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A sprawling international study of humpback whales in the northern Pacific has found their population has shrunk significantly since 2012 — despite the once-endangered species' remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science journal on Wednesday, estimated a roughly 20 per cent drop in the cetacean species' numbers over a decade.But despite that, one of the study's nearly 75 listed authors said the findings are not yet cause for alarm.Thomas Doniol-Valcroze is…

Federal authorities have closed Canada's only known live coral reef in the Pacific Ocean to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fishing.Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the indefinite closure came into effect on Feb. 14 for the Lophelia Reef, located in the Finlayson Channel of British Columbia's Central Coast, about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver and 200 kilometres directly east of Haida Gwaii.The department says the reef was first discovered in 2021 and is the "first and only" known live coral reef in…

One of the scientists who was fired from Canada's top infectious disease laboratory "intentionally" shared scientific information with China — potentially putting people's health in jeopardy — says an assessment by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).  The intelligence assessment was released late Wednesday afternoon by the federal government, along with hundreds of other documents about the mysterious dismissal of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng.The scientists and their students worked in the…

A spare robotic hand for Canadarm2 tested at Ottawa's David Florida Laboratory in 2015. The Canadian Space Agency says the lab can run tests ranging from –25 to 60 C. (Canadian Space Agency)The Canadian Space Agency has confirmed a west Ottawa spacecraft laboratory it calls "Canada's national facility for spacecraft assembly  integration" is closing at the end of March 2025.The David Florida Laboratory officially opened in 1972 in the Shirley's Bay complex off Carling Avenue. It's one of the few complexes in the world…

I've been very fortunate as a documentary and adventure series filmmaker, having the opportunity to travel all over Canada and the world doing what I love. But my latest project sent me on a mission to a lunar landscape in Canada's Far North — one of the most difficult places I've ever had to reach. For the CBC Short Doc My New Moon Suit, we travelled to Devon Island, nestled in Canada's Arctic, to run our very own test of a new spacesuit. It's here, on the world's largest uninhabited island, that new-concept spacesuits…

A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million US to climate scientist Michael Mann, who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester.Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to fame for a graph first published in 1998 in the journal Nature that was dubbed the "hockey stick" for its dramatic illustration of a warming planet.The work brought Mann wide exposure but also many skeptics, including the two writers…

Canada's forestry sector is responsible for far more greenhouse gas emissions than show up in official tallies, potentially leading to policies that aren't in line with the country's climate goals, a new study suggests.The peer-reviewed study, published in the academic journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, found that annual greenhouse gas emissions attributable to forestry between 2005 and 2021 were, on average, nearly 91 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent — which would put the sector on par with…

A robotic lander built by a private company suffered a technical problem on its way to the moon on Monday, threatening to upend the first U.S. soft lunar landing in over 50 years.The issue with the lander's propulsion system followed a successful launch of a new Vulcan rocket debuted by a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.Space robotics firm Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander launched at 2:18 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first flight of Vulcan, a powerful rocket that had been under development for…

Canada is home to the largest boreal forest in the world, a vast expanse of wilderness rich in biodiversity that stretches from coast to coast.But a major new study examining nearly a half century of logging in Ontario and Quebec warns that clear-cutting has left forests in the provinces severely depleted — and puts woodland caribou at risk.The peer-reviewed research, published in the academic journal Land, found that logging practices between 1976 and 2020 have resulted in the loss of more than 14 million hectares of…

Every year, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) ranks the top 10 Canadian weather stories. Senior climatologist David Phillips compiles the list and this year, there was no doubt about what would take the number one position: the record-setting wildfires."There's no drum roll here," Phillips said. "The fires dominated everything.... In 28 years of putting together , it's never been a more obvious number one."Wildfire season got an early start due, in part, to the persistent drought conditions across B.C. and in…