Town of Gibsons Council received an encouraging update this week on the Healthy Harbour Project, a marine conservation initiative between the town and the BlueAct Marine Society.
The presentation, led by executive director Nancy Cottingham Powell and conservation manager Lindsay Whitehead, during the June 25 meeting, highlighted 2024 accomplishments and outlined their goals for 2025.
“We’re very pleased to be a partner in the work that’s being done around making Gibsons an amazing place in terms of that marine aquatic health,” said Cottingham Powell, emphasizing the importance of eelgrass habitat in the region. “It’s one of the few places in the Howe Sound Biosphere area where eelgrass actually will naturally grow, and so it’s a critical habitat to maintain.”
Last year’s fieldwork included maintenance of voluntary no-anchor zone buoys off Armours Beach and a Level 3 eelgrass survey near the Gibsons Breakwater. “We calculated the shoot density, number of shoots per meter squared, shoot length and the average blade width,” Whitehead explained. “These were all combined into a calculation for the leaf area index.”
This first leaf area index will be a baseline for future monitoring, to compare and assess eelgrass bed health in coming years.
Gibsons Harbour Cleanup was also highlighted. Held Oct. 18 to 20, 2.13 tonnes of debris were removed from the subtidal area and eelgrass beds.
“This was done in partnership with the Town of Gibsons, but also with more support from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Gibsons Landing Harbour Authority, Sunshine Coast Tourism, Freedom Diving Systems and Coast Bin Rentals,” said Whitehead.
Looking ahead, the team plans to implement a new voluntary no-anchor zone between the Gibsons Breakwater and the Green Lady marker, conduct a full eelgrass perimeter survey using drone and diver-assisted mapping, and continue exploring water quality testing.
“Ultimately, the aim of this water quality monitoring would be a citizen science project where we get the community involved in protecting our water,” Whitehead said.
Council members expressed strong support. “I was so happy to read this report,” said Coun. Annemarie De Andrade. “Just to see the progression over the years and the involvement of the community, and more importantly … creating the citizen science.”
Whitehead confirmed the drone flyover for eelgrass mapping is tentatively scheduled for July 11, with stitched imagery expected by September.
“The output of this will actually be a GIS layer, so we can just plug that in onto any GIS software,” she explained.
Jordan Copp is Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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