Area of Expertise:
Ramona de Graaf, BSc. (Hons), MSc., Research Coordinator and Consultant is a marine biologist, forage fish specialist, marine educator, and researcher. She has been studying and surveying forage fish habitats since 2000. She has studied marine systems from the deep sea to eelgrass, marine population genetics, cetaceans, and plankton. She is the principal of Emerald Sea Biological.
Ramona launched the BC Shore Spawners Alliance, a project of Sea Watch Society, which currently has 27 communities involved in volunteer forage fish survey efforts at 32 beaches. The BC Shore Spawners Alliance is an alliance of community groups working to document and protect the intertidal spawning habitat of forage fish (surf smelt and Pacific sand lance). The BCSSA provides presentations, educational resources, protocols, training and equipment to allow for the collection of scientifically credible data. In British Columbia scientific and stewardship efforts to manage and protect shoreline forage fish spawning habitats have been minimal. The goal of the BCSSA is to address these issues through science, education, community stewardship, and habitat restoration.
Select Presentation(s) / Publication(s):
de Graaf, Ramona. (2011). Addressing Data Gaps for Intertidal Forage Fish Spawning Habitat in British Columbia.
