My primary research motivation is to inform evidence-based management and conservation in the marine environment. I am broadly interested in assessing the impacts of global change on threatened species, understanding the effects of stressors on migrating wildlife, and improving the management of aquaculture and wild-capture fisheries. I often use field experiments and/or statistical modelling approaches to address my research questions.

To date, much of my research has involved wild Pacific salmon, which have great importance to the ecology, economies, and Indigenous cultures of North America's west coast. My research interests and quantitative background have also led me to study a wide range of topics, including the viability of small-scale fisheries (Godwin et al. 2017 Marine Policy), the effectiveness of classification schemes for breast cancer diagnoses (Taylor et al. 2021 Virchows Archiv), and the ecological impacts of global browning in lakes (Godwin et al. 2014 Limnology and Oceanography).
 
Interactions between farmed and wild fish
Since wild-capture fisheries production plateaued in the early 1990s, the world’s dependence on aquaculture has grown steadily. This ‘blue revolution’ has likely helped conserve some wild aquatic species by decreasing fishing pressure, but for others it has brought additional stressors. Of the many forms of aquaculture, salmon farming has raised the largest concerns with regards to potential impacts on wild populations. Parasitic sea lice have been at the forefront of these concerns, as these native parasites are amplified by salmon farms and transmitted to wild juvenile salmon that share the same coastal waters.

For my PhD research, I examined how parasites from aquaculture facilities can indirectly influence wild salmon survival and assessed how improvements to policy could limit these effects. I found that heavy sea louse infection was associated with lower competitive foraging abilities (Godwin et al. 2015 CJFAS​), decreased foraging success (Godwin et al. 2018 CJFAS), and reduced growth (Godwin et al. 2017 Journal of FIsh Biology) in wild juvenile salmon, all of which have majore implications for survival. I then assessed the effectiveness of current policies at controlling sea louse outbreaks on salmon farms and identified several key ways that we can improve these policies to better protect wild salmon (Godwin et al. 2021 Ecological Applications). More recently, my colleagues and I found that sea lice in BC have gained resistance to the main chemical used to control their populations on salmon farms (Godwin et al. 2022 Scientific Reports).
Aquaculture in the era of climate change
Environmental policies shape how, when, and where humans affect the natural world. Despite the obvious importance of these policies, their effectiveness is often taken for granted, especially in light of future environmental change. My research programs aim to inform effective policy and management that improve conservation outcomes for wildlife and increase the sustainability of aquaculture both now and in the future.

During my postdoctoral fellowship, I conducted a large-scale lab experiment at Dalhousie University and found that the effects of sea lice on the growth, body condition, and survival of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) all worsen at higher temperatures (Godwin et al. 2020 Scientific Reports). An undergraduate I mentored also determined that sea-louse infestation may influence the heart performance and liver energy reserves of juvenile salmon, and that these effects scale with temperature (Medcalf et al. 2021 MEPS). These findings suggest that for the sake of both farmed and wild salmon, parasite management on salmon farms may have to adapt in order to control sea-louse populations as ocean temperatures rise. My research has also highlighted that current management practices become ineffective at controlling sea lice on Canadian salmon farms and identified alternative management scenarios that should improve conservation outcomes and salmon-aquaculture sustainability as our coastal oceans continue to warm (Godwin et al. 2021 ICES). One of these alternative scenarios has already been implemented by farms in the Broughton Archipelago – one of the biggest salmon-farming hotspots in BC.