Size Spectra Modeling to Assess Productivity, Recovery, and Sustainable Levels of Community Harvesting of Eastern Canadian Marine Shelf Ecosystems

Off the east coast of Canada we observe some marine ecosystems that are still recovering from prior overexploitation, such as the Newfoundland sh elf, while other regions have witnessed recent expansion of fishing industries, such as the waters off of Nunavut. This project seeks to analyze trends in overall ecosystem health and to assess the overall impacts fishing acti vit ies have on fish and invertebrate communities from the southern Grand Banks to northern Nunavut using a technique called size spectra modeling. Size spectra modeling ana ly zes the amount of fish within given size ranges observed in order to determine trends in observed community productivity and how they compare to what hypothetically could be observed under theoretical pristine environmental conditions. Our partner organization would benefit from such results as the determination of what areas are observing increases in fish productivity (or alternatively experiencing negative trends) and inform appropriate levels of exploitation.

Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Pedersen

Student:

Kyle Krumsick

Partner:

Nunavut Fisheries Association

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Concordia University