The Blue Fish Radio Show

Sean Simmons, founder of Angler Atlas and the My Catch angler app has been making significant strides with engaging anglers and students to use their fishing rods to gather vital data about fish health. His efforts across Canada have earned him strong recognition among his peers at the American Fishery Society, and has made Angler Atlas the top source for fish health data across Canada. Sean speaks with host Lawrence Gunther about the challenges of recruiting and retaining volunteers, and the collection of consistent quality data. The two also discuss the shortcomings of databases and how large language modelling and artificial intelligence might someday resolve the issue of cross-database compatibility. Listen to this episode of The Blue fish Radio Show and find out what it will take to break down barriers between water quality and fish health experts, and how to adopt a more holistic approach to assessing watershed health.

Aaron Hill, Executive Director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, joins Lawrence Gunther on The Blue Fish Radio Show to discuss why B.C. needs its creekwalkers more than ever. More than providing crucial information about when and how many salmon are returning to B.C.’s rivers, the data collected and reported is vital to managing fisheries, assessing climate change impacts, evaluating restoration initiatives, assessing watershed health, responding to fish health emergencies, and more. Aaron and other advocates are therefore questioning why the number of creekwalkers hired each year has been falling over the past decade.

The FishingBeyondFun.Org project focuses on better understanding how important recreational fishing is to people's food security, livelihood, culture, and identity across the Great Lakes. Project co-lead Dr. Vivian Nguyen is an Associate professor at Carleton University in the Environmental and interdisciplinary science program, and is Lawrence Gunther’s guest on The Blue Fish Radio show

It comes as a surprise to many that there are a series of underwater caves measuring 10 km in length that exist below the Ottawa River not far from Canada’s Parliament. Renowned cave diver Jill Heinerth has been busy exploring these caves and documenting the extensive network of life that rely on the cover the caves provide. Jill is the Author of the book “INTO THE PLANET - My Life as a Cave Diver”, and Lawrence Gunther’s guest on The Blue Fish Radio show.

Joining Lawrence on The Blue Fish Radio Show is Meredith Brown from Canadian Geographic, Meredith is one of the brains behind the Biinaagami project developed to inform and inspire people of all ages to connect with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence watershed. The gymnasium-sized map and its ten digital links to imbedded learning resources was developed over a period of several years with input from numerous colaborators, and has opened the minds of over 10-million people to the water that ties much of Ontario and Quebec and the over 140 indigenous communities together.

Prior to joining the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Experimental Lakes Area in 2014, Dr. Michael Rennie was a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Since 2015, Dr. Rennie has been a Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries and Assistant Professor at Lakehead University, where he continues to maintain a strong research program at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area as a Research Fellow. Dr. Rennie speaks with Lawrence Gunther on The Blue Fish Radio show podcast about the many challenges and rewards associated with having access to so many pristine lakes and native fishes, the responsibilities that go along with initiating fish health studies in nature, and the numerous external variables that both drive and challenge his research.

Jérôme Marty is the Executive Director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR). The IAGLR is about to hold their 68th international conference and it couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Jerome speaks with Lawrence Gunther on The Blue Fish Radio show podcast about the importance of Canada and U.S. scientists meeting and collaborating on issues specific to understanding and solving issues impacting the Great Lakes. Science, politics, economics and climate change are making the work of researchers more challenging than ever before.

Dr. Cristina Charette, Research Scientist & Education Coordinator with the St. Lawrence River Institute for Environmental Science is Lawrence’s guest on The Blue Fish radio show. Find out how gobies have evolved over the past 20- years in the St. Lawrence River, their favorite habitat and food, how they have impacted ecosystems, how different predatory fish have adopted goby as their preferred food, what it means for their health, and how ALL these changes are still very much underway. Turns out there’s a lot more to this invasive species than we thought.