SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island is within the Salish Sea, one of the world’s largest and biologically rich inland seas. Stewarded by many different Coast Salish groups for millennia, the Salish Sea spans North from Olympia, Washington to Campbell River, British Columbia.
If you asked me what my biggest fear was as a kid, I probably would have said seaweed. This summer at the Mayne Island Conservancy I really had to face that fear. As Ecosystems Technician I had the honour of coordinating the kelp monitoring program on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island Read more
Summer is just around the corner and our light trap program is well underway, with volunteers feeling particularly excited now that we’ve begun catching Dungeness crab and gathering data on population numbers! The Light Trap program is run by the Hakai Institute for Coastal Science under an umbrella project called Read more
With the completion of the 2025 field season, the Mayne Island Conservancy has now been monitoring bull kelp around the shores of SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island for 16 years! This also marked the seventh year since the program expanded to include sites around Galiano, the Penders, and Saturna Island in Read more
Even though we live around the ocean, the otters you see on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island are usually river otters, not sea otters! Here are six facts from a six-year-old about these interesting animal friends. I really like river otters. If you see one on the dock, stay back and respect Read more
It has been a busy field season for Conservancy staff, and we would like to share a behind-the-scenes view into our incredible ₭O¸EṈ | kelp mapping program! A few months ago, I shared an update about eelgrass mapping, and while we work on processing that data, we have been enjoying more time Read more
The ocean bioluminescence that we see in the waters around Mayne Island are created by dinoflagellates: tiny, single-celled plankton. There are thousands of species of dinoflagellates throughout the oceans of the world, and most of them reproduce asexually. It is assumed that dinoflagellates light up when disturbed to intimidate or escape predators.
Did you know that you can make important contributions to science simply by using your phone? Becoming a Citizen Scientist doesn’t have to be hard. By using a few apps, you can participate in plant, animal and fungi research with ease. Whether you are an avid birder, curious hiker, or Read more
If you can find a rocky place beside the sea, you might spy one of our fin-footed neighbours soaking up the sun. Known collectively as pinnipeds, seals and sea lions are important players in maintaining a diverse and healthy west coast. Local Pinnipeds Globally, there are 33 species of pinnipeds, Read more
In the ocean garden, rockweed is really common. There are close to 70 species worldwide, and in the Pacific it’s one of the most commonly known seaweeds. Called rockweed, fucus, or bladderwrack, or more aptly pop weed by Indigenous nations, our local species is Fucus distichus. The profusely branched seaweed Read more
The 2023 field season marked the 14th year of bull kelp monitoring by the Mayne Island Conservancy, and the 5th year since the monitoring program expanded to include partners on other Southern Gulf Islands. This past season 33 volunteers and staff from five organizations spent 178 hours on the water. Read more