Category Archives: Education

Surge Channel and Surge as an Abiotic factor

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On a field trip to Race Rocks with the Biology class in the spring 2003, we took some time to observe and video the surge channel out on the south-west tip of Great Race Rock. It was a calm day which had been preceded by a few days with storms out in the Pacific Ocean. The energy imparted to the water column was just now reaching Great Race and the water was breaking on the west shore. The effect of “Surge” as an abiotic factor is not often considered in affecting the intertidal zonation of organisms on rocky coastlines in marine biological research. See this file on this abiotic factor.

 

 

 

It is our firm belief that here, the level up the shoreline in the intertidal zone where many invertebrates and algae can survive is elevated. These intertidal organisms are able to keep moistened longer, ambient temperatures are depressed from evaporation and and they even have longer availability to food resources being carried in the surging water. This is most obvious with the Goose Neck barnacle population and the intertidal anemone distribution along this shore. Additionally the tidepools up the channel are flooded more frequently, resulting in lower temperatures and more stabilized salinity conditions. It should be emphasized that this is not directly “wind-driven” water movement. As one can see in the video, the surrounding sea is calm, with little wind that day.

Tidepool Studies at Race Rocks Pool #4 Peg6

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A general view of the pool.It is perched on a shelf which easily gets flooded when there is a slight swell in the ocean. Polymorphism in the Snails of Pool # 4, Extended essay in Environmental Systems,
A student examines the life of pool 4 Amphipods collected with a suction bottle from pool#4.
A microscopic picture of the diatoms that grow as a fuzz in the pool in the early spring. They remain a few months until they are grazed off.
 Roberto and the Biology Class measure salinity in pool 4.. May 2004
Enteromorpha growing in the pool. May 2004. Bay mussels, Mytilus trossulus in the brackish water of Pool#4
In May 2004,it is clear where the grazers, Littorina snails and amphipods) have trimmed off the diatoms on the bottom. Arunas measures the depth of pool 4 while watching for swells
In February, 2007, the diatoms cover almost the entire bottom of the pool. This is the winter pattern. Grazing as shown above gradually removes the covering of diatoms.

 

 January, 2007. The tide is at its peak today, showing pool 4 being entirely submerged.
On February 11, 2008 a beast is photographed in the tidepool. Close up of the Filamentous golden algae filling the tidepools in early spring.
Weird form shades a covering of diatom fuzz!

 

Some ideas to consider:

Invitations to Inquiry:

This pool is unique in a number of ways. The white substrate in the bottom of the pool is the result of a quartz intrusion that has flooded while molten, through the cracks of the basalt.
What is the effect of this white reflective surface on the temperature of the pool and the organisms that live in the pool?

In 1997 while doing a detailed analysis of the organisms in the pool, we noticed for the first time that there were white periwinkles. At that time 26 were counted by Nadia and Catherine. Speculate on the evolutionary implications here.

The mussels in pool #4 are Mytilus trossulus, the bay mussel. Mussels that you can see on the surrounding intertidal areas are the Mytilus californianis. Why the species difference?

The pattern of diatom distribution changes in the bottom of the pool. In the winter, it covers the pool with a thick felt-like appearance, as spring approaches, the cover of diatoms starts to disappear, starting along the cracks where the mussels are anchored.. could one measure the rate of grazing from the amphipods in the cracks?

Temperature and Salinity in the pool fluctuate widely and at times form stratified layers. How does this affect organism distribution.?

The biotic and abiotic features of this pool vary considerably from other pools in the near vicinity. Quantify and explain the differences or similarities.

The only other pool that resembles this one is found over on the north-east corner of the island, at location peg15-pool #14. Compare the biotic and abiotic factors of these two pools, and explain the differences.

