Fish Ecology Lab

08/14/2023

We did a thing! This past week, lab PhD candidates Jonathan Peake and Michael Schram presented work at the 2023 Ecological Society of America annual meeting. Their research independently tackle questions associated with the ecology of estuarine and coastal fish communities. Stay tuned for future updates!

05/15/2023

USF just published a press release on a new paper we published. This work found that using descender devices on red snapper and red grouper improves their survival over the more classically used venting method.

The best way for recreational fishers to release red snapper and red grouper caught in the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico -- and physically traumatized from the pressure change experienced during the ascent -- is to use a descending device.

05/15/2023

The best way for recreational fishers to release red snapper and red grouper caught in the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico -- and physically traumatized from the pressure change experienced during the ascent -- is to use a descending device.

09/16/2022

Welcome to the lab, Kennedy!

CMS welcomes Kennedy Quillen of the 2022 cohort to our program! Here is a little about Kennedy: https://bit.ly/3SabyPU

Welcome aboard, Kennedy! 🚢 We look forward to all the amazing things you will accomplish in your career.

05/13/2022

NEW PAPER ALERT: Congratulations to the Fish Ecology Lab's Jon Peake and Chris Stallings on their article "Community dynamics of estuarine forage fishes are associated with a latitudinal basal resource regime" which was published today in the Ecological Society of America online journal Ecosphere! Forage fishes are a valuable yet often underappreciated part of marine and estuarine food webs. Jon's study investigated how Florida's diverse assemblages of estuarine forage fishes vary over space and time and uncovered how forage fish communities are associated with patterns of habitat availability and use. Jon, a PhD candidate at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and a recently minted Associate Research Scientist at the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, co-authored this publication with Chris and scientists from MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife as part of the Florida Forage Fish Coalition, a collaborative effort between scientists at Florida's universities, FWC, and organizations such as Pew Research Center, IGFA, and the Florida Wildlife Federation. You can check out article, which is available through ESA for free through Open Access, in the link below. Congrats again to Jon and Chris for a fantastic publication!

Forage fishes are an important component of marine, estuarine, and aquatic food webs that facilitate the transfer of energy and nutrients from primary producers to upper trophic levels. Previous stud...

03/15/2021

We're back on the water today! USF CMS masters student Ian Williams and lab members Jon Peake and Mike Schram are headed out to conduct seasonal reef-fish surveys on sites off Tampa Bay. We're approaching 8 years of continuous seasonal data, and the work has resulted in a number of published products. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future!

01/28/2021

The Von Rosenstiel's have been so generous with their support of the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. Several Fish Ecology Lab members have received fellowships through this endowment, helping them to achieve their goals of pursuing and completing MS and PhD degrees. We are very grateful for this incredible support!

The University of South Florida today announced a $3 million gift to the USF Foundation that will benefit students in the College of Marine Science. The estate gift from Anne Von Rosenstiel, who passed away in December 2019, will be divided between two existing endowments established by Von Rosensti...

12/21/2020

When it's game day but there are fish to count. Fish Ecology Lab PhD candidate Jon Peake representing his team on a dreary December Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico.

08/26/2020

Wanna Get Away?

Take a 60-second dive with the Fish Ecology Lab! We have been conducting reef surveys in the Gulf of Mexico for the last seven years. This work has been generously funded primarily by the Program at the MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife and supported by countless scientific divers!

University of South Florida USF College of Marine Science University of South Florida Research & Innovation

The Fish Ecology Lab,led by Chris Stallings, PhD, has conducted reef surveys on the West Florida Shelf for seven years.

06/10/2020

The Fish Ecology Lab aspires to be part of a society that treats each other with respect and dignity, refrains from displays of inappropriate anger or intimidating conduct, shuns epithets or abusive language, finds effective means to disagree, and persuades and informs through dialogue. We reject racism and all forms of harassment. Today we are participating in and (https://www.shutdownstem.com/) to reflect and learn more about how we can help end racism in science and more broadly in our society.

June 2020   On June 10, 2020, we will , , and . In the wake of the most recent murders of Black people in the US, it is clear that white and other non-Black people have to step up and do the work to eradicate anti-Blac...

03/16/2020

The weather cooperated just in time as our divers ventured out to complete seasonal reef surveys, which now include 6 additional artificial reefs. Topping things off, the sea state and visibility were quite favorable to our hardworking crew.

Now we rest, recover, and continue to do our part against coronavirus at the . Remember to wash your hands thoroughly -- even if you have been underwater all day!

01/22/2020

Current PhD student and lab member Mike Schram recently had a chapter of his Master's thesis published in JEMBE. Working in California at the time, Mike's work investigated the effects of size-selective harvesting, a common result of fisheries regulations, on the demographic rates of sex-changing fishes by manipulating population densities of a model study species, the blackeye goby (Rhinogobiops nicholsii).

Most fishing methods are inherently size-selective, and many fisheries have minimum size limits, resulting in removal of the largest, most fecund size…