Leveraging Community Science to Address Significant Data, Management, and Policy Gaps for Beach Spawning Forage Fish Across the Salish Sea

• Main Authors: East, Virginia, Sutherst, Jennifer, Huard, Jacqueline, Bruce, Ian, Armstrong, Kyle, Vivani, Alanna, Nicholas, Graham, Barrs, Jacklyn
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2022
• Subjects: Canada; Pacific; First Nations
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2022ssec/allsessions/128; https://cedar.wwu.edu/context/ssec/article/3290/type/native/viewcontent/20220426_1330_Paper_20144_LeveragingCommunityScienceAddressSignificantDataManagementandPolicyGapsforBeachSpawningForageFishAcrossSalishSea.pptx_AWSAccessKeyId_AKIAYVUS7KB2I6J5NAUO_Signature_o92xaBJV3RZvL0HwEWPZzhKRV4w_3D_Expires_1690453751

Community science is an important tool to address conservation challenges. WWF-Canada has facilitated the development of a ‘Forage Fish Monitoring Network’ within British Columbia’s Salish Sea. This network brings together community scientists, academics, professionals, and First Nation communities in mapping, monitoring, and identifying important spawning habitat for Pacific sand lance (PSL) and surf smelt (SS). PSL and SS are two ecologically important species that use intertidal (beach) habitat for spawning. These fish act as a trophic bridge between zooplankton and culturally and ecologically important predators, such as Marbled Murrelets, and Chinook salmon, which are the primary prey for northern and southern resident killer whales. The network has a community-based approach whereby community scientists conduct the field surveys for forage fish eggs to map PSL and SS habitat, become community advocates, contribute to local ecological knowledge, and manage and own the data themselves. The network practices open science; the data, methods, and results are publicly available on the Strait of Georgia Data Centre. The outcomes of the network have addressed significant knowledge gaps on the spatial and temporal distribution of beach spawning forage fishes. Without this collaborative, coordinated effort, significant gaps would exist in our knowledge of spawning beaches, leaving significant habitat at risk of degradation and loss in a time of rapid expansion of coastal developments and threat of coastal squeeze. This work contributes knowledge that can be better integrated into management decisions and restoration strategies for municipalities, regional districts, and First Nations and provides direction for habitat managers such as information for emergency spill response.