Research Technicians & Support Staff
Kim Knoll (present) Staff Assistant: I am the administrative support for the Marine Resource Advisory Council and was Regional Coordinator for Bay Scallop Bowl from 2001 – 2023.
Joshua Zacharias (2014-present) Research Technician: I am the chief scientist for the Nearshore Trawl Survey conducted with the NYSDEC. My main research interest is in skates, which continues my research from my master’s degree at Stony Brook, also under Dr. Frisk.
Michael Fogg (2019-present) Research Technician: I manage and maintain the Acoustic gates project for the lab. This ensures that the array stays as complete as we can to maximize detection efficiency. I also coordinate all boat days for tagging, deployment and redeployment trips. Most tagging is done via rod and reel with some trawling in the mix. I am the resident scientific fisherman.
Farrah Leone (2022-present) Research Technician: My main role is to manage and maintain the array and tag species of interest for the South Fork Wind Acoustic Telemetry Project. I also am conducting an independent research project on trophic ecology of Black Sea Bass around Long Island.
Allegra Ervin (2024-present) Research Technician: My scientific interests in the field of marine science is conservation and fisheries management. Primarily, the effects of shifting baseline syndrome on how we perceive the health of our ecosystems. My thesis applies a data-limited method to evaluate this phenomenon and provides historical baseline data to aid in mitigating the influence of these perceptions. Throughout my education, I have gained invaluable experience on a number of diverse projects, including a nearshore survey, acoustic tagging and telemetry, sitting on a student-led stock assessment review panel, and aiding in the organization of the New York Chapter of the American Fisheries Society annual meeting.
Post-doctoral Researchers
Dr. Elliot Sivel (Co-advised with Dr. Anne McElroy).
Current Graduate Students
Ashley Wechsler (Ph.D. student, starting Fall 2024). Co-Advised with Dr. Oliver Shipley.
Kelsey Lowe (Ph.D. student, starting Fall 2024). Co-Advised with Dr. Oliver Shipley.
Tatum Eigenberger (2021-present). M.S. student. : Broadly, my research interests are focused on fish ecology with the application to fisheries management. My current work focuses on weakfish ecology, and includes the use of predictive models to identify trends in life history characteristics of weakfish in the Peconic Bay Estuary in relation to climate change. I am also conducting an exploratory acoustic tagging study of weakfish in the Peconic Bays and along coastal New York to evaluate migration and movement patterns of the species in the region.
Ashley Nicoll (2021-present). Ph.D. student. Co-advised with Dr. Robert Cerrato: My research focuses on fish movement ecology in both fine-scale, local systems off Long Island and the large-scale system of the Northeast coast. To do this, I use acoustic telemetry to monitor the movements of teleosts of interest and have selected Striped Bass, Bluefish, and False Albacore as species of special interest. These species are given tags that also report acceleration and swimming depth when they are detected. My work aims to investigate the impacts of climate change on fish movement at both coastal and fine-scale resolutions using acoustic telemetry networks and by pairing stable isotopes with telemetry data. I am also part of a project to investigate the potential impacts of electromagnetic fields generated by offshore wind on fish movement.
Maria Manz (2021-present). Ph.D. student: My research interest focuses on the ecology of local shark species in the New York Bight, including, but not limited to, sand tiger, thresher, sandbar, blacktip, and dusky sharks. Specifically, my work uses acoustic telemetry to investigate shark large-scale movement ecology under a changing climate, localized habitat use to the New York Bight, and the potential impact the electromagnetic field produced by offshore wind export cables may have on electrosensitive elasmobranch species. I am also coupling stable isotope and telemetry data to explore the interaction between sharks’ trophic and spatial niches.
Past Graduate Students
Ph.D. Students
Evan Ingram (2024). Migratory Ecology of Atlantic Sturgeon in the New York Bight.
Tara Dolan (Ph.D., 2020). Population diversity, connectivity and resilience in winter flounder, an exploited marine fish.
Current employment: Postdoctoral Fellow at the NOAA Santa Cruz Lab/UCSC (Supervisors Drs. Steve Munch & Eric Palkovacs).
Oliver Shipley (Ph.D., 2020). Application of bulk stable isotope ratios to infer Eltonian niche dynamics in higher marine predators.
Current employment: Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New Mexico (Supervisor Dr. Seth Newsome).
Matthew Siskey (Ph.D., 2020). Implications of partial migration, redefined stock structure, and depleted age structure for stock assessment of winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus).
