Ryan P Byrne

USGS (Biological Science Technician): Field data collection involves a variety of fishing techniques, species identification, PIT tagging, live sex determination, and fin ray collection. Field work in this role also involves the maintenance and management of a variety of field data collection equipment, including a variety of PIT and acoustic antenna configurations. Laboratory duties have included organizing, storing, and preparing fin rays for further examination by blocking in resin and sectioning into readable sections with a low-speed saw, as well as assisting in the determination of age using standardized increment aging protocols. 

Queensland Fisheries (Fisheries Technical Officer): Field duties included the identification of all fish encountered to species level, collection of fisheries data (length, sex, age-recording structures (ie. otoliths), and tissue samples) from commercial fishers and processors, collecting fisheries data onboard vessels conducting fisheries-independent sampling activities with a variety of gear types. Laboratory duties included taking lengths and determining the sex of fish, recording measurements using both written and digital methods, collecting and storing otoliths and tissue samples for later analysis, preparing otoliths for further examination (blocking in resin, sectioning, and mounting sections onto glass slides), and aging fish by capturing microscope images of otolith sections or whole otoliths and interpreting these images following standardized increment aging and annotation procedures. 

AIS, Inc (Fisheries Observer): Onboard duties included identifying all marine life encountered to species; collecting sex and length measurements from target and non-target species; collecting and storing otoliths, vertebrae, and tissue samples from key species; recording and collecting samples from protected species interactions; tracking and recording sightings of key mammal and bird species; identifying, recording, and collecting PIT and acoustic tags; creating unique, vessel-specific, and species-specific systematic sample designs; and maintaining sampling gear. Other duties included leading a technical team in the collection of fisheries data from fisheries-independent sampling activities, determining the species and length of fish in underwater ROV images, determining the development stage of, collecting, weighing, and preserving fish gonads, entering and checking data using digital tools and software, managing and manipulating databases, calibrating and using multi-frequency acoustic equipment, assisting in the integration and assignment of biomass estimates to acoustic data, and assisting with the deployment and retrieval of technical oceanographical data collection tools (water quality/composition measurement equipment, acoustic antennas).