Prestigious American job no fish tale for University graduate

Prestigious American job no fish tale for University graduate

University of Queensland graduate Dr Alastair Dove will be responsible for ensuring there is nothing fishy about the health of the more than 5000 inhabitants of the New York Aquarium after appointment to a leading position at the world-class facility.

Dr Dove, who began PhD study at the University in 1996 after completing Honours in Parasitology when he studied parasites of coral reef fishes, has been appointed as the aquarium's Aquatic Pathologist.

The appointment followed an August 1999 meeting with Dr Dennis Thoney, General Curator of the aquarium, at an international fish parasitology symposium in the Czech Republic.

Dr Dove plans to establish collaborative research with the University's Microbiology and Parasitology Department, initially with Dr Ian Whittington and Dr Bronwyn Cribb through a project on ectoparasitic worms that cause diseases in captive sharks at the aquarium.

The aquarium is operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), formerly the New York Zoological Society, a 100-year old non-profit conservation group that also operates the Bronx Zoo and Central Park, Prospect Park and Queens Wildlife Centers.

'My job includes diagnosing and treating diseases in everything from jellyfish to pirhanas and grey nurse sharks,' Dr Dove said.

'I will also be utilising the facilities of the Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science at the aquarium to carry out a self-directed research program into parasites and diseases of aquatic animals, especially those of conservation significance.

'This area of research is of particular interest as the aquarium host breeding programs for endangered aquatic animals, including dozens of species of endangered Madagascar (Malagasy) rainbowfishes.'

Dr Dove says he will investigate the diseases of these fishes both in the wild and when they cause problems in the breeding program.

'There is also a major coral culture laboratory that is conserving rare corals from around the world and has some problems with parasitic ciliates; I will be involved in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these disease outbreaks,' he said.

Dr Dove said he deliberately chose a PhD topic at the University covering the full range of parasite groups of fishes and was concerned with an important issue in Australian ecology, the success of introduced freshwater fish and concurrent decline of native fish.

With supervision from Dr Tom Cribb and Dr Peter O'Donoghue from the Microbiology and Parasitology Department, he completed his thesis in just over three years and provided evidence of the damaging effect of introduced parasites on native fish populations.

For further information, contact Patricia Patey on (07) 3365 4618, Brad Turner, UQ Communications, on (07) 3365 2659 or email us at: communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au