Topics include: Capacity Building; Conservation
Country/Region: Canada
There is no other institution in Canada like the Huntsman – a private not-for-profit social enterprise with an oceans focused mission that also conducts world-class aquatic contract research services. Our storied past is intertwined with giants in the fields of aquatic and fisheries research. And to locate the Huntsman within beautiful St. Andrews-by-the-Sea exemplifies sage wisdom indeed. The Huntsman idea began in 1967, with Dr. John Anderson leading the charge, and testing the concept through the Visiting Investigators Program at the St. Andrews Biological Station in 1968. Success of this program provided further impetus to proceed with legal incorporation of the Huntsman Marine Laboratory in early 1969 as a completely separate, federally incorporated, non-profit, registered charitable organization. Our initial membership involved a consortium of 20 universities and several government departments that came together to become a “co-operative venture in learning.” In 1987, our name was formally changed to The Huntsman Marine Science Centre to better reflect our growth from simply being a field station to operating as an important regional centre, but our overall mission and vision did not change. As we neared our 30th year in 1999, the financial model of the Huntsman presented significant challenges for our long-term sustainability as the university members could no longer sustain the increasing costs to maintain the operations and no single university was willing to step up to assume our overall administrative and financial responsibility. Earlier in 1997, the Future Directions Committee of the Board of Directors had recommended to operate the Huntsman with two separate divisions – an Education and University Research Division and a Contract Research and Development Division. Indeed, Dr. John Anderson wrote in our 1998-99 Annual Report that:“…the more interesting challenge will be to involve University researchers in the conduct of, and delivery to industry, of aquaculture-oriented R&D. This is surely a win/win/win/win opportunity for universities, industry, government, and Huntsman.”His words were focused on the aquaculture industry but today, at the time of this writing in early 2021 and now past 50 years of age, Huntsman is meeting this challenge as we presently operate with two primary “divisions” that together, along with separate Hospitality and Vessel Departments, drive our revenue generation activities:Education & Outreach – Academic (University), Public Education and the Fundy Discovery Aquarium remain our priority areas of activity within this single consolidated department. New to the mix is a focus on the tourism “edutainment” sector (through Huntsman Marine Experiences™) and a strong outreach component as a means to capture the imaginations and expose a greater cross-section of society to the importance and wonders of our oceans.
Aquatic Biosciences – The aquaculture sector remains one of our top target sectors for on-site contract research activities through Breeding & Genetics but we have also diversified our expertise to include Aquatic Animal Health and Aquatic Toxicology. This department also presently includes Taxonomy & Biodiversity to round out our extensive aquatic research facilities and expertise within a single operational department. The win/win/win/win opportunity as described by Dr. Anderson decades ago has come to fruition as our research activities typically also involve more than 10 graduate students and Post-doctoral Fellows at any given moment in time from numerous institutions across Canada.