Current position: Postdoctoral Scholar at University of Washington\Alaska Fisheries Science Center (Supervisors Drs. James Thorson and Andre Punt).
Kellie McCartin (Ph.D., 2019). Ecological and Management Implications of Restored Habitat Access for Anadromous River Herring. 170pp.
Current employment: Professor in the Biology department at Suffolk County Community College.
Christopher Martinez (Ph.D., 2014). Diversity of skates (Batoidea: Rajoidei) and the spatial structure of NW Atlantic communities. 157pp.
Current employment: Assistant Professor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Bio Dept at UC Irvine (starting Summer 2021).
Past employment: Postdoctoral Associate. Department of Evolution and Ecology. University of California Davis (Supervisor: Peter Wainwright).
Past employment: Gerstner Scholar & Lerner-Gray Postdoctoral Fellow. Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History.
Keith Dunton (Ph.D., 2014). Determining the connectivity among and fine-scale habitat-use within Atlantic sturgeon aggregation areas in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Implications for gear restricted management areas to reduce bycatch and improve population status. 207pp.
Current employment: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ.
Past employment: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Delaware State University.
Skyler Sagarese (Ph.D., 2013). Assessing Spiny Dogfish migration and population dynamics in the Northwest Atlantic. 214pp.
Current employment: Research Ecologist, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Miami, FL.
Past employment: Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami.
M.S. Students
Geresa Leigh-Luke (2023). Thermal Tolerance in Juvenile Winter Flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, in Northeastern United States Coastal Waters
Allegra Ervin (2023). Bayesian Stochastic Stock Reduction Analysis as a Data Limited Approach to Assess Historical Populations of Exploited Fisheries.
Catherine Ziegler (2017). Migration diversity, spawning behavior, and temperature selection of Winter Flounder.
Current employment: Division of Marine Resources, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 126pp.
Tyler Abruzzo (2015). Analyzing spatial and temporal trends in the community structure of the Peconic Bay estuary. 179pp.
Current employment: Wetland Biologist, H2M architects + engineers.
Joshua Zacharias (2014). Ecology of Western Atlantic skates.
Current employment: Research technician in the Frisk laboratory.
Tess Geers (2012). Co-advised by Dr. Ellen Pikitch. Developing an ecosystem based approach to management of the Gulf menhaden fishery using Ecopath with Ecosim.
Current employment: Oceana, Washington, DC.
Martha Divver (2012). Co-advised by Dr. Robert Cerrato. White Perch population ecology in the Carman’s River and Great South Bay: Exploring partial migration and contingent habitat use.
Current employment: Fish Biologist with EA Engineering, Hunt Valley, MD.
Anna Webb (2011). Co-advised by Dr. Ellen Pikitch. Fishing impacts on under-represented species in fishery management.
Current employment: Program Coordinator, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Boston, MA.
Matthew Nuttall (2010). Historical recount of the Great South Bay ecosystem, Long Island, New York and a quantitative assessment of the ecosystem structure of Great South Bay using Ecopath. 200pp.
Current employment: Ph.D. student at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami.
Carolyn Hall (2009). Damming of Maine’s watersheds and the consequences for coastal ecosystems with a focus on River Herring: A four century analysis. 159pp.
Current employment: Independent Fisheries Researcher focused on River Herring, Brooklyn, New York.
Skyler Sagarese (2009). Inshore movements, residency, and abundance of adult Winter Flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, and piscivorous predation on young-of-the-year Winter Flounder within coastal bays of Long Island and an investigation of the effect of temperature and photoperiod on vertebral band deposition in Little Skate, Leucoraja erinacea. 139pp.
Current employment: See above.
Melissa Yencho (2009). Abundance, mortality, age and growth of young-of-the-year Winter Flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, in two locations on Long Island. 79pp.
Current employment: Fisheries Statistics Division, NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, Silver Spring, MD.
Past Post-doctoral Researchers
Liam Butler (2021-2022).
Current employment: Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, Computational Biology & Artificial Intelligence, Wake Forest University. Winston-Salem, NC 27106.
Jill Olin (2015-2018).
Current employment: Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Great Lakes Research Center, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931.
Adrian Jordaan (2008, 2010-2012).
Current employment: Associate Professor, Fish Population Ecology and Conservation, Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA.
Lyndie Hice (2010-2013). Co-advised by Dr. Anne McElroy.
Current employment: Executive Director, Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA).