DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH ON FISH BEHAVIOR AS PART OF FISHERIES SCIENCEIN CANADA

Fisheries research in Canada had roots in the late nineteenth century, developed gradually until after the Second World War, and then expand ed rapidly. The scientific study of animal behaviour also originated i n the late 1800s, but in Canada the field of fish behaviour was of min or interest until the late 1940s, when F.E.J. Fry and W.S. Hear establ ished influential research programs. Hear, in particular, was influenc ed by ethology, an approach to animal behaviour pioneered in the 1930s and 1940s in Europe by Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, and Niko Tinbe rgen. As the field of behaviour expanded and diversified, behavioural ecology became one of its most dynamic branches. Canadian fish behavio urists have actively contributed to this development. Analysis of publ ications in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, th e Canadian Journal of Zoology, and six leading journals of animal beha viour confirm these trends. Most Canadian fish behaviour research was based on salmonids until the mid-1960s, after which there was much gre ater diversity in study species. Migration, orientation, and reactions to environmental stimuli were the problems most actively studied by C anadian fish behaviourists before 1965. Since then, reproductive and o ther social behaviour patterns, feeding, and predator avoidance have b ecome areas of major interest.