As a recent recipient of the BC Innovation Award for Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture (SEA) system R&D my current research program focuses on the environmental and socio-economic aspects of integrated, Multi-Tropic Aquaculture (IMTA).  This form of aquaculture (polyculture), while rooted in centuries of practise in Asia, has only recently been considered as a potential SEA-system process in the world of modernized agri-food production. IMTA systems, by definition, are designed so as to capitalize on the organic waste stream associated with a ‘fed’ component (fish), with waste particulates used to support a filtration component (shellfish) and the dissolved nutrient fractions used by a plant (macrophyte) component.  This research is being conducted at a dedicated IMTA farm site I am developing off northwest coast of Vancouver Island, representing the first licensed facility of its kind in Canada. This innovative research is being coordinated through our regional Pacific SEA-Lab Research Society of which I am the President and CEO 
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I am also co- Director of the Coastal Aquaculture Research and Training (CART) Network (Temperate Initiatives) that is being developed at UVic with Dr. Mark Flaherty – (Director Tropical Initiatives).  Although a recent addition to the Geography Department, I have, as a consultant, worked on BC aquaculture issues for the past 20 years, bringing considerable practical experience to UVic for application to its international projects and initiatives.  My goal, as a faculty member, is to share the insights of this experience and my contacts with Provincial and federal regulators, industry, and other institutions/facilities associated with aquaculture in British Columbia, providing an opportunity to expose students to the operational framework of this industry and to place it in the context of coastal resource management issues and global agri-food production.