{"id":58036,"date":"2019-07-09T15:53:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T19:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=58036"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:54:19","slug":"wild-fish-research","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/wild-fish-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Where The Wild Fish Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Where The Wild Fish Go\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

Anchored in an aluminum skiff on a small bay at the eastern edge of Big Rideau Lake, Jordanna Bergman<\/a> nets a northern pike from a large cooler full of water and live fish and lowers it into a shallow plastic trough at the bow of her boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing a pair of electric gloves that emit a low-voltage current, Brenna Gagliardi puts her hands around the nose and tail of the pike, immobilizing the fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bergman makes a short incision in the pike\u2019s belly and inserts a cylindrical two-centimetre-long acoustic transmitter, calling out the tag\u2019s identification number to Andr\u00e9 Killeen, who is sitting in the stern with a logbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the precision of a brain surgeon, Bergman swiftly sews up the incision with a pair of sutures, attaches a thin plastic external tag near the tail fin with a tagging gun, measures the length of the fish for Killeen to write down, then gently lowers it over the side of the boat, where it swims out of sight in the murky water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to a network of 85 acoustic telemetry receivers set up throughout a 60-kilometre-long stretch of the Rideau system, Bergman, a PhD student at Carleton University, will be able to track the movement of that northern pike and 249 other fish \u2014 including largemouth bass, common carp and round goby \u2014 this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acoustic transmitters emit pings every 20 seconds; the receivers, which look like tall wine bottles immersed in the water, will register those pings if they\u2019re within 200 metres. Once retrieved in the fall, the receivers will provide a flood of information to analyze, although some will be left under the ice to record fish movement over the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bergman\u2019s research is part of a larger three-year project<\/a> to determine the impact of human activities on the health of the Rideau ecosystem and help Parks Canada come up with effective management policies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIdeally, we\u2019ll be able to protect ecologically and economically important gamefish and while simultaneously minimizing the spread of invasive species,\u201d she says, explaining that in addition to the acoustic transmitters, up to 10,000 other fish will be externally tagged during the multiyear and multifaceted project.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cTo do this, we need to collect preliminary movement information. We have so many questions about fish connectivity in the Rideau Canal<\/a>. Our receiver downloads and data analysis this winter will be the first step toward improving our understanding of fish movement patterns. Until then, we just need the tagged fish to swim and do what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n

The Deeper Importance of Field Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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On this sunny and warm mid-June day, Bergman and undergraduate Biology<\/a> students Gagliardi and Killeen are spending about eight hours catching and tagging pike and bass on Big Rideau Lake, an hour and a half southwest of Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bergman\u2019s supervisors \u2014 Prof. Steven Cooke<\/a>, a Canada Research Professor in Environmental Science, and Biology Prof. Joseph Bennett<\/a>, both investigators on the $650,000 NSERC-funded research project with Parks Canada \u2014 are in a second boat with post-doctoral fellow Hsien-Yung Lin, catching more fish to tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Where
Prof. Steven Cooke casts a line in Big Rideau Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo do telemetry work, you have to do this part,\u201d says Bergman, who did research on saltwater species in Florida and British Columbia before moving to Ottawa to start her PhD last September. \u201cYou have to be in the field. You have to catch and tag fish.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s so much better to be out here on the water, learning about the ecosystem firsthand, than reading about it or listening to somebody talk about it,\u201d she adds. \u201cWhen you do something hands-on, you form a stronger connection to it. You develop a deeper understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bergman\u2019s thesis will focus on fish movement through locks on the Rideau Canal system, which is under increasing pressure from the growing population of cottages and communities \u2014 and people who fish \u2014 along its banks. We know that fish swim through locks, she says, but we don\u2019t know to what extent, nor whether the movement is seasonal or for reproductive purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t know much about why, when and how fish travel through locks because nobody has studied these questions in this part of the world before. Which is why, with about $1 billion of infrastructure work scheduled for the Rideau over the next 10 years, Cooke sees an opportunity for \u201cconservation gains\u201d that balance environmental and economic priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n

