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Toothless Fishing Laws, Healthier Whales,
and the Deepwater Horizon Hellscape
 
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Last week, gently winding roads on northern Vancouver Island once again led me to the quaint, little town of Port McNeill where I spent this past summer. This time, I was there to take part in a fundraising trip for the Marine Education and Research Society­—a nonprofit that focuses on research, education, and wildlife rescue. We set out on the vessel the Naiad Explorer with naturalists Jackie Hildering, Christie McMillan, and Nicole Doe—all marine educators extraordinaire.
 
It was a strikingly sunny day as we ventured out on the cold, productive waters off the island’s northeast coast. It wasn’t too long after we left the dock that several tall plumes of mist disrupted the dark green shoreline and soon it became hard to keep up with the whales around us.
 
I was happy to see familiar faces of the north island—both humans and whales. First came the humpbacks. Argonaut was back near Stubbs Island where I’d seen him so often this summer, Conger was busy trap-feeding, and there seemed to be enough food for Backsplash to lunge through a school of fish over and over again. Then the A42 matriline of northern resident killer whales passed by us as several pesky Pacific white-sided dolphins joined them. Throughout the trip, flocks of ancient murrelets, rhinoceros auklets, and sooty shearwaters glided over the water’s calm surface while common murres stayed close to their squealing young. Dall’s porpoises also paid us a visit.
 
Soon the humpback whales will start their long migrations down south, just like I did at the end of summer to join Hakai Magazine as an intern.
 
I can’t believe it has already been a month. Since arriving, I have read a plethora of papers, learned the art of fact-checking, and have thoroughly enjoyed spending time searching for stories. Speaking of which, I am currently working on a few about marine mammals, reef fishes, and colorful invertebrates. Coming soon!
 
Jasspreet Sahib
Journalism intern
 
 
 
This Week’s Stories
 
 
Gray Laws on White Sharks
 
A loophole in California law is letting fishers who repeatedly catch great white sharks off the hook.
 
by Alastair Bland • 2,300 words / 11 mins
 
 
 
Nine Years On, the Deepwater Horizon’s Well Is a “Hellscape”
 
The environment around the blown-out well has yet to recover.
 
by Charles Q. Choi • 400 words / 2 mins
 
 
 
Ballast Episode 3: The Ballast of Living Things
 
It’s a sink or swim world.
 
by Elin Kelsey & Katrina Pyne • 20 mins • Listen here or with your podcast app
 
 
 
Blocking Brazil’s Oil Boom
 
Federal prosecutors and NGOs are lining up to stop the inclusion of key sites in Brazil’s upcoming oil lease auction.
 
by Eduardo Campos Lima • 600 words / 3 mins
 
 
 
Sucking Gas
 
Killer whales take in fewer hydrocarbons following tougher restrictions on vessel distances.
 
by Larry Pynn • 750 words / 3 mins
 
 
 
 
What We’re Reading
 
Salmon farms are in the crosshairs of the Liberal, Green, and NDP federal party election platforms in Canada, with all three leaders of these parties promising to get rid of open-net-pen farming. Liberals and Greens will phase it out by 2025, while the NDP hasn’t offered a timeline, but all three say the industry should transition to land-based tanks. Open-net pens in coastal waters are the cheapest salmon farming setup, but concerns about disease and lice infestations spreading to already vulnerable wild salmon populations have raised serious concerns. Canada is the world’s fourth largest producer of farmed salmon, and industry groups decry the promises, saying it will drive business elsewhere. (Toronto Star)
 
What did whales and dolphins lose when the mammals returned to the sea millions of years ago? An eclectic assortment of genes, including those for hair growth and sleep. (Also, fun fact: the whales’ closest land mammal relative alive today is the hippo.) (New York Times)
 
Very tiny algae in the ocean have a very outsize impact on climate change. Researchers are looking into how they can be mobilized to help. (Quartz)
 
Here’s how to weigh a whale from a ways away. (Atlas Obscura)
 
Big and unprecedented things are appearing off the coast of Yorkshire, England. This time they’re not Vikings; they’re the world’s largest wind turbines. (The Guardian)
 
