New sculpture for famous local wolf

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Today’s approx. read time: 6 minutes

A new sculpture will cement the legacy of the well-known lone sea wolf, Staqeya (Takaya / Stqéyə), that lived on Tl’ches (Chatham and Discovery Islands) for eight years. Staqeya swam over to James Bay in 2020 and so was relocated to western Vancouver Island—where it was shot and killed by hunters.

The statue was unveiled at Cattle Point on Thursday in a public ceremony. Carved from marble by Ken LaForme from a locally sourced glacier erratic boulder, its centre has a hole through which which viewers can see Tl’ches.

“Staqeya represents a great leader for the Nation, late Chief Robert Sam,” said Chief Ron Sam, son of Robert, in a statement. “Due to the arrival of the wolf to Tl’ches days after his passing [in 2012], as a community we felt as if this was our late Chief returning to watch over and protect us.”

He said the new art piece represents “the unwavering strength” of his late father, as well as the beloved wolf.

Staqeya is also the subject of a book and documentaries—find those videos at the end of today’s newsletter.

Autumn is the season for whale songs as male humpbacks all over the Pacific—including Island waters—begin singing and spreading ever-evolving songs that are believed to be connected to breeding.

Now, a coalition of First Nations and whale conservation groups has set up a website to listen in on these songs and learn more about whale acoustics.

Data and marine sounds from 16 different hydrophones set up off southern and northern Vancouver Island and BC’s central and northern coast will build out a large acoustic library.

But just as we can hear whales, they can here us, and there are concerns that human noise is causing “blindness” for whales relying on sound to live.

More on that, and on how to hear the whales, in the full story.

The local soccer club fell 0-3 in Calgary yesterday against the league’s top team, missing a final chance to climb back into 2nd place.

PFC was atop the league early this year, and continued to hold off the pack even after being surpassed by the now-dominant Cavalry. But a two-month swoon in which PFC won just 2 of the past 10 games has ultimately relegated the locals to 4th.

That’s an even tougher position than in past seasons, when 4th would mean an automatic semifinal berth. Under the new format, the 2nd seed can zip to the finals with one win—while the 4th (and 5th) teams must win three in a row to get there.

It’s a move designed to help the best regular-season team, giving Cavalry—already the strong favourite—a great chance to become the first team other than Pacific (2021) and Forge (2019, 2020, 2022) to win the Canadian Premier League.

Pacific FC will begin its tough road this Wednesday, at home in Langford.