This week kicked off with our larval crab and juvenile salmon surveys. We did not see any salmon in our surveys this week but we did have shiner perch and three-spined stickleback. 

This week kicked off with our larval crab and juvenile salmon surveys. We still saw a few Coho smolts at Irvines Landing and caught one inside the harbour on Monday. We will be moving into the juvenile threespined sticklebacks and the juvenile shiner perch soon!

This week kicked off with our ah-mazing volunteers coming out with their gardening gloves to help pull weeds and clean up the Tranquility Garden. We were able to remove some very persistent maples, clean up the spruce needles and even tackled some of the neighbouring blackberries.

This week kicked off with an incredible 618 Dungeness megalopae and one juvenile instar in our light trap. The instars are tiny little replicas of the adult crabs. Over 62,500 Dungeness megalopae have been caught so far in our network. So far this year, six traps have exceeded the previous year’s catches, including ours!

This week kicked off with us exploring the low tide at Baker Beach with the Pender Harbour High School X block class we are working with for eight weeks. We identified sea stars, learned about crab moults, and had a quick refresher on crab identification with the students.

This week kicked off with a shoreline cleanup of McNeil Lake. A group of five students and two leaders helped us collect 3.8 kgs of trash from around the lake shore. Trash included cigarette butts, fabrics, plastics and dog poop bags! An enormous thank you to the students, parents and teachers that participated as well as to EcoAction Canada for supporting us with this work.

This week kicked off with our first Dungeness crab of the season arriving in the light trap. We are so excited for their arrival. We have teamed up with the Hakai Institute Sentinels of Change program to collect samples for population genetics study. It is the second year of sampling and we hope to have the results from last year soon.

The Loon Foundation is expanding its youth environmental programming, bringing new opportunities for kids and families to explore, learn, and appreciate nature through outdoor adventure.

Last week we kicked off the week by starting our eDNA collection for European green crab DNA. We do this using the light trap that is designed to attract the larval crabs. Once we identify, record, and release the organisms in the trap, we filter the remaining water for collection. This water sample is frozen and will be sent to Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the end of the season for analysis.

The Loon Foundation has named Lana Brandt as the organization’s next executive director. Brandt has served as interim executive director since last October.

Last Friday started off with teaching local highschool students microscopy, using a sample taken from the light trap located at Irvine’s Landing. We were thrilled to have students interested in learning more about their local environment and engaging in science. Thank you to the volunteers who help lead these educational experiences and support our students and community.

We kicked off the week by teaching local students about the different life cycle stages of crabs as well as fun facts about the other invertebrates observed in the light trap. We had an extraordinary number of zoea in the trap this week. Stay tuned to find out what species they are!

First and foremost, we would like to remind you that it is our volunteer appreciation event tomorrow at 4 PM. If you are a volunteer, or you are interested in volunteering and meeting our team, please come by the Tranquility Garden located behind the Earthfair store. We hope to see you there!

What a wonderful day at the Rotary Sunshine Coast Community Connections Fair!

The week kicked off with the removal of the Pacific herring curtains from the docks in Egmont. We did not observe any spawn this year, but we will try again next year. An enormous thank you to everyone who completed weekly checks and recorded observations.

The juvenile salmon numbers continue to increase with 731 chum and 680 pink identified at Irvines Landing and 446 chum and 91 pink at Gerrans Bay! Did you know that in addition to observing fish, we also measure water quality parameters during these surveys? We record water temperature, salinity and recently added secchi disc readings for water clarity.

Last Friday, we continued to catch salmon and a few three-spined sticklebacks during our juvenile salmon survey at Irvines Landing! Monday, we moved to Gerrans Bay, where the numbers of juvenile salmon increased as well. Gerrans Bay is unique since we tend to catch a lot more larval fish here. We have learned that some of the larval fish are sculpins, gunnels, pricklebacks, and herring.

PODS has officially received its Archaeological Site Alteration Permit, one of the final steps needed before we can break ground.

Last Friday was the first day of spring, and our first salmon of the year! We caught both pink and chum salmon along with a lonely herring. Thanks to everyone who came out to help, it really makes a difference when we have hundreds of fish to count. At Monday's smolts survey we caught a few salmon as well, both pink and chum.

In recognition of World Water Day, the Loon Foundation is organizing a shoreline cleanup at Lily Lake from 1 to 3 p.m. this Sunday, March 22. The community is invited to attend this family-friendly restoration event, where participants will help remove debris through Tyner Park and along the highway.