Is this intersection safe? New tool measures hazard level of most Montreal intersections
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
4 hours ago
- National Post
33-year-old puffin on New Brunswick island going strong, with a chick
FREDERICTON — Daniel Oliker held a 33-year-old puffin from Machias Seal Island in his hands and was in awe about how it was a decade older than him. It felt like he was holding a world of knowledge and history in that puff ball of black and white feathers. Article content The University of New Brunswick graduate student, researching Atlantic puffin ecology, found a bird with a plastic band dating back to 1992. It showed the tuxedo bird to be a wise and worldly 33. And it had a chick. Article content Article content Article content Machias Seal Island is a flat, treeless sanctuary for seabirds located about 19 kilometres southwest of New Brunswick's Grand Manan Island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. It has about 8,600 breeding pairs of puffins. Article content Article content Oliker said last week his fellow researcher spotted one of the tuxedo birds on the island with a faded, green-and-white plastic band, and marked the area where it was seen. Those bands were used by Canada Wildlife Services starting in the 1970s until around 1995, when they started being replaced with metal ones. Article content Around midnight Oliker and a couple of researchers went to search the burrows — nests where puffins rest at night after a day at sea — looking for the old bird. Article content After searching a few burrows, he said he found the right bird by feeling the bands on their legs. A few had metal bands. Article content 'Then I felt one that felt a little bit different, and it was in the right location that we marked so I pulled it out and it was the right guy,' he said in an interview from the island. Article content Article content The old bird was curious and didn't put up much of a fight when it was pulled out. Article content Article content The researchers replaced the plastic band with a metal one, giving the puffin its new number: JG18. But they don't yet know its gender. Article content That he was holding one of the oldest birds, Oliker said, was 'very exciting' and 'truly amazing.' Most puffins in the wild live up to their mid-20s. Article content 'Just to think of how many years he spent out on the open ocean. How deep he's dived before. It's fascinating to think about just how much this bird has gone through, what it's seen, and the fact that it's still here and raising a chick. It speaks to its persistence.' Article content The chick was a 'decent size,' which was pleasantly surprising because puffins are struggling this year from a seeming lack of food, he said. There have been a number of eggs that haven't hatched and several pufflings — babies — have died, he added. Article content 'It is very probable that this puffin, being so old, has experience and knows what it's doing. So it's been able to find a good burrow for its mate, himself and the egg, and then able to produce a chick,' he said. 'It's very likely, because he's been alive for so long, that he knows which spots might be better for fish.'
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
Legionnaires' disease outbreak has sickened 40 people in Ontario. Here is what you need to know
This 2009 colorized 8000X electron micrograph image provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a large grouping of gram-negative Legionella pneumophila bacteria. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Janice Haney Carr) A recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in London, Ont. is raising the profile of the bacterial infection, with some wondering whether it can pose a risk to the greater public. The illness, which is caused by Legionella bacteria, manifests as a severe form of pneumonia. Common symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Infectious disease physician Dr. Isaac Bogoch explains the bacterial infection lives in nature, which means it can be found in soil and water. However, he stresses that the illness doesn't spread from person to person and can only be contracted by breathing it in by way of human-made systems. 'This is usually acquired by inhaling the bacteria,' he tells CTV News. 'You get sporadic cases, but oftentimes you can get outbreaks. And the reason you get outbreaks is sometimes the bacteria can get into HVAC systems, water coolers and water towers.' How common is it? While rare, there have been cases of the illness spreading through indoor environments like hotels or offices, via HVAC systems, cooling towers or air conditioning. Data released by Public Health Ontario (PHO) in May showed that there were 363 confirmed cases of the virus in 2024, which was roughly in line with the annual average of 354. The rates across much of the GTA were all under 1.9 cases per 100,000 people. n 2024, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported the highest rate of legionellosis at about 7.7 cases per 100,000 people. How is it treated? The infection is treated with the same common antibiotics used for pneumonia. When a case of Legionella is identified, there will be a public health effort to trace where it was potentially acquired. This is to verify if there are other cases and what potential common source led to the outbreak. 'If there are people in the same place like a shopping centre, hotel or church, that are all getting pneumonia, you can start to look for potential contaminated air conditioning, HVAC systems, etcetera,' Bogoch says. He adds that there currently isn't an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Toronto. While the illness appears infrequently, Bogoch says it's also not uncommon for cases to occur. The risk of Legionella is especially high for older adults, smokers, those with chronic lung disease or anyone who is immunocompromised. When does it occur? Residents can be exposed to the Legionella bacteria at any point but Public Health Ontario says that most cases occur between June and September, with July seeing the largest volume of cases. PHO says that last July the positivity rate peaked at 6.4 per cent before trending downward. It says that the proportion of confirmed cases that resulted in hospitalization in 2024 was 76.6 per cent. About five per cent of cases resulted in death in 2024, according to PHO. What happened in London? The health unit in London, Ont., said this week that more than 40 cases of legionella have been confirmed within a six-kilometre radius, with one case resulting in death. The Middlesex-London Health Unit has said it doesn't know the source of the outbreak but still considers the risk to the public to be 'low.' 'Most people who are exposed to legionella bacteria will not become infected or develop symptoms. Risk factors for Legionnaire's disease including being elderly, immunocompromised or having underlying lung conditions,' a spokesperson told CTV News earlier this week. Why is it called Legionnaires disease? The name Legionella stems from when the bacterial infection was first characterized in 1976, after many people became ill during a Legion convention in Philadelphia, leading to an epidemiologic investigation.
CTV News
9 hours ago
- CTV News
Back to the Sea Centre in Dartmouth, N.S., educates and inspires ocean conservation
A sea star is pictured being placed in the palm of someone's hand. The touch tank at the Back to the Sea Centre in Downtown Dartmouth, N.S., is open for the season, allowing visitors to learn about ocean animals and handle them. Magali Grégoire is the founder and executive director of the Back to the Sea Society. She said this year sees the return of classic creatures like sea stars. 'I'd say they're always a crowd favourite,' Grégoire said. 'Then we have what we like to say is a cousin of the sea star, the sea urchin.' Grégoire said urchins surprise kids because they move every spine on their body independently to propel themselves. A scientific diver at Dalhousie collected the touch tank residents as part of a catch-and-release educational program. 'We display them for the summer and then in September with our permit from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans we get permission to release them all back to the sea,' Grégoire said. The public can also participate in the catch-and-release program, she said. The centre has a tank filled with rare lobsters for the first time in 2025. 'It's actually something that people have requested,' Grégoire said. 'We were never able to do that because you can't stick your hand in a tank that has lobsters in it.' Grégoire said this year the centre was contacted by the Fisherman's Market who donated two rare lobsters, prompting them to dedicate an entire display tank to the new, temporary residents and held a naming contest online. The rare, one-in-100,000,000 cotton candy lobster, which is white and blue spots was named Moon Mist. Then second lobster is a one-in-50,000,000 split lobster named Bingo with a shell that's half red and half black. The mission of the centre is to inspire curiosity and the desire to protect the ocean, Grégoire said. They are open for private bookings including birthday parties and Grégoire said they host a lot of daycare, school and community groups in the summer. Donors to the centre can symbolically adopt a sea creature by taking home a locally made plush toy of one of the species in the touch tank, a certificate and a tax receipt. The Back to the Sea Centre is open inside Martins Park along the King's Wharf in Dartmouth from Wednesday to Sunday. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
