Monitoring Eelgrass in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve

Abstract

In what habitat can you find over 90 different species of fish in British Columbia? Eelgrass meadows provide important complex structure and nursery function for young fish to grow and thrive. Since 2004, Parks Canada has monitored eelgrass fish assemblages annually in Pacific Canada’s National Parks and has developed a framework to assess their status and trend overtime. Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (GINPR) is one of three National Park Reserves, in which this monitoring framework has been implemented. The eelgrass meadows in the GINPR region of the Salish Sea are under constant threat from development, pollution and recreational activities such as anchoring. This presentation will talk about the framework through which we monitor eelgrass meadows at 12 sites in the Southern Gulf Islands in terms of the methods used and how we analyze the data to reach conclusions about the condition of meadows in our area of the Salish Sea. The talk will present some of our findings to give the audience a sense of the trends we see in fish assemblages and eelgrass plant health in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve