‘It was like the wild west’: meet the First Nations guardians protecting Canada’s pristine shores | Canada | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/it-was-like-the-wild-west-meet-the-first-nations-guardians-protecting-canadas-pristine-shores

#FirstNations
#Indigenous
#Canada
#WildWest
#NuxalkGuardianWatchmen
#IndigenousLeadershipInitiative
#Kitasoo
#XaiXais
#EnvironmentalDNA
#Nuxalk
#KitasooXaiXaisGuardianWatchmen

#Canada moves to protect #CoralReef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’

Discovery was made after #FirstNations tipped off #ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off #BritishColumbia

by Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Fri 15 Mar 2024

"On the last of nearly 20 dives, the team made a startling discovery – one that has only recently been made public.

"'When we started to see the living corals, everyone was in doubt,' says Cherisse Du Preez, head of the deep-sea ecology program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 'Then, when we saw the expansive fields of coral in front of us, everybody just let loose. There were a lot of pure human emotions.'

"Despite existing in absolute darkness, the lights of the submersible captured the rich pinks, yellows and purples of the #corals and #sponges.

"The following year, the team mapped #LopheliaReef, or #q̓áuc̓íwísuxv, as it has been named by the #Kitasoo Xai’xais and #Heiltsuk First Nations. It is the country’s only known living coral reef.

"The discovery marks the latest in a string of instances in which Indigenous knowledge has directed researchers to areas of scientific or historic importance. More than a decade ago, #Inuk oral historian Louie Kamookak compared #Inuit stories with explorers’ logbooks and journals to help locate Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In 2014, divers located the wreck of the Erebus in a spot Kamookak suggested they search, and using his directions found the Terror two years later."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/15/canada-moves-to-protect-coral-reef-that-scientists-say-shouldnt-exist

#IndigenousWisdom #Environment #WaterIsLife #PacificOcean #DeepSeaEcosystems #NoDumping

‘We’re tired of waiting’: the #FirstNation that unilaterally declared a #MarineProtectedArea

For 20 years, #IndigenousPeople of the #Kitasoo/#Xai’xais saw their coastal waters being depleted while the #Canadian state dithered. Now they’ve taken matters into their own hands
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/canada-first-nation-that-unilaterally-declared-a-marine-protected-area
#Environment #Fishing #GlobalResourceDepletion

I re-published this yesterday in order to add a new tag but forgot to re-add the attachment. So here's trying again, with apologies...

Another image from our summer #boating trip: late afternoon, mid-July, Bottleneck Inlet in #Kitasoo territory. Needed a hurricane hole and it proved a good one as we waited out a gale. #GreatBearRainforest #GreatBearSea #BCcoast #photography #iPhoneography