Joseph J. Bizzarro

I have worked at the Pacific Shark Research Center (PSRC) as a staff scientist and project manager since its inception in 2002. My primary areas of interest are resource (trophic, habitat) utilization, reproductive biology, and fisheries studies of elasmobranchs. I am especially interested in trophic ecology and habitat associations of batoids and chondrichthyan assemblages, and have several such research projects underway between the Bering Sea and Gulf of California. I also have considerable experience in seafloor mapping, collection and analysis of biological and physical data, and spatial analysis of groundfishes and benthic invertebrates. I regularly assist graduate students whose thesis topics are similar to my research interests and manage their work on PSRC research projects.

I graduated from Dartmouth College in 1992 (B.A., Biology) and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) in 2006 (M.S., Marine Science). My M.S. thesis was titled “Fishery biology and feeding ecology of rays from Bahía Almejas, Mexico.” I have authored or co-authored 55 publications, including 23 peer-reviewed manuscripts, encyclopedia articles, or book chapters, 11 technical reports, and 21 IUCN red list assessments, and have made 55 scientific presentations since 1999. I have also been an invited speaker and moderator at several scientific conferences related to seafloor mapping, fisheries management, and elasmobranch ecology and serve as Editor for the American Elasmobranch Society.

In addition to my position at the PSRC, I have worked at MLML’s Center for Habitat Studies since 1997, where I have served as manager of more than 20 private and publicly-funded projects related to seafloor mapping and the identification, enumeration, and spatial analysis of benthic organisms from video (manned submersible, ROV) data. I am an experienced submersible diver and have participated in six submersible research projects in collaboration with the CA Sea Grant program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. I was Co-PI for two of these submersible surveys and have logged over 40 hours of bottom time and 275 days of sea time.