Category Archives: Student’s Corner

Welcome, Students!

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

This section of the website is brand new in June 2011, and we opened this section for students right around the time we participated in Art for the Sky on June 22, an exciting project with artist Daniel Dancer and Hastings Elementary School.

A river is important to our ecosystem

Here are some things to keep in mind this summer (and the rest of the year):

Art for Students: Learn more about distance perspective and Art for the Sky. Also, do you like to draw, paint, sketch, write poetry or short stories, take photos, or sculpture? If you would like to submit environmental art to be showcased on our website, please do (with your parents’ permission, of course). We want students in British Columbia to have a voice in protecting our shorelines and all the nature that we’ll be enjoying, not only this summer but all throughout the year. E:mail Mary for more information.

Salmon is a natural food for bears

Litter and Pollution: Learn more about why litter and pollution is harmful to water and wildlife, and to us, ultimately. Students can help a great deal by not littering. Of course, if you see any pollution or litter at all on the water or in nature, please do not attempt to clean it up without getting your parents or teachers involved. Plenty of litter can be dangerous to pick up. If you see pollution on the water, like an oil spill, you can call Fraser Riverkeeper and let us know! Our pollution hotline is 1-888-5-KEEPER (553-3737). Please leave a message if nobody answers! Your calls are how we learn about pollution sometimes, and we take every message seriously.

In the Great Bear Rainforest, many wolves have marine diets

Recycling: It is important to reuse or recycle when we can. Ask your parents about recycling in your neighborhood. And by following our link here, you can see just how long certain things take to break down when thrown out.

Salmon

The Salmon Life Cycle: Of course, salmon isn’t the only fish in the sea, but around British Columbia, it’s very well-known. There are all kinds of salmon in British Columbia: sockeye, coho, chum, chinook, and pink.

The clipart on this page is from Clipart ETC, which is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Welcome, students!

Recylcing

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Along with cleaning up the beach regularly, it is important to reduce and reuse products so there is one less piece of trash that can become part of the litter and affect wildlife and people. Recycling is a solution to the ocean pollution problem because a lot of our litter is misplaced, such as a recyclable can or bottle carelessly tossed on the beach instead of being properly disposed off in a recycling bin.

It is important to note how long different products within the litter take to break down:

Cotton rags	1-5 months
Paper	2-5 months
Rope	3-14 months
Orange peels	6 months
Wool socks	1-5 years
Cigarette butts	1-12 years
Plastic coated paper milk cartons	5 years
Plastic bags	10-20 years
Leather shoes	25-40 years
Nylon fabric	30-40 years
Tin cans	50-100 years
Aluminum cans	80-100 years
Plastic 6-pack holder rings	450 years
Glass bottles	1 million years
Plastic bottles	Forever

The clipart on this page is from Clipart ETC, which is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Recycling

Litter and Pollution

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

Turtle

It is very important that kids and adults alike are careful when removing litter from beaches. Children should always be with their parents or another adult, such as a teacher or camp guide, when participating in a beach clean-up. Many pieces of litter are simply too dangerous to pick up. An adult should deal with it. It is also smart to wear heavy gloves and shoes when cleaning up litter.

What are the sources of beach and marine litter?

Visitors: the main contributor to beach litter is from the recreational usage of the beach such as picnickers, recreational boating (which also cause oil spills within the marine environment)
Fishing
Sewage
Shipping
Medical
Runoff: When it rains, trash on sidewalks and streets that accumulates in the gutter is swept into our city’s storm drain system. Most storm drain systems discharge directly into the ocean. Trash is also carried from inland areas to the ocean by wind, streams, and rivers, is dumped directly in the ocean.

Why is beach and marine litter a problem?

Seagull

Litter impacts the environment is 3 main ways:

1) Impacts on wildlife: marine litter has a major impact on wildlife through entanglement and ingestion. It is estimated that globally over 100,000 marine mammals die every year from entanglement or ingestion of plastics.

