HONOLULU — After the most powerful El Nino on record heated the world’s oceans to never-before-seen levels, huge swaths of once vibrant coral reefs that were teeming with life are now stark white ghost towns disintegrating into the sea.
And the world’s top marine scientists are still struggling in the face of global warming and decades of devastating reef destruction to find the political and financial wherewithal to tackle the loss of these globally important ecosystems.
“What we have to do is to really translate the urgency,” said Ruth Gates, president of the International Society for Reef Studies and director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.
READ MORE: New study says bleaching has killed over a third of the coral in parts of the Great Barrier Reef
Gates, who helped organize a conference this week for more than 2,000 international reef scientists, policymakers and others, said the scientific community needs to make it clear how “intimately reef health is intertwined with human health.”
The International Coral Reef Symposium convenes Monday to try to create a more unified conservation plan for coral reefs. She said researchers have to find a way to implement large scale solutions with the help of governments.
Consecutive years of coral bleaching have led to some of the most widespread mortality of reefs on record, leaving scientists in a race to save them. While bleached coral often recovers, multiple years weakens the organisms and increases the risk of death.
Researchers have achieved some success with projects such as creating coral nurseries and growing forms of “super coral” that can withstand harsher conditions. But much of that science is being done on a very small scale with limited funding.
WATCH: Why is the Great Barrier reef turning white?
Bob Richmond, director of the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory, said the problems are very clear: “overfishing of reef herbivores and top predators, land-based sources of pollution and sedimentation, and the continued and growing impacts of climate change.”
While reefs are major contributors to many coastal tourist economies, saving the world’s coral isn’t just about having pretty places for vacationers to explore. Reefs are integral to the overall ecosystem and are an essential component of everyday human existence.
Reefs not only provide habitat for most ocean fish consumed by humans, but they also shelter land from storm surges and rising sea levels. Coral has even been found to have medicinal properties.
In one project to help save reefs, researchers at the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Marine Biology have been taking samples from corals that have shown tolerance for harsher conditions in Oahu’s Kaneohe Bay and breeding them with other strong strains in slightly warmer than normal conditions to create a super coral.
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The idea is to make the corals more resilient by training them to adapt to tougher conditions before transplanting them into the ocean.
Another program run by the state of Hawaii has created seed banks and a fast-growing coral nursery for expediting coral restoration projects.
Most of Hawaii’s species of coral are unlike other corals around the world in that they grow very slowly, which makes reef rebuilding in the state difficult. So officials came up with a plan to grow large chunks of coral in a fraction of the time it would normally take.
Coral reefs have almost always been studied up close, by scientists in the water looking at small portions of reefs.
IN PHOTOS: El Niño devastates coral reefs in Pacific
But NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking a wider view, from about 23,000 feet above. NASA and other scientists recently launched a three-year campaign to gather new data on coral reefs worldwide. They are using specially designed imaging instruments attached to aircraft.
“The idea is to get a new perspective on coral reefs from above, to study them at a larger scale than we have been able to before, and then relate reef condition to the environment,” said Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences’ Eric Hochberg, principal investigator for the project.
If the scientific community and the world’s governments can’t come together to address coral’s decline, one of earth’s most critical habitats could soon be gone, leaving humans to deal with the unforeseen consequences.
“What happens if we don’t take care of our reefs?” asked Gates. “It’s dire.”
WATCH: GoPro camera strapped to turtle’s back offers unique view of Great Barrier Reef
A pontoon boat burst into flames in Nackawic, N.B., Saturday, leaving a New Brunswick family shaken up.
Becky York, her husband and their two children, Ella, 9, and Alex, 7, along with their 10-week-old puppy were on the family’s boat when it caught fire. It was the first time the family was using the boat this season.
The York family is happy to be together today after their pontoon boat caught fire and sank in #Nackawic @Global_NB pic.twitter长沙桑拿/2UU7W1iAI4
— Adrienne South (@AdrienneKS) June 19, 2016
York tells Global News her husband started the boat as usual in the marina, but it backfired. She says she turned around to check the motor and saw flames.
After her children jumped off the boat in life-jackets, as she said they often did for fun, York said she had to initially leave the dog on the boat, until neighbours came to the rescue.
“Some friends of ours that were at the dock, thank goodness, and seen the flames, came out with their boat,” York said.
She says the puppy had never been swimming before, and she didn’t want to put her in the water out of fear that the dog might scratch the children as they tried to swim to shore.
“I grabbed the fire extinguisher that we had on board and my husband went back to try and put the fire out. At that point our friends were close by, I threw the puppy over into their boat and I jumped in the water to swim with my children,” York said.
Witness Danny Roy says the scene was terrifying. He was on his way t0 Nackawic when he noticed the plume of smoke over the water and cars pulling over to the side of Route 105. Roy tells Global News he pulled over and saw a boat on fire.
“I just heard popping noises and as it was going down stream it was an inferno, major inferno. There was not much left of it after about 20-25 minutes. It was completely gone,” Roy said.
Roy says the boat was so far out in the middle of the river that he wasn’t sure anyone had survived.
York says she goes over boating safety with her children quite frequently, and says if they hadn’t had life-jackets and fire extinguishers onboard they might not have been able to spend Father’s Day together.
“We always have more life-jackets than we do people and I was really thankful that the kids knew, we all knew exactly where they were,” York said.
She says they were all ready to go as soon as they noticed the flames.
“Life-jackets are so important — it’s like a seat belt in a car. It’s your first line of defence, and if we hadn’t have had those, man yesterday could have been a much different story,” York said.
She says it really speaks to boating safety and hopes others can learn a value lesson from their close call.
“You have to have life-jackets and you have to always be [prepared], especially with children because it’s unpredictable sometimes as to what happens. And it happens so fast,” York said.
The family says once they get their new boat they plan on having even more fire extinguishers on it, as well as continuing to stock the boat with extra life-jackets.
It would have been their first Father’s Day together as a family – but instead, Kiranbir Bhangu is spending it as a widow in the company of her six-year-old son, Royce.
Royce’s father, Karanpal Bhangu, was murdered while working the night shift at a Mill Woods Mac’s store in December 2015.
Three masked men barged into the store in the wee hours of the morning in an armed robbery. Bhangu activated the emergency alert, but he was shot in the stomach and died within minutes.
READ MORE: Charges laid in Mac’s Convenience store robberies
“According to the medical examiner, that’s all he had, was three minutes after he got the bullet. It was too late,” said Kiranbir.
Today marks exactly 6 months since the Mac’s store murders in Edmonton. Kiran says she still can’t move forward #yeg pic.twitter长沙桑拿/BlY3tHjBq5
— Sarah Kraus Global (@SarahNKraus) June 18, 2016
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The couple met at a wedding in India. Soon after Royce was born, Kiranbir moved to Canada to go to school and become a teacher.
“You wanted to have a better future for your children,” she said.
“Part of that is also safety. You feel like these countries are safer.”
Karanpal dreamed of also leaving India for better opportunities in Canada. But it would be five years and seven months before he and Royce would reunite with Kiranbir in Edmonton.
READ MORE: Youth accused in Edmonton Mac’s murders cries in court
When Karanpal arrived in Edmonton in August 2015, he fell in love with the Canadian winter.
“He loved the snow,” his wife recalled. “The day this thing happened, he got out of the house and he’s calling me from the parking lot. I’m thinking he forgot something. So I’m like, ‘What now Karan?” and he goes ‘It’s snowing outside! Go get Royce and enjoy the snow.’”
This is Karan and his family. This Fathers Day would have been their first together in Canada, but now Karan is gone pic.twitter长沙桑拿/pFAwf3FX9h
— Sarah Kraus Global (@SarahNKraus) June 18, 2016
In the time leading up to his death, the family was very active.
“I don’t remember any weekend or any time that we had together, since they came – in those four months – that we spent at home. We were always out in the parks, enjoying.”
Karanpal would have turned 36 on Monday, June 13. Holidays and anniversaries that Kiranbir used to look forward to are now difficult to endure.
From the outset, she was nervous about her husband working overnights. Back in India, he held a Masters in public administration and a bachelors degree in information technology.
READ MORE: ‘I don’t want anybody else to go through this’: Mac’s murder victim’s widow speaks out
“His employer was so impressed with him, the way he would work – being so responsible and stuff. He’d say, ‘You should be the manager, not a night shift employee’ and he would say, ‘It’s okay, I’m not going to work here for long – just a couple months. I’ll find something else.’”
