Forage Fish Summer Summary

A few new locations were added including Balmoral Beach, near Goose Spit, and Point Holmes ,between Air Force Beach and Kye Bay. Summer sampling which occurred between May and September, was supported by 40 community scientists including a variety of new volunteers and dedicated returning volunteers. Project Watershed thanks all the forage fish volunteers for their dedication to this project.

Teams sampled approximately once per month, in between heat waves, looking for beach spawning forage fish (surf smelt). Although the samples did not find any eggs in the sand this summer, data collected is still important. Gathering information regarding eDNA samples, seasonality of beach sediment, how the heat dome/heat waves may impact spawning in the future, and the lack of rain this summer are all important elements of this initiative.

Point Holmes beach survey in July~ J. Lund