Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The number of active COVID cases is rising in North Vancouver Island and two Campbell River schools are now listed on Island Health exposure list..

As of yesterday, Friday April 16th, Island Health stated there are 40 active cases in North Vancouver Island. A week ago there were 32.

While it is not yet known where these cases are, the only North Vancouver Island schools on Island Health’s school exposure page are in Campbell River

A member of Ecole Middle School tested positive and on April 13th the school sent out a potential exposure notice.

A member of the Willow Point elementary community also tested positive and a potential exposure notice was posted for April 7,8,9, 12 and 13.

However the numbers for Southern and Central Vancouver Island have declined, so that while there were 504 active COVID 19 cases throughout Island Health a week ago, there are now 446.

To put this in context, a recent estimate states there are more than 870,000 people living on Vancouver Island and almost half of them are in Victoria. There are only 44,000 people throughout the entire Strathcona Regional District.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At its April 14th meeting, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board. welcomed the first First Nation to the board.

The Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations (KCFN) was one of the five First Nations that signed the Maa‑nulth First Nations Treaty in 2011 and the only one whose lands are within the SRD. ( The other Maa-nulth Nations are members of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District.)

One of the directions mentioned in the treaty was that First Nations should interact and join should join their Regional Districts.

Recording starts 1:20

Joining the SRD Board

Kevin Jules is KCFN legislative vice chief and has attended SRD Board meetings as an associate member/observer since 2017. Wednesday was the first time he attended as a Director.

SRD Chair Brad Unger started the meeting by acknowledging that the SRD building stands on the traditional territory of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation.

“The SRD looks forward to building stronger relations with all ten First Nations in our region. We are committed to being … with our neighbours, consider common interests, and being mindful when making decisions that may impact them. Today we have the privilege of welcoming the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations (KCFN) as full members of the SRD Board,” he said.

Unger added that KCFN was the first indigenous nation to join the SRD Board and he hoped this leads the way for others.

“This is a long time coming and something we are very proud to be a part of,” Director Jules responded.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At its April 14th meeting, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board. welcomed the first First Nation to the board.

The Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations (KCFN) was one of the five First Nations that signed the Maa‑nulth First Nations Treaty in 2011 and the only one whose lands are within the SRD. ( The other Maa-nulth Nations are members of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District.)

One of the directions mentioned in the treaty was that First Nations should interact and join should join their Regional Districts.

Recording starts 1:20

Joining the SRD Board

Kevin Jules is KCFN legislative vice chief and has attended SRD Board meetings as an associate member/observer since 2017. Wednesday was the first time he attended as a Director.

SRD Chair Brad Unger started the meeting by acknowledging that the SRD building stands on the traditional territory of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation.

“The SRD looks forward to building stronger relations with all ten First Nations in our region. We are committed to being … with our neighbours, consider common interests, and being mindful when making decisions that may impact them. Today we have the privilege of welcoming the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations (KCFN) as full members of the SRD Board,” he said.

Unger added that KCFN was the first indigenous nation to join the SRD Board and he hoped this leads the way for others.

“This is a long time coming and something we are very proud to be a part of,” Director Jules responded.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has become the Hakai Institute‘s first partner in a new citizen science sea star monitoring program.

The Cortes Island Project

As Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI explained, “”We just launched a really exciting joint project with the Hakai Institute. They are monitoring Sea Stars in the Discovery Islands and we can contribute from Cortes Island.”

“Hakai is using a program called iNaturalist which allows you ere you can to go out, take a picture with your iPhone and upload it to the web. It is really easy. If you have downloaded the app, you can upload pictures while you are standing there.”

FOCI is also looking for volunteers to do monthly beach walks

“Once we have the volunteers, we will let them know about the low tide dates.and try to get them to record Sea Stars in a more methodical manner. That’s looking at both healthy sea stars and any sea stars that have the wasting disease,” said Hall..

Interested parties can email FOCI at [email protected] or phone 250-935-0087

Hakai is an outgrowth of the Tula Foundation, which purchased the Hakai Beach on Calvert Island in the Great Bear Rainforest during 2009. This became their first ecological observatory. A second observatory was set up on Quadra Island in 2014. The following year, the Hakai Institute’s corporate office opened in Campbell River. The Hakai magazine is based in Victoria and there is a Hakai node for Fisheries and Oceans at UBC.

