Argenta Tales

 Where has life gone since 2015

Well we survived tRump (barely) but it seems he wont go away and  is still in the sewer amping up his rabble that live in the alternative universe. 

What else is new? Climate change is here and while some flat earthers still want to deny reality, the forests of BC are on fire, Germany is flooded out and there is drought in the southwest.  The Covid pandemic came to test us all and most of us survived thanks to vaccines and self isolating.  I am totally pissed off at the anti vaxxers and don't care if they die except of the outsized impact they have had on the health care system.  I feel for all the doctors and nurses and admire their commitment greatly.  I did like the self isolating bit except not being able to eat out occasionally.  The hiding behind my gate helped me focus on my garden in a way that helped me complete my horticultural vision.  Here is a sample of my work:

This is the path to my front door ( don't use it much but the path looks great)

This is a view from my house toward the cottage. Treeman is lording over the spring flush. The magenta rhodo to the right is about 10 feet tall and is a show stopper. The photo to the right is an arbor that Ian made me 20 years ago and there is a Nellie Moser clematis planted on it that has had a few blooms every year but decided that 2021 would be the year it would strut its stuff!

And now that it is full summer, the delphiniums and dahlias in the garden are breathtaking.

then there are the lilies that Melanie gave me years ago that I transplanted into the Rhodo bed because they have grown so much I no longer have room in what I call my First Garden.

And, of course there is the party deck

Gardens aside, my real covid project has been to start a Citizen Science project on Saturna that has grown to include Pender and hopefully Mayne.  There are probably about 30 of us who live by the water and have a collaborative whale tracking arrangement with the BC Cetacean Sighting Network (BCCSN) in and around the Interim Sanctuary Zone (ISZ) off Saturna and Pender Islands.  We also have developed a more direct method to report vessel infractions with Department of Fisheries and Oceans , Compliance/Enforcement Division and the Parks Canada Warden Service. 

For the past two years, DFO provided us with digital maps and physically marked out the ISZ border for the Saturna Sighters and for the whale researchers who established a sighting platform by the lighthouse at East Point  to observe Boiling Reef and a wide section of Boundary Pass. In addition, we had access to two range finders (provided by DFO and Parks Canada) in order to verify distances of boaters who were in the ISZ. One of these range finders was provided to the SFU Masters Student whale researchers who, in addition to tracking cetaceans, used the document vessel compliance at East Point (the eastern end of the ISZ).  The second range finder was used at a site on Cliffside (the part of East Point along Boundary Pass). 

  

A preliminary key finding is that over 300 cetaceans were tracked in the waters around Saturna from April 5, 2020 through November 5, 2020 (7 months). 

To our knowledge this is the only longitudinal study of cetaceans in the waters off Saturna Island.

Also, for the past two years we also have been accumulating data of compliance and non-compliance of vessels at the Boiling Reef/Boundary Pass end of the Saturna ISZ, and in 2021 we added the Pender ISZ. 

Our findings are not particularly encouraging. In both 2020 and 2021 most vessels that travel the waters are not obeying the law (most as in over 60%).  Do these boaters know about the zone and don't give a shit, or are they in the sanctuary zone because they don't know about the protected area  given the government is not doing a particularly good job at communicating. Hard to tell because COVID has prevented information sessions at boat and tourism events but it appears a robust  communication approach that targets boaters has yet to materialize.  

 Sigh. Oh, and DFO doesn't have enough staff and their enforcement boat doesn't work half the time and they don't have enough funds to get a new one.....the staff are great but senior management and the politicians are only interested in greenwashing.  All talk no action.

Here are the 2021 SFU Masters Students at work

and here is my favourite whale caller 

And the Littles who are not so little anymore

And all this is a sorta update and to let you know that now now  it is relatively safe to travel I am off to Mozambique to spend time with Dr. Sierra and Malakhi.  Hope you stay reading for new adventures.

I love you all