Our scientists – From coast to coast to coast – Megan Otu
Learn more about managing the organic waste from aquaculture operations.
Transcript
My name is Megan Otu and I'm a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans.
I work at the Freshwater institute.
We look at habitat impacts around aquaculture. My research in benthic ecology is looking at the sediment chemistry around the fish farms and with cage aquaculture it's an open net and there's a release of waste below so, as fish feed they also poop.
So at the bottom there becomes a change to the sediment chemistry and deposition and the invertebrates that live there have to tolerate certain conditions.
There's going to be decomposition of that organic matter and this is important to Canadians because the sediment might look like mud at the lake bottom, we don't even look at it very often, but it's very alive, it's very dynamic and it's playing an important role in decomposition and recycling of nutrients and providing food for the higher trophic levels like fish.
So this is supporting both the wild fisheries and our investigation helps support regulation and licensing in aquaculture.
I'm very proud of what we do, I think it's important and I really enjoy the depth in which we look and investigate in things.
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