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Email: info@pacificwild.org
Phone: 250-380-0547
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Did you know trawling’s history on Canadian coasts dates back to colonization?
⚓️European powers introduced industrial fishing methods like trawling to exploit the Grand Banks in the 1500s. On the west coast, bottom trawling began in the early 1900s, with small vessels supplying local markets before steam-powered trawlers expanded into the Hecate Strait during WWI.
🇨🇦 By 1944, Canada finally began formally recording trawler activities in B.C. – after nearly 30 years of these vessels operating with little oversight. Monitoring was led by the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, which became a hub for fisheries research.
More recently, factory trawlers have arrived on B.C.’s coast. These ships weren’t built here. They were sold off after fishing heavily in European and northern seas like the North Sea and Bering Sea, leaving stock collapses and strict regulations in their wake. Now, their industrial footprints threaten to leave similar scars on Canada’s Pacific coast.
🛑 Industrial trawling continues to put our ocean’s most fragile ecosystems at risk. Learn more about its impacts and how you can help protect marine life.
#Trawling #BottomTrawling #Fishing #Overfishing #BanBottomTrawling #ProtectOurCoast #Cod #InDeepTrouble #DraggedToDeath #MarineProtection #OceanConservation #StopTrawling #Maritimes #Ocean
🚨 Investigation reveals shocking footage from "semi-closed containment" salmon farm
What lies beneath experimental salmon farms? Thanks to the investigative work of @clayoquot.action and @watershedwatchbc, we now have disturbing answers.
📹 These are the Sh*t Tapes* — raw, gut-churning ROV footage obtained through government access to information requests. They expose massive piles of fish feces and uneaten feed smothering the seafloor under an “experimental” Cermaq salmon farm near Tofino, B.C.
🐟 Though marketed as “semi-closed” or “closed” containment, the videos show these systems are leaking waste directly into the ocean. One trench of feces filmed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) stretched minutes long with no end in sight. Inspectors noted entire areas of the sea floor were covered 100% in waste.
👀 This is pollution you were never meant to see.
💊This experimental farm also used antibiotics at least seven times in just one year. If uneaten medicated feed is settling on the seafloor, what does that mean for wild fish, crab, or prawn in the area, or for the people who harvest them?
This is a wake-up call.
👍 But there’s some good news: Pacific Wild, along with other ENGOs like @clayoquot.action and @watershedwatchbc, are part of the stakeholder group actively submitting feedback and recommendations on the Salmon Aquaculture Transition Plan — working hard to ensure these experimental farms are not allowed to operate in the ocean beyond 2029.
🔗 Watch the videos. Read the inspection report. Raise your voice.
👉 Head to @clayoquot.action and @watershedwatchbc’s pages to learn more.
📢 TAKE ACTION: Follow the link in our bio to tell the Minister of Fisheries that enough is enough, we need to get ALL in-water salmon farms out of B.C.’s coastal waters.
#FishFarmsOut #FOFF #SaveBCSalmon #WildSalmon #PacificSalmon
🐚 There is hope for trawling! Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can stop the destruction caused by bottom trawling – and benefit everyone, including fishers over time.
Bottom trawling devastates seafloor habitats and marine life. But when areas are closed to trawling through highly protected MPAs, ecosystems can recover and thrive, creating a “spillover effect.” As populations rebound inside protected areas, target species migrate beyond their boundaries, supporting sustainable fisheries.
A powerful example comes from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. After five small areas were closed to bottom trawling, king scallop populations became five times more abundant, with reproductive potential increasing by over 1,200%. This not only restored the ecosystem but boosted surrounding fisheries. This story is featured in David Attenborough`s latest film “Ocean”, highlighting how banning trawling benefits ocean health and coastal communities alike.
Yet bottom trawling is still allowed in some Canadian MPAs, despite violating minimum protection standards established in 2019. Fully protecting these areas is critical to achieving similar success.
🤝 Pacific Wild is working to protect 30% of Canada’s oceans by 2030 through a strong network of MPAs in the Great Bear Sea and beyond. Protecting these areas from destructive fishing practices will rebuild fish stocks, enhance biodiversity, and create a healthier ocean for all.
Help us make this a reality. Send a pre-written letter to government officials today.
#MarineProtection #InDeepTrouble #DraggedToDeath #GreatBearSea #Ocean
🔥 New Interview + Feature Blog Article
This spring, we stood with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks at Witset Canyon—an ancient fishing site along the Bulkley River on Wet’suwet’en Yintah (territory) near Smithers B.C.
Chief Na’Moks grew up fishing these waters and speaks with fierce clarity about what it means to uphold Wet’suwet’en law, protect ancestral lands, and resist fossil fuel expansion.
He recounts the violence his people faced defending their Yintah from the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and warns of the danger LNG development poses to salmon, sovereignty, and future generations.
🔥 Watch the full interview with Chief Na’Moks on our Youtube channel at the link in bio.
🔥 Read our latest blog article featuring Chief Na’Moks and Gitxsan land defenders at the link in bio.
From Oil To LNG: The Fight for a Livable Future
Indigenous Resistance to Fossil Fuel Expansion in Northwest B.C.
🙏@tsayu2
@laxyipyouth
@jessestoeppler
#LNG #CGL #CGLpipeline #Wetsuweten #FossilFuels #MethaneGas #ClimateCrisis #Indigenous #IndigenousRights #IndigenousHistoryMonth#DRIPA #UNDRIP #EnvironmentalRacism #BCpolitics #PacificWild
🚣🏼♀️ Passage Paddle Update!
🌊The @thepassagepaddle crew is paddling through the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, surrounded by towering bull kelp forests swaying beneath the waves.
Bull kelp, known as Nereocystis luetkeana or “mermaid’s bladder,” forms dense underwater forests that provide vital food and shelter for countless marine species along this wild coastline.
❗ Want to join in the adventure? Play Biodiversity Bingo to win prizes and race the crew through the Great Bear Sea by sponsoring kilometres in our fundraiser!
🔗 Link in bio!
#PassagePaddle #GreatBearRainforest #GreatBearSea #MarineProtection #BullKelp
🐺🦦Wolves eating sea otters?
As sea otter populations rebound, some coastal wolves have shifted their diets in a surprising way, targeting marine mammals. On Pleasant Island, Alaska, sea otters now make up over 80% of some wolves` diets.
⚠️ But this adaptation comes at a cost: scientists found the highest mercury levels ever recorded in wolves worldwide, putting their health at serious risk.
And it’s not just Alaska — wolves in British Columbia are also preying on sea otters. What does this mean for the future of coastal food webs?
🔁 Watch and read to learn how land and sea are more connected than we think!
Citation: Roffler et al., 2025
🎥 @iantmcallister and @pacificwild
#SaveBCWolves #CoastalWolf #SeaWolf #SeaOtter #LandToSea #MarineProtection #Biodiversity
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