Salmon Steward

contInuIng to Be "everY- wHere at once" wItH our cItIzen ScIentIStS Our Citizen Science oceanographers have proved their value yet again. In 2016, we supported nine vessels sampling for 22 days, resulting in 1,369 sampling events for oceanographic data… and providing more than 8,000 samples for analysis. This intensity of sampling is approxi- mately three times the e¤orts undertaken by larger government ships; but more important is that our program allows sam- pling of the entire Strait of Georgia — in a single day! The data collected during 2015-'16 has now been collated and will allow very de- tailed mapping of oceanographic patterns, not previously possible. It probably sounds "geekie," but this level of data is key for pro- ducing very fine-scale comparisons of time and space to understand the di¤erences in salmon production that obviously occurs between years. new ModelS to underStand tHe PaSt and PredIct tHe future Finally, in 2016, we took a major step in the analyses of all the results being generated by the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project. To explain what's occurred and predict what's going to occur, we must integrate our understanding of the marine ecosys- tem into a mathematical framework (i.e. a model) and then test our understanding with the three years of detailed information collected by this program. Not an easy task! But UBC's new Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries has stepped up to develop a team of local experts. On the U.S. side of the Project, a similar process is underway and will develop a separate but parallel model. This is a critical step, because indepen- dent models with a common objective are really the only means to test the accuracy or "reality" of a model that represents our understanding of nature. It's an exciting process. If we don't have consensus imme- diately, we then find key sensitivities in the models and adjust as we go along. (But do give them a couple of years.) two More YearS to go! After eight years of designing the Project and working to fund its various endeavours, it is hard to believe that we only have two years remaining! With about 150 partici- pants in Canada and the United States, and hundreds of individual initiatives, the Project has been a wonderful example of the power of collaboration and networking in science. From left: Mike Diltz and Fred King with the Galiano citizen science team operate the CTD, the main workhorse for collecting ocean data. Below: The huge volume of data being collected by the Project is being visualized in 3D models of the Strait, an initiative led by Ian Perry, senior researcher with DFO. 14 2017 psf.ca (top photo) Ryan Flagg

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