![]() ![]() “We’ve known that the river’s in bad shape for a long time,” Tom Rutherford of Cowichan Watershed Board said to CBC. Rising temperatures from climate change and low water levels are resulting in the water drying up and fish populations suffering. Many advocates have been alarmed for years about worsening conditions on the Cowichan River. “We’ve known that the river’s in bad shape for a long time.” Tom Rutherford, Cowichan Watershed Board Community planning public meetings are part of a process that will explore future water use needs alongside various potential water supply and storage options. Source – Cowichan River Water Supply “This report from DFO has to be setting off a few alarm bells,” Jefferson told CBC in response to the release. They noted excessive algae growth, which can be a result of “low flows, hot, dry weather and availability of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.” The lesions were credited to environmental stress, which is connected to low oxygen and elevated pH in the water. ![]() “It was the first time, not just in my career, but the first time in my life, that I had seen anything like that,” Cowichan Tribes member and biologist Tim Kulchyski told the American paper after he stumbled upon dead fry and even more dead adults further down the river.Īfter collecting samples and conducting toxicology tests, DFO released its findings this week. “Some of them up to two years old.”Įven The New York Times published a large spread last week about the Cowichan River incident within the context of an unprecedented year of heat, drought, and wildfires in Canada. “Hundreds, perhaps thousands of baby trout and salmon,” he reported. “They noticed silver spots all over the bottom of the river,” Parker Jefferson of the Cowichan Stewardship Roundtable told CTV News at the time of discovery. ![]() Some of them up to two years old.” Parker Jefferson, Cowichan Stewardship Roundtable “Hundreds, perhaps thousands of baby trout and salmon. This past July, swimmers near Skutz Falls in Cowichan River Park stumbled upon numerous dead salmon and trout with lesions all over their bodies. A new report just published by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) explains the mystery behind a massive fish die-off in the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island. ![]()
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