Jeroen van der Kooij

Senior Pelagic Ecologist and Group Manager Applied Fisheries Science and Technology

Jeroen has more than 18 years’ experience in participating and leading national and international research studying the ecology of pelagic ecosystems, with a focus on characterising the behaviour, distribution and abundance of mid-trophic pelagic organisms in relation to the physical, chemical and biological environment. Jeroen leads on the fisheries acoustic programme in Cefas and has a particular interest in the development of ship and glider based acoustic technologies to monitor, map, quantify and study behaviour of pelagic organisms, their habitat drivers and their link to predators.

He is responsible for Cefas’ pelagic ecosystem survey in the Celtic Sea and English Channel, PELTIC, which focusses on the small pelagic fish and their ecosystem “from phytoplankton to finwhales”. Data from this survey are used to underpin sustainable management of the rich and dynamic small pelagic fish community, to monitor the health of ecosystem and to support studies investigating the oceanographic and biological processes which drive shelf sea ecosystems.

Jeroen is actively involved in several ICES working groups, including as current chair of the Working Group on Acoustic and Egg Surveys for small pelagic fish in NE Atlantic (WGACEGG), and as a member of several others focussing on pelagic surveys (WGIPS), fisheries acoustics (WGFAST) and on Small Pelagic Fish and Climate Change (WGSPF). Jeroen currently supervises several PhD students on a range of topics from glider-based acoustics, applications of eDNA, use of remote sensing technologies to monitor pelagic ecosystems, and bluefin tuna

Research Publications: Google Scholar, ResearchGate

Highlighted Publications:

Phillips JA, Banks AN, Bolton M, Brereton T, Cazenave P, Gillies N, Padget O, van der Kooij J, Waggitt J and Guilford T (2021) Consistent concentrations of critically endangered Balearic shearwaters in UK waters revealed by at-sea surveys. Ecol Evol. 2021;00:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002

McKeown NJ, Carpi P, Silva JF, Healey, AJE, Shaw PW, and van der Kooij J. (2020) Genetic population structure and tools for the management of European sprat (Sprattus sprattus). ICES J Mar Sc. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsaa113

van der Kooij, G.H. Engelhard and D.A. Righton (2016). Climate change and squid expansion in the North Sea. Journal of Biogeography, 43: 2285–2298.

Contact Details:

jeroen.vanderkooij@cefas.co.uk