August 3, 2022

Page 1

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3 2022

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Blown Away

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Cinematographer awarded for work on Netflix series

NEWS14

Helicopter crash

TSB says turbulence caused crash on Bowen Island

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MLB draft

North Van’s Adam Maier selected by Atlanta Braves

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AVIAN POPULATION

North Shore eagle trackers concerned over ‘dramatic’ decline in chicks NICK LABA

nlaba@nsnews.com

There’s an albatross around the neck of the local eagle population.

The numbers of eggs being laid and chicks surviving once hatched have sharply dropped this year. Eagle trackers and researchers haven’t directly identified a cause, but are concerned about the dramatic decline in survival rate. On the North Shore, 31 chicks hatched in 2021 with 24 of them surviving the process of leaving the nest, known as fledging, according to Sally McDermott of North Shore Eagle Network. This year, just 13 hatched and only five have fledged – nearly an 80-per-cent decrease in new eaglets. A number of happenings over the past year could be at play. Last year’s heat dome could have caused stress or even killed some of the birds, and the devastating floods could have washed out some of the spawning salmon eagles rely on as a food source. Meanwhile, a Continued on page 32

FIRE AWAY Coral Johnson (15) and Keira Thomson (16) get ready for Camp Ignite, a mentorship program designed to get young women interested in firefighting. The camp runs Aug. 5-7. More details at nsnews.com/in-the-community. NICK LABA / NSN

VANCOUVER SHIPYARDS

Navy’s joint support ship taking shape at Seaspan

JANE SEYD

jseyd@nsnews.com

Perched in a lift high above the massive bulbous bow of the future joint support ship, a welder working on the hull is dwarfed by the size of the vessel now taking shape at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards.

You have to look up – way, way up – to get a sense of work currently underway on what will eventually be one of the biggest ships ever built in western Canada. With 75 per cent of its massive “blocks” structurally complete, the first joint support ship is visually impressive as it rises to its full height.

In early June, one of the major 105tonne blocks, which will serve as the ship’s control centre at sea, was put in place. Last week the huge stern section was also joined to the middle section of the ship. When complete, the ship will have a length of 174 metres. The manufacturing concept of building

massive ships in blocks, which then get fit together, is a little like a Lego project on a giant scale, said Ali Hounsell, director of communications at Seaspan. Seaspan erected the vessel’s first super structure block in mid-April. The next significant piece of work Continued on page 28

NORTH SHORE’S

FISHING STORE

LET THE “ONE THAT GOT AWAY” STORIES BEGIN


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