May 3 , 2007

VANCOUVER AQUARIUM RECOGNIZES ACHIEVEMENTS IN AQUATIC SCIENCE

Murray Newman Award recipients include Dr. David Higgs and Gary Logan

Vancouver, BC: The Vancouver Aquarium honoured contributions from British Columbians to aquatic science last night at the 13th annual Murray A. Newman Awards, recognizing recipients Dr. David Higgs and Gary Logan.

Dr. David Higgs was awarded this year’s Murray A. Newman Award for Excellence in Aquatic Research. He has been the head of the Fish Nutrition Program at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) since 1975. His many collaborative research projects within the DFO and with other universities or institutions have primarily focused on improving the cost effectiveness of hatchery and marine aquaculture operations, minimizing organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus discharge from salmon farms into the environment, and enhancing the flesh quality or consumer acceptance of market-size salmon and sablefish. Higgs’ other major areas of study include nutrient and energy requirements, feedstuff digestibility, improvement of fish meal quality, nutrition-disease interaction and assessment of the potential nutritive value of salmon prey species.

Gary Logan is this year’s recipient of the Murray A. Newman Award for Excellence in Aquatic Conservation. He joined the DFO in 1972 and is currently the Rockfish/Lingcod Sustainability Team Lead, responsible for BC’s new rockfish conservation areas. His career highlights include acting as a Division Head for watershed restoration throughout BC and the Yukon, working as the Program Director for the Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Program, and publishing the management plan for lingcod within the Strait of Georgia. He is also the current chair of the Pacific Stock Assessment Review Committee.

The Vancouver Aquarium is also pleased to announce that the first annual Michael A. Bigg Award was awarded last night to UBC graduate student Cara Lachmuth for her work on the impact of boat engine exhaust on the southern resident killer whale population. Funded by the Aquarium’s Killer Whale Adoption Program, this award honours Michael A. Bigg, a research scientist who conducted pioneering killer whale research in the ’70s and ’80s before his premature death in 1990. The award will be presented annually to an outstanding graduate student studying the biology, behaviour or ecology of killer whales, or the conservation of their habitat or food supplies. 

The Murray A. Newman Awards were established as a tribute to Dr. Murray Newman, the founding director of the Vancouver Aquarium. When Dr. Newman retired in 1993, many of his friends and colleagues got together to recognize his contribution to public awareness and understanding of the aquatic world. Their hope is to create a long and lasting endowment for the Aquarium for years to come.

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For further information, please contact:

Brenda Jones

Manager, Public Relations

publicrelations@vanaqua.org