Fisheries Genetics

Commercial fisheries are facing increasing pressure as a result of increasing public demand due to population growth. Meeting these demands is challenged by a multitude of factors that threaten the growth and long-term viability of many fishing industries, including climate change, pest incursions, disease, and in some cases overexploitation. Hence, there is an urgent need for improved biological and ecological knowledge of fish species, as well as the interactions between biological and physical processes that shape our fisheries, in order to guide future sustainable management.

Our group works with a range of invertebrate and vertebrate fisheries, undertaking genetic research that improves knowledge of:

Assessment of stock structure and patterns of connectivity
Recruitment processes (biotic and abiotic)
Adaptive genetic differences among fishing stocks and drivers of selection pressure
Species diet composition and abilities to accommodate shifts in resource availability
Resilience to environmental stress
The genetic basis of commercial traits of interest

Key Publications

Miller AD, Hoffmann AA, Tan MH, Young M, Ahrens C, Cocomazzo M, Rattray A, Ierodiaconou DA, Treml E, Sherman CDH (2019) Local and regional scale habitat heterogeneity contribute to genetic adaptation in a commercially important mollusc. Molecular Ecology. 28: 3053– 3072.

Gan HM, Tan MH, Austin CM, Sherman CDH, Wong YT, Strugnell J, Gervis M, McPherson L, Miller AD (2019) Best Foot Forward: Nanopore Long Reads, Hybrid Meta-Assembly, and Haplotig Purging Optimizes the First Genome Assembly for the Southern Hemisphere Blacklip Abalone (Haliotis rubra). Frontiers in Genetics. 10: 889

Kent J, Jenkins G, Sherman CDH (2018) Low levels of genetic structuring in King George whiting Sillaginodes punctatus across two geographic regions. Journal of Fish Biology. 92: 523–531. DOI:10.1111/jfb.13510