How fish can tell us what we are doing wrong

Randy Shore,
May 18, 2010
The Vancouver Sun

Fish can tell us about the environmental stressors that are depleting their numbers in B.C. and around the world, if we can just figure out what they are saying, according to an organizer of an international symposium on fish behaviour.

"Fish are the canaries in the mine shaft," said Felix Breden, chairman of SFU's biology department. "They can help us learn much more about climate change and human impacts on the environment."

"The missing sockeye in the Fraser River are obviously telling us that there is a problem," he said, citing B.C.'s most infamous ecological mystery.

More than 100 scientists who have gathered at Simon Fraser University this week are pooling their knowledge to find novel ways to use observed fish behaviour to monitor pollutants in the environment.

Read more in The Vancouver Sun