People of a Feather - Best Environmental Film!

Hey guys, 
The following is an email I got from the "People of a Feather holiday campaign."


Thank you kindly for your support of People of a Feather. Thanks to audiences like you, we won Best Environmental Film and Top 10 Canadian Films at the Vancouver International Film Festival!

And now the Arctic Eider Society has received approval of charitable status! This is a major accomplishment in our initiative to distribute People of a Feather on a not-for-profit basis and to address the issues raised in the film through the activities of the society. Help bring People of a Feather to the world! Join our holiday campaign, and in addition to a charitable receipt, receive incentives like advance release DVDs, your name in the credits and even win a Sea Ice Expedition to witness the charitable activities of the society in Nunavut first hand!

Donations make great holiday gifts, and we'll also send you an e-postcard to give. Sign up by Jan 12, 2012 to qualify for this years one time incentives!


www.arcticeider.com/donate/

I will try and keep you posted on any other information. I'm especially waiting for the date of the release of the film on dvd, so stay tuned for that :D


Eleanor 

Eiders in the Hudson Bay

Figure 1 - Eiders in the Hudson Bay

This blog is in response to a documentary that I haven’t yet seen, but have been researching ever since I heard about it. The documentary is called, “People of a Feather” by Dr. Joel Heath. It is about the Eider Ducks which live in the Hudson Bay and what the dams going into the Hudson Bay are doing to their environment. 

Figure 2 - Eider skin parka - Eiders in flight - Scientists working with the Inuit of the Hudson Bay

What is an Eider Duck?

The Eider ducks in the Hudson Bay belong to a specific epithet of eiders as they do not migrate but instead live their whole life in the comfort of this particular bay. They are important and necessary factors to the local environment and to the Inuit of the area. Eiderdown has been collected for coats and blankets along with being used in cottage insulation making it a large portion of the local economy. In the past, there has been a problem with the over-harvesting of this down that hinders the eggs from hatching. The Sanikiluaq hunters of the Hudson Bay noticed the eiders’ changes in behaviour even before their population started decreasing. The Inuit contacted Canadian organizations and scientists to get help to find out what was causing such a high mortality rate of the eider populations.

The Documentary and its Results?

Dr. Joel Heath, a graduate from UBC, went to live with the Inuit to study and monitor changes in
> the eiders behaviours
> sea ice dynamics (formation and depletion)
> local oceanography 
> the velocities of currents


Like all air-breathing, diving animals, eiders have to find the correct balance of air before they dive to allow them to make it all the way to their food source. This balance cannot be too high else they will be too buoyant to dive down far enough. With the dams along the Hudson Bay releasing more water in the winter to provide New York (New York is where all the energy generated by the dams of the Hudson Bay goes) with its power demands, the velocity of water flow drastically changes. When the eider dives from a specific patch where there is no ice, the current carries the duck further than it has air to bet back. This, and the instability of the environment due to the new unnatural balance of salt and fresh water, is the main reason why the eider population is in decline.

Figure 3 - Eider down and eggs - Eider taking off - Inuit hunter 


What can YOU do?

A very simple thing that everyone can do is: turn off your lights. Even though dams are considered to be a “green” way to retrieve power, the downsides and problems with them are not portrayed to the public at all. If you lived in New York, turning off your lights would be in direct relation to the Eiders of the Hudson Bay, but even if you don’t, turning off the lights will definitely have other positive environmental impacts no matter where you are. 


Lights
There is a misconception that each time you turn on the lights there is power surge to activate that light. Although this is true, the "power-surge" only lasts for a fraction of a second. I don't want to go too much into this topic, but basically, it is always beneficial to turn off your lights, no matter how short the time. The amount of energy you save with this one action has a much greater impact that just reducing your electricity bill, so don't just turn off the lights in your own interest, do it for the environment!

If you want more information, this is the documentary’s website: http://www.arcticeider.com/research/ I believe the documentary is being released on dvd sometime in January 2012 and I would be happy to give you the information to you for it when I know more :) 

I emailed Dr. Joel Heath and he gave me a few other sites that were just full of information about this topic:

- www.arcticeider.com/icy/

- http://www.sfu.ca/~jpheath/Eider%20Research/index.html

Dr. Joel Heath’s website is: www.joelheath.ca

I hope you found this topic as interesting as I did, and please, remember to turn off your lights!

Eleanor 

(All my photos came from Dr. Joel Heath's Documentary website)