Business people who live off traffic rather than produce locally are again calling for the NDP government to remove the offshore exploration/ drilling moratorium. I call their assertions that oil reserves "better than Hibernia" to be equivalent to BRE-X claims. At best we are talking about a computer model of what could be there. At worst we are talking pure make believe.

Here's an interesting but technical abstract about 200 year supply of methyl hydrate gas off west coast of Vancouver Island. Formed by subduction Pacific plate. Good figs and site can lead to some 1996 articles about continental margins off Queen Charlottes. The idea is that Queen Charlotte basin faulted down while Coast Mountains faulted up. Thus formed at same time and same process.

Hecate and BC's Pacific Coast have been active seismically in the last month.

Figure on left excerpted from US global site showing quakes over past 30 days but updated hourly with a table to place, time and magnitude. (large size file thus slow loading)

For our purposes the Canadian Geologic Survey site gives more detail locally as seen in the image above. There is also a text listing.

Interesting how the fall bloom is centered in the deeper waters of Hecate in contrast to the spring bloom that centered around Dixon Entrance.

The chlorophyll map left correlates well with the seawater temperature as seen on the right to give us a good working hypothesis as to what is happening.

It would be interesting to have more and better information. Like plankton collections over the summer or even the water temperature daily. Obviously Hecate is dynamic and the plankton growth tapered off during the summer.

One can sympathize with fishers who anger at any mention of Marine Parks or marine protected areas (MPAs). Currently most of the area is being exploited by fishers trying to eke out a living.

Map on left from DFO habitat site. Each polygon is named and the beginnings of a narrative are attached. Thus the area where I have written "CRAB" is called "Dogfish Flats" and info that it provides 40% of BC's crab catch. Each of the trawl grounds has been named with some attempt at ranking. The darker green is commercial salmon.