UPEI leads 3-year study on impacts of pesticide run-off on lobster

The University of Prince Edward Island is taking the lead on a team of researchers examining the potential impact of agricultural pesticide run-off on lobsters in the Northumberland Strait. The three-year study is funded by a Strategic Partnership Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and brings together partners from UPEI, the PEI Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA), and Homarus Inc.—a non-profit organization managed by the Maritime Fishermen’s Union.

 

 

“The lobster populations in the Northumberland Strait have been collapsed for quite a number of years, and no amount of fisheries measures seem to have improved that,” said Dr. Michael van den Heuvel, UPEI’s Canada Research Chair in Watershed Ecological Integrity and principal investigator of this project. “The conclusion is that there are other influencing factors that are not coming from the strait itself. They’re, in fact, coming from the surrounding land.” 

 

Dr. van den Heuvel explains that estuaries and coastal zones are under environmental pressure due to urban development, agriculture, and climate change. In the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, this is of special concern.

 

“The uniqueness of that area is mainly because of the proximity to shore on both sides,” said Craig Avery, president of the PEIFA. “You have a lot more contaminants, a lot more run-off, and you have them coming from both sides. The strait is right there, and there’s nowhere else for it to go.” 

 

Foremost among those contaminants are pesticides that are highly toxic to invertebrates, especially crustaceans such as lobster.

 

“We are interested in any effect that could potentially be an explanation. It could be temperature. It could be pesticides. It could be acidification. We are studying all of those aspects,” said Dr. Dounia Daoud, a research scientist with Homarus Inc. “I am proud that the fishermen are taking care of their resource. I think it’s important. They are at the origin of our involvement of this project. It’s original and new that fishermen are taking care of the future.”

 

This project brings together faculty and student researchers from diverse fields at UPEI, including Dr. Spencer Greenwood, professor of biomedical sciences at the Atlantic Veterinary College and director of the Lobster Science Centre; Dr. Brian Wagner, professor of chemistry; and, Dr. Michael van den Heuvel, professor of biology.

 

Dr. van den Heuvel indicates the project will seek to answer the question of whether or not pesticides are having an influence on organisms in the Northumberland Strait. The project will also establish new long-term monitoring methods to improve our understanding of how the environment changes in response to activity on land.