Aggie Pringle celebrated her 54th birthday on Wednesday by embarking on a challenging 26-kilometre walk in the pouring rain.

“One word – damp. Very, very damp. Yeah, it’s been raining the whole time,”  said Aggie.

A dedicated paramedic from Sayward, Aggie chose part of the scenic route from Ucluelet to Tofino for her walk, dedicating a kilometre for every $100 she raised. In total, she raised $2,600 for mental health programs offered by Wounded Warrior Run BC.

“Well, I’m raising money for Wounded Warrior Canada and the Wounded Warrior Run BC specifically. I just wanted to help veterans and other uniformed professionals like myself, a paramedic, get the programming they need. All the programming is funded by Wounded Warrior,” she said.

Aggie has been volunteering as paramedic support for the run since 2018, often trailing runners in an ambulance between Port Hardy and Victoria.

Now, she’s contributing financially as well.

“Two years ago, I could never have imagined doing anything like this. But learning from those super-fit runners, I realized that physical health is just as important as mental health. So I’ve really started to work on the physical part now that my mental health is more squared away,” Aggie shared.

With 33 years as a paramedic, serving communities from Zeballos to Vancouver, Aggie has faced her share of PTSD. She was among the responders at the multi-fatal train derailment in Woss in 2017.

“Thankfully, I’ve not had many ‘Woss’s’, but there are a lot of tragedies I’ve seen throughout my career. The programs I’ve used have really helped me in my healing,” she added.

Aggie’s partner, Vern Coward, supported her during the walk.

“There are people out there who need help, and what she’s doing today is really going to help those folks,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

Aggie hopes to make this an annual fundraiser, aiming to walk the full 42 kilometres next year if she raises $4,200.

The Fin Whale, a large baleen cetacean measuring up to 25 meters in length, belongs to the family Balaenopteridae. Characterized by a hydrodynamically streamlined body and swift swimming capabilities, it is second in size only to the Blue Whale. Most members of this family look similar, making it challenging to distinguish them at sea. The Fin Whale’s distinctive feature is the asymmetrical pigmentation on its lower jaw—dark on the left and light on the right. This pattern extends to part of the baleen plates. In the northern and southern hemispheres, Fin Whales are considered separate subspecies: B. p. physalus in the north and B. p. quoyi in the south. Genetic evidence supports the distinction between North Atlantic and North Pacific Fin Whales as different subspecies, yet new names are pending. In Canada, COSEWIC regards these as separate designatable units. Historically, Fin Whales were heavily targeted during 20th-century whaling, depleting populations in the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific. Nowadays, they are a highlight for whale watching in nearshore Canadian Atlantic waters.

Fin Whales are found almost globally in all major oceans, with highest densities in cool temperate and subpolar waters, and are mostly absent near the equator. They inhabit both oceanic and coastal areas, migrating to high latitudes in summer for feeding and to lower latitudes in winter for breeding. However, they can be found in Canadian waters year-round.

In Canadian waters, Fin Whale habitats are marked by oceanographic features that boost prey production and concentration. In the Atlantic, their presence is often linked to productive oceanic fronts with high densities of euphausiid crustaceans. They inhabit various bathymetric features, from continental shelves to deep canyons in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and topographically varied areas in the Bay of Fundy. In the Pacific, they aggregate along the continental slope, especially where canyons and troughs concentrate euphausiids. They also frequent deep channels between islands along British Columbia’s northern coast. Their presence off both coasts during winter suggests courtship, mating, and possibly calving occur in Canadian waters.

Fin Whales reach sexual maturity at 6 to 8 years and physical maturity at around 25 years, with a lifespan up to 100 years. Their generation time is approximately 25 years. Conception and calving, following an 11 to 12-month gestation, primarily occur in winter. Data from British Columbia indicate that 75% of births occur between mid-October and mid-February, peaking in December. Newborns are about 6 meters long and are weaned at 6 to 7 months. The average interval between births is about 2.24 years, with adult female pregnancy rates estimated at 38 to 50%.

