Research

REED POINT TEEMS WITH WILDLIFE

The waters in and around Reed Point Marina are home to many living things of interest to all of us, but particularly to inquisitive young minds. Almost every day, students board the passenger/research vessel "Oceanwatch" to learn about the seabirds, shorebirds and harbour seals.

The students also study invisibly small organisms. In a five-minute tow of a plankton net behind the boat, they collect a sample of the countless microscopic plants and animals that populate the water in and around Reed Point Marina. They pull in tiny single-celled plant-like diatoms that live in glasshouses and also collect the miniature early stages of barnacles, crabs, shrimp and fish. They are taken back to the floating lab at the Reed Point Marine Education Centre (located on the fuel dock float) where they are studied and sketched using microscopes.

Reed Point Marina is proud to make this facility available free of charge for this educational initiative. We thank Rod MacVicar for the incredible amount of time and energy he puts into this for the students and other citizens of our Tri-City area. Rod is also working with Dr. Andrew Trites of U.B.C. on the Steller Sea Lion Project, which is also based at Reed Point

Sea Lion Research

Reed Point Marina has donated water lot space and floats for a major research project involving Steller (also called Northern) sea lions. The study focuses on the energy and nutritional requirements of the sea lions. The clean waters of the marina, the full facilities available and the proximity to a deep water fjord give the location many of the requirements for sea lion research.

The North Pacific Universities research Consortium has been conducting research with Stellers since 1993. A project of this magnitude has many people working on it. The principal investigators are Drs. Andrew Trites and David Rosen of UBC. Post doctoral researcher Dr. Gordon Hastie has been brought in from Scotland to oversee the daily research operations and scientific protocols. The project is significant in the growing trend to locate marine education and research in the City of Port Moody.

This is a sensitive scientific research project and we urge all boaters to stay well clear of the area so as not to disturb the animals and/or the study of them.