{"id":47975,"date":"2018-06-25T15:43:56","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T19:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=47975"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:34:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:34:45","slug":"fish-research-andrea-reid","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/fish-research-andrea-reid\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish Research Links to Indigenous Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Fish Research Links to Indigenous Heritage\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Even though she was born and raised on the opposite side of Canada and has done research on fish in Africa, Asia and Oceania, Carleton University PhD student and National Geographic Explorer, Andrea Reid<\/a>, was probably destined to study Pacific salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As both a staple food and a source of artistic inspiration, the fish is central to the culture and identity of Canada\u2019s west coast First Nations, including the Nisga\u2019a<\/a>, whose traditional territory encompasses the mountainous Nass River watershed northeast of Prince Rupert, B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reid and her father are members of the Nisga\u2019a Nation, and while she was aware of her Indigenous heritage growing up with her Irish-Canadian mother on Prince Edward Island, it wasn\u2019t a huge part of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she travelled to the Nass River valley for the first time as a PhD student \u2014 and it felt like she had come home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fish
Andrea Reid (Credit: Mikayla Wujec)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis work is a way to reconnect with and be useful to my culture,\u201d says Reid, whose doctoral fish research blends ecology, physiology and anthropology to explore how Pacific salmon fisheries can become more sustainable. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether she\u2019s aboard an ocean-going commercial fishing vessel for several days to tag salmon, tracking migration to spawning grounds using radio telemetry, seine-netting fish in B.C. rivers to take tissue samples from their gills for molecular health analysis in the lab, interviewing Elders about traditional fisheries management, or running a science camp for kids<\/a> in the Nisga\u2019a village of Gingolx, Reid is in her element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a salmon that inexorably returns to the river where it was born to spawn, she was meant to be here<\/em>, doing this<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love what I do, and there really isn\u2019t a clear distinction between my work and my life,\u201d says Reid, reflecting, in a sense, the Indigenous idea of interconnectedness between natural and human worlds. \u201cThis is my both my career and my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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(Photo by Colin Middleton)<\/em><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Love for Water<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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As a girl, Reid lived 10 minutes from the beach in P.E.I. and spent as much time as possible swimming in the ocean, collecting rocks and shells, and looking at the colourful treasures that washed ashore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a pack of four pals, equipped by a friend\u2019s father with snorkels and backpacks full of snacks, Reid went on \u201cexpeditions\u201d to the local pond, gaining a sense of independence and competence in nature. She also began to take note of the endless interplay between people and aquatic environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After earning an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at McGill University, she moved on to a master\u2019s program in Biology at McGill, studying several species of fish that survived the decimating impact of the invasive Nile perch introduced to boost the fishing industry in Lake Victoria, which is bordered by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reid received some funding from the National Geographic Society to travel to Lake Victoria for her master\u2019s research, and for a subsequent project on bumphead parrotfish in the Solomon Islands east of Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, the society invited Reid and other recipients of its Young Explorer Grants to the organization\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and encouraged them to apply for a new Collaboration Grant. Reid and Mikayla Wujec, who worked together on the parrotfish research, met a pair of their peers, Shannon Switzer Swanson and Caleb Kruse, and the foursome teamed up to launch the Reef to Aquarium<\/a> project.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Fish<\/figure>\n\n\n

Launching Reef to Aquarium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Reef to Aquarium tracks the journey of saltwater fish such as the blue tang (the star of the animated film Finding Dory<\/em>) from their native reef habit in Indonesia and the Philippines to aquariums in the United States \u2014 \u201ca global supply chain,\u201d says the project\u2019s website, \u201cthat connects fishermen in small islands with hobby aquarists on the other side of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reid and her collaborators, whose skills and experience include photography, multimedia development, diving, marine biology and environmental science, wanted to investigate this industry and find ways to make it more sustainable. Their dynamic website includes videos, pictures, maps and crisply written text and it lists steps that hobbyists can take. A documentary about the project is in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n