Without careful management, the growing number and intensity of human activities can negatively affect ecosystem health and cause conflict between users. Recognizing the need for integrated management, the Province of British Columbia and 18 Coastal First Nations collaborated to develop an integrated spatial Marine Plan for the North Pacific Coast. A critical part of implementing […]

Healthy ocean food webs are key to the socio-economic viability of coastal communities in British Columbia. The Vancouver Aquarium’s Coastal Ocean Research Institute (CORI) was established in 2014 to provide an ongoing assessment of the health of Canada’s oceans. This project supports this strategic priority of the CORI initiative and advances the organization’s mission to […]

The Salish Sea is a temporally and spatially dynamic coastal ocean under strong influence from terrestrial and oceanic inputs, and of major economic importance, due in part to fisheries. The Salish Sea is highly productive, especially from early spring to summer when resident and migratory fish populations are either spawning or entering. The interannual productivity […]

Trophy hunting, while a controversial issue in the developed world, is an important management strategy by wildlife management agencies across the equator. Due to negative public opinions, trophy hunting outfitters are under increased scrutiny to demonstrate that hunting has no detrimental effects on animal populations. To this end, we are embarking upon research into the […]

This UBC-Vancouver research will contribute to the optimization of novel composite bio-mineral products for sustainable agriculture, pollution remediation and other environmental applications, with special emphasis on equipment pilot testing and manufacturing process pre-design, as well as the testing of the product as chicken/fish feed. The core fertilizer products synergistically combine rock dusts, clays, seawater elements, […]

Invasive plants represent a major threat to the economy and environment, with annual economic costs in North America estimated at $30-40 billion CDN. Aquatic invasives rank among the most destructive, affecting recreational activities such as boating, fishing and swimming, displacing native vegetation, slowing down water flow and altering oxygen levels. Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus) is […]

This research would determine the costs of securing and restoring drained wetland areas on private lands in the Wintering Hills area of Alberta, Canada, through the use of an approach called a “reverse auction.” Collaborating with Ducks Unlimited Canada, the project would pay farmers to allow wetlands to be restored on their property. The payment […]

This research project is intended to take the first steps forward in breeding hardier, disease resistant Atlantic salmon. Infectious salmon anemia is a disease of Atlantic salmon that has led to millions of dollars of losses within the aquaculture industry yearly on a global scale. Through a combination of genomic data and disease trial data, […]

Many of the Harrison River tributaries no longer support historic levels of salmon productivity because of barriers to fish passage, loss of in-stream structural complexity, and ingress of invasive species. The Sts’ailes Fisheries Group has identified the need for an investigation of the historic and current stream characteristic to identify future fisheries restoration opportunities along […]

With a rich acoustic dataset available in the Strait of Georgia (SoG), we propose this research to develop a series of acoustic indicators of productivity for forage (e.g. Pacific herring, mesopelagic fish, euphausiids, zooplankton and ichthyoplankton) and semi-demersal (e.g. Pacific hake and walleye pollock) species within the SoG by using robust multi-frequency techniques. Along with […]

Nanosilver is an antimicrobial agent found in thousands of commercial products, frequently released into waterways as a result of their use in clothing and washing machines, as well as many other products with potential for environmental release. Though regulations on environmental release exist for elemental silver, no regulations exist for nanosilver release into the environment. […]

The partner in this project is EWOS Canada, a producer of salmon feed. Salmon feed is made with sustainable and Canadian Food Inspection Agency approved ingredients. A major challenge in feed manufacturing is to support maximal growth and health of fish. This project addresses a health challenge which has received little attention in academic programs: […]