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

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

Evidence of a warm winter 2025-2026-perennial 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

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

Lower Fraser River riparian in autumnLena River delta fish food web from. Pirozhnikov P. L. 1955. Questions in Ichthyology Vol 3: 164-185 (in Russian) draft fish names are my scribbles.see right image for codes to namesCodes to draft fish names

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.

Octopus in a ling cod mouthMoon jellyfish in the marine riparian at high tide - fir tree branches reflected in the image

📣 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.

Bild

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. 🌊🪸🐛

Homathko River estuary was at the maximum distance re fuel from the CCG base in Campbell River. Survey was for geomorph and marsh studies. 1980 picGrumman Mallard (from Wiki). BC Airlines flew us into Ocean Falls where we were doing benthic studies at a pulp mill. See
Fournier and Levings 1982. Polychaetes recorded near two pulp mills on the coast of northern British Columbia : a preliminary taxonomic and ecological account Syllogeus (National Museum of Canada) 40: 1- 91.I have not flown on a Seabee but certainly did on the legendary Beaver. The map at this link shows the places we worked at up and down the coast. https://colinlevings.ca/about/places-ive-studied/
Pic is at Haida Gwaii - Daajing Giids - Queen Charlotte City 1965

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.

Horizontal profile of the lower tree branches shows the high tide mark. Jervis Inlet BC

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.

BildFrom ANH 47 (2)courtesy Chris RooperAlbatross from NMFS