PhD candidate – Jacqueline Chapman, Larkin runner-up 2015 I am currently a PhD student in the Biology Department at Carleton University. My research focuses on understanding the impacts of disease in wild salmonid species across Canada, and how disease can influence the susceptibility of individuals to fisheries interactions. I hope to use cutting edge high-throughput qPCR on RNA expression to identify microbes (bacteria, viruses, and microparasites) that impact the behaviour of migrating fish (e.g. swimming speed, migratory delay), and identify factors associated with fisheries that interact with diseases. To address these questions, I am working with stocks that are targeted by recreational, commercial, and subsistence fisheries: coho salmon in British […]

Brian Maitland My MSc research at the University of Alberta took on a duel perspective: both ecological and managerial. I first focused on gaining a better understanding of the extent to which stream crossing structures, such as culverts and bridges, are influencing stream fishes in the boreal forest, and second on determining methods for prioritizing the restoration of  poorly functioning culverts that are fragmenting fish habitat. Industrial activities in Alberta’s boreal forests have created large networks of roads and in turn the construction of thousands of stream-crossing structures. Due to the highly dynamic and stressful environment in which boreal fishes live, they are extremely sensitive to additional anthropogenic stressors. Watersheds […]

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba and I work in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. My research is on Pacific salmon in the Canadian Arctic. Although there is a long history of chum salmon harvest in subsistence fisheries along the Mackenzie River and its major tributaries, changes are occurring. Salmon are being harvested in a wider distribution in the Canadian Arctic, abundances appear to be increasing and the types of salmon being harvested are also changing. I combine community-based monitoring with innovative laboratory and field-based science to translate these observed anomalies in harvests into research that develops our understanding of how species and ecosystems are […]

This year, a total of 6 MSc. candidates and 8 PhD. candidates applied for the Peter A. Larkin Award for Excellence in Fisheries.  Nine Canadian Institutions were represented by the pool of applicants: York University, University of New Brunswick, University of Alberta, Carleton University, University of British Columbia, University of Manitoba, University of Regina, University of Western Ontario, and University of Guelph. Our judging panel consisted of Trevor Pitcher (University of Windsor) and Caleb Hasler (University of Illinois/CARS communication officer). The 2015 winner and runner-up at the MSc. level are: Bryan Michael Maitland (UofAlberta) & Taylor Ward (Carleton) – winner (tie) Jacqueline Michelle Lavery (UNB) – runner-up The 2015 winner […]