Field Work Friday
It’s #FieldWorkFriday!
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.
Friday afternoon we were back at it again with a smolt survey at Irvine’s Landing. We pulled up a hanging tire to see all the critters that grow under the dock and it was definitely a hit! We learned about anemones, urchins, tunicates, and the favorite, invasive skeleton shrimp!
We had quite a few little salmon this week as well as a juvenile Pacific Sandlance, juvenile anchovy, and adult Pacific herring.
We were busy monitoring European Green Crab (EGC) this week with surveys occurring in Powell River and Pender Harbour. We trained a volunteer team in Powell River in EGC monitoring to expand our mitigation efforts against one of the world’s worst invasive species. This group will run surveys in Powell River throughout the summer season.
Back in Pender Harbour, a team of volunteers set out traps at Bargain Harbour Park, accompanied by an enthusiastic grade five student, Caleb, from Vancouver doing a project on invasive species. We identified many red rock crabs and a few sculpins. This science enthusiast also joined us to help with the larval crab light trap. We learned about the crab life cycle and identified many by-catch species including salmon, cabezon, a quillfish and polychaetes. We look forward to hearing about the final project!
May Day is fast approaching. There is only one weekend left. We are grateful to our volunteers that have been designing and constructing props for our float. There is still time left to get involved and we would love to have you join us in the parade.
Want to join our volunteer team? Please email Jenn at jenn@loonfoundation.org or check out the volunteer calendar at loonfoundation.org/volunteer.
