Results from the Neptune Project  

Biography:

 

Ron was born and raised in Edmonton Alberta.  He attended the University of Alberta where he completed his B.Sc., M.Sc., and met his lovely wife Ingrid.  Ron has been a Research Biologist at Fisheries and Oceans' Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo since 1982.  His initial research activities focussed on the population biology of Pacific herring. They expanded to include learning the biology of euphausiids (krill), key prey for many marine species, and trying to understand why West Coast Vancouver herring and salmon populations go up and down.  This work formed his Ph.D. thesis and he was awarded the degree from the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1999.

 

His research interests expanded again and he is pursuing the understanding of herring population variability coast wide and salmon variability in the Strait of Georgia and the Central Coast.  He became involved with the NEPTUNE project because he is also interested in learning why euphausiid populations have been depressed for the last decade or so.

 

Ron is approaching retirement from Fisheries and Oceans and has decided to keep working as a biologist but now as a mentor and facilitator.  Of possible interest to the Nanoose Bay Probus Club is Ron's intent to develop a community-based marine ecosystem-monitoring programme for the Strait of Georgia.

 

Ron’s presentation will be on the Neptune Canada underwater data-gathering project.