My name is Melissa. I'm a third year PhD student at Southern Cross University at the National Marine Science Centre. And my research looks into how climate change will affect fish and fisheries on the east coast of Australia. More specifically, I'm looking at three different species of whiting and how they might respond to climate change.

I've always been interested in the environment and how we interact with the environment and how we can continue to interact with the environment in a sustainable manner. 

So, my research directly feeds into fish and fisheries research. These species are important for recreational and commercial fisheries. It can inform fish stock assessment, so they can continue to fish sustainably so we can all enjoy fish now and into the future. 

My research has a few different components.  I've run a few temperature-controlled experiments with live fish and used different scenarios of climate change.

The whiting have been fairly resilient in that situation, so they have actually grown a little bit bigger and they've improved in body condition, which is good. 

But along with that, that comes increases in their metabolism, so under climate change scenarios with the ocean warming, there will have to be enough food to support that increased metabolism and better growth.

The second part of my PhD looks into fish ear bones or ear stones as they're called. They're known as otoliths. And these little bones record lots of information about the environment that the fish has lived in. So after I've had my fish experiments, I then dissect them for these otoliths or ear bones.

Then I look at the chemistry of those. That's involved quite a lot of chemical analysis in the lab, and at the moment I'm in the midst of analysing all my data and writing it up. 

It's beautiful to live and work in Coffs Harbour and the facilities here at the Marine Science Centre are fantastic. We have a flow through seawater system that enabled me to do all of my tank experiments, which I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

It was definitely one of the big draw cards. It's been fantastic to study and spend so much time here at the National Marine Science Centre, because we do have the aquarium facilities. Having the aquarium downstairs, which is open to the public is fantastic, for school groups as well as for friends and family.

When I have people come visit, I can show them around and show them all the critters and it's representative of the marine life that we have in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, which is just off our shores. I find the most rewarding thing is when my research has outcomes that are directly applicable.

One of my supervisors is a research scientist with DPI Fisheries, and she's heavily involved in the stock assessment process, and so some of the findings from my research can directly inform her stock assessment process. It's already been put into place, which is really interesting for me.

It's nice to see that it can be used to help fish stock be fished sustainably, so that we can continue having these fish around.