Andrea Reid, a PhD candidate at Carleton University who is taking a scientific and Indigenous knowledge approach to studying Pacific salmon, has been awarded a Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award.
The organization, although U.S based, provides support internationally and has chapters for almost every city in North America.
Reid describes PEO as a sisterhood focused on promoting educational opportunities for women through loans or scholarships at different stages, from high school to continuing education.
Reid grew up on Prince Edward Island, but her father comes from Nisga’a Nation on British Columbia’s north coast.
“I grew up spread between Canada’s two far coasts. Both of these communities are super far away from each other, but similar in the sense that they’re both small coastal communities that have a high dependence on water and fish,” Reid says. “That’s where my love of water and fish stems from.
“I’m trying to see if there are certain things that can predict migration survivors versus (those that) might die en route.”
Reid uses radio transmitters implanted in the fish to track their movements over thousands of kilometres. Specifically, she looks at how many fish make it to spawning grounds each year.
“Ultimately, I want to build bridges between Indigenous knowledge systems and the scientific approach to understanding the interaction between fish and the water and people.”
In 2021, Reid will be joining the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor at the Institute of the Oceans and Fisheries.
Friday, August 16, 2019 in News Releases
Share: Twitter, Facebook