Greg Workman

Section Head, Groundfish Science
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo

Mr. Workman joined the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) at the Pacific Biological Station in 1989. Greg has worked as the Groundfish Surveys Biologist, New and Developing Invertebrate Fisheries Biologist and, most recently, Section Head for groundfish science at the Pacific Biological Station (PBS).

For the past seven years, Greg’s work focused on the development of fisheries independent, resource-monitoring programs through the implementation of a number of large scale, multi-species fisheries surveys. Sustainable fisheries require adequate monitoring to achieve both conservation and economic objectives for Canadians. As science authority on the Pacific region’s At Sea Observer contract, and lead biologist implementing the Canadian West Coast Bottom Trawl Survey Program, Greg’s focus has been to ensure that these programs collect the most accurate and comprehensive data possible on the distribution, abundance, diversity and biological characteristics of species encountered during these surveys.

Greg’s introduction to Primnoa pacific (red-tree coral) came as a student in 1982 during his first groundfish trawl survey. Over the intervening years, he has maintained an interest in the distribution, taxonomy, and ecological significance of deep-water corals. During the summer of 2008, Greg and Jim Boutiller (also from PBS) undertook a survey of the deep-water corals and sponges of Learmonth Bank in northern British Columbia.  During this survey, the ROPOS remotely-operated vehicle was used to collect some of the first images of large, habitat forming temperate corals in Canadian Pacific waters. His goal during the Finding Coral Deep-Sea Expedition is to generate new knowledge on the distribution, habitat preferences, and ecological role of deep-water temperate corals in Canadian waters.