Juanes Lab

07/16/2024

07/16/2024

06/08/2023

Singing fish in a sea of noise, an article written by Juanes Lab MSc student Kenzie Woods was recently published in Fisheries, and plainfin midshipman fish took the spotlight on the front cover.

Read about how cool these fish are, including their different vocalizations, parental care behaviour, and how they’re being affected by human noise in this “Cool Fish” column photo article: https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10907

University of Victoria Mitacs American Fisheries Society

05/31/2023

Forage fish, juvenile salmon, kelp...what more could you ask for? A great collaboration with Coastal Watershed Institute that began as a UVIC Biology directed studies in the Juanes Lab is now published. "Dynamics of juvenile salmon and forage fishes in nearshore kelp forests" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.3957

08/06/2022

Our new paper examining how nesting plainfin midshipman fish respond to noise was just published in Animal Behaviour. Led by Mackenzie Woods and supported by Nick Brown, Kat Nikolich, William Halliday, Sigal Bashine, and Francis Juanes, this study found that noise increased defence behaviour of nest-guarding fish in the lab, but not in egg-guarding fish in the field, demonstrating that context and testing environment influence behavioural responses to noise.

https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1fWdTmjL~dYO

03/08/2022

Our recent paper on global soniferous fish diversity has been published in Reviews In Fish Biology and Fisheries. In this paper, we determine that 989 fish species from 133 families and 33 orders produce active sounds, but only 4% of fishes have been examined!

This research was made possible by an international collaboration. This included the lead author, Audrey Looby, reviewing over 3,000 documents, support from the Mitacs Canada Globalink program, Nserc Canada funding, and vital data provided by the Fish Base.

This data allowed Sarah Vela and MERIDIAN to develop http://FishSounds.net as part of our ongoing collaboration. This web portal will allow us to continue to archive soniferous fish diversity and make this data freely available. This feels like the start of something big!

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11160-022-09702-1
doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09702-1

10/29/2021

We have launched www.FishSounds.net! A project aimed at cataloguing and sharing data on soniferous fishes. This collaborative effort has partners at
UF IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station,
University of Victoria, MERIDIAN, Dalhousie University, with data from FishBase, iNaturalist.org, and countless acoustic researcher.

Special thanks to the FishSounds team- Audrey Looby, Amalis Riera, Sarah Vela, Kieran Cox, Santiago Bravo, Rodney Rountree, Francis Juanes, Laura Reynolds, and Charles Martin!!

08/11/2021

A new research article from our PhD student Micah has been uploaded to CJFAS in the “just-in” section (https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2021-0088). In this article he compares automated 3D otolith morphometrics to manual 2D and automated 2D methods. He found that overall, the automated 3D method was not only faster, but it captured relevant z-axis information that is not possible to reduce in a photograph. This is a nice paper for fisheries managers and researchers to read when considering the way they will measure otoliths.

08/02/2021

One of our lab programs, the Southern B.C. Adult Salmon Diet Program, was recently covered by the National Observer. This research is an important ecosystem monitoring project centered around chinook and coho salmon here in Southern BC. This program has become a success due to the information sharing and mutual respect between our university personnel on the program and our citizen scientist anglers. To learn more, feel free to join the page. We also have an essay in Fisheries (https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10478).

Squeezing out fish stomachs and poking through intestines may be distasteful, but it’s part of a collaborative effort by researchers and recreational fishermen to save endangered salmon and divine climate-fuelled shifts to the marine food web.

Anglers and researchers delve into fish guts to save salmon: http://ow.ly/xyiY50FEdLG

07/07/2021

Are you fishing for rockfish?! We need your help!

If you capture a tagged fish, we’d love to hear about it - please follow these steps to help with our data collection:
- Take a photo of the fish & tag number (note: the tag may be a different colour than the one shown in the photo)
- Record date, location & depth of capture
- Return to water using a descending device (a SeaQualizer is shown on the poster, but please use any method of descending you are comfortable with) - Email or call: Hailey Davies ([email protected]) or Dana Haggarty ([email protected], 250-327-4860)
- Earn a rockfish hat reward!
Bonus - log your catch using the MyCatch or FishingBC app

Documenting tagged rockfish will help us, researchers based out of the University of Victoria and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, as we study the effectiveness of descending devices at increasing long-term survival of BC inshore rockfishes. If you’d like more info about the work we’re doing, we are happy to get in touch!

Nserc Canada Fishing BC Go Fish BC MyCatch by Angler's Atlas

06/01/2021

In a recent interview with CBC Quirks, Francis Juanes discusses the implications of ocean noise pollution, changing soundscapes, and the anthropocene ocean

University of Victoria Nserc Canada Science

Ocean acidification from greenhouse gases, noise pollution are making it harder for marine species to hear

05/18/2021

We are pleased to announce a fully-funded PhD position based out of the University of Victoria in Biology working with Dr. Francis Juanes, Dr. Caren Helbing, Dr. Mary Lesperance, and Dr. Morgan Hocking on the topic of developing environmental DNA (eDNA) as a tool for monitoring Oolichan populations in BC. The project will involve fieldwork in remote rivers in Douglas Channel and Gardner Canal, working with Haisla and Ecofish Research Ltd. search staff. More details in the link below.

The desired start date is September 2021 or January 2022. Interested applicants can send a resume and cover letter that clearly identifies their experience to [email protected].