The DNA of salmon heritage
Two UBC researchers are exploring the problem of dwindling salmon runs from opposite ends of the knowledge continuum—cutting edge genomics, and empirical evidence gathered over millennia by the Indigenous Peoples of the coast.
Food quality might be key for juvenile sockeye salmon growth and survival
The quality of food sockeye salmon eat along their migration routes is more important to their growth and condition than quantity, a new study has found, highlighting concerns about the effects of climate change on ocean conditions and salmon.
Expect shorter food chains in more productive coastal ecosystems
“We provided evidence for bottom-up omnivory in nutrient-rich temperate pelagic ecosystems, where food chain length is determined by the level of diatom production,” said Jacob Lerner. “This is very different from the global model for pelagic ecosystems.”
IOF finds fun fighting fire and fatigue in footslog up (and down) Frosty Mountain
“I’d walk through a burning building if there was a golden larch on the other side,” Adam Hicks remarked
BC is facing a steep decline in sockeye salmon
The sockeye population has been in decline for a century – since 1913, returns in the Skeena River have dropped by 75% – and while there are many factors at play, says Dr. William Cheung, “climate change is definitely one of them.”
B.C. ocean’s worth of almost $5 billion to GDP likely an underestimate
The ocean is very valuable to B.C., in terms of GDP, jobs, and income.
Grey Whales — the other Pacific Northwest resident whale
Grey whales face many threats ranging from entanglements and ship strikes, to loss of habitat and reduced prey availability. Researchers are collecting data this summer needed to quantify and mitigate these threats.
Southern resident killer whales not getting enough to eat since 2018
The animals have been in an energy deficit, averaged across spring, summer and fall, for six of the last 40 years.
Researchers deploy a new tool to study Chinook salmon fat content on the Fraser River
A Chinook with a short migration to Harrison Lake may offer half the calories to a resident killer whale as a similarly sized Chinook headed to the headwaters of the Fraser River.
New FCRRs: Historical Ecology in Burrard Inlet and Reconstructing the pre-contact shoreline of Burrard Inlet
These two new Fisheries Centre Research Reports will help us understand the overpowering changes that colonial settlement and development has had on the marine ecosystems surrounding the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia.