������������������������������ a giant sea animal or an eelgrass or kelp underwater forest.


be a “Making Art” display. On a large tarp, els enjoy as a group making a giant sea r kelp underwater forest.


Beach seining in a protected bay or estuary is another way to acquaint students to the eelgrass community but it is crucial this be done in a very sensitive manner, as juvenile marine ani- mals such as salmon fry and young flounders cannot tolerate exposure out of water or touch. When done under the careful supervision of an experienced leader, however, students are thrilled with the diversity of the collection from seining after they have helped haul the net shoreward. The specimens can be collected carefully and kept in cool seawater tubs for a short duration for observation by all. Beach specimen presses can be done easily with moist


y to acquaint done in a salmon fry


e specimens or a short


r or touch. ed leader, lection from


heavy paper and cardboard between the paper. Students collect drift (unattached) eelgrass, seaweeds and flat pieces of kelp and design patterns onto the heavy moist water. The sheets are then placed between two wooden boards and tied together with a belt. The collection should be placed in an area that is well ventilated in the classroom. In just a few days, the students can open the press and discover their dried creations. Cards, posters and other art work can then be taken home or displayed.


Extension of Field Activities


avy drift d


e then h a belt. tilated the


nd


A second field trip can be designed for mapping a local eelgrass bed during the springtime on a very low tide (less than 2 metres in B.C.). The methodology for mapping can be practiced in the classroom. Before that however, it is essential that students know why this particular habitat is important to map. After they have become familiar with its ecology during their preliminary field trip, students can interview community members, including fishermen, First Nations members and old time residents on what they remember of eelgrass in the local waters. This information can then be brought back to collate into maps. On


Beach seining is exciting


southeast Vancouver Island,


one of the eelgrass mapping coordi- nators


consulted with First Nation


Beach specimen press on the beach Beach specimen press on the beach


Elders and old time fishermen to find out where the


eelgrass “used to be” in a large estuary. She brought that information to a classroom of 5-6th


graders, and asked them to


map the areas on nine baseline maps. The class then combined the maps to compare where the meadows were historically sited and where they grow presently. They discovered that a large area was impacted by log storage activities, but they also discovered that local community restoration efforts were un- derway to bring back the meadows where the log leases were no longer used.


CLEARING 2010 5


A sec eelgr than be pr essen impo ecolo interv Natio reme can t


Students mapping on the shore Students mapping on the shore.


Mapping can be as simple as following the upper bound- ary of an eelgrass bed and noting on a cadastral map where the bed begins and ends. Or students may want to map the upper boundary using a GPS unit and then measure the density of the bed using a transect line and quadrats. The scientific protocol that has been accepted in British Columbia for mapping eelgrass can be found on the Seagrass Conserva- tion Working Group web site (Seagrass Conservation Working Group web site, 2002). To show students how to measure eelgrass shoots within


a meadow, you might try using a demonstration eelgrass grid, which takes little time to make. I suggest you find mesh mate- rial (we use the plastic mesh used to protect SCUBA tanks) with small (approximately 1⁄4 inch) spaces to thread green ribbon in dense patterns. Provide a quadrat (see below) and a ruler so that students can practice measuring the width and length of the blades. Thicker ribbon can be used to represent reproductive flowering plants.


beach that reproductive shoots are ephemeral. If flowering shoots are not noted while mapping, the class might return the following year and observe that the bed they measured is less dense, and conclude that it has been damaged. Zostera marina is a perennial plant (Z. japonica is most often annual), but densities can vary from year to year because of the timing of reproduction and the fact that they shed their leaves up to seven times in one year (Durance, 2002). If the class decides to monitor one bed over several growing seasons, these are important factors for accounting for different shoot densities over time.


Considering the worldwide extent of seagrasses is esti- mated at 44 million acres, but that much of the extent has not been mapped, (Green & Short, 2003) there is a lot of map- ping of eelgrass to be done everywhere! It is not difficult for students at all levels to inventory local seagrass beds whether they be Zostera marina or Z. japonica or another species of sea- grass in your area of the world. On many shores of southern British Columbia, both eelgrass species grow close to each other. We are having fun creating useful and easily memorized limericks to help us


Eelgrass demonstration quadrat


students can practice measuring the width and l represent reproductive flowering plants.


www.clearingmagazine.org/online Page 29


On southeast Vancouver Island, one of the eelg Elders and old time fishermen to find out where that information to a classroom of 5-6th graders The class then combined the maps to compare w they grow presently. They discovered that a lar also discovered that local community restoratio where the log leases were no longer used.


Mapping can be as simple as following the upp map where the bed begins and ends. Or student and then measure the density of the bed using a has been accepted in British Columbia for map Working Group web site (Seagrass Conservatio It is important that they know before they map on the


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