Forage fish habitat monitoring in the Vancouver Island and Gulf Island region by MABRRI, 2017+

To date, forage fish spawning habitat monitoring has occurred along the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island, as well as a few Gulf Islands; the areas currently being monitored include: Bowser and Qualicum Bay, Gabriola Island, Ladysmith, Lantzville, Maple Bay, Nanaimo, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, and Thetis Island. Each region has a varying number of beaches sampled, based on beach characteristics, including sediment composition, beach exposure, and general site characteristics. A variety of information is collected from each beach, including: who was sampling, when it was sampled, the organization that funded the sampling, the location of the site, recent high tide information, the tidal elevation from which the sample is taken, the current weather conditions, water temperature, any recent storm events, if there is evidence of sea weed harvesting, the direction (and bearing) in which the beach faces, the slope of the beach, the beaches exposure (i.e. the greatest distance wind can generate waves from across the straight without being disrupted), the sediment composition, the integrity of the area directly above and surrounding the site, the width and length of suitable sediment, and how shaded the site is. Once all of the information is recorded, a sediment sample is taken from area of interest, it is later processed down to a reasonable size that can be analyzed under a dissecting microscope to determine if there are eggs detected in the sample. All of this information is recorded on a field information sheet, which is transcribed into a database.