New Student Welcome: Eliza Preston
Hello! My name is Eliza Preston, reporting live to you from Halifax, Nova Scotia! I am so beyond thrilled to be joining the FishPeoplePlace lab as a graduate student researcher this summer.
I was born and raised on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples in Tkaronto (Toronto), otherwise known as “where the trees stand in the water”. Growing up in the city, I lacked a place-based connection to the ocean. I knew, however, that I loved aquatic ecosystems and the life that teemed below. I have memories of brisk fall afternoons watching the introduced chinook salmon run along the Humber River near my house, jumping upstream and defying all odds of nature. Spending 15 summers of my life at a summer camp in Northern Ontario was what really taught me that my connection to the environment is vital to the person I am, and it solidified that my life’s goal is to be a steward for our natural world.
Visiting the shores and rainforest of the Madre de Dios River in the Peruvian Amazon.
These passions ignited me to apply for a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology at Dalhousie University in the fall of 2020. Amidst a time of great uncertainty, I knew that the ocean was a bright lighthouse guiding me through the storm. My four years as an undergraduate student in marine biology gave me an incredible sense of the beauty and biodiversity of the ocean environment and gave me the opportunity to explore my horizons as a budding marine scientist. My final thesis was a love letter dedicated to understanding great white sharks and human interactions in Nova Scotian waters. Specifically focusing on surfers and divers, I interviewed those who had experiences with white sharks. This project was in hopes of mitigating attacks and protecting both participants of the study. This project gave me deep insight into the amalgamation of ecological research and human interactions and pushed me towards a master’s program in that involved the intersection of biology and management.
Now as a Master of Marine Management Student, I am learning to take my deep knowledge and appreciation for marine biology and ask how policy decisions can be informed based on that knowledge, along with diverse knowledge sets. Exploring Indigenous knowledge specifically has been one of the greatest joys of this program for me. I am learning to expand my worldview and epistemologies to include knowledge that was not previously shared with me in my natural science degree.
A winter trip to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
As a student with the FishPeoplePlace lab, my project will examine the social dimensions of Indigenous-run anadromous salmonoid hatcheries in British Columbia. I will work with three Indigenous-run hatcheries to explore how hatcheries contribute to social and cultural values for Pacific communities that rely on salmon. The goal is to understand and create more holistic and equitable recovery strategies for Pacific salmon. I am so looking forward to beginning the project and wading in some Pacific rivers this summer.