Graduate student opportunities

Our first clue that populations are in trouble is based on the rate at which fish are caught - e.g., catch per day of fishing. This is important because in Canada, as elsewhere, there are so many fish populations that it is impossible to monitor each one. However, catch rates are often quite variable because of differences in skill among fishers, differences in the number of fish available among populations, and random variation across days, weather, or other factors that might affect a fish’s interest in taking bait.

What if catch rates didn’t decline with density? That is, what if some fish populations were declining, but catch rates stayed relatively constant, or vice versa: catch rates drop quickly, but the population is actually quite stable? This is a concern for management and conservation, because it may lead to fishing restrictions, or management actions, being misapplied, potentially leading to even worse outcomes. There are currently three main reasons why changes in catch rates may not represent changes in abundance:

  1. Fish aggregate and fishers can target and capture these aggregations, meaning catch rates stay high as abundance declines;

  2. Fish vary in their willingness to be caught, so the most catchable fish are removed first, meaning catch rates drop quickly as abundance stays high;

  3. Fishers vary in their skill and willingness to tolerate low catch rates, meaning poor anglers leave as abundance drops, so only skilled anglers remain - the measured catch rate stays high

We have one graduate position that we are looking to fill anytime.

  1. Ph.D.-level opportunity

    Integrated understanding of various mechanisms linking catch rates to abundance

    While there are multiple reasons for catch rates to vary differently than abundance, there have been no efforts to determine how these mechanisms interact. Are these mechanisms always at play, but simply counter-act one another? Are there certain conditions when some mechanisms are more likely to occur? We seek a Ph.D.-level student with an interest in fishing and fish biology to actively monitor multiple fisheries in the British Columbia interior to determine how these mechanisms occur and interact in real fisheries. Specifically, the student will mark fish, interview anglers, monitor abundance through mark-recapture, and create computer models to explore outcomes. This project will also work closely with regional managers to understand their fisheries and report findings back to them. As the local experts, managers and anglers have a lot of information to provide that will greatly shape the outcomes of this work.

    The ideal applicant will be a good communicator, have interest in fishing and natural sciences, be open to learning skills in the social sciences, have experience manipulating and analyzing data in R, and have an interest in fisheries science and management.

    Please email a letter of interest, an overview of courses taken and grades, and a copy of your resume/CV to Brett van Poorten by December 15, 2024. Funding is available, though preference will be given to students applying for NSERC scholarships, or similar.

    Please email a letter of interest, an overview of courses taken and grades, and a copy of your resume to Brett van Poorten by December 31, 2024. This position is still contingent on the availability of funding, though we still encourage applications from potential students applying for NSERC scholarships, or similar.