He told his wife he felt safe at work – even though there was one time where a man came in bleeding from his head and threatening to kill him. Karanpal wasn’t initially forthcoming in sharing that story with his wife.
“I was like, ‘Why wouldn’t you tell me that?’ And Karan was like, ‘You wouldn’t allow me to go to work the next day. I knew you wouldn’t let me go to work.’”
In December Karanpal was killed in the same store.
“All of a sudden it’s all been taken away,” said Bhangu, her eyes welling with tears.
“He was a son, he was a brother, he was my husband. He was a father, who my child will be missing this Father’s Day.”
Tears stream down Kiranbir’s face as she thinks of her son.
“Now he will tell me he misses dad. He misses dad when he goes to the park.”
Kiranbir said she still has unanswered questions, six months after her husband’s death.
“All of this just doesn’t make sense to me. I still cannot wrap my head around it. How could this happen to me? I don’t know if I have accepted it or not. I’m still working on it.”
But as the pair grieves, Kiranbir pulls strength from her family and friends.
“The prayers, the thoughts they did for me, I felt that. Otherwise there was no other way I could have survived it.”
For six young girls, Sunday wasn’t just Father’s Day —; it was competition day.
The three swam, biked and raced their way across the finish line in the Kids of Steel Triathlon, most of the girls competing for the first time.
“It’s not easy, it’s challenging, which makes it fun,” said 11-year-old competitor Laurenne Trottier.
“It’s an accomplishment.”
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“It was actually pretty cool because it’s the first triathlon I’ve ever done, but it was pretty tiring,” said Grade 4 competitor Riley Pierce.
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Joel Pedersen, a Saskatoon police officer and owner of Fitness 2J2, has been training the group for two months.
“I know the importance of sports, recreation and how it all combines into health and wellness,” Pedersen said.
“When I first started, I didn’t think that I’d be able to do it, but as I trained it seemed easier and easier,” said competitor Layla Stone, 11.
Beyond competing in a new sport, Pedersen has taught the girls perseverance.
“To keep going and even when it gets hard, just keep going and don’t give up,” said Neave-Marie Pedersen.
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Tara Desroches is a teacher at St. Mary’s and has seen the positive psychological transformation the program has made on her students.
“They realize they can do it. They realize with enough determination and practice they’re capable of performing in a triathlon. Something they weren’t able to do at the beginning of the year. It builds confidence,” Desroches said.
“I’m so proud of them. They accomplished more than they thought they could and at the end of the day they got to meet new kids and learned a new sport they can do forever,” Pedersen explained.
Despite a few bumps and bruises, all of the girls say they’re going to continue training for triathlons. Proving the experience not only kept them active, but it showed them they’re capable of overcoming life’s obstacles if they put their minds to it.
Organizers of the Concord Pacific Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival are renewing their call to limit boat traffic in False Creek after an uninvited entry crashed the competition this weekend.
A large charter vessel ran right into the middle of the course during a 2,000-metre race on Saturday.
“Unfortunately during our final race of the day, the women’s Guts & Glory, a local charter operator, chose to power across the course even when given the opportunity to get out of the way of our athletes,” Dragon Boat BC wrote on their Facebook page.
Fortunately no one was injured.
Festival organizers filed a police complaint against the charter operator.
“We think that his actions were reckless,” Anita Webster of the Concord Pacific Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival said.
“On the waterways…the right of way goes to the non-motorized vessel. He was in the thick of a lot of non-motorized vessels and not obeying the rules of the road.”
Charter captain Andre Filimonov agreed that dragon boats have the right of way, but said the way the festival has taken over the channel also breaks the rules.
“All lanes are blocked,” he said.
“We’re just looking for a safe window to pass through.”
Dragon boaters recently launched a petition to ban moorage in the eastern part of False Creek in order to keep a small area safe for regattas and other non-motorized water sports.
Some dragon boat fans vented their frustrations online, posting negative reviews on the Yelp page for Golden Eagle Boat Charters, the owners of the boat involved in Saturday’s mishap.
A second Dragon Boat BC Facebook post said the Vancouver Police Department is looking for witnesses who were on the water at the time of the incident.