Evidence of a warm winter 2025-2026-annual Fuschia that we accidentally left hanging outside last autumn is doing very well this summer. Maybe this is more common than I think in our area. Anyway humming birds are loving it. Pender Harbour BC
Colin Levings 🇨🇦
@cdlevings.bsky.social
Retired/active fisheries scientist-oceanographer - interested in estuaries&salmonids, benthos, fjords, nautical history & bunch other things. Author Salmonids in Estuaries http://bit.ly/2FrfJoy. Sailed on Western Flyer 22 y after Ricketts. colinlevings.ca
A bucket list and lessons learned paper -short title Levings, C. D., & Macdonald, J. S. (2026). Historical case study of a transfer experiment that demonstrated the importance of the estuarine ecosystem for the survival of Chinook salmon . Journal of Fish Biology, 1–16. doi.org/10.1111/jfb....
Waiting for an occupant - crows nest in the Fraser River estuary BC. Spotted in a January 2026 walk. #addBirder
Thinking back to late summer (August) - moon jellyfish drifting under marine riparian - Douglas fir bough reflection - overhanging the high tide zone. Pender Harbour BC
Riparian on its way to detritus and food web in lower Fraser R -recalled a 1955 Russian paper on Lena R. delta an early freshwater tidal fish food web. 1 and 2 (fry) is iconic Taimen/Hucho). Draft fish name translations. Pirozhnikov P. L. 1955. Questions in Ichthyology Vol 3: 164-185 (in Russian
Chromatophores were working overtime on this spawned out chum salmon from the Chehalis River. BC. Image from my grandson Erik Levings. #marinelife
There is nothing as soothing as a tranquil stream flowing through the rain forest. In this case, Anderson Creek near Madeira Park, BC.
Shallow and deep ecosystems in the Salish Sea, BC Canada 1. food web in real time - an octopus was still alive in the esophagus of a ling cod (Ophiodon elongatus) after it was caught 2. at high tide, a moon jelly moved into the marine riparian - fir tree branches are reflected in the image.
Really cool paper. You can see the point on the time series where #capitalism was invented!
🚨Paper alert Steve Campana et al rewrite the history of Atlantic cod and the #Iceland ground fishery A must read! #Fish #Fisheries #OceansPast Mortality drives production dynamics of Atlantic cod through 1100 years of commercial fishing | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Interesting review paper on non-native plant species and riverbanks. Topic likely relevant to estuaries too. Hardwick, J., et al. "The role of non-native plant species in modulating riverbank erosion: a systematic review." River Research and Applications (2025). doi.org/10.1002/rra....
📣 Exciting news! The Nippon Foundation and Scottish Association For Marine Science are embarking on a groundbreaking deep-sea research project to study "Dark Oxygen' – a revolutionary discovery of oxygen production in complete darkness on the #oceanfloor.
Aviation enabled our estuary studies British Columbia coast. Studies of mid coast fjords sometimes required flying to meet a ship eg Mallard from YVR sometimes climbed an hour to get over the mountains. CCG chopper flew us to Homathko R estuary. This is how we collected data in remote areas. 🌊🪸🐛
Animals of the marine riparian on the Salish Sea Black tail deer and Blue Heron🦅🦌🌊🌲
Collembola, chironomids and mites are some of the inverts found in the marine riparian zone in the Salish Sea, British Columbia. publications.gc.ca/collections/... gives details on invertebrates&food webs esp re juvenile salmon. See doi.org/10.1603/0046... for vegetation-invert connections 🐙 🌊
Always intrigued by how the high tide marks the edge of the marine riparian zone in the Salish Sea, British Columbia. Read about it here -https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/mpo-dfo/Fs70-5-2001-109-eng.pdf - includes food web collections to juvenile salmon.
British Columbia estuarine gammarid amphipod redux – see attached my past squibs. Scope for new work on indicator G. setosus colinlevings.ca/about/amphip... in BC fjords re changing temp & glacier retreat. Beasts are key estuarine salmon food in north temperate bit.ly/2FrfJoy p 98, 102 #addOcean 🌊
Undersea cables in the news these days. Way back in the day we sampled a telephone cable being recovered in the Salish Sea British Columbia and found 15 classes of organisms on it. The cable had been laid for 53 y. waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibl...
My side-gig in recent years -writing some West Coast marine ecology history items. It’s been fun -see attached papers on Ed Ricketts (Steinbeck friend) work in British Columbia; My memoir; notable cruise of USFCS Albatross in Salish Sea; History of ocean perch exploitation in the Gulf of Alaska.
Learned so much helping with this review paper on ecology and ocgy of land-ocean links, spearheaded by Brian Hunt @ubcoceans.bsky.social. oceans, small watersheds, mini estuaries, mountains, fjords, food webs #oceanography @earth2ocean.bsky.social aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Mink enjoying a drink on a hot day at Pender Harbour BC
ow.ly/pTgE50S1yyl Good stories here by Nick Rahaim about the fishing life of the Western Flyer after her 1940 trip to Sea of Cortez with Ricketts and Steinbeck. Includes a clip of my first fisheries job when I worked aboard her as a tech for the Halibut Commission. www.cnrs-scrn.org/argonauta/pd...
Fish Stories: Salty Tales from the Western Flyer’s Decades at Sea – Western Flyer Foundation
ow.ly
Sediment data (size, trace ele, chlor, pororsity, C,N)), meiofauna & macrofauna incl sea whips on beam-trawl &trap-transects Clio Channel, Broughton Arch. BC, CDN.Near Kalugwis Available thanks to colleague-Terri Sutherland co-lead bit.ly/3J6ZbBA doi.org/10.1002/aqc....
Sediment data (size, trace elements, chlorophyll, pororsity, C,N)), meiofauna & macrofauna incl sea whips on beam-trawl & trap-transects Clio Channel, Broughton Arch. Near Kalugwis Available thanks to colleague-Terri Sutherland co-lead bit.ly/3J6ZbBA doi.org/10.1002/aqc.... troffe pics
Report from unique detailed surface trawl survey - Chinook salmon fry-smolt feeding across Fraser River BC Canada tidal freshwater channel wrt possible food sources from local & upstream habitat. From baseline sampling 1988. Thanks co-authors for great assistance. bit.ly/3Ux2OHF