As the next generation of tidal energy projects move toward deployment in the Bay of Fundy, a team that includes FORCE, Acadia University, Ocean Tracking Network, the Confederacy of Mi’kmaw Nations and others is working to better measure and understand how fish interact with turbines – through the Natural Resources Canada-supported Ocean Sensor Innovation Platforms (OSIP) project.
Central to this work is Dr. Brian Sanderson, a physicist and marine scientist, whose relentless pursuit of understanding this subject has focused and accelerated monitoring efforts for years.
“The first question isn’t whether we detect a fish, it’s whether we understand if the instruments we use are capable of detecting it,” says Sanderson. “In Minas Passage, where currents are extremely fast, you have to test the monitoring system itself before drawing conclusions.”
Sanderson's research with FORCE and Acadia Tidal Energy Institute is addressing some of the biggest challenges to monitoring effectively in Minas Passage.
For example: he found that standard acoustic tags ping too infrequently to be reliably detected in the few seconds fish move past the acoustic receiver line that extends from FORCE to the opposite shore. The line is part of a monitoring network FORCE maintains with the Ocean Tracking Network. His research showed that "high residency" tags – those that ping every two seconds or less – are far better suited to high flow conditions.
“High residency acoustic tags give us a better chance of seeing what’s happening in Minas Passage,” says Sanderson. “They can send signals more often, and be detected more effectively, as current speeds increase.”
Using drifters equipped with acoustic tags to mimic fish movement, Brian also found that tidal currents tend to carry drifters south of the FORCE site – suggesting that many migratory fish likely bypass the development area entirely.
“Brian’s work is foundational to our science program,” says Lindsay Bennett, FORCE executive director. “His drifter work significantly enhanced our understanding of how tidal currents are likely to influence fish movements through the Passage. We still have lots of work to do to understand risk, but Brian’s given us something we can reason from: actual numbers, grounded in evidence.”
His work on the subject, "Measuring Detection Efficiency of High-Residency Acoustic Signals for Estimating Probability of Fish–Turbine Encounter in a Fast-Flowing Tidal Passage," won the Best Paper Award for 2023 in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
“Brian is absolutely obsessed with figuring out the best ways to monitor fish,” smiles Ray Pieroway, FORCE’s director of field programs. “He’s fundamental to what we do.”
Peter Porskamp, a marine optics and acoustics research scientist at FORCE, agrees: “His work has led, and pushed, the bounds of our research. He's come up with many of the questions to ask – and the different designs to try and answer them.”
“But it goes further,” adds Porskamp. “He actually implements ideas – helping us do the research out in the field. He's there from concept to finish.”
The OSIP project is focusing on fish that transit through the Minas Passage – a significant migratory corridor for numerous fish species, including species at risk and other species of concern and importance to Indigenous, commercial and recreational fishing communities.
To detect fish moving through the FORCE area, OSIP is testing cameras, imaging sonars, sensor mount systems, echosounders and other instruments using vessels and soon the OSIP Surface platform.
Sanderson's question
"What’s the problem we're trying to answer?" says Dr. Aidan Bharath, FORCE's director of science and environmental programs. "For us, it's can we actually see fish near a turbine rotor, or track fish, through the Passage? Brian has a way of bringing us back to first principles – what can we do, what can we say definitively, and how do we approach it? He keeps us focused on what the evidence tells us.”
OSIP directly responds to recommendations from the federal Task Force on Tidal Energy, led by Natural Resources Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which called for better ways to assess environmental risk and to establish Canada as a knowledge hub in marine energy.
Sanderson is working to anchor every OSIP experiment to a single question: "How do fish interact with tidal devices?"
To answer it, the team is testing sensors and methods on the OSIP platforms now, aiming to identify which approaches will provide the most useful data on fish–turbine interactions once turbines are deployed in the Passage.
Sanderson's involvement from the beginning, as Pieroway says, has given OSIP its scientific direction: "Brian will brainstorm ideas and then come back a week later with a written test plan."
From now until 2028, OSIP will test tools and approaches and share results publicly to inform regulators, Rights Holders, communities, and industry. The goal is simple: strengthen the evidence needed for safe, responsible tidal development, and ground the work in respectful collaboration with other people who care about the Bay of Fundy.
“Brian’s just a great example of that. He is super respectful of everybody, whatever you do. He can talk to anybody,” says Pieroway.
Sanderson’s gift
As his collaborators know, Sanderson’s biggest contribution isn't the breadth of what he knows. It's how he thinks - and the way he challenges others to think differently.
"He thinks in the abstract, but in a very practical way," says Jason Boudreau, the marine instrumentation lead at FORCE. "Problems become highly defined. Physical laws determine what's possible and what isn't. With Brian, you can't squirm around reality."
According to Boudreau, Sanderson approaches every problem through physical relationships: mathematical and concrete.
“He’s given a vision to OSIP,” says Boudreau. “His way of thinking, his methodology, the way he operates – to not have the answers, but know they’re out there, and go out and find them. To iterate. Along the way, we might find out what we thought was going to work doesn’t. But it reveals something else.”
"He does a lot with a little," says Porskamp. "He wants experiments to be simple, repeatable, and measurable. He's trying to solve the problem in a way that pushes the science forward."
As his colleagues put it, Sanderson’s desire to push things forward is part of who he is.
“Dogged,” smiles Boudreau. “Resilient. Tough. Determined. Committed. Where does this dedication and passion come from? I don’t know. But he has it.”
Ask anyone at FORCE what it's like to work with Brian and the same themes emerge: his generosity with knowledge, his warmth with colleagues, his habit of wandering into conversations about physics and philosophy with the same open, evidence-led curiosity he brings to the lab. And most of all, determination.
“We're incredibly lucky to have Brian on our team,” says Bennett. “He's endlessly curious, and that curiosity raises the bar for all of us. He challenges us to think more critically, ask better questions, and build stronger science. It’s not just helpful; it’s inspiring.”