning disabilities were not lifelong and cognitive degeneration avoidable? Join neighbour Howard Eaton of the famed Eaton Arrowsmith school. Eaton will share his lifetime of experience in the field of brain plasticity, including: proving learning disabilities don't have to be lifelong, and other research into learning disabilities from the sc...
What the FireSmart grant means to Cortes and Quadra Islands
July 10, 2021 15:03 - 4 minutes - 9.62 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Cortes and Quadra Islands will receive a significant chunk of the $394,000 FireSmart Economic Recovery Grant the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) just received. Where the FireSmart funds are going According to Shaun Koopman, SRD Protective Services Coordinator, “So for Cortes Island this is about $180,000 of wildfire risk reduction.” This money will be used for renovations at: the Linnaea Farm Education Centre and Gorge Hall, which serve as emergency support ser...
Shelley Downey running for Conservatives again
July 09, 2021 13:46 - 2 minutes - 4.8 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Long term Port McNeill city Counsellor, and 2011 mayoral candidate, Shelley Downey will once again be the Conservative candidate in North Island-Powell River during the next federal election. During the last election, the polls showed her briefly in the lead, but Downey lost to incumbent Rachel Blaney by 3,000 votes on election day. “Right at the get-go we were hearing about affordability, and then in the latter part (of the campaign) it kind of shifted to ...
Mass shellfish die off on West Coast
July 08, 2021 18:45 - 10 minutes - 25 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Close to a billion marine creatures may have perished in BC’s recent heat wave. What happened? “We had some of the hottest weather we’ve ever had and it happened to be on days with very low, low tides and that combination was pretty lethal for a lot of things,” explained Dr Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia. He said the one billion death estimate was obtained through calculations of mussel populations. “The numbers are reall...
Cortes Island shellfish deaths
July 08, 2021 14:09 - 5 minutes - 12.1 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - In the midst of a heat wave that may have left as many as a billion dead marine creatures along the West Coast, there were also an abnormally high number of shellfish deaths reported at two Cortes Island sites. Daily temperature highs of between 35°C and 40°C were recorded, at the Cortes Island School, during the last five days of June. Mike Manson reported a extraordinary high number of dead cockles, in southern Cortes Island, on June 27th. “On a low tide of 2...
Cortes Island Foundation obtains charitable status
July 07, 2021 14:30 - 8 minutes - 20.6 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - On Thursday, June 28th, 2021, the Cortes Island Foundation obtained charitable status. This has been a goal since the organization’s beginnings. As they did not have charitable status, in 2018 the Foundation had to partner with the Cortes Island Senior’s Society (CISS) to raise the funds needed to purchase the 51 acre parcel now known as Rainbow Ridge. According to Vice President/Treasurer Mark Spevakow, the Cortes Island Foundation’s role ended when the Cortes C...
Letters to Premier Horgan
July 06, 2021 14:34 - 12 minutes - 27.9 MBRoy L Hales/CKTZ News - The Quadra Island farmers market reopened on July 3rd, after 18 months, and the busiest table appears to have been writing letters to John Horgan in defence of old growth forests. Self proclaimed ‘rabble rouser’ Geraldine Kenny had an idea. In addition to the usual form letters, she brought four clip boards, paper and pens. As people passed her table, she asked if they would like to write a letter. “And they all said yes!” said a very excited Kenny. It turns out ‘...
Industry response to curtailing old growth logging
July 06, 2021 14:10 - 2 minutes - 5.6 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - An article in the Spring 2021 edition of the Truck Loggers Association magazine, gives an industry perspective of the movement to protect Old Growth forests. The author, Ian MacNeill, points to what he believes is a glaring omission in the province’s Old Growth Strategic Review. It does not “talk much about” the social economic impact that further curtailments would have on communities that rely on forestry “and where old growth timber makes up a significant part ...
