Lester B. Pearson College opened in 1974 on the north side of Pedder Bay on land formerly owned by the Department of National Defence . At high tide, most of the shoreline of the campus is rocky intertidal, however at low tide, mudflats appear along much of the shore.

The following is excerpted from the College reference guide ” The Road Ends at Our Place: The Ecosystems of Pearson College.

One of the first projects the students faced when the college was founded was to build the floating docks as their outlet to the sea. This provided for a rich marine environment program which has expanded since that time. College boats provide for field trips in the biology and environmental systems classes, and the afternoon activities in sailing, SCUBA diving and kayaking lead to an active seafront.

In 2003, the addition of the floating lab provided room for three more classrooms as well as a diving equipment room, workshop, office and storage space for the sea activities. The immediate access to the ecosystems of Pedder Bay make it an ideal facility for the life sciences.

Only on rare occasions (once in ten years) do we get a week of cold weather and snow which causes the inner part of the bay up to the college docks to freeze over. The campus for a few brief days takes on a unique beauty when this happens. It also is a time when we can take advantage of the learning opportunity by having the students experience the unique aspects of “snow ecology”. For students from tropical countries who may never have experienced such conditions, there is a realization that snow has insulating features, can be breathed through, is variable in weight and density, and plants from temperate climates adapt to it in unique ways. Meanwhile down at the waterfront, unique patterns of salinity and fresh water can be discovered with ice formation.

The academic building viewed from the docks after one of those rare snowfalls that we get in Pedder Bay.

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  Plankton, Diatoms, of Pedder Bay

  Mudflats and rocky intertidal ecosystems of Pedder Bay

The shores of Pedder Bay provide more fascinating variety to our campus, and the profile of the bay changes considerably from low to high tide, a range of 3 meters. The water of the bay varies in temperature from 8 degrees Celsius in the winter to 13 degrees in the summer.

The mudflat in front of the sea front commons building is typical of the small inlets along the bay. It provides a rich habitat to mud-dwelling organisms and red-rock and dungeness crabs. Overhanging trees and trees which have fallen into the water provide the substrate for the bay mussel , Mytilus trossulus, and several barnacle species. Several species of limpet and littorine snails graze rocks in the intertidal zone and the large white anemone , Metridium farcimen, can be seen on the bottom of the bay, anchored to submerged branches or exposed rocks. All the invertebrates contribute their larva to the rich planktonic mix in the waters of the bay. The main producers in the bay are the large round centric diatoms, Coscinodiscus sp. but on different occasions under the microscopes of the biology students, a wide array of geometric shapes of other phytoplankton species will appear. Copepods and the nauplius larvae of barnacles make up the main zooplankton of the bay.
Often in the spring when the sunlight levels are adequate, the nutrient laden water from winter run-off may support a non-poisonous red tide. A deep reddish bloom caused by the organism Mesodinium rubrum will cover parts of the bay. This is a unique marine photosynthetic ciliate which can fix energy because it has a cryptophyte endosymbiontic red algae inside it. A good example of a mutualistic relationship occurring on a massive scale within the bay.

The Floating lab and docks provide a great amount of substrate on which a variety of organisms attach. These areas have also been useful for the science classes in providing areas for hanging baskets for aquaculture experiments. Within easy access there is a rich fouling community which provides many specimens used in classes. Almost every invertebrate phylum is represented on the underside of these docks. The plankton of Pedder Bay form the nutritional and energy base of the ecosystem.This file provides a lab assignment on quantification of plankton biodiversity .