Dr. Nelson M. Ehrhardt

Professor of Marine Biology and Fisheries

Tropical fishery research is complex because of complicated population dynamic processes exhibited by tropical fish species. Efforts to assess the effects of fishery exploitation on these resources are usually marred by the considerable uncertainties associated with growth, mortality and reproductive characters of the species and the multi-species multi-gear character of the fisheries. My research interests are on the population dynamics of tropical fisheries such as coastal pelagics, billfishes and tunas, crustaceans (stone crabs, shrimp and lobsters), reef fishes (snappers and groupers) and squids. In conjunction with the above, I am involved in developing techniques and methods to study tropical fish stocks including simulation modeling and fishery management under the influence of environmental changes. I teach courses in Biometrics in Marine Science, and Marine Population Dynamics.