Canadian West Research Articles

Back to the Future: Winnipeg’s Reinvention from Borderland Trade and Transportation Gateway to Globalized Trade and Transportation Hub

ABSTRACT Winnipeg’s location at almost the geographical center of the North American continent has historically made it an important transportation focal point with connections that have integrated the city with places and regions beyond its southern Manitoba boundaries. Winnipeg is also both a borderland city, with historically important links to American centers to the south, and a regional gateway and hub, with strong connections to the rest of Canada. This paper explores the history of Winnipeg as a transportation and trading center and focuses on its early borderland associations with the upper Midwest and northern Plains, its emergence and decline as the major metropolis and gateway to the Canadian West, and its recent efforts to draw upon the past in order to reinvent itself as a Great Plains, North American, and global trade and transportation hub. In doing so, the essay adds to the pre-existing literature that exists regarding Winnipeg as a historical trade center by examining how governments and businesses have integrated and managed globalization processes and geographical features in their desire to make the city more competitive. In particular, it focuses on the role that Winnipeg’s inland dry port – CentrePoint Canada – plays in achieving this objective.

Black Words and White Space

This essay analyzes how Cheryl Foggo’s memoir Pourin’ Down Rain contextualizes itself in the recovery of Black space, identity, and story in Canada. An understanding of Black storytelling, founded in Joanne Braxton’s Black Women Writing Autobiography, provides insight into the ways in which Foggo’s memoir fits within a Black storytelling tradition, and how these forms work to disrupt the kind of tradition preserving the ideological space of the “White West.” An analysis of photography and oral storytelling helps explore how Foggo uses alternative narrative techniques to tell a story that challenges dominant perceptions of Blackness and what historical archiving should look like. Finally, this essay deconstructs perceptions of the Canadian West as established by the region’s pre-existing literary canon, and explores how Pourin’ Down Rain opposes these perceptions by challenging some of the common conventions in White prairie narratives.

Danger, no exit: Relationships to ‘remains’ and ‘petromelancholia’ on the landscape of the oil sands

The article relates taxidermy to oil in the subculture associated with the oil sands in the Canadian West. Kitsch as it relates to postmodernism, and postmodernism to oil, share a sense of melancholy; an affect which is explored through the author's own practice as a visual artist and in the work of Claire Morgan, an artist from the UK. The affect of oil, and its implications as to mortality on the landscape are examined through an engagement with objects considered as ‘remains’ sourced from the local area, generally in or near the town of Fort McMurray. The author, expanding on past work, proposes a mode by which the subculture of oil workers might be engaged in environmental narratives, necessitating attentiveness to issues of class. The author's artwork describes her own personal experiences in the region and the experiences of members of her community. This article is an attempt to contextualize and elaborate on specific experiences of oil culture; the 2016 Horse River (Fort McMurray) wildfire is a focal point.

Proposed seismic design parameters for the moment-resisting knee-braced frame system

This paper proposes and verifies the seismic design parameters, including overstrength-related force modification factor, ductility-related force modification factor, deflection amplification factor, and design period, for the steel Moment-resisting Knee-braced Frame (MKF) system. The building selected in this study is an office located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in which MKFs act as the lateral load-resisting system. 14 prototype frames spanning a wide range of geometrical configurations are designed following the requirements of the 2015 National Building Code (2015 NBC) of Canada. Nonlinear static analyses are carried out on the prototype frames to determine the preliminary ductility and overstrength factors. Six new MKFs (assessment frames) are designed using the proposed overstrength and ductility factors, and their seismic and collapse performances are examined by comprehensive numerical analyses, considering the effects of the potential sources of ground motion expected on the Canadian west coast, namely subduction intraslab, subduction interface and shallow crustal events. The results of this study suggest that the MKF system shall be designed as a moderately ductile system using overstrength and ductility factors of 1.60 and 3.0, respectively, with a height not exceeding 40 m in regions of high seismicity.

Miss Jack May, Lady Farmer in England and Canada

ABSTRACT This paper was inspired by the incomplete story of Englishwoman Isabel ‘Jack’ May (1875–1970), a media sensation from 1905 to 1912 because she was a ‘lady farmer’, wore ‘male attire’ and adopted the name ‘Jack’. Already well-known in England, May’s celebrity was enhanced when she purchased land in Alberta, Canada in 1911, where she farmed with a female companion. In late 1912 however, May sailed to England, never to return, and disappeared from public view. In Sarah Carter’s 2016 book Imperial Plots, May’s fate was a mystery, but Carter surmised May did not feel welcome in the Canadian West where gender transgressors were shunned. The authors, inspired by Laite’s ‘small history in a digital age’ methodological approach, discovered a deeper, richer and more complex life history. This paper reconstructs May’s life and analyses the intense media scrutiny which positioned her as an aberration against traditional femininity to understand more about the lives of other non-conforming women of this period. While we argue that May was not transgender, rather living openly as a cross-dressing woman, her self-identification as ‘farmer’ and decision to spend her adult life with same-sex companions, offers an alternative view of trans and queer ‘spaces of possibility’.

My Canadiana

In the article the author talks about his research activities in the field of Canadian studies and immigration studies, which has begun in the late 1970s in the Chernivtsi State University. The subject of the author’s scientific research was to study the role of immigrants of different ethnic origins in the settlement and development of the Canadian West and in the socio-economic progress of Canada as a whole in the period since the late nineteenth century until the beginning of the WWII. A separate place is given to the author’s participation in respected scientific conferences, for example, his participation in the centennial conference “Ukrainian Canadians 1924 - 1951: Profiles and Case Studies” (6 - 9 September 1991), sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. The work of this conference proceeded in seven sections, each dealing with a definite topic. The section “Immigration and Settlement” dealt with two reports: “Ukraine’s Archival Sources on the History of Ukrainians in Canada (1920 - 1939)” by Leonid Leshchenko (Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv) and “Occupations of Ukrainian Immigrants in Canada during the Interwar Period” by Oleksandr Sych. One of the stages in the author’s Canadiana was to establish the fruitful scientific contacts with the Russian Association for Canadian Studies (RACS), including his participation in its International Biennial Conferences, the meetings with the President of RACS, Dr. Sergei Molochkov and other Canadianists, etc.

Radioactivity concentration measurements in fish and shellfish samples from the west coast of Canada after the Fukushima nuclear accident (2011–2018)

Radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean following the Fukushima nuclear accident has raised public concern about seafood safety, particularly in coastal Indigenous communities. To address this, Health Canada and partners have collected and analyzed a total of 621 samples of commonly consumed salmon, ground fish, and shellfish from the Canadian west coast from 2011 to 2018. While the vast majority of the 137Cs and 134Cs levels were below the Minimum Detectable Concentration (MDC, typically 0.7–1.0 Bq kg−1 fw for a 6 h counting), further examination of 19 fish samples revealed 137Cs concentrations of 0.17–0.53 Bq kg−1 fw with an average value and uncertainty (k = 1) of 0.29 ± 0.02 Bq kg−1 fw. Of these, only two samples were found to have trace levels of 134Cs likely derived from the Fukushima accident. The global fallout contribution from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing to the observed 137Cs in these two samples was determined to be 0.26 ± 0.08 Bq kg−1 fw (49 ± 14%) and 0.12 ± 0.02 Bq kg−1 fw (24 ± 4%) for collection years 2015 and 2016, respectively. The annual average level of 137Cs in fish and shellfish was also determined by spectral summation for collection years 2014–2018. In fish, 137Cs levels determined through spectral summation were relatively constant (0.18–0.25 Bq kg−1 fw) with an average value and uncertainty of 0.21 ± 0.02 Bq kg−1 fw. By contrast, 38 shellfish samples (bivalves) were measured and revealed no radiocesium or other anomalies in either tissue or shell. In all, measurements over eight years showed that the radioactivity in fish and shellfish was dominated by natural radionuclides and that the level of anthropogenic radionuclides, as indicated by the radioactive cesium content, remained small. An upper bound for ingested dose from 137Cs was determined to be approximately 0.26 μSv per year, far below the worldwide average annual effective dose of 2400 μSv from exposure to natural background radiation. We can therefore conclude that fish, such as salmon, ground fish, and shellfish from the Canadian west coast are of no radiological health concern despite the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident of 2011.

The need for formal reflexivity in conservation science

AbstractConservation issues are often complicated by sociopolitical controversies that reflect competing philosophies and values regarding natural systems, animals, and people. Effective conservation outcomes require managers to engage myriad influences (social, cultural, political, and economic, as well as ecological). The contribution of conservation scientists who generate the information on which solutions rely is constrained if they are unable to acknowledge how personal values and disciplinary paradigms influence their research and conclusions. Conservation challenges involving controversial species provide an opportunity to reflect on the paradigms and value systems that underpin the discipline and practice of conservation science. Recent analyses highlight the ongoing reliance on normative values in conservation. We frame our discussion around controversies over feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) in the Canadian West and New Zealand and suggest that a lack of transparency and reflexivity regarding normative values continues to prevent conservation practitioners from finding resilient conservation solutions. We suggest that growing scrutiny and backlash to many normative conservation objectives necessitates formal reflexivity methods in conservation biology research, similar to those required of researchers in social science disciplines. Moreover, given that much conservation research and action continues to prioritize Western normative values regarding nature and conservation, we suggest that adopting reflexive methods more broadly is an important step toward more socially just research and practice. Formalizing such methods and requiring reflexivity in research will not only encourage reflection on how personal and disciplinary value systems influence conservation work but could more effectively engage people with diverse perspectives and values in conservation and encourage more novel and resilient conservation outcomes, particularly when dealing with controversial species.

Occurrence, characterization, and ecological assessment of petroleum-related hydrocarbons on the shoreline of Fraser River Delta, British Columbia, Canada

The Fraser River Delta is a unique and dynamic region supporting the diverse ecosystems and habitats in the Canadian West Coast. Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), n-alkanes, petroleum biomarkers, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed for the intertidal sediments taken from the shorelines of the Delta area, British Columbia, Canada, to establish the baseline background data. Most of the sampling sites had low TPH (< 40 μg/g); only two samples had TPH from 100 to 150 μg/g. Mainly biogenic n-alkanes were present in all sites. Non-detectable to trace amounts of petroleum biomarkers were found at most sites. Mixed pyrogenic and petrogenic inputs contributed to the presence of PAHs at most sites. PAHs are not present in amounts anticipated negative effects to benthic organisms in all sampling sites, except that benzo (a) pyrene (BaP) from the upper intertidal zone (UIZ) of Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park may have possible adverse biological effects.

Estuarine Circulation, Mixing, and Residence Times in the Salish Sea

AbstractA realistic numerical model is used to study the circulation and mixing of the Salish Sea, a large, complex estuarine system on the United States and Canadian west coast. The Salish Sea is biologically productive and supports many important fisheries but is threatened by recurrent hypoxia and ocean acidification, so a clear understanding of its circulation patterns and residence times is of value. The estuarine exchange flow is quantified at 39 sections over 3 years (2017–2019) using the Total Exchange Flow method. Vertical mixing in the 37 segments between sections is quantified as opposing vertical transports: the efflux and reflux. Efflux refers to the rate at which deep, landward‐flowing water is mixed up to become part of the shallow, seaward‐flowing layer. Similarly, reflux refers to the rate at which upper layer water is mixed down to form part of the landward inflow. These horizontal and vertical transports are used to create a box model to explore residence times in a number of different sub‐volumes, seasons, and years. Residence times from the box model are generally found to be longer than those based on simpler calculations of flushing time. The longer residence times are partly due to reflux, and partly due to incomplete tracer homogenization in sub‐volumes. The methods presented here are broadly applicable to other estuaries.

Beneath the Backbone of the World: Blackfoot People and the North American Borderlands, 1720–1877 by Ryan Hall

