FRIDAY APRIL 22, 2016 VOL. 42, NO. 64
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The Salish Sea has scientists concerned LOUISE LOIK EDITOR
More than 1,100 scientists and policy experts, including presenters from Bowen Island, gathered in Vancouver last week for The Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. The event drew scientists from B.C. and the U.S. to discuss the latest scientific research on the state of the Salish ecosystem, and to guide future actions for protecting and restoring the ecosystem. The island presenters were among scientists, First Nations and tribal government representatives, resource managers, community and business leaders, policy makers, and educators. Adam Taylor, a diver from Bowen, has been documenting and working toward protection of the glass sponges in Howe Sound. He had the crowd’s full attention during his presentation on “Citizen science efforts to study and protect Howe Sound’s glass Sponge Reefs.” Taylor has been focusing effort and attention on Halkett Bay, a location he feels is in critical need of protection. His efforts, along with other recreational divers has, in part, helped to get legislation for the protection of the reefs introduced last month by the Minister of the Environment. It’s this kind of citizen science success story that was the basis of Taylor’s presentation. Taylor says the conference left him feeling hopeful about Halkett Bay, but he also finds it frustrating to see the difference between American and Canadian funding for non-profit environmental groups and scientific research. “They are operating on a whole different plane,” says Taylor. “Here, scientists are scraping by and non-profits are hand-tomouth. In the States, there is lots of funding from big non-governmental organizations.” Talks ranged from ocean acidification to marine transport’s impact on ecology. Bob Turner, one of the presenters on the subject of Howe Sound, said that the presentation that made a big impression with him was that of John B. Buchanan from Squamish, who, as a citizen scientist, has taken detailed notes for five years during his observations of herring spawn in Howe Sound. “John has documented herring spawning along many kilometres of shoreline, not just one kilometre, but many kilometres, year after year. Woodfibre is a major spawn site, north and south. He had the data from five years of record-keeping and it shows that LNG is right in the middle,” says Turner. He finds this disturbing due to the fact that government guidelines say that the intake would have to be two kilometres away from any spawning ground, “but they weren’t using John’s data, but old, imperfect data,” from when the pulp mill was spewing dioxin and furans and populations had become depleted. Bob says that the presentation showed that while people com-
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Children play on a beach by the edge of the Salish Sea while the tide is out and the sun is shining. LOUISE LOIK photo
Bowen kids create a labyrinth for Earth Day LOUISE LOIK EDITOR
A full-scale labyrinth coiled its way around the Community School gym floor last week, guiding those who walked its path toward a greater state of mindfulness. The project, created in honour of Earth Day, engaged the entire school last week. The Earth Labyrinth, an interactive art installation, was also intended to help the students learn the skill of self-regulation, and achieving inner calm and connection to the land. Part of the strategy behind the project was to create an experiential learning opportunity by extracting the clay from the island to create the art installation. By integrating materials from earth, the project attempted to help create “a connection between the past and the pres-
ent, humans and the land, and a new way of looking at how we are connected.” The clay that the students used was part of their handson lessons about local history, geology and geography. Clay deposits were discovered on 68 acres of Bowen Island in the 1880s which went on to become the bricks in the buildings of downtown Vancouver Last February, when the project began, local ceramic artist Susannah Montague began working with the students, helping them to embody their lessons in their art. They created over-turned bowl shapes made from clay into a kind of luminaria, decorated with representations of the things they love about their world, from stars to undersea creatures. An interested Islander, upon hearing about the project
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Wednesday April 27
Presents
Show 8:00 pm
Featuring Brett Martin
Kyle Jones
Tickets $5 Advanced Reserved Seating $10