Community Partner
Water Monitoring Hubs
Swim Drink Fish helps communities start their own water monitoring hubs.
These water monitoring hubs provide opportunities for communities to become more water literate while learning more about scientific methods and laboratory protocols.
After working with Swim Drink Fish to launch a hub, community partners continue operations independently as part of the greater Swim Drink Fish network of water monitoring hubs.
Zhiibaahaasing First Nation Monitoring Hub
Hosted by the Zhiibaahaasing First Nations, this hub was established in the fall of 2018. The hub is located on the west end of Manitoulin Island, in the North Channel of Lake Huron. Three locations are monitored by the Zhiibaahaasing First Nation Hub:
Gaanogwong Apgishmok: This beach is commonly used for activities like fishing and swimming. The community water treatment plant is also located at this beach, which is where the community gets its drinking water. This freshwater beach is very important to the community for that reason.
Rocky Beach: This land is part of Zhiibaahaasing ancestry, so it means a great deal for the community to be able to know their roots. This beach is rocky, but also has docks for visitors to collect water and to swim and fish.
Sandy bay: This beach is important to the community because the elders can bathe here when visiting Cockburn Island. This is a freshwater beach on the shores of Lake Huron and is remarkable for its completely sandy surroundings.
“It is important for people in the community to know how water can change and be affected by different factors. Getting involved with the water monitoring has helped them gain a better understanding of what’s happening at the beaches that are monitored. People are always surprised by the garbage that has washed up on shore.
We need to monitor to protect and keep the beaches and this waterbody as clean and as close to the original conditions as possible.”
- Chelsea Antoine, Community Monitoring Coordinator, Zhiibaahaasing First Nation
Lake Erie Monitoring Hub
Established in 2019, the Niagara Hub is managed by Niagara Coastal Community Collaborative and housed in Niagara College. The Lake Erie - Niagara Hub monitors recreational water quality in three locations:
Waverly beach: Situated in the remnants of ‘Erie Beach Park’, a defunct amusement park that was open from 1885-1930.
Windmill Point : Located near Windmill Point Park, this beach is an excellent place to see the raw beauty of Lake Erie. It is also known as a ‘Window to the Lake’, and here there is a public road allowance to access one of the few stretches of public coastline in Fort Erie.
Gravelly Bay: Gravelly Bay - Sugarloaf sits at the southern end of the Welland Canal, near downtown Port Colborne and H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park. This is a very popular destination for boating, fishing, wakeboarding, and other watersports. The park offers great views of the marina and the lake.
