Tsawout First Nation

Purpose

Tsawout First Nation (TFN) recently declared the QEN,T Marine Protected Area to reclaim oversight and management of rights and title to their unceded traditional territory. With Cascadia Seaweed Nature-based Solutions and the NRC, this study will initiate baseline scientific understanding of how fish, plankton, and marine microbial communities, as well as oceanographic variables, vary across three habitats within the QEN,T Marine Protected Area: the ȽEL¸TOS / James Island Kelp Farm (primarily Sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima), a wild canopy-forming kelp bed (Bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), and an adjacent non-vegetated pelagic habitat. The Project will employ cutting-edge monitoring technologies including underwater video, computer vision, metabarcoding, and multiparameter oceanographic sampling equipment. Outcomes include data and knowledge about biological and environmental fluctuations across kelp habitats, and capacity, experience, and knowledge about approaches to monitoring these habitats, ultimately informing longer-term management strategies via inclusion in the TFN’s Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) marine management plan.