Entanglement: At least 144 species of marine animals are known to have become entangled in marine litter. Entanglement can lead to serious injury and death by starvation, drowning, or suffocation. For example, discarded fishing nets can continue ‘ghost fishing’ — which is catching and killing fish and marine animals well after the nets have been lost or discarded.
Studies done have shown that about 30,000 northern fur seals die annually due to entanglement.
Ingestion: Swallowing (ingestion) of marine litter occurs because items can be mistaken for food. This can damage the digestive tract and block the passage of food, leading to starvation and death unless the blockage is removed. The ingestion of marine litter can also result in the absorption of any toxic pollutants that were present on the debris. Whole plastic bags and balloons have been mistakenly identified as food and eaten by some mammal such as turtle and shark species.
Toxicity: Certain types of plastic are known to adsorb chemicals from their environment, resulting in concentrations much higher than their surroundings. Research has found that the ingestion of plastics and chemicals correlates to impairment of animal immune systems and an increase in death from infections, etc.Chemicals from plastics can be absorbed by micro-algae and thus enter the food chain,
Tiny plastic fibres in the water can also clog the mouth of small invertebrates and thus lead to death due to starvation.

Trout

2) Impacts on marine ecosystems: marine ecosystems are affected by litter pollution at every level — from tiny microscopic organisms to the very largest animals like whales and turtles. Even the most remote and uninhabited sites are affected by litter blown or brought in on the tide.

Litter doesn’t stay where it is dropped and can be transported by rivers, tides, currents and winds.
Litter can affect many places, including beaches and the surface of the sea, and can float within the water column or may settle on and in the seabed.

3) Impacts on communities, health, and economics: Litter not only affects the organisms that live in the sea but every one of us.

Litter such as glass pieces and syringes can be a health hazard, injuring beach goers.
Aesthetically unappealing; no one wants to go to a dirty beach.
Costs a lot of money to dispose and clear it up.

The clipart on this page is from Clipart ETC, which is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Litter and Pollution

Life Cycle of Salmon

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

Salmon life cycle: click to enlarge

The early development of the salmon. 1, The fertilised egg; 2, the egg just before hatching; 3, the newly hatched salmon; 4 and 5, the larval salmon nourished from yolk-sac (y.s.) which is diminishing while the fish is increasing in size; 6, the salmon with yolk absorbed (about six weeks old).

Reproduction: Salmon live most of their life in the sea, but when they are mature and ready to breed, they enter fresh water to spawn (reproduce), traveling to a stream or pond high in oxygen. The female digs a nest in the gravel (called a redd) with her tail. She then pushes her thousands of eggs into the nest and the male milks the eggs, fertilizing them. Most salmon die after spawning.

The Eggs Hatch and Grow: The newly emerged salmon (called alevins) still have a food sac attached to them. When the food sac is used up, the salmon fry emerges from the nest and must find food (like insects) for the first time. As the fry matures, it becomes camouflaged (with parr marks) and is called parr. When it becomes silver-colored, it will be called a smolt. After growing for a while, the smolts swim downstream to the sea.

Adapting to Salt Water: When a smolt reaches the estuary (where the river meets the sea), a process begins in which their body changes, allowing them to soon live in salt water (this is called smoltification).

Maturing at Sea, then Returning Home: The salmon lives in the sea until maturity (1 to 7 years, depending on the species); some migrate thousands of miles in the sea. They then return to the place where they hatched and continue the cycle. No one knows how salmon return home -perhaps they remember the distinctive set of smells along the way. On their journey home, they do not eat at all, they often change color, their muscles soften, and they will die soon after spawning.

Predators: Salmon are preyed upon by many animals, including bears, wolves, people, many birds (like wading birds and kingfishers), and other fish. For every 8000 eggs produced, 4500 alevin survive, from which 650 fry survive, from which 200 parr survive, from which 50 smolt survive, from which only 2 spawning adults survive (who produce thousands of eggs).

The clipart above is taken from Clipart ETC, which is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Salmon Life Cycle

Art for Students

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

On June 22, Fraser Riverkeeper joined Daniel Dancer at Hastings Elementary in Vancouver, BC. Daniel Dancer is a famous artist known for his “Art for the Sky” projects. See below for our photos!

: Alevin seen from the sky

See his website and some examples of his art here!

Daniel works with students, around the world, who form what he calls a “living painting” on the ground. Then he gets boosted up about 70-80 feet in the air, via a crane or fire truck ladder, so that he can take photos and a video of the art being performed on the ground.

As you get further away from an object, you may notice that your perspective on that object changes. The object gets smaller. This is a unique perspective, and Daniel says:

Art For the Sky is a unique, large group, team building activity for schools, special events, festivals and corporations that dissolves boundaries that often exist in our daily lives and awakens our ability to see that elusive Big Picture. These enchanting creations which only make sense from high above, are a whole-body way of stimulating our imagination and helping us understand our interconnection with one another and all life. With our “skysight” turned on, we can access our highest creative potential and better solve the problems we face as individuals and as a society.