Welcome to our Sea Star Survey Volunteer Page!
Thank you for your interest in joining our dedicated team of marine naturalists and conservationists taking action to protect our ocean and the life within it.
The Value of Citizen Science
Citizen science enables the public to make a direct contribution to research and gain insights about their environmental impacts. Citizen scientists also help researchers maximize the amount of data collected on a project!
With the help of citizen scientists like yourselves, we have been able to collect over 10 years of long-term data for Sea Star Wasting on our coastline, to track the spread of marine disease and better understand the ecological effects on surrounding ecosystems.
Learn more about our Sea Star Stewardship Program and read our Sea Star StoryMap on our website!
What to Know Before Volunteering:
The tide waits for no one!
Please arrive on time, as volunteers must complete the on-site training of methods and protocols prior to each survey. You can help us by coming prepared and completing the following tasks:
Attend/watch the training workshop (optional)
Sign and email our volunteer waiver and photo release form to jadyn@reddfish.org
Read through the SSSP protocol doc
Remember to dress for the weather, wear sturdy waterproof footwear (for traversing slippery rocks) and come ready to survey some sea stars!
2026 Survey Locations:
Tonquin beach survey
This is our 12th year of Sea Star Surveying at this site. Join us for a survey this summer on any of the following dates:
Tuesday, May 19th@ 9am
Sunday, June 14th@ 6:30AM
Friday, July 17th@ 9AM
Thursday, August 13th @7:30AM
Meeting locations:
Tonquin Beach - meet at Tonquin Beach parking lot at end of Tonquin Beach Rd.
Stockham Island paddle survey
Join our partners at Paddle West Kayaking to complete a kayak survey at Stockham island!
Volunteers will be in kayaks for this paddle-based survey, while experience not required it is an asset.
Volunteers must complete a minimum of ONE land-based survey at the Tonquin site to be able to register for the kayak survey, as well as completing pre-survey preparation (above).
Sign-ups for these surveys will be available at the Tonquin Site surveys.
For more info on Stockham Island kayak surveys, please contact Alys Hoyland:
alyshoyland@gmail.com