Principal Investigator:
Dr. Stokesbury is the Dean for the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His research examines the marine ecology of invertebrates and fish, their spatial distribution, population dynamics, and the impacts of fishing and energy development. For the past 20 years, his work has focused on the sea scallop resource, including stock assessment, rotational fishery management strategies, growth and mortality estimates, gear development, and environmental assessment. Most of his research is collaborative with the fishing industries of Canada and the United States and he was awarded the David H. Wallace Award from the National Shellfish Association (2013) and the Standard-Times South Coast Man of the Year (2018) for his two decades of science in the public interest, and the connections he has made between fishermen and science.
His research has been published in 68 scientific papers and 5 book chapters and funded by over 100 competitive grants (totaling >$ 39 million). He was the founding chair of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at SMAST from 2005 to 2016. He serves on several ICES committees including Chair of the Scallop Assessment Working Group from 2013 to 2018, and Chair of the Nephrops Benchmark Workshop in 2009. He served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine steering committee for “Fisheries Research and Monitoring for Atlantic Offshore Development – A Workshop.” and has recently been appointed to the “Assessment and Advancement of Science in the Bureau of Ocean Energy management’s Environmental Studies Program.” He was a subject editor for Ecological Applications for 10 years and currently is on the Journal of Shellfish Research and Reviews in Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture editorial boards. He supervises 6 MS and 1 PhD student, while 28 students (5 PhD, 23 MS) have graduated from his laboratory.
Staff:
Amber Lisi – Program Manager
Dr. Adam Delargy – Research Assistant Professor
Adam is postdoctoral fisheries researcher working on quantitative data analysis, survey design and stock assessment methods. In addition, Adam is also an experienced field researcher focused on scallop surveys using cameras and towed gears from vessels. His research has primarily concentrated on scallops, but he also have been involved in successful pieces of work involving crabs, coral reef fisheries, aquaculture and fishing impacts.
Nick Calabrese – Technical Associate, Groundfish Lead and PhD Student
Nick is a PhD student and research technician in the Stokesbury lab. He works on the video trawl survey, which uses cameras placed in a trawl net to count and measure fish without ever having to capture them. Nick also developed a PIT tag detection system that can scan tagged fish as they pass through the codend, allowing us to estimate population size through mark-recapture experiments. In addition to his work in the lab he is also an avid recreational and commercial rod and reel fisherman.
Brittany Morgan – Technical Associate, Image Processing Lead
Brittany is a technical associate managing the drop camera digitizers and providing quality assurances for drop camera images. She provides support for other lab research projects; assists in at-sea data collections; and helps with reports and proposals. Brittany received her Master’s Degree in Marine Biology from University College Cork, and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Marine Biology from University of West Florida with a minor in Environmental Science.
Craig Lego – Technical Associate, Scallop Survey and Equipment Coordinator
Craig is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys scuba diving, snowboarding, mountain biking, or just about anything outside. He works as a technical associate for the Stokesbury Lab and assists in coordinating and executing the scallop surveys in cooperation with industry fishermen as well as maintaining the gear and helping other lab personnel in the various studies conducted. Craig’s masters research focused on small-scale spatial interactions between scallops and sea stars on Georges Bank.
Andie Painten – Technical Associate, Lobster Lead
Andie serves as the technical lead for the Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) offshore wind farm monitoring surveys in our lab and is also pursuing her Masters degree. She primarily works on the ventless trap surveys targeting American lobster, Jonah crab, and black sea bass. As a master’s student, her research focuses on the potential interactions of offshore wind farms on the life cycle of southern New England Black sea bass.
Graduate Students:
Amy Martins – Amy Martins is a PhD graduate student working on offshore wind development and shaping best practices for collaborating and collecting the best science. Amy is a Supervisory Fishery Biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, with the Fishery Monitoring and Research Division. She holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Maine, in Wildlife Population Management, and studied prey selection and aging of harbor seals. Her BS is from UMass Amherst in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. She has spent many years at sea in the Northwest Atlantic collecting bycatch data in commercial fisheries and abundance, distribution, DNA, and life history information on marine mammals and sea turtles. Amy has also worked in Alaska (with the salmon fisheries) and Antarctica (with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources CCAMLR) developing data collection programs. Amy loves nature photography, skiing, hiking, and traveling and has lived in Australia, France, and Zimbabwe.
Amanda Meli – Amanda graduated with her B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2018. She started in Dr. Kevin Stokesbury’s lab in 2018 as a lab technician. In 2019, she enrolled in a Masters program at SMAST; her current masters thesis work is creating a baseline assessment of crustaceans along the continental shelf utilizing the drop camera survey and investigating what environmental variables affect their distribution.
Stephanie Merhoff
Helena Norton
Freddy Phillips
Sierra Wachala – Sierra is a PhD student working on the ichthyoplankton and larval lobster surveys. Her research focuses on the impacts of the offshore wind farms, specifically to the planktonic and benthic communities. She got her B.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina in 2018, where she received the NOAA Hollings’ Scholarship in 2016. She also got her M.S. in Biology at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2022, where her research focused on the diet and community composition of the invasive bloody red shrimp, Hemimysis anomala. Her specialties are zooplankton and invasive species.