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Mapping and Monitoring

Eelgrass beds map: Bamfield. An interactive map of eelgrass beds around Bamfield!

Click here to go to the "Community Mapping Network." A small viewing file will need to be installed. Follow the instructions and have fun!

by Megan Saunders

Eelgrass beds are among the richest and most productive of all biotic communities, providing a diversity of habitats for marine life:

80% of commercially important fish depend on eelgrass during part of their life cycle;

Eelgrass plants help to slow coastline erosion, preserving both public and private lands;

Pacific herring and smelt deposit their eggs on eelgrass blades;

Birds, fish crabs, snails and a host of other organisms depend on eelgrass for food and shelter.

The following map locates eelgrass beds near Bamfield, British Columbia. Click on the bordered insets to get an enlarged view of that area. Also, click to view map of Vancouver Island, or Barkley Sound

For more information on caring for these
critical marine environments, contact:

SeaChange Marine Conservation Society
Community Mapping Network
Harbours Ecological Inventory and Rating Project (HEIR) Subtidal Survey

www.oceanlink.island.net

Map prepared by Frederic Hyde for the
Bamfield Community Eelgrass Stewardship Project.

Acknowledgements: This project would not have been possible without the generous help provided by TD Bank Friends of the Environment, Ecotrust Canada, Environment Canada EcoAction Fund, the many Bamfield Community Eelgrass Stewardship Project Volunteers who spent hundreds of hours collecting data, Brad Mason of the DFO, and SeaChange Marine Conservation Society.

Map created for the web by Phil Lavoie.

Eelgrass Home | Education | Mapping/Monitoring | Research Projects