Record warm ocean temperatures combined with low, unusually warm rivers pose a double threat to B.C. salmon, prompting officials to curtail some fisheries.
The reduced fisheries are part of a cautious approach to ensure that a healthy number of salmon return to river spawning grounds.
Ocean scientist Ian Perry said two unusual weather factors have dealt simultaneous blows to B.C. salmon numbers; Higher than normal ocean temperatures and warmer and lower river levels.
Temperatures are soaring, the province is on fire and Premier Christy Clark has called a rare summer sitting of the legislature.
One hopes our government would call an emergency sitting to address the health and economic crisis facing B.C. communities as a result of climate change-induced water shortages and wildfire.
Photo: Demonstrators took to the land and sea last week to protest the prospect of an LNG plant near Squamish. (Photo by Tim Turner.)
When Christy Clark ran for election in 2013, she promised that developing B.C.’s liquefied natural gas industry would help pay off provincial debt, and in time, generate 100,000 jobs and $1 trillion in economic activity.
Last month, her government announced a rare summer recall of the legislature to pass a law that would enable the province’s first LNG project, a special session that began today.
As British Columbians face increasing water use restrictions due to a heat wave, forest fires and drought, the province must answer why it is charging bottled water companies only $2.25 per million litres taken from B.C. sources.
Or why companies using huge amounts of water for hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" to extract oil and natural gas also pay just $2.25 a million litres.
The Project Development Agreement between the BC Government and the (Petronas-led) Pacific North West LNG LP was released to the public on July 6 at: http://ow.ly/PfXxd .
VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberals released details Monday of their proposal to compensate liquefied natural gas developers on a-dollar-for-dollar basis if future changes in provincial taxes and regulations specifically target the LNG sector.
We are inching closer to a tipping point in the environment that is leading to more extreme weather conditions. Lower snow packs and hot, dry summers make for ideal conditions for the kind of wild fires we are seeing now.
Sockeye of the Adams River spawning run, one of several each summer in the Fraser River watershed. Above-average temperatures threaten to be lethal to the returning fish this summer.
The Early Stuarts, first of this season’s sockeye, are now ghosting in from the North Pacific, homing on the freshwater plume of the Fraser River.
It spills in a vast, silty lens across the Salish Sea, one of the last mysterious signals guiding them toward the final dangerous stretch of a 16,000-kilometre journey.
A news release from the First Nation’s Leadership Council last week suggested July could be the month when push comes to shove in the debate over the construction of the Peace River Site C dam.
It said the Treaty 8 First Nations had received notice from BC Hydro that as early as July 6 — five days prior to the tenth annual Paddle for the Peace protest event — construction work could begin at the project site.
