Profile
Owen Michael Exeter
PhD student
The Farmhouse
The Farmhouse, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK
Overview
I am a NERC GW4+ PhD student in the College of Life and Environmental Science and the Exeter Marine research group.
My research aims to improve the monitoring strategies that underpin effective marine protected areas (MPAs). This work currently focuses on fish communities in temperate marine systems using baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS) to survey mobile benthic species and pelagic sharks and tuna around the Isles of Scilly archipelago, UK. Working with Natural England and the Isles of Scilly IFCA, we aim to provide the baseline data to inform effective management in the region and develop indicators for tracking marine protected area effectiveness.
Qualifications
MSc Conservation Science and Policy (2017) – University of Exeter
BA Politics and International Relations (2011) – University of Nottingham
Career
2021 - present PhD Biological sciences (NERC GW4+ funded) - Assessing the ecological value of, and threats to marine protected areas in the Isles of Scilly (Univeristy of Exeter)
2017 - 2021 Research Assistant - SEAWave, Shark catch and release survivability in recreational fisheries, Shining light on data poor fisheries in Myanmar, Atlantic bluefin tuna in the English Channel and Celtic Sea, English Marine Spatial Planning and the Ocean Health Index, Autonomous underwater videography and tracking of basking sharks (Univeristy of Exeter)
2016 - 2017 MSc Conservation Science and Policy (Univeristy of Exeter)
2008 - 2011 BA Politics and International Relations
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Marine spatial ecology
Fisheries management
Remote sensing
Biologging
Research projects
2020 – 2021 Shark catch and release survivability in recreational fisheries - https://www.sharks.sustainable-seas.org/
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Development and application of electronic survivorship tags to understand the factors impacting the post-release survival and behavior of recreationally caught sharks in UK waters.
2019 - 2021 Shining light on data poor fisheries, Myanmar - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.625766/full
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Using remotely sensed, earth observation data to model fishing vessel distribution and spatial biomass extraction in data poor regions.
2018 – 2021 Atlantic bluefin tuna in the English Channel and Celtic Sea - https://www.thunnusuk.org/
- Deployment and interrogation of data from archival and accelerometer tags to examine annual migration and fine-scale behavior of recreationally caught Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus).
2018 – 2020 English Marine Spatial Planning and the Ocean Health Index - https://www.ohi.sustainable-seas.org/
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GIS and data technician synthesizing large, often disparate, socioeconomic and environmental data sets into a composite indicator index to inform marine monitoring across South West England.
2017 - 2019 Autonomous underwater videography and tracking of basking sharks - https://www.nature.scot/plants-animals-and-fungi/fish/sea-fish/basking-shark
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At sea deployment of towed camera tags, AUV and telemetry tags to observe subsurface behaviour of sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) within a proposed MPA, Scotland.