Green Marine ports are innovatively monitoring and enhancing aquatic ecosystems

Port of Québec

As a founding member of Green Marine, the Port of Quebec began to focus on aquatic ecosystems long before the performance indicator’s establishment. For instance, the port’s efforts to assist shorebirds began in 2014 when it was realized that swallows were too readily falling victim to prey because a lot of their natural habitat had been degraded. The port responded by creating birdhouse structures that ideally protect the swallows in harmony with the port’s day-to-day operations.

“With our port operations, as well as significant tourist spots, along a significant stretch of the St. Lawrence River, we started to think long and hard a number of years ago about how to protect the shoreline and waterway’s biodiversity,” adds biologist Philippe Charest-Gélinas, the port’s Director, Environment.

The port has already carried out an in-depth survey of approximately 10,600 hectares (almost 41 square miles) that encompasses the sensitive environments within and near the port’s vicinity, as well as areas where other external activities may have an influence on the state of the local biodiversity. “This detailed mapping is helping us to benchmark all of the current biodiversity and its related habitat in order to prevent any habitat degradation and to make improvements,” Charest-Gélinas shares. “It will also help to make us aware of any natural changes in the ecosystem that require specific adaptation – all of which will help to guide the port’s decision-making.”

As part of this Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), the Port of Quebec has ambitiously committed to implementing at least five new specific projects annually to protect and enhance the biodiversity within its territory.

Specific criteria have been established to prioritize ecological projects. Legal requirements constitute the highest priority, such as fauna or flora with special government status or protected areas/habitat. Subsequent criteria may include alignment with the Green Marine environmental certification program and/or ecological connectivity or value. Yet another category of criteria relates to climate change resilience.

Collaborating with key stakeholders, the port has determined five key aspects of its environment to prioritize for its action plan. The ones in alignment with Green Marine’s aquatic ecosystems performance indicator include the riparian wetlands that have been identified as sensitive habitat for various species of animals and plants. These water-bordering zones often form part of fish habitat as well as serve as migratory stopovers for various species of birds.

The port’s biodiversity mapping has led to significant interest by researchers to study the wetlands – including marshes and shallow water areas – that account for 11% of the surveyed area. The research is indicating how these wetlands have been compromised by urbanization and industrial use and how they can be restored to their natural richness.

“The number of beach areas in particular are limited and under pressure from industrial development and climate change,” Charest-Gélinas adds. “We’ll ensure that natural beach areas within the port’s jurisdiction remain intact and protected.”

The port’s focus on benthic macroinvertebrates – insects, mollusks, crustaceans and worms – that are such an important part of the food chain for numerous aquatic species is another effort that aligns with Green Marine’s Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator. “By knowing what’s here, we’ll also be more aware of what requires our attention and protection,” Charest-Gélinas says.

From the outset, the port has prioritized collaborative efforts – much like Green Marine’s approach – by establishing a working group in 2023 with relevant community stakeholders to develop, implement and follow up on the plan through monitoring to ensure that it aligns with the concerns, challenges and goals of the region’s population and scientific communities.

Port of Sept-Îles

As part of the Enviro-Actions program, the Port of Sept-Îles, a founding Green Marine participant, partners with the Northern Institute for Research and Occupational Health & Safety (INREST) that manages near real-time monitoring at an Environmental Observatory in the Baie de Sept-Îles.

“INREST’s observatory is set up to provide an alert if any sudden changes in water quality occur, as well as monitor changes in sediment, marine habitat or aquatic biodiversity over time,” explains Mélissa Sanikopoulos, the port’s Director, Environment and Sustainability.

“We’ve introduced the capacity to assess the bay’s air quality this year,” Sanikopoulos adds. “And we’ll be launching underwater noise monitoring as soon as we’ve determined, after consulting with a team of experts, the best way to go about this given that some marine species remain typically closer to shore within the bay while larger marine mammals tend to stay farther out.”

The Port of Sept-Îles had already been collaborating with the City of Sept-Îles and the region's major industrial companies when INREST approached the port in 2012 about establishing the observatory.

