On the weekend of August 25 to 27, 2007 six freedivers from Vancouver and Victoria braved the dirt roads to Bamfield to help with an eelgrass survey organized by Ramona de Graaf and the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. We were joined there by Ramona and other BMSC students and staff who provided surface support.
We covered four separate areas this year: Carnation Creek and Santa Maria Island close to where we surveyed the previous year, and Grapler Inlet and Bamfield Inlet closer to the marine station. We also took some time out for some fun diving off from Big Hosie Island.
We generally worked in teams of three: two freedivers and one kayaker. The freedivers swim along the edge of the eelgrass bed to locate the edges and take the depth while the kayaker marks the location with a GPS and takes notes. We were also doing density counts and sampling in the middle of the grass bed. The kayakers were instrumental in carrying the quadrats, sampling bags and samples, leaving the freedivers to swim around and dive unhindered with any extra equipment.
Carnation Creek and Santa Maria Island
Roberta excited to get into the water after seeing a humpback whale
Sean getting suited up
Stephane the boat driver
Rock crab in the gravel
Recreational Dive at Big Hosie Island
White sponge at 22m
Green anemone at 5m
White dorid nudibranch at ~8m
A cave in the cliff face
Grapler and Bamfield inlets
The whole crew heading out to Grapler Inlet, just behind the marine station
Matt and Wen
Two rock crabs duking it out
A rock crab ready to take on anyone or anything
Some eelgrass with lightbulb tunicates on the base
Peter doing density counts
Counting eelgrass shoots
Me heading down for a density count
Peter holding a quadrat that we use for density counts
Peter heading up from a counting dive
Anemones and feather duster worms growing on a nearby dock
This video that I posted on YouTube shows us in action
in Grapler Inlet, just around the corner from the marine station.
Activities include a video flyover of
the grass bed, mapping the edge of the grass bed,
and several shots of Peter and I doing density counts
and sampling.
This is just a rough cut that I may augment later with
titles and sound in the future. None of my video
clips have much sound as it is pretty quiet inside
the housing.
