From spring to fall, field work amounts to a sizeable proportion of what we do in the Great Lakes Food Webs laboratory at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). On-going research and monitoring programs, like the binational Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) and Hamilton Harbour Area of Concern (AOC) lower trophic assessment project, require fieldwork […]
Steps & Stages of Field Sampling in the FER Lab Read More »
In the last blog post, we explored the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) and some of the treaty details (Annexes) in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) that make it a vital component of continued binational scientific efforts in the Great Lakes basin. The CSMI certainly plays a vital role in monitoring and
Lake Erie CSMI 2024 : Part II Nine Memorable Experiences Read More »
Last week, members of our team in the DFO Great Lakes Food Webs lab returned from a week-long voyage aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Limnos for the first cruise of the Lake Erie CSMI field-year. We were joined by other interdisciplinary scientists and technicians from our federal research partners at Environment and Climate
Zig-Zagging Through Lake Erie: A CSMI Expedition on the Limnos Read More »
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.” – Henry David Thoreau
At the end of every March, the binational Great Lakes Fisheries Commission (GLFC) holds their public Lake Committee meetings for agencies to report out on the status of each lake. The GLFC was formed by a treaty signed in 1954 to regulate fishing and to fight the binational problem of Sea Lamprey. The location of the meetings move around between the US and Canada, and this past week, the meetings were held in Bay City, Michigan.
Great Lakes Food Webs Science: GLFC Lake Committees Read More »
“Night, when words fade and things come alive” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
One of the species the Lower Trophic Food Webs lab is responsible for monitoring in the Great Lakes is Mysis diluviana (previously called M. relicta which is native to Northern Europe), the Opossum Shrimp (order Peracarida, family Mysidae). For a member of the zooplankton, this species is quite large (up to 25 mm in length), and their common name comes from the females having a prominent brood pouch (a marsupium) between their thoracic legs. The body is very shrimp-like, with long antennae, stalked compound eyes, a large thoracic carapace in front of a long abdomen and a clefted telson tail.
Great Lakes Food Webs Science: Mysid Shrimp Read More »
Great Lakes Food Webs Science: WinterGrab II 2024
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” – John Steinbeck
This past week our lab once again sampled sites around Burlington Ontario in February for the WinterGrab II. In the Fall of 2021, a grass-roots group of US and Canadian Great Lakes scientists met to plan a set of standardized sampling for mid-winter across all of the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Food Webs Science: WinterGrab II 2024 Read More »
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” Lewis Carroll
The next science advice client that our lab at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) provides science advice to is related to our mandate under the International Joint Commission. While Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has many regulatory and conservation responsibilities, they are both our regular science collaborator in the Great Lakes, and also the Canadian agency lead under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, so they are ultimately responsible for reporting out and moving forward restoration activities.
Great Lakes Food Webs Science Advice Clients : #2 ECCC Read More »
“I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself” Oscar Wilde
I thought I would start a series to discuss some of the clients that our lab at Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides science advice to. I thought I would start with the International Joint Commission (IJC) because it incredibly important to the Great Lakes, but many people don’t really know much, if anything, about it. The International Joint Commission was created between Canada and the United States because of the recognition that the lakes and rivers that cross the borders affect both countries and that they would have to work together to manage them. The US and Canada cooperate to manage these waters “to protect them for the benefit of today’s citizens and future generations”.
Great Lakes Food Webs Science Advice Clients : #1 The IJC Read More »
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a scientist in possession of good data, must be in want of a paper (with respects to Jane Austin)
Though it is often hoped by students in aquatic sciences that a scientist’s duties involve mostly sampling in the field, the sad fact is that the vast majority of a scientist’s time is spent working on things which aren’t even data and writing, much less working on a boat.
So, What do Aquatic Scientists Work On in the Dark of Winter? Read More »
Time to celebrate a very busy and successful year for our Great Lakes Lower Trophic Lab research and monitoring activities. The 2023 year was the intensive field-year for the binational (US/Can) Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) for Lake Ontario. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is one of the federal leads for this initiative and
The 2023 field-year recap Read More »