Springs Academy: Deep Dive with Kenneth Sulak

Kenneth Sulak is a research fish biologist retired from the U.S. Geological Survey. Dr. Sulak has Ph.D. and Masters degrees from the University of Miami School of Marine Science, and a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.   From 1985-1994 he was Director and Senior Fish Biologist at the Atlantic Reference Center, Huntsman Marine Science Centre, New Brunswick, Canada.  He has conducted international research as a NATO Fellow in England, a U.S. National Academy Exchange Scientist to Russia, and Chief Scientist aboard a large number of oceanographic research cruises.  Dr. Sulak has published extensively on marine fish community ecology and sturgeon life history and conservation.  He has 50 years of experience researching fish ecology in coastal rivers, estuaries, and the deep-sea in the Atlantic, Arctic, East Pacific and Indian oceans. His Gulf sturgeon research filled critical gaps in knowledge of life history, population biology and habitat requirements in coastal rivers and the Gulf of Mexico, facilitating conservation of this species. Offshore research focused on deep-reef fish communities off the U.S. East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, and on yellowfin tuna attracted to oilrigs. Dr. Sulak led four years of intensive USGS research on the impacts of the BP oil spill upon Gulf of Mexico shelf-edge reef fish communities. Sulak is a founding member of the North American Sturgeon and Paddlefish Society.  In 2008, he was honored with the GIBBS Foundation McAllister Award for excellence in marine fish conservation research.