Introduction

Throughout the time since Lester Pearson College first took on a stewardship role at Race Rocks in the late 1970's, we have been involved in doing a variety of Ecological studies. Tidepool monitoring, intertidal transects, invertebrate association studies , abalone tagging, subtidal transects, and marine mammal studies. This introduction will outline the Subtidal Transect-Quadrat Studies:

At least 30 Students are involved in the diving program at Lester Pearson College. One of the projects we do when weather, tidal conditions and time permit is to record data on the distribution of organisms underwater at Race Rocks. Since our students are trained in diving here, they get to dive at Race Rocks after the fall training period in their first year. It is only in part of their second year that they have the necessary experience to be able to contribute to the underwater ecological recording at Race Rocks. Weather being what it is, the continuity of the work underwater is a problem and thus significant contributions are made by a handful of students. Dives on the transect stations can only be done on a mild flood or slack tide, and since most use wetsuits, they are only able to stick with stationary activity underwater a short time until they get cold. It is important to recognize that students are learning organism identification as well as basic technique here so it cannot be treated as a rigorous statistical investigation.

Various approaches have been made to standardize a workable procedure. Recently some interest has been shown in an "adopt a quadrat approach". This is possible since we now have permanent peg locations underwater. So far it has not produced significant results, but it is hoped that The early investigations were done from fixed pegs in the intertidal zone and compass bearings to position the lines. Two files have been produced documenting the procedures. One in the early years by Bruce Walker, (a student of year 13), and the other by Dr. Jane Watson of Malaspina College. Both methods are difficult to employ but remain as the best available so far for this difficult to work in area.

In 1982, one set of students did a comprehensive survey of the distribution of one species , Metridium senile. This was an easy to identify organism and large areas could be covered with minor difficulties. This report is included as entry #165 in the Race Rocks Ecological Overview.

The data sheets for the subtidal studies are included here. It is to be hoped that someone may be able to devote the time to working them up into a series of reports on the different stations. After our experience with various methods of underwater ecological work, certainly the population studies by tagging are the ones that have been most successful. In addition, now that we have specific reference pegs in several areas along the North side of the island underwater, the monitoring of specific areas by underwater video is possible.

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Lester B. Pearson College

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