The Riddle of the Roaming Plastics “Codfish eat everything. ‘Everyone here has a story about the Barbie doll they found in a cod,’ quips Max Liboiron, referring to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, her home. So the geography professor at Memorial University in St. John’s thought she knew what to expect in 2015 when she conducted the first study on plastic ingestion among cod in Newfoundland’s inshore waters. The results surprised her; in contradiction of the local lore, the data showed one of the lowest rates of plastic ingestion by fish in the world.” Matthew Halliday – Hakai Magazine – December 2018 Advertisements
Bitter Pill “Sherman also spends a small fortune on litigation—a full 50 per cent of what he invests in research. Generic manufacturers like Apotex live or die by the speed with which they can plunge into the marketplace with copycat versions. So they make it their business to shorten the duration that brand name companies hold on to drug monopolies, weighing potential profits against the risk of lawsuits. It’s not unusual for Apotex—probably the country’s biggest litigator—to be engaged in 100 court cases simultaneously.” Geraldine Sherman – Toronto Life – July 2008
Keepers of the spotted owl “McCulligh knew the breeding centre could not afford to lose this newborn. At that point in time, in April 2017, there were only six spotted owls left in B.C.’s wild, even though scientists had been sounding the alarm for decades about widespread destruction of the species’ ancient rainforest habitat. Ten years into operation, the breeding centre had hatched just eight other spotted owls — and one was blind, couldn’t fly and laid eggs in her water dish. ‘It was the most stressful thing of my entire life,’ McCulligh remembered. ‘It was at the point where I just didn’t know what to do anymore.'” Sarah Cox – The Narwhal – November 2018
In the Kingdom of the Bears “A snuffling and snorting outside my tent stirs me awake. I sit up, feel for my bear spray, and try to recall my surroundings. My tent is just one of several, and the food is locked in an old trailer down a path through the scrubby trees. The only other sound is my breathing—until a sharp bang from someone hitting a pot splits the air, shooing away our midnight visitor in a calm, firm voice: ‘Yau ‘thà. [Hello, black bear.] Go on now. Not tonight, thank you.'” Jude Isabella – Hakai Magazine – October 2018
One man hatches a plan to fix Canada’s lobster fishing industry “What if he could bring the fish to Canada, frozen in pieces, to sell as lobster bait? It could reduce the silver-carp population back in Illinois, lower their chances of spilling into the Great Lakes – and, more to the point, ease rising bait prices in Atlantic Canada. Even saving 10 cents a pound would make a huge difference, Mr. Swim says, for fishermen buying an average estimated 40,000 pounds (about 18,000 kilograms) of bait every year. ‘That’s your vacation, or your Christmas presents,’ he says. ‘Or whatever four grand buys, which is a lot for a fisherman. With fuel, it’s crazy what they spend.’ But would silver carp catch lobster? ‘That was the million-dollar question.'” Victoria Gibson – The Globe and Mail – October 2018
Greener Pastures “When the nation’s non-rural citizens—more than 80 percent of the population—picture a dairy farm, they probably picture an idyllic scene: cows scattered along rolling green pastures; a red, hay-filled barn nearby in case the cows need to seek shelter. This scene, however, is far from reality. Instead, three quarters of Canadian farms use the tie-stall system, where cows are chained inside metal pens not much bigger than two phone booths laid down side by side. The remaining quarter of farms house cows in barns, allowing them to move freely in and out of the available stalls—so-called free-stall barns. But Canada currently keeps no data on how long, or even if, Canadian cows spend time outdoors. If you’ve had a glass of milk or a piece of cheese lately, chances are it’s come from a tie-stall cow.” Mirjam Guesgen – Maisonneuve – June 2018
If history repeats itself… “Experts are warning of ‘extinction,’ and the Canadian government had vowed to take ‘every possible measure’ to protect the whales. Could Canada have done more to protect the ocean and coastlines by holding BP to the same standard for offshore drilling safety as countries like Australia and the U.K.? That would have meant requiring BP to house a ‘capping stack’ near the new drilling site. These 130 tonne steel giants, covered in tentacle-like pipes, were developed to seal the kind of underwater spill that decimated the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. As things stand, the nearest one is a two-week Atlantic crossing away, in the coastal city of Stavanger, Norway.” Joel Ballard – National Observer – May 2018
