As Dr. Johnson has indicated, we happen to be part of an NSERC-funded research network called CAISN, the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network, which consists of people from over 20 universities as well as government scientists at the provincial level, such as Ontario, and the federal level, DFO.
I've always been in close collaboration with at least a couple of DFO scientists. Nick Mandrak, in Burlington, and his colleague Becky Cudmore are probably the two most knowledgeable freshwater fisheries biologists in the country. The amount of work they're managing to do is incredible. They're the ones who got this diffuse data and put it together, through a very fatiguing process, and came up with this first-order estimate of how many fish are crossing our borders. They're the ones who have—I wonder if I'm allowed to say this—suggested to border security that they contact OMNR, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, when they see fish being shipped in. I don't think the level of commitment they have to this problem and the amount of work they're doing has been well appreciated.
They're the scientists I do know. I would like to have more Nick Mandraks and Becky Cudmores in the country, on the front lines, monitoring this. They run a risk assessment centre, which basically consists of them and some students, to provide risk assessment reports on what the threats are and how we should prioritize them. They and their colleagues have put together a model, for example, to show that the northern snakehead could adapt very well to the Canadian climate and could colonize it, given the opportunity, not only in the Great Lakes but all the way to the territories. We need this kind of work. We need this information.
I study impacts, and I use the St. Lawrence as my laboratory, so I'm very familiar with the St. Lawrence River. I also examine long-term trends, and I need the data they provide to do that. I put together a couple of papers that showed the rate of accumulation in the Great Lakes and related it to changes in dominant vectors over time. I also compared it to other parts of the world. I couldn't have done that without information from other scientists on the ground, which is in either unpublished reports, technical reports, such as the ones DFO does, or the literature. We can't synthesize unless we get the big picture, and thus complete an accurate risk assessment, without this information, without these people.
I think that's what you're alluding to. So yes, I do work with them very closely.