Scientists, First Nations team up in fresh attempt to revive struggling B.C. herring stocks

© Squamish Streamkeepers Tiny eyes appear in herring larvae which groups in British Columbia are trying to save. The small silvery fish are a crucial part of the Pacific food web, but have declined in numbers.

Vancouver's Coal Harbour hardly looks like a setting for a potential wildlife refuge. Noisy float planes skitter to and from a nearby dock, storm sewers empty into the saltwater, and high rise towers loom over the water.

But marine biologist Doug Swanston thinks the place has huge potential as a home for herring.

Recently, he rolled three big plastic coolers onto the dock before opening them to reveal a three-metre-long piece of fabric mesh covered with tiny white dots.

"This is probably getting close to a million, maybe 1.5 million eggs if you counted them all," he said as he pulled them into the sunlight.

"The goal is to return herring to Coal Harbour. Historically, we had a spawn here in the 1800s, and it was a source of food for First Nations communities."

The eggs had been collected in a nearby area and the hope is that they will seed future runs.

Herring are a vital, but not very well understood part of the Pacific Ocean's complex food web.

This year alone, 16,000 tonnes have been plucked from B.C. waters. That's about 100 million fish — a low year compared to the glory days of the herring fishery's past. But efforts are underway, in the courts and the ocean, to help the herring.  

© CBC Marine biologist Doug Swanston holds up mesh fabric covered with tiny fertilized herring eggs. He is researching the impact of transplanting the eggs in the urban inlets of Vancouver.

Tough times for Canadian herring

For decades, the fish were viewed as a virtually inexhaustible resource. They were canned, frozen, used as fertilizer, and even rendered into slippery goo to grease logs being skidded out of the forest.

But the once coastal-wide bonanza is fizzling out. This year, most of the waters off B.C. were closed to commercial herring boats, with the only quota being allowed in the Strait of Georgia, along Canada's southwest coast.

The latest government estimates show that the total mass of Pacific herring in the strait fell from 130,000 metric tons in 2016 to around 54,000 metric tons in 2020 — a nearly 60 per cent decrease over four years.

The first collapse of the stocks happened in the 1960s, due to overfishing. They were allowed to recover but have had ups and downs in recent decades.

The herring fishery in Eastern Canada has also been facing tough times.

For example, an assessment last year for the Gulf of St.Lawrence, predicted the spring spawning herring population is on a trajectory toward extinction in 10 years. Voracious predators and a warming ocean are listed as the biggest obstacles to recovery.
DFO takes 'precautionary approach'

On the West Coast, some groups called for a total closure of the herring fishery this year, but the fishing industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) pushed back.

In a media release, DFO said the quota was set after conducting "rigorous scientific stock assessments," and "the results demonstrate a healthy and stable herring stock in the Strait of Georgia."

It went on to say the department is "applying the precautionary approach to ensure the long term viability of herring for our ocean ecosystems and harvesters alike."

But that doesn't satisfy a number of Indigenous and environmental groups who are arguing, sometimes in court, for a reduced catch.
Indigenous food for generations

On Vancouver's North Shore, the gravel crunches as Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation Leah George-Wilson walks along the beach.

For thousands of years, she said herring was an important food for the Tsleil-Waututh people. She recalls her grandparents talking about eating wild herring taken from nearby waters. For her generation though, herring is mostly something left in oral history and traditional knowledge since they were largely fished out in nearby waters.

"You only have to look up the West Coast of British Columbia to see where herring still is and to see how Indigenous people harvest there," George-Wilson told CBC News. "We did similar things and it was an important food source."

The Tsleil-Waututh and other Indigenous groups are working to bring back the fish. And they're partnering with scientists to better understand how herring live and spawn. 

© CBC Leah George-Wilson, chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, says traditional Indigenous knowledge can be used to help restore herring and other important sources of food.

How to keep herring eggs alive

False Creek is another built-up urban harbour in Vancouver. It's shallow, has constant boat traffic and home to a number of large marinas. But it's a herring success story.

"Herring are the key. They are the bottom of the food chain," said Jonn Matsen on the dock of Fisherman's Wharf, a sprawling complex where hundreds of boats are tied to wooden docks.

He's in charge of herring enhancement for the Squamish Streamkeepers, a volunteer group dedicated to restoring fish habitat, and pioneers in the field of herring aid.

It started years ago when millions of herring eggs were found on creosote pilings used extensively along the coast to support docks.

The toxic wood preservative was deadly for the eggs, which take about three weeks to hatch. Matsen and others were appalled and set out to fix the problem.

They started by wrapping the pilings in a heavy duty fabric, giving the eggs a fighting chance. They've since expanded to using fine mesh fabric nets suspended below the water line, which give even better protection and survival rates.

The program has been successful enough that this year about 10 per cent of the fertilized eggs are being transplanted from False Creek to the new site in Coal Harbour.  

© CBC Jonn Matsen heads up the herring enhancement program for the Squamish Streamkeepers, a volunteer group that has pioneered techniques to create spawning sites for herring.

Crucial for salmon, whales

Matsen said herring are a vital part of the food web, especially for endangered salmon.

"The first thing a salmon looks for when it comes out of the river is food and if you have a herring run right in that area it's just perfect."

He said it only makes sense that part of the salmon's decline is tied to having fewer herring in B.C. waters. Whales, seals, birds and many other creatures depend on the fish as well.

"We found you can bring the whole food chain back, if you start with the herring and work your way up," Matsen said. "It can happen."

Swanston, the biologist, said despite its importance to the environment and as a commercial catch, there are still many mysteries around herring.

For instance, it used to be thought that herring didn't return to their natal waters to spawn, but newer evidence suggests they may have a homing instinct similar to salmon, which return to the streams where they first hatched. It would also explain why herring have disappeared from some parts of the B.C. coast.
Do herring have a homing instinct?

But pollution, development, overfishing and a lack of natural spawning habitat are also factors that need further research and remediation, said Swanston.

The riddle about why the herring spawn in some areas but have disappeared in others is one reason Swanston is fascinated by the experiment to transplant eggs into Coal Harbour.

But he said it will be at least three years for results, because that's how long it will take the tiny eggs to hatch and grow to maturity out at sea.

The hard pressed herring have a low survival rate. Only one out of 1,000 lives long enough to spawn, but if they're allowed to reproduce in the billions, it will be enough to sustain the shimmering schools of fish.

Guardians of Edehzhie: Protecting the land during the pandemic
2021-04-05

There was a time last year when the guardians of Edehzhie would head out on the land in the Northwest Territories and worry what their communities might look like when they returned.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

That was when COVID-19 started to sweep across Canada, threatening the country's northern communities, including those around the protected area known as Edehzhie in the Dehcho region of the N.W.T.

Established in 2018 between the Dehcho First Nations and the federal government, Edehzhie is the country's first Indigenous Protected Area. It covers more than 14,000 square kilometres of land — more than twice the size of Banff National Park.

Edehzhie is known as the "breadbasket" of the Dehcho region, because of its abundance of wildlife, plants and fresh water.

As part of the agreement between the Dehcho and Canada, eight people were hired as guardians to monitor activities on the land. They are from the four surrounding communities of Fort Providence, Jean Marie River, Fort Simpson and Wrigley.

