100-year-old WWII veteran reflects on 80th anniversary of Battle of Iwo Jima
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Fox News
11 hours ago
- Fox News
100-year-old WWII veteran reflects on 80th anniversary of Battle of Iwo Jima
'Fox News Sunday' anchor Shannon Bream talks with World War II veterans about the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fraser River salmon returns this year a 'real chance to celebrate,' harvesters say
Guy Johnston is out fishing near the B.C. border with southeast Alaska. Over the phone, he tells CBC News that fishermen know to expect challenging seasons. "That's understood all around the world, and coasts everywhere [with] fishing communities — there are going to be hard times," he said. "The flip side to that is what we're seeing now, when there's a real bounty coming in, it's a real chance to celebrate." Johnston, who has been fishing for 50 years, is one of many celebrating this year's Fraser River sockeye salmon returns and its estimated 6.3 million fish. That's up from the 2.3 million pre-season estimate, and over 13 times last year's estimated 474,000 fish, according to figures from the Pacific Salmon Commission and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). "These good returns, it means for us as fishermen ... we replenish our our economics," says Johnston, who's also the secretary-treasurer of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union (UFAWU-Unifor). "It means in our communities ... people are going to be eating this beautiful protein." The data was shared by UFAWU-Unifor earlier this week, on behalf of independent fish harvesters, representatives with the Area Harvest Committee, and organizations including the Pacific Salmon Commission, Fraser River Panel, B.C. Seafood Alliance, and T. Buck Suzuki Foundation. The group attributes the increase, in part, to efforts by First Nations, commercial harvesters, and the DFO to rebuild salmon stocks and habitats over the years. Bob Chamberlin, chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance, points to the removal of open-net pen fish farms in the Discovery Islands. The farms have long been the subject of debate, with environmental groups and some First Nations saying they're linked to the transfer of disease to wild salmon. Work to phase them out began in 2020, with over a dozen farms closed since then. Some open-net fish farms continue to operate outside of the Discovery Islands, however, with the B.C. government delaying their closures from 2025 to 2029. "I don't want government to view this, as you know, to wash their hands and the job is done," Chamberlin says of the salmon increase this year. "This is an opportunity to build, to realize the importance of wild salmon to British Columbians and First Nations and the environment, and begin to chart a course of nation-building with this resource because the benefits are so far-reaching." In a statement to CBC News, DFO says while it's "not possible to attribute the scale of the returns to any single factor, it is certain that this large return would not have occurred" without the efforts of First Nations and the federal and provincial governments to restore the fish passage at the Big Bar landslide. The landslide, which occurred north of Lillooet, B.C., in June 2019 but wasn't discovered until June the following year, blocked the passage of migrating Fraser River salmon — preventing thousands of fish from reaching the upstream waterways in which they were born, and which they must reach in order to spawn. The DFO says that investment in hatchery infrastructure has allowed for the release of thousands more juvenile sockeye salmon to help rebuild stocks after the slide and that this year's run marks "the first brood year to return" after the fish passage was restored in 2021. Given the abundance, DFO says that First Nations fisheries for food, social, and ceremonial purposes are given first priority to fish, and further opportunities for the Nations, as well as commercial and recreational fisheries, will be assessed as more information on the salmon returns is collected. Christina Burridge, executive director of the B.C. Seafood Alliance, says it's important to harvest the salmon to avoid overcrowding on the spawning grounds. "First of all, you're wasting protein ... And secondly, that just has a really negative cycle whereby the fish can't find enough spawning grounds and so many of them die without spawning," she said. Meanwhile, fisherman Johnston says that in Cowichan Bay, where he lives during the off-season, people are celebrating the bounty. "You see it in my community. You see it all up and down the coast. There's real celebration."
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Appeal for 100th birthday cards for Second World War veteran
Well-wishers are being urged to send 100th birthday cards to a Second World War veteran who served in the Arctic Convoys to make his surprise celebration extra special. Dougie Shelley, who has no known surviving family, joined the Royal Navy at 17, served as a seaman gunner and said earlier this year: "There's not many of us left." The sailor, of Southend in Essex, was on a ship in Hong Kong when news came through of Germany's surrender, and said in a previous interview that it "couldn't have been better". He said: "The war killed so many people it's unbelievable. All around, the Americans, Russians, all the Allies, the same with the Germans. "But you were doing a job, the same as they had to. It's either kill or be killed. "When we heard about victory in Europe, everybody got together and we all had a good old drink up and jolly up, and couldn't welcome it much better." Mr Shelley will turn 100 on 23 September. John Hawes, chairman of the Southend branch of the Royal Naval Association, is appealing for people to send birthday cards for Mr Shelley, which will be shown to him at a party on the day. Mr Hawes said Mr Shelley was the branch's "last Arctic convoy veteran and also he was at D-Day". Mr Shelley's carer Paul Bennett said he was on the HMS Milne on D-Day "supporting the chaps going off to land in craft ashore in Normandy and he was a gunner keeping the skies clear of enemy aircraft". Read more from Sky News: Mr Hawes said the veteran had previously been the local branch's chairman, secretary and treasurer but "as he got older he had to stop some of those jobs". He said: "He's always been there, he's always got a smile, he always wants to chat. "He really deserves something, he has been one of our founder members way back in 1980 I think it was when the actual club opened. "He's always been with us on Remembrance Sunday in his wheelchair and somebody's pushed him up to the cenotaph at Southend." Mr Hawes is hoping to collate at least 100 birthday cards. "I think he's going to thoroughly enjoy it, he really will, he'll be over the moon," said Mr Hawes. "Dougie always likes to let everybody know he's there and this will blow his socks off I think." Mr Hawes, who was a chef and baker on the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, is to make Mr Shelley's birthday cake - a Victoria sandwich. He said Mr Shelley "does like his tot of rum" and that this would be offered to guests, with a bottle of Pusser's Rum presented to the veteran. The birthday cards can be sent to the Royal Naval Association club, 73-79 East Street, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS2 6LQ.
