You can walk around the treeless shores of Wizard Islet in a matter of minutes. At only a quarter of a kilometer long and 100 meters at its widest, the islet is a low bump on the horizon as you gaze out from Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC) on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Yet, even on Wizard Islet, at one of the most intensely studied sites on the entire BC coast, novel mapping techniques are opening a whole new toolbox of scientific possibilities.
At low tide, pools of seawater dot the rocks of Wizard Islet like puddles left on an uneven parking lot after a downpour. Myriad creatures inhabit each temporary tide pool. Clusters of green anemones cling to the rocky walls. A Dr. Seuss-ian collection of seaweed lives in the pools—maroon spaghetti, chocolate-colored steel wool, electric green tissue paper, and hot pink crusts. Barely noticeable fish the size of your thumb lie motionless, their camouflage betrayed only by an occasional dash after a morsel of food.
To understand life in these tide pools, scientists try to measure every dimension of these ephemeral habitats that come and go throughout the tide cycle. But even on tiny Wizard Islet, there are a staggering 934 tide pools. Measuring the details of every single pool was almost impossible—until drones came along.
In the summer of 2016, the Hakai Institute partnered with BMSC to add a new dimension to ecological data from Wizard Islet, data that stretches back decades. Using a small drone and a specialized GPS, Hakai and Bamfield researchers mapped in a few hours what used to take scientists untold days to measure. In just one low-level drone flight, they captured enough data to map the entire islet and all 934 tide pools in incredible detail.
Once they processed that data, scientists quantified every nook and dimple, down to a resolution of three centimeters. That’s like distinguishing between blades of grass on a football field from a photo taken atop a 23-story building.
