Dr Tea Bašić
Senior Diadromous Fish Biologist
Tea is a fish biologist specialising in the ecology and management of diadromous and freshwater fishes. She provides expert scientific advice to national and international bodies on issues related to the management of diadromous and freshwater fisheries, with special emphasis on the European eel, and leads scientific projects underpinning advice.
Tea has over 15 years of experience in the field of freshwater ecology and fisheries management. She obtained a BSc in Biology at the University of Zagreb and an MSc in Applied Ecology at the University of Kiel (as a part of the Erasmus Mundus Programme), after which she had worked in a non-governmental organisation and an environmental consultancy as a Freshwater Fisheries Expert. She then went on to complete a PhD in the applied ecology and management of a European barbel population of a lowland river at Bournemouth University and a Postdoc at Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust on the roles of discharge and temperature in the recruitment of the European grayling. Following completion of those projects, she worked as a Freshwater Fisheries Specialist and then a Senior Diadromous Fish Biologist at Cefas.
Her roles at Cefas include leading and contributing to various scientific projects on diadromous fishes (e.g. review of eel biology principles to support the national stock assessment, semi-quantitative assessment of marine stressors operating on Atlantic salmon) and providing scientific advice on diadromous and freshwater fishes to the national and international bodies. She is a UK delegate at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on Eels (WGEEL) and a lead national coordinator of the eel data call submission, ensuring international obligations with regards to eel data provision and reporting are met. Her research interests include improving eel stock assessment methods, assessing stressors operating on diadromous fishes, and investigating life history of data poor diadromous species using techniques such as acoustic tracking, stable isotopes, microchemistry etc. Recently, Tea has become a SAF media coordinator to ensure the team’s work is well presented both internally and externally. She is a regular first author of high-level technical reports and peer-reviewed papers.
Publications:
Selected Publications:
Bašić, T. et al., 2018. Roles of discharge and temperature in recruitment of a cold‐water fish, the European grayling Thymallus thymallus, near its southern range limit. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 27, 940-951.
Bašić, T. et al., 2019. Trophic consequences of an invasive, small-bodied non-native fish, sunbleak Leucaspius delineatus, for native pond fishes. Biological Invasions, 21, 261-275.
Bašić, T. et al., 2019. Spatial and temporal behavioural patterns of the European eel Anguilla anguilla in a lacustrine environment. Aquatic Sciences, 81, 1-15.
Selected Projects:
Assessing and enhancing ecosystem services provided by diadromous fish in a climate change context
