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Pacific Salmon Foundation

Citizen Science Oceanography Program

Nicole Frederickson, Manager Cit Sci Oceanography Program

Presentation to Baynes Sound Ecoforum

November 24, 2023

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PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

History/Background
Context & Evolution
Program Overview
What we do with the data
What we’ve learned so far
Looking Forward

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History of the Citizen Science Program

2015 🡪 Salish Sea Marine Survival Project

Concept: “mosquito” fleet of vessels collect data throughout the Strait of Georgia on the same days each week from Feb-Oct.

Objectives:

Achieve oceanographic monitoring at a spatial/temporal scale not done before
Examine how changes in ocean conditions impact the food web
Determine prevalence of HABs in the Strait of Georgia
Determine timing and propagation of the spring bloom

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Why is it so unique?

Extremely efficient and cost-effective!
In one day, citizen scientists collect data and water samples from 50+ sites.
The Community Fishers app allows for instant upload of data to Oceans 3.0.
The data is freely available to scientists and the public via the Strait of Georgia Data Centre

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PROGRAM TIMELINE

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Program Timeline

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2023 marked the 9^th year of the program & we have confirmed funding for 2024 which will mark a decade of data collection.

There has been some changes to the program over time, some add ons here and there, but the biggest changes I’ve highlighted here.

2015: Program kicked off in February with 10 different patrols and 78 stations

2016: some changes made to the stations/patrols, ocean acidity measurements added at some stations, PSF loaned one of their CTDs to Hakai for sampling in Discovery Islands area

2019: re-vamped the program – reduced the number of patrols to seven and stations down to 56

2020: Nicole joined on in 2020,

2021: NEW CTDs . Added Biotoxins to 3 patrols

2022: Added more biotoxins

2023: Slight change to the Baynes Sound Patrol – back to the 2015-2018 stations. Snuneymuxw First Nation – added additional sites within their Traditional Territory.

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How it Works

8 patrols (67 sites)
13 Citizen Scientists
Snuneymuxw First Nations Marine Division Team
~20 scheduled sample dates
Crews have +/- 2 days on either side of the date to complete sampling
PSF provides all sampling equipment & training & fuel costs.
Crews provide boats and are paid a stipend

11/21/2023

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What Data is collected?

CTD

Conductivity
Temperature
Dissolved Oxygen
Depth
Chlorophyll

WATER SAMPLES

Nutrients
Phytoplankton
Chlorophyll
Zooplankton*
Biotoxins*

MEASUREMENTS

Secchi depth

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Citizen Science samples collected to date

Year	Vessel Trips	CTD Casts	Nutrients	Phyto.	Chloro.	Secchi	Zoop.	Biotoxin	Total Samples
2015	150	2,264*	1,809	1,381	193	2,088	146	0	7,881
2016	99	1,445	1,587	2,064	349	2,825	60	0	8,330
2017	197	1,420	1,529	1,934	340	2,814	54	0	8,091
2018	196	1,125	1,575	1,981	352	2,823	66	0	7,922
2019	133	741	972	1,053	186	1,482	54	0	4,488
2020	119	731	1,257	1,378	231	1,836	54	7	5,494
2021	121	897	1,183	1,264	222	1,746	59	115	5,486
2022	104	782	1,046	1,113	196	1,554	60	108	4,859
2023*	98	747	1073	1067	185	1427	10	90	4,599
Total (9 years)	1,317	10,152	12,031	13,235	2,254	18,595	563	320	57,150

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BAYNES SOUND

Crew: Ryan & Nicole Frederickson

Total # of Stations: 7
Total route distance: 103 kms
Nutrient samples: 14
Phytoplankton samples: 13
Biotoxins at BS-6

2022 Efforts:

Total sample dates: 13/20
2022 Nutrients collected: 162
2022 Phyto collected: 145
2022 chlorophyll collected: 23
2022 Secchi depths collected: 164
2021 Biotoxin collected: 26
Total km’s travelled: 1,339

11/22/2023

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Fun Fact!

This Patrol has some of the highest average secchi depths.

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What do we do with the data ��What have we learned?

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�An Atlas of Oceanographic Conditions for the Strait of Georgia (including Baynes Sound)

Rich Pawlowicz

Dept. of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences

University of British Columbia

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8-year Climatology�(averaged over Strait of Georgia) from the PSF CitSci Dataset

This “Annual Average Cycle” in Temperature, Salinity, Dissolved Oxygen and Chlorophyll shows evidence of many different oceanographic processes (indicated by text)

Spring Bloom

Fall Bloom

Freshet

Intermediate Renewal

Respiration/Renewal

Warm Summer

Cold Winter

Intermediate Renewal

Temperature

Salinity

Dissolved Oxygen

Chlorophyll (Phytoplankton)

We’ve been able to track annual seasonal cycles in the Salish Sea and detect changes over time.

