The Secret Life of Canada’s Rocky Reefs

Do you ever wonder what lies hidden beneath the waves on Canada’s rocky reefs? If so, you are not alone. I have been pondering the creatures that crawl, swim, float and even hop beneath the ocean’s surface for as long as I can remember. SCUBA diving provides a unique lens to observe the hustling and bustling of reef life in real time and has been a passion of mine for nearly a decade. Serendipity would have it, that during my PhD with Dr. Amanda Bates at the Ocean Science Centre in Logy Bay, Newfoundland, I was able to turn my passion into my job by working with Reef Life Survey Canada.

Diving in Newfoundland: RLS Canada divers Valesca de Groot, Brandy Biggar and Jasmin Schuster (top left), lumpfish [Cyclopterus lumpus] (top right), a school of capelin (bottom left; this award-winning photo was taken by Valesca de Groot), and Dr. Amanda Bates surveying along an urchin covered rock wall (bottom right). Photos courtesy of Jasmin Schuster and Valesca de Groot.

Reef Life Survey is a non-profit citizen science program, that collects data on the marine biodiversity of rocky reefs around the world. Dedicated volunteer divers conduct standardized scuba-based surveys along a transect line, identifying, counting and sizing fishes, invertebrates and sometimes even the odd mammal (e.g. a playful seals or sea lions). Reef Life Survey, or RLS for short, has been operating since 2008 around the world, with over 14,000 surveys completed in 53 countries. These surveys allow all sorts of awesome science – we can test how effective marine protected areas are, where biodiversity hotspots are located, how pollution, fishing and habitat loss affect marine species, and whether fishes are shrinking or moving from the tropics to cooler, temperate latitudes as the oceans are warming. These are just some of the many questions that can be answered with this global record of biodiversity – and the best thing about it? The data is free and publicly available. Check it out: https://reeflifesurvey.com/

So, what about Canada? All cod and salmon, you think? Reefs are for the tropics? Not quite -even though there aren’t any tropical-looking coral reefs around Canada’s coastline, there is still a stunning diversity of marine life on its rocky reefs. In 2018, the Bates lab launched Reef Life Survey Canada in Newfoundland, bringing Canada’s rocky reefs onto the global map of RLS surveys for the first time. Over the last three years, our team has been surveying rocky reefs around the Avalon peninsula, and even extended to the Bonavista Peninsula and Gros Morne. Around the Avalon, most reef sites are under the rule of an urchin world order. Green sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, form dense feeding fronts that graze down kelp and macroalgae beds with devastating efficiency. Our record of most urchins counted along a single transect is 12,670 in a 100 meters squared area. You read that right! Even so, the reefs around Newfoundland offer a beautiful diversity of species. Some of my personal favourites include the cheeky cunners and adorable lumpfish. Being in the water when the capelin roll is also a very special and unique Newfoundland experience, as hundreds of thousands of capelin rush past.

Reef Life Survey in Canada: The points on the maps show where our sites are located in Newfoundland (orange box) and Bamfield (green box) on Vancouver Island, B.C.

This year, research for my PhD brought me from Canada’s easternmost coast to its westernmost coast. I visited the Bamfield Marine Science Centre (BMSC) in Bamfield, B.C., which presented a perfect opportunity to expand Reef Life Survey Canada to the west coast. We spent two weeks diving to conduct the ‘Bamfield Survey Blitz’, during which we surveyed 23 new sites. Diving into west coast waters, I was immediately blown away by the diversity of species, and their sizes. Everything seems to be twice as large there! It’s clear that the marine life is thriving in these warmer and productive Pacific waters. Colourful species of rockfish, head-sized red sea urchins, pillow-y plume anemones, and sea stars of all shapes and sizes are found around here. It has been a pleasure and privilege to dive on both of these coastlines, each unique and beautiful in their own way. One thing is clear, Canadas’ rocky reefs have endless amounts of life to discover, and I will always be excited for more.

Diving on Vancouver Island: Ochre sea stars and RLS Canada divers Jasmin Schuster (left), red anemone on the transect (top right), china rockfish (middle bottom), and an orange sea pen (bottom right). Photos courtesy of Em Lim.

Jasmin Schuster
WISE GSS Director of Communications
PhD Candidate, Bates Laboratory
Department of Ocean Sciences
Memorial University of Newfoundland