Celebrating 4 Years of Sharing
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Worldwide, there is a growing awareness that studying plankton in association with their freshwater lake habitat will likely lead to better understandings of our changing environment. Thus plankton are already being hailed as BioSentinels. Despite this appealing opportunity, it is painfully clear that our governments, while under considerable economic pressure, are finding it difficult to afford the funding of such research. To be fair, in the past, Canada, some provinces including British Columbia have funded limited plankton research projects. Currently one of the most recent British Columbia papers on this subject is a study of plankton in a limited number of BC lakes, (the study includes only 19 lakes out of a total of more than 19,000 in BC). Because no lakes in that study are on the Sunshine Coast, it is unlikely that we have a scientific data that identifies exactly what plankton are in Hotel Lake or any other lake on our coastline.
On the bright side, the work we have done for UBC has provided us with a unique opportunity to share unofficial information as to what plankton are in Hotel Lake. We can back that up with some actual microscope and ZooScan images taken by UBC. We can also try to explain some of the lifecycles and also highlight those plankton that you might actually be able to see because part of their life cycle takes place above the water. We hope this will take you beyond the reflective surface of Hotel Lake and introduce you to the millions of tiny lifeforms that dwell below the glistening surface.
So please read on because, as we discovered, it is certainly worth taking a closer look!
Plankton
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https://www.hotellakeadvisory.com/plankton
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Lakeview!
There’s something personal about a lake.
Oceans offer their vast expanse, beckoning the heart outward and reminding the viewer that they are but a small piece of something much, much bigger. Rivers are nice but doubtless have their own agenda, a self-determination lurking just upstream that mere mortals are powerless against.
But lakes - and particularly Hotel Lake in Pender Harbour, British Columbia; lakes free the heart to look inward to seek answers from the soul to questions from the heart. You can learn who you are by sitting by a lake… and who you want to be there with. Brad McCannell
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New In Our Library
Our Library has been growing for some time and can be accessed via the main menu. We continue to add documents and here is just one recent addition that we are very proud of: Hotel Lake 2024 Year One Report published by BC Lake Stewardship Society; just click on it to take a look.​​​ This is what local volunteers have been gathering data for and in a few years a final report will be published that will describe our lake in greater detail.
About Us
We are committed to gathering and sharing information. We hope that information will help us all to slow the process of eutrophication, to protect Hotel Lake's water quality, the surrounding watershed, the underlying aquifer and the wildlife and plant life that live here.
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We acknowledge with gratitude the time and effort of volunteers and the outstanding results achieved by our lapsed predecessor, Area ‘A’ Quality Water Association (AAQWA). Realizing the benefits of that organization, we have established a new association to carry on.
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Our association is presently comprised of a small group of volunteers. This website has been developed by our webmaster Brian Croft and contributors include Bob and Carole Stickley, Brian and Sharon Croft, Ron Knight, Tarren McKay, Brad McCannell, Joe Harrison, Dr. John Field, Trevor Andrews, Chris Hegele, Theresa McNicholl, Rod Brown, Jim Little, Debra Huffaker, Reni Ducich, Tony & Kelly Pownall, Frank Jensen, Peter Boyer, Dr. Bob Vroom, Dr. Sharon Johnson and Twyla Dawn Disney.
Our hope is that anyone who comes to this website will leave it knowing a little more about the Hotel Lake environment and the wildlife and plant life that, live here. We are confident that, in the long term, greater knowledge and understanding will enable better decision making.
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​This website is available to all and we have enjoyed very positive responses. Anyone may ask to be on our mailing list and will recieve our monthly newsletter.
This association is fuelled by volunteerism and our modest operating costs are less than $400 per year. We hope that those who find value in this work will consider becoming contributing supporters. An annual contribution of $20 per family is suggested. All contributions will be used to offset the modest annual costs of administering this website.
If you would like to recieve our monthly newsletter,
please Email Us Here and we will add you to our mailing list
We gather information and share it.