VIU Fisheries and Aquaculture offers tours on World Water Day March 22

Vancouver Island University Fisheries and Aquaculture department is celebrating World Water Day on March 22 by offering tours of their sturgeon tanks and other fisheries facilities on the Nanaimo campus.

Visitors will see a fish and invertebrate hatchery, tank farms for sturgeon and trout, warm water tropical fish hatchery and laboratory facilities. A look at VIU’s aquaponics system growing basil and tilapia is also included in the tour.

“VIU was the first university in Canada to accomplish captive breeding of BC native white sturgeon,” said Dan Fox, fisheries and aquaculture technician at VIU. “Highlights of the open house include seeing sturgeon 40 years old and two metres long that are broodstock for the hatchery program, seeing sturgeon juveniles, and rainbow trout.”

There is also a warm water hatchery where the spawning of ghost knifefish was first observed in captivity.  Knifefish are an electric fish with poor vision that use electric fields to see their surroundings.

The Fisheries and Aquaculture staff is also excited to talk about their partnerships in the protection and rehabilitation of local watersheds and salmon-bearing streams.  Students and members of the public who visit the display booth on World Water Day will have the opportunity to learn about the Nile Creek /Qualicum project in habitat and fisheries restoration (Sponsored by Trout Unlimited Canada and Royal Bank of Canada).

The department is adding facilities, with the International Centre for Sturgeon Studies under construction on the Nanaimo campus and due for completion in September 2010. The Centre for Shellfish Research (CSR) was opened in 2004 to facilitate the emergence of the B.C. shellfish aquaculture industry.

Fisheries and Aquaculture is an area of specialization at VIU garnering an international reputation in applied research, technology transfer, training, and education. VIU facilities include three cool-water hatchery complexes, a warm-water hatchery, salt-water system, fish disease laboratory, and sturgeon, trout, and salmon research programs.

Tours take place on World Water Day, March 22, from 11:00 am to 3 pm. The fisheries complex is located at the top of the campus, centred around Bldg. 380. For more information, contact Dan Fox at (250)753-3245, local 2100, or Email to: Daniel.Fox@viu.ca