Despite the end of large-scale whaling over 50 years ago, around 20 Fin Whales are hunted annually for subsistence in Greenland, and Iceland hunted 146 in 2018. Increasing ocean noise from oil and gas exploration, shipping, wind farms, and military exercises poses threats, causing displacement, disturbance, injury, and communication signal masking. Vessel strikes are a significant mortality source, particularly in busy shipping areas on both coasts. Fatalities from vessel strikes are likely underreported, as many struck whales sink undetected. Entanglement in fishing gear is another mortality cause, particularly in the Atlantic. Other threats include habitat suitability shifts and toxic pollutants.

The Species at Risk Act (SARA) provides measures for protecting certain listed species, including their critical habitats. Conservation responsibility is shared across Canada, with all Canadians playing a role in wildlife protection. For more information on SARA and provincial or territorial protection measures, consult relevant government websites.

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The spiny dogfish is a small schooling shark that forms groups of hundreds or thousands of individuals of the same sex and size. It is one of the most abundant demersal shark species. This shark is gray or brownish on top and pale gray or white on its ventral side with irregular white spots on the top or sides of the body. The second dorsal fin is smaller than the first, and both fins have spines at their origin. The caudal fin is asymmetrical, with the upper lobe being larger. The smooth-edged, short, and oblique teeth are similar in both the upper and lower jaw.

This shark is present in all of the world’s temperate oceans. It ranges throughout the coastal waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The spiny dogfish can be either a resident or a seasonal migrant in Canadian waters. Most dogfish in Canadian waters move inshore in the summer and offshore in the winter but remain in Canadian waters. Semi-resident aggregations occur off southern Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia. However, 10-20% of the dogfish around southwest Nova Scotia move south into U.S. waters each fall, returning in the spring. The species is most abundant between Nova Scotia and Cape Hatteras.

The spiny dogfish is found in cold and warm temperate oceans at temperatures between 0 and 15 degrees Celsius. However, on the Scotian Shelf, this shark has most often been caught in water temperatures between 6 and 11 degrees Celsius. The spiny dogfish is tolerant of a wide range of salinities and can be found in estuaries. It can be located in the water column from the surface to depths of 730 meters (2,400 feet).

The average adult length is between 75 and 105 cm (30 to 40 inches); however, individuals have been known to grow to 130 cm (50 inches), weighing 9 kg (20 lbs). The spiny dogfish is long-lived and slow-growing and has an estimated life span of 30 to 40 years. Ages as old as 70 years have been determined for dogfish off British Columbia. Tagging studies have determined that some spiny dogfish can migrate great distances. Individuals tagged off Newfoundland have been recovered in Iceland years later. There have also been records of transatlantic crossings. However, the bulk of the population migrates inshore/offshore or along the northeastern coast of North America on a seasonal basis.

The spiny dogfish is an omnivorous opportunistic feeder, eating whatever prey is abundant. In general, their diet is comprised of small fishes such as capelin, cod, haddock, hake, herring, menhaden, and ratfish. They also eat invertebrates such as krill, crabs, polychaete worms, jellyfish, ctenophores, amphipods, squid, and octopus.

Development in this shark is ovoviviparous. The gestation length is the longest known for sharks at an estimated 18-22 months. Young are born in the warmer waters off the northeastern U.S. and Nova Scotia during the winter months. The number of young born in a litter depends on the size of the female, with larger females bearing more pups. However, most litters are between 1 and 14 individuals that are approximately 20 to 30 cm in length. The average litter is 5-6 pups. Sexual maturity in males is reached at a total length of about 64 cm and 10 years of age. Females reach sexual maturity at a later age, around 16 years, at which time they are about 82 cm in total length. Reproduction occurs offshore in the winter.

The spiny dogfish is a major predator on some commercially important species such as herring, Atlantic mackerel, and squid. It has been harvested for the last 100 years for its oil-rich liver, which was used in lamp oil and machine lubricants. The oil was later used as a source of vitamin A. Today, spiny dogfish is valued as food in many countries. The spiny dogfish is the target of a directed fishery in Atlantic Canada.