The Sentinels Alliance is in the spotlight at UBC this week, the first to be featured in their new Partners for Purpose series on partnerships driving real-world change. Hakai is a proud partner of Sentinels, which continues to be a model for the power of collaborative science. tinyurl.com/4m5chsyx
Seagrass meadows are critical for climate mitigation and biodiversityβbut protecting them starts with knowing what to measure. A new BioScience paper coauthored by Hakai's Margot Hessing-Lewis outlines global priorities for monitoring sea.
Full paperπ tinyurl.com/mpbe7byw
Now entering its sixth year, a research partnership between the Mamalilikulla First Nation Guardians has documented centuries-old red tree corals, glass sponges, basket stars, and endangered sunflower sea stars in the GwaΜ²xdlala/NalaΜ²xdlala Marine Refuge: tula.org/tula-quarter...
In March 2026, Tula will host Climate Ready BC Seafood (CRBS) partners at a forum in Nanaimo, bringing policymakers, researchers, and champions of ocean and climate resilience together to chart next steps. Learn more here: www.oceanacidification.ca/bc-oah-forum...
The new TQ is here! Do killer whales & dolphins really hunt together? How are health workers healing distrust in rural Guatemala? What is BC doing about massive projected aquaculture losses due to ocean acidification & hypoxia? Check out the stories: tula.org/tula-quarterly
New research led by Dalhousie, with help from Hakai, reveals that killer whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins may be cooperatively foraging off northern Vancouver Island. Using drones and underwater tags, researchers captured whales following dolphins on deep dives.
Paper: tinyurl.com/yu3r4b3c
Calvert Island became an underwater classroom this fall as stewardship divers from six First Nations trained at the Hakai Institute. Participants sharpened species ID and scientific diving skills to boost kelp monitoring along B.C.βs coast.
Full story: tinyurl.com/52d82v4f
Pod alert: UBC's Chris Harley and Colleen Kellogg of the Hakai Institute discuss ways to conceive of different levels of biodiversity, the features of False Creek, how False Creek could become a Living lab, and the 2022 BioBlitz. Check it out:
falsecreekfriends.org/podcast#ep-5
Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, is working with the Hakai Institute on laboratory tests to look at the effects of ocean acidification on several species, notes a new feature article in Business in Vancouver.
Read more here:
Bull kelp can stretch 30+ meters, but it starts as tiny life stages vulnerable to warming seas and acidification. Hakai researchers are testing where those vulnerabilitiesβand pockets of resilienceβlie to help guide future restoration.
Students from Bella Coola took on Calvert Islandβpaddling, learning marine biology, and completing a 24-hour solo on wild beaches alongside Hakai staff and Coastal Guardians. A big step toward future coastal stewardship.
Read more here: tinyurl.com/52xfxv54
HIRING: Hospitality Support β Calvert Island
This seasonal role (springβfall) supports kitchen service, housekeeping, guest services, and day-to-day operations that keeps the Calvert Island Ecological Observatory running smoothly. Job Description & Application: ca.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=f...
Parasitic barnacles that turn hermit crabs into near-zombies? New UBC/Hakai research that surveyed 4,200 crabs at 65 sites shows these parasites are widespread across B.C., vulnerable to heat waves, and may be multiple cryptic species.
Read more π tinyurl.com/4tfb5fjj
In Nunatsiavut, Labrador, changing rivers and shorter winters are reshaping how Inuit communities connect to the land. The Nunatsiavut Rivers Projectβsupported by Hakaiβbraids Inuit knowledge with geospatial science to map these shifts.
Read more: tinyurl.com/4fxu87zx
When the ocean heats up, urchin love life cools down. New Hakai-linked study shows that even modest, non-lethal warming can suppress purple sea urchin reproduction β a twist that could temporarily help kelp forests recover. But both kelp and urchins feel the heat.
π tinyurl.com/2s46j5v8
Can some sunflower stars resist disease? Hakai researchers, with DFO, are testing stars from Calvert Island for Vibrio pectenicida resistance and how warmer waters affect infection. A step toward protecting these vital marine predators!
