Chris J. Barrett

• Ph.D. Intertidal fish ecology
• Senior Consultant- Commercial Fisheries at Collaborative Environmental Advisors

Intertidal fish are a key component of littoral food webs, contributing to the diets of birds and commercial fish species. Ascertaining their growth and condition can therefore help understand the health status of local communities. Lipophrys pholis is a fish of the rocky intertidal with a wide distribution throughout the North‐eastern Atlantic (NE...

The curled octopus Eledone cirrhosa and common octopus Octopus vulgaris could be considered resident to the waters around the UK, though the latter is considered rare following historic population crashes and severe range contractions. There is evidence of an emerging fishery for octopus in the UK though understanding population dynamics between th...

Cuttlefish are an important global fisheries resource, and their demand is placing increasing pressure on populations in many areas, necessitating conservation measures. We reviewed evidence from case studies spanning Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia encompassing diverse intervention methods (fisheries closures, protected areas, habitat restorat...

Squid and cuttlefish are valuable UK commercial fisheries and anecdotal evidence suggests recreational fisheries for these species is rapidly emerging. Though the quantity captured by this sector is uncertain, recent updates to the sea angling diary has identified 36 records from two squid species from England, Scotland, and Wales in 2021. We sugge...

Cephalopods are universal to the world's oceans and prey to many fish species. On the northwest European shelf, integrated ecosystem assessments are rapidly evolving into the preferred method for holistically assessing stocks, but cephalopods appear to be an overlooked component, perhaps because their roles in ecosystems have seldom been quantified...

The veined squid, Loligo forbesii Steenstrup, 1856, occurs at the European Shelf areas including the Azores and represents a valuable resource for the European commercial fishery in the North East Atlantic. However, very little is known about its population structure and phylogeography. This lack of knowledge also impedes the development of sustain...

Global studies imply that cephalopods have benefited from climate change. However, in most areas, species-specific long-term cephalopod data sets do not exist to support this implication and to analyse the response of cephalopods to environmental changes. Our results illustrate that historical studies, in combination with recent data sets, can fil...

In past centuries, the impacts on cephalopods from humankind were negligible. The first documented small-scale exploitation of cephalopods occurred in the Mediterranean and Asia. Between 1950-2019, global cephalopod catches increased by about an order of magnitude, from 0.5 million tones to a peak of 4.85 million tons. The human impact on the ocean...

European squid, Loligo vulgaris and veined squid, Loligo forbesii have nearly coinciding distributions in the northeast Atlantic, a similar reproductive seasonality, and largely overlapping depth ranges of spawning grounds. There are no unambiguous criteria to distinguish between egg masses of both species. This pioneering study was focused on the...

We present the total length and total weight (wet mass) data of common blenny (Lipophrys pholis) caught from protected and unprotected rocky shores of two contrasting marine provinces in the temperate Northeastern Atlantic: Northern European Seas (NES) and Lusitania (LU). The samplings locations in NES were in Wales and England, and in LU were in S...

With the depletion of many commercial fish stocks and an increasing demand for marine protein for human consumption, cephalopods have become more important as a fishery resource. In EU waters, cephalopod stocks are not routinely assessed and exploitation of these species by large-scale fisheries is largely unregulated. For sustainable exploitation,...

The lesser flying squid (Todaropsis eblanae) and the shortfin squid (Illex coindetii) are two abundant ommastrephids of the northeast Atlantic. Spawning ground existence was inferred from the captures of mature, mated females in summer 2016–2019 and their occurrences were compared with respective oceanographic data from international surveys to gai...

Effects of conservation interventions on marine fish: a protocol for subject-wide evidence synthesis

Although native to eastern Canada and the USA, American lobsters (Homarus americanus) have been reported from British coastal waters in recent years. The introduction of most have been as escapees from holding facilities or releases by members of the public for animal welfare or religious reasons. Life-history traits of H. americanus put them at a...

A replicated, controlled study in 2011-2012 found that using home-made fish traps reduced the capture of unwanted, small shannies Lipophrys pholis compared to using conventional hand-nets in intertidal habitats.

Keen-eyed fishers around England occasionally notice broad-bodied, orange-tinted lobsters in their catches. While such features are not always a definitive means of identification, their finds are often the non-native American lobster, also known as the Canadian lobster. DEFRA has funded an awareness campaign to engage with lobster fishermen, whic...

Estimation of natural and anthropogenic (fishing, hunting) mortality is the key problem in studies of population dynamics. Numerous theoretical approaches were developed in environmental sciences to find a solution based on information that could be obtained from live representatives of populations of interest. We review the alternative methods use...

The shanny/common blenny (Lipophrys pholis) and long-spined scorpionfish/bullhead (Taurulus bubalis) are commonly encountered, sympatric species within much of Great Britain’s rocky intertidal zones. Despite being prey items of the cod (Gadus morhua) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) respectively, and both contributors to the diet of the near-...

tAnalysis of simultaneously occurring live molluscs and empty shells of the whelk Buccinum undatumindicated similar abundance on the seabed making possible the estimation of recent natural mortality.Nearly all empty shells were occupied by hermit crabs Pagurus bernhardus and most of the remainder byPagurus prideaux. P. bernhardus is highly selectiv...

While the syntopic nature of many intertidal fish communities suggest that resources such as food are shared, little has been done to assess the importance of diet on the coexistence of intertidal fish of the U.K. In this study, six intertidal fish species (shanny, Lipophrys pholis, Blenniidae; long-spined scorpion fish, Taurulus bubalis, Cottidae;...

Research into the ecology of intertidal fishes of the U.K. appears to be lacking, reportedly due to the mobility and cryptic nature of the more common species. However, some intertidal fishes contribute to the diets of commercially important species such as cod ( Gadus morhua ), haddock ( Melanogrammus aeglefinus ) and near-threatened European otte...

Research into the ecology of intertidal fishes of the U.K. appears to be lacking, reportedly due to the mobility and cryptic nature of the more common species. However, some intertidal fishes contribute to the diets of commercially important species such as cod ( Gadus morhua ), haddock ( Melanogrammus aeglefinus ) and near-threatened European otte...

Fulton's K condition factor was applied, for the first time, to inter-tidal specimens of the shanny (Lipophrys pholis) and long-spined scorpion fish (Taurulus bubalis) from two English rocky shore and two Welsh rocky shore sites during summer 2010 and winter 2011. As both species contribute to the diet of commercial species such as cod (Gadus morhu...