Genome project aims for better grip on health of Canada’s freshwater fish – The London Free Press

There are many good reasons to get a better grip on how fish are faring in Canadas two million lakes, not the least of which is that they can be eaten.

There is a lot of fish in those lakes. Its opportunity to tap a new food source to help meet global demands for sustenance, says Western University biology professor Bryan Neff.

Its probably the biggest single untapped natural resource in the world.

With a predicted massive global shortage of animal protein 20 years down the road, and farming already stretched and oceans over-fished, Canadian freshwater fish could become an important source of protein, Neff said.

Apart from the Great Lakes, any of Canadas lakes are under-used, he said.

When we think of freshwater fish, it pales in comparison to actual commercial fisheries, Neff said. We just dont fish our lakes that much, so theres this huge untapped resource.

Neff is one of 10 principal investigators in the Gen-Fish project investigating the health of Canadas freshwater fish by examining DNA scooped right out of lakes. The project began late last year.

Western biology professor Bryan Neff looks an Atlantic salmon roughly two and half years old that is being grown in a lab on campus. The Atlantic salmon is the only salmon native to the Great Lakes, originally native in Lake Ontario, but was extirpated near the turn of the 1900s. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

Almost two dozen researchers from schools, Indigenous groups and government agencies will join with the help of a $9.1-million grant from the non-profit Genome Canada for a multi-year research program to manage and conserve freshwater fish stocks. Other partners such as provinces and universities will provide other funding.

The team will use the DNA fish leave behind in the water, a kind of environmental DNA, to help get a better picture of whether or not Canadas freshwater fish are flourishing. Environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, also can be extracted for other species from the soil and air.

What were trying to do is further advance a technology thats relatively new but is available today, Neff said. You can learn a lot about organisms from their DNA.

Neff, whose love of fishing dates back to his childhood summers in Muskoka, said once the DNA sequence is determined, the fish species can be identified.

That is quite exciting, he said We dont have to capture the fish or necessarily have to see them, but we know DNA came from that species of fish. The important thing about this grant is were using Canada as our test bed.

Their findings will help determine how best to manage the more than 200 freshwater fish species found in Canada, of which about one-quarter are considered at risk.

The eDNA could provide an early warning system for fish facing potential threats such as pollution and climate change.

We dont want our freshwater lakes to end up like the oceans, Neff said.

Well hopefully be able to find answers for not just what is in that lake, but how many (fish) and if they are changing in abundance.

Fish, he said, are particularly susceptible to global warming because they cant regulate their own body temperature.

Im very passionate about finding out what is going to happen in 50 years when our lakes are all one or two degrees warmer in the summer, Neff said. Are our fish going to be OK? Sometimes the answers are going to be no.

HRivers@postmedia.com

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Genome project aims for better grip on health of Canada's freshwater fish - The London Free Press