Jessica Wegg: the Green Party candiate
July 04, 2021 14:55 - 13 minutes - 30 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Human rights lawyer and climate activist Jessica Wegg will be the Green Party candidate for North Island-Powell River during the next Federal election. “We can’t keep having 40 degree summers in Comox, or wildfires destroying towns. There were tornadoes in Washington DC yesterday. It is so obvious, so apparent and completely unsustainable. And I need to know that I did everything in my power to make it better,” she said. According to Philippe J Fournier, of Maclea...
Cortes Island stores celebrate Canada Day
July 02, 2021 16:44 - 6 minutes - 15 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Cortes Island stores celebrated Canada day, but not because of the nation’s Confederation 154 years ago. British Columbia began step three of its restart plan. Face masks are no longer mandatory. People can gather in larger numbers and go to restaurants. The Floathouse Restaurant “You can definitely tell that things are changing. The last couple of weeks it has been a steady uptick. This weekend in particular, starting yesterday. We were closed for the heatwave, bu...
Cortes Island's 2021 Grants in Aid
July 01, 2021 17:58 - 5 minutes - 13.3 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - For the second year in a row, the SRD Board approved the grant-in-aid allocations recommended by Cortes Island’s non-profit sector. “In the last ten years, I have received grant-in-aid applications on my own, adjudicated them as I saw fit and then made those recommendations to the Board. As I am phasing out of politics and really wanting to empower social profits here on the island, last year we experimented with democratizing the selection process. All of the socia...
Phase 3 starts today
July 01, 2021 13:45 - 9 minutes - 21 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Phase three of BC’s restart plan starts today. In Phase three According to Dr Bonnie Henry, Masks are recommended in public indoor settings for people who are not yet fully vaccinated, but no longer mandatory. You can go to restaurants, pubs and nightclubs – but are asked not to dance, or socialize between tables. Sports and fitness exercises are permitted, but the number of spectators is limited. (Outdoors – 5,000 spectators or 50% capacity, whichever is greater; ...
Campfire Ban; Heat wave
June 30, 2021 04:54 - 3 minutes - 7.06 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - In the midst of heat wave that is breaking temperatures across British Columbia, the BC Wildfire Service is imposing a ban on any open fires, including campfires, fireworks, tiki torches, outdoor stoves, sky lanterns, burn barrels and more in the Greater Campbell River Area (which includes Cortes, Read and quadra Islands). This prohibition will remain in effect until noon on Oct. 15, 2021, or until the order is rescinded. The provincial weather forecast calls for r...
Twincomm partnering with CityWest & other internet news
June 29, 2021 18:24 - 6 minutes - 13.9 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Twincomm is partnering with CityWest, in their work towards bringing fibre optic to Cortes Island and the surrounding communities. They have signed an agreement in principle. In a press release, issued yesterday, Twincomm stated, “with CityWest may be the best possible solution for Twincomm, our customers, and our team having the support and services CityWest has to offer. Their experience in smaller, remote communities in northern BC, including the west coast, an...
Cortes Island 2021 Birdathon
June 28, 2021 17:08 - 11 minutes - 26.8 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Local naturalist George Sirk just completed the Cortes Island 2021 Birdathon. >>> Only possible during a two month period “We only get about two months of great singing here,” he explained. “When you hear a bird singing, that means it is on its territory, whether it is an acre, five acres or twenty acres of land. When we listen to our Robins or beautiful Swainson Thrushes, they are on territory. The males are usually the ones that sing. Females are either incubat...
TELUS sprayed herbicides on its property
June 26, 2021 19:50 - 13 minutes - 30.5 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - TELUS most likely did not anticipate any Cortes Island reactions when it sprayed herbicides over its property in Mansons Landing. “I was just outraged. In this day and age, who is going out there and spraying their whole property, every square metre of it, with poison. And why weren’t we notified?” said Cortes Island naturalist George Sirk. According to the notice on their fence, TELUS used two substances (1) VP 480 is for selective weed control and the producer...
Partial Fire Ban in Greater Campbell River Area
June 25, 2021 20:52 - 3 minutes - 9.14 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News -As of noon on Thursday June 24th, there has been a partial fire ban in the Greater Campbell River area. Categories 2 and 3 fires are now prohibited in our area. Type 3 is an industrial burn, that would be piled up with a machine. Type 2 is smaller and mostly associate with backyards.” “Campfire are still going to be allowed … but we are asking the public to be extremely cautious. A campfire cannot be more than half a metre by half a metre (18 x 18 inches). It has to...
