Marine Biology

After spending two years diving on the reefs on a South Pacific Archipelago (Tonga) as a Peace Corps Volunteer (and teaching biology at a local high school!), I obtained my Master’s Degree at the University of Rhode Island.  I studied the biology of a deep-sea bivalve that consumes wood.  See the publications part of this web site for some of the results of this work (1991-1994).  As part of my continuing work on grouping behavior I have studied the schooling behavior of marine fish.  Several years ago I had a unique opportunity to work with a school of adult bluefish in a controlled environment at the NMFS marine laboratory at Sandy Hook N.J..  With an undergraduate student of mine from Kenyon College, we were able to tag a school of these large fish, manipulate their hunger level and videotape their position preferences within the school.  It was found that hungry individuals took up positions at the rear of the school in order to save energy while swimming.