With a multidisciplinary team of environmental experts and researchers, INREST submitted a report in 2018 after four years of research. Their work benchmarked the quality of the bay’s water, sediment, as well as the habitat for macroalgae, eelgrass beds, the benthic community, zooplankton, and marine mammals. Ice cover, marine currents and sediment transport, as well as the impacts of municipal and industrial landfills, have also been assessed.

The overall water and sediment quality were determined to be good, but some heavy metal deposits were found through sampling. “We expected this would be the case, since the bay is underlain by post-glacial clay deposits and situated in a region where iron ore mining, processing, and transportation have been central to the regional economy since the 1950s,” says Sanikopoulos.

The collaboration with INREST helps the relatively small Port of Sept-Îles to achieve the criteria for Green Marine’s aquatic ecosystems performance indicator. “We’re all of 20 people on staff at our port,” Sanikopoulos notes, “but the Environmental Observatory provides us with a wealth of pertinent data, and the Green Marine program clearly gives us the next key steps to improve our performance.”

The information can also be used by a myriad of researchers to understand the impacts of climate change and other factors on the bay’s environment. “In fact, the Research Chair in Coastal Ecosystems and Industrial Port and Maritime Activities – also called the ÉcoZone Chair – has been established in a five-year partnership involving the Université Laval, INREST and the Port of Sept-Îles,” Sanikopoulos notes. “This work is helping us to continue to determine what elements we should be monitoring and how best to do so.”

Another recent development in the collaboration with INREST involves working with the region’s First Nations. “The goal is to integrate Traditional Knowledge in the scientific findings,” Sanikopoulos explains.

The observatory model is being replicated as a pilot project in La Baie, Saguenay, where INREST equipment has been deployed and Port Saguenay, a Green Marine participant, manages vessel operations.

“We can see this approach being adapted to other industrial port areas as well,” Sanikopoulos adds.

“We’re very proud to be part of this initiative,” she emphasizes. “And a lot of the credit must go to Manon D’Auteuil, who was in charge of the port’s sustainable development for numerous years before her 2023 retirement, and to Pierre D. Gagnon, the former CEO, as it’s due to their foresight that our port has made the most of limited resources through key partnerships.”

Port of Halifax

The Port of Halifax is among the Atlantic Canada ports involved in a project to study marine biodiversity without disrupting local ecosystems. Called the Atlantic Ports Baseline Biodiversity Initiative, the project has included environmental DNA (eDNA) testing at the ports of Halifax, Saint John (another Green Marine participant), Summerside and Corner Brook.

Initiated at The PIER, the Halifax Port Authority’s innovation hub and living lab, the project has been overseen by Genome Atlantic in the four Atlantic provinces. Other partners include IGNITE Atlantic, the PEI Marine Science Organization, along with eDNA specialists from Dartmouth Ocean Technologies (DOT) and eDNAtec.

“It helps to benchmark marine biodiversity so that local and regional patterns can be tracked over time.”

While the technology has been around for about a decade, this is the first time to the port’s knowledge that it has been deployed at this scale as part of a multi-port initiative. “We’re proud that the work that has been done over two years is now part of the World Ports Sustainability Program database,” Coleman says.

The testing within the Halifax Harbour confirmed information already gathered by the Halifax Port Authority. “Part of the Green Marine criteria requires ports to do a literature review of aquatic ecosystems within their harbour so we had a good idea of what the eDNA testing would find,” Coleman explains.

The eDNA testing also confirmed the presence of aquatic invasive species already known to exist within the harbour. “Again, we already knew these were there because of our collaborative work with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada,” Coleman says, “but the eDNA testing confirms this and can help us with early detection of any other species.”

While still in early stages, the Port of Halifax is using the eDNA sampling from 2025 as the baseline to establish the aquatic ecosystems monitoring program required by Green Marine’s Level 4 criteria. “It also really helps to have the criteria for the monitoring program outlined clearly so that we know what’s considered the industry standard and know we’re on the same page as other ports,” Coleman adds.

An automated eDNA sampler has been purchased by the port from Dartmouth Oceans Technology. “Usually, a Niskin bottle is used to take water samples manually,” Coleman explains. “This automated system has a pump that automatically draws in water on a scheduled basis and then runs that water through a number of filters, so the filtered content is ready for lab testing.”

