1996-97 BIO Biennial Review
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Science Review 1996 & ’97 of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography Gulf Fisheries Centre Halifax Fisheries Research Laboratory St. Andrews Biological Station Published by: Department of Fisheries and Oceans Maritimes Region 2000 Table of Contents Introduction Cutting Edge Sonar Technologies Explored for Pelagic Stock Assessment Norm Cochrane Improving the Skill of Search-and-Rescue Forecasts Peter C. Smith, Donald J. Lawrence, Keith R. Thompson, Jinyu Sheng, Gilles Verner, Judy St. James, Natacha Bernier and Len Feldman Studies on the Impact of Mobile Fishing Gear on Benthic Habitat and Communities D.C. Gordon Jr., P. Schwinghamer, T.W. Rowell, J. Prena, K. Gilkinson, W.P. Vass, D. L. McKeown, C. Bourbonnais, K. MacIsaac Designing and Building a CHS Bathymetric Data Warehouse S. R. Forbes, R. G. Burke, H. Varma The World Ocean Circulation Experiment Observation Program Allyn Clarke, Fred Dobson, Ross Hendry, Anthony Isenor, Peter Jones, John Lazier, George Needler, Neil Oakey and Dan Wright The Emerging Role of Marine Geology in Benthic Ecology Gordon B. J. Fader, R.A. Pickrill, Brian J. Todd, Robert C. Courtney, D. Russell Parrott Northern Shrimp in Southern Waters - The Limits to the Fishery are Clearly Environmental Peter Koller Fate and Effects of Offshore Hydrocarbon Drilling Waste T. G. Milligan, D. C. Gordon, D. Belliveau, Y. Chen, P. J. Cranford, C. Hannah, J. Loader, D. K. Muschenheim Risk Assessment in Fisheries Management A. Sinclair, S. Gavaris, B. Mohn Shellfish Water Quality Protection Program Amar Menon Distribution and Abundance of Bacteria in the Ocean Bill Li, P. M. Dickie Ocean Forecast for the East Coast of Canada C. Tang, B. DeTracey, W. Perrie, and B. Toulany The Maritime Shellfish Health Program and its Role in Molluscan Aquaculture and Environmental Monitoring S. E. McGladdery, M. F. Stephenson Page 1 Origin and Abundance of Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Striped Bass: New Perspectives R. Bradford Snow Crab: A Successful Fishery M. Chadwick, M. Moriyasu Geoscience Research in Support of Offshore Energy Development M.A. Williamson, R. Pickrill, K. D. McAlpine Research on the Dispersion of Sea Louse Pesticides in the Marine Environment F. Page, B. Chand, W. Ernst, G. julien, R. Losier Applications of Multibeam Data M. J. Lamplugh, T. A. Kearns, A. C. Craft BASIN: A Hydrocarbon Exploration Database and Model for Data Distribution P. N. Moir Climate Change and the Canadian Coast J. Shaw, R. B. Taylor, D. L. Forbes, S. Solomon, D. Frobel, G. Parks, C. T. O’Reilly Ongoing studies on larval lobster dispersal in the Canadian sector of the Gulf of Maine. By Gareth Harding, Ken Drinkwater, Peter Vass, Dwight Reimer, John Pringle, Angus Fraser and Jens Prena. Organization and Staff Page 2 Science Review Introduction and Overview OVERVIEW provinces and four laboratories (the Bedford In- The years 1996 and ’97 were ones where or- stitute of Oceanography (BIO) in Dartmouth, N.S., ganizational and budgetary reductions decisions the Gulf Fisheries Centre (GFC) in Moncton, N.B., taken in 1995 began to take full effect. Reductions the St. Andrew’s Biological Station (SABS) in St. throughout the federal government under its “Pro- Andrew’s N.B., and the Halifax Fisheries Research gram Review” will mean, for example, an approxi- Lab (HFRL) in Halifax, N.S.) Clientele varied from mate 40% reduction in staff and financial resources the traditional harvest fisheries to aquaculture to in DFO Maritimes’ Science Branch by the end of marine navigation and transportation to oceans Fiscal Year 98/99. Most of the impacts were felt sciences and marine environmental interests at in the first two fiscal years of the Program Review local, regional, national and international levels. as many people accepted early retirement incen- We were involved in climate change, Irving Whale, tives, leaving by March , 1998 or earlier. New staff- cod collapse, hydrocarbon development, etc. This ing opportunities were scarce to nil. Conse- report will provide information from all of these quently, concerns over the aging of the Govern- program and geographic areas. ment of Canada’s scientific population mounted. The GeoScience Centre Atlantic (GSC) of the Department of Natural Resources Canada, inter- nally reorganized in May 1996. The program sup- port subdivision ceased as a separate identity and was integrated within the three science subdivi- sions. In Environment Canada, the Environmental Quality Laboratory (ECL) has moved to the Envi- ronmental Science Centre at the University of Moncton Campus. The Environmental Protection Microbiology Laboratory remains at BIO to carry out shellfish water quality monitoring through- out the three maritime provinces. STAFF A number of key staff changes occurred within DFO Maritimes Science Branch during the review period. John S. Loch was named as the new Regional Science Director for the Maritimes Region of DFO effective 01 April, 1996. Joan Guilderson retired as the Director’s secretary and was replaced by Marie Charlebois-Serdynska. René Lavoie was