In most places you’re not supposed to feed the bears, but in Knight Inlet just north of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, locals are doing just that. The bears are starving because of abysmal salmon runs. (CTV News)
 
There are competing visions for this Brazilian island: a microcosm for comprehensive green policy, or a heavily-promoted tourist hotspot. (Washington Post)
 
Seismic surveys to explore for oil and gas deposits in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, are going ahead as planned, but researchers say that the incredibly loud underwater sound produced by the air guns damages whales’ hearing and the current restrictions on how close industry can be to whales such as humpbacks doesn’t give the animals nearly enough space. Cook Inlet is rich in hydrocarbon deposits, but noise associated with exploration and drilling is also causing concerns higher up the inlet with the endangered Cook Inlet population of beluga whales. (Alaska Public Media, Hakai Magazine)
 
The website TripAdvisor ranks attractions for tourists who can book stays or buy tickets through its site as well. Marine enthusiasts will soon have fewer things to choose from. The site has said it will stop selling tickets to any attractions such as SeaWorld that import, breed, or capture live whales and dolphins. (New York Times)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Janice Waugh took this photo near Duntulm, on the northern coast of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, in September 2017 while on a solo trip. Janice writes of the tiny island:

The Isle of Skye is a feeling as much as a destination. I could feel its smallness. It was cozy. It felt good. One can go and admire its beauty, but I suggest that to really appreciate it one should spend time enveloped in its landscape by hiking its many wonderful mountain and coastal paths.
 
In Coastal Exposures, readers share their best shots of a favorite stretch of coastline. To submit your photo, tag it on Instagram with #hakaiCE or just reply to this email. Please provide the location, a brief story behind the photo, and the largest file size you have. Horizontal photos are best. Note that your story may be edited for length.
 
 
 
Tsunamis are relatively rare in Canada, although the threat is ever-present, particularly on the country’s west coast. It’s likely that most people have never heard of the tsunami that struck Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula on November 18, 1929, but a new book by veteran journalist and author Linden MacIntyre aims to change that. In The Wake: the Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami, MacIntyre recounts the story of the day when three-story-high waves slammed into the coast, flooding communities, washing homes out to sea, and killing 28. But note that the title is The Wake, not The Wave, for this is the story of the wave’s aftermath and how the impact reverberated for decades. For more, watch MacIntyre describe his book and how it came to be.
 
 
 
 
Behind the Story
 
 
Why fish for great white sharks? The question spurred Alastair Bland to write this week’s feature, “Grey Laws on White Sharks.” He explains:

While fishing for salmon from a kayak one day in 2017, I watched another kayak angler hook a fish so big that it towed him away. He disappeared into the distance on a slow-motion, Nantucket-style sleigh ride, but he maintained radio communication with me and a few other anglers. About three hours later and from six kilometers away, he reported to us that he had brought the fish to the surface and, as close as he could to the hook, cut the line. The fish, he said, was a great white shark almost four meters long.

None of the rest of us envied him or wished they had hooked that shark instead. This seemed remarkable to me at the time—that in a group of a dozen salmon anglers, nobody was interested in tangling with a great white.

My perspective, as an angler, on sharks is part of what drew me to this story of fishers catching great whites in Southern California. For several years, occasional reports had come my way of recreational anglers hooking and reeling in young great whites, which are legally protected in California. A few of these reports were accompanied by photos, generally showing stoked anglers and sharks that had seen better days—sometimes bloodied, and in at least one set of photos, stone dead.

Writing the story became a three-month desktop research project focused on the legal interpretation of a poorly written law. It reminded me that, among anglers, there are very different personal reasons for putting baited hooks into the water. For many, fishing is about time spent on the water and, hopefully, bringing home a few fish to eat. For others, fishing is a sport of trophies, adrenaline, bragging rights, big fish photos, and social media approval, and for these people, nothing beats a shark. Indeed, one source I interviewed called the great white “the holy grail” of fishing. Funny. I’d rather catch anchovies. 
 
 
 
 
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