Our goal with community outreach is to foster a connection between people and their local eelgrass meadows. Through community engagement and education we hope to remove the barriers between people and their natural environment and get more engagement in the world of eelgrass.

2024

Stained Glass Workshop at the Deanery
Date: November 16th, 2024

In collaboration with Shannon from Tribal Fusion art and the Deanery Project, CERI helped to host an eelgrass/eel themed stained glass workshop. We started the day with eelgrass education and traditional eeling knowledge, and ended the day with a beautiful stained glass piece!

Bear River Harvesters Gathering
Date: October 17th, 2024

Taylor and Kelly headed to Bear River to participate in the communities Harvester Gathering. They spoke about the project, importance of eelgrass, and had the opportunity to chat with some community members about potential eelgrass in the area.

Sealight Skylight Festival at The Deanery Project
Date: October 5th, 2024

CERI set up a booth and spoke with festival goers on October 5th for The Deanery’s annual Sealight Skylight event. The Eastern shore is rich with eelgrass, and we like to connect with locals whenever we can!

Seniors for Climate
Date: October 1st, 2024

FOPE invited us to the Pugwash Seniors for Climate speaker series as a panelist! We spoke about our project and how people can get involved in the world of eelgrass. Some incredible relationships were built and we are excited for more!

Ocean Camp with Ulnooweg Education Centre
Date: August 26th, 2024

Mi’kmaq youth across Nova Scotia spent two glorious weeks exploring the water surrounding the province, learning all about our ocean and what it offers. CERI had the privilege to spend one day with these teens, teaching them how to snorkel and about the benefits of eelgrass. The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq topped off the day with an awesome GIS activity – thank you to everyone involved!

Replanting with Friends of Pugwash Estuary
Date: August 2nd, 2024

Friends of Pugwash Estuary (FOPE) met us off of Victoria Island in Pugwash, NS to replant a very sad eelgrass meadow. Locals came out in force and helped us replant over 1,700 plants! The water was beautiful and the people were even better. Looking forward to next year!

Replanting with Pictou Landing First Nation
Date: July 27th, 2024

We joined forced with Pictou Landing First Nation for the second year in a row to replant and monitor a site off of Merigomish Island. Thank you to the community of PLFN for always welcoming us in with open arms – here’s to many more years of collaboration!

Learn to snorkel and paddle with Kiwanis and Wild Outside
Date: July 16th, 2024

We partnered with the folks at Kiwanis Dartmouth and Wild Outside to teach the youth of both programs to snorkel and paddle. We chose a fresh water ecosystem so nobody froze, and had the youth snorkel through “eelgrass” and test out their skills! We played the classic eelgrass games, and ended the day with some snacks in the park.

The Deanery Summer Camp
Date: July 11th, 2024

The Deanery hosted their annual summer camp, and we jumped in for a day of eelgrass learning and games!
Youth learned about the importance of eelgrass, specifically in the Eastern Shore, and played some fun eelgrass games outside in the beautiful sun!

Pemsik Community Kayaking
Date: July 7th, 2924

The Pemsik Conservation Mosaic has been a huge supporter of CERI, and helped spread the word of eelgrass by coordinating a paddleboard event in the South Shore! Participants paddled over the eelgrass and learned about why it’s important and how they can work to preserve our local meadows.

Ocean Week Booth
Date: June 8th, 2024

We partnered with Torpedo Rays and Oceans North for an Ocean Week booth on June 8th. Youth were able to see real eelgrass and search for all the critters in our touch tank. A few kids stopped by for an eelgrass game and got to learn all about the lifecycle of an eelgrass seed! Thank you to Ocean Week Halifax for an awesome event.

Aquatron 50th Anniversary Booth
Date: May 11th

CERI took part in the Dalhousie Aquatron’s 50th anniversary celebration in May! The Aquatron is Canada’s largest University aquatic research facility and is a invaluable resource to those of us conducting research in our oceans. Our booth was designed to allow the public to examine eelgrass and to educate on it’s importance in our coastal ecosystems.

Learn To Snorkel with Ulnooweg Education
Date: March 15th, 2024

CERI is working with Ulnooweg Education Centre to bring snorkeling to Mi’kmaq youth across Nova Scotia. Ideally this event would take place in an eelgrass meadow, but due to some unforeseen weather events we had to push to March (and March waters are far too chilly!). This event will be one of many more snorkel events to come!

Community Engagement Session
Date: March 14th, 2024

The CERI project was showcased in Sipekne’katik First Nation during a Community engagement event hosted by The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and the Mi’kmaw Conservation Group. Together we discussed aquatic projects and gained insight about Community led initiatives.

