Protecting North America's smallest falcon
Winnipeg Watch
A Winnipeg couple is working to protect the American Kestral and help grow the species. Devon McKendrick has more.
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CTV News
39 minutes ago
- CTV News
128-year-old shipwreck on Vancouver Island charred by fire
The charred remains of a shipwreck, that has been part of Vancouver Island's history for more than a century, are shown in a June 10, 2025, handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Geoff Johnson, *MANDATORY CREDIT* A shipwreck that has been part of Vancouver Island's history for more than a century is a charred skeleton after a fire earlier this month. Photographer Geoff Johnson said he went to look after hearing of the fire at the wreck that has been sitting on Big Beach in Ucluelet for almost 130 years. 'It was really dramatic,' recalled Johnson in an interview, adding that the wooden wreckage seemed to be 'more corpse-like now than it was before.' Ucluelet fire Chief Rick Geddes said crews attended the fire in the early morning of June 10 and the cause of the blaze is being investigated. The shipwreck suffered 'significant damage' from the fire, although it's still very much intact, Geddes said. 'It's not uncommon for us to get called to beach fires that have been abandoned overnight,' said Geddes, 'But it was somewhat uncommon for us to attend and have an issue with actual wreckage of this ship that's been on the beach for 100 plus years.' The history of the vessel, where it sailed from, and how it was stranded, has been lost. An information plaque set up next to the wreck says it's believe the ship was swept ashore by storms in 1896. The plaque says the ship was probably built somewhere on the northwest coast of the Americas in the mid- to late 1800s, based on its Douglas fir timber, wooden pegs and iron 'drift-pin' fastenings. There's no name, no destination and no hint if it was intentionally grounded and disassembled to build houses, or if it was a victim of a storm, Johnson said about the history of the vessel, which is just a block from his home. 'So, that's part of the interesting story, is that anybody you know can make up what they think the story that shipwreck was about, and it makes it a little bit more of a romantic thing to sit there and look at and think about.' Johnson said he's grown to love the beachside artifact and it was 'gut-wrenching' to see in burned. He would use it as a seat to take sunset photos and sitting there felt like hanging out with a 'friend who had just been in a bad accident,' he said. The West Coast of Vancouver Island has been called the 'Graveyard of the Pacific' for its long history of storms bringing ships into the rocky shores. In 1906, the SS Valencia en route to Victoria from San Francisco, struck a reef off Vancouver Island, killing 136 people. It is one of the deadliest shipwrecks in B.C.'s history. Anya Zanko, events and development manager with Maritime Museum of BC, said the tragedy spurred public outrage, and led to the construction of a telegraph line and trial along Vancouver Island's coast. The Dominion Lifesaving Trail was taken over by the Pacific Rim Park Reserve in 1973 and was renamed the West Coast Trail, Zanko said. The trial is now a popular hiking destination. Geddes said they want people to enjoy the beauty of the beach, but it's important that people are also responsible and ensure their fires are out before leaving the beach. Johnson said the shipwreck is now more than a reminder of the treacherous storms in the region. 'And the idea that somebody might have started this fire, and it could easily spread a block to my home, is really the lesson.' The fire chief said it's unclear what caused the fire, although they aren't aware of any lightning strikes in the area around that time. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June, 17, 2025. Nono Shen, The Canadian Press
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
City to identify ‘drop' hazards at Britannia Beach following safety audit
A lifeguard works at Britannia Beach in Ottawa, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang The City of Ottawa is implementing changes to the swimming area at Britannia Beach following an audit conducted to reduce the risk of drowning or injuries. The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario recommended the 'lifesaving audit' at city beaches last year after three people drowned at Britannia Beach between 2020 and 2023 from standing or wading close to a 'drop off' area where water depth drops from two feet to 10 feet. In July 2024, a 9-year-old boy died after being found unresponsive in the Ottawa River at the popular west end beach. In a memo to the mayor and councillors Monday afternoon, the city's general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services Dan Chenier says several changes have been made to better define the beach's swimming area and to improve markings at drop off points. The modifications include installing swimming buoy lines at least 300 millimetres from the start of the dredged swimming area and marking the sloped areas with a lane rope. Anchored cautionary buoys will also be changed to an orange/yellow colour instead of white to enhance visibility. Larger sized buoys will be used to replace the buoy line rope used in prior years, Chenier writes. Britannia Beach A map showing the new buoy line indicating drop off points at the Britannia Beach swimming area. (City of Ottawa/Provided) The city engaged Stantec Consulting Ltd. to review, assess and recommend measures to address river bottom variations and sandbars in proximity to the swimming area. 'Stantec has provided the City with four options for the modification of the beach and adjacent areas. The recommended option is to reduce underwater slopes combined with the filling of the deeper zones within and near the buoyed swim area,' the memo says. The bottom of the Ottawa River changes through the season due to the spring freshet, currents, wind and rain, leading to naturally occurring and shifting sandbars at Britannia. The city says conditions will be reviewed regularly by staff and will adjust buoy lines if needed. Residents are encouraged to only swim within designated swimming areas. The lifesaving audit was conducted on Aug. 7-8 of last year at Britannia, Mooney's Bay and Petrie Island beaches. Westboro Beach was not included as it had been closed since 2022. 'Overall, the City was found to provide a reasonable standard of care,' Chenier says. Some of the other changes this season include a new flag and signage system at all city beaches to better indicate lifeguard supervised zones and swimming areas. Red over Yellow flags – indicate the designated supervised swimming area Green flag – Lifeguards are supervising the designated swimming area Red flag – Lifeguards are not supervising the designated swimming area The Coroner had also recommended the City of Ottawa consider staffing lifeguards 'during daylight hours' and to conduct annual lifesavings audits at the start of every season. The buoy line at Petrie Island (Centre East Beach) was adjusted last year to contour the river bottom inside the drop off area. City beaches will open for supervised swimming daily from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. June 21 to Aug. 24. Lifejacket loaner program Lifejackets will be available for use at all city beaches starting this season. Approximately 25 Transport Canada approved lifejackets in child, youth and adult sizes will be on hand during supervised lifeguard hours of operation at each beach until the end of the season. The city says the service will be positioned in a 'prominent location' at each site with staff available to provide advice on proper fitting and adjustments along with water safety tips. Residents can also donate any new Transport Canada approved lifejacket or Personal Floatation Device (PFD), which will be inspected before they are added to the on-site inventory. The service will be free of charge.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Search for century-old artifact from Canadian shipwreck solved with a call from the U.S.
