My article in Feb. 1 edition of The Undercurrent, “To help Howe Sound, be curious and appreciate its gifts," pointed to many efforts by Bowen Islanders that benefit the environment of Howe Sound and our awareness of it.
Any listing of such efforts will inevitably be incomplete.
However, I feel compelled to acknowledge one obvious omission. Given that the context of the article was my early January video of the remarkable anchovy ball in Deep/Mannion Bay, I regret not mentioning the excellent joint efforts of the Bowen Island Municipality and Friends of Mannion Bay to manage human use and to enhance environmental health of Deep/Mannion Bay. I really applaud their important efforts.
The Bay is an ecological jewel, which we may overlook because of its significant shoreline development and boat moorage.
Deep/Mannion Bay is our island’s most significant estuary, where the waters of our island’s largest stream, Terminal Creek, bring nutrients to the ocean. The Bay hosts our largest sand and mudflats, hosts our largest oyster and clam beds, and hosts very significant eelgrass beds offshore.
I regularly see heron, oystercatcher, cormorants, gulls, mallards, and merganser feeding in the bay, schools of perch and stickleback, crabs, along with a seal or two. In the fall, our biggest chum salmon spawning beds are immediately upstream at the Causeway and head of the Lagoon, and these salmon carcasses fertilize the entire Bay.
The Bay is also our island’s most public waterfront and prime recreational asset with public access at two major public beaches, the Causeway, and boat launch. The Bay deserves our attention and protection and I applaud the efforts led by the municipality and Friends of Mannion Bay.
Bob Turner
