The University of Windsor is spearheading a new research project that will help improve the way Canada's fisheries on fresh lakes and rivers are managed.
The GEN-FISH project uses environmental DNA to evaluate the health and stability of different fish species in the water.
"The idea is to take genomics, which is sort of an advanced study of genetics, of the fish and turn it into a tool for fisheries management," said project co-leader Daniel Heath, a professor at the University of Windsor.
The University of Windsor researchers are working with 12 other universities, national and provincial governments, industry and indigenous groups to complete the project. Research teams across the country will take water samples to determine what type of fish are present in the water, how many there are and if the population is healthy.
"Organisms in the water shed their DNA," said project co-leader Christina Semeniuk. "With our assays, you can collect that water, filter it and then use species-specific probes to basically say do we have this species in the water, do we have that species."
The project has received funding of $9.1 million from various funders including governments, universities and industries. Researchers believe this is the biggest Canada wide fresh-water focused research project in history.
"This is really going to be a game-changer, it's going to give us tools to get out there and sample those millions of lakes and hundreds of thousands of kilometres of rivers and do so efficiently and cost-effectively," said Steven Cooke, project co-leader from Carleton University.
The goal is to complete the survey toolkit within five years. Once the toolkit is complete researchers say it will have a big impact on the policies that manage commercial and recreational fisheries in Canada.