The following lab on tidepool abiotic factor measurement was done by Chiara Ravetti in September,2005.
Biology Laboratory

Analysis of the Abiotic Factors in Race Rocks Tidepools

The measurements of salinity, ph, and temperatures of different tidepools at Race Rocks was done September19, after 11.30 a.m., with high tide. For this reason the pools selected were only five, two (pool 7 and 8) several meters away from the sea at that time of the day, the other three (pool 1, 2 and 4) closer to the water and larger.
Data analysis and further note

pool 1 pool 2 pool 4 pool 7 pool 8 Ocean water
Salinity 62.1 32.8 21.9 45.3 45 30
Temperature 14.4 C 14.4 14.2 15.4 15.2 10
ph 8 6.8 6.9 7 8 —


The measurement of salinity is expressed in parts per thousand; the instrument utilizes electricity, that passing through salt ions determines its quantity.
The pools were contaminated by sealions excrement, which reduced the visibility inside the pool and probably altered the pH of the water.
Other factors which might affect these values in a tidepool are: evaporation, precipitation, and in general pollution, scarce precipitation at that time of the year, the presence of the estuary, (The Strait of Juan de Fuca) with the influence of fresh water. The salinity in a tidepool is higher than the sea, for the evaporation and the little exchange of water, therefore the organisms living in it must tolerate high salinity, as well as variations in temperature. The smaller tidepools further from the sea present even more significant changes.

 

Carmen’s lab on Transects

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Race Rocks Transect Lab

Kite Diagrams

BELT TRANSECT PROCEDURE

About 20 meters from the dock on the north side of Great Race Rocks, we plotted our transect. Starting at the shore and going 15 m inland, we laid a tape measure and at every half-meter we made a 50cm-by-50cm quadrant and counted the species in the plot.

ANALYSIS:  We counted the algae by percent cover and the invertebrates by number. Some species overlapped, such as anthopleura and halosaccion. This coexistence was possible because the two species were not vying for the same food source. Species such as thatched barnacles and acorn barnacles did not live in the same quadrants, however. This may be because they are competing for the same substrate and nutrients and each prevents the other from invading into their space. As well, the thatched barnacles stopped growing at quadrant 15 but that is just where its competition, acorn barnacles began to grow. Perhaps one species was better suited to surviving farther up the shore.

That was the case for many of the species along the transect. Invertebrates like chiton, limpets and snails needed to be covered by the tide for most of its cycle. If these species tried to grow where they were exposed for a longer period of time, they would dry out and die. Other species like lichen need to be out of the water and as expected, were only found at high elevations on the transect.

The topography also affected the species diversity. The California Mussel, for example, was found only in quadrants that had crevices and rough substrate on which to grow.

In general, the abiotic factor that had the greatest affect on species diversity on the transect was the elevation and amount of tide cover the area got during a tide cycle. Below are kite diagrams of each species we found on the transect.

Carmen and Jana Environmental Systems class April 2003

LINK to photographic transect strip of this area

This x-axis represents percentage cover for the macroalgaes. Note it may be a different scale in the graphs. The y-axis represents the .5meter quadrat location from the peg #15.

The “series” 1 and 2 just represent half of the value for each quadrat for the species, a way to get EXCEL to plot a symmetrical “kite” shape

Anthopleura elegantisima ( green intertidal anemone)

Hedophylum sp. ( Brown wrinkled algae)

Analepus sp. ( rare algae)

Praseola sp. (green mat algae)

Xanthorea sp. (yellow Lichen)

Porphyra.sp

Hildenbrandia sp. ( red thin cust algae)

Alaria marginata ( brown Algae)

Coralina sp. ( pink coraline algae)

Fucus sp.

Gigartina sp. (red algae)

Cryptosiphonia sp. (like wet dog hair)

Halosaccion sp.. (salt sac algae)

Golden Diatom

Ulva lactuca Sea lettuce

Mitylis californianus California mussel

Searlesia dira ( Spindle Whelk)

Amphysia sp. Snail

Neomolgis sp. Red Spider Mite

Purple Nucella Snail

Limpet

Acorn Barnacles

Thatched Barnacles

Littorina Periwinkle snail

Katharina sp. (leather chiton)

 

See Transect A0050101
See Transect A0050102
See Transect A0050103

Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..

Distance Education and Environmental Stewardship

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Garry Fletcher and students in the racerocks.com activity 2003

A. PROGRAMME/ MULTI-MEDIA PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Lester Pearson College is a non-profit educational institution with students on scholarship from 85 countries. It operates and manages the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and Marine Protected Area as a community outreach program. Students involved in our science and activities programs get the opportunity to participate in the building and operating a website devoted to providing an educational resource for this unique environment.

Racerocks.com ( now racerocks.ca)  was conceived as a project to utilize technology and the internet to bring to the educational community access to a sensitive ecosystem. Our goal was to do that without being part of a negative human environmental impact. Through the generous support of sponsors and partners, in March 2000, the website http://www.racerocks.com/went live on the internet. Since that time three cameras have sent live images continuously and the students and faculty of Lester Pearson College as part of the ongoing stewardship of this area, have produced a large resource of supportive background materials and archived video. In addition, a portable video camera and webcast channel is available for special event programming both from Pearson College and Race Rocks. From the outset we have maintained a commitment to present a non-commercialized site.
This year we are doing an expansion of the live webcasts, which is dedicated to providing regular live webcasts to schools and museums. Trial live webcasts to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa have shown the effectiveness of this approach. The media for this program is entirely Internet based so consequently this entry will use that media to present the project. We have highlighted 9 components of the website which are particularly well-suited to demonstrate the value of the resource to education at a number of levels. Some are specifically targeted at the Middle School level, and some are appropriate for high school and even introductory level ecology classes at the university level. It goes without saying that the site is available to everyone with an internet connection and we also get positive feedback from interested viewers in general. The following represents some of the curriculum links provided by racerocks.ca

(THE FOLLOWING LINKS ARE BEING REDONE)

1. The Jason Program activity files on Race Rocks:
These files are designed for the Middle School Level. They provide a detailed set of objectives and a teacher information file, as well as assessment methods.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/jason/index.html
a. Scavenger Hunt (An introduction to the racerocks.com website)
b. Geology and Geography (Abiotic Characteristics at Race Rocks),
c. Preserving the Past and Present Culture of Race Rocks (The Thirteen Moons),
d. Maintaining our Coastal Ecosystems (An Ethology),
e. The Northern Abalone,
f. Pinnipeds,
g. Conservation,
h. Seascape – Art

2. The Apple Learning Interchange Files:
The Apple Learning Interchange provided the distribution network on the internet making it possible for thousands of student connections per week. This exhibit provided one with a glimpse of the educational programs, the technology that makes it possible, as well as ideas to help use our resources in the classroom. (Link discontinued)

3. The Race Rocks Taxonomy:
This class assignment allows students in environmental systems and biology to prepare a taxonomy of a species from the Race Rocks area and link to it educational videos and pictures of the species in their habitats at Race Rocks. This provides a useful activity where students can accomplish a number of objectives while contributing a permanent “digital legacy” to help in making this site an enriched educational resource.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/taxonomy.htm
We have also linked to this exercise a template to encourage other schools to use a similar approach for recognition and conservation of biodiversity in their own local ecosystems. http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/newecosystem/genusfolder/studentemplate.html

4. The “Adopt an Ecosystem” project:
Environmental Education involving science students at undergraduate levels in direct action is the goal of our program at Pearson College. We have found that the production by students of internet materials on environmental issues is a vehicle for doing this effectively. This is a tool, which provides incentive for environmental understanding and encouragement of an “adopting an ecosystem” attitude that can have important consequences in education. The emphasis is on “action” and seeking methods to enable collaboration with others to help solve environmental problems. Students at Lester B. Pearson College have been learning about environmental issues by producing materials for the internet, a “Digital Legacy”. In this way, their education has the added advantage of serving as a resource for others in the educational system in British Columbia and around the world. It also allows them to participate in facilitating collaborative efforts in environmental research.
https://www.racerocks.ca/educational-resources/adopt-an-ecosystem/

5. Race Rocks as a Resource for a Statistics exercise.
The purpose of this file is to enable a student to transfer Environmental Data being recorded at Race Rocks from an EXCEL spread sheet presented on the internet to their own computer in order to be able to graph trends and analyze relationships. Long-term databases are very important for monitoring change in ecosystems. Patterns of cyclic activity and even events such as Climate Change can be detected from the Race Rocks Data.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/ibbiology/labairseatemp.htm

6. Links to Race Rocks Resources for the BC Grade 11 Curriculum:
Selected Biology Prescribed Learning Outcomes are taken from the B.C.Ministry of Education K-12 Curriculum and Learning . The Outcomes which are related to Race Rocks are presented on this page with racerocks.com links
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/bc11bio/bc11bio.htm

7. IB Biology and Environmental Systems Ecology Resource.
The objectives of the IB program for secondary students are linked to appropriate activities and resources in this file.
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/education/curricula/ibbiology/bioecol.htm
8. The Animal Behaviour studies:
This file is intended for Secondary school students. It provides ideas for taking the live images on the cameras and doing a scientific study of the complexities of animal behaviour.
https://www.racerocks.ca/the-ethology-assignment/
9. The Ecological Niche and The Transect File:
These two files demonstrate useful ecological quantification techniques and allow an interactive format for the students to study this aspect of ecology. They further provide a model for doing similar studies in one’s own ecosystem.
and https://www.racerocks.ca/ecological-niche-the-empirical-model/
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/transect/transrrk.htm

B. FURTHER DETAILS ON PROGRAMME/MULTI-MEDIA PRODUCT

1. Fitness for Need and Purpose:
The main aim of the program is to provide a virtual website which presents as many aspects as possible of an environmentally sensitive area, allowing investigators to use the resources of the area without contributing to a negative environmental impact. The target audience is wide ranging, from elementary school to university and the general public. Some of the materials presented are interactive, some present curriculum ideas which can be pursed in the classroom, and some challenge others to use the model of this area to instill the values of environmental stewardship in others so that more areas can be protected yet made available virtually to the public. Since we at Pearson College have benefited for so many years from the resources of this special ecosystem, we feel that by making it available to all, we can contribute a great amount to environmental education. We are continually seeking feedback from groups and individuals who use our resources.

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2. Design and presentation to suit distance learning:

The materials of racerocks.com are available to anyone with an internet connection. Although the live streaming video is a highlight of the site, it was appreciated early on that for the next few years, not everyone would be able to receive it on high speed cable. As a result, a wide range of materials have been added to the site to reduce dependency on the speed of the network. Many of the archived video have been provided in a 56K format for downloading where only modem access is available. The part of the website designed for Middle School learners in particular has been designed to facilitate easy implementation by the teacher, complete with specific Learner outcomes and assessment procedures. The level of difficulty varies greatly, with an Ecological Niche modeling lab at one end of the spectrum and directions for downloading video and images to use in your own presentation at the other. Copyright release has been provided to anyone using the materials for educational purposes. The provision of two robotic cameras provide a level of interactivity unsurpassed in most educational media. If students are given an assignment where they have to quantify behaviours of an animal, and they can do that remotely by manipulating the controls of a camera, then this is a great motivational device for learning.

3. Use of a systematic course/multi-media product development process
When in the fall of 1999 we received the Canada Millennium Partners Fund grant to start this project, we enlisted the voluntary help of an internet consulting company, LGS of Victoria to assist us in project management and web site design. Our administrator Angus Matthews directed the technical progress of the project, and our Biology and Environmental systems faculty member Garry Fletcher directed the educational content development of the site. Members of the B.C. Department of Education PLNet were asked to comment on the site as were a number of graduates, and local elementary teachers. Feedback has been received since the inception from a wide range of our audience, and most of it has been positive. The only problems identified are usually those related to the need to install the free QuickTime software onto computers in order to see the archived and live video. The request from the Jason Foundation and the B.C. Department of Education to produce special materials for the middle school last year to serve as the Canadian component for coastal resources for the Jason Project was definitely a benefit to the upgrading of our middle school curriculum materials.

 

4. Coherence and Integration of media and technology in the study materials
The technology was chosen because it was recognized to be the most dynamic for a changing world where the updating of the information and the rejuvenation of curricular materials can be done on an ongoing basis. This would not be possible with static media such as a CD or a DVD. Furthermore, since our materials are developed on a voluntary basis, we were determined that equal access to all of a non-commercial site should be possible. It can be appreciated that with declining school budgets, funds are often available for infrastructure and hardware but not often for updating materials. The media of the internet makes possible the most current and in this case “in real time” resources to be made available. Our efforts are valued by the Educational Branch of Apple to the extent that they are currently providing us with a generous updating of hardware for our webcasting computers and continue to provide free of charge access to their Akamai network for serving of the live streaming video on the four cameras.

5. Evidence of Impacts and benefits derived from Evaluation

1. We frequently get feedback from schools and individuals thanking us for the materials and the approach used on racerocks.com. Appreciative comments have come from parents doing home schooling and two of our South American students have been able to do a live presentation in Spanish for an inner city elementary school in California. This got rave reviews from the children, and they were very appreciative of the two students who presented it. Each year we also bring out several small groups of school children from local middle schools. These children serve as proxies for those back in the classroom and in this way provide a first hand link with the environment. See an example of one of these trips on http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vidwestmont2a.htm Teachers, students and parents frequently express their gratitude for this opportunity to visit the site virtually, with their own guides on the scene as well.

2. In recognition of the educational value of our program, we have been acknowledged in the indexing of the GEM , Gateway to Educational Materials of the US Dept of Education (http://www.thegateway.org/) and the National Library of Canada (http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm)
3. The racerocks.com program has been recognized by a number of media sources linked from our file: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/news/oct00news.htm In particular, in the journal Education Canada in the edition on Education and Technology. Vol. 41, No 3. http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/news/2001/edcan/rrcomeduc.htm

4. Since part of our goals relate to the involvement of our own students in providing the programming live via the internet, the following account describes how one of the three students expressed his satisfaction with the process last June in bringing a set of live programs to the internet:

“I am one of three Pearson College students currently spending 11 project days at Race Rocks Marine Protected Area. We are all year 29 students of Pearson College who decided to stay for this project after our first year, and we’ll soon be going home to different countries of the world.Oceans have always had a great fascination on me. Coming to Pearson College and living on the Pacific Ocean was the realization of an old dream. Through my IB biology class as well as waterfront activities at the college I’ve learned to value marine life in all its beauty and diversity. During the year, I spent one project week at Race Rocks, studying marine mammal behaviour in relation to the DND’s weapons testing. Numerous trips led me out to the island, some for biology classes (and related fieldwork), and some for helping with tasks necessary for the island, such as bringing fuel for the generators. Every time I come to Race Rocks, it allows me to discover something new, to explore a new aspect of this gorgeous place. This has been an amazing time for all of us. Diving, learning more about the reserve and species living on it, contributing to research projects, producing live webcasts daily, and helping the lighthouse keepers in maintaining the station have just been some of the tasks we pursued during the last days”
Jeremias Prassl, June 2003

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Although so many people get to use the wonderful educational resources of the Race Rocks area by going there virtually on the internet, the wildlife is not harmed and the environment remains pristine. If we can say this after another 20 years and if other places have taken this technique and applied it in a similar way, then the experiment will have been worth every bit of the volunteer time and effort to make it successful. The program takes advantage of new media and new technology in a original and creative way which will hopefully form a model for education in conservation ecology in many parts of the world. When young people are given ownership of an idea they tend to internalize the values and end up with their own real commitment. Perhaps this is the aspect which we are most proud of in this project. From the examples we have seen of what our own students have gained and contributed in this venture, we know how effective this process can be and how powerful it is an educational tool. Because the project involves a creative approach to conservation education never tried before on this scale, and because it gives the confidence to our own international students knowing that their efforts can have a wider effect, influencing conservation practices beyond our local example, we feel this program has a major value in Distance Education.

 

The Commonwealth of Learning selects the racerocks.com website for its Excellence in Education Award 2004.

 

LINK TO DISTANCE EDUCATION FEATURES OF RACEROCKS.COM

Contact information:
Garry Fletcher, Educational Director, racerocks.com
Victoria, BC.email: garryf (use the at sign ) gmail.com

Students produce Video of work at Race Rocks in three languages

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In the first week of November, 2002, three first year students from Pearson College stayed at Race Rocks for their project week. Rosie, from Great Britain, Jeremias from Austria and Ahmad from Egypt were successful in producing several videos while on the island. One of the projects was to produce a video that introduced virtual guests to the island. They have produced this video in three languages :

Arabic version

German version

English version

 

OTHER VIDEOS DONE IN THIS PROJECT WEEK:

Daily Duties at Race Rocks for students

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This video was produced in 2002 when Mike and Carol Slater were ecoguardians at Race Rocks . When students would go out for a project week, after training from Mike, they would be responsible for the daily duties at Race Rocks.  This was before the era of alternate energy at Race Rocks and the upgrading of many of the weather measurements, so is now somewhat of a recording of history.

