Howe Sound may be renowned for its stunning scenery as one of North America鈥檚 southernmost fjords but that鈥檚 just scraping the surface.
Now, Howe Sounders can dive deep into the ecology of their home through the newly launched Atl'ka7tsem/Howe Sound Marine Conservation Assessment .
The map鈥撯�� and project鈥撯�搃s available on both organizations鈥� websites and is free to use. It combines more than 140 layers of data to show the ecological landscape of the entire sound and to identify 补谤别补蝉.听
Peter Ross is vice-president of research at Ocean Wise and a Bowen Island resident. He dropped by the Undercurrent office to put this new resource into perspective.
鈥淚n my view, what is quite special about this, is that it puts on a map that interwoven story of humans and nature,鈥� says Ross. He describes the map as a tool that does its best to define the Howe Sound environment, the species and shorelines as well as human activities.
The map team used scientific data collected over decades, Traditional Knowledge from First Nations, information from citizen scientists and community members and others to create a snapshot of today鈥檚 Howe Sound.
Through the map, Bowen Islanders can learn about the eel grass meadows of Mannion Bay, the common murre of the golf course at Cowan Pt., the critical forage fish egg-laying habitat of Hood Pt. beaches and the rocky reefs of Hutt Island.
On the Ocean Wise side, it was the Howe Sound division of their Coastal Ocean Research Institute that helmed the map project.
鈥淎s a living laboratory, the Howe Sound area is a gift to the world,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淚t's an area that has been monitored, surveyed and charted and discovered for 40 plus years.鈥�
鈥淭hat's a really important foundation to where we are today.鈥�
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Of particular import in this story is the . Ross noted how in the 鈥�70s and 鈥�80s scientists and community members realized that the sound was heavily affected by the industry鈥撯�損ulp mills and the defunct but unremediated Britannia Mine鈥撯�搃n the fjord and the biodiversity was at risk.
鈥淎nd the remarkable thing is, and I put this down to people opportunity, realization that there was something wrong with this place, everything came together,鈥� he said. Vancouver Aquarium (now Ocean Wise), Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the 麻豆社国产Nation, citizens, scuba divers, came together for the decades-long recovery mission and study of the sound. Today, Ocean Wise divers are out in the sound several times a week monitoring everything from temperature and salinity to phytoplankton to rockfish and lingcod. Then there鈥檚 of course the exceedingly rare (they were once thought extinct) and shallow live glass sponge reefs sprinkled through the sound.
鈥淭here are very few places in the world where we're actually really monitoring, in a really long term fashion, what's going on underneath the surface of the ocean,鈥� said Ross. 鈥淚 think that's where the Howe Sound initiative鈥s documented in part through the this mapping initiative, gives us eyes and ears underwater.鈥�
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When it comes to the map鈥檚 future, updates aren鈥檛 guaranteed but certainly a goal.
鈥淗aving a snapshot tool like this at this point in time is like publishing an encyclopedia or a state of the ocean report 鈥撯�搃t's valuable and it'll always be valuable,鈥� said Ross, 鈥渂ut failure to update it in a in a way that provides insight into changes would be disappointing.鈥�
鈥淭his [map] gives us a lot of power of acuity in terms of tracking progress, in terms of looking at the performance of our management measures or the various, sometimes expensive, solutions we might put into place,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o super important to monitor and to track over time.鈥�
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