Brian P O'Malley, PhD

Brian O’Malley is a Research Fishery Biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Great Lakes Science Center. He works based out of the Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego, NY, located on the shores of Lake Ontario. Brian earned his PhD from the University of Vermont where he studied the causes and consequences of partial diel vertical migration in Mysis diluviana, a shrimp-like invertebrate that serves as the primary prey for several native fish species in the Great Lakes. Brian’s current research with the USGS spans from invertebrates to top predator fishes. Brian leads binational annual assessments of Lake Ontario’s benthic prey fish community and evaluations of native species restoration projects, which are collaborative projects conducted with state, federal, and provincial partners. Brian is the lead investigator of Lake Ontario’s Lake Trout restoration program which provides science to inform management decisions regarding stocking, efficacy of Sea Lamprey control, and the relative contribution of wild and stocked fish to the fishery. Brian also leads research on native coregonine restoration in which includes such topics as fish ecology, behavior, and intra- and interspecific studies on coregonine morphology as they relate to taxonomy and ecology. Brian’s work environment makes use of both large and small research vessels on the Great Lakes, as well as laboratory and experimental approaches, and syntheses of population dynamics using long-term datasets on Great Lakes fish communities.