"They're essentially our eyes and ears on the ground," said Ashley Menicoche, one of four Edehzhie community co-ordinators, from her home in Fort Simpson.

As in the rest of the country, the pandemic caused much of the N.W.T. to lock down and strict public-health measures were put in place.

"We were thinking, because you have to be six feet apart, how are you going to do that when you’re sharing a tent and it’s -30 C?" Menicoche said.

The guardians learned to adapt. They stayed connected through satellite phones and other satellite devices while out on the land.

Dahti Tsetso, deputy director of the national Indigenous Leadership Initiative, is also the former director of lands and resources for the First Nations. She said she and a guardian would have Zoom meetings from her back deck in Fort Simpson.

"There’s hundreds of kilometres between us and yet, through Zoom, we’re all able to connect. Funnily enough, because of the pandemic, the ability to create a strong sense of community between everyone was sort of forged through video conferencing," Tsetso said.

The pandemic also meant Menicoche and her team developed more outdoor, land-based programs with the guardians and surrounding communities.

"We built this foundation during COVID and we're still able to do things out on the land while the rest of the world was on lockdown," Menicoche said.

"I was out in the bush last weekend and I just lay some tobacco down and thanked the Creator that we’re still able do this."

University researchers based in southern Canada who couldn't travel to the N.W.T. because of isolation requirements also turned to the guardians for help. The team collected water samples for researchers and set up 80 wildlife cameras in Edehzhie.

The guardians program also pairs local youth with each guardian, something Menicoche said ensures traditional knowledge is passed on to the next generation.

"There’s a lot of knowledge out there that needs to be shared before our elders pass on. And with this program, the youth come to me and tell me how much they've learned."

Menicoche said some of the guardians overcame addictions during the pandemic while spending time on the land.

"To see them work together and overcome their addictions and their challenges out there in Edehzhie was amazing ... these guys have built a relationship together that is phenomenal. This job has made then come together as one," Menicoche said through tears.

"The transformative impact of these programs on our communities and on Canada is really important. And I think it’s really important that Canadians know this story," Tsetso said.

After seeing how successful the guardians program could be during a pandemic, Menicoche and Tsetso want to see the program grow for future generations.

"If we can get more guardians and more elders to work together, we can make this last a lifetime. We can do some powerful stuff. We can get more guardians to be our protectors of our land and our water," Menicoche said.

"It makes me really emotional to try and project how much more meaningful it will become, especially because I have little kids. I really want that for my kids, for other people’s kids," Tsetso said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship

Emma Tranter, The Canadian Press

These fish stole an antifreeze gene from another fish and became natural GMOs

Emily Chung 

CBC

 2021-04-06

© Robert F. Bukaty/The Associated Press Rainbow smelt share an antifreeze gene with herring, even though they're not closely related. Researchers say the gene moved from herring to smelt through a process called horizontal gene transfer.

Millions of years before scientists created genetically modified Atlantic salmon with genes from two other fish, nature created genetically modified smelt with a gene from herring, growing evidence shows.

And now the Canadian scientists who first proposed that controversial idea say they have a hunch how nature might have done it.

A new study by Queen's University researchers Laurie Graham and Peter Davies finds "conclusive" evidence for the controversial idea that the antifreeze gene that helps rainbow smelt survive icy coastal waters originally came from herring and was somehow stolen by smelt about 20 million years ago.

They propose in their new paper in Trends in Genetics that this could have happened through a process quite similar to the way genes are sometimes transferred from one species to another by scientists in the lab today.

Stealing genes from other species

Genes are normally passed on from parents to offspring. But in recent decades, scientists discovered they can also "jump" or be "stolen" from one species to another outside normal reproduction — a process called horizontal gene transfer or lateral gene transfer.

It's something that happens frequently among microbes such as bacteria — so frequently that Canadian scientist W. Ford Doolittle suggested it might explain a big part of life's history on Earth.

There's been some recent evidence of it happening in some more complex organisms. For example, aphids appear to have stolen a fungus gene to make a plant pigment and marine algae seem to have colonized the land 500 million years ago with the help of a gene stolen from soil bacteria. Most recently, scientists reported last week the first known case of a gene getting transferred from a plant to an animal.

In more complex organisms such as fish and people, certain virus-like DNA sequences called "transposable elements" or "transposons" are also known to jump from species to species.

But the same hadn't been seen for useful genes that code for things like proteins. That's because genes in multicellular organisms can only be transmitted from generation to generation if they specifically get into reproductive cells such as eggs or sperm.

Davies is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Protein Engineering at Queen's University. Graham is a research associate in his lab.

When the two first realized more than a decade ago that the herring and smelt must have shared their antifreeze protein via horizontal gene transfer, it was the first time anyone had suggested that a vertebrate — a complex animal with a backbone — had transferred such a gene to another vertebrate. That made it quite controversial.

"We had a really hard time finding a journal to take our first paper," recalled Graham. "The reviewers were not exactly kind, and there was a lot of doubt."

It didn't help that a high-profile report of horizontal gene transfer in complex organisms at the time, from bacteria to humans, had been called into question by other scientists, who proposed other explanations for genes shared among the two types of organisms.

Clues pointing to a stolen gene

Graham had been originally examining different kinds of antifreeze proteins, not just in fish but also insects, bacteria, plants and small soil creatures called springtails.

Most of them appeared to arise from a common ancestor, with a similar structure in closely related animals

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© Robert F. Bukaty/The Associated Press Herring are unloaded from a fishing boat in Rockland, Maine, in 2015. Both Pacific and Atlantic herring have an antifreeze gene that helps them survive in icy coastal waters.

But that wasn't the case for herring and smelt, which are so distantly related that the last time they shared an ancestor was 250 million years ago, about the time the first dinosaurs arose.

"Every other gene we've looked at in these two species, it tends to be quite different," Graham said.

Meanwhile, she added, closer cousins don't have the antifreeze protein that Atlantic herring, Pacific herring and rainbow smelt are known to share.

"We've got other fish that are more closely related to these species that make completely different kinds of antifreeze protein. So this doesn't really make sense on an evolutionary basis if everybody's inheriting their antifreeze protein from their ancestors."

Skeptics weren't convinced, so the researchers looked for more evidence. Closely related fish such as different types of smelt tend to have the same genes in the same order. And the researcher found that was the case — except for the antifreeze gene, which was found between two genes that are normally next to each other in other smelt.

"That's what you would expect when you have a gene that's just sort of been pasted into a genome through horizontal gene transfer."

Then, recently, the researchers heard that the genome of Atlantic herring was published in a public database.

They decided to take a closer look.

Remember those transposable elements that often jump between organisms? They can also be used as a fingerprint for a particular organism. Herring have certain transposable elements pasted hundreds of times all over their genome, including in and around their eight antifreeze genes.

When the researchers looked at the smelt's single antifreeze gene, it had three of those herring transposable elements attached, Graham said. "So it was like a little tag to say, 'Hey, I'm from herring.'" Those transposable elements weren't found anywhere else in the smelt.

The researchers say it's conclusive evidence that the antifreeze gene moved between the two fish via horizontal gene transfer and that it went from herring to smelt and not vice versa.

How did the gene jump species?

When the researchers' previous papers went through peer review, one of the questions reviewers had was how the gene might have moved between species, so they sought to come up with a hypothesis.

