Profile

Fish and fisheries scientist working in Greenland.
From a broad background in marine biology, I have specialized in quantitative fisheries ecology with a focus on pelagic fish in the North Atlantic and the arctic. This involves research in population ecology and behavior, stock assessment, advice for fisheries management, supervising, lecturing, developing and leading acoustic surveys. Presentation of results to the press and scientific advice to public sector authorities.

Research and teaching information

PhD supervision

• James Dunning. Ongoing: “Fisheries ecosystems of Greenland: applications of new broadband acoustic technology in support of fisheries management.”.
• Peter Fink-Jensen. Graduated. “Capelin Migration and Stock Structure using Otolith Microchemistry”.
• Søren Post. Graduated. “Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou): Behaviour and distribution in Greenland waters”.
• John Kathena. Graduated. Worked on hakes in the Benguela Current Ecosystem.

Lecturing

• Fisheries Technology (BEng) - DTU (Sisimiut, Greenland). 2020 - ...
• Fisheries and hunting course. Greenland University. March 2016 and 2017.
• EcoFish (Angola, Namibia) and 4 FishFrame (Riga, Świnoujście, Copenhagen) workshops.

Research areas

My current research is centered on pelagic fish in the open North Atlantic and around Greenland. In temperate waters, I have particular focus on Atlantic Mackerel (Scomber scombrus), one of the most abundant and widely distributed fish species in the North Atlantic. In arctic waters around Greenland, my research is directed towards Capelin (Mallotus villosus), which is a pivotal keystone species in the arctic ecosystem. Both species are caught in large pelagic fisheries and are the most valuable fish species for EU and for several North Atlantic nations.
Epipelagic fish like mackerel and capelin are among the fastest species to respond to the ongoing climate change. My research and advisory work as species specialist in an ecosystem context improves our understanding of these changes. This is imperative for an optimal and sustainable management of the stocks. Most of my research is on management relevant topics such as: Population structure, migration, recruitment, growth, trophic interactions and improvements in monitoring and stock assessment.

Surprisingly many aspects of the ecology of both species and the pelagic ecosystems around Greenland are still unknown. In my work to further our understanding, I have initiated two reoccurring annual pelagic ecosystem surveys in East Greenland, are developing acoustic surveys using ships and moorings in West Greenland and are conducting a series of new studies based on new field data collections and historic data. Also, I organize sampling from the Greenlandic fisheries in cooperation with the pelagic off-shore industry and artisanal coastal fisheries in Greenland. Biological, acoustical, micro-chemistry and remote sensing data and samples from the field are analyzed with state-of-the-art statistical modelling, My collaboration with scientists from other institutes, especially in the North East Atlantic, has grown over the years to form a strong network. This has opened for new opportunities for larger and more innovative collaborative science. These personal connections are also beneficial to my students.

My research and monitoring activities contributes to the pelagic fish stock assessments in several ICES expert groups.

Finally, within innovation, I have co-founded, developed and implemented a large international fish and fisheries data processing portal (Version 1 to 5 of "FishFrame", now known as ICES "Regional DataBase FishFrame").