Project Watershed and the Coastal Forage Fish Network (CFFN) are celebrating Surf Smet Day on October 25th! This adds another day on which to celebrate and raise awareness about beach spawning forage fish as Pacific sand lance are celebrated on a day in December.

Over the summer the Project Watershed Forage Fish Monitoring Team have been busy with data analysis, project planning, collaborating with the Coastal Forage Fish Network and field sampling in the Comox Valley and Campbell River area. To date we have had 21 volunteers contribute 97.5 hours to our forage fish monitoring efforts!

This year marks the 5th year of a partnership between Comox Valley Project Watershed Society and North Island College on a long-term study to examine intertidal spawning habitats of forage fish in the northern Salish Sea.

Project Watershed is very excited to announce the award of $1.4 million dollars of funding from the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund to support our forage fish research, monitoring and restoration!

As you may know, Project Watershed has been researching forage fish and their habitats for many years now. To date our work has focused on beach spawning forage fish, specifically Pacific sand lance and surf smelt.

December 8th was the first annual Pacific Sand Lance Day!

These skinny forage fish are understudied and important to our coastal ecosystem. Sand lance have over 100 known predators, and are particularly important to nesting sea birds. This eclectic fish buries into sandy sea beds, hibernates all winter, and spawns on beaches!