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FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015
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UNBC researchers reel in fish findings
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN
Citizen staff sallen@pgcitizen.ca
UNBC researchers have discovered that lake trout can be born and raised entirely in a diluted saltwater ecosystem, known as brackish water.
“Which is unusual because we thought of lake trout initially, until a few years ago, as a pure freshwater species,” said Nikolaus Gantner, an adjunct professor at the University of Northern B.C. who conducted the research with other scientists and UNBC grad student Ben Kissinger.
The surprise was that they are breeding in the brackish water, he said.
“We just discovered a new way of life for a species,” said Gantner, clarifying it’s not a new species because genetically it’s still lake trout.
The research, published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, found 86 per cent of the 58 trout collected had been spawned in the brackish water, and the remaining number migrated in from the freshwater lakes.
Field research from 2011 to 2014 examined trout taken from Husky Lakes in the Northwest Territories - a chain of five interconnected basins. The brackish water has varying degrees of salinity based on how close it is to seawater, but at its most concentrated is about half that of marine water. It’s also fed by an abundance of nearby freshwater estuaries and lakes.
“Brackish water is also home to more food than a lake would be... That may have led to them, over time, adapting to living in that brackish water,” said Gantner, adding it is not known when that evolution occurred but it could be over thousands of years.
The research was an exercise of precision - they used lasers to study fish ear bones that measured one to two millimetres across.
Like tree rings, the ear bones contain key information from the year of birth to the date of catch, Gantner said.
“I liken it to a black box in an airplane. It sort of records the life history of the fish by incorporating elements from the water into the ear bone every year.”
Researchers cut that bone in half and trained the lasers on the miniscule portion representing the various years, to pull out an element called strontium.
“It’s a very, very fine laser beam and as you run it across, it basically evaporates... a drop of material and that gets introduced in that instrument and that gets analyzed for
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Nikolaus Ganter holds up the ear bone of a fish used in his research.
the element.”
Once they confirmed strontium concentrations in the ear bone at birth, it could be compared to strontium levels in freshwater,
brackish water, and seawater. That gave them a baseline to prove the fish had in fact been born in the brackish water.
Gantner said the findings are significant
Locally (lake trout have) adapted to the conditions that are favourable for the population to do well, and that is to live in saline water. We had no idea that form of life existed before that.
— Nikolaus Gantner, UNBC researcher
on a number of levels.
“On a large global scale, we gain an appreciation for the things we don’t know about the Arctic,” Gantner said.
“Locally (lake trout have) adapted to the conditions that are favourable for the population to do well, and that is to live in saline water. We had no idea that form of life existed before that.”
Currently the Husky Lakes are accessed by snowmobile, primarily in the winter.
But there are plans to build an all-weather highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, which will likely pressure the brackish water population.
“Once you have that highway in there will be more spots where you can easily access the lake; there will be year-round access.” That brings forth fisheries management issues, he said.
“We cannot just protect the lakes because we think all the lakes spawn there, we also have to protect potential spawning grounds in that estuary.”
Gantner, who specializes in contaminants, said knowing where fish are born and spend their life helps researchers understand “where contaminants are being incorporated in the fish.”
The discovery fish have adapted to salt conditions is also important in the context of climate change.
“We started with the question, what if climate is warmer in the area or precipitation patterns change? Currently it seems to be stable, it seems to be buffered but if we have for example lower ice cover or shorter ice cover, there would be more opportunity for marine water to come in.”
That could increase salinity concentrations, so the hope is these fish could help scientists have a better understanding of how fish can adapt to changing conditions.
Convicted child sex abuser released on parole
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN
Citizen staff
A Prince George man found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy over seven years was released on parole in July under strict residential conditions.
Walter Albert Ceal, 47, was sentenced in 2010 to seven years in prison on charges related to sexually assaulting a boy he had first encountered while babysitting. The victim’s identity is protected
by the courts and was redacted from the documents.
“You continue to maintain that you did not sexually assault the victim,” the parole board said in its decision, dated July 6, which was one of the reasons it used to justify Ceal’s living restrictions.
His residence must be approved by the Correctional Service of Canada.
While Ceal has since agreed the “relationship” was inappropriate and admitted he was grooming the victim, the decision said Ceal
still believes he has “‘no harmful sexual behaviour’ and no ‘thinking that supports harmful sexual behaviour.’”
That, along with the failure to acknowledge guilt “is of great concern.” The offences involved numerous and progressive instances of masturbation, fellatio and anal intercourse, according to a Citizen story in 2012. The boy was between the ages of nine and 16 years old when the assault occurred.
“Your offences involved plan-
ning and grooming the victim and included fondling, (redacted word), anal intercourse, viewing of pornography and the making of pornography,” the decision noted.
That stopped in 2007 when the boy attempted suicide and made his first disclosure while under psychiatric care in the hospital.
“You caused psychological harm to the victim but have expressed little regret for your actions,” the board said.
In 2012, Ceal, who has no prior criminal record, lost an appeal
of his sexual assault convictions.
In reaching the guilty verdict in 2010, Supreme Court Justice John Truscott noted that while Ceal denied any sexual activity with the boy, he admitted he and the boy slept together in the same bed on many occasions.
“Your trial judge did not find you to be credible,” the July parole board decision said, “and convicted you based on the testimony of the victim and other evidence.”
— see CEAL, page 3
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