Community Engagement Session
Date: March 4th, 2024

The CERI project was showcased in Pictou Landing First Nation during a community engagement event by Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq Department of Aquatic Resources and Fisheries Management. They’re visiting our 8 member communities over the next number of months to discuss aquatic projects and gain insight in working toward Community prioritized initiatives.

Community Engagement Session
Date: February 27th, 2024

The CERI project was showcased in Millbrook First Nation during a Community engagement event by The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq Department of Aquatic Resources and Fisheries Management. They’re visiting The CMM’s eight Member Communities over the next few months to discuss aquatic projects and gain insight in working toward Community prioritized initiatives.

Eelgrass Education Day with HOWL at the Deanery Project
Date: February 20th, 2024

HOWL, an exploration based program designed to get youth involved with their communities and make an impact, took their participants to the Deanery Project for a day of eelgrass! After an educational talk participants took to the shore to gather washed up eelgrass for compost, learning about the significance of eelgrass in Mi’kma’ki. Learn more about HOWL and how you can get involved here.

Eelgrass Education with Kiwanis
Date: January 25th 2024

CERI is teaming up with the wonderful youth and leaders at Kiwanis, a local youth engagement and education initiative. We will hopefully participate in some eelgrass work with the youth in the summer. For now, we enjoyed a fun evening of games and information sharing!
Learn more about Kiwanis here.

CERI Presentation
Date: January 22nd, 2024

CERI travelled to Thorburn to chat with the grade 8 class about eelgrass! After a presentation on eelgrass meadows, we played some fun eelgrass lifecycle and predator/prey games. Thank you to Frank H Macdonald Academy for hosting us!

2023

Community Engagement Session
Date: December 6th, 2023

CERI was showcased in Glooscap First Nation during a Community engagement event by the CMM’s aquatic team. They’re visiting CMM’s eight member communities over the next few months to discuss aquatic projects and meet with Community Members to gain insight and work towards Communities’ initiatives.

Community Engagement Session
Date: November 22nd, 2023

CERI was showcased in Wasoqopa’q First Nation during a community engagement event by The CMM’s Aquatic Resources and Fisheries Management Department. With the goal to discuss aquatic projects and meet with community members to gain insight while working towards communities’ initiatives, the CMM is visiting their eight member communities over the next few months.

Pemsɨk Conservation Mosaic Sharing Session
Date: October 25th, 2023

Dr. Kristina Boerder (Lead Scientist) and Taylor Seed (Program Coordinator) attended the Pemsɨk Mawa’tasikl Anko’tmu’kl (Pemsik Conservation Mosaic), a Mi’kmaq led sharing session. We had an incredible day of networking and sharing the goals of our project and are looking forward to helping Pemsɨk achieve their goals. Click here for a video on Pemsɨk and it’s mission, or check them out on instagram.

Community Engagement Session
Date: October 18th, 2023

The CERI project was showcased in Bear River and Annapolis Valley First Nation this month during community engagement events by the Department of Aquatic Resources and Fisheries Management (DARFM) with the CMM. DARFM is visiting the eight communities that CMM supports programs and services for over the next few months to discuss aquatic projects and meet with community members to gain insight and work towards communities’ initiatives

Eelgrass Presentation with WILD Outside
Date: September 26th 2023

CERI met up with the Halifax WILD Outside Team at Saint Mary’s Boat Club and spoke on their current research and why eelgrass is so important to Nova Scotian ecosystems. We spoke about how to I.D it and where to look, and promoted the iNaturalist project. We tied it all together with a little eelgrass game!

Replanting with Pictou Landing First Nations
Date: September 7th 2023

Working alongside community members from Pictou Landing First Nations, we organized an eelgrass replanting event out near Merigomish Harbour. Almost 1,000 shoots were harvested from a neighbouring bay and then replanted in an area where eelgrass was known to historically grow. Our event was successful with almost 1,000 shoots harvested and re-planted! Thank you to everyone who came out and lent us your energy, we look forward to more workshops like this one!

Sealight Starlight Event at the Deanery Project
Date: August 12th 2023

CERI set up an eelgrass information booth at the Deanery Project’s Sealight Starlight event. We had lots of engagement from festival goers who were interested in learning more about our project and our local eelgrass beds. We even had some kids participate in our eelgrass hide and seek game! Players got to learn about the species that inhabit eelgrass and the dangers of human influence and invasive species (green crabs).

Replanting with the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association
Date: August 10th 2023

The CERI team travelled to PEI to conduct a workshop with the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association. We trained 35 community members on how to harvest and replant eelgrass, as well as how to take sediment core samples for Blue carbon testing! Thank you for having us, we took full advantage of the red beaches and island hospitality.