Monitoring helps us learn about wildlife and recreational use over time.

Tofino Mudflats Projects

There have been a number of projects conducted on the Tofino Mudflats. Surveys of seabirds, migrating shorebirds, wintering waterfowl, and eagle nest trees have focused on understanding trends in bird populations. Marine invertebrates, particularly Ghost Shrimp have been assessed because they are an important prey species for fish, birds and grey whales. Shellfish monitoring provides information about important commercial clam and crab species. The B.C. Coastal Resource inventory, eelgrass mapping, geological surveys, shoreline photo-monitoring and other studies provide baseline data on habitat conditions.

Click this PDF to read list of monitoring projects to 2005.

Monitoring Ecological Impacts

Visitor surveys indicate that Tofino is visited by close to 1 million people each year and the main recreational activities of visitors are hiking/walking and wildlife/bird watching. Currently, very few people visit the Mudflats, however, as Tofino continues to grow, recreational use is expected to increase.  The Raincoast Education Society and the local WMA Advisory Committee are interested in learning more about recreational use,  wildlife-human interactions, and the effectiveness of public education for promoting stewardship. Click here to read more about our proposal for Monitoring Recreational Use PDF

During the summer of 2007, Mark Spoljaric conducted a pilot study to assess the potential impacts of recreation on invertebrates that inhabit the mudflats. Mark’s study involved a comparison of the abundance of invertebrates that inhabit the mud between heavily disturbed, less disturbed and “pristine” (undisturbed) localities. Mark’s hypothesis was that disturbed mudflat areas would have a lower biodiversity (number of different types of organisms and their abundance. Interestingly though, Mark found no difference in the number of lugworms or bloodworms between sites, and he found more ghost shrimp and Baltic macoma clams at the trampled site (and the most ghost shrimp closest to the shore, where the mud is probably the most heavily trampled). While there are a number of reasons why this might be, Mark’s pilot study has helped confirm that long-term monitoring is required to better understand the complex relationships on the Tofino mudflats.

View: Mark Spoljaric’s Full 2008 Study Report

Westerly News article

Undergraduate university monitoring

In September 2007, Rosaline Canessa’s Geography 453 class from the University of Victoria came to the Tofino Mudflats to undertake a series of student-led monitoring projects on the Tofino Mudflats. About a dozen project ideas were jointly proposed by Tofino residents and the course instructor, Dr. Canessa, from which each of the nine students chose one to design a semester-long research project. The bulk of their field work and interviews were done during a one week stay at the Tofino Botanical Gardens in September. Local community members provided guidance in research design, local talks, equipment, community contacts, and analysis and interpretation of results. At the end of the course in November, the class returned to Tofino to present the results in an Open House at the Clayoquot Field Station on November 30, 2008. To learn more about the class, visit www.geog.uvic.ca/geog453.

Watch this space for a full list of downloadable project reports and posters!

Monitoring vegetation
Photo: Kelly Bannister

Students from Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria assist with photo-monitoring along Doug Banks Flats in 2005
Photos by Kelly Bannister

Photo monitoring

Build Better Birding Skills Program

Recognising the need for skilled birders to monitor over-wintering waterfowl and migrating shorebirds, the Build Better Birding Skills Program trains and inspires local residents to conduct BC Costal Waterbird Surveys photos: Barb Beasley

Build Better Birding Skills Program in action on the mudflats.
Click here for a PDF summary of the program.

Important Links and documents

• Community Mapping Network
• BC Coastal Waterbird Survey
• Eagle Nest Tree Monitoring
• Monitoring Recreational Use PDF

BC Conservation Corps monitoring crew on Tofino mudflats
photo: Barb Beasley