Climate change is driving a gray whale “catastrophic mortality event” in the Pacific Ocean as melting sea ice depletes food sources and the animals starve, environmental groups warn. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Had a blast today at Victoria's Prawnfest, talking kelp & urchins for @bluefutureskelp.bsky.social along with Pacific Urchin Harversters Association! Brought along some kelp gametophytes to show what culturing for restoration looks like #yyj #vanisle #kelp #urchin #prawnfest

Right beforehand was the Pacific Seaweed Summit hosted by Wei Wai Kum FN, Pacific Seaweed Ind. Assoc., N. Island College, & Heiltuk Climate Action. It was an inspiring & connective gathering, reconnecting with many phyco-friends & appreciating this coast’s diverse community of mariculturists+more!

What a week! Blue Futures Kelp was at the Huu-ay-aht First Nations Three Star Dark Sky Festival, joining a panel on mariculture & ocean science. Thank you to HFN & Foundry Events for hosting, highly recommend this festival for anyone else with a love of stars & sea! 🌊🪐

Real petrostate shit

This is really troubling and a bad sign for this government’s approach to managing wild salmon @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/04...

“When contacted by The Tyee, B.C’s Public Safety Ministry declined to say which climate groups or treaty negotiations it monitors and whether they are linked to protests or illegal activity. It also refused to explain how the secretariat’s work monitoring protests overlaps with treaty negotiations.”

social housing units built by year in Canada, 1972-2010 - by number of units - as % of all housing built

I’m excited to be a panelist at this year’s Three Stars Dark Sky Festival, happening May 8-10 in my old home on Huu-ay-aht territory! 🌌 📍Pathways: Between Land & Sky | House of Huu-ay-aht | 📆 Sunday, May 10 👉🎟️ Plan your visit: hgb.tickit.ca/events/34302... #vanisle #explorebc #kelp #darksky

Thread detailing Mark Carney’s war on libraries, knowledge, and culture throughout so many parts of society. His deep cuts to the public service are not in line with the vision he presents of a bold and more independent Canada.

First Nations leaders are condemning Premier David Eby’s plan to suspend parts of #DRIPA as a step backward that will increase uncertainty for all British Columbians and create political problems for the NDP. Andrew MacLeod reports. #bcpoli

This is a massive warning sign. Plus continued delusions this government has over the economics of further oil and gas expansion in Canada. Plus the erosion of the public sector etc. that protects democracy, & prioritization of corporate interests closely aligned with the U.S. government. #CDNpoli

Here’s the story of one of them. Awful www.thestranger.com/forced-out/f...

8/This is a war brought to you by the fracking boom. Transitioning away from fossil fuels will not guarantee peace, but it may be our best chance to break free from cycles of conflict, coercion + instability fossil fuels perpetuate + build a more secure/resilient future oilchange.org/blogs/trumps...

The days of Britain’s fish and chip shops might be numbered. Rising temperatures and overfishing have seen the U.K.’s iconic cod decline for over a decade. Now, consumers are warned to “completely avoid” eating the fish.

Some beautiful new seaweed growth in the shallows here in Lekwungen territory, south Vancouver Island ☀️ #PhycologyFriday #vanisle

These updates have in turn bumped up my annual projection for 2026 temperatures to 1.53C (±0.11C), which puts it on track to be somewhere between the 1st and 4th warmest year on record, with a best estimate of second warmest:

I've updated my El Niño forecast plume with the latest April data (ECMWF, NMME, CFSv2, Canadian models). Its now looking like it might end up giving 2015/2016 a run for its money in terms of strength, with a peak of ~2.6C in the ENSO3.4 region by end of year: dashboard.theclimate...

We’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas!

I’ve recently been harvesting sea urchins with the crew of Seaworthy, a small fishing boat that sells our catch directly to customers on the dock! It’s been awesome to learn the ropes of a fishery that has huge potential to help kelp forests threatened by urchin overgrazing #urchin #kelp #vanisle

26. Though this article doesn't mention specific instances, it reports that tech giants have recently abandoned construction of a number of multi-billion dollar data centres in the face of community opposition. www.reuters.com/sustainabili... #MovementWins2026

Years before Alberta even became a province, First Nations signed Treaties guaranteeing their rights to the land in perpetuity. A century later, and First Nations are in court this week, using their Treaties to mount one of the strongest challenges to Alberta separatism, writes @readtheorchard.org

For #PhycologyFriday, some (submerged) intertidal seaweeds here in Lekwungen territory (south Vancouver Island). Watching a sunlight dance on the Iridescent Seaweed (which has one of my fave Latin names, Mazzaella splendens) was a real treat!

