rreosummary

Part 9 : Pilot MPA Program:
Pacific Inshore Ecosystem Overview
of Race Rocks

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW:

A. Objectives:

It is the intent of the Race Rocks Overview to produce a comprehensive package of knowledge, including scientific and natural history, of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and the surrounding area in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. These materials will provide a common information source and knowledge base for future activities such as :

Defining objectives for the Marine Protected Area
Delineating the boundaries and levels of protection
Planning and coordinating research
Monitoring environmental factors and change
Public education and media contact, releases
B.The Database:

It must be appreciated that the extensive searchable database for the Race Rocks Ecological Overview that has been developed is the central unifying work It is designed to draw together a diverse range of information. It has been made purposely so that it can be added to and expanded as more information on the Race Rocks Area becomes available. It may also be linked into other MSAccess Databases, and it will also be made available on the Race Rocks web site, after first being tested in a CD version.

Included in the database are the following main components:

Race Rocks written references: journals, unpublished sources, over 250	A directory of Contacts of First Nations and of those who have had direct connections to Race Rocks.
References to a number of Video recordings, the most recent being a set done by the Knowledge Network. Copies of these are stored in the Pearson Race Rocks Collection. Also several sound recordings.	An internal connection to the Canadian Data Centre Database. An Internal connection to the Metchosin Environmental Inventory database
Indexes to four slide sets -slides stored in Lester Pearson College library. Numbers over 420 slides.	An internal connection to all the daily temperature and salinity records back to the 1920's.
An internal connection to the Race Rocks Herbarium Collection	Live links to many internet resources on Race Rocks.

The database created will be useful for providing a background to the sources of information about a number of ecologically- related categories. A category search may be carried out on any of the following:

Categories:

Marine Mammals
Marine birds
Marine Invertebrates
Fish
Marine Algae
Plant-Animal Associations
Climate
Chemistry
Currents-tides
Oil- Spill Impacts

Nautical Archaeology
Geo-Spatial
MPA
Ecological Reserve
Historical
First Nations
Socio- Economic
Marine Education
Light Station
Ecological Technique

Technology
Adjacent Ecosystems
Tidepool
Subtidal
Intertidal
Pelagic
Topographic
Collection

In addition keyword and author searches are also made available from the search menu. The database has built-in editing tools, capacity for printing specialized reports , and ease of expansion to incorporate other data bases as well as new research as it becomes available.

The three documents that I consider to be the most significant for future planning surrounding the MPA are the following: These are all lengthy documents but their full version is included in the database.

The Race Rocks National Marine Park Proposal - 1976 (Appendix 5)

Proposed Park in the Strait of Juan de Fuca - 1975 (Appendix 4)

The Race Rocks Management Plan. -1998 . (Appendix 1)

The Bamberton report on first nations cultural values, and their interaction with marine resources. (Appendix 3)

C. Contact with First Nations :

Angus Matthews and myself have met on three occasions with Tom Sampson. A representative from Brentwood First Nations. He and Andy Thomas chief of the Esquimalt Nation have helped us to understand the importance of the coastal areas to their people and their culture. We have, I believe started on a fruitful path in involving local First Nations people in our educational program in the reserve. Acting on Tom's direction we read the Bamberton report which already lays out in some detail the cultural dependence that First Nations people had on the land and the coastal areas of the Salish Sea. He sees that as a valuable model for the way we have to think about the role of First Nations people when we lay out plans for managing protected areas. ( see part 8)

Some Follow Up Work:

Further work will be done when time permits on the following areas, and the results will be added to the database:

I would like to be able to get access to the wind-speed data that is stored in a database with environment Canada. Perhaps an interdepartmental request could solve this one. Two years ago I did receive a request for access to this data from a U.S. researcher.

Only very recently have I received back from another researcher the raw data files from our early work in the 1980’s on transect studies at Race Rocks . I will need to have some time before this work can be adequately added to the data base. I do not believe it has a major contribution to play, but the files are available in the library at Pearson College, and they do represent preliminary studies.

We can not expect that the process of working out the arrangements with the First Nations people are finished, rather they have just started. We would like to see some time for their contribution to our educational program.

Garry Fletcher

April 7 1999