Jackie Hildering was astonished by a recent photo depicting an enormous Mola mola submitted to the Marine Education Resource Society citizen science project, which is collecting data on two different species of sunfish along the Pacific Coast.

“We spent the weekend outdoors camping on the peninsula and notices shoreline grasses has dried and shriveled.”

As engineers and government officials try to locate the source of a sewage leak into the Capilano River, the Squamish Nation and a group of volunteers who monitor waterways on the North Shore say they are worried about the effect on young salmon in the river.

Eight skunks found dead last month in Vancouver and Richmond tested positive for avian flu.

Goldfish have a special ability to live under extreme conditions, making them prolific invaders of natural habitats. They are tolerant to low oxygen conditions and can survive water temperatures well below freezing, said the Invasive Species Council of B.C. on their website.

In 2022, a record number of Bigg’s killer whales (orcas) and humpback whales were spotted in the waters surrounding Victoria as well as south along Washington’s border.

One UBC scientist says his early estimation that a billion creatures died from the 2021 heat dome was too low. Today, life is returning to areas scorched by last year’s unprecedented heat wave. The die off was patchy and the plants and animals in the intertidal zone that survived the heat wave “are the parents to the next generation,” Harley said.

A B.C. photographer and her dog found a Giant Pacific octopus washed up on the shore of a Vancouver Island beach.

Observations this year from Huu-ay-aht territory see that volume of herring may finally be improving, as the First Nation is reporting a growing number of wild salmon migrating through its rivers.

Since 7 a.m. on Monday, crews in Vancouver responded to reports of flooding in 46 locations. Average annual cost of property damage or losses due to severe weather has increased from about $400 million before 2009 to about $2 billion annually in the last few years.

A tornado watch was issued around 5:30 p.m. and rescinded less than an hour later, but the storm caused considerable damage on the University of British Columbia campus. The school is located on a peninsula not far from the airport.

Two distinct species of orcas feed and socialize in the waters of Puget Sound: fish-eating endangered southern resident killer whales and transient, or Bigg’s, killer whales, which feed on marine mammals and are more common. They seldom mix.

It happened Thursday night and into Friday morning, when the Crown corporation reduced the spill release from the Daisy Lake Reservoir into the river, stranding fish who had moved closer to the banks.

In 2009, the numbers dropped down to just 500 pairs of Chinook returning. Yet, as of Tuesday, more than 8,000 Chinook had returned to their Cowichan River spawning grounds. The improvement is the result of years of conservation efforts by Cowichan Tribes, who have worked to restore the river to its course before logging operations changed the river.

Decades ago, wall lizards from the Mediterranean got a toehold near Victoria. Now they’re island-hopping.

When Kathleen Reed descended for her usual weekly dive off the coast of Nanaimo, B.C., last Saturday she was shocked by how many dead sea cucumbers she saw. Experts and harvesters fear that sea cucumbers are being hit by an illness similar to sea star wasting disease.

Sweeping salmon closures and protection measures were put in place for the 2021 season to protect stocks of concern. Between 200 and 250 illegal fishing nets have been seized on the Fraser River so far this year.

District of West Vancouver staff say they cleaned up 40 litres of fat from Ambleside Beach. Vancouver Coastal Health and the province are investigating.

Several people have fallen ill with food poisoning after eating shellfish in B.C. in the last 10 days, and health officials are warning that warm ocean waters might be to blame.

The BC Conservation Officer Service said the latest attack happened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night, while a woman was jogging along the seawall.