Do you know where the seafood on your plate comes from? Thisfish™ does. A fun and easy way for retailers and consumers to trace seafood back to its origins – who caught it, when, where and how – Thisfish.info is a social networking and online traceability portal that sets out to make the seafood business more transparent and, well, less fishy. With the public growing increasingly concerned about where their food comes from, both for their own safety and for the sustainability of the planet, Ecotrust Canada’s marine and technical design teams collaborated with local fishermen, processors and retailers to design, develop and implement this state-of-the-art seafood tracking tool that enables each fish to be tracked from boat to plate. This innovation improves market access for better fish, provides information to support consumer spending decisions, and creates an unprecedented level of transparency and trust across the seafood supply chain. Thisfish™ has been systematically tested in both BC and Atlantic Canada, with a wide range of seafood products, and was officially launched in Canada in July 2011. Thisfish™ products can now be found in retail outlets and restaurants around the world.

Submitted by Tasha Sutcliffe
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ORCA’s Fast Assessment of Sediment Toxicity (FAST) program is a novel two-step approach to surveying and monitoring marine pollution. We use a rapid, inexpensive, broad-spectrum bioassay to identify toxic “hot spots” (i.e. areas where pollutants accumulate). This approach allows us to test a large number of sediment and bivalve samples within the study region, thus minimizing the possibility of missing an area of high toxicity.

ORCA analyzes sediment and bivalve toxicity by measuring the degree to which luminescence pro-duced by the bacteria Vibrio fischeri is depressed by exposure to potential toxins. Light production in these bacteria is linked directly to their respiration; therefore toxins that depress respiration de-press light emission-an easily measured parameter. This broad spectrum test can determine toxicity within 30 minutes.

Sites identified as having toxic “hot spots” are then analyzed further for specific pollutants. This allows us to make the most economical use of budget dollars to identify sites that exhibit toxic properties before we conduct more expensive analyses for individual pollutants.

Submitted by Edie Widder
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The Ocean News Exchange is an online interactive hub for original news reports and information-sharing about solutions to the urgent problems facing oceans and coasts. Ocean News Exchange employs journalists to investigate and report on the successful ways people around the world are handling issues such as: sea level rise, acid oceans, overfishing, invasive species, polluted runoff, dead zones, algal blooms, coastal erosion and industrial development. Community members trained to act as freelancers write their own solutions reports. At the ONE News online hub, reports are presented as text with graphics, videos and podcasts and are shared on all social media platforms. An open forum enables discussions, sparking further collaboration and innovation.

Submitted by Sunny Lewis
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Strategic Vegetation Management (SVM) ™ is a holistic method of achieving land management goals by persuading nature to do most of the work. It draws upon our many decades of pioneering experience in ecological restoration, conservation land management, and landscape design/maintenance and integrates principles and practices derived from a broad array of related disciplines. The result is a practical hands-on approach to determining and executing appropriate onsite activities that employs a colorful new action-oriented vocabulary to explain critical decision-making factors. It is equally applicable to a green roof, a national forest, or a remote Third World island and has been proven effective for managing mangrove swamps, seagrass beds, spoil islands, and other coastal landscapes.

SVM enables vegetation managers to operate cost-effectively by working smarter. It is about addressing the causes of problems instead of pouring an unending stream of money into repeatedly dealing with symptoms. SVM basically consists of doing the right things at the right times at the right places. It empowers land managers to adjust to the 21st Century’s unpredictable funding levels and extreme weather because it calls for strategies based on adapting priorities to evolving circumstances instead of plans oriented around rigid budgets and schedules.

Whereas most modern land management approaches revolve around detailed dumbed- down procedures for fool-proofing, SVM endeavors to create smarter and more creative practitioners and encourage them to use and share their curiosity, skills, and insights. SVM is does not prohibit herbicides and heavy machinery in appropriate situations, but, since it calls for many activities that rely more on human minds and muscles than on fossil fuels and chemicals, it creates rewarding jobs that promote both ecological and human health.

Submitted by Linda Duever
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