• Acid Oceans: The other climate change problem
• Saving Sharks: Connecting the Asian fin trade to Canadian waters
• Branding Nature: Selling and saving the seas

Basking sharks have huge mouths, the better to filter plankton with. (Chris Gotschalk/DFO)

But I didn’t have a context for why overfishing sharks would be any different than other types of overfishing. I also wasn’t sure whether this was something that affected sharks off Canada’s Pacific coast, or if it was only a problem other places.

It turns out, yes, overfishing sharks is different, and yes, the fin trade around the world affects endangered sharks here. I connect the dots with the help of patient scientists, to tell a tale about endangered basking sharks. That piece also aired across Canada on CBC Radio.

The second International Marine Conservation Congress starts in Victoria today. Scientists, policy makers, resource managers, and NGOs are here to share science on our changing oceans, and ideas on how to save them. It’s only been held once before, 2 years ago in Washington, D.C. What I find so interesting is the goal is not just moving the conversation forward by publishing papers in the scientific literature — but also by crafting recommendations that let science inform public policy.

I’m here to report for CBC Radio — you’ll hear me talking to Stephen Quinn, host of On the Coast, and Grant Lawrence, guest-hosting All Points West. I’ll be on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at about 5:40 or so in the Vancouver area and 4:50-ish in the rest of B.C.

Changing oceans

It’s not easy to decide what to cover. The program is huge, covering invasive species, overfishing, aquaculture, planning, and many more issues. I’ll be looking for stories that mean something to a B.C. audience.

One piece will be on climate change and ocean acidification — there is a lot on it at this conference, and a topic I find really interesting. We know the pH of the ocean is changing as it absorbs excess CO2 we’re dumping into the atmosphere. It seems to already be causing problems for the shellfish industry in some coastal areas. But it’s not clear just how the complex systems of the sea will respond to these changes — or how this threat stacks up against others.

Still deciding on other topics. I’m excited—and a little bit daunted—to dive in.

* update: This may or may not be an internet myth based on a band name. I was just chatting with a journalist publishing a book on sharks, and she’d never heard it. Nevertheless, a lovely word.

Scientists are tagging humboldt squid to figure out what they're doing in the North Pacific. (Submitted by Nikki Lane to CBC)

Even more interesting, or perhaps alarming, is what’s happening with the Humboldt squid in B.C. waters.

First, why are they here? They’re native to northern Mexico, but in the past ten years have spread northward, first to California, and now all the way to southeast Alaska. That is a big change in such a short time.

Secondly, they’re washing up dead on beaches in large numbers.

Given this, I was pretty curious when I learned about a new study tagging two dozen Humboldt squid and trying to trace their movements around the North Pacific, as part of the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project. The goal is to figure out what the jumbo squid are doing up here. That’s important to know for fisheries because these squid prey on commercially valuable species like hake. It also matters because their rapid change of range could tell us something about our changing oceans.

You can watch my CBC TV story (vid link) from last week to see the squid, and hear from the scientist leading the research. There’s an online text version here.

eyes on the ground

If you look at the TV story, or even the photo above, you’ll see that CBC didn’t capture the images of the squid. The video came from a Tofino-based group called the Raincoast Education Society.

I found some of it on YouTube, then called up Josie Osborne and asked if we could use it. She said yes, and ended up being part of the story, talking about the wonder and concern people felt as squid washed on shore — squid that aren’t supposed to be up here.

What I said to her then (besides “thank you”) was how important it is for groups like hers to capture video like this, and post it online. They can be the eyes and ears of a changing coastline that many of us don’t get to visit. (Pacific Wild on the central coast is another great example.) And while, as a reporter, I have to be cautious of second-hand video, it can also help me tell a story that otherwise wouldn’t get told.

Killer whales on the B.C. coast. (CBC)

Researching another story this week on humpbacks, I called up Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard at the Vancouver Aquarium. He’s a scientist with a gift for speaking clearly, and he studies marine mammals on our coast. He’s also the co-chair of the Killer Whale Recovery Team organized by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

I asked him about the killer whales he studies — the Northern Resident population, which can be seen in the Johnstone Strait area and further north during the summer. Last year, he had spoken out about that population starving, and described whales swimming for hours before finding fish to eat. (Their preferred food: chinook salmon).

This year, what a difference.

The central coast runs for chinook were abundant, he told me. So the whales seemed to have enough to eat, and it could be seen in how they act.

“That basically means the whales don’t have to be making a living every minute of the day they have time to socialize,” said Barrett-Lennard in an interview on the Aquarium’s research boat, Skana.

