Approximately 3,000 illegal shark fins have been seized, along with a myriad of reported widespread fishery violations by Operation North Pacific Guard. For two months, the multinational mission, which was led by Canada, involved ocean patrols, air surveillance and satellites to find illegal high-seas driftnets, illegal fishing activity and examine fishing vessels.

Inspecting more than 400 fishing vessels, the mission patrolled approximately 12,000 nautical miles, ensuring the searched vessels complied with the conservation measures throughout the North Pacific. During this time, 58 violations were detected, as well as incidents of marine pollution, thousands of illegal shark fins (some of which were from threatened species like oceanic whitetip sharks) and many other violations.

In previous years, the annual mission has been led by the United States. It is instrumental in enforcing the United Nations Ban on High Seas Driftnets and ensuring vessels comply with regulations that protect against unreported fishing.  

A seal’s dinner

The Sable Island grey seal herd off Nova Scotia is the largest in the world, a huge chunk of the 310,000-strong Scotian Shelf population. Harp seals, found primarily off Newfoundland and Labrador, number over 7.4 million. Together, these blubber-lined Atlantic Coast sea mammals are the subject of a new federal government investigation into the effect they’re having on the ecosystem following their boom after cod stocks collapsed.

When cod numbers dropped, the species they preyed on — capelin, herring and sand lance — jumped in numbers. Suddenly with an abundance of high-quality forage fish to feed on, seal numbers boomed exponentially. Sara Iverson and Suzanne Budge, biology and chemistry professors respectively at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, received $150,000 in government funding to study seal blubber and analyze their diet. 

They will make use of a new technique pioneered by Iverson that analyzes the types and amounts of fatty acids from prey in grey seal blubber to identify exactly what species they’re eating. 

Cold comfort

As if wild Atlantic salmon didn’t already have enough to deal with — from hungry bears to human-made dams — on their journey upstream to spawn. Now a new challenge has emerged: rising water temperatures in Nova Scotian rivers, a consequence of climate warming, is adding to the stress of a species accustomed to the cold ocean (the migration typically occurs in the summer, when river temperatures peak). 

Known as thermal refuges, natural groundwater springs and cold tributaries in rivers provide salmon with some relief, creating cold areas where the fish can stop for a while to cool down and de-stress. These “cooling stations” could mean the difference between life or death.

The Nova Scotia Salmon Association, along with Dalhousie University in Halifax, has spent four years mapping these crucial thermal refuges, which are becoming increasingly rare. They also launched a pilot project to create additional cold spots along the salmon’s routes, pumping cold water into key spots and digging underground trenches to redirect the meander of a river underground so the water would cool away from the sun’s rays before re-entering the river. 

Underwater wildlife cameras revealed that salmon congregated in both these engineered thermal refuges. The plan now is to scale up these pilot interventions.

Shell shock