Crowdsourcing capelin: New website to alert biologists to locations of 'key' fish
When you see the capelin roll, let DFO know
If you're out searching for capelin this season, your efforts can help scientists at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Ecapelin.ca is a new website that allows people to upload photos and locations of the fish.
"It's citizen science — so we can find out where and when capelin are spawning all around the island," said Christina Bourne, aquatic biologist with DFO.
"For us, we can't be at every beach all the time. So we want to know where and when the capelin are."
The info gathered from the public can help scientists get an idea of how the population is doing and if the capelin's spawning time has changed, Bourne said.
See capelin rolling? Head to eCapelin.ca & submit a photo, date, time & location. Be a citizen scientist! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/eCapelin?src=hash">#eCapelin</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CapelinRoll2017?src=hash">#CapelinRoll2017</a> <a href="https://t.co/K8SGml5LNb">pic.twitter.com/K8SGml5LNb</a>
—@DFO_NLThe pictures and locations uploaded to ecapelin.ca will be processed and verified by a scientist.
"Right now, it could be that if we find out capelin are rolling on a beach nearby, we send someone out to get some capelin if we need some samples," Bourne said.
"Then in the future, we're going to look at if they rolled somewhere in the past, are they still coming there? Are they coming into a different beach? So it'll get us information about how they've changed over time."
'A key forage fish'
Capelin data is valuable because the fish plays a major role in keeping oceans healthy.
"They're what we call a key forage fish. So it means they're pretty much one of the main diet components of cod, seabirds, seals, whales. So in Newfoundland waters, capelin is the main prey fish. So it's really important that we keep that stock healthy to feed everything else," Bourne said.
"They're the ones that eat the plankton and bring that energy up the food chain to everything else."
The website is a partnership with the St. Lawrence Global Observatory and WWF Canada, and includes Quebec and all of Atlantic Canada.
Every year, DFO does an acoustic survey of capelin offshore, and they do a lot of work inshore in Trinity Bay looking at larval capelin, Bourne said.
She said moving forward there will be more work done and an even bigger survey is planned for 2018.
"We're learning more about them every year," Bourne said.
With files from Here and Now