A. G. HUNTSMAN AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE MARINE SCIENCES

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ANNOUNCEMENT
The A.G. Huntsman Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2017 A.G. Huntsman Medal will be presented to Dr. Jeffrey A. Hutchings of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. The award ceremony will take place on November 28, 2017 at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Following the ceremony, Dr. Hutchings will present a distinguished lecture entitled “Resilience and Recovery of Marine Fishes: Lessons Learned 25 Years On”.

THE A.G. HUNTSMAN AWARD was established in 1980 by the Canadian marine science community to recognize excellence of research and outstanding contributions to marine sciences. It is presented by the Royal Society of Canada. The award honours marine scientists of any nationality who have had and continue to have a significant influence on the course of marine scientific thought. The Award is named in honour of Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman (1883– 1973), a pioneer Canadian oceanographer and fishery biologist.

The A.G. Huntsman Award was established through principal contributions from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the Province of Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Additional endowment was granted by the LiFT Family Fund through Gift Funds Canada.

The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia is Honorary Patron of the A.G. Huntsman Award.

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Jeffrey Hutchings is Professor of Biology at Dalhousie University where he holds the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Chair in Fish, Fisheries and Oceans. He is a world-renowned expert in the life history and evolution of fishes, such as Atlantic salmon, Atlantic cod, and brook trout. He has studied factors causing their depletion and affecting their recovery, and he has worked towards the conservation of fish and management of fisheries. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) in 2015.

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Dr. Hutchings has been heavily involved in the provision of science advice to decision-makers. He chaired Canada’s national science advisory body on species at risk (COSEWIC), a committee with statutory responsibilities to the federal government. He has been invited to appear before eleven parliamentary standing committees and is Science Advisor to Loblaw Companies Ltd on its sustainable seafood policies. He has also served, on three occasions, as External Audit Advisor to the Auditor General of Canada. Co‑founder and Past-President of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, he chaired the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel (2012) on the effects of climate change, fisheries, and aquaculture on Canadian marine biodiversity.

The photograph on the website header shows the CSS Hudson in Scott Inlet, Baffin Island, on September 6, 1977. The cliffs in the background are 300 or more metres high. In the fall of 1976, Bedford Institute of Oceanography scientists had observed an oil slick off the Inlet but because of ice conditions at the time they were unable to locate its source or to determine its extent. So in 1977 and again in 1978, CSS Hudson returned to measure the background levels of petroleum residues in the eastern Arctic and also to investigate the geology of the Baffin Island shelf. Together, the chemical and geological studies demonstrated that the slick at Scott Inlet is the result of natural seepage of petroleum from the walls and bottom of the submarine trough that cuts across the continental shelf in this area. This image of CSS Hudson appears on the Huntsman Medal. Photograph by Roger Belanger.