Post-doctoral Position #1: Foraging behaviour of American Lobster and development of alternative baits for the fishery

This project aims to better understand foraging responses of the American lobster to both natural prey and baits used in the lobster fishery.  The lobster fishery has been thriving, but it crucially depends on the bait placed in traps. The sustainability of the bait supplies for the fishery are thus a critical issue for long-term sustainability of the lobster fishery as whole.  We have developed a system that uses Baited Remote Underwater Video to document lobster responses to both natural prey items and bait, without the complicating factor of traps.  There are three possible next steps for this research:

• collaboration with alternative bait developers to provide scientific testing of bait performance, using a a combination of BRUV and trap tests
• lobster behavioural ecology using retrospective analysis of previously collected BRUV data (~10,000 hours!), facilitated by our development of a comprehensive ethogram for American Lobster
• development of AI-based lobster detection and tracking in BRUV data

All three projects are related, but require very different types of experience: marine field work and boats and fisheries, ethological and video analysis, and image segmentation and AI tools. Experience collaborating with the fishing industry would be beneficial for all three projects. The focus of the two or three-year post-doc will depend on expertise and funding.

Note: All three projects are pending funding approval. Time lines are short for one of the funding options, so applications will begin being considered immediately.

Interested candidates should have (or be about to receive) a PhD degree, with expertise in at least one of the project areas. To apply, send an email to Russell Wyeth with a cover letter explaining your interest and relevant experience. Please also indicate your nationality. Also include transcripts (unofficial are fine initially), a CV, and contact information for 3 references.

Post-doctoral Position #2: AI-based quantification of biofouling community growth and diversity

A key problem for many analyses of marine macrofouling is the laborious measurement of images or video.  Whether tracking invasive species, testing prototype antifouling coatings, or monitoring growth on aquaculture equipment, there is frequently a need to quantify the heterogenous community of organisms that grow on submerged surfaces.  This project aims to develop an AI-based solution to the biofouling analysis problem.  The proliferation of publicly available AI models presents an opportunity to streamline the assessment and analysis of biofouling image data.  In particular, our goal is to automate the extraction of both the identity (i.e., species) and amount (counts and coverage) of biofouling.  A range of machine-learning tools have been developed for biological image analysis in general as well as specific tools for analysis of biofouling images or video.  However, none has yet achieved widespread adoption. Importantly, though, none have yet been built around modern multimodal AI models that have undergone massive development over the last few years. This three-year post-doc will focus on using multimodal AI models to develop easily shared and implemented workflows for analysis of marine macrofouling.

Note: The project is pending funding approval. Time lines are short for one of the funding options, so applications will begin being considered immediately.

Interested candidates should have (or be about to receive) a PhD degree, with expertise in AI-based image analysis and segmentation. Experience with marine biofouling is a not a requirement, although would be an asset alongside image analysis experience. To apply, send an email to Russell Wyeth with a cover letter explaining your interest and relevant experience. Please also indicate your nationality. Also include transcripts (unofficial are fine initially), a CV, and contact information for 3 references.

Congratulations to Miranda Dennis, who completed their PhD in Mike Hart’s lab at SFU and Ka’ala Estores Pacheco who completed their MSc with Ángel Valdés at California Polytechnic, Pomona.

The overall finding from the research was that the two North American species of Hermissenda do not interbreed. Miranda’s work was based on genetic sequences that showed both that the two species were distinct and there was little or no gene flow between the two populations. Ka’ala’s work was focused on lab observations of mating behaviour – members of each species were happy to mate with each other, but when pairs were from opposite species, no mating was observed.

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Dennis, M.T., Ka’ala Estores‐Pacheco, A.L., Williams, K., Wyeth, R.C., Valdés, Á., Mooers, A.Ø., and Hart, M.W. 2026. Demographic Models and Behavioral Assessments Uncover Distinct Species Histories in the Pseudocryptic Nudibranch Genus Hermissenda. Ecology and Evolution 16(2): e73045. doi:10.1002/ece3.73045.

At the start of November, both Russell and Grace presented talks and both Grace and Ryan presented a poster each as well at the the inaugural North American Lobster Science Symposium. The talks have been share online, so here they are, along with Ryan’s poster.

