North Island Eagle

01/14/2025

Dollarama in Port Hardy is now open.

01/14/2025

01/12/2025

Nature’s light show over Mount Cain Alpine Park earlier this month 🌌 A mesmerizing display of northern lights illuminating the North Island sky.

📸 instacrammm via Instagram
🗺️ The Regional District of Mount Waddington is located on the Traditional Territories of the Kwakwaka’wakw people.

01/12/2025

🎉 Congratulations to Trish Weatherall celebrating eight years working for Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society! 📚

Hired in December 2016 as Literacy Outreach Coordinator, Trish has since taken on roles as Communications Coordinator and Project Leader for the United Way School’s Out programs. Her dedication and hard work have made a lasting impact on the organization and the community.

“We deeply appreciate Trish’s commitment and valuable contributions over the past eight years,” said Charity Gillett, Executive Director at MWFLS. “She has secured funding, introduced new programs and significantly raised awareness about the importance of literacy.”

✨ Here are just a few of her contributions:

✅ Expanded the ONE-TO-ONE volunteer reading tutor program to more North Island elementary schools. https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/about/programs/one-to-one-volunteer-reading-tutors/

✅ Launched the Fostering Literacy program, hiring teens as reading coaches and mentors at three local elementary schools.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/about/community-projects/fostering-literacy-tutor-mentor-program/

✅ Developed the MWFLS website, page, and newsletter to keep the community informed.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/

✅ Wrote impactful success stories to celebrate the organization’s achievements.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/impact-stories/

✅ Initiated Learning Through Play program in Quatsino.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/impact-stories/learning-through-play-saturday-program-a-hit-with-quatsino-kids/

✅ Created the Ultimate North Island Book List.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/the-ultimate-north-vancouver-island-book-list/

✅ Led a three-year federal study to enhance literacy and skills for workers displaced from their jobs, resulting in the Connect4Work “Intro to Computers pilot program for job seekers.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/about/community-projects/enhancing-displaced-workers-literacy-and-essential-skills-project/
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/about/programs/connect4work-digital-literacy/

✅ Directed the United Way School’s Out after-school programs.
👉 https://mwliteracynow.wordpress.com/about/programs/united-way-schools-out-programs/

Trish shared, “It’s been incredibly rewarding to watch the literacy society grow and evolve. The team has brought in such a variety of new programs and workshops that truly help people. I love sharing our success stories and promoting the life-changing power of literacy.”

🥰 Trish’s passion for literacy was also recognized by Decoda Literacy Solutions, BC’s provincial literacy nonprofit, which hired her as their communications specialist in 2021. She now balances part-time roles with both organizations, continuing her vital work to promote literacy.

01/11/2025

01/10/2025

Good morning North Island. Happy New Year to all! Here is our first issue of 2025.

Advertising Local Newspaper North Island Eagle Port Hardy News

01/09/2025

Today - we were able to document* Constellation 2 and Geometry just as the sun was setting. They did not lift their tails in the limited time we had to photograph them. But thankfully, we also can recognize Humpback Whales by their dorsal fins.

These two Humpbacks have not yet migrated to the breeding grounds. That was apparent by their girth! When Humpbacks come back from the warm water breeding grounds, they are much skinnier since there is little to no food for them there.

See below for what we have shared previously about how it is normal to still have some Humpbacks near British Columbia.
________________

About these Humpbacks. This is the first time we have documented them associating.

- Constellation 2 (BCX1784) is female. She had a calf in 2023 and is known to migrate to Hawaii.

Geometry (BCZ0338) is a mature male who migrates to Hawaii. He was also documented near NE Vancouver Island on December 4th.

Photos January 5, 2025
©MERS, Marine Mammal License MML-57.
________________

What we have shared previously about

Humpbacks don't all migrate at the same time. Some are still here in the feeding grounds and leave much later. Some return much earlier. Thereby, year-round vigilance and care are needed.

To date, there is no evidence that any Humpback overwintered off the coast of BC.

To know a Humpback had not migrated, there would need to be photos proving the whale did not have time to go back and forth to the breeding grounds. [In a case like today, we also know because the whales are still so fabulously fat i.e. they have not burned up their reserves by migrating).

60 days is the extreme minimum. It’s the standard used in research by Alaskan colleagues.

Straley et al., 2018 found: From 2007 to 2009 " . . . four whales in Prince William Sound and two whales in Sitka Sound did not make the winter migration . . . These whales represent less than 2% of the number of individuals identified during this study . . .”
To emphasize how important the feeding grounds are:

- Remember Moon (BCX1232) who migrated from BC to Hawaii even though her tail was broken from vessel strike. She could only use her pectoral fins and arrived emaciated. She has not been seen since December 2022.

- Some Grey Whales are also known to migrate to the breeding grounds even when their reserves are very low. They run out of energy on their way back to the cold water feeding grounds and die.
_________

*Great thanks to Jim Borrowman for alerting us to the Humpbacks today. We were out on a line transect survey and were quickly able to respond to the report.