“When whales are ‘happy,’ we see a lot of social behaviour, they’re a lot like us in that respect,” he said. “We see larger groups, lots of playing, lots of pushing and shoving and jumping and rolling over on their backs.”

Take a look at my CBC TV story (vid link) to see killer whales, and learn what other threats they face.

A humpback whale breaches off the B.C. coast. Photo by SparkyLeigh on flickr.

The good news is: seeing a humpback whale in the North Pacific isn’t as rare anymore.

They’re considered threatened in Canada, and for as long as the U.S. has had an endangered species list (since 1973) the humpback has been on it.

But that could soon change, in the U.S. at least.

This week, NOAA announced it’s reviewing the humpback’s status. A recent international study puts the North Pacific population estimate at almost 20,000, up from a low of less than 2,000 animals.

While humpback numbers are now growing steadily, the population is still just one-fifth of the pre-whaling size, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

good, but good enough?

“It’s been such a gift to watch them come back,” Jackie Hildering told me this week. She’s a naturalist with Stubbs Island Whale Watching in Telegraph Cove, and remembers in 2002 when humpback sightings were uncommon in the Broughton Archipelago.

This year, she identified 47 individuals. She laughs in wonder as she recalled to me juvenile humpbacks energetically slapping their tails on the water.

But Hildering worries what a loss of protection could mean for the whales, given that status can help drive research funding. “There’s just so much we don’t understand about these animals,” she said.

Dr. Jay Barlow, one of NOAA’s own lead scientists studying humpbacks, told me he agrees are still many unknowns — especially when it comes to climate change.

For example, will the whales be able to change their migration routes to find food? “The same places where whales have been going to in the past that have been good for feeding in the past may not be good places for the future,” he told me in a phone interview from La Jolla, CA.

“If their habitat changes, will they be flexible enough to deal with that? We don’t really know at this point,” said Barlow.

When do you think it’s time to take a species off the endangered list? Is it time for Canada to review the humpback’s status too?

Reaching for plain soap is the best way to wash hands and avoid spreading disease, says Dr. Henry. (CBC)

Dr. Henry just published a book on preventing disease spread, called Soap and Water & Common Sense, and has been on the front lines of media-messaging around the swine flu virus.

The piece of advice that’s yielded the most discussion online, and in our newsroom, is about avoiding antibacterial soaps with ingredients like triclosan. As Dr. Henry noted, they can lead to drug-resistant strains, and do nothing against viruses like the flu.

Pros and Antis

I’ve seen two camps of reaction: people who are surprised antibacterials are considered harmful, and people who have known that for years and are surprised anyone is surprised. (As a recent post on yoyomama notes, triclosan was one of the chemicals the authors of Slow Death By Rubber Duck loaded their systems with.)

Dr. Bonnie Henry says ad campaigns are adding to confusion:

People think that having ‘antibacterial’ on it means it’s more healthful and it’s going to protect myself and my family. And they honestly believe that because of the advertising. When in reality it may cause harm, and it’s certainly not needed.”

I’m happy to hear a prominent health official talk about this. I’ve long avoided antibacterials, not because I’d researched them carefully, but because past biology-student roommates had ranted about their damaging effects on the environment.

It was an easy decision because I’m not remotely germophobic. But it’s nice to see what’s good for human and environmental health aligning once again.

More of the doctor’s advice after the jump.

Dr. Henry also recommends:

• Soap and water (and time to scrub) are the best tools for handwashing
• Warm or cold water are both fine
• Avoid antibacterial soap, including the ingredient triclosan
• Dry your hands with paper towel, hand dryer or air before touching anything
• Hand sanitizers don’t work as well as handwashing, but can help if you don’t have access to soap and water, provided they are 60-90% alcohol

I did a story for CBC News in Vancouver today that’s already getting a bunch of comments on our site. It’s about phone books being delivered that aren’t wanted, and what companies are doing about it.

Not one but two thick business directories arrived on Vancouver doorstops a few weeks ago. I didn’t think much more about them until I saw Darren Barefoot’s post about putting the new books straight into the recycling bin.

Others have also been griping about it too. Jonathon Narvey blogged about it and last year started a group on Facebook called The Yellow Pages Must be Stopped. His concern, as he said in my story:

I understand they are recyclable and I understand they’re made from recycled products, but the energy that goes into making a product that very few people want just seems to me a huge waste of resources.”

So what do the companies say? Both say their print directory is still well used. But, they’re responding to the concerns by letting people get off the distribution list if they want to.

Canpages: You can opt out now

This is the newer book in Metro Vancouver, but Canpages still delivers more than 800,000 business directories here (about the same number as their competition, the Yellow Pages Group, and at about the same time).

Their Director of Marketing, Michael Oldewening, told me you can opt-out now from Canpages directory — and you have been able to for years. This year, for the first time, he said, there is a feedback form in the directory (page 142 in Vancouver edition) where you can request removal from the distribution list. You can also do that online here.

Oldewening said only 50 to 60 people have done that so far in the Vancouver area. It’s unclear whether that low number is because the remainder want to receive the book, don’t know that opting out is an option, or know it is but can’t be bothered.

Yellow Pages Group: Opting out in 2009

Right now, you can’t opt out of the Yellow Pages Group directory, but that’s changing this year. (As Darren had translated from Montreal coverage of the topic)

I spoke to Paul Batchelor, the VP of Sales for for the Western Region. He said they also hadn’t had many requests to opt out. But, Yellow Pages is starting a program in time for the 2010 phone book to address concerns about the waste of unwanted books.

What about a reverse-onus program, where you have to opt-in to get one? Not something Yellow Pages would consider now, said Batchelor. According to their research, two-thirds of the population uses a phone book on a regular basis, so that wouldn’t make sense, he said.

If the recycling bin is in reach, you're more likely to use it.

I spent yesterday morning with the people behind The Clean Bin Project, Jen and Grant. As I showed in my CBC story (video link) last night, they haven’t taken out the garbage in seven (!) months. They’re buying almost nothing, except food, and even with edibles they’re following strict rules to reduce packaging and waste.

If you’re interested in reducing waste — and, like me, bored with stories about green living that encourage buying stuff — it’s worth checking out what they’re up to.

Sure, they’re on the far end from most people in the enviro-commitment spectrum. Taking the garnish home from the restaurant to put in the compost is, even in Grant’s words, “a bit silly.”

But other things they’re doing could suit the semi-committed:

• Make it harder to throw stuff away. The garbage bins they used to have around the house (bathroom, office) are gone.
• Make recycling easy. They have 10 bins, so everything has a place, and they’re all within reach.
• Don’t wait until you finish a food item to figure out whether its packaging is recyclable. Check it in the store.

We’ve been doing a bit of this at home, on the recycling front. I realized last summer that I was throwing out toilet paper rolls just because the garbage was easy to reach. So, I put a paper recycling bin in the bathroom, and now it fills up faster than the garbage.

Do you have any tips to reduce waste that you’ve used in your own home?

Not pretty, but hey, it's not in the landfill. Click for video. Credit: Keith Martin/CBC

We started composting at home about two years ago. I had been resistant: the smell, the slop, the fruit flies. My only previous compost experience was a big rotting pile at the back of a Kits rental that itself seemed to be returning to the earth.

But a friend who goes through a lot of dirt in his garden offered to take our kitchen scraps, and we happily started collecting them.

Now, we make way less garbage, and have sorted the smell and flies out.

But, I’m not surprised that composting rates are so low in British Columbia. According to Stats Can:

• Only 31% of B.C. households compost (99% recycle)
• Composting rates are far higher in places like P.E.I. (92%) and Nova Scotia (71%) where there are government programs to handle organic waste.
• B.C. is the only province where composting rates have been declining since the 1990s.

In front of a lot of compost. Click for video. Credit: Keith Martin/CBC

It’s a bit of a problem for a region with landfills that are filling up — where (according to Metro Vancouver) up to 300,000 tonnes of the stuff we dump each year could be composted instead. So, the region is right now making plans for two large-scale compost facilities.

That doesn’t yet put composting in the easiness category of recycling (with, say, curbside pickup) but it is a first step.

Here’s my CBC TV story on this, if you’d like to check it out.

I’ll admit it, I was a little resistant to taking on what are generally called “consumer stories” on my beat as an environment reporter. (Find out why after the jump)

But my editors have been keen on them, and I have to say they were right — gauged by audience response, at least.

Some of the topics I’ve tackled so far:

• What difference would it make if we stopped using plastic bags?
• How do you find a greener Christmas tree?
• How clean should your peanut butter jar be to get recycled?

Do you have questions about reducing your footprint, that you want answered? (Or at least asked?) Leave a comment.

What’s my beef with the consumer story? They can be overly obvious, like the post-Thanksgiving stories that recommend refrigerating turkey leftovers.

I also had the impression that a lot of “green living” pieces can boil down to the story line, “don’t buy this, buy that.” As if a sustainably-sourced bamboo end table is going to save the planet.

So, my editors and I agreed I’d aim to steer clear of stories that fall into those categories. Which is why I’m always looking for new questions to take on.