Colin Levings Official Site

North Surrey High School
North Surrey, British Columbia

University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
B.Sc. (Hon Zoology/Fisheries) 1965

University of British Columbia
M.Sc. (Zoology/Fisheries) 1967

Stanford University, Dept. of Biology
Pacific Grove, California, U.S.A.

Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Ph.D. (Oceanography)

Research Technician, International Pacific Halibut Commission (various Alaskan study areas)

Assistant Technician, Pacific Biological Station
Fisheries Research Board of Canada
Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Assistant Technician, Pacific Biological Station
Fisheries Research Board of Canada
Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Technician, Pacific Biological Station
Fisheries Research Board of Canada
Nanaimo, British Columbia June 1967-June 1968
Scientist, Fisheries Research Board of Canada
Biological Station
Nanaimo, British Columbia

Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans
West Vancouver Laboratory
West Vancouver, British Columbia

Research Scientist and Program Head
Fisheries and Oceans, West Vancouver Laboratory
West Vancouver, British Columbia

Research Scientist and Section Head
Coastal and Marine Habitat Science
Marine Environment and Habitat Science Division
Fisheries and Oceans, Pacific Region
(based at West Vancouver Laboratory)

Scientist Emeritus and Sessional Researcher, Fisheries and Oceans, Science Branch, Pacific Region, DFO/UBC Centre for Aquaculture and Environmental Research, West Vancouver

Habitats and food webs for juvenile salmon at estuaries on the Strait of Georgia, including environmental impact studies of port development and river channelization.

Effects of habitat loss on juvenile salmon in estuaries and rivers (ocean dumping, sewage, food web disruption); studies of habitat restoration and role of vegetation in food webs of juvenile chinook.

Evaluation of a large- scale estuarine habitat restoration project on a population of ocean-type chinook salmon at Campbell River; transfer experiments with juvenile chinook to determine effects of estuarine residency; studies of food web relationships of juvenile salmon in estuaries.

1985-1990 Research on winter habitat for juvenile coho and stream-type Chinook salmon, with application to habitat compensation from physical disruption and effects of pulp mill pollution (Fraser River and tributaries; development of ecological criteria for siting fish farms in the coastal zone.

1990-present Functional evaluation of restored juvenile chinook habitat and wetlands in the Fraser River estuary under the Fraser River Action Plan; migration patterns of salmon smolts using ultrasonic and radiotags; investigations of juvenile salmon in estuarine wetlands, including food web investigations using stable isotope techniques; development of marine foreshore habitat assessment methods, including use of GIS and remote sensing; assessment of acid mine drainage effects on estuarine ecosystems; ecosystem delineation in the Strait of Georgia, evaluation of the efficiency of mid ocean exchange of ballast water as a method to reduce movement of organisms by ships, development of a wetland monitoring guidebook used in community based monitoring, investigations of the importance of marine riparian vegetation for foreshore food webs, siting protocols for marine fish farms; assessment of the ecosystem effects of trawling and trapping, criteria for selection of marine protected areas; prepared and published book by UBC Press “Ecology of Salmonids in Estuaries Around the World: Adaptations, Habitats, and Conservation”; advice to a variety of DFO staff, NGOs, and citizen groups on estuarine and coastal fish habitat issues; reviewing grant proposals, scientific documents and journal papers; archiving data and images.

Co-supervised eleven M.Sc. and Ph.D. students; served on the committees for additional students at UBC, SFU, and University of Victoria (Zoology, Biology, Oceanography, Botany, Agriculture, Plant Sciences).

Sponsored visiting researchers Dr S. Swales, U.K.; Mr. Chen Canzhong, Xiamen, China; Mr. O. Mjaavatten, Bergen, Norway; Mr. N.A. Hvidsten, Trondheim, Norway; Dr. H. Seki and colleagues, Tsukuba, Japan; Dr Gernot Otte, Hamburg, Germany; Dr Jong Geel Je; Dr Si-Wan Lee; D. Rae-Seon Kang, Korea; Drs Rysuke Hosoda and Buichiro Murata, Osaka, Japan.

Canada-Japan joint research at the Campbell and Fraser River estuaries; lectured at the University of Tsukuba, Japan.

Canada-Norway joint research re fatty acid profiles in relation to river habitats; smolt migrations; visiting researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim and Institute for Marine Research, Bergen; lectured at re coastal zone management and habitat restoration at Department of Marine System Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University; Chugoku Government Industrial Research Institute, Kure, Japan; Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Seoul, and Sung Kyun Kwan University, Suwon, Korea; Department of Fisheries, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; various US universities and government agencies in Washington, Oregon, and California; collaborated with Dr Paul J. Harrison UBC Oceanography on ecological evaluation of the recovery of Fraser River estuary from sewage pollution; coordinated international Practical Workshop on methods for assessment of marine environmental health under PICES auspices (involved scientists from China, USA, Japan, Russia, Korea, and Canada).

Panel member, Strategic Grants, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Member, Puget Sound Technical Advisory Committee (coordinated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

Member of the National DFO Implementation Committee for Fish Habitat Management Policy.

1987-1989 Co-convener of National Workshop on Quantification of the Effects of Habitat Change on Salmonid Stocks and chief editor of resulting Proceedings.

Represented Science Branch on Fraser River Division Area Planning Committee and subsequently the Fraser River Action (Green) Plan.

Senior Editorial Advisor for Marine Ecology (Progress Series; 1976-2001); Associate Editor for Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (1989-1991); Estuaries (1991-1994); Journal of Oceanography (Japan) (1993-2001).

Member of Canadian Fisheries delegations to NATO (Belgium,1975), Norway (1988), Russian Far East (1992); Korea (1996); member PICES Working Group
No. 8.(Marine Environmental Quality) (1995-2000),
Pacific Coast Node Leader, Canadian
Aquatic Invasive Species Network (2004-2011)

Adjunct Faculty, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of BC

Honorary Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of BC (1990-2000)

Marine Ecology Summer Course Bamfield Marine Station (1975)

Integrated Management of Coastal Resources (UBC, IRES, with Mike Healey and Richard Paisley) (Graduate Course RMES 500A) (1997)

Member Independent Science Review Panel to Northwest Power and Conservation Council,
Portland, Oregon (2005-2014)

Member Independent Science Advisory Board to National Marine Fisheries Service, Columbia River Indian Tribes, and Northwest Power and Conservation Council,
Portland Oregon (2005-2014)

Member Scientific Management Committee of Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network
(2004-2011))

Pacific Fishery Licence Appeal Board (appointed by Minister Fisheries and Oceans Canada October 2007 and ongoing; appointed Chair 2019)

Strategic Science Review Panel for Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem
Restoration Project (2008-2011 )

Member External Independent Peer Review Panel for U.S. Army Corp of Engineers restoration project at the Skokomish River, Washington USA (2014)

Member Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre Technical Advisory Committee, Gibsons, BC (2019)

Founding member and Past President of the Pacific Estuarine Research Society

Member: American Fisheries Society, Coastal and Estuary Research Foundation, Pacific Estuarine Research Society, Canadian Nautical Research Society.

2005 – The Murray Newman Award for Significant Achievement in Aquatic Conservation: from the Vancouver Aquarium and Marine Science Centre, Vancouver BC

2016 – K.D. Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing (Awarded by UBC Press and UBC Vice President Research for the best book published by UBC Press in 2016)