Asking the Feds to not renew fish farm licenses
June 25, 2021 15:45 - 8 minutes - 20.2 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Twenty businesses and organizations are recommending that the federal government not renew BC’s fish farm licenses, when they come up for renewal next year. BC is the only West Coast jurisdiction that allows fish farms. There are no open net fish farms in Oregon. They have been banned in California, Alaska and Washington state. A total of 109 federal salmon farm licenses, held by MOWI Canada West, Cermaq Canada, Creative Salmon and Grieg Seafood, which will expir...
Barry Glickman receives Public Safety Lifeline volunteer award
June 25, 2021 13:17 - 3 minutes - 7.9 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - On Wednesday June 23, the province of British Columbia recognized Barry Glickman for his role in developing emergency communications within the Strathcona Regional District. Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said, “I am very happy to congratulate Barry Glickman on receiving the Public Safety Lifeline volunteer award for emergency communications. Barry’s insatiable commitment to radio communications is contagious and he has been a champion an...
Anderson vs SRD
June 25, 2021 10:32 - 3 minutes - 8.04 MBRoy L Hales/CKTZ News - The following report comes from someone who is not a lawyer, not familiar with legal terminology and will most likely change after written court documents with the correct terminology becomes available. In a phone- in- session on the une 24, Justice Geoffrey Gaul dismissed BC Supreme Court case S15097, Anderson vs SRD (Strathcona Regional District). There was not question about Regional Director Noba Anderson’s innocence in the suit that 14 Cortes residents brough...
Old Schoolhouse Gallery reopening
June 23, 2021 18:25 - 4 minutes - 11.2 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The old Schoolhouse Gallery reopening, on Cortes Island, will be next month “Right now we’re just trying to put together a small, but potent and exciting, art experience for the rest of the summer. Everything I am going to tell you is tentative, we’ve only started with the planning, trying to get things going again. So we are anticipating a members show in late July, beginning on (Thursday) July 22nd, said Kristen Schofield Sweet, one of the gallery’s directors. Sch...
SRD objects to TELUS' limited consultation on Quadra Island
June 23, 2021 13:06 - 2 minutes - 6.47 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Strathcona Regional District is informing Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) that it objects to the limited consultation process TELUS is carrying out for a proposed Cell phone tower on Quadra Island. The proposed 63 metre tower at 657 Industrial Way would serve the Quathiaski Cove area and along West Road up to Heriot Bay. On June 4th, TELUS sent out notification packages wrote letters to property owners living within 189 meters of th...
PRV spreads from salmon farms to Wild Chinook salmon
June 22, 2021 14:43 - 15 minutes - 34.5 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - “Our findings show that salmon farms are, indeed, a source of infection for wild fish. Viruses leave a genetic fingerprint and the genetic fingerprint shows that the same viruses that are on the farms are in the wild fish. All the evidence suggests that the virus is being transmitted from the farm to wild fish and I haven’t seen any evidence that says that’s not happening,” said Dr Gideon Mordecai is a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia and the lead...
Fairy Creek is far from over
June 20, 2021 16:49 - 14 minutes - 34 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Fairy Creek blockade is far from over and there are still a stream of people from the Discovery Islands going there. Oriane Lee Johnston and two other Cortes Island residents have just returned. When I mentioned she was the eighth Cortesian that I heard of making the trek to Fairy Creek, Oriane responded, “It is quite a lot more actually.” She was informed the stream of visitors has been a pretty consistent. Geraldine Kenny said a lot of Quadra Island residents...
SRD endorses Old Growth Strategic Review
June 18, 2021 18:20 - 5 minutes - 11.8 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Strathcona Regional District is the latest local government to endorse the recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel. >>> The motion There were only two opposing votes at the SRD Board meeting on Wednesday. The Comox Valley Regional District and municipal governments of Courtenay, Cumberland, Lantzville, Metchosin, Nanaimo, Powell River, Port Moody, and Victoria have all passed resolutions urging the province to implement this plan. Mayor Mar...
