Extreme heat in Canada cooks millions of shellfish alive
- Parts of the western United States and Canada suffer under scorching temperatures
- Scenes on Vancouver beach looked like ‘an ecological catastrophe’
A record-breaking heatwave affecting the Pacific northwest and parts of Canada has cooked millions of mussels, clams and other sea creatures alive.
About two weeks ago, Alyssa Gehman, who studies marine ecology community, was looking to go for a swim along Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia, to escape the heat.
“The first thing I noticed as I was walking down to the beach was that it smelled quite terrible,” Gehman said. “There was a rotting, baking shellfish smell.”
As she came across the edge of the water, she noticed beds of dead mussels on the beach.
“I also saw dead crabs floating by,” Gehman said. “And that was really sad to me, and it was also indicative that there’s likely many animals that were also killed during this heatwave event.”
Christopher Harley, a marine ecologist who also observed the dead creatures on Kitsilano Beach, said it looked like “an ecological catastrophe” he had never seen before.