Teaming up with the University of British Columbia, Dalhousie University and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Cooke Lab students are spending the month of August studying sockeye salmon cardiac recovery following a fisheries stressor across various water temperatures. The salmon were captured from the Fraser River near Hope, BC and transported by truck to the Cultus Lake DFO Laboratory. Novel to salmon research, small heart rate and temperature loggers (produced by Star-Oddi of Iceland) are surgically implanted into the salmon providing real-time heart rate records from before, during and after the fisheries stressor. This project seeks to further our understanding of the physiological impacts fisheries and temperature stressors impose on sockeye salmon to help optimize conservation of this economically, ecologically, and culturally valuable species.
