Marine Plants – Giant

description data sources Giant kelp () is intolerant of warm and low salinity water and therefore is not found in areas where these two conditions • Living Oceans Society – Merged Kelp Datasets occur together, such as the (from Beecher Bay to and in Broughton Strait east of ) and the • Parks Canada – Haida Gwaii Marine Plants; Pacific Rim Confidence Weighted Abundance Rasters inner portions of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This species is perennial, and beds are generally found in semi-protected areas as well as some semi- • Province of – Kelp Surveys • University of British Columbia Herbarium – Kelp specimen records exposed areas, as the species appears to need some swell or surge on a regular basis. Giant kelp beds are less variable in bed area and consistency than bull kelp ( luetkeana), though bed density can change. Giant kelp is resilient to smaller impacts (e.g. conservative harvesting) data resolution and beds provide significant habitat values for marine fauna. • Because of the poor registration and differences in coastline this data should be considered accurate only to a scale of 1:40,000.

This atlas pages illustrates giant kelp beds along the coast of British Columbia. This feature is a combination of polygon data from a variety of date collected sources. Polygons for giant kelp were extracted from all of the datasets and combined. All mapped polygons are displayed, regardless of the date • 1897-2008 of the original surveys. date compiled Also displayed are point observations of giant kelp that have been collected by the University of British Columbia Herbarium. Based on • 2012 reviewer feedback, the data for giant kelp (previously identified as ) and giant perennial kelp (previously identified as Macrocystis pyrifera) have been combined into a single feature to represent giant kelp (currently recognized as Macrocystis pyrifera). reviewers • Dr. Michael Hawkes, University of British Columbia

reviewer comments • Only one species of Macrocystis is currently recognized.

caveats of use • Survey effort is not consistent across all planning units or across all areas of the coast and some species tend to be under- represented by some survey methods. Areas with no data may not have been surveyed and these data gaps are not necessarily

PHOTO: CLAIRE FACKLER, CINMS, NOAA CINMS, FACKLER, PHOTO: CLAIRE indicative of an absence of kelp. Some locations may still be important but currently lack associated data to confirm their value. • This feature is a compilation of data collected by many people, for different purposes, using different survey techniques with different methodologies within each technique and, therefore, considerable care must be taken when using the data. Please refer to the original metadata document for data limitations and usage. • Sub-surface marine plant distribution has not been comprehensively mapped. • Recommended date of expiry for use of these data in a marine planning context: None provided.

map, feature data and metadata access • Visit www.bcmca.ca/data for more information.

www.bcmca.ca Marine Atlas of Pacific Canada 142°W 140°W 138°W 136°W 134°W 132°W 130°W 128°W 126°W 124°W 122°W

BCMCA Atlas A l a s k a r e Marine Plants v i R

s N Giant Kelp s °

4 a

5 N

r Legend e

v i Giant Kelp R na e e Sk (previously identified as Macrocystis integrifolia) N °

4 Giant Kelp H a i d a 5 (previously identified as ) G w a i i Macrocystis integrifolia Giant Kelp (previously identified as B r i t i s h Macrocystis pyrifera) N ° 2 5 Note: - Size of the giant kelp polygons has been exaggerated slightly to increase C o l u m b i a visibility at this scale. N ° 2 5

F r a

s e

r

P A C I F I C R Data Sources: i v e r Michael Coon, Louis Druehl, Living Oceans Society, N °

0 Parks Canada, 5 O C E A N Province of British Columbia, University of British Columbia Herbarium

Base Data: ESRI Base Data, GeoBase, GeoBC, NOAA, Natural Resources Canada, N

° USGS, Washington State Government

V a n c o u v e r 0 5 Inset Map 1:500,000* I s l a n d Thematic Data: For more information on data sources and methods please refer to the facing page to this map

Projection: BC Albers NAD83

N 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 ° 8 4 Kilometres 0 25 50 75

Nautical Miles

1:4,250,000 * N

° * Written scales are approximate and 8

4 are based on a 11 x 17 inch paper size.

Prepared for: W a s h i n g t o n N ° 6 4 Note: The inset has been provided to illustrate the level of detail available in the data. The inset is for illustrative purposes only and does not imply any significance Map template by Caslys Consulting Ltd. to this region. April 10, 2013

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