One possibility, they thought, was it might be similar to techniques used in the lab to create genetically modified animals. One called "sperm-mediated gene transfer" involves mixing sperm with the DNA you want to introduce, then using it to fertilize an egg.

"And we thought, 'Well, couldn't this also happen in nature?" Graham recalled.

Fish and many other marine animals have external fertilization, where eggs and sperm — known as milt — are released into the water at the same time in massive quantities during spawning, and some of them combine to produce offspring.

Graham noted that when herring spawn on Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, "you can actually see the ocean is sort of stained white from all of the milt that the male herring are releasing."

The sperm breaks apart after a few hours, releasing DNA into the water. And the researchers proposed that during one of these events, herring DNA may have found its way into rainbow smelt eggs or sperm.

Graham acknowledges there's no way to prove that — "not unless we had a time machine."

But if that is the way the genes were transferred, it has probably happened with other fish genes also, Davies suggested, and scientists should start looking for other examples.

The other implication is that genetically modified organisms, which have been characterized by activists as "Frankenfoods", might not be so unnatural.

"One of the take-home lessons here is that this genetic modification is actually happening in nature," Davies said. "Not very often — it's probably quite rare — but maybe we shouldn't be so alarmed at this. It's actually more of a natural event than we previously thought."

What other scientists think

Garth Fletcher, professor emeritus and head of the ocean sciences department at Memorial University, is the co-inventor of Aquabounty's genetically modified salmon (but not through sperm-mediated gene transfer) and has previously collaborated with Davies comparing antifreeze proteins in fish. He wasn't involved in the new study.

Fletcher doesn't think the research will reassure those opposed to GMOs.

He says it's significant that the researchers have gotten to the point where they feel their evidence for horizontal gene transfer in this controversial case is so strong. He credited new molecular genetic techniques with making it possible.

"Twenty years ago, you couldn't have done this stuff."

Luis Boto, head scientist in the evolutionary biology department at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, has been tracking the evidence for horizontal gene transfer in complex organisms, and said the new genetic tools will allow scientists to explore how common this is.

"This paper opens the door to an important research field in that sequencing of new fish genomes will provide us with interesting findings," he added in an email, "and will allow us to understand more about the possible importance of horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of animals."

He said evidence for horizontal gene transfer in vertebrates remains rare, but the new paper offers "important support" for the case of it happening between herring and smelt.

Gane Ka-Shu Wong, a University of Alberta biology professor, is also convinced by the study and thinks the proposed way the gene moved from herring to smelt is plausible.

Wong published a study a couple of years ago showing plants, which used to be confined to the oceans, stole a gene from soil bacteria to gain the ability to colonize land.

While such horizontal gene transfer events seem rare in complex organisms, if they help the organism survive, they could make a big difference, he said.

"My guess is that a lot of a lot of important evolutionary events may have been driven by some sort of horizontal gene transfer."

Enjoy the 'dazzling light show' of fireflies — but they also need protection, says researcher
CBC/Radio-Canada 2021-04-06

Females of many firefly species lack functional wings, making them especially vulnerable to accidental trampling in areas of heavy foot traffic.

Firefly tourism is brightening the spirits of people around the world, but without proper protections for the insect species, firefly populations could be at risk, according to new research involving a professor in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Harvey Lemelin, a professor with Lakehead University's School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, is co-author of "Firefly Tourism: Advancing A Global Phenomenon Toward A Brighter Future," published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.

Visits to firefly sanctuaries in Mexico, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States, for example, have skyrocketed in the past decade.

"We have a lot of internal tourism, or what we would call staycations during the pandemic," said Lemelin. "But we also have some people travelling across the world to go see these magnificent animals, especially North Americans, because apart from a few sites in Tennessee and the Carolinas, we don't get these large aggregations of fireflies.

"I do want to point out that the agencies and operators, sometimes, are withholding on their numbers," he said. "This international study, looking at 16 states across the world, calculated it to be a million visitors a year."

Fireflies, part of the beetles family, produce a chemical reaction that allows them to glow.

Lemelin said the interest in fireflies is easy to understand, especially when it comes to the groups of thousands of at a sanctuary.
Magical moments

"We ask the tourist to close their eyes, you wait about ... two minutes and then open your eyes," he said. "All the males are flashing at the same time, trying to out-compete each other

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© Sam Wolfe/Reuters Synchronous fireflies light up along the Bluff Trail at Congaree National Park in Hopkins, South Carolina. Firefly viewing is becoming very popular, with up to a million people visiting firefly sanctuaries around the world. However, experts warn that measures need to be put in place to protect firefly populations.

"It's like a magnificent, moving, dazzling light show, that no human being could ever replicate, and it's all around you," said Lemelin. "It is one of the most magical moments, and spiritual moments, I've ever had in my life."

But as beautiful as fireflies can be, Lemelin said proper steps must be taken to protect them, as the number of people viewing them increases.

"First of all, there's a carbon footprint of the travel," he said. "And then there's the on-site concerns.

"A lot of the managers and researchers were saying that, in the past, we've seen their habitats transform, so you're kind of losing the attraction," Lemelin said. "We've seen tourists increasing ... throughout the night, so the animals don't get a break from human beings."

Another problem is new lighting infrastructure, as fireflies are susceptible to light pollution, he said. Large crowds wandering off marked paths or away from designated viewing areas are an issue, too, as they may trample firefly larvae or non-flying females, and damage their habitats.
Protections needed

The article Lemelin co-authored includes some measures to prevent damage to firefly populations, including:
Implementing conservation practices to protect firefly habitat, and getting local communities involved.
Training programs for guides should be offered, as well, as should educational materials for visitors.

"Some of the places don't do a very good job of educating [tourists]," he said. "You've got a magical spiritual light show going on there. These individuals should be going home and asking, 'Why are there no fireflies aggregations in Canada? And what has happened to all their wetlands? What has happened to all of their habitats? How come we don't see fireflies the way we used to?"

Opinion: A call for 360-degree compassion in the racially wounded 306
Susan Gingell 2021-04-06

Two reports on RCMP conduct following the Aug. 9, 2016, shooting death of Colten Boushie were recently made public. Key findings were failure to protect potentially incriminating evidence for the shooter’s trial and racially discriminatory treatment of Colten’s mother, Debbie Baptiste . How, then, might Saskatchewan people best respond?

© Provided by Leader Post Debbie Baptiste, Colten Boushie's mother, sits at a news conference on March 22, 2021 following the release of a report by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP that examined how officers handled the investigation into Boushie's death.

We might begin by recognizing that the gravest harm on that August day in 2016 was the loss of a human life. The damage extended, however, to everyone in Saskatchewan. We all suffer when racial divides deepen. If we dare to dream of passing on to our children and grandchildren a society less seized by racial tensions than ours, we’ll need to have honest and uncomfortable conversations across present racial lines. We might aim to grow the 306 to 360, turning the dividing lines that racism draws into a circle with a respected place for everyone.

Many here will be thankful the RCMP is being held to account, however belatedly. Can we, however, avoid further boosting the us-vs.-them energies that animated the Boushie tragedy in the first place?

