Vancouver Apneist Freediving Club

The Mayne Island Conservancy Society has contacted the club requesting a team of freedivers for an extensive eelgrass survey on their island. Our group was highly recommended for our help with several other eelgrass surveys over the years.

If you take the ferry from Tsawwassen to Victoria, Mayne is the island to the left as you go through Active Pass. It is a beautiful island with several protected sandy bays, meaning lots of eelgrass habitat.

They have an ambitious plan this spring and summer which calls for six freedivers on three weekends:

• May 23-24
• June 20-21
• July 18-19

The plan with these surveys is to map the edges of the eelgrass beds with GPS and to use counts and sampling to assess the quality and total biomass. People on shore will map the intertidal edge and we'll map the subtidal edge in teams of two freedivers to one kayak. The kayak operator will mark our location on the GPS when we surface. The dives are all in the 1 to 5m range but there is LOTS of swimming.

If you're interested in helping out with this survey then please send Tom an email indicating which weekend(s) you wish to come out for.