According to Hakai communications specialist Kelly Fretwell, researchers on Quadra and Calvert Islands have been studying the Sea Star Wasting disease for years, but iNaturalist opened up the possibility of enlisting citizen scientists.

“It seemed like a perfect focal point to bridge community science in the Discovery Islands and Hakai’s work in sea star wasting and sea star monitoring … This is our pilot year in combining those two focuses. As a result we wanted to reach out and see what community groups would be interested,” said Fretwell.

Reaching out to community groups

Lannie Keller, from the Discovery Islands Ecosystem Mapping Project, introduced Fretwell to Sabina Leader-Mense. FOCI’s Marine Stewardship Coordinator.

“She already partners with Hakai on other projects, so it was a perfect link up. Sabina was super excited about this project. Then, early last Fall I did a short intro to iNaturalist with some folks from FOCI and the Wild Cortes partnership. We were talking about some ideas that might be of interest and they had some great ideas about how to apply iNaturalist to their work,” said Fretwell.

She has been communicating with groups like the Quadra Island Outdoors Club, BC Marine Trails Group, Maple Leaf Adventures and the Comox Valley Yacht Club, but FOCI is currently Hakai’s principal partner.

Fretwell hopes to set up some specific sea star monitoring dates on Cortes Island this summer.

“The nice thing about this project is we aren’t just collecting data and sitting on it. If you are out there doing the monitoring, you’ll get some feedback on what is going on in a few months time.” said Hall.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has become the Hakai Institute‘s first partner in a new citizen science sea star monitoring program.

The Cortes Island Project

As Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI explained, “”We just launched a really exciting joint project with the Hakai Institute. They are monitoring Sea Stars in the Discovery Islands and we can contribute from Cortes Island.”

“Hakai is using a program called iNaturalist which allows you ere you can to go out, take a picture with your iPhone and upload it to the web. It is really easy. If you have downloaded the app, you can upload pictures while you are standing there.”

FOCI is also looking for volunteers to do monthly beach walks

“Once we have the volunteers, we will let them know about the low tide dates.and try to get them to record Sea Stars in a more methodical manner. That’s looking at both healthy sea stars and any sea stars that have the wasting disease,” said Hall..

Interested parties can email FOCI at [email protected] or phone 250-935-0087

Hakai is an outgrowth of the Tula Foundation, which purchased the Hakai Beach on Calvert Island in the Great Bear Rainforest during 2009. This became their first ecological observatory. A second observatory was set up on Quadra Island in 2014. The following year, the Hakai Institute’s corporate office opened in Campbell River. The Hakai magazine is based in Victoria and there is a Hakai node for Fisheries and Oceans at UBC.

According to Hakai communications specialist Kelly Fretwell, researchers on Quadra and Calvert Islands have been studying the Sea Star Wasting disease for years, but iNaturalist opened up the possibility of enlisting citizen scientists.

“It seemed like a perfect focal point to bridge community science in the Discovery Islands and Hakai’s work in sea star wasting and sea star monitoring … This is our pilot year in combining those two focuses. As a result we wanted to reach out and see what community groups would be interested,” said Fretwell.

Reaching out to community groups

Lannie Keller, from the Discovery Islands Ecosystem Mapping Project, introduced Fretwell to Sabina Leader-Mense. FOCI’s Marine Stewardship Coordinator.

“She already partners with Hakai on other projects, so it was a perfect link up. Sabina was super excited about this project. Then, early last Fall I did a short intro to iNaturalist with some folks from FOCI and the Wild Cortes partnership. We were talking about some ideas that might be of interest and they had some great ideas about how to apply iNaturalist to their work,” said Fretwell.

She has been communicating with groups like the Quadra Island Outdoors Club, BC Marine Trails Group, Maple Leaf Adventures and the Comox Valley Yacht Club, but FOCI is currently Hakai’s principal partner.

Fretwell hopes to set up some specific sea star monitoring dates on Cortes Island this summer.

“The nice thing about this project is we aren’t just collecting data and sitting on it. If you are out there doing the monitoring, you’ll get some feedback on what is going on in a few months time.” said Hall.

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - COVID update fror While the rest of BC reels under reports of COVID’s third wave, it still does not appear to more than touched North Vancouver Island. The number of active cases has risen slightly, to 37, as of late yesterday afternoon.

Island Health does not report any school exposures north of Qualicum.

According to statistics released yesterday,the number of active cases the Greater Campbell River are dropped to 4 during the epi-week ending on Saturday, April 10th.

Quadra Island’s whole island vaccination will begin on Monday, May 3, 2021.