A first step into looking at how areas and times are different is to come up with the “average seasonal cycle”.

The 4 subplots here show the average seasonal cycle for properties we can measure with the CTD dataset.

We can recognize the timing and strength of different ocean processes that are at work in the Strait in this average.

We’ve also found that there appears to be a correlation between changes in ocean conditions (i.e., temperature, salinity, summer chlorophyll) in the Strait of Georgia and broader climate trends covering the North Pacific. These trends are generally referred to by names like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation, and of course the El Nino/La Nina Southern Oscillation. In short, the Salish Sea is impacted by broader scale, large climate/ oceanographic events.

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Fish tend to like water with a) lots of dissolved oxygen, which is “not too warm”
Area of “good” conditions (for fish):

Surface down to ~75 m in spring
~5 – 20m depth in late summer

But note that even “good” does not always meet BC Water Quality Guidelines, which are typically met only by waters only shallower than ~10 m in late summer and fall

“good”

BCWQG

Temperature

Salinity

Dissolved Oxygen

Chlorophyll (Phytoplankton)

8-year Climatology�(averaged over Strait of Georgia) from the PSF CitSci Dataset

Due to the nature of climate related monitoring programs, combined with the life history of salmon, we are just getting to a stage where we can begin to draw conclusions/linkages between the oceanographic data collected by the citizen scientists and salmon. Because there is natural seasonal, annual and interannual variation in a number of the parameters we are monitoring (as shown on the previous slide), we need a longer term (e.g. minimum 8-10 years) dataset to be able to tease out linkages that are based on seasonal or annual changes versus those that are associated with some of these longer-term, climate change factors. In addition to that, given the complex and varying life history and biology of the different pacific salmon species, we also require longer term datasets to be able to draw linkages between environmental conditions and salmon recovery, which we are finally just getting to.

For example, Alterations in climate change and changing ocean conditions can change the timing of the spring phytoplankton blooms, which are the base of the food web. These changes in spring phytoplankton bloom cascades up the food web, and may cause food availability issues for young salmon when they enter the Salish Sea. This may have longer term impacts on growth and survival.

We can also quantify how well ocean conditions suit fish. This slide looks at trends in temperature and dissolved oxygen which are important for juvenile fish. They need water with lots of dissovled oxygen, and usually water that is not too warm, but not too cold either). So, based on our data shown in these figures, there are some key times and depths that are favourable for fish and others that are not, INDICATED BY THE WHITE SOLID LINE IN THE TEMPERATUTE AND DO Figures.

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Baynes Sound relative to nearby waters

Is more oxygenated in the upper 20m (well above the BC Water Quality Guidelines for Dissolved Oxygen in Marine Systems), whereas surrounding waters are closer to or below this limit

Baynes Sound (region 5) in summer:
Has about the same surface temperature, but is about 1C warmer and slightly fresher at 10-50m depth (it is also warmer in winter)

Has about 3 times the amount of phytoplankton (in summer)

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Next Steps:

Look at year-to-year changes.

Is Baynes Sound consistently different from the Strait, or does this vary from year to year?
The PSF CitSci time series is long enough that we can start to look at climate indicators. Does Baynes Sound respond to events like (say) El Nino, or marine heatwaves like “The Blob” back in 2015, differently than the Strait?

Further develop the Atlas to show some of these effects.

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LOOKING FORWARD

Prepping for 2024 sample year
Initial Goal: Decadal scale monitoring
Updated Goal: 12 years of data
Brainstorming how to continue longer term
Potential expansion to other areas
Collaboration with Indigenous communities

11/21/2023

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WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We’re trying to spread the word about the PSF Citizen Science Oceanography Program

How can you help?

Let people know about the Program!
Send them this Flyer:

2022PSF-CitizenScience-info-flyer.pdf (marinescience.ca)

Add names of folks to our flyer distribution list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SxKY4p2Y-JpvQfAmuTxfo_Ix5ObtENjwC-hRmkIWUy0/edit?usp=sharing

11/21/2023

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THANK

YOU

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Nicole Frederickson

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Manager, Citizen Science Oceanography Program

nfrederickson@psf.ca

www.psf.ca

CONTACT US