High through-put digital field-based fish measurement system

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Studies targeting the role of fish in aquatic ecology, evolution and physiology depend critically upon a few basic measurements that are fundamental to the organism and their role in their ecosystem. The most critical of these measurements include body size, sex and reproductive status, yet collecting those crucial data have traditionally been time consuming and logistically difficult under unfavourable field conditions, thus limiting project and dataset size as well as data quality. The proposed infrastructure, a field-based digital measurement system for fish, will automate the collection of critical data under difficult field conditions permitting very large sample numbers with excellent data quality. The system is composed of a dedicated weather-proof computer built into a measuring board that digitizes individual fish length, weight, sex, and maturation status. The board also houses a PIT tag reader for studies that follow individually tagged fish, and is connected to a separate, but integrated, field scale capable of measuring accurately on moving platforms, even when partially submerged. Having these digital measuring capabilities as an integrated unit will transform data collection from taking 5-10 minutes to under 20 seconds for each fish, a significant efficiency increase when multiplied over the hundreds or thousands of fish that must be measured for the large-scale projects conducted by the co-PIs of this project. The proposed fish measuring system will streamline the applicant's (and their student's) field, hatchery and wet-lab data collection, allowing larger sample sizes and more accurate data collection than was possible before this equipment was available (the digital measuring board was first available two years ago). The proposed infrastructure is critical for studies targeting fish population dynamics for at-risk and exploited species, thus helping maintain Canada's natural resources, and will be of a significant benefit to current and future projects involving collaborators in the fisheries and aquaculture industries. The infrastructure will also allow the CoPIs to generate fundamental ecological and evolutionary datasets dealing with habitat/growth/reproduction interactions, and body size-reproduction trade-offs, among others.