To achieve the goal of commercializing striped bass aquaculture in Nova Scotia, the obstacle of high (up to 100%) overwinter mortality among young-of-year fish needs to be overcome. Mortality is restricted to fish that are under one year old (underyearlings, 500g) suffer negligible mortality. Potential factors for such low survival rates identified through four years […]

A parasite present in the Bras d’Ors Lake in Cape Breton, NS has closed the oyster aquaculture and wild fishery in Cape Breton since the initial outbreak in 2002. This parasite has also affected oysters in the Eastern US. The industry in the US has survived and is stable in part due to the production […]

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are land based fish farms that recycle the water from the fish tanks using multiple water treatment processes. Fish produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, through respiration, that needs to be removed during the water treatment process since high levels of carbon dioxide are hazardous to fish. Currently the most common […]

I propose a multi-species fish population monitoring project in Quebec’s largest lake (Mistassini), to facilitate community-based fisheries management. Mistassini is home to recreational fisheries for walleye, lake trout, brook trout and pike. With a 31% increase in the regional human population since 2001 and increasing fishing pressure, effective monitoring of Mistassini’s harvested fish populations is […]

The aim of this project is to determine which families are resistant to bacterial kidney disease, a bacterial infection that affects both wild and farmed Atlantic salmon. To do this many families of Atlantic salmon from a commercial aquaculture company are to be purposefully infected with the bacteria that causes the disease to establish which […]

In 2015, Canada exported $6 billion in fish and seafood. Fishing is important not only economically, but also socially, and environmentally. In order to have seafood now and into the future, sustainable development of the fisheries is important. One way to make sure that fishing is being done in this way, is to recognize and […]

For this project, we propose to integrate the data about Fraser River salmon populations into a multi-species, multi-population database, and develop an interactive data visualization tool that allows fisheries scientists and managers to explore this data at different spatial and temporal scales. The objective of this project is to provide fisheries scientists and managers with […]

Mysis diluviana, a shrimp-like crustacean, is an invasive species in Okanagan Lake. As part of a strategy by the BC government to reduce the impact of this species on the natural lake ecosystem, Piscine Energetics Inc. has been harvesting Mysis from Okanagan Lake since 2000 and retails the harvested Mysis as fish food to the […]

The proposed research will examine differences amongst existing and potential alternatives for storing retrievable buoy line/rope on the ocean floor in ropeless fishing systems. Prior research has yet to evaluate respective strengths and weaknesses of alternatives (i.e. spooling, coiling, bagged). The proposed research will test the various methods of rope containment at varying depths and […]

The project will quantify spatial variation in food web quality associated with round goby / dreissenid mussel invasion and terrestrial dissolved organic carbon to understand how it may mediate the nutritional state (fatty acid content), body size, and Hg contaminant load of sportfish. We will work across existing spatial aquatic gradients in historical inorganic Hg […]

Flaxseed possesses many useful and valuable components, some in high concentration (oil, protein and fibre) and some as minor components (lignan, orbitides), as well as anti-nutrients such as cyanogenic glycosides and cadmium, which all need to be monitored during development and final production. Integrating or substituting these flaxseed components into various established foods, or generating […]

Plant-based diets have been introduced to the companion animal nutrition market, though little evidence exists to support or refute the nutritional sufficiency of plant-based diets for cats and dogs, or the impacts these diets may have on the health and wellbeing of the animals they are fed to. The proposed study aims to question pet […]