With the number of active cases across British Columbia getting close to 10,000, the province is discussing possible restrictions on businesses and social activities and travel. The current ban on indoor dining may be extended into May.

Photo credit: The MV Aurora Explorer cruises toward the Seymour Narrows in Discovery Passage between Vancouver and Quadra islands by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - COVID update fror While the rest of BC reels under reports of COVID’s third wave, it still does not appear to more than touched North Vancouver Island. The number of active cases has risen slightly, to 37, as of late yesterday afternoon.

Island Health does not report any school exposures north of Qualicum.

According to statistics released yesterday,the number of active cases the Greater Campbell River are dropped to 4 during the epi-week ending on Saturday, April 10th.

Quadra Island’s whole island vaccination will begin on Monday, May 3, 2021.

With the number of active cases across British Columbia getting close to 10,000, the province is discussing possible restrictions on businesses and social activities and travel. The current ban on indoor dining may be extended into May.

Photo credit: The MV Aurora Explorer cruises toward the Seymour Narrows in Discovery Passage between Vancouver and Quadra islands by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Kelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute recently described sea stars as wolves of the ocean floor.

Sea Stars prey on Oysters

The topic came up when I mentioned that they prey upon the oysters in Gorge Harbour, on Cortes Island.

Julia Rendall, President of the Bee Islets Growers Corporation,said they normally eat about a third of her crop. The bottom clusters are “all chewed, eaten.” She remembers the summer that Sea Star Wasting Disease reached the Gorge.

“That was the year I had the very best harvest, for shuck oysters,” said Rendall..”I got about $8,00 a raft instead of $5,000.”

Other oyster growers.have told Hakai researcher Alyssa Gehman that, thanks to sea star wasting disease, they no longer need to hire people to dispose of the sea stars preying on their oysters.

Why having ‘wolves’ on the sea floor is beneficial

“It is an interesting anecdote, but I think having the broader loss of this keystone predator has an even bigger impact,” said Fretwell.

Ochre Sea Stars keep mussel populations in check, so that other species can colonise local ares.

The devastating Sunflower Sea Star losses in the Pacific Northwest has had a terrible effect on kelp. The sea urchins, who are normally kept in check by sea stars, are voracious consumers that can remove entire kelp forests. They turn them into “urchin barrens.”

“Sunflower Sea Stars help keep kelp forests alive and healthy. Then those kelp forests can support a ton of other species that are important for fisheries and the integrity of the food web. ,” said Fretwell.

She added, “Research has shown that when a species is removed from any coastal system, the biodiversity really decreases.”

photo Kelly Fretwell – photo by Koby Michaels, Hakai Institute

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Kelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute recently described sea stars as wolves of the ocean floor.

Sea Stars prey on Oysters

The topic came up when I mentioned that they prey upon the oysters in Gorge Harbour, on Cortes Island.

Julia Rendall, President of the Bee Islets Growers Corporation,said they normally eat about a third of her crop. The bottom clusters are “all chewed, eaten.” She remembers the summer that Sea Star Wasting Disease reached the Gorge.

“That was the year I had the very best harvest, for shuck oysters,” said Rendall..”I got about $8,00 a raft instead of $5,000.”

Other oyster growers.have told Hakai researcher Alyssa Gehman that, thanks to sea star wasting disease, they no longer need to hire people to dispose of the sea stars preying on their oysters.

Why having ‘wolves’ on the sea floor is beneficial

“It is an interesting anecdote, but I think having the broader loss of this keystone predator has an even bigger impact,” said Fretwell.

Ochre Sea Stars keep mussel populations in check, so that other species can colonise local ares.

The devastating Sunflower Sea Star losses in the Pacific Northwest has had a terrible effect on kelp. The sea urchins, who are normally kept in check by sea stars, are voracious consumers that can remove entire kelp forests. They turn them into “urchin barrens.”

“Sunflower Sea Stars help keep kelp forests alive and healthy. Then those kelp forests can support a ton of other species that are important for fisheries and the integrity of the food web. ,” said Fretwell.

She added, “Research has shown that when a species is removed from any coastal system, the biodiversity really decreases.”

photo Kelly Fretwell – photo by Koby Michaels, Hakai Institute

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents- The first of three interviews with Kelly Fretwell of the Hakai Institute: Sea star Wasting disease. Includes audio from the opening of the Hakai Institute video "Sunflower Sea Stars Now Critically Endangered"