Polychaetes, Polypores, and Pooters: Findings and Fun at the Hakai Quadra Island BioBlitz 2024

From April 21st to May 12th, 2024, the wild woods and waters of Quadra Island, a 310 km2 island at the north end of the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia (BC), was swarming with more than its usual array of species. Naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public gathered for a “BioBlitz” hosted by the Hakai Institute and partnering institutions from across North America, including Florida Museum of Natural History, the University of British Columbia, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Institute for Comparative Genomics at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. 

A “BioBlitz” is an effort within a designated location to record as many species as possible within a designated time period. Globally, BioBlitzes are growing in popularity, in part because they are great ways to connect communities to their surrounding environments and to engage them in biodiversity science and conservation. This Blitz was no exception. The goal: To document what lives on Quadra Island, from protists all the way up to large mammals. The excitement was palpable as species such as Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), goblin’s gold (or luminous moss) (Schistostega pennata), and Bering hermit crab (Pagurus beringanus) were revealed to scientists, students, and others who were partaking in the intensive, 3-week long event. 

Getting a group of experts together for a short-term high-intensity survey is a great way to better understand the biodiversity of a particular region. For example, our previous bioblitzes have identified species that were not previously known to live in BC and have even led to the discovery of new species. There’s a lot we don’t know about biodiversity and these bioblitzes are a great way to fill the gaps in our knowledge.

~ Matt Lemay, Scientist, The Hakai Institute

Quadra Island is a unique spot. The largest island of the Discovery Islands and the second largest island in the Salish Sea, it is separated from Vancouver Island by Discovery Passage, and from Cortes Island by Read Island and the Sutil Channel. It is characterized by its stretching beaches, winding trails, remote lakes, and lush parks. Its location at the junction of three ocean influences - the Salish Sea to the south, Johnstone Strait and the Pacific Ocean to the northwest, and Bute Inlet and its icefields to the north - make its terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems highly diverse, and a perfect spot for a BioBlitz.

Environment aside, the existing relationships between the Hakai Institute and the Quadra Island community also presented a wonderful opportunity for engagement. BioBlitzes can fall within a spectrum, from highly taxonomically-focused and scientist-driven at one end, to primarily focused on public participation at the other. Most - like this Blitz - fall somewhere in between. Hakai’s ecological observatory on Quadra has been established since 2014, consisting of state-of-the-art labs, monitoring sites, meeting houses, and a Quadra Center for Coastal Dialogue. Hakai scientists and staff are embedded in the community, regularly engaging with the local schools, zipping around in dive boats, and grabbing coffee at the local shops. And community members are integral to Hakai. For example, volunteers from the community regularly participate in Hakai-led projects such as the Sentinels of Change, an initiative driven by communities and scientists alike that is investigating the dynamics and patterns of crab and recruitment and biodiversity on the coast. These existing relationships between Hakai and the Quadra community meant that the community could be engaged in various ways, including art/science participatory education, guided nature interpretation, presentation, and even informal (coffee shop!) conversation.

So what was discovered? And how did the community react?

To date, scientists and community participants have logged over 12,000 unique observations and identified over 1,500 species on the Hakai Quadra Island BioBlitz’s iNaturalist project page, and it is anticipated that upwards of 1,000 additional species will be added in the coming months. iNaturalist (sometimes referred to as “iNat”) is an online platform that allows participants to submit photos of the organisms they are seeing, and to obtain support in species identification from iNaturalist’s computer vision model and a community of over a million scientists and naturalists worldwide. Anyone who can use a smartphone or digital camera can contribute. In other words, iNaturalist allows people of any level of expertise to participate, from novice to species experts. By recording and sharing observations, research quality data are created for scientists that are working to better understand and protect nature. For this Blitz, scientists also collected DNA from specimens to add to a global library called the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), to support the assembly and use of DNA barcode data; and, selectively captured specimens were sent to the Royal BC Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.