Reviewed by: Beneath the Backbone of the World: Blackfoot People and the North American Borderlands, 1720–1877 by Ryan Hall Ted Binnema (bio) Keywords Native Americans, Blackfoot, Northern borderlands, Indigenous peoples Beneath the Backbone of the World: Blackfoot People and the North American Borderlands, 1720–1877. By Ryan Hall. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. 260. Cloth $90.00.) Two traditions, ethnohistory and the New Indian History, have dominated Indigenous historiography in the United States since World War II. Ethnohistory has pre-war roots but was heavily influenced by the adjudications of the Indian Claims Commission, which demanded anthropological and historical evidence. Ethnohistorians assume that the histories of Indigenous societies are significant and interesting for their own sake. The many publications of John C. Ewers on the history of the Blackfoot peoples are exemplars of ethnohistory. The New Indian History emerged during the 1960s together with other “new” histories geared toward the marginalized (women, ethnic and racial minorities, working classes, and regional populations, for example) with the aim of integrating the histories of previously neglected groups into mainstream historiography. Ryan Hall’s history of the Blackfoot is in this second tradition. Hall asserts that Blackfoot history is [End Page 689] “essential to understanding the history of the U.S. and Canadian West” (5). Hall likewise argues that Blackfoot history “forces us to expand our framework for ‘early’ North America to include regions that have long been considered remote or peripheral” (5). Of course, North American Indians did not always fit the social historian’s “bottom-up” approach. In some contexts, they were the dominant peoples. That was the case for the Blackfoot during most of the period discussed in Hall’s history. So, Hall explicitly places his history in a growing body of recent work that portrays western Indian communities such as the Comanche, Lakota, and others as powerful “empires” or nations. Most of those studies focus on the United States–Spanish/Mexican borderlands, but Hall turns his attention to the northern borderlands. His central argument is that “from the late eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, the Blackfoot were among the most powerful, prosperous, and geographically expansive polities in all of North America. The Blackfoot accomplished this in large part by recognizing and mastering the transnational dimensions of their homeland” (4–5). Unfortunately, in his attempt to demonstrate the significance of Blackfoot history in the history of the United States and Canada, Hall obscures and ignores what makes the history of the Blackfoot so fascinating and significant in its own right. The most important weakness of this book is that it depicts the Blackfoot as an almost state-like nation, and its leaders as powerful leaders. For example, it opens by describing Bull Back Fat as “one of the most powerful chiefs in the three Blackfoot nations, which made him one of the most powerful Indigenous people of all of North America” (1). Abundant historical evidence, long acknowledged by anthropologists and historians, shows that the Blackfoot of the time comprised many autonomous bands with no central authority, and that its leaders wielded no coercive power even over their own bands. Because Hall assumes that the Blackfoot were always a nation with powerful leaders he fails to recognize evidence that the Blackfoot bands may have been experiencing dramatic internal political changes in the 1870s. Hall mentions (172) the Blackfoot Council of 1875, after which fifteen Siksika, Kainai, and Piegan submitted a petition to the Canadian government, but not that these chiefs may have set a precedent by styling themselves as chiefs of the “Chokitapix.” Other documents suggest that the Blackfoot were developing new political strategies in the 1870s, to address the challenges of dealing with the American and Canadian governments. [End Page 690] If so, the development reflected a fascinating process that occurred in Indigenous societies around the world. Hall also fails to mention the impact that the Chokitapix petition had on Canadian government officials. Ignoring the history of Blackfoot (or Lakota or Comanche) political evolution obscures important historical processes as much is it would to assume that the 1789 United States Constitution was in effect in 1781, 1776, and 1763. This book implies that, since 1720...

Is It Global History’s Moment?

Is It Global History’s Moment? Carol L. Higham (bio) Janne Lahti, The American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2019. vi + 189 pp. Epilogue, index. $44.95. Andrew Offenburger, Frontiers in the Gilded Age: Adventure, Capitalism, & Dispossession from Southern Africa to the U.S. -Mexican Borderlands, 1880–1917. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. xv + 299 pp. Note on orthography, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00. For over thirty years, global history of the American West has been on the cusp of having its moment. Beginning with Howard Lamar and Leonard Thompson’s comparative work, The Frontier in History: North America and Southern Africa Compared (1983), which first linked the American West to the South African frontier and others, scholars have touted a more global approach as the way to critically re-evaluate American history, and the frontier and the West in particular. In her recent essay, “When Western History Tried to Reinvent Itself: Revisionism, Controversy, and the Reception of the New Western History,” (2021) Natalie Massip discusses the recent calls for globalizing the history of the American West. Assertions such as Kerwin Klein’s Frontiers of Historical Imagination (1997), and Jeremy Adelman and Steven Aron’s “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in between in North American History,” (1999) suggest that placing the American West in a global context would revitalize the field and provide a more critical understanding of the colonial past of the nation. They seek to move the history of the American West from a regional study to a global one by reclaiming the importance of the frontier, using settler colonialism as a framework with which to analyze the West, and dismantling the idea of exceptionalism. Beyond these theoretical ideas of how to globalize the American West, a set of parallel movements have emerged: transnational and comparative history. Transnational history represents the study of themes, peoples, and ideas that cross borders and nationalities. Two excellent examples would be Sam Truett’s Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (2008) and Beth Ladow’s The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland (2013). Truett’s work, which straddles borderlands and transnational [End Page 435] history, set a standard for defining a region and place through the eyes of the historical actors. His term, “fugitive landscapes,” which he used to describe the ebb and flow of control of the borderland regions, presents an example for other historians of how to abandon nation-state definitions for more accurate regional or borderlands ones. Ladow’s work introduced the idea that historical actors ignored or invoked the nation-state as needed and that Indigenous peoples continued to define the land beyond the nation-state. Her work revitalized how historians of the Indigenous populations of the American and Canadian Wests viewed place, frontier, and borderlands. Transnational history beyond North America represents a trickier subject as an historian needs to find a global link like an industry, missionary work, or a specific policy, thereby limiting the scholarship. Comparative history utilizes some of the same methodologies as trans-national history by either comparing a similar process in different places or comparing similar places experiencing different processes. Lamar and Thompson’s work seeks to trace the frontier through different places. It presents one of the foremost problems facing the practice of comparative history: the need to master the historiographies, sources, and even languages, of two or more places. Thus, the work was an edited volume with specific chapters on specific frontiers and summative analysis at the beginning and end. For a single author, the task seems daunting, yet some scholars have ably managed it. Steve Sabol’s “The Touch of Civilization”: Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization (2017) represents the rare case where a single author possesses the language and historiographic skills to compare disparate regions and peoples, in this case the Kazakh and the Sioux. By comparing similar policies of dispossession and assimilation in seemingly dissimilar places, Sabol discovers that many outsiders saw these transitions as a transnational process. In a similar manner, Tolly Bradford’s Prophetic Identities: Indigenous Missionaries on British Colonial Frontiers, 1850–1875 (2012) compares...

Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue by R.H. Vickers &amp; R. Budd

Vickers, Roy Henry, and Robert Budd. Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue. Illustrated by Roy Henry Vickers. Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd., 2019.&#x0D; This picture book by Indigenous artist Roy Henry Vickers and author Robert Budd, is designed to teach young children about elements of nature found on the Canadian west coast. Roy Henry Vicker’s beautiful illustrations draw the reader’s attention to the main theme of each page (e.g., whales, sea stars, sunsets, mountains, snow, the northern lights). Each page has its own colour theme and a specific colour is always mentioned (e.g., “yellow salmonberries", “purple sea stars”, “sunset red”). There are textured images allowing children to touch and feel something on every page. The book is printed on thick board pages, making it resistant to wear and tear and easier for young readers to flip through on their own. The colours and illustrations are vivid and are engaging for both children and adults. Most of the vocabulary is appropriate for younger readers, while the more difficult words serve as an opportunity to learn the names of west coast plants and animals, the names of different colours and the use of adjectives. In addition, the book has an abundance of words that start with the letter “s” which makes it a valuable resource for children who need practice producing the “s” sound. This book is recommended for teaching children, as young as two, about nature, and it should be available in school and public libraries.&#x0D; Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Stephanie Borle&#x0D; Stephanie Borle is a University of Alberta graduate student of Speech-Language Pathology who enjoys working with adults and children. She is particularly interested in working with bilingual children and new immigrants in the area of developmental and acquired language disorders.&#x0D;

Революционные события в России в прессе канадских провинций Прерий

This paper discusses the perception of revolutionary events in Russia, the February and the October revolutions in particular, in newspapers of three Prairie provinces of Canada (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan). These events were perceived by the press of West Canada (as well as the press of other Canadian regions) rather ambiguously - perception of the February and October events was diametrically opposite. The February revolution was greeted by the press of the Canadian West with enthusiasm. Newspapers welcomed the overthrow of Russian autocracy, and hoped that new Russian democratic regime would be able more effectively fight against Germany. The Tsarist regime was sharply criticized by the Western Canadian press. Tsar’s government was blamed for ignoring democratic freedoms, the bureaucratization of the state apparatus and, in particular, the collapse of the army. For the Prairie’s provincial press, the most important was precisely the question of whether Russia could continue to participate in the war - the success of the Canadian forces in the Western Front directly depended on the effectiveness of Russians troops in the Eastern Front. Both the establishment of democracy in Russia and hopes for a turnaround on the Eastern Front were associated by the West Canadian press with the name of the Chairman of the Provisional Government - A. F. Kerensky. However, he could not live up to expectation of Canadians - his popularity fell sharply after the failure of the July offensive by the Russian army. Nevertheless, after the events of October 1917, the press of Western Canada completely sided with the ousted Provisional Government, sharply criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks. This was due, in many respects, to their negative reputation. Since before the October Revolution press of the Prairie’s provinces portrayed them as dangerous radicals. After October 1917 in Western Canadian newspapers a large-scale anti-Bolshevik campaign started. The Bolsheviks was accused of establishing a dictatorship in Russia, suppressing dissent and, in particular, close cooperation with Germany. Thus, the newspapers of three Western Canadian provinces perceived the two Russian revolutions in completely different ways: the February Revolution was enthusiastically accepted by them, while the October Revolution was rejected.

