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Nicholas
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Research Interests: I received my bachelor's degree from Albion College, Michigan where I spent three summers as a research assistant under Jeff Carrier (Albion College) and Wes Pratt (NMFS; Mote Marine Laboratory) studying mating behavior, movements, and growth in a population of nurse sharks in the Florida Keys. I began my graduate school career by studying for two years under Dr. Tim Tricas before moving to the lab of Dr. Kim Holland to study movement patterns of the whitetip reef shark, Triaenodon obesus. The whitetip reef shark is a large predator on coral
reefs throughout the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Past studies
have shown it to be one of the most site-attached shark species,
with strong ties to coral reef habitat and a home range size smaller
than many reef teleosts. Unlike reef teleosts however, whitetips
(like all elasmobranchs) have no pelagic larval stage to explain
their trans-oceanic species range. This species thus appears to
represent one of the most extreme incongruities between dispersal
ability and species distribution, and my research is an attempt
to shed light on this paradox. Specifically I am using innovative techniques to
examine behavior and movement patterns of whitetips over multiple
scales of time and space. At the most proximate scale I am using
a prototype acceleration data logger to analyze diel activity patterns
of whitetip reef sharks in captivity and compare those with day/night
fluctuations in metabolic rate. On a larger time- and spatial scale,
I am using community-based photo-identification to quantify site-attachment
and dispersal throughout the MHI. Whitetips are the most commonly-encountered
shark by divers in Hawaii and have unique spot patterns on their
sides that allow for individual identification (if you have whitetip
photos from anywhere in Hawaii- I WANT THEM!). Since reproduction
appears to be a common motivation for long-distance migrations in
marine species, I am studying rarely-seen courtship and mating activity
of whitetips to describe behaviors previously un-reported in any
shark species, and to examine the possible role of mating aggregations,
which could indicate migration to a central mating site. Finally,
I am using molecular techniques to analyze the genetic population
structure of whitetip reef sharks across the Hawaiian Archipelago
(including the Northwest Hawaiian Islands) as well as a few trans-oceanic
sites in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. I am also involved in a number other projects studying various shark and teleost species, and a full listing of my publications (and much more) is available at: http://www.whitetip.hawaii.edu I've been married (Holli) since 2000 and have had
a son (Owen) since 2006. Hobbies include changing diapers, going
for stroller walks, underwater hockey, writing, and fantasy football.
Pre-graduate school work experiences include: several years of construction
(unskilled laborer), aquarium store employee, basketball camp counselor,
janitor, and monster-truck driver for a landscaping company (all
other coworkers had suspended licenses). Claims to fame include
a couple of high school basketball records (documented and undocumented),
vehicular collisions with corvettes (40 mph) and deer (Odocoileus
virginianus; 35 mph and ~70 mph) (Note: none of these accidents
were my fault - except the corvette one - and none involved the
landscaping monster truck), shooting my boss in the hand with a
nail gun (long story), shooting myself in the hand with a staple
gun (shooting myself hurt worse), inflating shark siphon sacs with
a turkey baster (another long story), and defeating Yannis Papastamatiou
in a no-holds barred grappling match on the bridge to nowhere (self-explanatory).
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