Dr Adam Brooker

Research Fellow

Institute of Aquaculture Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Adam Brooker

Contact details

About me

I am a Research Fellow in the Breeding and Physiology research group at the Institute of Aquaculture. I have been researching and working at the University of Stirling since 2001 when I was awarded an MSc with distinction in Aquaculture and in 2008 a PhD in Aquatic Veterinary Studies. Since then, I have focussed my research on aquatic animal behaviour through working on a wide range of research projects in aquaculture.

My current research involves improving farmed cleaner fish stocks (ballan wrasse and lumpfish) for better welfare, survival and delousing efficiency in salmon net pens. Since 2016, I have led several project work packages in cleaner fish behaviour and cage management, and I am currently co-investigator for two projects investigating cleaner fish and salmon behaviour in commercial net pens. A primary focus of my work is using hydroacoustics to study the behaviour of tagged fish within a hydrophone array.

I come from a background of environmental science and marine biology having graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science in 1995.

Event / Presentation

Optimising the delousing performance of farmed ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) by acclimation to net-pen conditions. Aquaculture Europe 17
European Aquaculture Society

https://www.aquaeas.eu/meetings/next-aquaculture-europe


Other Project

Discrimination learning and its application in lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) delousing behaviour
University of Stirling

The project is a first step towards understanding whether training protocols used in comparative psychology can encourage delousing behaviour in farmed lumpfish (i.e. whether lumpfish naïve to salmon and sea lice can be trained to delouse salmon). The project will examine whether lumpfish can be trained to discriminate between two ecologically valid visual stimuli, a fake-model salmon with sea lice and one without lice.


Research programmes

Research themes