When the Fisheries Centre was created, there was growing concern amongst both the public and the North Pacific fishing industry about the status of marine mammals. The impact of commercial fisheries on marine mammals and the effects of the mammals on fish stocks were the major uncertainties. The Centre's Marine Mammal Research Unit was established in 1993 by Dr Andrew Trites to study the natural history and biology of marine mammals, interactions between humans and marine mammals, and marine mammals as indicators of ecosystem change. Methods employed include captive studies, field studies, and simulation and data analysis studies. The multidisciplinary approach combines the talents of marine mammalogists, physiologists, ecosystem modellers, fisheries specialists and oceanographers.
The Unit administers the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium - the result of a proposal by Dr Trites to combine and synergize the scattered existing research effort on marine mammals in the region. The Consortium was formed in 1992 to undertake a long term program of research on the relations between fisheries and marine mammals in the North Pacific and eastern Bering Sea. It is funded by the US Congress and unites the marine mammal research of the four participating institutions: UBC, the University of Alaska, the University of Washington and Oregon State University.
The Fisheries Centre houses 12 members of the Fisheries Research and Development Section of the Fisheries Branch, Province of British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, working on freshwater management, mitigation and recreational fisheries in the province, over a long coastline, in 22,000 small lakes and hundreds of larger waterbodies, and in thousands of kilometres of rivers and streams. These habitats are home to more than 350 species of marine and brackishwater fish, and an estimated 10,000 distinct stocks of Pacific salmon. The Section provides invaluable input to the Centre through financial support, student support, shared equipment and joint research activities.
Special emphasis is placed on applications of geographic information systems to watershed and coastal zone management. The research program balances studies of the high profile salmon fisheries with research on herring, halibut, groundfish and invertebrate fisheries that, while less well known, far surpass the value of salmon landings. Key research areas include salmon rearing and the land-water interfaces - for example a student research project tracking the importance to coastal forests of marine derived nitrogen from salmon carcasses. Co-operative research with other provincial government scientists includes fish-forestry interactions, ecosystem restoration, conservation biology and biodiversity, decision support, computer simulation modelling, and policy analysis.
In 2000, the Fisheries Centre created a Fisheries Economics Research Unit , devoted to advancing the management of global aquatic resources for the benefits of both current and future generations.
Collaborative initiatives in Aboriginal Fisheries synergize the strengths of traditional and emerging ecosystem-based management approaches to support Pacific Northwest Aboriginal fisheries scientists, research, and policy.
The Fisheries Centre also hosts two other units, Project Seahorse an international team of biologists, development specialists, and other professionals committed to conserving and managing seahorses, their relatives and habitats, while respecting human needs, and the Sea Around Us Project, devoted to studying and documenting the global impact of fisheries on marine ecosystems.
See our Projects page for details on other activities of the Fisheries Centre