Paul McCarney

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I'm a hunter-conservationist and PhD student from Ontario, Canada.

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I'm reading a book right now called The Unnatural History of the Sea. In it, author and professor of marine conservation Callum Roberts talks about how overexploitation of marine species began back in the 11th century in Europe and was certainly in motion on North American coasts by the 17th century. • While I was in Bella Coola last week we set some crab traps so the Guardians there could collect data as part of a crab survey to look at population demographics and dynamics to ensure Dungeness crabs were protected from overfishing by the commercial fishery. We also kept some of the males that were over 165 mm wide to cook that evening for our meal. • These things are both important to think about. Being in Whitehorse this week reminds me of hiking in Kluane National Park one year ago on a great trip with @kristeenmct. Looking forward to getting back here again sometime for more adventures. Look at this tree. Throwback to the days when if you wanted a photo of yourself in a cool place, you had to either get someone else to take it or put a timer on the camera. Which one happened here, you might ask? That's between the forest and me. This was part way up the mountain and gave me a great view of the South Bentinck Arm of the fjord outside Bella Coola. I caught my first cutthroat trout today on a little known stretch of river near Bella Coola. What a beautiful fish. Grateful to our host for sharing his spot. The markings on the underside of humpback whale flukes are unique and can be used to identify the individual whale. We watched this whale blow for a while before we finally saw it dive and lift its tail. My phone camera doesn't do it justice. You can see some of the mist still hanging in the air.

“Hunting is one of the hardest things even to think about. Such a storm of conflicting emotions!” – Edward Abbey

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