Hodgson Family Foundation Projects

This project will study how juvenile fish use habitats around aquaculture net-pens in Parry Sound and compare their movements to those in nearby natural nursery areas, including sheltered embayments and wetland shorelines. Using acoustic telemetry tags, researchers will track young fish for two years to determine where they spend their time, when they move, and whether net-pens influence their risk of predation. By focusing on juvenile fish, this work addresses a knowledge gap about how human activities shape Georgian Bay’s fish communities.

This project will develop an integrated coastal resilience assessment system for Georgian Bay that combines advanced hydrodynamic modeling, wave and sediment transport simulations, and artificial intelligence (AI)– based hazard prediction tools. Using a coupled modeling framework, the project will quantify extreme water levels, storm-driven flooding, wave impacts, and shoreline erosion across Georgian Bay. The results will be delivered as actionable datasets, maps, and decision-support tools to GBF and its partners, supporting shoreline stewardship, habitat protection, and climate adaptation planning.

Mercury (Hg) remains a persistent threat to Georgian Bay as levels in fish remain high enough to warrant sustained fish consumption advisories. Hg accumulates in the food web and converts to neurotoxic methylmercury (MeHg). This study seeks to characterize where in Georgian Bay this toxic MeHg is produced. Furthermore, we aim to investigate how the invasive Dreissenid mussel, which has fundamentally rewired the Bay's ecology, impacts the microbial production of MeHg. This research will provide the first comprehensive survey of MeHg production in Georgian Bay.

A healthy, natural shoreline is biodiverse, allowing various kinds of plant-life to grow harmoniously, thereby supporting a rich food web. Access to water is made easy for land-dwelling and amphibious animals, and dead trees and branches provide shelter and help balance water levels.

This project will assess microplastics pollution across Georgian Bay’s waters and sediments using state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques and statistical frameworks to better assess transport, fate, and ecological risks of microplastics. The team will map plastic pollution at an unprecedented level of detail, quantify particle size ranges paired with new methods for error estimation and data harmonization, and apply these new data to develop hydrodynamic models of microplastics movement in Georgian Bay.