David Saint-Pierre says he had little information to go on in his effort to hunt down the keeper of a 111-year-old artifact from the shipwrecked Empress of Ireland. He had a photo of a man in a diving suit, an address from 1975 and a name: Ronald Stopani. Saint-Pierre — a maritime historian who has studied artifacts recovered from the site of the 1914 shipwreck off the coast of Rimouski, Que. — treated it like a modern-day scavenger hunt. He was looking for the Marconi wireless apparatus, the communication system used to receive and send wireless telegraphs on the ship before it sank, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people. The system included a tuner, work table and keys to send messages. Saint-Pierre and staff at the Empress of Ireland Museum in Rimouski discovered it was found and recovered during an expedition to the site 51 years ago by a diving crew from Rochester, N.Y. With Saint-Pierre's help, the museum found Stopani — a member of the diving crew who first pulled it up from the water in the 70s — and in the spring, the apparatus was sent back to Quebec. 'I didn't even know if that man was still alive' The process of finding Stopani involved dozens of emails, Facebook messages, a handful of phone calls and physical letters, says Saint-Pierre. "I didn't even know if that man was still alive," said Saint-Pierre. "It was a shot in the dark." He says he wrote to "probably anyone" with the last name Stopani on Facebook for a few weeks. "If your name is Stopani, you probably have one of my messages in your junk box," joked Saint-Pierre. One day in January, he got a call back. In an interview with CBC News, Stopani said he still had the apparatus stored in a clear storage box in his home in Las Vegas — and he was eager to donate it. "As soon as I opened up the letter, it even had a picture of me in there so I knew exactly what it was," said Stopani, reached in Las Vegas. "I wanted to donate them for a while, but I had no way of contacting anybody." The 81-year-old, who splits his time between his homes in Florida and Nevada, says he half expected to be contacted. Years earlier, the family of his best friend, Fred Zeller — who had led diving expeditions to the shipwreck and who recently passed away — told Stopani that they travelled to the Rimouski museum to donate artifacts Zeller found and documents from over the years. Included in the donation was the photo of Stopani with the Marconi and correspondence between him and Zeller from the mid-1970s — when the pair met up to dive the shipwreck together. It was that photo and letter which first inspired Saint-Pierre and museum staff to find Stopani — and the pictured artifacts. Five decades later, Stopani still remembers the day he pulled the items up from the floor of the St. Lawrence River — decades before it was prohibited to recover artifacts. "Believe me, it was cold," he said, adding that during the dive in July, he could see small pieces of ice floating in the river. He recalled inflating his dry suit to float up to the surface with a bag that he says weighed about 30 kilograms. For the next 51 years, the artifact was well-travelled as he brought it with him on his moves from Rochester to Brampton, Ont., to Florida and finally Las Vegas. Having shipped the Marconi out a few months ago, he says sending it back to Quebec made him feel "elated." Artifact to be sent for restoration work Roxane Julien-Friolet, a museologist, says the Marconi arrived at the museum in mid-March and in great condition. "We're just amazed and really honoured to have this really important object part of our collection now," said Julien-Friolet. She says it will be sent for restoration work and then displayed. Operated by telegraphist Ronald Ferguson, this device was a very useful tool, she says, and part of the reason some were saved from the wreck in 1914 after an SOS message was sent. Saint-Pierre says laying eyes on the device gives historians even more information as to what happened on board. In a photo, Saint-Pierre's friend noticed the switch on the tuner was turned off. "It means that … [Ferguson] had to abandon his post [but] he took the time to turn the machine off," said Saint-Pierre. "Which was standard protocol. So really a professional man." Ferguson was one of the 465 survivors of the wreck and lived until the 1980s, he says. Saint-Pierre has since connected with Ferguson's son, who lives in the U.K., and informed him that his father's instrument was finally found. "That was also a great moment for me to be able to tell [him]," said Saint-Pierre.
