Fishing for evidence at the smallest scale

Academic Spotlight: Dr Ben Ciotti

Juvenile fish from the FinVision project

“The first few days and weeks of a fish’s life can be pretty challenging. Like most living things, they have to adjust to a new environment and are incredibly vulnerable to predators. By better understanding those early life stages, and the habitats they depend on, we can hopefully go some way to creating more resilient fish populations and sustainable fisheries.”

Over recent years, Dr Ben Ciotti has spent countless hours by – and in – the estuaries and coastal waters of Devon and Cornwall. Through a number of innovative projects , he has led work designed to improve our understanding of where fish live in the formative stages of their lives. There’s hopefully no need for a spoiler alert to say that’s not as simple a task as it might, on the face of it, sound. But, as Ben says, with increasing demands for various fish species – and heightened challenges facing their habitats – it’s a crucial one.

Ben’s fascination with the world beneath the waves – and particularly the creatures inhabiting those environments – has been evident for most of his life. It started through childhood games around rivers and the sea that developed into an interest in fishkeeping, snorkelling, diving and, ultimately, a degree in Marine Biology.

“Mine is a similar story to many we encounter among our students,” Ben says. “While those who choose to study marine biology do so for a variety of different reasons, many have had a fascination with the underwater world from an early age. That was certainly the case for me.”

While the ocean and its species were the main focus of his degree, Ben chose to pair it with a minor in French. He had an interest in modern languages but also saw it as an opportunity to improve his science education more generally. He was able to spend a year of his degree doing lectures, research projects and volunteering in the south of France. Completing the degree, he enrolled to do a PhD at the University of Delaware and, during his time there, won a Chateaubriand Fellowship to work on damselfish in French Polynesia. His dual interests, in biology and languages, made such a trip possible.

“I've always liked exploring new places and travelling,” Ben says. “I wanted to broaden my experiences by going to live and work in another country. I wasn’t intending to go to Tahiti as well, but the opportunity to work at a French field station studying the incredible reefs in the South Pacific was not something to be missed.”

Dr Benjamin Ciotti explores the dynamic environment of surf zone ecosystems and the research investigating the role of sandy beaches as habitats for fishes.

Ben had begun studying some of the smallest organisms in the marine environment during his degree, when he worked on the tiny, planktonic creatures that live in every drop or water. When it came to deciding the course of his PhD, an opportunity arose to work on small juvenile fish. He decided to go for it as, in his words, there were some “interesting scientific questions”. But at the same time, he could see how his research might fit in with societal needs, providing evidence for enhanced management relating to fisheries or conservation.

Specifically, Ben’s PhD set him on the quest to better understand the habitats that fish need when they are young, before they become part of the adult stock. Information about these needs is often limited but critical to effective management.

“We need to know more than whether juveniles are caught in an area to understand whether it is an important nursery habitat,” Ben says. “We must understand processes that are more difficult to measure but tell us whether the habitat is actually helping to sustain the population: how the juveniles are doing. Are they feeding, growing and surviving well?”.

During his doctoral research with Professor Timothy Targett in Delaware, Ben pioneered biochemical tools to measure growth of juvenile fish and used these to better understand the reliance of juvenile flatfish on sandy beach habitats up and down the west coast of Scotland.

Those interests have been pursued at greater length since Ben arrived in �鶹��ý, most recently through the FinVision initiative. Developed with experts in monitoring technology from the University’s EmbryoPhenomics research team , alongside angling and environmental management organisations, the project was funded through the Fisheries Industry Science Partnership (FISP) scheme, part of the Government’s UK Seafood Fund. A specially designed network of underwater cameras, deployed at locations around the South West, is enabling the FinVision team to track juvenile fish in never-before-seen detail.

The cameras are able to monitor which fish populate certain regions during particular life stages, as well as their size and abundance. It is filling current gaps in knowledge for important fished species including European sea bass and grey mullet.

FinVision also has a range of other benefits. After years of personally appreciating the power of talking to people about science, Ben and the team have also recruited an army of citizen scientists. With around 450 hours of footage to analyse from the project’s cameras, working with them is arguably the only way all of its rich data will be analysed. It also enables people to see events and interactions within the environment that they would never normally be able to see.

Another of his projects has focused on weever fish populations, a venomous species that lives in the shallows of beaches. Using extensive records of weever stings, collected by the RNLI teams throughout the Southwest, he and colleagues were able to understand weever behaviour and their patterns of habitat use in unprecedented detail.

“It’s been a really interesting project that has really advanced our understanding of weevers and other species living in the intertidal zone,” Ben says. “But to me, it’s much more than just science. Whenever we are out on beaches with our big nets, people of all ages come up and talk to us. It’s a great way of tapping into the natural curiosity people have about the natural world, and the species that are – in many cases – right beneath their feet.”

Ben’s arrival in the States had followed swiftly on the heels of a piece of legislation, the Sustainable Fisheries Act, coming into force. It recognised the importance of identifying – and then appropriately managing – essential fish habitats. Around three decades after that came into force across the Atlantic, there is still nothing similar here in the UK. However, a growing understanding of the issues and a changing policy landscape are paving the way to add this important dimension to fisheries and conservation management.

Ben is hopeful his work will influence such measures, unlocking ways to protect coastal habitats and the species that rely on them. It is one reason he has been active within the Working Group on the Value of coastal Habitats for Exploited Species (WGVHES). Established by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, it pools experts from across Europe and the United States to advance our understanding of fish habitat needs.

“Often fisheries and conservation are seen as being in direct conflict,” Ben says. “But there have always been synergies between the two, and you really need to have good conservation to have sustainable, productive fisheries. We’re increasingly seeing echoes of that here in the UK and across Europe. I think there’s a growing appreciation – among conservationists and fishers – that they can work together for mutual benefit.”

Aside from his research, Ben currently leads the BSc (Hons) Marine Biology programme, one of three renowned Marine Biology degrees available at �鶹��ý. Talking to him, it is something he both enjoys and is hugely passionate about. Working within a dedicated team of marine biologists studying everything from microscopic life to the largest ocean giants, the course offers a rich opportunity to learn about ocean life and also provides the practical research experience of being and working as a marine biologist.

“I see so many eager and exceptional students coming to �鶹��ý to learn about marine biology,” Ben says. “and it reminds me how valuable my educational experiences were for me and what they enabled me to do. By providing our students with the practical experience of doing research, of being scientists, we want to foster a sense of curiosity and a skillset that equips them to answer the important scientific questions and meet the tremendous challenges facing our society.”

Fish Habitat Research Unit

From the deepest ocean to the shallowest coastal margin, marine habitats provide places for fish and shellfish to reproduce, develop and feed. The availability and quality of these habitats critically influences the sustainability and productivity of fisheries, as well as the biodiversity of marine ecosystems.

The Fish Habitat Research Unit (FHRU) forms an important pool of expertise, investigating how coastal and estuary habitats are impacted by human activity and monitoring fish during their earliest life stages.

Find out more about the Fish Habitat Research Unit

Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries

At �鶹��ý, a broad perspective on aquaculture and fisheries management is enabled by our transdisciplinary, systems-thinking approach embraces.

From the health and nutrition of farmed fish, crustaceans and bivalves, to marine conservation, fish tracking, habitats and natural capital, our research explores how all of these diverse elements help contribute towards responsible marine and freshwater food production, and, in doing so, how they support coastal economies and contribute to the national food security agenda.

Find out more about our Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries research