Eddie Hughes is a part-time graduate student at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science under the guidance of Dr. David Naar. Eddie’s research focus is on the use of scientific acoustic echosounders to examine reef fish communities along the West Florida shelf. Since enrolling in 2013, Eddie has been overseeing the collection of acoustic data using the SIMRAD EK60 split-beam echosounder (38 kHz) aboard FIO’s Weatherbird II. These acoustic data were collected in conjunction with Dr. Steve Murawski and his team’s collection of video and physical oceanographic data using the CBASS system, that has been extensively towed over areas of exposed hardbottom and pipeline. As part of his PhD research, Eddie will be processing and analyzing these acoustic data using Echoview software and using the collected video data for groundtruthing and comparison in efforts to characterize reef fish communities acoustically.
Eddie received his Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of Miami in 1994 and his Master’s degree in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography in 1999. Eddie also works with the marine science consulting firm CSA Ocean Sciences, Inc. and has been involved with a number of different marine-related O&G projects around the globe.