Science & research coordinator wins 2021 Atlantic Canada Aquaculture award

Betty House, veteran science and research coordinator, has been recognized for the 2021 Atlantic Canada Aquaculture Award.

House coordinates science, research, and innovation activities for Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector through the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA). She organizes the speakers for ACFFA’s annual Aquaculture Research, Science and Technology Forum for  researchers to exchange information on topics ranging from innovative production approaches to fish health and environmental management to new farming technology.

At this year’s event in St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick, House was presented her award in recognition of her years of contribution in the salmon farming sector.

“Betty House is a passionate champion of aquaculture, of the science-based research behind it and the people who work in it. She’s truly one of our industry pioneers,” says Tom Taylor, ACFFA chair. “Her work as ACFFA’s Science and Technology Coordinator has been crucial to the evolution and continued sustainable growth of Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector.”

Taylor adds House is often described as ‘the glue’ that brings people and projects together.

A graduate of Memorial University’s Bachelor of Science program and the Fisheries and Marine Institute’s Advanced Aquaculture program, House began her career on salmonid farms as an aquaculturist, then working at a Newfoundland eel farm before moving to New Brunswick to become one of the few women in our region at the time to work as a marine site technician on a haddock farm and later as a fish health technician on salmon farms.

For the past 12 years, House has coordinated science, research, and innovation activities for Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector. Her work with all the partners in Fundy Salmon Recovery has been crucial to the success of this project which has resulted this year alone in over 100 wild salmon returns in Fundy National Park rivers, the highest numbers in three decades.

“There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you put a wild salmon back into its native river,” says House. “It’s like being a part of nature, part of the ecosystem and delivering a missing member of that system into the rivers where it will have an impact on many future generations and help the healing.”

Approximately 155 salmon farmers, industry stakeholders, scientists, researchers, provincial and federal government representatives, and community members attended ACFFA’s 2021 Forum at the Huntsman Fundy Discovery Centre in St. Andrews. Of the 155 participants, 88 attended virtually.

ACFFA is an industry-funded association working on behalf of Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming industry in addition to a wide range of service and supply companies and organizations.