JOURNAL

Scene

Making the most of the dwindling daylight on a June evening, an angler completes his fifth “last cast” while fly fishing for trout on the St. Mary’s River in Nova Scotia.

Numbers Game

70th

Anniversary this year of the Miramichi Salmon Association, founded in 1953 by anglers, guides, camp owners, outfitters and sporting goods merchants. The New Brunswick group’s ongoing mission is “the propagation, protection and perpetuation of the Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi River system.”

873

1,156 Species deemed “critically imperiled” by Wild Species 2020, an extensive government report released in November on the status of everything from single-celled organisms to mammals in Canada. Among the creatures at risk of disappearing are 24 mammals, including species of lemming, marmot, fox, seal and whale.

Hunter-submitted deer and elk heads from Alberta’s 2021 hunting season that tested positive for chronic wasting disease. The transmissible fatal disease was found in the heads of 984 mule deer, 164 whitetails and eight elk. Testing for the 2022 season continues.

On The Record

1.98 million

Maximum annual production of salmon at three fish farms in Nova Scotia’s Liverpool Bay, if a new project is approved. That would represent a 370 per cent increase in the bay’s farmed salmon, leading to “increased genetic risks to wild salmon” in the region, says a Fisheries and Oceans review.

60

Approximate percentage of B.C.’s commercial salmon fishery shut down by Ottawa to help restore disappearing salmon stocks. Critics say the move has harmed independent harvesters and West Coast fishing communities, while concentrating quotas and licences in the hands of large seafood companies.

—Although he backs Ottawa’s plans to restrict so-called assault-style firearms and handguns via Bill C-21, Nova Scotia Liberal MP Kody Blois says he can’t support an amendment to the legislation that would also restrict certain hunting rifles and shotguns. Says Blois: “The way the amendment reads now is problematic.”