Impactful conservation storytelling above and below the surface of the British Columbia coast.

Conservation Projects

On the British Columbia coast, the destructive intersection of human and non-human often remains out of sight and out of mind, whether hidden deep underwater or far within rainforest valleys. From old growth logging, industrial salmon farming, marine oil spills, to the trophy hunting of vital carnivores Tavish’s work focuses on groundtruthing and sharing these frontline stories.

In 2017, British Columbia’s salmon farming industry was caught dumping virus-infected blood into Discovery Passage, Canada’s largest wild salmon migration route. Recent dives in November 2019 have shown the blood is still flowing and still infected with piscine orthoreovirus (PRV). Genetic sequencing of this virus reveals that it came from the Atlantic Ocean and was most likely imported via salmon eggs by the fish farm industry. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)’s science reports that PRV is harming Pacific salmon by rupturing their red blood cells, leading to jaundice yellowing and organ failure. With over 80% of the farmed salmon in B.C. infected with PRV, open net-pen fish farms and processing plants continue to release this virus into wild salmon habitat in blatant disregard for the precautionary principle. Under Section 56(b)of the Fisheries (General) Regulations, transferring farm salmon into the ocean from hatcheries infected with a disease agent is prohibited. DFO continues to approve this high-risk behaviour by allowing infected farmed salmon to be grown in wild salmon migration routes on the B.C. coast.

Featured Press: Oceanographic Magazine

Fish Farm Sea Lice

British Columbia’s controversial aquaculture industry raises a foreign species of salmon on the B.C. coast - Atlantic salmon. Serious threats from the industry include foreign virus transfer to native Pacific salmon and high levels of sea-lice from the salmon farms transferring to juvenile salmon smolts migrating past the farms. Sea lice are a naturally occurring parasite in the Pacific Ocean, and most adult wild salmon have a few. Normally, when adult wild salmon return to their natal rivers to spawn and die their sea lice also die with them. This means that juvenile salmon do not encounter many lice on their migration to the open ocean the following spring. With the introduction of industrial salmon farming, this natural cycle was disrupted as millions of farmed salmon living along the wild salmon migration routes serve as year round hosts and amplify the sea lice populations. When juvenile wild salmon swim past the fish farms in an attempt to reach the open ocean, they are attacked and infested with sea lice.

One louse is enough to kill a wild juvenile salmon, so these infected fish have no hope of survival. The salmon farming industry tries to manage the lice on their fish using medicated feed, but drug resistance is a growing problem in British Columbia, forcing them to adopt new techniques like hydrogen peroxide chemical treatments. The only solution is to transition fish farms into closed containment systems on land.

Logging in the Great Bear Rainforest

The Great Bear Rainforest is a vast section of the British Columbia coast, stretching from northern Vancouver Island to the Alaska Border.

Within its 6.4 million hectares, a number of Conservancies protect large watersheds, while a system called Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) guides logging in the rest of the rainforest. During the development of EBM, scientists determined that a minimum of 30% of each ecosystem must remain in old growth forests to prevent ecological collapse but alarmingly much of the Southern GBR has less than 1% of it’s rich, productive old growth forests left. Regardless, logging companies continue to log the last remaining fragments. By taking advantage of mapping inaccuracies they are actively high-grading the biggest first, and while everything looks good on paper - it certainly doesn’t on the ground. It is clear EBM requires major changes to address these foundational problems before it is re-signed in 2021.

Featured Press: The Great Bear loophole: why old growth is still logged in B.C.’s iconic protected rainforest

Herring Fishery

On Canada’s west coast, Pacific Herring are still being caught and reduced into fish meal. Even though these fish are a critical keystone species which support the coastal ecosystem, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has permitted the removal of 20% of the total estimated biomass in the area annually in the Salish Sea. These population estimates have been proven to over-predict the numbers of fish available, and this methodology has caused 4 of the 5 main herring populations in British Columbia to collapse from over fishing. One of the most disturbing aspects of this industrial fishery is the fact that only the roe is consumed by humans and 90% of the catch is reduced into fish meal which is a key ingredient in farmed Atlantic Why are we killing the foundation of our coast, to fuel a dirty salmon farming industry which is having serious negative impacts on Canada’s wild salmon?

Featured Press: Fighting for the Future of Canada’s West Coast

Other Projects

Coast Notes Project

Coast Calendars

Unfortunately Coast Calendars won’t be available for a 2021 edition due to the strange unfolding of events that has underscored this pandemic era. We are, however, planning to create these beauties again for 2022. In the meantime, if you are a previous owner of a Coast Calendar, we welcome any feedback to integrate into our upcoming design. If you have any particular wildlife species preferences, or a specific photo of ours you’d like to see make the cut for the 2022 design, don’t be shy to let us know. Thank you for your patience and support.

2019 marked the fourth year of the Life on the Coast Calendar fundraiser. Each year we select a cause to raise funds for that contributes to direct and impactful protection of the British Columbia coast.

In 2018, thanks to you, we were able to donate $6000.00 to the Twyla Roscovich Memorial Fund - a local filmmaking scholarship that aims to advance the protection of the environment through film.

In 2019, all proceeds from this calendar went towards our respective wildlife conservation and environmental justice initiatives on the coast of British Columbia. 2019’s focus was on the protection and celebration of salmon, herring, and old-growth forests.

With storytelling and groundtruthing efforts we are working to pass along real, on the ground stories that inspire care and bring the truth to light through underwater and wildlife photography, filmmaking, writing, and advocacy.

The next available edition will be the 2022 Coast Calendar, available for purchase in late-summer 2021.

As the seasons act as our guide through this next year, may the transitions to spring, summer, fall, and winter inspire growth and action to do everything we can to protect what we love. Thank you for your support.