Discovery Passage Aquarium employee Tom Zhang prepares an exhibit for a Puget Sound king crab, freshly collected off the shores of Quadra Island, B.C. for Discovery Passage Aquarium's upcoming season.Photography by Marissa Tiel/The Globe and Mail
Every spring, divers enter the chilly waters of the Strait of Georgia and collect specimens to fill the tanks at Campbell River’s Discovery Passage Aquarium.
While they have a plan of attack heading into a dive, they never really know what they will find, aquarium manager Ricky Belanger says.
“You have a plan, then everything goes crazy.”
Discovery Passage Aquarium is located in Campbell River, B.C.
From left, divers Lisa Dawson, Ricky Belanger, Brianna Marcoux and Andrewa Humphreys, gear up to enter the water and collect specimens for the Discovery Passage Aquarium's upcoming season.
Shannon Groenewegen holds up a sharp-nose crab.
Discovery Passage is one of two catch-and-release aquariums on Vancouver Island, along with Ucluelet Aquarium. Unlike facilities that house exotic sea creatures collected from around the world, these aquariums focus on aquatic life that can be found in local waters. The goal is to help educate the community about the unique environment off Vancouver Island’s coasts and the species it supports.
This year, owing to a cold spring, divers didn’t find many fish. But they did collect a variety of sea stars – mottled stars, sunflower sea stars, leather stars – nudibranchs and crabs. They even found a crowd-favourite giant Pacific octopus.
Year to year, the aquarium’s layout remains the same, though many of its inhabitants change. There’s a bean-shaped touch tank with starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins – all common tide-pool neighbours. Beyond that lies the salmon exhibit, while the tanks lining the walls are home to a rotating cast of specimens.
Discovery Passage Aquarium manger Ricky Belanger transfers a sunflower sea star from a crate to a cooler so it can be transported to the aquarium.
A crate of rocks covered in strawberry anemones (left) and orange cup corals sit in the boat after being collected by divers
Discovery Passage Aquarium manager Rickey Belanger holds a leopard dorid, collected by divers off the shores of Quadra Island, B.C. for Discovery Passage Aquarium's upcoming season.
Cathy Manson holds a Puget Sound king crab she collected from a dive site off the coast of Quadra Island.
From left, Shannon Groenewegen and Alex Spicer unload a cooler containing aquatic specimens.
Kyler Martin, 7, strokes a starfish in the Discovery Passage Aquarium's touch tank as dad Tyler Martin supervises on opening day
Ocean creatures are typically collected in the spring and released back into the wild over the course of a day, or several days, in the fall. Members of the community join in to help with the release, though species such as the giant Pacific octopus require special care and aren’t handled by members of the public. Instead, aquarium workers will try to release the animal into an existing den. Other creatures, such as starfish and many invertebrates, simply drift down to the bottom of the ocean and settle back into the wild.
Mr. Belanger says the aquarium is aware that the catch-and-release model does have some environmental impact, but workers aim to cause as little disruption as possible to the ocean wildlife while providing an educational forum to the public. They also learn from previous seasons and will not bring an animal into the aquarium if it has not done well in that environment, he says.
A penpoint gunnel is seen in its tank at the Discovery Passage Aquarium on opening day.
From left, Inza Maki and Ricky Belanger prepare the aquarium exhibits.
Isabelle Yasinski, 12, peers through a bubble in a tank.
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