Forage Fish Spawning Habitat Monitoring

CERCA has recently joined the Cowichan Bay Group of Forage Fish samplers as part of wider programs on Vancouver Island and Washington state. Forage fish are a key component of marine food webs. They are important food sources of chinook and coho salmon, cod, many seabirds and certain marine mammals such as humpback whales. Pacific sand lance (PSL) and surf smelt are local forage fish species that spawn along sandy gravel/pebble beaches in the intertidal zone. Many beaches are being damaged or lost to development and hard shoring practices.

To improve our knowledge and protection of forage fish in BC, citizen scientists are being involved in monthly beach sampling by MABRRI  MABRRI Research Projects | MABRRI | Vancouver Island University | Canada (viu.ca) (an Institute of Vancouver Island University) and Project Watershed Society (Tis the Season for Forage Fish! - Project Watershed ). Currently CERCA members are sampling four beaches in the Cherry Point area of Cowichan Bay and one beach in Maple Bay. Pebble beaches of the Cowichan Estuary especially lining the northern shore of the Westcan terminal and short beaches along Khenipsen road will be test Plans are being made to involve environmental course students from Cowichan Senior Secondary School in forage fish beach monitoring this spring at additional sites of the Cowichan Estuary.

Meanwhile, CERCA has field-tested two more pebble beaches of the estuary, the first one along the north shore of the Westcan terminal and the other at the north shore of the estuary along Khenipsen road. Both will be added to the MABBRI forage fish monitoring project to be sampled by late April (see photos below taken on the 5th of February).

Collecting sediment samples along a linear transect of the pebble beach

Excellent background information is available here at: Forage Fish Brochure 2020.pdf - Google Drive and em_fs13_021.pdf (wa.gov) . MABRRI has a great newsletter for tips and the latest sampling results (for example: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=14d293cd48&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r4888463760672805418&th=1775f998a87647e5&view=att&disp=safe&realattid=1775f9334938f402ffe2)

Dr.Bill Heath

CERCA Co-Chair