'Unheard of': Tens of thousands of salmon found dead in B.C. creek as drought conditions persist
B.C.'s sunny, dry weather is leading to major drought conditions in parts of the province, causing devastating impacts for some wildlife.
Video posted to social media recently shows tens of thousands of dead salmon lying at the bottom of a dry creek in Bella Bella.
William Housty, conservation manager with the Heiltsuk Nation, told CTV News Vancouver the sight's "unheard of."
"Nobody … that's living here in the community has ever seen anything like this before," Housty said.
The video was captured last week by German researcher Sarah Mund, who was working in the community, but locals didn't see it until Monday. They said they're devastated as they rely on the watershed for food.
"We all knew that it's been a really dry end to the summer and beginning to the fall, but we really didn't anticipate that things were at the magnitude and the scale they're at right now," Housty said.
Salmon experts say it's a growing problem that won't go away easily.
"Unfortunately something I think we're going to see more often as global warming continues at the pace that it's at," Lina Azeez with Watershed Watch Salmon Society told CTV News.
Azeez, who lives in Port Coquitlam, said she's also seen the shocking impacts of the drought in her own backyard.
"I saw a little juvenile salmon at the bottom end of Hyde Creek. As I biked along it, it just suddenly dried out, it was bone dry," she said.
"When salmon go, the building blocks of our coastal ecosystems start to fall apart. We depend on salmon, bears depend on salmon, forests depend on salmon."
Parts of the province have seen record breaking high temperatures in recent days. While no records were broken Tuesday, 16 were on Monday, including many that were decades old.
The continued dry weather is also impacting wildfire conditions in the province, including at a Metro Vancouver park. Crews expect to be at Minnekhada Regional Park for several days, battling a 12-hectare blaze.
The various wildfires have led to air-quality advisories in the province.
"We've been stuck in this (weather) pattern for quite some time and it's expected to continue at least for another several days," Bobby Sekhon with Environment Canada told CTV News Vancouver.
"It's possible that into early next week we might see a bit of a shift in the pattern."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Michael Cohen: A challenging star witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial
He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors' biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president's hush money trial.
Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Millions of Canadians have been exposed to potentially toxic chemicals, and they're not going anywhere
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
As Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, Hamas regroups elsewhere in ungoverned Gaza
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Thousands of civilians evacuated from northeast Ukraine as Russia presses renewed border assault
Thousands more civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.
Feds 'committed to doing more,' but minister offers no timeline for Canadian Disability Benefit boost
Amid significant criticism from advocates, Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Minister Kamal Khera is defending her government's long-promised, newly unveiled Canada Disability Benefit, calling the funds an "initial step," but without laying out a timeline for future expansion of the program.
RCMP boss expresses desire for new law to deal with threats against politicians
RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme says he wants the government to look at drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials.