My name is Neil Saxvik and I am a fifth year biology major at the University of British Columbia, graduating in the fall of 2022. I live in North Vancouver, which is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. I grew up sailing through the coastal waters of BC and through this have been able to witness and explore the complex and unique diversity of life which resides in the Salish Sea. I hold a huge appreciation and gratefulness to the sheer mass of diversity of life that this body of water supports and the importance and power it holds in our everyday life. I hope to continue on my future in the field of marine biology and to reduce the threats that our local populations are facing and to ensure that our local ocean ecosystem continues to thrive. I particularly am interested in the health and ecology of the Pacific White Sided Dolphins along our coast and hope to aid in advancing the knowledge of these incredible creatures.
One of my favourite activities is adventuring in the intertidal, and I thought I would share a little bit of the beauty I have been able to capture on my camera.
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Social Media is extremely important tool for education, awareness and ideas in todays age, and such I picked a few posts of mine in which I thought spoke most upon this topic. My twitter handle is @SaxvikNeil or you can find me at this link : https://twitter.com/SaxvikNeil
“It only takes one voice at the right pitch, to start and avalanche”
Dianne Hardy
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Dr. Oyinlola spoke with our class yesterday on the disproportionate impact of climate change on fisheries across the world. As the water warms, fish move polewards into the waters of "wealthier countries" creating yet another equity issue for developing fisheries and conservation
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) April 6, 2022
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I always hear stories and see photos of bottom trawlers but yesterday I was able to get a close up look at one for the first time. this was truly a reality check for me, that this is actively happening in our backyard. 40 trawlers were estimated on our coast that day… #trawling pic.twitter.com/tS00k4nHq0
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) April 2, 2022
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In my #OceanConsvnUBC class we had lecture from Dr. Nathan Bennett. Nathan's slide showing here a list of some human dimensions that relate to our oceans. The takeaway being in order to engage with ocean equity and justice we must understand each dimension (with a focus on red) pic.twitter.com/jBtIOn3zRS
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) March 13, 2022
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Canada just approved a 12 billion $ offshore oil project that will extract 300 million barrels of oil from the NFL sea floor. Make it make sense, this is so extremely frustrating and dangerous for our seas and all life on earth. Canada continues to be complicit in climate change https://t.co/INWIbh3VmQ
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) April 7, 2022
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During our class field trip we learned about some of discriminatory practices that happened in the Steveston fisheries. Learning and acknowledging the oppressive histories of our fishing industry is so important and crucial in order to move forward in just ways today.
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) April 4, 2022
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Today we presented fisheries success stories to Dr. Pauly. The main takeaway was that complete success is impossible, someone will always lose. We must be very careful how we define success and ensure that we are still acknowledging the faults even in our best success stories
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) March 24, 2022
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Last week my #OceanConsvnUBC met with Fraser a local fisherman in the Salish Sea. I think I think I learned more about the state of our local fisheries in this one day than I have in my whole life. It is incredibly rewarding to have these opportunities in education. pic.twitter.com/ijcBpM8T16
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) March 7, 2022
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Did you know that fish farms pose a threat to BC's glass sponge reefs. Wastes and feces from farms commonly choke out, starve, and smother these reefs. Farms as far away as six kilometres away can negatively effect these unique ecosystems. Check the videohttps://t.co/mLmrrXlAlW pic.twitter.com/jUYdTwlKGI
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) February 1, 2022
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Scientist believe that since the first glass sponge reefs were discovered in BC in 1984, fishing activities had already destroyed half of them. With so little of our ocean mapped I cant help but wonder what other unqiue ecosystem we are unknowingly destroying with these practices
— Neil Saxvik (@SaxvikNeil) February 1, 2022