Fleming College

A Fleming College project to research the use of digital imaging to identify individual muskellunge, has received $10,000 in funding from the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII).

Fleming College’s Muskellunge Fish Hatchery, working in partnership with aquaculture firm C&M Aquatics, applied for the funding to find a way to mark and identify muskellunge in our lakes and rivers without using invasive physical tags. Application of the tags is stressful to the fish, potentially painful, and can cause injuries and fatalities.

According to Fleming Hatchery Technologist Mark Newell, a method using digital imaging and image recognition software is less expensive and could be more reliable than the traditional tags currently used.

“A non-invasive method will result in fewer inadvertent injuries and mortalities,” said Newell. “This would represent a giant step forward in the ethical practice of fisheries assessment and would also be of economic benefit to an aquaculture company by reducing loss of valuable broodstock fish.”

The project has the potential for commercialization activities around the use of digital image recognition software for aquaculture facilities, and there may be other market potential for such software.

Newell and Fleming Scientist Gord Balch will work with C&M Aquatics’ Josh Clark on the project, which will be carried out in three phases over the next few months at the college’s Frost Campus.

Three hundred winter fingerling muskellunge will be tagged and kept at Fleming’s muskellunge fish hatchery for nine weeks. The hatchery will create a database of photographs of the muskellunge, cross-referenced with the information from the physical tags. Data will be collected at three-week intervals for two months to provide a comprehensive database showing growth changes. Once the database is established, it will be provided to software developers during the second phase of the project with the aim of creating a program to be used in field trials in the third phase.

The Lake Simcoe Muskellunge Restoration Project is in its fourth year at Fleming College. The aim of the project is to restore a healthy breeding population of muskellunge to Lake Simcoe. The restoration project currently uses tags to identify the fish and assess the success of the reintroduction program.

The Fleming College Fish Hatchery is also providing muskellunge for a live display at the Royal Ontario Museum. Water: The Exhibition opens on March 5 at the ROM.

Located in the heart of Central Ontario, Fleming College has campus locations in Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg and Haliburton. Named for famous Canadian inventor and engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, the college features more than 90 full-time programs in Business and Technology, Continuing Education and Skilled Trades, Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Visual Arts, Education, Health and Wellness, and Law, Justice and Community Services. Fleming College has more than 6,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time students, and 58,000 alumni.

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For more information:
Laura Copeland, Communications Officer, 705-749-5530 x 1370 or copeland@flemingc.on.ca