During the BioBlitz, many people discovered that far from being a dead zone – The Creek is teeming with sea critters.
The BioBlitz revealed clear evidence that False Creek is wildly alive with harmless spiny dogfish sharks, Dungeness crab, and mammals from harbour seals to beavers to mink.
Have a look at this remarkable video, taken on September 2 below the Granville Street Bridge, showing a battle royale between an implacable male crab and a swarm of sharks.
This profusion of life gives us hope. False Creek is alive – yes, it is damaged but not beyond repair. With your help we can bring it back to its fullest vitality.
One way is to give everybody the opportunity to actually see what is going on under the surface, and we have a plan we are calling “The Glassless Aquarium”.
Using technologies developed by noted oceanographer Prof. Joe Valencic, we are exploring various options to create beneficial habitats to promote biodiversity.These proposed artificial reefs will be designed by conservation scientists and constructed by marine engineers and other specialists. Not only will they be built to support life forms that have been damaged by industrialization and pollution, they will be monitored by underwater video cameras. The video images will be streamed to an onshore exhibit (or via an app), so that what has largely been only available to professional divers could be experienced by everyone.
These preliminary pilot reefs will be the precursors to an inspiring idea that over time, all of False Creek can be transformed into a magical natural aquarium.
If you are interested in a project with significant STEM/STEAM opportunities, or have engineering skills that will be useful to help us to propose a project we can submit to government agencies, or otherwise want to be involved, please contact us at info@falsecreekfriends.org !