If humans could breathe water, Maéva Gauthier would spend weeks in the sea. Instead, the master’s graduate (Earth and Ocean Sciences) must content herself with the robotic reach of an underwater vehicle. Under the supervision of Dr. S. Kim Juniper, now the associate director of science at NEPTUNE Canada, Gauthier studied the impact of bottom trawling on deep-sea ecosystems off Bamfield. “It is basically dragging a net on the seafloor for kilometres at a time, and the width of these nets can be up to 70 metres, which can rip up many species from their homes,” she says. “It’s important to know its impact if we still want to have fish on our plates in the future and keep jobs for fishers too.”

Read about Maéva's research in the June 2012 issue of The Ring.