And they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”! The photos and art pieces generated during the Quadra Island BioBlitz are stunning, informative, and some might say, whimsical. Browse the iNaturalist project page to appreciate and learn about some of the creatures that call Quadra Island and its surroundings home, from the commonly observed ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) and Pacific banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus) to the fantastically-named frilled dogwinkle (Nucella lamellosa), bristly haircap moss (Polytrichum piliferum), seep monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata), and dragon horn (Cladonia squamosa), to the more rarely observed jellied bird’s nest fungus (Nidula candida) and padded sculpin (Artedius fenestralis). And take a peek below at some of the art pieces generated by students and community members during the Blitz. 

Overall, the community seemed thrilled to be a part of the event, as did the invited taxonomists. At Quadra Island Elementary, where approximately 45 students in grades 3, 4 and 5 (and their teachers!) participated in an art-science exploratory activity, the students were particularly enamored with a paralarval - and admittedly, ridiculously cute - bobtail squid (Rossia Pacifica) that was captured in a light trap set at the Quathiaski Cove dock the night before as part of the Blitz and the Sentinels of Change. Students who weren’t admiring the live specimens were encouraged to interpret their observations in “field guides” (booklets of watercolour paper), motivated by what they were seeing and by images of previously-photographed plankton scattered across their desks, and limited only by their imaginations. Students were also shown some of the tools used for sampling marine and terrestrial biodiversity - including the light trap, and an always-popular “pooter”, a small jar used for collecting insects that involves suction by the user. 

As Hakai Magazine’s graphic designer, I was on Quadra Island, British Columbia, to serve as a beacon of art among the science of the Hakai Institute’s Quadra Bioblitz. Along with another artist from the Hakai Institute, Romney McPhie, we spent several days puzzling over bizarre creatures and trying to help both children and adults capture them to the best of their abilities using pencils, paints, and collage. The week was a success with people of all ages dipping their toes into the fields of art and science. These two seemingly opposing fields came together over the course of the Bioblitz to inspire young and old to see the world through many lenses.

~ Mercedes Minck, Graphic Designer, The Hakai Institute and Hakai Magazine

At the Quadra Island Community Center, members of the public were invited to learn more about the work that Hakai does - some even bringing their own art supplies to create unique pieces inspired by reference photos and hands-on, nature-derived materials (shells, bones, plant presses) provided by Hakai staff. We Wai Kai First Nation guardian team manager Shane Pollard welcomed local 'Quadraites' to evening presentations by Hakai scientists and international collaborators. Presentations by taxonomists Brittany Cummings, Henry Choong, and Leslie Harris, on amphipods, hydroids, and polychaete worms, respectively, were thought-provoking, induced laughter, and fostered enthusiasm for some of the lesser-known, and oft unsung, species with whom we share our coast. Who knew worms could be so beautiful?

Presenting my research at the Quadra Island Community Center as part of the Hakai Quadra Island BioBlitz was the highlight of my year! I rarely get to talk about my research outside the "academic bubble", so it was super fun to see new faces and talk about my passion for bizarre crustaceans. Plus, free coffee and cookies!

~ Brittany Cummings, PhD Candidate, Department of Biology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

Two hands-on events - a subtidal “show-and-tell” on the grounds of the Heriot Bay Inn (HBI) and a low tide walk at Rebecca Spit Marine Provincial Park on the eastern shore of Quadra Island near Heriot Bay, drew community members from Quadra Island as well as visitors from farther afield. At the show-and-tell, cyanotype photography was used to engage participants in an investigation and appreciation of some of the locally-found seaweeds, such as rockwed (Fucus vesiculosus). Cyanotype is a camera-less technique where objects are placed on paper coated with a solution of iron salts and then exposed to sunlight, resulting in beautiful, shadowy, cyan-blue prints. Species that were the most popular amongst visitors included a heart crab (Phyllolithodes papillosus) - a crab commonly found in rocky current-swept locations in the shallow subtidal, and characterized by a distinctive heart-shape of raised bumps on its triangular shell  - and the ever popular giant orange peel nudibranch (tochuina gigantea) - a species of sea slug (or marine gastropod mollusk) that looks for all-the-world like a discarded orange peel (hence its name).