The Halifax Port Authority plans to continue to use eDNA data to support its ongoing infrastructure development, community engagement and consultation efforts. “When we talk about the potential impacts of infrastructure projects for example, having the data to support what we are saying is a huge benefit,” Coleman relates. “Sharing the information with Mi’kmaq communities and organizations, neighbouring areas, academics, and the general public enhances understanding, and underscores our commitment to responsible harbour oversight.”

Port of Prince Rupert

After learning about the environmental DNA (eDNA) testing at the Port of Halifax, the environmental team at the Port of Prince Rupert also decided to put it to work.

The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) already had several long-term monitoring programs in place within 18 months of becoming the first West Coast port to join Green Marine in 2010. “We have a lot of robust long-term data collected as a result,” says Caitlin Smith, the Prince Rupert Port Authority’s Environmental Coordinator and a professional biologist.

“The sampling basically goes just a bit beyond our entire port jurisdiction,” Smith says. “Each year, we meet with our working group that has representatives from regional partners, stakeholders, and First Nations, to decide where to do the sampling, and later again to discuss the lab results.”

The lab tests are designed to identify any of a wide range of pollutants and heavy metals, as well as hydrocarbons, bacteria, and nutrients to provide the equivalent of a regular checkup on water quality.

Depth profiles are also done at each site to collect information from the ocean water column regarding the oxygen, salinity, temperature and other oceanographic parameters to understand the marine environment’s health. The depth profiles are being done more often since the Prince Rupert Port Authority formed a partnership in 2024 with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a Green Marine supporter. “All of this data is streamed through ONC’s Community Fishers Program,” Smith adds.

Monitoring for aquatic invasive species is also part of the port’s efforts. The port collaborates with the DFO to monitor European green crabs, non-native tunicates (or sea squirts), as well as bryozoans (colonial, filter-feeding organisms).

“The port started the zooplankton program in 2017 and was the first to locate European green crab larvae from a sampling site in 2019,” says Kyla MacIlroy, the environmental technician and biologist who started leading the program two years ago. “A subsequent beach search then led to the port also being the first to locate a live European green crab on the Northwest Coast,” she adds.

With eDNA testing, the port can now readily confirm the presence of particular species within select areas. “The eDNA testing complements the counting of crabs, snails and other species that we’re already doing by identifying potential hotspots,” Smith shares. “We’ve also been asked by the local First Nations to use eDNA testing to better understand the migratory patterns of culturally significant species.”

Smith credits the Green Marine criteria for helping to make the Prince Rupert Port Authority a leader in terms of monitoring.

“We’re at Level 3 for the Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator because we haven’t yet pulled all this monitoring information into formal aquatic ecosystem plan, but we’re keen to do so as part of our environmental compliance and stewardship,” she adds. “Green Marine’s criteria have made it clear how this would benefit setting future targets, creating new initiatives, and tracking progress within a formalized document not only for Green Marine but all our stakeholders so they clearly see what we’re doing here.”

All of this comprehensive information will include the ShoreZone Habitat Mapping that was done in collaboration with the DFO. A company was hired to take images of 2,448 kilometres (1,521 miles) of shoreline and map it into 10,432 units averaging 235 metres (almost 771 feet) each to characterize each unit’s natural characteristics. “It’s often consulted not only by the port but also conservation groups seeking to establish clam beds or other forms of habitat compensation.”

The port also started taking stock of intertidal species two years ago. “The port’s beach access is limited but we’ve started with a preliminary program at four key sites on Ridley Island, Kaien Island, and across the harbour,” MacIlroy says. “We’re out there with our summer interns counting intertidal species to compare to our baseline, so we have a better understanding of the biodiversity.”

“We’re aiming to obtain a holistic view of the ecosystem and how it compares in our industrialized and natural areas now and with previous years,” Smith explains. “This will help us to determine what is doing well on its own and what might need a bit of help.”

Port of San Diego

The Port of San Diego is the only American port to have an integrated natural resources management plan with the U.S. Navy for their shared waterfront along San Diego Bay.

“Our regular bay-wide surveys of eelgrass, fish, birds and, most recently, shellfish, have been really helpful in establishing baselines to know where we can improve, what those improvements should be, and what a healthy marine environment looks like,” says Heather Carroll, the port’s Director of Environmental Conservation.

The first comprehensive survey of eelgrass was done in 1993 after two years of plantings and it benchmarked 1,091.4 acres (441.6 hectares) of eelgrass. While fluctuating in some years, the eelgrass now covers 2,600 acres (1,052 hectares) because of the efforts to increase this keystone species.

Eelgrass plantations were among the initiatives long in place when Green Marine’s Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator was introduced in 2023 on an optional reporting basis before it became a reporting requirement in 2024.

“The development of ECOncrete through our Blue Economy incubator program to establish new marine habitat, as well as other living shoreline solutions, and our South Bay mitigation work, all fit with this indicator,” says Zach Birmingham, the port’s Blue Tech Program Manager.

“Our two-year pilot project showed that ECOncrete’s Coastalocks significantly increased underwater life compared to the adjacent control section,” Birmingham shares.

The biological monitoring during this pilot project’s initial two years provided such a wealth of ecological information that it has been continued. “We’re seeing lobster, octopus, sea hares, nudibranch snails and other species,” Carroll says. “Just pointing out these species that might not be familiar to everyone is important in showing the possible diversity.”

Building on this initial success, the port is currently adding 150 feet (45.7 metres) of the Coastalock system along Harbor Island and will soon add another 800 feet (243 metres) in the Sweetwater Channel. In total, the expansion of this project equates to the length of three footballs fields end to end.

In late 2025, the port also installed 600 smaller concrete structures called oyster castles across approximately 200 linear feet of shoreline in South San Diego Bay. The oyster castles are small individual structures that can be stacked on top of each other to create complex surface area ideal for native oyster establishment.

The oyster castles are made of a concrete mix with a pH level that larvae prefer. The structures are light enough to install by hand instead of requiring a crane to place, making them a more flexible and cost-effective option.

“We put these smaller units in between larger reef balls in the tidal elevation that Olympia oysters favour and saw recruitment within three weeks,” Carroll shares. “We continue to monitor the oyster recruitment, but also the eelgrass health, and other species – various fish, sea anemone, octopus, green and red algae, inhabiting the area – including birds that land on the reef structures.”

The project’s other goal is to reduce wave energy and prevent erosion along the South Bay. “Shoreline erosion can happen in millimetres so we’re still evaluating if that component is working, but we haven’t seen additional erosion to this point,” Carroll says.

Birmingham says the project has garnered interest from other Green Marine participants.

Pond 20 is another major innovative project now in the works along South San Diego Bay. It would turn the 85 acres (34 hectares) of a once commercial salt pond into 76 acres (30.75 hectares) of salt marsh habitat available for mitigation credit purchases.

“This is one of the salt ponds that was used to generate salt for commercial sale since the late 1800s, but a large flood in the late 1960s filled it with too much sediment to continue to use for that purpose,” Carroll explains. “With a lot of engagement with the surrounding communities, we’ve decided to return this area into an ecologically high-value salt marsh.”

Healthy salt marshes include eelgrass, pickle weed, cord grass that are keystone species for various birds, including the endangered light-footed Ridgway’s rail that uses such areas for foraging, nesting, and hiding from predators. “We also expect to have the Savannah Sparrow here once the salt marsh is established, along with the numerous migratory birds that use salt marshes to feed on brine flies and brine shrimp, as well as for nesting habitat,” Carroll adds.

To support this project, the Port of San Diego is working with regulatory agencies to establish the site as a mitigation bank so that credits can be sold to the port and other potential developers to offset the habitat impacts of their projects. “And because mitigation favours restoration over impact – with, for example, four acres of eelgrass planted for every acre that’s affected – there’s a net gain that benefits the environment,” Carroll says.

Federal and state regulatory agencies are looking at the approval processes carefully as it will set precedent as the first coastal salt marsh mitigation bank in Southern California. “Setting up a mitigation bank is a complex process but we’re working through our bank enabling instrument – basically a legal agreement – on how this would all function with regulatory approval,” Carroll says. “We’re looking at roughly two years before the project begins construction.”

The sale of the credits will help to pay the port back for its financial investment. “Any additional profits from the mitigation bank will go into economic development within the surrounding communities which can use it for public or infrastructure projects,” Carroll adds.