Cornell University researcher Dr. Paul Bowser and New York Sea Grant (NYSG) Fisheries Specialist Dave MacNeill were named the recipients of the Sea Grant Association’s first-ever “Research to Application Award.”

Lake Ontario is New York’s largest sport fishery, in terms of both angler days and expenditures. According to a report published in partnership with NYSG, at the peak of the lake’s fisheries’ growth, at least $100 million in angler expenditures accrued to communities on or near Lake Ontario.

In a newly-funded two year NYSG study, Drs. Paul Bowser and James Casey are examining the transmission process of VHSV, the virus that causes Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, a fish disease that has been found in a wide diversity of species in the Great Lakes Basin. The goal is so that better bio-safety protocols and decontamination methods can be developed.

The decline in the number of anglers in New York’s Lake Ontario region over the last decade-and-a-half has raised concerns. With the region’s economy based to a large extent on sportfishing, NYSG-funded investigators are exploring some marketing and management strategies that could help sustain the economies of coastal communities along Lake Ontario.

Since 1971, New York Sea Grant has supported nearly 600 Scholars at a total cost of over $9 million. “It began my career in Great Lakes resources,” says NYSG’s Dave MacNeill of his Sea Grant Scholar days. “It made me realize this is what I want to do.”