What we currently have are more recommendations for change, largely accepted by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, and a police union pushing back. Federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair assures us officers will complete “a cultural awareness course” and receive education “on how best they can protect our communities all across our country.” If these types of measures alone were going to work, though, wouldn’t they have done so by now?

Perhaps we need to address the trauma that police officers suffer. A racist society generates violence as surely as night follows day, and we ask officers to contain it and clean up the mess . Retired Cree lawyer Harold Johnson in Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada acknowledges that police work “frequently (results in) PTSD.” His testimony about how the current justice system is failing his people and all Saskatchewanians prefaces his vision of compassionate but responsible remedy.

To that end we need our provincial leaders to express genuine compassion for a loving mother robbed of her child, and for grieving family and friends. We need widespread recognition that Indigenous people here now feel even more unsafe and deprived of belonging in their traditional homeland. Non-Indigenous people could ease matters by showing respect for Boushie’s family’s courage in pressing for justice for Colten and all their people, and by making clear we expect our leaders to rectify the discrimination Baptiste faced.

Neither compassion nor courage lay in Justice Minister Gord Wyant’s silence following release of the briefing note that Saskatchewan Public Prosecutors prepared for him . It offered their reasons for not laying hate speech charges against those who made racist social-media posts following Boushie’s death. If ever there was a time to break with the policy of not commenting when no charges are laid, surely it was in this highly racially charged situation.

To ground us, could we consider the ideas that African-American trauma therapist Resmaa Menakem articulates in My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies? He locates trauma in the bodies of people of colour, police and people of European ancestry. Many European ancestors were traumatized by witnessing public tortures like drawing and quartering and many were dispossessed of ancestral lands by the Highland Clearances and the enclosures of the English commons. Thus colonists imported trauma when they arrived and then passed it down genetically. Menakem explains how traumatized people are likely to respond to perceived threats, but maintains they must be held accountable when they commit violence.

We must acknowledge the benefits that Euro-Canadians derive from racial hierarchies established through colonialism, but we must equally seek alternatives. “Inter-community” and decolonizing “with empathy and compassion” are the ones Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie offers according to her authorized biography. Her 360-degree compassion for those who “have never known life in a circle, where it’s all about sustaining Life itself for the next seven generations” is just what racially wounded Saskatchewan needs.

Susan Gingell is a professor emerita at the University of Saskatchewan.

Canada's once largest copper mine devastated Howe Sound, here's how it was fixed

Howe Sound is one of the most dramatic landscapes in Canada. The waters change from deep blue to turquoise depending on the glacier melt. From the edge of the shore the coastal mountains tower overhead, and flowing between these steep volcanic rocks is the world’s most southern fjord.


VIDEO This B.C. ecosystem came back from ecological disaster — now climate change could undo it

This triangular shaped inlet joins several fjords in southwestern British Columbia. Its starting point is just northwest of Vancouver, and then its waterways open up towards the Sunshine Coast to meet at its head in Squamish

Aside from creating a stunning landscape, the waters from the Sound also provide critical ecosystem services valued at $7.5 billion annually. It’s home to a large array of marine life including endangered species like orcas and glass sponge reefs. For thousands of years it has been a place for the Squamish People to gather, and a valuable source of food. It provides nearby towns with clean water, and protection from natural disasters, along with being a draw for tourists and nature lovers alike.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkViews of Howe Sound from Squamish. Credit: Mia Gordon

Yet, a study conducted by Ocean Wise Research Institute along with help from numerous other partners like Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Squamish Nation warns that the health of Howe Sound is at risk because of climate change. According to the study, it is susceptible to more shoreline erosion, sea level rise, and the devastation of marine habitats.

“It is impacting everyone and everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are and if you think you are being affected, climate change will impact everything,” said Dr. Aroha Miller, the manager of Ocean Watch at the Ocean Wise Research Institute and editor in chief of the report, in an interview with The Weather Network.

But as it turns out, this isn’t the first time that Howe Sound has faced challenges. For nearly a century, the area was polluted by a mining operation, and only brought back from the brink by decades of collaborative efforts from local municipalities, the Squamish Nation, environmental groups, and the provincial government.

Ironically, it seems that just as the Sound has finally been restored to its former glory, it is once again facing an environmental threat.
THE PAST

Up until the early 2000s, parts of Howe Sound were considered some of the most polluted areas in North America because of mining and other heavy industry that had been present in the area for decades.

It all started towards the end of the 1880s. “[After] the Industrial Revolution, signs of copper were discovered at Mt. Sheer. This allowed a company to move in and start developing what would eventually become the single largest copper producer in the British Empire,” said Derek Jang, the lead interpreter at the Britannia Mine Museum, to The Weather Network.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkTaken in 1920, this image shows The Big Ship Bunkhouse, the largest bunkhouse at Mt. Sheer that housed 200 men. Credit: Britannia Mine Museum

From the entrance to the mine, you can see Howe Sound on the other side of the railroad tracks, which stands as a reminder of how Britannia Mine helped shape the Sea to Sky corridor that we know today, for good and ill.

“Over 60,000 people from 50 different countries came to work at the mine. The community was thriving. It had a school, a church, and even a bowling alley. For a long period in its history it was considered to be one of the most desirable places to work in the area,” Jang explained.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Britannia Mine was considered the largest copper mine in the British Commonwealth, producing around 7,000 tons of ore per day. At the time it was responsible for supplying 17 per cent of the world’s copper.

“This mine was valuable because of the presence of heavy metal. Particularly copper but also zinc for parts of its history, and one thing that has always been true is when water comes into contact with those minerals it picks up traces of them and carries those traces into Howe Sound,” said Jang.

© Provided by The Weather Network BAn aerial tramway 5 km long brought ore from the mine — high in the mountains — down to the Mill at Britannia Beach in 1911. Credit: Britannia Mine Museum

When rain and snow fall into the open pits at the mine it is exposed to sulphide mineralization and it forms acid mine drainage. That acid water polluted local waterways like Britannia Creek and eventually flowed into Howe Sound.

When the mine was operating, 40 million litres of mineral-laden waters were discharged into the Sound daily. It was one of the largest sources of metal pollution in North America.

Marine life in the Sound suffered the consequences. “I remember growing up as a young Squamish person learning that the area around Britannia and largely the Sound was dead,” Chris Lewis, a council member for the Squamish Nation, told The Weather Network, recounting his elders' concern for the state of the Sound.

“When the salmon and the herring start to decline we know there is something going on in the ecosystem,” he added.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe iconic Mill 3 is one of Canada's National Historic Sites. Credit: Britannia Mine Museum

According to a 2001 report from the newspaper The Province, polluted runoff from the mine was believed to jeopardize the life of more than four million young salmon every year.

“It is hard for a lot of smaller organisms to survive in areas that are highly contaminated with heavy metals and that has a cascading effect up the food chain,” Jang lamented.

“If things like mussels and barnacles are less able to establish, there is less reason for mobile organisms to come to those areas. We also know from studies that some fish, like salmon, can have their senses impacted if they are exposed to higher levels of copper. This likely reduces their ability to hunt and reduces their reproductive success,” he continued.

High operating costs and taxes forced Britannia mine to shut down in November 1974 after 70 years of operation, but the impacts would be felt for much longer. Smaller organisms like barnacles were less visible in the Sound and larger marine life like whales weren’t seen in the area for decades to come.
REMEDIATION BEGINS

There were no clear environmental protection laws when the mine was operating and there was debate after the mine shut down about who was responsible to clean up the area. The communities surrounding Howe Sound were left with poisoned waters and no real solution.

The Squamish People were the most impacted by the pollution left behind, since the mine was located on the unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) First Nation. For more than 3,000 years, the Squamish People have lived on the land. It has been a place to hunt, fish for food, and gather material for shelter. It has been a place where spiritual and ritual traditions have been passed down from elders.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkA view of the Stawamus Chief from the estuary. This river runs down into Howe Sound. Credit: Mia Gordon

“We as Indigenous Peoples of this land and belonging to this place have a responsibility to ensure we are passing along something better to the next generation,” Lewis said.

“With that in mind, we really started working on the revitalization,” he added. “We knew we couldn’t do it ourselves and needed to work together with others. We needed to put the government on notice that there was a strong desire of the Squamish People to revitalize the Sound.”

The Squamish Nation along with other community groups and local municipalities started lobbying to the Provincial Government to clean up the Sound, but it wasn’t going to be an easy task since no one really wanted to pick up the multi-million dollar cleanup tab.

In 2000, the B.C. government went after several former owners of the mine, but over the years the companies had changed names and ownership, and so it was hard to prove any liability. Eventually, in 2005, the provincial government signed a $25 million dollar contract with EPCOR.

In 2006, EPCOR opened their facility and treated over four billion liters of water, removing an average of 226,000 kg (or 30 million pennies) of heavy metal contaminants annually. This work helped reduce pollution going into the area by 90 per cent, and slowly life started to return to the Sound.

“It has probably been the last 20 years or so that all these remediation efforts have been put in place that some of the healthy rebound in the Sound has been seen including big cetaceans like whales and dolphins coming back, which hasn’t been seen in a long time,” said Miller from Ocean Watch.

Jang added that, in the last decade, Pacific salmon started returning upstream at Mt. Sheer — something that hadn’t been seen in at least a decade.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkViews of some industry and heavy equipment in Squamish from the Sea to Sky Highway. Credit: Mia Gordon

For the Squamish Nation, the work that was done at Britannia Beach was a reminder of what can be accomplished when different groups with a common goal work together. “I always believe that Britannia and the work that we did around there with others was really a catalyst to start doing other things because it was really one of the first times that we started working together as a community in the Sound,” said Lewis.
PRESENT DAY AND THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Howe Sound is still recovering from almost a century of heavy metals polluting the region, and marine habitats are still extremely vulnerable. This time, however, the threat isn’t pollution, but climate change.

In 2017, the Coastal Ocean Research Institute and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre worked together to create the Ocean Watch Report featuring Howe Sound.

In the original paper, there was a section on “Oceanography and Climate Change,” but it was located near the end of the report. When they did a follow-up report in 2020, the team realized that most of the climate change concerns hadn’t improved and some even regressed in the three years, so this time climate change was the first chapter.

The report highlights seven different climate themes: 1) climate change 2) zero carbon communities 3) ocean warming 4) ocean acidification 5) shoreline erosion/sea level rise 6) stream flows 7) Squamish flood plan. Every single category was listed as either cautious or critical and the impacts are already being seen first hand.

“We are seeing warmer air temperatures in winter and in summer, increased water temperatures, a lot more marine heatwaves like 'the Blob’ that hammered a lot of species. Also things such as stream flow start to change, the timing of those spring melts which triggers plankton blooms in the marine environment which is the base of the food web in Howe Sound,” according to Miller.

“When you see something from the very bottom starting to change it is kind of like a house of cards. Everything above it is going to change,” she added.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkBritannia Creek flowing into Howe Sound. This creek used to be heavily polluted from mining nearby. Credit: Mia Gordon

Some specifics that have already been noted include an increase in algal blooms and animals like crabs being stressed by the increase in acidification that prevents them from forming shells to protect themselves. But it isn’t just marine life that is suffering.

“Storms that are coming through are a lot more intense and a lot more frequent and so there tends to be a lot more shoreline erosion. We have got maybe 10 years before there is irreparable damage,” Miller said.

Lewis echoed the concerns, as his community is also seeing the impacts firsthand. He explained that many Squamish People still gather in the Sound. Lately, however, they aren’t able to find as many fish as they once did. And this isn’t just a concern when it comes to food and their livelihood, it also impacts their ability to keep First Nations’ traditions alive.

“It is an infringement on our culture and who we are as people,” said Lewis. “If the salmon don’t return then the transfer of that knowledge of how to harvest salmon and what to do and the different teachings get lost. We used to harvest different types of whales in the Sound because it used to be a caving ground for the whales. We use

d to harvest seals and sea lions but we don’t do that anymore because it was lost.

PREVENTING HISTORY FROM REPEATING ITSELF

There were many lessons from what happened at the Britannia Mine. Shortly after the doors at the mine closed, the building reopened as a museum with a focus on educating visitors about what was learned, and how that has impacted the present and future of both mining in Canada as well as the health of the Sound.

The museum recently launched Terralab, an educational space for students.

“We don’t shy away from conversations about remediation. That means talking to people about the water treatment plant and how it has dramatically reduced the impact of heavy metal exposure in our waters. We also talk about how the mining industry is finding new frontiers for ways to identify and manage their impacts,” says Jang.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Exterior of Britannia Mine Museum, which offers daily tours to educate the public on mining in Canada. Credit: Mia Gordon

On top of education, another important takeaway from what happened with Brtiannia Mine was that key collaboration can create change. Now, a group has been advocating to make Howe Sound a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

“I love the idea of a biosphere reserve because it makes you realize you have to have some core protected areas,” explained Vancouver city councillor Adriane Carr, who is Chair of Metro Vancouver Climate Action Committee and leading the charge for the biosphere designation.

A biosphere is considered a learning place for sustainable development. In the case of Howe Sound, there would be a protected core area where there would be no industrial development and then buffer zones surrounding it, covering 218,720 hectares (84 per cent terrestrial and 16 per cent marine). It will protect First Nations land as well as valuable ecosystems like glass sponge reefs and rock fish habitats, which are seeing the impacts of climate change first hand.

“We have already pushed ourselves up very close to the brink and so we need to take action. We can’t delay,” Carr added.

The proposal was unanimously approved by all necessary parties in B.C. on October 18th, 2019 and was also recently pushed forward in Ottawa. Now it awaits final approval in Paris by summer this year.

While the biosphere is a step in the right direction, it won’t solve all of the climate issues in Howe Sound. That is where the rest of us come into play.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Views of Howe Sound from Squamish where you can see industrial equipment moving logs near downtown. Credit: Mia Gordon

NEXT STEPS FOR HOWE SOUND

“A lot of people want to know what they can do right now. We are in this very instantaneous gratification mindset. But we need to recognize we are in it for the long haul,” said Miller, who also added that the Ocean Watch report contains an entire section on an action plan.

The team behind the report has now developed the Howe Sound Action Committee, which is working closely with local municipalities in the Sea to Sky corridor on what they can do to protect the region.

“I felt really inspired by seeing what the communities are doing out there,” said Miller. “There has been a lot of community initiative and drive to see what they love protected. Together we can do a lot more than individually.”

