Dr Mike Cappo - CV - Australian Institute of Marine Science

Role

Research Scientist within the Healthy and Resilient Great Barrier Reef Program

Background

I have followed my lifelong passion for fish and fisheries to join AIMS in 1987. My work has involved exploring the environmental and anthropogenic factors causing the wide variability in abundance of fish in time and space. To this end, I have focussed on applying novel, non-intrusive techniques to assess fish populations, on the search for tracers (in otoliths and scales) to infer life histories and demography, and on the powerful new generation of statistical techniques to handle awkward data.

Education

2010: PhD, Determinants of inter-reef fish diversity, James Cook University
1986: MSc, Anuran ecology in Kakadu, University of Adelaide
1980: BSc(Hons), Reef fish biology, University of Adelaide

Current Research Activities

I am leading a small team surveying the diversity, abundance and size of fish and elasmobranchs in relation to benthic communities [and fishing pressure], at the scale of regional tropical shelves. This work supports management and monitoring of mining, fishing, and marine parks (MPAs). It has a focus on use of baited "video-fishing" techniques in deeper, snapper/grouper complexes of "inter-reef" waters but also includes collaboration to directly measure larval spillover of reef fish away from MPAs.

Expert Committees and Boards

Scientific Advisor, Twin Cities Fish Stocking Society

Publications

Cappo MC, Stowar MJ, Syms C, Johansson C, Cooper TF (2011) Fish-habitat associations in the region offshore from James Price Point - a rapid assessment using Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS). Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 94: 303-321.

Moltschaniwskyj NA, Cappo MC (2009) Alternatives to sectioned otoliths: the use of other structures and chemical techniques to estimate age and growth for marine vertebrates and invertebrates. pp. 133-173. In: Green BS, Mapstone BD, Carlos G, Begg GA (eds) Tropical Fish Otoliths: Information for Assessment, Management and Ecology. Springer. 313 p.

Cappo MC, Harvey ES, Shortis M (2007) Counting and measuring fish with baited video techniques - an overview. pp. 101-114. In: Furlani D, Beumer JP (eds) Proceedings of the Australian Society for Fish Biology Workshop, Hobart, August 2007. Australian Society of Fish Biology.

Cappo MC, De'ath AG, Speare PJ (2007) Inter-reef vertebrate communities of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park determined by baited remote underwater video stations. Marine Ecology Progress Series 350: 209-221.

Harvey ES, Cappo MC, Butler J, Hall N, Kendrick GA (2007) Bait attraction affects the performance of remote underwater video stations in assessment of demersal fish community structure. Marine Ecology Progress Series 350: 245-254.

Cappo MC, De'ath AG, Boyle S, Aumend J, Olbrich R, Hoedt F, Brunskill GJ, Perna C (2005) Development of a robust classifier of freshwater residence in barramundi (Lates calcarifer) life histories using elemental ratios in scales and boosted regression trees. Marine and Freshwater Research 56: 713-723.

Cappo MC, Speare PJ, De'ath AG (2004) Comparison of baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) and prawn (shrimp) trawls for assessments of fish biodiversity in inter-reefal areas of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 302: 123-152.

Cappo MC, Eden P, Newman SJ, Robertson S (2000) A new approach to validation of the periodicity and timing of opaque zone formation in the otoliths of 11 Lutjanus species from the central Great Barrier Reef. Fishery Bulletin 98: 474-488.

Cappo MC, Walters CJ, Lenanton RCJ (2000) Estimation of rates of migration, exploitation and survival using tag recovery data for western Australian Salmon (Arripis truttaceus : Arripidae: Percoidei). Fisheries Research 44: 207-217.