Working in the Musquash Estuary Marine Protected Area
Musquash Estuary Marine Protected Area
The Musquash Estuary is considered to be the largest ecologically-intact estuary in the Bay of Fundy. Through a great amount of community support, it was designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2006. ECW Inc. is heavily involved in monitoring the health of the MPA through a biodiversity assessment program, and a water quality monitoring program.
Biodiversity Assessment
To understand if the Musquash Marine Protected Area (MPA) is effective in protecting the animals within it, it has to be compared with unprotected areas. ECW is collecting four years of biological data, for example what species of fish and invertebrates are present, at nine sites within the MPA and two sites outside the MPA.
A fyke net is used to corral fish into a collection area that they can’t escape from. The net is set up at low tide, stays in the water for 24 hours, and is retrieved at low tide the following day. All the fish and invertebrates are placed in a bucket to be counted, and then they are released back into the ocean.
Installing a fyke net at Gooseberry Cove in the Musquash MPA
Recording data on nekton collected at Gooseberry Cove in the Musquash MPA
In this figure from the 2019 data, we can see that the number of different species isn’t all that different inside the MPA compared with outside the MPA. However, we can start to see a trend where more individuals are found inside the MPA, which is very encouraging. It should be noted that while the sites outside of the MPA were selected based on being similar in habitat to the sites inside the protected area, it is difficult to match the habitat exactly and so it is expected that fish communities found there may vary.
Cleaning out a net filled with debris in the upper Musquash Estuary Marine Protected Area
Environmental Monitoring
Using a YSI to measure temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity in the Musquash Estuary MPA
To broaden our understanding of the health of the environment in the marine protected area, ECW also monitors water quality on a seasonal basis and takes sediment hydrocarbon samples bi-annually. These metrics provide a working baseline from which to compare future environmental changes, and helps give context to the other work being conducted in the estuary.
We would like to thank the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for funding and continuous support throughout these projects.
