Page 14 - EUREKA 2019_Neat

André Killeen and Jordanna Bergman

I’ve spent four years learning a lot of these concepts in
theory, but being able to go out into the field is invaluable

because you get to put into practice what you learn and

see how it works in real life.

nchored in an aluminum skiff on a small bay at the with effective management policies. “Ideally, we’ll be able
eastern edge of Big Rideau Lake, Jordanna Bergman to protect ecologically and economically important game-
Anets a northern pike from a large cooler full of fish while simultaneously minimizing the spread of invasive
water and live fish and lowers it into a shallow plastic trough species,” she says, explaining that in addition to the acous-
at the bow of her boat. Wearing a pair of electric gloves that tic transmitters, up to 10,000 other fish will be externally
emit a low-voltage current, Brenna Gagliardi puts her hands tagged. “To do this, we need to collect preliminary move-
around the nose and tail of the pike, immobilizing the fish. ment information. We have so many questions about fish
Bergman swiftly makes a short incision in the pike’s belly connectivity in the Rideau Canal. Our receiver downloads
and inserts a cylindrical two-centimetre-long acoustic trans- and data analysis this winter will be the first step toward
mitter, calling out the tag’s identification number to André improving our understanding of fish movement patterns.
Killeen, who is sitting in the stern with a logbook. With the Until then, we just need the tagged fish to swim and do
precision of a brain surgeon, Bergman sews up the incision what they do.”
with a pair of sutures, attaches a thin plastic external tag On this sunny and warm mid-June day, Bergman and
near the tail fin with a tagging gun, measures the length undergraduate Biology students Gagliardi and Killeen are
of the fish for Killeen to write down, then gently lowers it spending about eight hours catching and tagging pike and
over the side of the boat, where it swims out of sight in the bass on Big Rideau Lake, an hour and a half southwest
murky water. of Ottawa. Bergman’s supervisors — Prof. Steven Cooke,
Thanks to a network of 85 acoustic telemetry receiv- a Canada Research Professor in Environmental Science,
ers set up throughout a 60-kilometre-long stretch of the and Biology Prof. Joseph Bennett, both investigators on
Rideau system, Bergman, a PhD student at Carleton, will be the $650,000 NSERC-funded research project with Parks
able to track the movement of that northern pike and 249 Canada — are in a second boat, catching more fish to tag.
other fish — including largemouth bass, common carp and “To do telemetry work, you have to do this part,” says
round goby — over the summer. The acoustic transmitters Bergman, who did research on saltwater species in Florida
emit pings every 20 seconds; the receivers, which look like and British Columbia before moving to Ottawa to start her
tall wine bottles immersed in the water, will register those PhD in September 2018. “You have to be in the field. You
pings if they’re within 200 metres. Once retrieved this fall, have to catch and tag fish. It’s so much better to be out
the receivers will provide a flood of information to analyze, here on the water, learning about the ecosystem firsthand,
although some will be left under the ice to record fish move- than reading about it or listening to somebody talk about
ment over the winter. it. When you do something hands-on, you form a stronger
Bergman’s research is part of a larger three-year project connection to it. You develop a deeper understanding.”
to determine the impact of human activities on the health Bergman’s thesis will focus on fish movement through
of the Rideau ecosystem and help Parks Canada come up locks on the Rideau Canal system, which is under increas-

14 science.carleton.ca