DoctorMike Hickford

What is the future for whitebait?

Bringing back the whitebait

Is the whitebait fishery in decline?

Is the whitebait population fried?

The purpose of this award is to reward, celebrate and support research in the College of Science that makes a difference through excellent, innovative and/or sustained connection and collaboration with external end users of the research. The external end user organisations may be in government, community (including iwi) or business sectors.

Whitebait numbers

Bringing whitebait back to Christchurch rivers

Anonymous peer review

New Zealand Marine Sciences Society, Council Member (2007-present). The New Zealand Marine Sciences Society is a non-profit organisation, established in 1960, to foster an understanding and appreciation of New Zealand's marine environment. It provides a means of communication within the marine science community, encourages and assists marine science students and young scientists, and provides advice to government on marine policy issues. I was elected onto the council in July 2007 and have responsiblilities for overseeing the organisation of the Annual New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Conference, administering the First Overseas Conference Travel Funds travel assistance grant for student-members and the Student Research Grant Fund that helps MSc and PhD candidates to take their work further than typical institutional funding allows.

I am a member of ICORUMBA. This consortium involves five universities in four countries (NZ, USA, Chile and South Africa). ICORUMBA's aim is to gain insight into the dynamics of marine coastal ecosystems across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The consortium members enjoy the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through grants awarded to each institution in support of graduate student and postdoctoral research activities

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, International Collaborator (2001-present). I collaborate with, and was employed for 3 years by, PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans). PISCO is a collaboration of researchers at four US universities (Oregon State, Stanford, University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California, Santa Barbara) who have funding from the Packard Foundation. I am still actively involved with PISCO and have a collaboration that gives me access to their facilities and equipment at UCSB.

New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Conference, Session Chair (2008-present). I was invited to be a session chair at the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society annual conference in Christchurch (2008), Auckland (2009) and Wellington (2010). These conferences usually have more than 250 delegates from throughout Australasia.

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and North American Benthological Society Joint Meeting, Invited Speaker (2010). I was invited to speak at the 2010 summer meeting of ASLO & NABS in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I presented a paper titled "Population sinks for diadromous fish from multiple stressors in the coastal margins of New Zealand" in a special session on Multiple Stressors in Aquatic Ecosystems. The conference had over 1500 delegates.