Field Work Friday
It's #FieldWorkFriday!
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 light trap survey is completed three times per week. This week we had one of our favourite finds, octopus paralarvae and the cutest little painted greenling. Look at those fins!
Our juvenile salmon numbers continue to fluctuate. It has been a very different year with the timing of fish at our docks. We cannot wait to look at the data and compare it to previous years.
We conducted our monthly bird survey on Sunday where we identified many birds including, a great blue heron, pigeon guillemots, and common mergansers. Did you know that we also volunteer to collect Biotoxin data during our bird surveys? This data is collected and sent to researchers at UBC for analysis.
An enormous thank you to everyone who helps us with our surveys. We could not do it without your support! We hope to see you all on Saturday at May Day!
Do you want to join us? Please email Jenn at jenn@loonfoundationorg or check out our volunteer calendar at loonfoundation.org/volunteer.
#volunteer #PenderHarbour #SunshineCoastBC #BioMonitoring
