Enhancing fisheries education through the Canadian Fisheries Research Network: a student perspective on interdisciplinarity, collaboration and inclusivity

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1 Departement of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
2 Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Bristish Columbia, Canada
3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
4 School of Graduate Studies, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
5 Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
6 Département de Biologie, Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada
7 School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
8 School of the Environment, St. Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science, Ecosystem Science, Science and Medical Education, Science Policy, Coupled Natural and Human Systems
Keywords
Education, Interdisciplinarity, Fisheries, Network, Fisheries research, Natural sciences, Social sciences, Canada, Policy, Fisheries management
Copyright
© 2017 Turgeon et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Turgeon K, Hawkshaw SCF, Dinning KM, Quinn BK, Edwards DN, Wor C, Parlee CE, Debertin A, Hawkshaw M, Nelson BW, Zhang F, Benestan LM, Angel E, Morse BL, Mombourquette D. 2017. Enhancing fisheries education through the Canadian Fisheries Research Network: a student perspective on interdisciplinarity, collaboration and inclusivity. PeerJ Preprints 5:e2291v2

Abstract

Fisheries sciences and management involve complex problems not easily addressed by a single set of stakeholders or methodologies from one discipline; accordingly, the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN) was initiated to increase fisheries research capacity in Canada through interdisciplinary and inclusive research collaborations. We compared the value of the CFRN students’ learning experience to that offered in traditional fisheries programs at Canadian universities in training post-graduate students to tackle complex fisheries problems. This paper presents 1) a review of the current state of fisheries education across Canada and 2) reflections on our training within the CFRN, and challenges to implementing its innovative approach to fisheries education. We found few dedicated fisheries programs in Canada and concluded that fisheries research typically relies on securing a supervisor with an interest in fisheries. In contrast, the CFRN enhanced our university training through interdisciplinary and inclusive research collaborations, and by exposure to the realities of industry, government and academics collaborating for sustainable fisheries. We propose a new approach to post-graduate level fisheries education, one that combines interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and inclusivity to produce more capable fisheries scientists and managers. Furthermore, we made recommendations on how universities, researchers, and funding agencies can successfully incorporate these themes into fisheries education.

Author Comment

We reorganized the paper and improved the structure. In the structured discussion section, we reported our experience with the Canadian Fisheries Network in the format of Lessons Learned and Recommendations. This new version have been submitted to FACETS.

Supplemental Information

Table S1. Description of the 11 Projects and sub-Projects within the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN)

Table S1. Description of the 11 Projects and sub-Projects within the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN).

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2/supp-1

Table S2. Distribution of university graduate programs with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory

Table S2. Distribution of university graduate programs with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory. Absolute numbers are given in parentheses.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2/supp-2

Table S3. Distribution of university undergraduate programs with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory

Table S3. Distribution of university undergraduate programs with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory. Absolute numbers are given in parentheses.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2/supp-3

Table S4. Distribution of university courses with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory

Table S4. Distribution of university courses with weak, moderate, and strong links to fisheries in each Canadian province or territory. Absolute numbers are given in parentheses.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2/supp-4

Figure S1. Topics covered by the students in the CFRN

Figure S1. General topics covered by the students in the CFRN organized by functional groups (colored wedges) and then by fisheries-specific topics studied (grey text). The size of the wedges represents the proportion of students in the CFRN addressing those specific research topics. MSE stands for Management Strategy Evaluation and MPA stands for Marine Protected Area.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2291v2/supp-5