Written, and video by Rosie, Ahmad, and Jeremias.:

“During our project week at Race Rocks, Mike Slater, the Race Rocks Marine Protected Area Guardian asked us if we could make a video explaining the daily duties necessary to maintain the facility. Students who are relieving on the island during Mike’s absence will be able to use this data as a guide for performing their duties, as well as providing a useful information resource for students visiting the island.

These duties include two daily engine checks, a salinity check one hour before high tide, and keeping a record of the days weather, as well as explaining the functions and instructions for testing machinery located on the island.”

 

Interview with Taco Niet on Alternative Energy for Race Rocks

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In 2002, Taco Niet finished his Masters degree in the Engineering Department’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria (IESVic). In this clip, Garry interviews Taco about his research on renewable energy systems for Race Rocks. Great resources are available out there such as wind, solar and tidal energy. In order to conserve the natural aspect of the island, while reducing the use of Diesel fuel, many challenges arise. Taco considers the project can be integrated nicely with the racerocks.com project in order to be widely accessible on the internet and serve as a model for monitoring and comparing energy generation.

Interview with Taco Niet on the Prospects of Alternative Energy for Race Rocks

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In 2002, Taco Niet finished his Masters degree in the Engineering Department’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria (IESVic). In this clip, Garry interviews Taco about his research on renewable energy systems for Race Rocks. Great resources are available out there such as wind, solar and tidal energy. In order to conserve the natural aspect of the island, while reducing the use of Diesel fuel, many challenges arise. Taco considers the project can be integrated nicely with the racerocks.com project in order to be widely accessible on the internet and serve as a model for monitoring and comparing energy generation

.Link to other information on the energy supply
for Race Rocks
Return to Education and Research Archives Videos

Schools Project Lab with Ryan

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On one of the many schools projects field trips that took place in the early 2000s , Ryan Murphy shows students of one of the local schools some of the Race Rocks biodiversity in the lab.

Using Multibeam Sonar to Map MPAs: Tool of the Future for Planning and Management?

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FROM: https://mpanews.openchannels.org/news/mpa-news/using-multibeam-sonar-map-mpas-tool-future-planning-and-management

Using Multibeam Sonar to Map MPAs: Tool of the Future for Planning and Management?

The seafloor – sandy or rocky; flat or sloped; seamount or canyon – provides the foundation for multiple processes within MPAs, including the distribution of flora and fauna. However, MPA practitioners have generally had only patchy knowledge, at best, of what lies at the bottom of their protected sites, based on information gathered from fishermen, divers, and rough bathymetric data from nautical charts. With an inexact understanding of what’s “down there”, planners and managers face a real challenge of drawing appropriate boundaries and protecting the habitats they want to protect.

Under such conditions, multibeam sonar may be the tool of the future for MPA practitioners. Used now at a small number of MPAs in North America, this mapping technology provides resource managers with the ability to envision the seabed as they never have before. Practitioners are using it to pinpoint boundaries, streamline research costs, identify and reduce ecosystem impacts from fishing, and more. This month, MPA News examines the technology of multibeam sonar and how resource managers are adapting it to fit their needs.

The basics of multibeam sonar

Maps of the seafloor made over the past century vary widely in accuracy. Older navigation systems resulted in features being mapped several hundred meters or even kilometers from their actual geographic locations. Systems to measure depth resulted in errors of tens to hundreds of meters. Depending on the spatial resolution of the mapping system, objects less than a certain size – even undersea mountains, in some cases – could fail to appear at all.

US military researchers developed multibeam sonar in the 1960s to address these problems. Mounted on a ship’s hull, the sonar sends a fan of sound energy toward the seafloor, then records the reflected sound through a set of narrow receivers aimed at different angles. Declassified for civilian use in the 1980s, the technology has since advanced to the point where it can detect features as small as one meter across and locate them to within one meter of their true geographic location. It provides users with two kinds of data: bathymetric (depth) data, and “acoustic backscatter”. The latter, which records the amount of sound returned off the ocean bottom, helps scientists identify the geologic makeup – sand, gravel, mud – of the seafloor.

