By Benjamin Mumford, MSc student at l’Université de Montréal

Having recently arrived in Canada to start a master’s in Marine Biology, a departure from my host city of Montreal and the St. Lawrence was imminent to find the more salty water – both to conduct my field seasons and to take more specialised, degree-focussed courses. The awarding of the QCBS Excellence Award provided a unique, immersive opportunity that has profoundly impacted my continued research, and crucially, my own competencies at an early stage in my academic career.

Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, located in the southern region of Barkley Sound (BC) within the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, is a world-leading marine station run by a cooperative of five western Canadian universities. Pioneering research has been conducted and continues to emerge from what was once the Pacific Cable Station and has now been a bustling (miniature) campus on the east side of Bamfield village since its creation in 1972. The west side of Bamfield is only accessible by boat and swells in population during the summer fishing season, but provides an escape to students looking to get out of campus at the end of the week, offering multiple bays to explore, or two restaurants that are now open.

More crucially for me however, the station offers the only dedicated intensive (3-week) course that results in the awarding of a scientific diving qualification from the Canadian Underwater Association of Scientists (CAUS). Led by an exceptional instructing team, the Subtidal Science Course runs biannually and exposes students to the world of scientific diving in an authentic way.

In the class of 2024 was a wide range of individuals from both academic and diving perspectives, ranging from undergraduate to PhD students, and commercial divers to those that only recently started recreational diving. As a result varying degrees of diving experience, context and ability started however all emerged CAUS level 1 scientific divers.

Eventual arrival into the village of Bamfield followed a multi-day transit form Victoria with an early morning ferry along the Alberni inlet on board the MV Frances Barkley. Prior to the paving of the logging road from Port Alberni, the ferry has been the primary and traditional way of contact with  the “outside world” for this west-coast village for many decades. With the class cohort arriving on Monday, orientations and introductions occurred over dinner before an early first night. Preliminary lectures the next morning and checkout dives in the afternoon ensured the long list of equipment and basic physical capabilities were present and up to standard. With the fundamental skills commonly found in the recreational world of diving practised and assessed, a transition into more observational and scientifically-orientated dives followed the next day.

Something I was not prepared for was the abundance of life in Barkley Sound. My anticipation to dive the west coast of Vancouver Island was running at an all-time high prior to my arrival, given the many jealous remarks and recommendations I had received, along with the reminder Jacques Cousteau had listed the Sound as the second-best place to dive in the world. The diversity, density and size of organisms was incredible. What was particularly pleasing was the number of echinoderms present, the focus of my own research, and what I would be coming back to study over the rest of the summer.

Within a few days our knowledge of dive theory, safety and physics were tested through written examination and with everyone passing, the class was subsequently moved to the status “diver’s in training”. Now, the skills and proficiencies that are required in the world of scientific diving could be properly taught and tested. A number of instructor-led dives constituted the remainder of the week, testing underwater skills that ranged from fish and invertebrate ID, to practising surveying techniques, measuring abundance, organism sizing, habitat rugosity and species coverage. What was noticeable was the exponential increase in my “regular” diving skills. With such high task-loading and other things to be concerned about, the skills that often consume your mind in a recreational dive quickly become refined and of second-nature.

Another week of instructor-led tasks followed the near daily routine of:

From the course midpoint the scope of our training transitioned, as a student-led project crystallised. Evening lectures gave way to discussions determining what questions could be tested by the group as well as the methods and planning that was required to complete such an underwater task. One thing that remained prevalent throughout the course was the attention to detail in safety. Dive plans had to be carefully constructed, safety techniques and procedures clearly detailed, and the confidence of everyone in being able to complete complex tasks to a high scientific standard whilst never compromising diver safety. Inevitably greater flexibility than was already built into the project proposal was required with factors such as storms, malfunctioning equipment and the physical condition of divers all compounding any issues that unavoidably arise in an intensive course.

Our class project was looking at the effectiveness of underwater survey method types in capturing Northern Abalone populations, something of great cultural importance and in turn led to a very positive and exciting atmosphere. The project was a great success with dozens of sites surveyed and some exciting results that culminated in the submission of a final report on the last day.

The ultimate goal of becoming a scientific diver was to provide myself the capabilities and freedom to conduct my own research – looking at the evolutionary development of the echinoderm skeleton. As a now qualified CAUS diver, I can collect specimens through SCUBA at institutions across Canada. This crucial connect between field and lab work enables for a greater understanding of organisms in biology. Through personal collection, specimens of notable interest, such as sea stars with regrown limbs, or access to juvenile stages developing in their natural environment, as well as individuals found in unique settings and ecosystems that simply can’t be replicated when cultured in a lab environment are captured. This context only strengthens understanding of development and evolutionary biology and, in my case, how echinoderms have come to play such an outsized role in marine ecosystems.

Throughout both the instructor and student-led components of the course my appreciation of the level of detail in scientific diving, including the preparation and huge amount of other work that goes into obtaining such data was consistently apparent. I am incredibly grateful to the instructional team, BMSC staff and those in the course for making it such a rewarding and formative experience for myself.The skills and opportunities it has provided me for my own research has prepared me well for a career in marine science. Without the support of the QCBS Excellence Award this experience would not have been possible, with the course of my Masters also looking very different. I would therefore like to reiterate my gratitude to the society in the awarding of the funding that enabled this experience a possibility to start with.

About the author: Ben Mumford is a MSc student at UdeM in the Cameron Lab. His work is looking at the evolutionary development of the echinoderm skeleton. This will primarily be achieved by investigating the chemical composition and microstructure of individual ossicles with the hope of illuminating the evolution of biomineralized structures in the ambulacrarian lineage.