SFU Symposium explores fish behaviour
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Felix Breden, 778.782.5467, (cell) 604.721.1913; breden@sfu.ca
Scott Pavey, 907.246.2144; scottapavey@gmail.com
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035; cthorbes@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University’s biology department is hosting this year’s presentation of a 33-year-old international symposium that prides itself on stimulating fresh thinking about fish behaviour, ecology and evolution.
The 2010 Ecological and Evolutionary Ethology of Fishes Biennial Conference (EEEF) will bring together close to 100 people from private industry, academia, environmental groups and government to discuss how environmental stressors are affecting fish behaviour.
Ethologists study behavioural processes in general rather than particular animal groups.
“Fish are canaries in the mineshaft and invaluable for the study of climate change and human impacts on the environment,” says Felix Breden. The SFU biology department chair has co-organized the 2010 EEEF (May 16-20, Saywell Hall, Burnaby campus) with Scott Pavey, one of his doctoral students.
“While many previous studies measure contaminants in fish or changes to fish organs, the studies at this symposium will highlight how environmental stressors are altering fish behaviour,” notes Breden. “This conference could produce new ways to use fish behaviour to monitor environmental pollutants.”
Biologists from the University of New Mexico and Ontario’s McMaster University will present research on the costs, benefits and merits of using fish behaviour as a useful biomarker of environmental disturbance.
“There is great effort underway to restore and protect highly valued but depleted fish populations, such as salmonids,” says Pavey. “A University of Georgia ecologist will lead a symposium addressing how natural variation in fishes’ behaviour may further recovery efforts after overfishing, habit destruction or mismanagement of salmonid populations have done damage.”
SFU biologists John Reynolds and Nick Dulvy will use their research as a springboard for debating how to reconcile an inherent conflict between fisheries exploitation and conservation. Both scientists study how a variety of environmental and human stressors are jeopardizing aquatic biodiversity.
Among the symposium’s keynote speakers are SFU biologists Larry Dill and Isabelle Côté.
International scientific journals, such as the Environmental Biology of Fishes, regularly publish the EEEF’s proceedings. The Vancouver Aquarium and the Watershed Watch Salmon Society are co-sponsors of EEEF 2010.
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