In the 1990s, government hydrographic agencies appropriated the technology to improve the accuracy of their nautical charts, particularly in harbors subject to sediment shifting and other navigation obstacles. Oil and gas companies seized on multibeam sonar to help explore the seabed in their search for hydrocarbon deposits. And by the late 1990s, some MPA managers began to see the possibilities offered by the technology for studying seafloor habitats. Jim Gardner, a marine geologist with the US Geological Survey, said, “Multibeam sonar gives managers, for the first time, a very clear view of the bathymetry and backscatter of their MPA – it’s really the first time they’ve seen what they’re protecting.”

One question that the technology helps practitioners to answer is, Where should an MPA be sited? “A lot of people just draw a polygon on a map, and that becomes their marine protected area,” said John Hughes Clarke, a marine geologist at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. But drawing an arbitrary line fails to consider the hydrographic forces – such as currents – that affect a site, or its topography. Notably, the Canadian government has expressed interest in using multibeam sonar to help it redraw the boundary for its exclusive economic zone, which officials aim to extend beyond the current 200-nm range in areas where the continental shelf stretches beyond that line.

Hughes Clarke believes that Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) should take account of the seabed whenever designating MPAs. His team of researchers is mapping the Musquash Estuary, a shallow, partly intertidal area in New Brunswick that DFO is considering for formal MPA designation. In the estuary, he is using a series of multibeam surveys to map erosion, sediment deposition, and other surface-sediment changes over time – factors to consider when drawing up a management plan for the site.

Robert Rangeley, marine program director for the Atlantic regional office of World Wildlife Fund Canada (an NGO), said multibeam sonar benefits seafloor conservation in a number of ways. “First, the better we know the distribution of bottom types, the better we can map out both distinctive and representative habitats for protection,” he said. “Second, we can better understand the relationships between patterns in benthic habitats and patterns in the distributions of benthic organisms. And third, by limiting bottomfishing to those areas with high fisheries yield, the area of seafloor that is impacted by bottom gear – and the diversity and abundance of bycatch – can be reduced.”

Use of multibeam in marine protected areas

The number of marine protected areas that have been mapped using multibeam sonar is very small. The technology remains unfamiliar to many practitioners, and the cost to deploy it can be fairly high (see box Questions and answers on multibeam sonar). Nonetheless, planners and managers of several sites have incorporated it in their work, illustrating a mix of potential applications:

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Race Rocks Area of Interest, Canada

The rugged Race Rocks archipelago off the province of British Columbia is on the verge of formal, federal designation as a marine protected area. Researchers have conducted a series of seabed surveys of the site – with multibeam sonar and other technologies – resulting in detailed imagery of rock outcrops, small sand waves, sediments located in depressions in rocky zones, and more. “The definition of the seabed assists in estimating the degree of uniqueness of this area, a fundamental requirement for designation as an MPA,” said Jim Galloway, head of sonar systems for the Canadian Hydrographic Service. “Similarly these baseline surveys contribute to our knowledge of nursery locations within the boundary, thereby giving us the means to protect species and habitat appropriately.” As it has done for Flower Garden Banks, the multibeam mapping has also contributed to community education efforts. “The dramatic imagery and definition greatly assisted stakeholders in their appreciation of the suitability of Race Rocks to be assigned MPA status,” said Galloway. Incidentally, the Canadian Hydrographic Service is located within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is responsible for designating MPAs in Canada. This co-location of responsibilities helped ease the process of executing the seabed surveys at Race Rocks and reduced operational costs, said Galloway.

For more information:
Jim Gardner, US Geological Survey MS-999, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Tel: +1 650 329 5469; E-mail: jvgardner@usgs.gov.

John Hughes Clarke, Ocean Mapping Group, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada. Tel: +1 506 453 4568; E-mail: jhc@omg.unb.ca.

Leslie Burke, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Regional Director’s Office, Scotia-Fundy Fisheries, P.O. Box 1035, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4T3, Canada. Tel: +1 902 426 9962; E-mail: burkel@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Andrew David, National Marine Fisheries Service, 3500 Delwood Beach Road, Panama City, FL 32408, USA. Tel: +1 850 234 6541 x208; E-mail: andy.david@noaa.gov.

G.P. Schmahl, Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 216 W. 26th Street, Suite 104, Bryan, TX 77803, USA. Tel: +1 979 779 2705; E-mail: george.schmahl@noaa.gov.

Jim Galloway, Canadian Hydrographic service, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada. Tel: +1 250 363 6316; E-mail: gallowayj@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca.