The owners of the commercial fishing vessel Ocean Provider were sentenced earlier this summer after pleading guilty to fishing albacore Tuna from July 22 to Aug. 15, 2022 without a valid license. A total of 2,250 tuna, equalling 31,956 pounds and amounting to $127,824, was forfeited to the Crown.

On June 28, 2023, the Port Alberni Provincial Court fined the company owners $6,000 and upheld the seizures to the crown.

It’s not uncommon for Tofino to go into water restrictions throughout the summer months given dryer weather conditions and an increase in visitor traffic. Kat Thomas, a counsellor for the District of Tofino, said that stage one is usually implemented at the beginning of each summer, though, this year is the earliest that she recalls going into stage three water restrictions.

In early July all outdoor water use became prohibited among residents, business owners and visitors with most public washrooms being replaced with portable stalls.

– Indigenous art is not only unique and beautiful, but it is also functional, at least historically. Without written language, Indigenous peoples have made art to convey their history and stories to future generations.

But now that we have other modes of communication, how has Nuu-chah-nulth art evolved? What is its purpose, moving forward? How will future generations learn ancient techniques and the history behind artistic patterns and pieces?

Six years into a restoration project on the remote southern coast of Nootka Island, the exterior of the Yuquot church is expected top be completed this fall.

Tla-o-qui-aht carver Hjalmer Wenstob has completed and raised a new totem pole at Ty-Histanis to commemorate lives lost during the COVID-19 lockdown and to remember living through a pandemic.

The 21-foot pole, that was unveiled at the reserve on Aug. 13, is designed with 28 rings going up the body to honour 28 Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation members who were lost during the long COVID lockdown.

Carved on top of the rings is a healer/medicine person and above that is a large wooden box that families and loved ones of the deceased were able to add personal items into.

Thanks to some provincial funding a remote Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation will be better prepared to deal with extreme heat.

Provincial officials recently announced they would be providing the Ehattesaht First Nation with $30,000 to help deal with various risks of extreme temperatures caused by climate change.

Ehattesaht officials plan to utilize their funding for extreme heat risk mapping, assessment and planning.

Nuu-chah-nulth people have been traditionally known to hunt whales migrating along the west coast of Vancouver Island for what Tommy Happynook (Hiininaasim) of Huu-ay-aht said could be thousands of years.

For Happynook, he comes from a family of whalers who hold the title of head whaling family for Huu-ay-aht. He recalls the last member of his family to hunt a whale was his great-grandfather, Bill Happynook, in the 1920s.

Happynook said that, from his understanding, Nuu-chah-nulth collectively stopped whaling due to declining populations of the animals.

West coast tourism businesses have been dealt yet another crippling blow after the Cameron Bluffs wildfire road closures kept tourists from venturing to the west coast.

“A typical summer would mean 100 percent occupancy for us but we’ve averaged about 35 percent occupancy this summer,” said Maria Clark, Assistant General Manager at Tin Wis Best Western Resort. Tin Wis has 81 rooms that had just completed expensive renovations as Highway 4 closed due to the wildfire.

This year has seen British Columbia’s most severe forest fire season on record, but while blazes in the province’s Interior have caused the evacuation of thousands of people, the largest on Vancouver Island has not warranted suppression efforts.