Winter Forage Fish Sampling

Date and Time

Various dates November – January (see below).

Location

Campbell River and Comox Valley beaches – you can choose either location or both depending on what works for you.

Description

These volunteer events involve beach surveys and vortexing.

Beach surveys: at the beach, we will show you how to assess the habitat, layout a transect, collect samples and preserve them. We will be sampling core beaches every 10 days in spawning season until eggs are detected. Once eggs are detected, we will begin blitz surveys.

Blitz surveys: sampling as many suitable beaches as possible to help us identify additional spawning habitat in our area.

Vortexing: once the samples have been collected, we head back to the office to put them through the vortex machine. This machine creates a water vortex that separates the sand from the eggs and allows us to reduce our sample to those elements that are most likely eggs. We then view this reduced sample under the microscope to see if we can spot any eggs.

After signing up you should receive a confirmation email. If you do not see it in your inbox, check your junk mail folder. If by the end of the day you have not received an email or if you have any questions, please email virginia.east@projectwatershed.ca

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