Page 4 - 2018annualreport

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAMS
“I hear I forget, I see I remember,
I do I understand.”
- Ancient Chinese Proverb
July and November, and Thormanby Island in July. Both Irvines Landing and
Malcolm Bay were new intertidal additions in 2018.
Seagrass Mapping and Monitoring
Seagrass beds are prime habitat for both invertebrates and fish, and they are
often hotspots of marine biodiversity. Many of the species that live in seagrass
beds are of economic importance, such as juvenile salmon, Dungeness crab, and
Pacific herring. Seagrasses also play an important role in primary production,
supporting food webs from the bottom-up while oxygenating the surrounding
waters via photosynthesis. Seagrasses are particularly sensitive to changes in
water quality, so health of seagrass beds can be used as a reliable indicator of
general marine ecosystem health.
Community citizen scientist volunteers helped us perform an in-depth survey of
seagrass beds on the Buccaneer Bay side of Thormanby Island in July. Work was
conducted during low tide and involved recording shoot densities and various
measurements of individual shoot size. An overall habitat overview was also
completed, which included substrate and species composition analyses.
Forage Fish Monitoring
Forage fish are small fish that are found in high numbers, such as the Pacific
sand lance and surf smelt; they eat phytoplankton and zooplankton and provide
a food source for species higher up the food chain. The eggs of these fish
incubate in sediment for up to two months, before the larvae hatch and enter
the water column. Work performed by volunteers involves the collection of many
sediment samples, which are then brought back to the Iris Griffith Centre to be
inspected for fish eggs. Understanding the timing and location of forage fish
spawning is integral to our understanding of the health of species that feed upon
forage fish, such as salmon, marine birds, and whales. We greatly increased
the frequency of our forage fish surveys in 2018, in order to gain a detailed
picture of seasonal fluctuations. Volunteers and Lagoon Society staff performed
surveys looking for signs of forage fish beach spawning at both Baker Beach and
Thormanby Island, 1-2 times/site/month from January to December.
This year we partnered with the World Wildlife Foundation, and learned their
methods of egg sampling. These methods were incorporated into our field
sampling procedure at Baker Beach in July 2018, allowing us to reduce the
volume of sediment required for processing and increasing our egg collection
success rate. We were extremely excited to find Pacific sand lance eggs at
Baker Beach in our January and December 2018 samples! Collection methods
at Thormanby Island stayed the same this year for the sake of consistency, but
changes will be phased in once our 2-year commitment with the BC Beach
Spawners Alliance is over in May 2019. We have also recently partnered with
Cliff Robinson at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to collect sediment
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