| |
|
| |
|
TOM MIDDLETON/PACIFIC WILDLIFE FOUNDATION
|
|
Left, Joel Harding, a biologist with the SeaChange Marine Conservation Society, helps plant eelgrass off the Rocky Point pier in Port Moody Saturday. Volunteers including Michelle Harding, Graham Girard and Jim Mattson from the Mossom Creek Hatchery, threaded eelgrass through an iron washer in preparation for their planting off the pier.
|
|
By Lara Gerrits The Tri-City News
Mar 28 2007
The biodiveristy of Burrard Inlet will be
boosted by eelgrass planted near Rocky
Point pier last weekend, biologists say.
More than 500 eelgrass plants were
transplanted from the waters of Roberts
Bank in Delta to those of the Burrard
Inlet as part of a unique Pacific WildLife
Foundation project. Four volunteers spent
an hour on hands and knees at low tide
Friday salvaging the plants from an area
of Roberts Bank soon to be affected by the
DeltaPort expansion.
Saturday, volunteers from Mossom Creek and
Noons Creek hatcheries threaded each
plant’s roots through an iron washer
before divers planted them in mud — four
to eight feet underwater during low tide —
off the end of the Rocky Point pier.
That area historically had an eelgrass bed
but it disappeared once log booms created
too much shade for the plants’ survival,
according to local biologist and Pacific
WildLife Foundation member Ruth Foster.
“[Eelgrass] has a very high value as
habitat for the young salmon that have
left their natal streams and are adjusting
to salt water on the first leg of their
ocean odyssey,” Foster said. “It is also
an extremely productive habitat for many
other sorts of fish and invertebrates, and
its presence in the inlet will surely
contribute to increased biodiversity as
well as to improved salmonid survival.”
Representatives from Environment Canada
and the Seagrass Conservation Working
Group (SCWG) also participated in the
project.
According to SCWG, approximately 80% of
all commercial fish and shellfish species
depend on eelgrass habitat for at least
part of their life cycle. It contributes
to marine food webs and is carried by
tides and currents throughout the ocean.
Eelgrass, which is protected by law under
the Federal Fisheries Act, also assists
with coastal protection by providing a
physical baffle and by reducing erosion.
The eelgrass’ growth will be monitored.
The work was supported by a grant from the
Pacific Salmon Foundation, applied for by
Foster and Rod MacVicar of Mossom Creek
Hatchery.
lgerrits@tricitynews.com
|
