Daily temperature highs of between 35\u00b0C and 40\u00b0C were recorded at the Cortes Island School<\/a>\u00a0during the last five days of June.<\/p>\n The seven day tidal prediction for Twin Islands at the end of June during BC's heat wave. Photo courtesy of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n Mike\u00a0Manson<\/a> reported a high number of dead cockles<\/a> in front of Hollyhock, Cortes Island, on June 27.<\/p>\n \u201cOn a low tide of 2 feet or less, I would typically expect to find maybe half a dozen live ones partially exposed in the sand, and maybe a few more dead ones that sharp-eyed gulls had spotted and turned into a meal. To see several hundred half shells littered across the beach was a shock,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI also noticed a die-off of red rock crabs<\/a>, counting about 50 in a small area. 2-4 inch shell size, not moulting, these were intact carcasses with legs et al,\" Manson later emailed.<\/p>\n Cortes Island biologist\u00a0Sabina Leader-Mense\u00a0<\/a>added that what Manson witnessed was typical in severe heat waves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cockle die-off Mike Manson observed is classic, as cockles have the shortest siphons, sitting at shallow depths, where they are vulnerable to the heat,\" Leader-Mense said.<\/p>\n A recently perished oyster at Squirrel Cove. Photo by FOCI Community Engagement and Conservation Assistant Michele Douglas.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n A\u00a0Squirrel Cove<\/a> resident, who did not wish to be identified, said there was a persistent stench coming from the beach beside his home, as long as the high temperatures persisted. He suggested there may have been a \"partial die off\" of the oysters.<\/p>\n Curt Cunningham<\/a>, owner\/manager of the\u00a0Squirrel Cove General Store<\/a>, and his sister, Lynne Cunningham<\/a>, also noticed the unusual odour. They said some of the store\u2019s customers complained about it.<\/p>\n A week after the return to normal temperatures,\u00a0Michele Douglas,<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI)<\/a>, carried out a quick survey of the area.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing is, it actually smelled a bit of a different beach odour than I would normally have smelled. Sometimes low tide can smell a bit sulphury, but this just kind of smelled dead, one would say. It was definitely an unpleasant odour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Douglas found \"quite a few live oysters\" and \"quite a few that looked like they had died recently\" between the boat launch and dock. She believed that the deaths were recent.<\/p>\n \u201c[If] the shell was open a little bit, and you could pry it open, and there was also still some organic material in there. I also sniffed them, if it smelled pretty fresh, then I presumed it had died in the last week or so.\u201d<\/p>\n Douglas counted 10-12 dead oysters. Never having carried out any previous examinations in Squirrel Cove, she did not have a base line to compare her findings with over time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to say if there are always dead oysters on the beach? Or maybe it is totally related to this heat wave?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n June 2021 temperatures at Cortes Island School during BC's recent heat wave. Graph courtesy of Mike Manson.<\/p><\/div>\n By Roy L Hales In the midst of a heat wave that may have left as many as a billion marine creatures dead along the West Coast, there has been a high number of shellfish deaths reported at a few of Cortes Island\u00a0locations. Daily temperature highs of between 35\u00b0C and 40\u00b0C were recorded at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":53176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222],"tags":[979,8218,314,8237],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53051"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=53051"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=53051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/image0.jpeg\")
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