Lake Huron Coastal Centre Celebrates 20 Years of Monitoring the Shoreline with Coast Watchers

Coast Watcher using a Kestrel anemometer to monitor wind speed along the Lake Huron shoreline.

Coast Watchers have served as the eyes and ears of Lake Huron’s coastline for 20 years, and in 2025 Lake Huron Coastal Centre (LHCC) celebrated this monitoring program of volunteers.

For the last 20 years volunteers have systematically and consistently collected data along the shoreline of Lake Huron, making it possible to track long-term trends in conditions.

This data contributes to both short-term sustainability efforts and long-term resiliency goals of the LHCC.

In the 2025 report, LHCC staff compared Coast Watchers temperature data to Lake Huron Climate Normals, generated by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and United States National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Climate Normals are developed through averaging long-term data (more than 15 years) to describe the average conditions of climate in a specific location.

According to LHCC, the average air and water temperatures collected by Coast Watchers were warmed than the historical average.

Due to known effects of climate change, it is expected there will be summers with higher temperatures, as observed in 2025.

Given Lake Huron’s vast 6,170 kilometres shoreline, the longest of any Great Lake, monitoring in detail is a challenge.

According to LHCC, this is where community scientists play a critical role in tracking and documenting changes along the coast.

Coast Watchers collected data from May to October 2025 on atmospheric conditions, wildlife, algae washups, plastic pollution, human activities, and storm damage.

Over 800 reports were made from volunteers monitoring the Canadian shoreline, all the way from Sarnia to the Bruce Peninsula.

This data informs programs run by the LHCC, and is shared with partners including researchers, government bodies and other non-profits to dive deeper on issues facing Lake Huron.

According to data, lots of critters were spotted on the beach.

As wildlife is integral to the Lake Huron ecosystem, Coast Watchers reported on wildlife observed on the beach, both living and dead. LHCC says these reports help record the presence of at-risk species or the occurrence of wildlife die-off events.

According to the reports, this year, the most common animal observed by volunteers was a gull, followed by Canadian geese. Also observed were swans, buffleheads, gizzard shad fish, mergansers, turkey vultures, monarch butterflies, cormorants, egrets, minnows, and potentially a piping plover, which is an endangered species.

The reports revealed that Coast Watchers reported 51 deceased or decomposing fish on the shoreline in 2025, which is over double what was reported in the previous year.

Coast Watchers also monitor the shoreline for human activity, tracking the number of people, cars, and pets on the beach or in the lake through the season.

Reports revealed that the busiest beach this year was Saugeen Beach, and the busiest time was July.

While most of the shoreline was monitored in 2025, there remains a large gap in volunteers reporting from Goderich to Camlachie.

The LHCC is actively looking for new volunteers for the Coast Watchers program, especially those who live in Bayfield, Grand Bend, Port Franks, or Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, or those who frequent those areas along the shoreline.

To become a Coast Watcher, to learn more about the program, or to read the full report from 2025, visit www.lakehuron.com/coastwatchers

If interested in becoming a data sharing partner, LHCC encourages those to contact Coast Watchers: coastwatchers@lakehuron.ca

LHCC explains that this volunteer program is made possible due to generous support from Bruce Power, the McCall MacBain Foundation and the Government of Ontario.