New Knowledge Highlights from PICS scholars 🌿 These short case studies share research developed in collaboration with First Nations communities across B.C., exploring topics like Indigenous stewardship, climate adaptation, and food sovereignty. climatesolutions.ca/knowledge-hi...

430 am and this is the lineup to watch team Canada play🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦🍁

Herring spawn 2026 is just kicking off around Vancouver Island! A few Sentinel satellite photos from earlier today, around Hesquiat Harbour, Northern VI, and Hope Island. Apparently a pretty big spawn down at Salmon Beach, but just out of range of Sentinel 2 today.

It's officially spring in Victoria!

I am still actively looking for postdoc positions — please lmk if you (or your friends and colleagues) need a hardworking postdoc with field, lab, and bioinformatic skills! I am broadly interested in evolution in the ocean, conservation and population genetics, and rapid evolution.

Last week, Dr. Katie Dobkowski generously gave our team a presentation on the role of #kelp crabs as bull kelp consumers. A few things we learned: they prefer reproductive tissue (sori) over non-reproductive, they have a wide temp tolerance and can turn bright orange if they eat sargassum!

Noticing piles of #kelp on the beach? As leaves fall, kelp loosens from the seafloor. Carried ashore, microbes and small creatures break it down, releasing nutrients into the sand and soil. Even after leaving the ocean, kelp supports life on the coast. #Nature #VancouverIsland

Spotted in the kelp forest this week, signs of seasonal shift! By early fall, bull kelp slows and softens. Epiphytes and larger opportunistic seaweeds can “hitchhike,” becoming micro-habitats for invertebrates and microbes. Even at the end of its life, bull #kelp supports #biodiversity.

My gardener friend crossbred cauliflower and watermelon and it was the saddest plant I've ever seen They said it was a meloncauli

Absolutely wild phytoplankton blooms happening in the Baltic Sea right now. This scene was captured with the Sentinel-2 satellite on July 21, 2025. Zoom in.

Kelp Rescue is excited to announce the publication of our 1st ever kelp restoration peer-reviewed paper! 🎉Since our start in 2021, we've been testing scientific approaches to kelp restoration, and this paper is the culmination of a huge team effort. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happy #PhycologyFriday🌿🌊 Watch how fast our outplanted kelp grows in only one month, providing habitat for fish at Denman Island!

8/ We also found significant differences in kelp standing stocks and productivity across coasts and kelp species. Although Canada’s Pacific kelp forests really stand out, even lower-productivity Atlantic and Arctic kelp beds showed some potential for deep ocean export which is promising!

2/ Kelp forests are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth. They absorb carbon, support biodiversity, sustain fisheries, and bolster coastal communities. But unlike terrestrial forests or wetlands, kelps don't store carbon in soils. So how could they offer natural climate solutions?

Exciting (?) news! #cosewic has finally assessed the state of #pycnopida as #endangered. It’s an important step to getting this species federal status and therefore protection. Pycnos are so important to BC’s marine ecosystems and kelp forests. #conservation #iucnredlist #canada #sara

🌊🧪Job Alert!!! @oceannetworks.ca is looking for a Chief Executive Officer. Come join us at the University of Victoria 🇨🇦 www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/ch...

Cheers to the rest of the world, it's going to be a NON-conservative government here in Canada!🥳

Sort of tough to make out in the satellite imagery, but there is a small late-season herring spawn happening out in Nootka right now. Cool to see!

Currently taste testing the new kelp/blackberry sour that Herald Street Brew Works has created for the upcoming International Seaweed Symposium student/ECR night. If you haven't signed up yet I highly recommend it!

We just got back from the first field trip of the season, checking on the 1000 square meters of bull kelp outplanted in partnership with @kelprescue.bsky.social and Project Watershed. The kelp babies are still small, but should grow fast in the coming months!

Always a treat to be back out at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre! This will be my third field season taking a BMSC boat cross-island to the Salish Sea for our @kelprescue.bsky.social work. Updates coming soon on how our baby kelps are doing!

The Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution @csee-scee.bsky.social stands in solidarity with scientists in the U.S. Science is not a partisan issue. We all rely upon and benefit from it. Read our statement here:

Kelp Greenling are common here in the northeast Pacific & easy to take for granted Every now and then, one will calmly watch you on a dive, allowing some time up close and personal like this, a nice reminder that there's beauty and wonder even in wildlife you've seen a thousand times

Here’s your periodic #PhycologyFriday reminder to like & pin the “Algal Awesomeness” feed. It auto-curates all sorts of great stuff, including hashtags (e.g., #PhycologyFriday) and terms (e.g., seaweed, kelp algae): bsky.app/profile/did:...

Do you want to learn more about the kelp forest? Relax and listen to these talks, including the one from my colleague Eli Rinde from NIVA, talking about restoration of kelp forests in northern Norway. www.youtube.com/live/rf4T3N4...

My early submission for #phycologyfriday, a reproductive Mazzaella splendens found in the intertidal this afternoon. Spring has hardly sprung and the seaweed is already getting busy!

It's been a hell of a week, but daytime low tides are back for the summer! This is my fifth straight year doing monthly intertidal surveys on the shores of the Salish Sea, investigating changes to seaweed phenology over the last half century as part of my PhD thesis.

For #PhycologyFriday, here’s some teeny (but growing) microscopic blades of Giant #Kelp I’m growing for #restoration outplanting with the Kelp Rescue Initiative. With all the snow we had this week, the only algae I’ve seen are our lab cultures! kelprescue.org

Some latest seaweed pressings from San Diego for #PhycologyFriday

Oregon coast seaweed and driftwood at my favorite beach #photography #oceanphotography #oregoncoast #pointandclickPDX

Soliciting fun names for these "urchin-proof" kelp outplanting blocks we will be testing next week. Puns and acronyms welcome! (Echino-berms is the current front runner...)

Hellooooo France! #ITRS2025

Red state alcohol is currently being removed at B.C. Liquor store in Victoria. #bcpoli

Amazing, yes please.

Little bit of Sunday dry suit maintenance, aaaaaaand I dropped my inflator valve piston down the lab drain🫠

Excited to announce our work on kelp genomics is now out at Current Biology. Lead by Postdoc extraordinaire Jordan Bemmels, we sequence WGS for 600+ bull and giant kelp across BC and Washington. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kSP93QW8S...

Today for #phycologyfriday: Dictyoneurum californicum at Sombrio Beach on Vancouver Island. This is a rare and patchily distributed species in Canada, being mostly found in California #dictyoneurum #phycology #marinebiology #seaweed #algae #botany #kelp #science #intertidal #ocean

Interesting observation in the lower intertidal: thousands upon thousands of dead barnacles in the last month or so, with intact shells left behind! (Zoom in and see) Mid/upper barnacles are all fine, so best guess is that the winter tides allow predators to go unchecked? Very curious. 🌊🦑

Sad news out of Telegraph Cove this morning, apparently the fire went from the restaurant to the fuel dock, and included parts of the whale museum😮‍💨

Hello Bluesky! I’m off twitter for good, hoping to find some of that community on here & reprise my hobby of posting science & hot takes. Follow along for stuff about kelp, fish, climate, & whatever else is knocking around inside my brain! 📷: Rebecca Benjamin-Carey

If I had a nickel for every time that I dropped my phone into the ocean on a dark December night, and then had to crawl into the water to retreive it, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but its weird that it's happened twice😅

It's a white(wash) Christmas in the PNW!

Aaaaaamazing!

Celebrating #phycologyfriday after an absolutely GORGEOUS week on the Salish Sea outplanting over ONE THOUSAND square meters of bull kelp with Kelp Rescue. We will monitor these kelp over the summer to watch for changes in biodiversity and habitat use!

Something for #PhycologyFriday. A #Bullkelp #Nereocystis holdfast, with negatively phototropic haptera. The tips are #meristoderms that grow away from light as you would expect if you were trying to attach to the bottom! They also make a great garnish in your kelp pickles. And they’re just lovely!

#PhycologyFriday reminder to like & pin the Algal Awesomeness! feed: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Hi Bluesky! 🌊 I’m an Afro-Caribbean Latinx nerd exploring marine ecosystems in deep ocean zones using innovative tech. Passionate about democratizing ocean research, social & env justice. Finishing my PhD soon & excited for next steps in academia, non-profits, or gov. Let’s connect! 🌍

Last weekend, a female fin whale washed up on the mudflats near Anchorage, Alaska. She has since frozen and has remained relatively preserved. Local biologists have taken samples to try to determine why she died.

For your consideration: the Pacific spiny lumpsucker. #addOcean

#phycology Friday is back babyyyyy! Checkout the sori on these Hedophyllum sessile, the original foundation species (Dayton, 1972)! These kelps switch from bullate morph (right photo) to strappy morph (left) mid-summer, and then grow reproductive spore patches (sori) in fall.🌱🧪🌊