Current projects
Movement and migrations of Port Jackson sharks in NSW Australia
We have a load of tracking data from years of tagging PJs. There are always opportunities to analyse this data set.
Social networks in wild Port Jackson shark populations
We are investigating the social structure of PJs in Jervis Bay using acoustic tags.
Personality, cerebral lateralization and cognition
Contrary to what most people think, primates are not the only animals that show cerebral lateralization (e.g. handedness), or individual personality traits. We can always come up with new projects inviestigating the link between these traits and cognition in rainbowfish and guppies
Impacts of recreation fish waste in Jervis Bay Marine Park
We have been studying the smooth stingray population of Jervis Bay with relation to their use of the Woollamia Boat ramp area where fishermen have been provisioning fishes with rec fish scraps for over 30 years. Research suggests provisioning can cause changes to natural behaviours and habituation, improper nutrition and overfeeding, and changes to population structure and trophic balance. While we know quite a bit on how stingrays have responsed, we still have little idea how the rest of the ecosystem is impacted.
Improving post-release survival and welfare of hatchery fish
We are always interested in improving the welfare and post-release survival of hatchery-reared fishes. Key approaches include life-skills training, environmental enrichment and conditioning. We have several projects working in this space at the moment, including a collaboration with CSIRO, work on enrichment in sharks and housing preferenes in Siamese fighters.
Pain perception and sentience in fish
Culum is a champion of fish intelligence and sentience. He has been actively involved in the debate about awareness and pain perception in fish, which has big ethical considerations, and has been trying to change public perception of fish intelligence. We are always keen to take on new students working in this area.
Appliations of AI in fisheries research
AI is slowly taking over the world, and fisheries and aquaculture are no exception. We are super keen to embrace AI (smart) approaches to fisheries management. Our current project is deveping an automated system that recognises, categorises and measures fishes of recreational importance. The AI system could be applied in multiple contexts.