Thumbnail credit: Cultura Exclusive/Manuel Sulzer. Cultura. Getty Images

As a megadrought persists, new projections show a key Colorado River reservoir could sink to a record low later this year

Story by Drew Kann, video by Bryce Urbany and graphics by Renée Rigdon 

CNN 4/21/2021

Wracked by drought, climate change and overuse, a key reservoir on the Colorado River could sink to historically low levels later this year, new US government projections show, potentially triggering significant water cutbacks in some states as early as next year.

© Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir and a key water source for millions across the western US, could sink later this year to its lowest level since it was filled decades ago.

The projections released by the US Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead -- the largest reservoir in the country and a vital water supply to millions across the Southwest -- could fall later this year to its lowest levels since it was filled in the 1930s.

The USBR will release its next major study in August. If that study projects water levels in the lake will be below the critical threshold of 1,075 feet on January 1, 2022, some users would begin to see their water deliveries cut significantly next year.

The cutbacks would be triggered based on the terms of drought contingency plans signed by the seven Colorado River Basin states in 2019 in an effort to stabilize the river system.

Despite the agreements, Lake Mead sits at just 39% full today. And Lake Powell, the river's second-largest reservoir, is just 36% full, according to an April water supply report.

The reservoirs along the river system were created to serve as a buffer to store water and ensure a reliable supply even in times of drought. But experts say that due to climate change and a 20-year drought, there is now more water being taken out of the river system than flowing into it, leading levels in these key reservoirs to fall.

"This shows us that the kind of dire scenarios that we've been preparing for and hoping would not happen are here now," said John Fleck, the director of the University of New Mexico's Water Resources Program.

The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people living in seven western states and Mexico, and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland as it snakes its way from the Rocky Mountains toward the Gulf of California.

The water delivery reductions that could take effect next year would be felt in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, but Arizona would be hit hardest by the cutbacks, according to the terms of the drought contingency plan signed by those three states, which comprise the lower basin. The upper basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico agreed to a separate plan that calls for voluntary water conservation measures to keep Lake Powell from also reaching critically low levels.

As part of the lower basin's drought contingency plan, the Central Arizona Project -- a massive, 336-mile canal and pipeline system that carries Colorado River water to Phoenix, Tucson and farms and towns in between -- would see its water supply slashed by about one third in 2022 due to its junior rights to the river's water.

The effects of those water cuts will be felt most acutely on farms in central Arizona, due to their lower priority status in a complex tier system used to determine who loses water first in the event of a shortage.

In a joint statement last Thursday, the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the CAP acknowledged the new projections and looming cuts, but said the state is prepared.

"The study, while significant, is not a surprise," the statement reads. "We are prepared for these conditions, thanks in large part to Arizona's unique collaborative efforts among water leaders including tribes, cities, agriculture, industry and environmental organizations that developed innovative conservation and mitigation programs as part of the implementation of the Drought Contingency Plan. "

One of the farmers who stands to see his water deliveries reduced is Dan Thelander. Along with his son, brother and nephew, Thelander grows cotton, alfalfa and other crops on 6,500 acres in the desert of Pinal County, Arizona.

With less water expected to be available to him next year, Thelander said he will likely have to fallow, or leave unsown, 30 to 40% of his land.

"We'll have to lay off employees. We won't be buying as many seeds or fertilizer or tractors, and so we'll just have to scale down and operate a smaller farm," Thelander said. "And so, yes, it'll hurt a lot."

Many farmers in Central Arizona like Thelander have known for years that their supply of Colorado River water would eventually be phased out.

As part of a 2004 settlement between the federal government and the Central Arizona Project over debt issues, farmers in some Central Arizona irrigation districts agreed to relinquish their water rights in exchange for receiving water at a reduced cost through the year 2030.

But with Lake Mead's water levels still near record lows and projected to fall further, deliveries of that water could end years before the farmers had expected.

Many factors contribute to the Colorado River system's dwindling supply.

For one, experts say there is more water being diverted out of the river than is coming into the system.

"It's a math problem -- Lake Mead normally releases 10.2 million acre-feet of water per year, and 9 million acre-feet flow into it," said Brad Udall, a senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University. "At some point, because you have a 1.2 million acre-foot deficit each year, you've got to solve it or you'll drain the reservoir."

On top of that structural deficit, a historic drought and climate change are also sapping the river's supply.

Much of the Colorado River Basin has been gripped for the last two decades by what some scientists have dubbed a megadrought.

The period from 2000 to 2018 was the driest 19-year stretch the southwestern United States has experienced since the 1500s, according to an analysis of tree ring data published in the journal Science in 2020. The scientists also found that the human-caused climate crisis can be blamed for nearly half of the drought's severity.

Another study by US Geological Survey scientists published in 2020 found that the Colorado River's flow has declined by about 20% over the last century and that over half of that decline can be attributed to warming temperatures across the basin.

Most of the river's flow comes from snow that falls high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and southern Wyoming, said Chris Milly, a research hydrologist with the US Geological Survey and a co-author of the study.

Warming temperatures are leading to a decline in snowfall and an earlier snowmelt. But as the snow melts earlier and leaves behind bare ground, more heat energy from the sun is absorbed by the exposed soil. The warmer ground leads to more evaporation, which means less runoff from melting snow ends up in the river, Milly said.

"Evaporation is how the river basin cools itself," Milly said. "And so when you have more evaporation, you have less water left over to come down the river."

Current conditions also do not look promising for the kind of above-average runoff that is needed this year to begin to refill the river's key reservoirs.

After an exceptionally hot and dry 2020, precipitation has continued to lag well below normal for much of the basin.

Soil moisture levels across the region are also among the lowest on record, according to Paul Miller, a service coordination hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

This means that much of the snowmelt runoff over the summer is likely to be absorbed by thirsty soils and plants before it can even reach the river, Miller said.

To Fleck, all of this signals that the reduced flows in recent years are likely not an aberration, but rather a glimpse of the challenges posed by a hotter, drier climate.

"We're now seeing the model for what the future of Colorado River Basin water use looks like, where scarcity is the norm and drought is not some special short-term thing," he said. "This is the way of life we're in now with climate change reducing the flow on the river."

IN ALBERTA PRIVATE DAY CARE IS HEGEMONIC

Alberta pumps brakes on national childcare program

Sarah Ryan 

GLOBAL NEWS

4/21/2021

Less than 24 hours after Canada's finance minister rolled out what advocates are calling a historic investment in childcare, Alberta's premier says he's not sure it's the right fit for this province.

But Alberta's premier gave the plan a much less glowing review, saying it would only support "urban 9-5 government- and union-run institutional daycare options."

© Getty Images Alberta is expressing multiple concerns with Ottawa's new strategy to reduce childcare costs.

The plan has been widely celebrated by children and family advocates for being forward-thinking and life-changing, particularly for low- and middle-class Canadians.

"This is a really significant investment. It's exciting to see that it looks like it's going to be some permanent funding, really building a system that will be affordable and accessible and high quality for our children and families," explained Jennifer Usher with the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Alberta.

READ MORE: Alberta advocates celebrate federal childcare plan; UCP says more details needed

The Liberals are investing nearly $30 billion in drastically reducing the costs of childcare by 50 per cent in 2022 and down to $10 a day in the next five years.

