More than 1000 experts gather to discuss the health of the Salish Sea
LOUISE LOIK
Editor
More than 1100 scientists and policy experts, including presenters from Bowen Island, gathered in Vancouver last week for The Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. The event drew scientists from BC and the U.S., to discuss the latest scientific research on the state of the Salish ecosystem, and to guide future actions for protecting and restoring the ecosystem.
The Bowen Island presenters were among scientists, First Nations and tribal government representatives, resource managers, community and business leaders, policy makers, and educators.
Adam Taylor, a diver from Bowen, has been documenting and working toward protection of the glass sponges in Howe Sound. He had the crowd’s full attention during his presentation on “Citizen science efforts to study and protect Howe Sound’s Glass Sponge Reefs.”
Taylor has been focusing effort and attention on Halkett Bay, a location he feels is in critical need of protection. His efforts, along with other recreational divers has, in part, helped to get legislation for the protection of the reefs introduced last month by the Minister of the Environment. It’s this kind of citizen science success story, that was the basis of Taylor’s presentation. Taylor says the conference left him feeling hopeful about Halkett Bay, but also finds it frustrating to see the difference between American and Canadian funding for non-profit environmental groups and scientific research. “They are operating on a whole different plane,” says Taylor. “Here, scientists are scraping by and non-profits are hand-to-mouth, In the states there is lots of funding from big non-governmental organizations.”
Talks ranged from ocean acidification to marine transport’s impact on ecology. Bob Turner, one of the presenters on the subject of Howe Sound, said that the presentation that made a big impression with him was that of John B. Buchanan from Squamish, who, as a citizen scientist, has taken detailed notes for five years during his observations of herring spawn in Howe Sound. “John has documented herring spawning along many kilometres of shoreline, not just one kilometer, but many kilometres, year after year. Woodfibre is a major spawn site, north and south. He had the data from five years of record-keeping and it shows that LNG is right in the middle,” says Turner. He finds this disturbing due to the fact that government guidelines say that the intake would have to be two kilometres away from any spawning ground, “but they weren’t using John’s data, but old, imperfect data,” from when the pulp mill was spewing dioxin and furans and populations had become depleted.
Bob says that the presentation showed that while people commonly believed that the herring were back purely because of the Streamkeepers work covering pilings, there is more to the story.
“John showed how herring spawn in the Upper Sound is historic, up to the 1970s. It’s disappearance coincided with the expansion of the woodfiber mill. They cleaned up in the late 80s, early 90s, and herring started coming back in 2000. “You can look at the Hatfield report on contamination of the water. It’s important to remember that the herring have always been there, and when the mills cleaned up the dioxins and furans, ta-dah! back come the herring.”
Part of the information presented by Buchanan showed that Woodfiber is the best spawning area with lots of freshwater and a shadow side from the intense afternoon sun. “There are lots on the west side, not on the east.”
Turner explains that Buchanan’s presentation “was the big story. It highlights the importance of ensuring that if LNG goes in, they do it right because they would be in a herring hot spot.”
Another presenter, Shannon Bard, originally from West Vancouver, but who has been doing research in the US, looked closely at intertidal life. Bard has studied the impact of pulp mills on intertidal zones in increasing distances from the source of contamination. She happened to have used Tunstall Bay as a test site many years ago and found dioxin on the beach.She told the audience that in terms of recovery, Britannia has done well, in Port Melon, some areas have done well and others have not.“ She plans to return to Bowen for a comparative test in the near future.
From Bowen, Bonny Brokenshire , presented a talk on “Restoring socioecological and socioeconomic integrity in Mannion Bay. Stephen Foster presented a partnership path for the future of Howe Sound Richard Wiefelspuett focused on Regional and global Initiatives to protect the Salish Sea from shipping hazards. Ramona de Graaf, who is running research on shorelines around Bowen, talked aboutl local governance tools for protecting critical shoreline spawning habitats for surf smelt and pacific sand lance.
With a broader look at Salish Sea, Jacqlynn Zier and Joseph Gaydos, researchers from the U.S., talked about the growing number of Species of Concern in the Salish Sea, and how ecosystem decay is outpacing recovery.
“The Salish Sea should have a trans boundary designation of “an ecosystem of concern” due to declining species.”
Zier and Gaydos incorporated information from both sides of the border and comments that BC does not assess the overall health of the ecosystem. “Within the marine ecosystem, British Columbia currently only assesses mammals, birds, reptiles and freshwater fishes that also use marine habitat. Important to this study, conspicuously absent are marine fishes and marine invertebrates.” BC is of course, interested in a commercial species, like salmon, a freshwater fish that also uses marine habitat. She notes that based on the available data, “As of November 15, 2013, there were 119 species at risk in the Salish Sea, almost twice the number of species at risk when the indicator was first established in 2002.” She says that some of this increase represents an increase in the number of fish, bird and mammal species known to use the Salish Sea, however, “most additions represent new listings due to concern about declines in populations.”
She concludes that “the high proportion of Species of Concern is suggestive of ecosystem decay and we recommend that it is time to consider the Salish Sea an ecosystem of concern.
Species of concern are native species, sub-species or ecologically significant units that warrant special attention to prevent further decline and promote their conservation.
After the conference, Adam Taylor reflected that even though he wasn’t able to attend many presentations , he was glad to see this kind of collaboration between the countries that share a common interest in the conservation of coastal ecosystems. “It’s really good to see the joint efforts,” observes Taylor, who is continuing his work on conservation of the glass sponge reefs. “We’re making progress,” he concludes. “ I’m feeling hopeful.”
