Meet the Scientists

Name: Martin O’Connell
Occupation:  Fish Ecologist and Director of the Nekton Research Laboratory
Place of Business:  University of New Orleans

E-mail: moconnel@uno.edu
Phone: 504-280-4032

How did you become interested in your field and working with invasive species?
As a kid in upstate New York, I was always interested in the natural world – studying insects in jars, catching fishes with nets and generally messing around outside.  When I went to college, by chance I ended up working in a fish lab, although I really wanted to become an entomologist and study insects.  I soon realized, though, that the important thing is not what type of animals you work with but what kind of interesting and useful research questions you can pursue.

Invasive species became an interest of mine when I began to observe how the native fishes and freshwater mussels I was studying were being threatened by non-native organisms.  I saw how zebra mussels changed the Mohawk River, where I had fished with my dad as a kid in the 1970s, to become a less productive system in the 1990s.  I’ve also seen how non-native common carp damages stream habitats in Virginia.  As I moved further south to Mississippi, then Louisiana, I felt even more obliged to protect native organisms because these states still retain most of their natural aquatic fauna and are only just now beginning to be impacted by invasive species.

What do you do?
I direct a research lab at the University of New Orleans where I also teach college courses about ecology and environmental science.  The graduate and undergraduate students in my lab work on research projects involving ecology and aquatic organisms (mostly fishes) both in freshwater and marine habitats.  (See our website for details: http://www.nekton.uno.edu/.)  We not only study invasive species, but also examine how fish communities change over time when exposed to different environmental stressors.  We also conduct surveys for rare fishes with the hope of gaining more information about ways to conserve these species.

What do you like about your job?
Working at a university that supports its researchers allows me great freedom to pursue scientific questions that are not only interesting but also relevant to current environmental issues such as invasive species, climate change and wetlands loss in Louisiana.  If I’m asked to study a rare fish in cypress swamps in Mississippi (see picture) or fly to Ireland or Australia to give a talk about invasive species, my job allows me the freedom to do these things.

What advice would you give students who are interested in science?
Be flexible.  Many beginning students fixate on what they think they want to do as a scientist, and this tends to cause frustration when they go to college.  Too often I have heard students say things like, “I just want to be a marine biologist,” or “I just want to work with sharks.”  Students who remain stubborn about what research field or type of organism they want to study and who don’t appreciate the excitement of doing the science itself, often don’t succeed as researchers.  Be open-minded and choose a topic or organism that nobody else has worked on.  For example, there are a lot more species in freshwater habitats (such as freshwater mussels) that are far more endangered than any marine species out there.  Don’t do what everyone else wants to do; do something that matters.