Dr Charlie Ellis

Having grown up in coastal North Cornwall, I became interested in creating sustainable ways to meet seafood demand, and the conservation of both traditional inshore fishing fleets and the populations they target. My interest has now become my career; I’m a marine ecologist with experience in research and education, specialising in areas of crustacean fisheries conservation, sustainable aquaculture and genetics. I have considerable experience of working alongside academic partners, industry stakeholders and members of fishing communities, both on land and at sea, and particularly in developing techniques which facilitate the integration of research with fishers and seafood industry organisations.

In 2016 I attained my PhD, which focused on the population ecology of European lobsters in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and on the stock enhancement project run to conserve this important species by the National Lobster Hatchery, with whom I have collaborated since 2005. This project developed genetic markers to test molecular and reproductive ecology in local lobsters, and identified ways that these techniques can be applied to test how well hatchery releases and other stock conservation initiatives 

contribute to the sustainability of pressured or depleted marine populations. I hope to start a project to monitor released hatchery lobsters   in the future, and am currently developing novel genomic tools with the University of Exeter which will facilitate assessments of traceability in the lobster fishery, including parentage-based ID of recaptures.