When Stefanie Colombo went searching for work after her undergrad, she found many of the places hiring Marine Biology graduates were aquaculture companies on Canada’s East Coast. The Brantford, Ont. native had never been to Nova Scotia before, but interested to learn more, she accepted a position with Scotian Halibut Limited in Clarks Harbour.
“Being in the industry helped me think about things differently than had I stayed in academia,” says Dr. Colombo, now the Canada Research Chair in Aquaculture Nutrition at Dal’s Faculty of Agriculture in Truro. “It gave me a different perspective, and made me realize I was really interested in research and this intersection with industry.”
It’s a mindset that’s stuck with Dr. Colombo as she now tackles one of the world’s most pressing challenges: how do we feed a rapidly-growing global population? Aquaculture already accounts for half of the world’s seafood, and is expected to grow to 60 per cent in a decade.
Dr. Colombo and her team are developing new, innovative approaches to aquaculture nutrition—including using microalgae as a food source—to improve not just the health of farmed seafood, but its overall sustainability. “A lot of people don’t see ocean culture in relation to ocean substantiality, but it really is,” she says. “If we don’t have aquaculture to meet our food demands, and we continue to rely on captured fisheries, that will have a huge impact on the ocean. For me, I see the long-term goals of aquaculture and I want to be part of that.”
Read the full article in Dal Magazine ...
Learn more about the research project Stefanie is doing with OFI, Improving Sustainability & Mitigating the Challenges of Aquaculture.
