Welcome to the Jensen lab, in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. We study fisheries and aquatic ecosystems - including marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments. The word fishery refers to an entire social-ecological system including a wild fish or invertebrate population, as well as the fishermen and processors who harvest and sell the fish (in a commercial fishery), and the managers who regulate the fishery to prevent overharvest. Our research ranges from field studies of endangered salmonids in Mongolia to meta-analysis of stock assessment data to better understand fish population dynamics. If you're interested in learning more about what we do, please follow the Research link on the sidebar to the left.

What's new:

Work will continue this summer on a study looking at sex change rates of black sea bass off of the coast of New Jersey. Black sea bass are protogynous hermaphrodites - most begin life as females and some later become male. Length limits in the fishery focus mortality from fishing on the larger individuals, which are predominately males. In collaboration with fishermen, we are examining the consequences of this male-biased mortality on the population. This research is funded by NOAA's Research Set-Aside Program.

We hosted a Mongolian Ecological Research Symposium featuring 20 presentations from students and faculty at 13 different academic and research institutions around the U.S. More than 50 people participated. Research subjects ranged from conservation of endangered species to the impacts of climate change on herders and spanned a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial habitats in Mongolia.

New paper published in Theoretical Ecology: "Jensen, O.P., Branch, T.A., and R. Hilborn. 2012. Marine fisheries as ecological experiments. Theoretical Ecology."