December sighting of Geometry is thanks to Claus of 's Pocket Resort who took photos from land.

01/07/2025

01/05/2025

Endangered Southern Resident Tahlequah (J35) is again carrying a dead newborn calf. This tragic news is reaching around the globe. Another dead calf who was female and high energetic costs to the mother.

How to reduce threats?

The top threats to this population of Orca (who are often close to urbanization), have been confirmed by science and are documented in the Recovery Strategy.

They are the synergistic effects of:
1. Prey availability (namely Chinook Salmon);
2. Disturbance (both noise and physical disturbance); and
3. Contaminants

Thereby, if the Orca do not have a good supply of prey (size, number and fat content of Chinook), they burn up their fat stores and release the human-made toxins stored there. These toxins reduce immunity and the ability to reproduce. Noise and further disturbance from vessels amplify the impacts through stress.

[Note that the other 3 populations of Orca off BC's coast are one "step" below Endangered. They are Threatened.]

What to do?

- Let your concern influence your consumer and voter choices regarding dangerous chemicals, disposables, how much we buy, and where it comes from.

- Act to reduce climate change because this will amplify the impacts of the other threats.

- Know the laws and best practices to reduce noise and disturbance, model behaviour to other vessel operators, and to know when and where to report violations. See www.BeWhaleWise.org and www.SeeABlowGoSlow.org

Photo and quote:
NOAA Fisheries West Coast

Video of Tahlequah carrying her calf is available via this NOAA link. We chose not to share it directly. https://videos.fisheries.noaa.gov/detail/videos/b-roll:-whales-and-dolphins/video/6366629285112/b-roll:-southern-resident-killer-whale-j35-with-her-dead-calf-j61-and-a-healthy-newborn-calf-j62-on-january-1-2025?autoStart=tru

01/03/2025

The WIC's starting goal is to raise $1 million to help rebuild what was lost and restore and add to the amazing collection that we had.

01/03/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15mBPoefWE/?mibextid=wwXIfr

📣We have news! As part of some recent updates, our Port Hardy branch now has a security guard on-site during all open hours. Whether you're a regular visitor or haven't stopped by in a while, we can't wait to see you! 💛📚😊

01/02/2025

01/02/2025

It has been an emotional week for those who follow the story of the Southern Residents. First we heard of a new female calf traveling with J35 Tahlequah that was designated J61. Then, from the Center for Whale Research working with colleagues in the field from NOAA, we heard of a second calf, designated J62, traveling with the J19s. But sadly, J61 was no longer present, and even more tragically, J35, who carried her deceased neonate daughter for 17 days in 2018, was again carrying the body of her deceased daughter.

We know killer whales are wired for all of the complicated emotions that come alongside close-knit group living. We can't know for sure what they are feeling internally but I think it's fair to call the nearest human analog to what Tahlequah is experiencing "grief". She is no stranger to loss, having lost her sister, nephew, daughter, and mother over the course of about two years, becoming the de facto leader of her remaining family: son, brother, sister, and niece.

I fully believe that just like humans, killer whales may grieve in different ways. We have seen other orca moms carry their lost calves for shorter periods of time, but Tahlequah's story, for the second time over, seems different. What I also believe in no uncertain terms is that what she is doing is in no way about us. I don't think she's "sending a message" or "showing us what we've done" or "trying to get our attention". I have observed killer whales in the wild for 25 years and except for the very briefest of moments, they seem to go about their lives with very little direct regard to our presence. Trying to make her grief about us is, to me, egocentric. It diminishes her grief, and our own.

For we absolutely do grieve alongside her. We know and love these whales as individuals and families and we want them to survive and thrive. We also see a reflection of ourselves in their complex social and emotional lives. In so many ways the life of a killer whale is foreign to us, yet we still recognize something of ourselves in them. We can relate to what Tahlequah is going through, and it's heart-wrenching.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't take this tragedy as a call to action. The Southern Residents have been on the endangered species list for nearly 20 years now and we have yet to see any evidence of population recovery. What we have done to try and help them thus far has clearly not been enough. In 2018, over 17 days, Tahlequah in some ways did more for the plight of the Southern Residents than we had collectively done for them up to that point. Not on purpose - again, what she did was not about us - but our reaction to her story received global attention. More people became aware of these endangered whales than ever before, and a flurry of concrete actions followed over the next years.

My hope is that we respond similarly again. Not just with headlines and sensationalism but with our nose to the grindstone to figure out ways to get these whales more fish, cleaner waters, and quieter seas.

But first, I think it's important we each allow ourselves the space to process everything we feel as we watch this story unfold for a second time. I would invite you to also try and hold space for the emotions that come with there being a J62, who is still alive. Heartbreak and joy - loving the Southern Residents is a lesson in holding onto both simultaneously, and we have no better example of how to do that than from the whales themselves.

Monika Wieland Shields
Director, Orca Behavior Institute

Photo: J35 Tahlequah breaching during my first encounter with her in 2019, the year after she carried her lost daughter for 17 days.

01/02/2025