The Friends of Cortes (FOCI) have just released their summer program of daily offerings for 2022.
“It’s about educating people about the natural environment, but also really having people getting out there, having fun and enjoying themselves. So whether it’s locals or visitors, we’re really pleased to welcome anyone who wants to come along,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.
Continue reading Summer offerings from FOCI
Cortes Island’s newest citizen science project, monitoring Dungeness crab larvae, was announced last Friday. Local diver Mike Moore, Helen Hall from the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) and Kelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute joined Manda Aufochs Gillespie on CKTZ’s Folk U Friday.
Continue reading Cortes Island’s latest Citizen Scientist Project: Monitoring Dungeness CrabsIslanders make great observers of the natural world and are helping create meaningful scientific inquiry into what is happening on and around the islands. This week on Folk U Radio, Helen Hall from Friends of Cortes Island and Kelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute join host Manda Aufochs Gillespie to learn more about the roles of citizen scientists, the tools to help them succeed, and how FOCI and Hakai are helping to make meaningful use of data collected (and how they hope to do even more.) Join us live this Friday at 1 p.m. on 89.5FM or livestream from cortesradio.ca.
Continue reading Tools for Citizen Science on FolkU Radio @89.5FM
Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has become the Hakai Institute‘s first partner in a new citizen science sea star monitoring program.
As Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI explained, “”We just launched a really exciting joint project with the Hakai Institute. They are initiating a project to monitor the health of Sea Stars in the Discovery Islands and we can contribute from Cortes Island.”
Continue reading The Discovery Islands Sea Star Monitoring ProgramKelly Fretwell from the Hakai Institute recently described sea stars as wolves of the ocean floor.
The topic came up when I mentioned that they prey upon the oysters in Gorge Harbour, on Cortes Island.
Julia Rendall, President of the Bee Islets Growers Corporation, said they normally eat about a third of her crop. The bottom clusters are “all chewed, eaten.” She remembers the summer that Sea Star Wasting Disease reached the Gorge.
“That was the year I had the very best harvest, for shuck oysters,” said Rendall … I got about $8,000 a raft instead of $5,000.”
Continue reading Sea Stars – Wolves of the Ocean floor
