IN THIS EMAIL:
 

- Learn more about the sea otter's long-overdue return to Haida Gwaii and the careful plans being laid to welcome them

- Read about the William Brydone Jack Observatory, Canada's first astronomical observatory located in Fredericton, N.B. 
- Our biweekly Wildlife Wednesday is back, featuring hungry crustaceans, pigs wearing clothes, sea otters and more!

- Find your next adventure with Klahoose Wilderness Resort, located in Desolation Sound, B.C., and embrace the natural and supernatural spirits of the land and its People

The otter, the urchin and the Haida

As the sea otter begins its long-overdue return to Haida Gwaii, careful plans are being laid to welcome them — and to preserve a prosperous shellfish harvest

By Brad Badelt

In a strange twist of fate, it was nuclear testing in Alaska that brought back the insatiable, beautiful, long-missed, never forgotten sea otter to the waters of British Columbia. In the mid 1960s, at the peak of Cold War tensions, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission was conducting nuclear trials in the Aleutian Islands, off the western tip of Alaska. Public concern over the testing was rising, and a rag-tag group of 12 activists set sail from Vancouver in an old fishing boat. On the journey over, the group settled on a name: Greenpeace.

When Atomic Energy Commission staff discovered a population of cuddly sea otters at their next test site, they feared a public-relations disaster. To avoid an outcry, they captured and relocated hundreds of otters — airlifting them in aquarium-like tanks to sites in southeast Alaska, Oregon, Washington and the west coast of Vancouver Island. The 89 sea otters relocated to Vancouver Island were the first British Columbia had seen in 40 years.

Here comes the sun: Canada’s first astronomical observatory 

Fredericton, home to the William Brydone Jack Observatory, will be one of the few Canadian cities to experience the total solar eclipse that crosses North America on April 8

By Darcy Rhyno

Crowded by trees on the oldest part of the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus sits a two-storey octagonal tower clad in white clapboard. Students hustle past, likely unaware of its status as Canada’s first astronomical observatory. Today, the William Brydone Jack Observatory has fallen into disuse, but when it opened in 1851 this national historic site was one of the most advanced observatories of its time, and Jack a pioneer in the development of Canadian astronomy.

An amateur astronomer and founding member of the William Brydone Jack Astronomy Club, Don Kelly is a wealth of information about the accomplishments of the astronomer, engineer and teacher who dedicated his career to this observatory. As he tours me around, he rhymes off Jack’s accomplishments.

Wildlife Wednesday: how sea otters are helping save marshes, one crab dinner at a time

Plus: blue and fin whales are mating ‘with porpoise,’ B.C. Court ruling finds an environment minister’s statement is ‘for the birds,’ hungry crustaceans chow down on live jellyfish, and why pigs wearing clothes is not the cute story you think it is

By Benjamin Ralph 
 

Two sea otters enjoy each other's company in the California sunshine. (Photo: Harold Litwiler/Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED])
 

Hungry sea otters may be playing an understated and integral role in maintaining marshland territories — from California to British Columbia.

After being almost hunted to extinction two centuries ago, the absence of the sea otter has allowed species like shore crab to flourish in marsh areas. These pesky crustaceans burrow into the shorelines of creek beds, chewing on root structures and weakening surrounding soil. But now, after decades of conservation efforts, sea otters are back in a big way, and their ravenous appetites have them consuming threats to marshlands at lightning speeds. A recent study conducted by University of California biologists confirmed this after keeping otters away from select pickleweed growths in Monterey Bay for three years, then reintroducing them to the area. Upon the otters reintroduction, the vegetation became immediately healthier, with the ground surrounding it firmer and considerably less eroded.

Canadian Geographic Adventures
 

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