Update on Squirrel Cove Bear
June 18, 2021 14:39 - 8 minutes - 19.7 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Last November, a Black Bear started raiding the fruit trees, garbage cans and compost piles in homes backing onto Basil Creek, on Cortes Island. In response to a complaint, the Conservation Officer Service brought a trap over to the island. If they had caught the bear, it would have been put down – but the Squirrel Cove Bear escaped. As Autumn Barrett-Morgan, a volunteer co-ordinator with the Friends of Cortes Island’s wildlife COEXistence program, explained last D...
COVID in Campbell River, before and after the vaccine
June 17, 2021 16:59 - 6 minutes - 15.5 MBRoy L Hales / CKTZ News - North Island Medical Health OfficerDr Charmine Enns recently gave Campbell River’s city council an overview of the pandemic’s impact on the Greater Campbell River Health Area, before and after vaccinations. The intervention we have been waiting for “Everything we did to the point in time before we had the vaccine was to buy us time for vaccine. We had to have these population restrictions, which has caused significant harm. There were public health orders; there wer...
Rainbow Ridge Trail
June 15, 2021 22:27 - 3 minutes - 8.14 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - You are probably going to hear a lot about Rainbow Ridge trail system over the course of the next month. As Project coordinator Sandra Wood explained, “we’re going to be doing a big publicity campaign to let the community know how we’d like to reroute the trail system.” More coming
Rainbow Ridge: Preparing for the next round
June 15, 2021 14:03 - 7 minutes - 16.4 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Rainbow Ridge is not one of the six Vancouver Island projects that BC Housing is funding this season. "We suspected that was a possibility because there were so many applications and so much need across the province. We definitely had our fingers crossed and hoped we would be accepted but, unfortunately, we were not,” said Elizabeth Anderson, President of the Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS). Project coordinator Sandra Wood spoke in terms of the twenty famili...
Two opposing logging protests in Campbell River
June 14, 2021 11:10 - 7 minutes - 18.1 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTX News - There were two opposing logging protests in Campbell River, last Thursday. According to Quadra Island resident Rod Burns, by the time they reached MLA Michele Babchuk’s office there would have been close to 30 people protesting in support of old growth forests. This group assembled at the Logger Mike statue. Burns was among the half a dozen, or so, that crossed over from Quadra Island. There were Campbell River residents, as well as people from Comox, Courtenay and ...
Two Year old grizzly bear on Quadra Island
June 11, 2021 15:32 - 4 minutes - 9.76 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - A two-year old grizzly bear’s month long visit to Quadra Island is about to come to an end. The Conservation Officer Service (COS) set a trap for it on Tuesday. At 4:15 PM yesterday (Thursday), COS emailed Cortes Currents that they are still monitoring the situation and in consultation with Provincial Wildlife Biologists. Anyone spotting the bear is asked to call 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP) or #7277 on the TELUS Mobility Network. >>> Incident at SouthEnd Farm Winery ...
Nearly COVID free by September
June 11, 2021 14:48 - 1 minute - 2.77 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The most recent provincial modelling shows that if enough British Columbians are vaccinated and personal interactions remain well below pre-pandemic levels, we may nearly wipe out COVID 19 by September. While the number of active cases in North Vancouver Island has risen slightly since CKTZ’s report last week, from 5 to 8, the most recent data BC Centre for Disease Control report states that most of have a Daily case rate of zero out of 100,000. The exception is the...
BC defers Old Growth Logging in Fairy Creek
June 10, 2021 19:07 - 10 minutes - 23.4 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Radio - At the request of the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, BC is deferring old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed and central Walbran areas.