Local Research with International Impact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Northern pike are a particularly mobile species and a prized gamefish, part of a recreational angling industry that generates about $2.2 billion in Ontario every year. Are certain lock structures and operations more conducive to their health? Are there ways to support native fish while limiting the spread of invasive species such as common carp and round goby? And what do local fishers, cottagers and lockmasters think about all this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the questions that Cooke, his collaborators and students hope to address. Ultimately, what they discover might not only help safeguard the health of the Rideau system but also provide strategies for managing other waterways throughout the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of time, but this is what you need to do to start to change things,\u201d says Bergman.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThat one fish you tag could help thousands of other fish. I love doing science for the sake of science, but I also want to make a difference and leave the world a little bit better after my short time here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pursuit of this ambitious goal begins with grunt work. With pre-dawn wake-up calls and long days in the rain or wind or sun. With talking to \u201cstakeholders\u201d from diverse walks of life. With learning how to pilot a boat and manage gear in challenging and changing conditions. With figuring out how tiny details relate to the big picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this gives students an important crash course in juggling multiple responsibilities, and at the same time, instils a powerful bond with the animals and environments that they got into science to understand and protect.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n

The River that Runs Through Carleton<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Cooke, who has been at Carleton for nearly 15 years, is an international leader in fish conservation research. He chairs the Ocean Tracking Network<\/a>\u2019s science advisory committee, serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Conservation Physiology <\/em><\/a>and travels frequently to present at conferences, including stops in China, Norway and Spain over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even though Cooke has a global perspective and is perhaps best known for his work on Pacific salmon, he was on the Rideau as often as possible this past May and June \u2014 up to five days a week \u2014 to help start the first field season of the project with Parks Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, motoring with Bennett and Lin to a three-square-kilometre fish sanctuary on Big Rideau Lake where recreational angling has been prohibited for 80 years, he\u2019s excited about casting for pike and bass on the same waterway that, after it splits into a river and canal at Hog\u2019s Back Falls, surrounds the Carleton campus.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Rideau system means a lot to our students,\u201d Cooke says while prepping lures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of them skate on it in the winter and kayak on it in the summer. This project is an opportunity to think about its history and ecology and how they connect to the issues we\u2019re dealing with now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe canal both fragments and connects. It fragments bodies of water that should be linked, and connects others that shouldn\u2019t. That makes it very interesting to study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think fishing and science are very similar,\u201d he continues. \u201cFishing is about the unknown. You don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to get on the end of your line. Science is also about mystery and uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Helping Native Species While Controlling Invasive Species<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The project that Cooke and Bennett are part of, along with fellow Carleton faculty member Jesse Vermaire <\/a>from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies<\/a>, four other university professors (including a hydraulic engineering and an environmental sociologist) and two Parks Canada scientists, is investigating both the Rideau and Trent-Severn Waterway<\/a>, and includes the Big Rideau Lake Association<\/a>, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority<\/a> and Muskies Canada<\/a> as partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond looking at fish movement in the two historic waterways, the researchers are also exploring how lock and dam operations could benefit biodiversity, what shoreline erosion management strategies should be adopted, how over-abundant aquatic plants can best be controlled, and how waterway users can contribute to conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett, who was raised on a farm between Smiths Falls and Brockville and grew up fishing on the Rideau, is concentrating on invasive species on the Trent-Severn for his part of the project, including weeds such as Eurasian milfoil and water soldier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervised by both Bennett and Cooke, Lin, a post-doc from Taiwan whose academic career has included stops in Michigan and Australia, is looking at lock and dam structures and invasive species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Rideau and Trent-Severn are very human influenced systems,\u201d says Bennett, \u201cbut they also have some rare species. So, the dilemma is how do we operate the system to make the waterways navigable for certain species with minimal impact, while also limiting the spread of invasive species. We need to be creative to take care of native species and block invaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n