Grace Walls – Biotic and abiotic influences on American lobster, Homarus americanus, response to bait.

[Video Not Available… ]

Grace Walls – Does the American lobster fishery need a bait testing service to
facilitate change in bait use?

Russell Wyeth, – Influences of prey type on American lobster agonistic behaviours

Ryan Bergman – Juvenile Lobster in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence – A Baseline Density & Behavioural
Survey

Huge congratulations to Grace Walls for getting the first publication from her PhD done. And past students Rachel Webber, Laura Brady, and Michelle Hodgson and many others members of the lobster team as well as all the harvesters who helped with boat time for the project all get a share in the credit.

Published in Fisheries Management and Ecology, this is the first of several planned publications from our lobster bait project. Grace shows that Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) is a viable method to assess baits for lobster fishery. This is important, because it provides a method for refining alternative bait development in advance of testing new baits in the fishery. Our hope is this will contribute to the fishery shifting towards a more sustainable approach to bait use.

One of our local community TV stations interviewed Russell about the work and the larger issue of sustainable bait in the lobster fishery.

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Walls, L.G., Webber, R., Brady, L., Hodgson, M., McGaw, I.J., and Wyeth, R.C. 2025. Assessment of a baited remote underwater video method to evaluate American Lobster (Homarus americanus) response to baits in nature. Fisheries Management and Ecology. doi:10.1111/fme.70026.

Exploring more sustainable baits for the lobster fishery was on the local radio – XFM.

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And Kieran Murphy and Russell were consulted on the prospects of growing the tunicate Ciona as alternative source of protein!

Our more applied science on lobster baits and behaviour and low toxicity antifouling has gotten a special profile on the StFX website. It part of a series showcasing all sorts of cool research done here. Shout out to Yulia who took the great photo at Tor Bay.

High schoolers from around the province arrived at StFX for a day of hands-on STEM-related activities, including stops in human kinetics, biology, math, nursing, and psychology. Thanks to Mike who ran a biofouling activity and Ryan and Aidan who ran a juvenile lobster foraging activity (with candies!).

Congrats to Wyeth Lab alumni Areej, Carmen, Hannah and Kero for our latest publication in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Everyone has moved on to other things now, since this one was delayed substantially by the pandemic. They worked over several years, conducting a bunch of experiments on how pond snails navigate in different flow and lighting conditions. In the end, we found the first evidence from any animal of switching between two types of navigation behaviours depending on the flow conditions. In laminar flow, the snails seem to be following chemical gradients (chemotaxis) while in turbulent flow, they are likely following the flow (chemical-gated rheotaxis).

Alansari, A.F., Ucciferri, C.C., Stevens, H., Youssef, K., and Wyeth, R.C. 2025. Navigational behaviour of Lymnaea stagnalis in response to chemical and flow cues. J Exp Biol 228(16): jeb250746. doi:10.1242/jeb.250746. Alternate link for PDF access.

Mike Murtaugh successfully defended his MSc thesis earlier in August and has just submitted his final thesis.  His thesis (title: Changes in Biofouling Composition Mediated by a Sub-Optimal UV-C Antifouling Treatment and the Relationship Between Larval Availability and Recruitment) involves two rather independent chapters. The first examines the effect of very low UV dosing on biofouling community composition. The idea was to explore what may happen at the margins of UV antifouling illumination, and what happened, at least sometimes,  was community composition change. The second tracks a number of time series relevant to biofouling community composition: larval abundances in the plankton, young recruits, and later abundances in fouling communities. He found, as expected,  that propagule pressure, settlement, and/or later growth can variably contribute to producing biofouling communities observed in our local waters.  A fantastic achievement!  Next up: Mike is sticking around to complete his PhD, again focusing on a mix of biofouling and antifouling science. 

This year was the first X-STEM camp organized for indigenous and African descent high schoolers here at StFX.   About 30 students came for four days to participate in a variety of STEM related activities. Our role was during the visit to Crystal Cliffs. Lexy ran an  activity focused on animal chemical senses involving candy (instantly popular…).  Ryan, Liam, and Aidan went snorkeling for juvenile lobsters, and Russell explored the diversity that could be D-netted from the salt water lagoon.  Lots of kids enjoying the outside time and engaged with biodiversity – exactly what we were hoping for.