Hollyhock reopens June 25th
June 09, 2021 21:32 - 3 minutes - 7.53 MBRoy L Hales/ CKTZ news - One of Cortes Island’s biggest employers, Hollyhock, is reopening for in-person sessions on June 25th. “We open with one of our most popular local presenters, Bill Ophoff, who does Discover Cortes. I am really excited to open 2021 with Bill, who has been at Hollyhock for almost 30 years,”said CEO Peter Wrinch. “We’ll be opening the dining room. I don’t even know how long we’ve had buffet style dining, but we’re moving to plated service. We purchased a custom str...
Stratgey to save Pacific Salmon stocks
June 09, 2021 17:47 - 9 minutes - 22.8 MBRoy L Hales/CKTZ news - On June 8th, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan announced the guiding principles of what may be largest government action to save pacific salmon stocks in Canadian history. “Pacific salmon stocks are in steep decline due to climate change, habitat loss and other increasing threats. Coastal First Nations, stewardship organizations and harvester groups have been calling for urgent, dramatic action to save these populations and today our government is launching the new...
Fish farms underreporting sea lice counts
June 08, 2021 13:31 - 11 minutes - 25.2 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “Our results suggest that sea-louse counts reported by the salmon farming industry are lower than the true abundance of parasites on their fish. When the federal government audited a sea-louse count, the industry’s mean counts for that month increased by a factor of 1.18 for L. salmonis and by 1.95 for C. clemensi.” - Sean Godwin et al, Bias in self-reported parasite data from the salmon farming industry. Dr Sean Godwin is the lead author of eight of the fiftee...
Discovery Island Residents at Fairy Creek
June 07, 2021 18:45 - 14 minutes - 34.1 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Radio - The following report contains trigger words which some may find offensive and opinions which are not necessarily shared by Cortes Radio, its Board, staff, volunteers or listeners. At this point, Cortes Currents is aware of 14 Discovery Island residents who made the trek to Fairy Creek and there could easily be dozens more. Four of their stories: Hiway Hippy; Lonnie & Ralph Keller; Maureen Williams. Photo credit: Campfire by Liv Unni Sødem via Fklickr (CC BY SA, ...
Deep Water Temperatures fjords rose 1.2–1.3°C in 70 Years
June 04, 2021 01:13 - 7 minutes - 18 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Deep water temperatures in fjords along BC’s the Central coast have increased 1.2–1.3°C over 70 years, a recent report shows. “These are big changes for the ocean. They are changes that can shift shift ecosystems and impact species. Oolichan, for example, don’t like being in waters that are warmer than 8°C and in some of the inlets we don’t see waters that are colder than 8°C anymore,” said Jennifer Jackson of the Hakai Institute, lead author of a study of Riv...
Daily average of new COVID 19 cases - now zero
June 03, 2021 16:26 - 2 minutes - 6.7 MBRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - he new daily average of COVID 19 cases per 100,000 people has dropped to zero throughout most of Vancouver Island, according to the latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control. The exceptions are Greater Nanaimo, where the number has dropped to 2, Greater Victoria, where the rate is now 1, and the Southern Gulf Islands, where the rate is also 1 per 100,000 people. The average daily rate of new cases per 100,000 people in Greater Campbell River, the ...
The Aquaculture sector's response: Discovery Island Sea Lice
June 02, 2021 12:37 - 4 minutes - 9.66 MBRoy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The aquaculture sector’s response, to Alexandra Morton's report that there were low sea lice counts in the Discovery Islands arrived yesterday. A spokesperson for Cermaq Canada emailed, “We have once again this year hired an independent environmental monitoring organization to conduct wild fish sampling in the Broughton Archipelago, the Discovery Islands and the Clayoquot Sound region. We will not have the results of this work for several weeks, so at this point,...
Wireless vs Fibre Optic
June 01, 2021 15:38 - 9 minutes - 20.8 MBRoy L Hales / Cortes Currents -The wireless vs fibre optic debate is about to heat up on Cortes and Quadra Islands. TELUS intends to erect cell phone towers on both islands during 2022, and the Connected Coast project will wrap up this fall. >>> Last Mile Schedule Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson outlined the last mile schedule for cable: “In the next week or two you’ll be receiving communications from the Strathcona Regional District about the roll out of this last mile fi...