Water temperatures were 55F. Nevertheless, members of the Pacific Northwest REEF Advanced Assessment Team (AAT) jumped off a perfectly good boat last month to count fish and invertebrate populations, all in the name of citizen science and fun! Expert Level surveyors (Levels 4 and 5) assisted with the annual Salish Sea monitoring project. This year’s effort was focused in the southern Salish Sea - South Puget Sound in Washington. The project, now in its 11th year, has varied in location from the San Juan Islands of Washington State, to the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada, to the Southern Puget Sound area.
During the three-day project, 13 REEF volunteer divers monitored select sites of varying habitat types, including walls, rocky reefs, clay and sandstone areas, and kelp beds throughout southern Puget Sound, conducting 35 surveys. Each survey was about an hour long. You can view the survey data summary report here.
This long-term monitoring project helps ensure data are available to document shifts and changes in populations and community structure as well as catalog biological diversity. REEF data from the Pacific Northwest region have been used in numerous scientific publications and have been incorporated in several policy decisions on species including rockfish, octopus, and seastars. Visit www.REEF.org/db/publications to see all publications that include REEF data.
Thank you to the REEF Pacific Northwest Advanced Assessment Team members who volunteered their time to make this project possible, including Doug Miller, Randall Tyle, Greg Jensen, Lorne Curran, David Todd, Jackie Myers, Rhoda Green, Carol Cline, Gregg Cline, Edgar Graudins, Joe Mangiafico, Tabitha Jacobs-Mangiafico and Don Noviello. We also want to say a big thank you to Rick and Jackie Myers of Bandito Charters, a REEF Conservation Partner in Tacoma, Washington, who provided the charter, excellent field support, hot soup, and friendly assistance.