BoFEP Report to GOMC Meeting June 2021

GOMC Council Meeting, June 2021 FINAL REPORT

BoFEP (Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership) – Peter Wells

• Next year marks the 25^th Anniversary of BoFEP, an NGO group set up to enhance communication about environmental issues (covering science, information, policy and coastal management) around the Bay of Fundy, the north-eastern part of the Gulf of Maine. BoFEP has been a formal member of GOMC since 2006.
• With a steering committee of 24+ people/partners, we continue with various activities:
  • An active management team that meets monthly.
  • The periodic Fundy Tidings Newsletter, edited by Dr. Jon Percy, our Communications Coordinator, and sent out to over 500 people and groups around the Bay of Fundy and the greater GOM (Gulf of Maine).
  • Planning for the next Bay of Fundy Science Workshop (the 13^th in the series), postponed for 2020, and now proposed for Spring, 2022.
  • Enhanced website with more social media connections. Our Facebook gets lots of readers and it is regularly fed articles of interest.
  • A new project under development – videos on environmental science projects, e.g., coastal erosion, around the Bay of Fundy and its watersheds.
  • Continued close connection with the new community-based Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Geopark in the Minas Basin. Note that the Bay of Fundy and its watersheds have six UNESCO sites, celebrating the global importance of the biodiversity, paleontology (geology and fossil history), and cultural history of this region of the GOM.
• Challenges that BoFEP faces include recruiting younger volunteers for key roles, finding funds for a much needed coordinator, and funds for projects that also provide crucial overhead support.
• Finally, two other items of interest:
  • There is a recent publication with the Nova Scotian Institute of Science – a review of the fish and fisheries of Minas Basin and Minas Passage, NS, and their potential risk from tidal power development, by Dr. Michael Dadswell of Acadia University. It is in PNSIS Vol 51 (1), 2021.
  • The Gulfwatch Contaminants Monitoring Sub-Committee’s archival mussel samples are now stored at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre (HMSC), St. Andrews, courtesy of DFO-BIO and the HMSC. Committee members stay in informal contact with each other in the hopes that new funding will be found to continue periodic sampling and analyses of chemicals of emerging concern.

Respectfully submitted, Peter Wells, Chair of BoFEP and GOMC WG Member, June 22^nd, 2021.