The Life Aquatic

Tyler Eddy

Tyler is the team lead at The Life Aquatic and is a Research Scientist at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. Tyler lectures in the Fisheries Science Graduate Program – he teaches ‘Data Collection, Management, & Display’.

Tyler is interested in past, present, and future human interactions with, and ecology of, marine ecosystems.

Tyler is a Founding Coordinator of the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) and is a Visiting Scientist at the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. 

Tyler was a Research Fellow at the University of South Carolina, US, a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Canada. Tyler has a PhD in Marine Biology from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and an Honours BSc in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University, Canada.

Bluesky GitHub Google Scholar ResearchGate X

Andrea Bryndum-Buchholz

Andrea is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For her Postdoctoral Fellowship, Andrea is evaluating how ecosystems protected by marine conservation areas in Newfoundland and Labrador will respond to climate change.  

Andrea’s research interests lie in understanding potential future changes in marine ecosystems due to ongoing climate change, and in assessing consequences as well as solutions for fisheries management and marine biodiversity conservation in a changing ocean.

Andrea is the Science Outreach Coordinator for the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Intercomparison Project (FishMIP). Andrea is interested in science communication, is a passionate writer, and is an academic writing advisor.

Andrea was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Canada. Andrea has a PhD in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University, Canada, an MSc in Aquatic Ecology from Lund University, Sweden, and an Honours BSc in Biology from the University of Tübingen, Germany.

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Pablo Vajas

Pablo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For his Postdoctoral Fellowship, Pablo is investigating the ecosystem role of harp seals in Newfoundland & Labrador.

Pablo’s research interests include wild boar hunting in France and mixed demersal fishing in the Gulf of Biscay. His transdisciplinary approach integrates information sources in a socio-ecological context. His research involves data analysis, Bayesian modelling for hunting, and mechanistic modelling for fisheries.

Pablo has presented his research internationally in Europe and to various French agencies, including hunters and fisheries associations, The National Forests Office, The Agriculture, Food and Environment Agency, The French Biodiversity Agency, and the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.

Pablo was a Postdoctoral Fellow at IFREMER, France. Pablo has a PhD in Ecology from the University of Montpellier, France, an MSc in Ecology from Sorbonne University, France, and a BSc in Biology from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France.

GitHub ResearchGate X

Gustavo Yunda-Guarin

Gustavo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For his Postdoctoral Fellowship, Gustavo is assessing spatial and temporal variability in the prey and predators of northern shrimp to quantify their food web role and inform sustainable fisheries management.

Gustavo’s research interests focus on understanding how food webs, trophic interactions, and organisms respond to changes in environmental conditions and organic carbon supply in a changing Arctic Ocean. Using multiple trophic biomarkers and Bayesian statistical models, Gustavo has studied changes in consumers’ diets and food web structure of deep-sea benthic environments. He is also interested in the taxonomy of benthic fauna and drivers of benthic composition and biodiversity.

Gustavo is a member of the research groups Québec Océan and Takuvik. He has participated in research expeditions in the Canadian Arctic Ocean, such as the GreenEdge project and ArcticNet Network aboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen.

Gustavo has a PhD in Oceanography from Laval University, Canada, an MSc in Tropical Marine Science from Ceará Federal University, Brazil, and a BSc in Marine Biology from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Colombia.

Github Google Scholar ResearchGate

Jiaying Chen

Jiaying is a PhD Candidate in Fisheries Science at the Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For her PhD research, Jiaying is incorporating predictions from nonlinear forecasting models and geostatistical spatiotemporal models to improve representation of spatial processes in fisheries stock assessments of North Atlantic species.

Jiaying’s research interests include integrating fishing effort, fish habitat, and climate change data in fisheries stock assessments to identify management strategies.

Jiaying attended the 152nd American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in Spokane, US presenting an improvement to stock assessment of witch flounder in NAFO Division 3NO.

Jiaying has an MSc in Fisheries Science from Memorial University, Canada, and a BSc in Marine Fisheries Science and Technology from Zhejiang Ocean University, China.

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Raquel Ruiz-Díaz

Raquel is a PhD Candidate in Fisheries Science at The Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For her PhD research, Raquel is working on ecosystem model development for the Newfoundland Grand Banks to apply to climate change and fisheries management questions.

Raquel’s main research interests are understanding the effects of climate change on fish population dynamics, how climate affects their distributions and growth rates, and the socio-economic implications for harvesters and managers.

Raquel has worked on adaptation of coastal communities to climate change within the framework of the ERC CLOCK project at the University of Vigo, Spain. She is a contributing author of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and has been involved in initiatives such us Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI).

Raquel has an MSc in Marine Biological Resources from Ghent University, Belgium and an Honours BSc in Marine Science from University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

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Abe Solberg

Abe is a PhD Candidate in Fisheries Science at The Fisheries & Marine Institute, Memorial University. For his PhD research, Abe is working on ecosystem model development for the Newfoundland and Labrador shelf and developing methods to incorporate fisher’s and Indigenous ecological knowledge.

Abe's primary research interests are integrating non-traditional information sources, such as fisher's and Indigenous ecological knowledge, into ecosystem models and single-species population models.

Prior to starting his PhD, Abe worked as a data scientist for Displacement Prevention and Public Housing in New York City. Abe has developed a Shiny app for FishBase and an R package to query the IUCN information for species listed in the Seabird Mapping and Information for Fisheries Database by the American Bird Conservancy.

Abe has an MA in Geography from McGill University, Canada, and an Honours BA in Geography from the University of Colorado, US.

GitHub ResearchGate X  

Hannah West

Hannah is an MSc Student in Fisheries Science at the Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University. For her MSc research, Hannah is investigating the ecosystem role of harp seals in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hannah’s research interests include understanding trophic ecology in marine food webs and how it can be applied to fisheries management plans.

Prior to starting her MSc, Hannah was involved in researching the use of microalgal biofilms in municipal waste water treatment systems. She has also worked on investigating virulence factors in bacterial and fungal pathogens.

Hannah has an Honours BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology from the University of Guelph, Canada.

GitHub

Kera Whitten

Kera is a Research Assistant with The Life Aquatic and is an Honours BSc Student in Marine Biology and Oceanography at Memorial University. For her Honours research with the Mercier Lab, Kera is investigating deep-sea coral reproduction.

Kera's research interests include marine mammal ecology, the physiology of sharks, and deep sea ecology.

During her undergraduate degree, Kera conducted animal husbandry for three resident harp seals with the Seal Lab at the Ocean Science Center. Kera has also worked in the Mercier Lab, focusing on fundamental and applied aspects of benthic ecology in echinoderms.

Beth Gillie

Visiting PhD Candidate from Durham University, UK. 2023. Species distribution models to investigate the impacts of climate change on marine biodiversity in the North Water Polynya

Matthew Robertson

PhD. 2023. The influence of climate and prey availability on flatfishes on the Newfoundland Grand Banks

Oluebube Peace Igwe

Research Assistant. 2023. Food web ecology of northern shrimp