Documents from the federal budget show the plan will allow an estimated 240,000 parents to enter the workforce.

"Chrystia Freeland was making pretty clear that this is actually going to increase economic growth. She's expecting a 1.2 percent gain in GDP. In other words, it's going to more than make up for what's being invested," explained Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, on Tuesday.

Video: Kenney says he won’t be satisfied with ‘Ottawa-style, cookie-cutter’ childcare program

But Alberta's premier gave the plan a much less glowing review, saying it would only support "urban 9-5 government- and union-run institutional daycare options."

Jason Kenney said the plan doesn't account for those who want to stay home to raise their children.   IN ALBERTA CONS SPEND MORE ON BABA CARE /UNLICENSED CARE HOMES THAN DAY CARE

 
"I've never thought it's fair to tax who, for example, make that sacrificial choice, in order to subsidize only one kind of care, which excludes rural families, shift workers and many Indigenous people," he said

The budget documents say the federal government will be "working with provinces and territories to support primarily not-for-profit sector childcare providers to grow quality spaces across the country while ensuring that families in all licensed spaces benefit from more affordable childcare."

Alberta's Finance Minister Travis Toews said the federal money has too many strings attached to it.

"Our concern would be that there's a federal government imposed national childcare system that may leave Alberta parents with very few options," he said.

That's a myth, said Usher.


"It actually increases parental choice because we will see parents be able to choose many more programs because they will be affordable and they will be accessible," Usher said.

Rachel Notley, leader of the Official Opposition NDP, agrees.

"Parents don't have flexibility or choice if they can't have access to affordable, high-quality childcare," she said.

READ MORE: Federal budget delivers big promises on childcare, tamer housing measures

The UCP said it still wants the federal money, though.


"Alberta should simply receive the federal funding, and we can design a program that works and fits for Albertans," Toews said.

Kenney agreed, saying: "If it's a take-it-or-leave-it, Ottawa-style, cookie-cutter program, I don't think that satisfies the demands or expectations of Albertans."

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said the province needs to get over itself.

"I think Canadians are not so interested in this sort of jurisdictional square dance over this," he said.

"Mayor Iveson is speaking for a lot of Albertans and probably a lot of Canadians, saying we don't care about what the disputes are between politicians. We care about the very real concerns facing us," Williams added.

She said it could come off as petty politics if Alberta opts out.

"The federal government would go ahead with the provinces that are willing to work with them and that would put additional pressure on the provinces that aren't willing to work with them. People in Alberta will be looking at the other provinces and the benefits that they're getting," she said.

 

Authoritarian Right Is BIG MAD About Chauvin Verdict

  

A Fresh Perspective with Jeff Charles

Indonesia navy loses contact with submarine and its crew of 53

Josh K. Elliott 

AFP

4/21/2021

The Indonesian navy lost contact with a diving submarine north of Bali on Wednesday, officials said, as they launched a search for the vessel and the 53 people on board.

© Alex Widojo/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Indonesia submarine KRI Nanggala-402 performs a sailing pass during the preparation for the anniversary of Indonesia Military or Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) at Indonesian Navy Eastern Fleet on Sept. 25, 2014 in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia.

The 44-year-old submarine, known as KRI Nanggala-402, was last seen early Wednesday as it started a torpedo drill, a navy spokesperson said. The vessel was given permission to dive but it never came back up to share the results of the drill.

Searchers found an oil slick near the spot where the submarine went down, but they did not find the missing vessel after several hours of searching.

"We know the area but it's quite deep," First Admiral Julius Widjojono told the A

The submarine is built to withstand pressure at a maximum depth of 250 metres, but officials say the vessel might have gone farther down.

"It is possible that during static diving, a blackout occurred so control was lost and emergency procedures cannot be carried out and the ship falls to a depth of 600-700 metres," the Indonesian navy said in a statement.

The navy says the oil spill might have been a sign of damage to the fuel tank or a deliberate signal from the missing crew.

"We are still searching in the waters of Bali, 60 miles (96 km) from Bali, (for) 53 people," military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told Reuters in a text message. He said contact with the vessel was lost at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The Indonesian navy dispatched two vessels to search the water with sonars. Australia, India and Singapore have also agreed to join the search.

The KRI Nanggala-402 weighs 1,395 tonnes and was originally built in Germany in 1977, then added to Indonesia's fleet in 1981. The vessel was last retrofitted in South Korea in 2012, the Indonesian Defence Ministry says.

It's one of five submarines in the Indonesian fleet.

This is the first time Indonesia has lost a submarine, but other nations have lost some in years past.

In 2017, for example, Argentina lost a submarine in the southern Atlantic with 44 crew aboard. The imploded wreck was found a year later.

—With files from Reuters

Protests held across Russia amid fears for jailed opposition leader's health

People in dozens of Russian cities joined protests in support of the jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, responding to calls from Navalny's allies who have said he is dangerously ill in prison while on a hunger strike.

Protests took place in most cities in Russia, from Vladivostok in the far east to Moscow and St. Petersburg, with crowds ranging from a few dozen to thousands and people turning out despite warnings from authorities that they would face arrest. People gathered in central squares or marched, chanting "Freedom to Navalny." In many places, they were confronted by police, who arrested several hundred people but generally did not move to aggressively disperse the protests.MORE: Russia moves Alexey Navalny to prison hospital as allies warn his life is at risk

Navalny's team called for the protests over the weekend, saying it was an "emergency" and painting it as a "final battle" to save life of the Kremlin's fiercest opponent and rescue his movement from destruction.

His allies and doctors have warned Navalny's health has sharply deteriorated after three weeks of a hunger strike, perhaps exacerbated by lingering effects of his nerve agent poisoning last year, and that he could die in "a matter of days." They said Navalny's life depended on how many people came out onto the streets.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP People shine the lights of their mobile phones during the opposition rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, April 21, 2021.

The biggest crowd was in Moscow, where thousands of people gathered a few hundred yards from the Kremlin, chanting "Putin is a thief." It was difficult to estimate the crowd's size, but ABC News reporters on the ground, as well as several other observers, estimated it was over 10,000. In the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg, local authorities estimated around 5,000 people took part, and other large cities saw crowds of a few thousand, unusual for places that rarely see protests.

The street demonstrations were the first called for by Navalny's team since he was arrested when he returned to Russia in January. Authorities succeeded in quashing those demonstrations with a tough crackdown.MORE: Russia's Alexey Navalny 'is dying' in prison, allies call for nationwide protests

Police were noticeably more hands-off during these protests than they were in January, when battalions of riot police closed down city centers and aggressively detained thousands, beating people with clubs and electro-shockers.

This time, there were fewer riot police, and officers often stood watching, without moving to disperse the crowds. Police still detained over 1,200 across Russia on Wednesday, according to OVD-Info, a group that tracks arrests, but that's far fewer than in January, when over 5,000 were detained in a single day. Almost half of the detentions happened in St. Petersburg, where police appeared to be more aggressive, moving against a crowd of several thousand.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP, FILE Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Feb. 20, 2021.

The turnout seems likely to do little to persuade the Kremlin, which has appeared determined to crush Navalny's movement, that it cannot control the protest movement inspired by him.