White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West by Ryan Eyford

<i>White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West</i> by Ryan Eyford

White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West

<i>White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West</i>

Indigenous and Colonial Physical Culture in Lethbridge: Sport, Contact, and Settlement on the Prairie Frontier

Abstract On the prairie frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, sport represented one of the earliest social practices and sites of contact between migrant settlers and First Nations peoples. In Lethbridge, some of the first interactions between Indigenous peoples—primarily the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot)—and Euro-Canadians occurred during this period of community-building. Examining these points of exchange through understandings of contact and colonialism can disrupt existing narratives. The concept of intersectionality provides one means to assess historical relations between settlers and Indigenous peoples in the colonial-era Canadian west. Additionally, contact zones as spaces where disparate cultures interacted provide further insight into how some Indigenous athletes disrupted frontier identities attached to athletic prowess through horse racing, rodeo, and distance running. For these Indigenous athletes, the intersections where they existed often defined their sporting achievements, where the opportunity to compete revealed possibilities unavailable elsewhere in their daily lives.

Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic responses of natural oil degrading bacteria in the presence of dispersants.

Oil biodegradation has been extensively studied in the wake of the deepwater horizon spill, but the application of dispersant to oil spills in marine environments remains controversial. Here, we report metagenomic (MG) and metatranscriptomic (MT) data mining from microcosm experiments investigating the oil degrading potential of Canadian west and east coasts to estimate the gene abundance and activity of oil degrading bacteria in the presence of dispersant. We found that the addition of dispersant to crude oil mainly favours the abundance of Thalassolituus in the summer and Oleispira in the winter, two key natural oil degrading bacteria. We found a high abundance of genes related not only to n-alkane and aromatics degradation but also associated with transporters, two-component systems, bacterial motility, secretion systems and bacterial chemotaxis.

Rain, Runoff, and Diatoms: the Effects of the North Pacific 2014\u20132015 Warm Anomaly on Particle Flux in a Canadian West Coast Fjord

Sediment traps were deployed at 50 m depth in Douglas Channel, a fjord on the west coast of Canada, for 3 years (July 2013–July 2016). Particle flux was related to rain, freshwater discharge, and phytoplankton blooms. The North Pacific warm water anomaly (known popularly as the Blob) reached coastal waters during the second year of deployment, resulting in more autumn rain and less snow than during the other 2 years. The maximum particle flux was associated with the snowfed river freshet in May during the first year and with heavy October rains during the second and third years. A protracted sedimentation event consisting of copious diatoms occurred during the warm, second winter (December 2014–February 2015). Silica (empty diatom frustules) was exported, intercepting silicate from local rivers that might otherwise have reached the outer shelf. The effects of extreme climate events are experienced differently inshore than offshore, because they are mediated by local hydrology. During the Blob year, Douglas Channel experienced exceptionally high rainfall in October, which resulted in high particle flux. As the climate continues to warm, mild, rainy years like 2014–2015 will become more common, with the possibility of further winter blooms.

210Po in Pacific Salmon from the West Coast of Canada and its Contribution to Dose by Ingestion.

In response to public concern in Canada regarding health impacts attributable to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, oceanic seawater samples from the north Pacific and Arctic oceans, coastal seawater samples from 16 locations along the British Columbia coastline, and seafood samples (salmon, steelhead trout, and shellfish) from British Columbia coastal waters were collected and analyzed. This paper reports radiological analysis results of Pacific salmon samples (Oncorhynchus species) obtained from summer 2013 to fall 2016. While radioactive cesium from the Fukushima disaster was not detectable in most salmon samples, naturally occurring Po was measured in almost all individual samples in varying activity concentrations, from below the detection limit of 0.2 Bq kg fresh weight up to 4.7 Bq kg fresh weight. The average Po concentration among 297 salmon samples was 0.73 Bq kg fresh weight. The average ingested radiation dose per kilogram of salmon from Po is estimated to be 0.88 μSv, and the average dose from Cs is estimated to be 0.0026 μSv. The annual dose from ingested salmon would be only a fraction of the worldwide average annual effective dose from exposure to natural background radiation (2,400 μSv y) (). The measurement results showed clearly that radiation doses to people consuming fish (such as salmon) from the Canadian west coast pose no health concern.