This is me with my sons Eneko and Unai while on a fishing trip off the Stono River. We presently live in Charleston (South Carolina), where I teach at the College of Charleston. I have always been interested in studying and working with fishes, which lead me to study biology at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain. I later earned my Ph.D. at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution / Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program in Oceanography in 1998, working on the behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes at spawning aggregations sites in Lauren Mullineaux's Lab at WHOI. For a couple years I focused on field based education, working as an Oceanography Faculty at Sea Education Association in Woods Hole and as the Resident Co-Director of the Hofstra University Marine Laboratory in Jamaica. Then I switched to full time research, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to work on fisheries conservation and ecological management problems at the AZTI Technological and Fisheries Institute in the Basque Region of Spain. In the summer of 2002 I came to the Biology Department of College of Charleston as an Assistant Professor, looking for a place where to balance both my teaching and research interests. At CofC I teach various classes at the undergraduate level and participate in the Graduate Program in Marine Biology, while continuing my research on fish behavioral ecology and fisheries conservation. I have worked with coral reef fishes, hydrothermal vent fishes, temperate marine fishes, diadromous salmons and eels, plus freshwater crayfish. At the present time I am studying the behavior of pelagic tropical tuna associated with floating objects as part of the FADIO project and the spawning dynamics of spotted seatrout in Charleston Harbor. My office is located at the Grice Marine Laboratory, please swing by to chat!
Check out these websites to find about research oportunities, student internships and jobs in fisheries, marine and environmental sciences:
