Bio-Diversification in the Courtenay Bay Tidal Marsh

Background
The Marsh Creek watershed is a 4,000+ hectare feature located in the eastern quadrant of Saint John, New
Brunswick, Canada that drains directly into the Bay of Fundy. The watershed, which served as a valuable
natural asset for early settlers, became an internationally recognized environmental concern due in large part
to its receipt of untreated municipal wastewater and the existence of heavy creosote contamination in the
sediments of its lower reaches. Locally, the creek is also subject to extreme flooding which is related to
commercial and residential developments in its floodplain (located below extreme high tide) and crustal
subsidence.
Saint John, New Brunswick, as one of the most rapidly changing urban environments in Atlantic Canada, is
currently undertaking several once-in-a-lifetime alterations that have the potential to significantly improve
the water quality of inland and nearshore environments. The most noteworthy of these alterations is the
pending completion (~ December 2012) of the Saint John Harbour Cleanup project, which will see a
cessation of centuries of raw sewage discharges into Marsh Creek, Courtenay Bay, the Saint John Harbour,
and subsequently the Bay of Fundy.
Harbour Cleanup, which has resulted from two decades of dedicated community engagement by ACAP
Saint John, represents the single greatest opportunity in recent history to restore the recipient nearshore
water quality, thereby improving the habitat needed to increase (and potentially even restore) the diversity of
both flora and resident and transient fauna. As such, this project represents one of the last opportunities in
Canadian history to measure and document changes in biodiversity following the cessation of the discharge
of untreated municipal wastewater into nearshore environments. Specifically, the objectives of this project
are to;
1) Acquire baseline (pre-wastewater treatment) water quality measurements within the estuarine and
aquatic habitats of Marsh Creek and the Courtenay Bay Forebay, hereafter referred to as the “Courtenay Bay
tidal marsh”. These data include the recipient waters as well as those immediately above the zone of influence.
2) Acquire baseline floral biodiversity measures for the estuarine and aquatic habitats of the
Courtenay Bay tidal marsh. These data include the recipient waters as well as those immediately above the
zone of influence.
3) Acquire baseline faunal biodiversity measures for the estuarine, aquatic and riparian habitats of the
Courtenay Bay tidal marsh. These data include the recipient waters and those immediately above the zone of
influence as well as the adjacent land areas.
4) Analyse, summarise and present the data in a format that will enable comparable data to be
collected in subsequent years. Specifically, the changes to biodiversity will be most closely monitored in the
two years following Harbour Cleanup (2013 and 2014) by comparing to baseline values obtained this year
(2102).