What did Vancouver Islandβs forests look like after the last ice age?
New research from northern Vancouver Island shows forests didnβt all respond the same way as the climate warmedβeach landscape told its own story.
π tinyurl.com/bddr9fuw
13 years of seaweed work around Calvert Island led to 67 brown algae species β and two new to science! Meet Protohalopteris petersonii & Petrospongium munckiae, named for Hakai founders Eric Peterson & Christina Munck.
π tinyurl.com/2784tas5
A new study in @natcomms.nature.com involving Hakai Institute researchers finds that marine heatwaves can reshape ocean food websβslowing the transport of carbon to the deep sea and impacting the oceanβs ability to shield the Earth from climate change.
Full paper π tinyurl.com/222nk2k8
On Calvert Island, nearly 370 diverse species of seaweed flourish where ocean currents and climate zones converge. Scientists are documenting this kaleidoscope of green, brown, and red algae using pressed specimens and DNA barcoding. Full story π tinyurl.com/e9yzacrx
After 12 years of scientific dead ends searching for a cause of #seastar wasting disease, βitβs just shocking that we took that long to find Vibrio pectenicida,β said Dr. Alyssa Gehman. @rhizalyssa.bsky.social @hakai.org
undark.org/2025/09/29/s... via @undark.org
A workshop on Calvert Island brought together divers from 6 First Nations to expand scientific diving skills and kelp habitat surveys. Supported by the Hakai Institute, @wwfcanada.org, @psfca.bsky.social, ECCC, and DFO, the program is building capacity for stewardship diving on BC's coast.
A new multimethod study involving Hakai Institute researchers uses samples from 6400 BCE to 1500 CE to provide the most complete picture of parasite infections in past populations to dateβrevealing a major shift during the Roman and Medieval periods π tinyurl.com/9shazh42
Smiles after a successful first dive of the day.
Dan Abbott of Reef Check (overseen by a humpback whale!) introduces kelp survey methods in the classroom.
Participants Carter Burtlake and Mariyah Dunn-Jones working on species ID skills between dives.
Dives provided opportunities to practice species ID, counts, and filling in datasheets underwater.
Strengthening Indigenous stewardship from the seafloor up! Last week, guardians from six coastal B.C. Nations joined a 5-day diving workshop at Calvert Island to build kelp survey + ID skills. Hosted by @hakai.org with support from WWF-Canada, @psfca.bsky.social, DFO & ECCC.
Two covers for papers published on the same day www.pnas.org/toc/pnas/122... & www.nature.com/natecolevol/.... Proud of the team, especially #MelaniePrentice & @kevinzhong2006.bsky.social with @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social, @eoas.ubc.ca, @ubcoceans.bsky.social, @hakai.org and @science.ubc.ca
Archaeological research at the Tsalwadi site on Vancouver Island reveals that people were fishing and making stone tools along the Woss River up to 14,000 years agoβoffering one of the earliest records of human activity on the island's coastline. π tinyurl.com/59rzrn8y
Fieldwork on BCβs coast is giving more than technical skills to ocean scholars from the Philippines, Egypt, Kenya, and beyond. The @pogo-ocean.bsky.social program immerses the next generation in Canada's coastal ecosystemsβsparking fresh passion for ocean science. π tinyurl.com/47r9zryw
Join us at the @imarest.bsky.social webinar on:
"Unlocking Ocean Secrets: Marine Mammal Monitoring Through eDNA"
22 Sept 2025 - 4pm UK time
Matt Lemay, from the OBON project "HI-BON" (led by @hakai.org) will be one of the speakers.
More info and sign up at: www.imarest.org/events/event...
Worrying drop in #ocean #oxygen documented off #BC coast. The study, conducted by the @hakai.org measured oxygen levels in Queen Charlotte Sound to the southern tip of Haida Gwaii. | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/1139322...
Kawokβa digital health solution developed by TulaSaludβis helping to transform maternal and child health in rural Guatemala by combining smartphones, real-time data, and frontline worker outreach. Learn more π tinyurl.com/3sk75cnd
