A labour of love: Using photo-identification to track Pacific white-sided dolphins

Dr. Erin Ashe discovered her fascination for Pacific white-sided dolphins more than 10 years ago when a daunting white wall of rushing water along the horizon gradually advanced on her small boat. She didn’t know what it was at first, thinking it might be a squall.

And even as her now-husband and co-researcher Rob Williams pointed to the charging water, exclaiming, “Look, Lags!” Ashe still didn’t quite understand what she was seeing. It wasn’t until she peered through her binoculars that she realized the “wave” was actually hundreds of Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens, or Lags) crashing through the water, stirring up foam and whitewash, stampeding like an army into battle. Immediately, Ashe wanted to know their story.

John England’s lifelong fascination with the Canadian Arctic took root when he was just 18 years old. The year was 1965, and England, an undergrad at the University of Windsor, Ont., recalls feeling a sense of profound wonder the second his feet hit the ice during a field session to Baffin Island’s fiords. Over the course of his 50-plus-year career, England — now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Atmospheric and Earth Sciences at the University of Alberta — has had an indelible impact on our understanding of the Arctic. In recognition of this lifetime of achievement, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded England its annual Massey Medal in 2022, citing his contributions to documenting environmental change in the Arctic from the Ice Age to the present day.

In honour of Asian Heritage Month, CBC Quebec journalists asked Asian Canadians how they carry their culture

By Tori Fitzpatrick

A series called Carrying Our Culture has launched for Asian Heritage Month. The CBC Quebec team, all first or second-generation immigrants, spoke with Asian Canadians and asked them “How do you carry your cultural heritage, in big ways or small?” Canadian Geographic spoke with four of the producers about what the series means to them.

Shahroze Rauf is a Pakistani journalist based in Montreal. They work with CBC radio Quebec.

Jennifer Yoon is a Korean Canadian multi-platform journalist. She is a news reporter with CBC Quebec.

Rana Liu is a communications officer with CBC Quebec. She works to bridge the gap between the newsroom and the community.

Jessica Wu is a Montreal based journalist. She works on the CBC Quebec radio morning show.

What if I were to tell you that the Manitoba Legislature was built with concrete, steel, and 6,000 years of architectural magic? Would you believe that every aspect of the building’s design and construction was reserved exclusively for Freemasons? That occult symbols and ancient Biblical secrets hide in plain sight? According to a renowned local historian, the Manitoba Legislature is not just a seat of government, it’s the Da Vinci Code of the prairies.

Winnipegger Frank Albo is a professor with Master’s degrees in Ancient Near Eastern Civilization and Hermetic Philosophy. You might ask yourself, “Hermetic what?” because that’s exactly what I did. Hermeticism encompasses a wide range of grand wisdom that might date back to ancient Egypt, passing along divine knowledge through sages, philosophers, Masonic grandmasters and initiates. It is a shadowy rabbit hole of rich history encompassing alchemy, astrology, religious mysticism, reincarnation, and Freemasonry. Think of Albo as a real-life Robert Langdon, the fictional Harvard professor of religious iconography in Dan Brown’s blockbuster literary series (played by Tom Hanks in the films). The real-life Frank Albo is far more animated and these days teaches at Princeton. It’s fascinating stuff, but what does this have to do with a government building in Winnipeg?

third-largest Indigenous population in Canada, your experience in Alberta includes significant historic sites like dinosaur fossil beds and buffalo jumps. As we leave the multi-hued canyons and wind-sculpted hoodoos of the Canadian Badlands, we go along the foothills of the mountains into Waterton Lakes. While the landscapes are spectacular, remember to also keep your eyes open for the abundant wildlife including bighorn sheep, grizzly bears and bison recently reintroduced in Alberta as a conservation project. From here we keep the mountain backdrop for scenic drives to some of the world’s best hiking trails in Banff & Yoho National Parks. We take a big dose of fresh air wandering endless forests, admiring the panoramic mountain views, the turquoise colour of the glacier-fed lakes, and rainbows at the waterfalls.
Meet your ambassador: George Kourounis

Check out these other upcoming trips:
- High Arctic Explorer with Joseph Frey
- Haida Gwaii with David Gray
- Heli-hiking in the Cariboos with Robin Esrock