Teachers and support staff from an elementary school in Campbell River joined scientists for one low tide morning of the BioBlitz, to learn more about these educational events and the tools used to support them. Within minutes, teachers were seen using iNat’s ‘junior app’ Seek to identify plants on land and critters on cobble beaches. Hakai staff Carolyn Prentice and Margot Hessing-Lewis entertained ecological questions and got everyone to get their feet wet with a peak at the low tide zone around Rebecca Spit and the We Wai Kai campground. 

There was a full house at the Heriot Bay Inn (HBI) for the final ‘University of Quadra’ semester-long seminar series, catering to local residents of Quadra Island and visitors alike. This seminar series is hosted weekly at the HBI, with a fun ‘graduation party’ following completion of the last seminar. In concert with the BioBlitz, participating scientist Chris Harley from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and longtime Hakai affiliate, delivered a rousing discourse that spanned the history of marine ecology in the Pacific Northwest, including early work by Bob Paine in Washington State who determined how top-down control by seastar predators led to greater overall diversity, to more recent work by Chris and Hakai scientists that aimed to counter early studies by quantifying all the teeny tiny organisms associated with the primary prey of seastars: mussels.  He also showed the crowd pictures of the last big heat wave event that had a devastating effect on intertidal marine life in the Salish Sea. The good news: recovery has been observed in many areas, supporting the high diversity witnessed during the BioBlitz. The packed house delivered a round of applause and quickly retired to celebration in the adjacent pub - where cheers for natural history and science were heard amidst the sound of Canuck’s hockey goals. 

If you’re now thinking, “I would love to host a BioBlitz in my community”, you’re not alone! A recent study (Meeus et al. 2023) recorded 1,836 iNaturalist BioBlitzes globally between 2013 and 2020.  Years of collective experience have shown that BioBlitzes are effective at bringing people and organizations together to build communities of professionals to amateurs, connecting people to place and advancing the conservation and protection of local biodiversity. The Hakai Institute is proud to have contributed, through this Blitz, to the global community of “BioBlitzers” working to document the amazing diversity of life on Earth, and to have contributed to the wonderful Quadra community of which the Institute is a part.

I think the community engagement side of a bioblitz is just as important as the scientific component. Connecting with community members of all ages creates so many good learning opportunities for everyone involved. On Quadra Island, for example, there are many community members who care deeply about the environment, and who have lived on the island for many years and witnessed dramatic changes in local marine ecosystems and species. These events provide a natural way to connect with community members, chat about what we’re seeing out on the water and what we can do in the face of these changes.

~ Carolyn Prentice, Scientist, The Hakai Institute

Preserving the environment is ultimately the reason we are scientists. I think that the environment is most often harmed when people are not aware of their surroundings, rather than when people are intentionally destructive. If this is the case, the best way to preserve the environment is through a well-informed public. What better way to introduce people to their surroundings than to get them involved in a local biodiversity survey?

~ Brittany Cummings, PhD Candidate, Department of Biology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

For more information on the Hakai Quadra Island Blitz, read this article published in the Tula Foundation’s first quarterly publication and this article recently published by the National Observer. This article published in Hakai Magazine in 2023 gives more details on the importance and excitement of BioBlitzes.

By Romney McPhie and Margot Hessing-Lewis

References

Meeus S, Iolanda SR, Adiaens T, Brown PMJ, Chartosia N, Claramunt-López B, Martinou AF, Pocock MJO, Preda C, Roy HE, Elena Tricarico E, Groom QJ (2023) More than a Bit of Fun: The Multiple Outcomes of a Bioblitz. BioScience, 73(3), March 2023, pp 168-181.