A Potential Climate Change Adaptation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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There are also myriad additional side projects within the larger study, such as looking at the impact of different types of lighting at lock stations and various methods of shoreline modification, from riprap to retaining walls, and attempting to understand the long-term impacts of fish sanctuaries, eight of which are scattered around this part of the Rideau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish in protected waters tend to be bolder and more exploratory than others, because aggressive fish in parts of the system that are open to angling are easier to catch, explains Cooke, which removes those particular genes from the species. But the bolder fish, with higher metabolic rates, are also more resilient \u2014 an adaptation that could help them deal with climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bergman\u2019s research involves tagging fish caught both inside and outside sanctuaries and comparing how and when and where they move. She\u2019s also putting tagged fish inside a lock, including fish caught both upstream and downstream from the structure, to find out which direction they move and how quickly they leave the lock when the gates are opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, says Cooke, the project \u201cprovides opportunities for students to connect what they learn in the classroom to real issues that matter in the real world. It helps them understand how the pieces come together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProblems are complex, especially environmental problems,\u201d he says, \u201cand there are a lot of different layers. Learning how to engage with different groups \u2014 from the representatives of local lake associations to Parks Canada water level planners and Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry<\/a> conservation officers \u2014 is critically important. There\u2019s a bit of a social license associated with what we do. If people don\u2019t like it, they will complain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cooke, spending the day outside is a big part of the draw to this type of work, but more so, \u201cthe opportunity to interact with the next generation of scientists and people who want to learn about fish \u2014 hopefully some of my passion rubs off on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate in our lab<\/a> to have everyone from undergraduates to post-docs. If it\u2019s somebody\u2019s project, they\u2019re in charge. If they\u2019re responsible for the field crew that day, it doesn\u2019t matter what degrees they have: there\u2019s an opportunity for everybody to step up and lead and share and provide input.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Summer Research Internship Pays Off<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Standing near the bow of the boat, Brenna Gagliardi casts her hook a few dozen feet with the flick of a wrist and begins to reel in her line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal today for both crews is to land 15 pike for acoustic tagging, with any bass they happen to catch getting external tags. But because pike, like most fish, are crepuscular, or more active at dawn and dusk, the steady rate of bites earlier this morning has slowed to a trickle by noon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s called fishing, not catching,\u201d quips Bergman. \u201cImagine doing this all day and getting only one fish. That breaks your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the other boat, Cooke \u2014 who dreamed when he was a child of someday hosting a television fishing show\u2014 is the only \u201cprofessional\u201d angler, Bennett jokes, astounded by his colleague\u2019s success. Bennett, meanwhile, celebrates his few catches and talks lovingly to all of fish brought on board, a habit that Cooke teases him about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gagliardi, who has completed one year of her undergraduate Biology program, had never fished before this summer. She had never, in fact, seen a live fish larger than a minnow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then she was selected as the recipient of a Dean\u2019s Summer Research Internship<\/a> and, after moving to a rented house in Smiths Falls for a 12-week paid position working with Bergman and Killeen, she quickly learned how to catch and identify different species, and how to assist Bergman in the on-board surgeries.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cBasically, my job is to do whatever Jordanna needs me to do,\u201d Gagliardi says while removing some weeds from her hook for another cast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI never knew I would become this interested in fish. This project has sparked my curiosity about the animals that live around us. A lot of people are interested in large animals, but the ones we see frequently can be just as important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m also learning a lot about the scientific process in general: how projects come to together, how they get funded, how graduate school works. We do labs in class, but they don\u2019t give you the big picture. And I\u2019m making great connections with professors and grad students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Seeing How Concepts Work in the Real World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Killeen, who has to complete a couple more courses to earn a Bachelor of Environmental Science<\/a>, minoring in geomatics<\/a> (which is defined as the collection and presentation of geographic data), is on the Rideau thanks to a four-month research assistant position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already considering job offers from organizations such as Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, he\u2019s planning to work for a while before thinking about graduate school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he grew up camping and fishing with his family, Killeen is improving his boating and angling skills this summer, which could be helpful on the job front. He\u2019s also gaining a deeper appreciation for how the data generated in research projects like this can be applied in a geomatics context.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen we\u2019re putting receivers in place and tagging fish, I\u2019m thinking about how the data will be represented in the end and what the geomatics maps will look like,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent four years learning a lot of these concepts in theory, but being able to go out into the field is invaluable because you get to put into practice what you learn and see how it works in real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a much more organic way of learning \u2014 you learn things as you need to, and you remember things much more easily when you learn them on the job. Out here, as well, whether we\u2019re talking about fish ecology or reproduction or telemetry, we\u2019re constantly asking questions of and learning from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis sort of learning experience is almost impossible to reproduce in a classroom environment. I\u2019ve always been interested in nature and freshwater systems, but that interest has been enhanced. A little spice has been added, a new way of looking at things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anchored in an aluminum skiff on a small bay at the eastern edge of Big Rideau Lake, Jordanna Bergman nets a northern pike from a large cooler full of water and live fish and lowers it into a shallow plastic trough at the bow of her boat. Wearing a pair of electric gloves that emit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":58064,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13,31],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-58036","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-sustainability","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97403,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58036\/revisions\/97403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=58036"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=58036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}