The Seagrass Conservation Working Group and volunteers from the Sunshine Coast Friends of Forage Fish took on a project recently to do some test plot plantings of eelgrass.
All the volunteers began the project by threading washers on eelgrass shoots in preparation for planting in areas of Halfmoon Bay and Sechelt Inlet. Divers from the seagrass working group then took the shoots and planted them in small clumps in carefully selected areas that have been impacted by human usage over the years.
Eelgrass is a long, ribbon-like, true plant that lives just below the low tide zone along ocean shorelines. It stabilizes the substrate, provides oxygen to the environment and is a carbon sink - the stuff that for years was removed and reviled by shore goers as being "scary" to swim through. It provides a home for hundreds, if not thousands, of marine creatures and shelter and feeding habitat for salmon and many other sea creatures.
Forage fish are surf smelt, eulachon, sand lance, capelin and herring, the little fishes that are so important as food species for many larger creatures of the sea, including salmon, seals, whales and humans.
Funding for the divers was provided by the Pacific Salmon Commission and the Stewardship Centre for BC.
If you are interested in learning more or volunteering, call or email Dianne Sanford, volunteer co-ordinator for SC Friends of Forage Fish and Sunshine Coast co-ordinator for the Seagrass Conservation Working Group, at 604-885-6283 or email [email protected]. You can also get more information at www.friendsofforagefish.com.
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