Join us on Tuesday, January 11, 7:30 p.m. in Room 159 of the Fraser Building, at UVic for a free natural history presentation about the breakwater.
The Breakwater is an easily accessible microcosm of the astonishing marine biodiversity found on the southwest coast
of B.C. All 1,700 hectares of Victoria Harbour, including Ogden Point, were designated a Migratory Bird Sanctuary in 1923; the roughly triangular area between the breakwater, Holland Point and the outer edge of Brotchie Ledge are a protected area. Anny and Val Schaefer will share stories and photos of the cultural and natural assets over, under, and beneath this James Bay landmark.
Everyone welcome. Bring a friend and a coffee mug.
Hi There:
Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to the two of you for a wonderful talk this evening! Been in Victoria a little over a year, and while I’ve been along the Dallas Rd. shoreline quite a bit, have yet to make it out to the breakwater. I had no idea there was such diversity there!
Hugs,
Mike.
P.S. Val, you mentioned about the cruise ship passengers who had seen the ‘whale’ rocks at low tide; it reminded me of when I was working on a black bear study and we had radio collars on a number of bears, esp. sows. We were often stopped by the public, who wanted to know about the project. Put the headphones over their ears and they’d hear the ‘beep… beep… beep…’ of the collar signal. “Wow! Is that its hearbeat?” “Yup.”
Hi, Mike. Thanks for your feedback and your comment last night, too. Love the bear collar story. As someone who is NOT a biologist, I can relate to the public’s occasional confusion as well as heartfelt interest in connecting with the natural world. Look forward to seeing you at other Vic Natural History Society events.
~Anny
Thanks to everyone who turned out for the presentation at UVic last night in a pending blizzard (which never really materialized). Naturalists are such hardy types! We enjoyed meeting you and hearing your comments (and corrections).
We now have it on good authority that the “gull on a rock” was NOT a California Gull, it was a Thayer’s Gull–there was a lot of researching and discussion about that in the audience afterwards. Also the “Tiger Rockfish with Purple Encrusting Sponge” was probably actually a Painted Greenling. And of course bull kelp is not really an annual–it dies back and regrows annually, similar to a perennial plant, although of course it’s not a plant. More info here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pugetsound/species/kelp.html
We also forgot to show the slide at the end with photo credits. Val and I are responsible for most of them; thanks to the following folks for sharing their beautiful photos for the book and the presentation: Scott Stevenson of Pacific Marine Imaging http://www.8arm.com/ , Mark Hiebert, Gavin Schaefer, Dane Stabel, and Ashley Park.