Last week, prosecutors moved to have Navalny's key organizations, the Anti-Corruption Fund and his regional campaign offices, declared "extremist groups," a step that would equate them to terrorist organizations. Under the legislation, Navalny's movement would be effectively outlawed, and anyone participating in it or even voicing public support for it could face a lengthy prison sentence.

"Very many people are afraid. A lot of people are afraid to lose their jobs," said Daria, 32, a protester in Moscow who did not want to give her last name for fear of reprisal. "But we need more people to come out."MORE: Russia moves troops near Ukraine: Analysts explain what's behind the buildup

The protest was timed to coincide with a major speech from President Vladimir Putin, who gave his annual state-of-the-nation address Wednesday. The address was closely watched this year because of tensions over Russia's military buildup close to Ukraine that has sparked a war scare.

Putin has previously used the speech to make major announcements -- such as unveiling constitutional changes that could extend his rule to 2036 -- and there had been speculation he might again announce new actions relating to Ukraine or neighboring Belarus. But in the end, though Putin made threatening warnings to the West, he did not make any major foreign policy announcements.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh, Moscow, Russia, April 21, 2021.

Instead, Putin focused on domestic issues, urging people to get vaccinated against coronavirus and announcing new social spending, aimed at reassuring Russians hurt by the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Putin did warn the West against crossing Russia's "red lines" and focused in particular on Belarus, where he accused Western countries of backing a supposed coup attempt against its leader Alexander Lukashenko, that Russian and Belarusian security services claimed to uncover over the weekend, which many observers believe is a fabrication.

"The practice of organizing state coups, plans for political killings,” Putin said, “That is already too much. They’ve already crossed all boundaries.

”MORE: Russia moves to outlaw Navalny's movement as doctors plead for access to him in prison

To applause, Putin said Russia doesn't want to "burn bridges" but warned that if other countries did so, Russia's response would be "asymmetric, quick and harsh."

Western countries, including the United States, have warned Russia that there will be consequences if Navalny dies in prison.

© Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images Opposition supporters attend a rally in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, in Moscow, April 21, 2021.

Navalny began his hunger strike three weeks ago to demand that his doctors be allowed to treat him for severe back pain caused by two herniated discs. Over the weekend, his team began sounding the alarm that his condition was deteriorating rapidly and accused the Kremlin of killing Navalny in slow motion.

Doctors helping Navalny's family have said his blood tests show he has dangerously high levels of potassium that could cause his heart to stop at "any minute" and that his kidneys may also be failing. In such a state, his doctors say he should be in intensive care.

Russia's prison service has insisted his condition is "satisfactory" and on Sunday moved Navalny to a hospital at a different nearby prison, where he has been given a glucose drip, according to his lawyers.

Navalny himself in a message Tuesday appeared to resist his doctors' prognoses that he was at risk of imminent death and said he is determined to continue his hunger strike. In the message posted on Instagram by his team, Navalny wrote that he "laughed" when he saw the warnings about his potassium levels, writing "you won't take me that easily."MORE: How Putin keeps his grip over Russia, even with support waning

"After Novichok, potassium isn't frightening," Navalny wrote, referring to the nerve agent that nearly killed him.

Russia's human rights ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova on Wednesday said that four doctors not from the prison service had visited Navalny and found that for now there was "no serious risks" to him. Moskalkova told Russian reporters that the doctors for now considered his treatment with the drip to be sufficient.

Russia moves to outlaw Navalny's movement as doctors plead for access to him in prison

Prosecutors seek to declare the Putin critic's organisations "extremist."

ByPatrick Reevell

ABC NEWS

4/16/2021

Russian authorities have moved to designate the organizations of opposition leader Alexey Navalny as "extremist groups" in a step that effectively would outlaw his political movement.

The move is the most serious attack so far by authorities on Navalny's movement as the Kremlin seeks to break the opposition fomented by its fiercest critic, who was sent to in a prison camp for 2 1/2 years in February.

Russia's decision comes as doctors supporting Navalny have warned the state of his health is becoming dangerous in prison, where he's been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks and has accused authorities of denying him medical care.

Jailed Putin foe Alexey Navalny declares hunger strike

Russia's general prosecutor's office on Friday released a statement saying it had filed a request seeking to have Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund as well as his regional campaign branches declared "extremist" under legislation normally used for terrorist groups and violent religious sects.

The prosecutor's office said it was filing the request on the grounds that Navalny's groups were "creating conditions for changing the foundations of the constitutional order," including supposedly through foreign-backed revolution.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

People clash with police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny i...

Russia in recent years has enacted draconian legislation, nominally to help thwart terror groups, but the measures increasingly are being wielded against critics of President Vladimir Putin. If declared "extremist," Navalny's organizations would be banned -- anyone deemed to be participating in or aiding them could face lengthy prison sentences.

"Well there we are. They have decided to steamroll the FBK and the campaign headquarters," Ivan Zhdanov, the Anti-Corruption Fund's director, wrote on Twitter. "We won't surrender."

Thousands protest for Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny as police crack down

The Anti-Corruption Fund, known by the initials FBK, publishes investigations revealing the allegedly ill-gotten wealth of Putin and other powerful Russians. The FBK, along with regional branch offices, helps organize peaceful protests against corruption and calls for an end to Putin's rule. But the groups don't advocate for violence or overthrowing the state by force.

The Anti-Corruption Fund this week published a new video investigation unveiling what it said was a secret residence for Putin in northwest Russia, complete with an elaborate spa complex.

Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool via AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, March 24, 2021.

Leonid Volkov, a top lieutenant of Navalny, said the announcement on Friday meant the Kremlin had still not decided whether to go through with outlawing the group, telling people "don't keep quiet."

Authorities have kept up intense pressure on Navalny's movement since he returned to Russia in January, having recovered from his near fatal poisoning with a nerve agent last summer. His arrest caused thousands to protest, but Navalny's allies were forced to call off street demonstrations in February in the face of an intense police crackdown.

Concerns have been mounting over Navalny's health in prison, where, in addition to the hunger strike, he said he's been refused proper treatment for back pain so severe it limits his walking. And just last week, Navalny was moved to the prison's medical ward suffering from a respiratory illness and a high temperature.

How Putin keeps his grip over Russia, even with support waning

On Friday, doctors supporting Navalny wrote an open letter to the head of Russia's prison service pleading for negotiations with prison doctors to agree on a treatment plan, saying Navalny's worsening condition could be life-threatening.

"We express extreme concern about his state, which is approaching critical," the doctors, some of who are activists, wrote. The doctors wrote in the letter that medical tests show Navalny is suffering renal impairment that could lead to serious problems his circulatory system "up to a heart attack."

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP, FILE

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in M...

Navalny's wife and mother said they visited him this week and were alarmed by how weak he was.

"Aleksey, as always, keeps his spirit. He talks just as cheerfully, but quietly. He coughs badly, breathes with difficulty," his mother, Lyudmila, wrote in an Instagram post.

Navalny said in a message on Friday that prison authorities were threatening to start force-feeding him if he didn't feed himself. In a message posted to his Instagram account by his team, Navalny wrote he would refuse and that he was demanding to be examined by his own doctor.

"My head is spinning heavily," Navalny said, "but I'm still going for now because I feel your support. Thank you!"