named as Assistant Director and Branch Coordinator for scientific communications & liaison as well as Occupational Health & Safety. Joni Henderson moved to support René in those roles. Richard Eisner was named as Chief of the John Loch Program & Policy Coordination Division. He is supported by Sharon Morgan in BIO, Dartmouth and Yves Després in GFC, Moncton. Bob O’Boyle In the spring of 1996, following organizational moved from Marine Fish Division to become the changes approved in 1995, DFO Maritimes’ Sci- Coordinator of our Regional Assessment Office. ence Branch became fully operational. It had a He is supported by Dianne Geddes and Val Myra. new Director, John Loch and a new management The RAP Office is located at BIO, Dartmouth. structure with eight divisions, a Program Coordi- During the review period, an Oceans Act Coordi- nation office, an office for the coordination of our nation Office (OACO) was created by Neil regional scientific advisory process (“RAP”). Bellefontaine, our Regional Director General. These units were spread across three Maritime Faith Scattolon is that program‘s first Director; Faith also represents DFO on the Gulf of Maine Page 1 Marine Environmental Council, ably assisted by wealth of knowledge and experience with toxic Paul Keizer who replaced Brian Nicholls in that chemical issues, regionally, nationally and inter- role with Brian’s retirement. Various staff have nationally, was lost with the retirement of Dr. been assigned from Fisheries Management, Habi- Michael Bewers. It was also during this period that tat Management, Canadian Coast Guard, Policy we saw the end of the Marine Assessment and Li- and Economics to support Faith in OACO. There aison Division, responsible for the coordination are staff in the OACO both in BIO in Dartmouth and provision of scientific advice, with the retire- and the GFC in Moncton. Jim Elliott returned to ments of Brian Nicholls and Gerald Siebert. In his post as head of Oceans Science Division after 1997, Dr. Jocelyn Hellou transferred to Maritimes serving as the interim head of the former Scotia Region from Newfoundland Region to establish a Fundy Science Branch. Late in the review period, research program to investigate the biological fate Jim took on an international assignment, and effects of organic contaminants in the marine OceanTec, and handed over the reins for the environment. Oceans Science Division to Allyn Clarke. Guy Sirois, named as Division Manager of Habitat There were several departures from the Management during the 1995 reorganization, re- Aquaculture Division during ‘96 and ‘97: from the tired in 1997 and was replaced by Brian Halifax Lab there were Santosh Lall (Sep 96) - left Thompson. Wendy Watson-Wright, former Di- to join Natural Resources Canada, Carol Morrison rector of St. Andrews Biological Station and Di- (Oct 97) – retired and Mabel McMenemy (Jan 97) – vision Chief of our Aquaculture Division, moved retired; from St. Andrew’s Biological Station there to DFO, Ottawa and was replaced by Tom were Richard Saunders (Dec 96) – retired, Rich- Sephton. John Pringle, who was our Division ard Peterson (Jul 97) – retired, Jeanine Hurley (Jun Chief for Marine Environmental Sciences, took a 96) – retired and Ross Chandler (May 97) – retired. similar post in the Pacific Region and was re- From the Gulf Fisheries Centre, there was Clair placed by Paul Keizer. Paul Bellemare, longtime Bryan (Dec 97) – retired. Director of Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) Atlantic departed BIO in August 1997 to There were also staff movements related to the take on the position of Director, Policy, Planning closure of HFRL. John Castell’s fish nutrition re- & Marketing in CHS Headquarters. Paul was very search program and John Martell transferred to active in developing new database management SABS in ‘97, and the Fish Health Unit transferred technology to enable CHS to take advantage of to GFC in ‘97 (G. Olivier and G. McClelland trans- the rapid advances in multibeam surveying. Paul ferred to GFC in ‘98) was also a strong proponent of government, aca- demic and private sector partnering and initiated In March 1996, Dr. David Prior resigned as a number of projects in this area to the benefit of Director of GSC Atlantic. He was replaced on an all. Paul was replaced by Laureen Kinney, origi- acting basis by Don McAlpine. In September 1996, nally from Coast Guard in Vancouver, who was Dr. Jacob Verhoef was named as the new Director assigned to CHS Atlantic for one year. This as- of GSC Atlantic. In May 1997, Dr. Mark Williamson signment is part of a Fisheries & Oceans initia- was appointed Head of the Marine Regional tive to ensure cross fertilization between Sectors Geoscience Subdivision. and develop the team management culture. Obituary - Gus Vilks In the Invertebrates’ Fisheries Division, Bob Dr. Gus Vilks, a long time member of the GSC Rodger (HFRL), Don Jones (Miminegash) retired. Atlantic staff, passed away in July 1997. Dr. Vilks Through an inter-divisional exchange, Stephen was a well recognized pioneer in the international Smith became Section Head of Molluscan Fisher- micro-palaeontology community.