"Green crabs from Nova Scotia are the same species as their cousins that already inhabit Maine waters, but are ornerier and angrier, threatening to accelerate harm to the coastal ecosystem by gobbling up soft-shell clams and destroying native eelgrass, a researcher said.
The new crab variant that originated in northern Europe is hardier and adapted to colder water than the more docile crab, which originally came from southern Europe.
Green crabs, even the docile ones, are considered a scourge that can devour soft-shell and juvenile clams. They can destroy eelgrass that provides a hiding place for juvenile sea creatures."
Via CBC NS
"Oceanographer Christopher Taggart and his team have been mapping areas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the whales are most likely follow their stomachs to food.
"We're trying to figure out what is driving the places where they go, and when they go there, and it's all to do with the oceanography and their food," Taggart said Friday at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, where Ottawa announced it would continue to fund his work.
"In 2016 that pattern became similar, in 2017 it was similar again, in 2018 it's very similar again," he said.
"So now there are abilities to reroute traffic, slow down traffic, change the fishing effort in certain locations — at certain times so to reduce the likelihood of vessel strikes and and reduce the likelihood of entanglement."'
"The new conservation area — a 52-hectare (128-acre) piece of land adjacent to Blooming Point beach — holds within it Acadian forest, freshwater wetland, salt marsh and dunes.
The MacGillivray family of Blooming Point donated a portion of the project as part of the Government of Canada's Ecological Gifts Program.
The piece of land is also "an internationally recognized Important Bird Area," the NCC said in the release."
Via CBC PEI
Saint Mary's University in Halifax announced today that it will get $1.8 million in federal funds to restore 75 hectares of marshes around the Bay of Fundy.
Project leader Danika van Proosdij says the marshes will create more coastal habitat for marine life, and they will provide a new line of defence against flooding and erosion."
via CBC NS
"A group of volunteers in Glace Bay, N.S., says fishing gear blown ashore at a beach in nearby Donkin is a threat to birds and marine life and it plans to address the problem.
The Cape Breton Environmental Association also says other beaches across the island are affected by debris from the fishing industry.
Yates said the public is invited to the environmental association's community beach cleanup on June 30 from noon-3 p.m.
Coun. Amanda McDougall said the municipality will help the group dispose of debris from the beach."
"A seafood company in St. Stephen, N.B., is banking on people turning to the sea for some of their daily vegetables.
The owner of Magellan Aqua Farms, Steve Backman, is considered a pioneer in seaweed farming.
For the past three years, he has been growing two species of algae, sweet kelp and sea lettuce, using an underwater garden at the end of Passamaquoddy Bay. He has been working with Thierry Chopin, a marine biology professor at the University of New Brunswick..." via CBC NB
"These farmers are growing seaweed to use in recipes at restaurants. So, how about it? A side order of algae?"
via CBC NB
"Salt marshes in the world's coastal areas could be an important resource for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, but recent research suggests that resource could be limited on P.E.I.... P.E.I.'s salt marshes are absorbing carbon, but emitting nitrous oxide"
via CBC News
"Mud and plants along the Bay of Fundy soak up 3-5 times more carbon than trees...Anything trees can do, 'blue' can do better"
Read on CBC news
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