Diving into seaweed research

One diver takes a break from searching the ocean floor for seaweed and instead looks up to find a moon jelly. They surface with a bag full of vials of different species to be brought back to the lab for identification. We spent the summer surveying sites along the Bay of Fundy (BoF), looking not just for abundant seaweeds like rockweed and dulse, but also for more obscure and uncommon species that contribute to the BoF’s marine life. Most days we climbed around the rocky intertidal, sticking our hands into tide pools and small crevices, looking for pops of color against the gray rocks. Other days we jumped into the water, using SCUBA to collect species found only beneath the surface. We identified collections through a combination of traditional (i.e. under the microscope) and contemporary (i.e. DNA sequencing) techniques. These biodiversity surveys help to establish a baseline for what red, green and brown seaweeds can be found in the BoF which aids in future conservation efforts and monitoring of invasive species.