Today in AI: Canada rejected the PR application of a McMaster postdoc from the Sorbonne who works in the immunology of aging because the generative AI being used to process applications (😱) entirely hallucinated her credentials. Everyone involved should be fired. archive.is/ELrCI#select...

There exists a structural tension at the heart of Colombia’s energy transition strategy.

Research suggests many #highseas #fisheries would be unprofitable without public support, raising questions about whether some “productive” #fishing activity exists largely because of #subsidies. news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-... @drrashidsumaila.bsky.social @seaaroundus.org @ubccoru.bsky.social

City officials and policy wonks have mostly sought to respond to rising rents by building new housing, arguing that increased supply is the only way to bring down rental costs. But that idea, according to a major new housing study, is dead wrong. hellgatenyc.com/take-that-ez...

NEW: Canadian troops deployed in occupied Palestine as part of Operation Proteus attended a “seminar” showcasing Israel’s genocidal methods in Gaza. www.readthemaple.com/israeli-mili...

The government’s latest energy futures report drops modelling for a 1.5C scenario and assumes Canada remains a major oil and gas supplier for decades to come. More climate denial dressed up as serious analysis to invent a rationale for Carney’s fossil fuel expansionist plans.

For #PhycologyFriday, another week of surveying herring spawn in Tlai-o-qui-aht & Ahousat territory, west Vancouver Island, with lots of eggs on seaweeds!

Climate change fears grip Nuuk as winter temperatures reach record highs.

Another perennial reminder how we’re all constantly being duped by the viability of industrial CCS www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/18/a...

For #PhycologyFriday, some views from the annual Pacific herring spawn dive surveys I’m working this year, exemplifying the importance of seaweeds as fish habitat! Seen in Toquaht and Huu-ay-aht territories, west Vancouver Island

When the BC Conservatives voted for a bill to repeal the human rights code, the NDP caucus promptly put out a press release slamming the Cons who "couldn’t muster the courage to stand against it." Today, 0 NDP MLAs mustered the courage to vote against a bill to close all BC's safe consumption sites

This is very well done & comprehensive

As a Mt. A alumnus, I can say without a doubt that privatizing would destroy everything that made it good & special (despite its corporatization already being underway), & it’s shocking NB is considering this. I already wrote the Premier & Min. of Education, urging other alumni to as well! #NBpoli

For #PhycologyFriday, check out my latest post on @bluefutureskelp.bsky.social 🌊

BC has a zero-sum choice between electrifying its economy + meeting climate goals, or subsidizing power generation for climate-busting LNG export terminals + data centres. You can’t have the former if you keep pushing the later, as gov/industry keep doing!

This is crazy, second-order stuff.

NEWS: Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison was planning to sell a warehouse for use as an ICE detention and processing facility. After pressure from the public, and from B.C. Green Party leader @emilylowan.bsky.social, Pattison's company has cancelled the sale www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Breaking - Jim Pattison Developments say the sale of their warehouse for use as a proposed ICE facility will not be proceeding

We should all be screaming from the rooftops that the Al boom/bubble is incompatible with a safe future climate! It's almost solely undoing what little progress on energy transition the world had done to date!

Sea turtles may be better able to cope with climate change than we thought. There are concerns that the reptiles face extinction because warmer conditions will make most #turtle eggs develop into females. But the animals have a genetic safety net. 🧪 🦑 🐢 www.newscientist.com/article/2512...

The Don River was once so polluted with waste, garbage + chemicals that it caught on fire. The water itself, which flows towards Lake Ontario, was so inhospitable that it hosted life’s very antithesis. Now, researchers are starting to see a rebirth. For @nationalobserver.com

“The report marks the first time a social cost of carbon (SCC) assessment — a key measure of economic harm caused by climate change — has included damages to the ocean.” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/26/n...

The aquatic restoration happening in urban Toronto is wildly impressive & a beacon of hope in a province & country otherwise reversing course on climate+environment, I had the fortune of seeing some firsthand helping an old lab mate with it during my M.Sc www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/26/n...

This can only end in less environmental oversight and protection, in the already flawed Canadian environmental management system tilted towards the interests of corporations and their shareholders at the expense of workers and the environment

This incredibly cool new research shows that the first really big large organism on land was not a giant fungus, as many gave hypothesized. It was so chemically different from fungi that the authors propose "this enigmatic organism is best assigned to an entirely extinct eukaryotic lineage."

A new publication coauthored by Blue Future Kelp’s @claysteell.bsky.social is out, exploring the growing practice of #biobanking kelps for conservation & restoration. Read more below! 🌊 #PhycologyFriday #kelp