UAPB celebrates first fisheries Ph.D.
Jeremiah Salinger, a doctoral student in aquaculture/fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, became the university’s first Ph.D. student to graduate with an emphasis in fisheries Dec. 9.
Salinger enrolled in the program in the spring of 2017, according to Lin Xie, acting chair of aquaculture/fisheries and the graduate coordinator.
“Jeremiah was the first student specializing in ‘fisheries’ within our cohort,” Xie said. “Since the inception of our Ph.D. program, we have successfully graduated five students. Those all specialized in ‘aquaculture.’”
The doctoral program mandates stringent milestones for students, beginning with the formation of a dissertation committee and the completion of a detailed study plan within the first semester, she said. The program requires a minimum of 42 credit hours.
“Students must defend their proposal and obtain unanimous approval from all advisory committee members within 300 days of starting the program,” Xie said. “Additionally, they are expected to pass a comprehensive preliminary examination, which comprises five days of written tests followed by a comprehensive oral exam.”
A native of Spokane, Wash., Salinger chose to come to UAPB because he wanted to stay in a southeastern state and because of the reputation of two aquaculture/fisheries faculty members — Steve Lochmann, professor of fish management and ecology, and Michael Eggleton, professor of fisheries science. Salinger spent the past six and a half years working with Lochmann as his advisor.
“Dr. Lochmann has been an incredible presence in my life,” Salinger said. “He took a very big gamble on a young scientist who had hovered around the edges of the fisheries profession and knew fisheries science only from books and molded him into someone who doesn’t just strive to imitate the achievements of others, big or small, but has the confidence and ability to make his own unique contributions to the fisheries profession.
“He has been a mentor, advisor, role model, advocate, instructor, motivator and constructive critic. I can honestly say that without him, I don’t think I would’ve made it to the finish line,” Salinger said.
Salinger’s doctoral study addressed a contentious issue on DeGray Lake. Many largemouth bass anglers believe hybrid striped bass are hurting the largemouth bass population, Lochmann said. His research found no evidence that is true.
“Jeremiah’s work has raised some important questions. For example, largemouth bass and hybrid striped bass might compete for food, but only if there aren’t a lot of shad in DeGray Lake,” Lochmann said. “The actual amount of gizzard shad and threadfin shad in DeGray Lake isn’t known, but we really need to know that to decide if competition is occurring.”
Salinger’s research also showed that largemouth bass sometimes foraged for food in open water because there wasn’t much shoreline vegetation, Lochmann said. Scott Jones, UAPB Extension specialist, is working with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to re-establish native vegetation. Scientists need to know if bass feeding behavior will change when the amount of native vegetation increases.
Salinger spent several months in the field, living in a trailer at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campground, Lochmann said. While there, he learned to conduct surgeries on fish to implant radio transmitters.
“He spent hundreds of hours on a boat tracking movement of fish. He spent hundreds of hours making fish regurgitate their last meal so he could understand what hybrid striped bass and largemouth bass were eating and how it varied from season to season,” he said. “As part of his research, he ran numerical models to understand how consumption of various diet items drives growth of hybrid striped bass and largemouth bass.”
Salinger’s dissertation title was An Evaluation of the Population Dynamics of Hybrid Striped Bass and Their Interactions with Largemouth Bass in DeGray Lake, Arkansas.
“Jeremiah successfully defended his work not only to UAPB faculty, but to outside committee members from Auburn and Mississippi State University as well as biologists and managers from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission,” Lochmann said.
Salinger said that earning his Ph.D. from the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries at UAPB was a life-changing experience for him.
“I have traveled across the country during my time here, have engaged with fellow fisheries professionals all over the world, and I feel like I truly came into my own as a scientist while at UAPB,” he said. “I have learned new skills, gained confidence in my ability to do anything from working on a boat engine to performing advanced statistical methods, [and come to feel] like I truly belong in the fisheries profession and can hold my own among my peers. UAPB has given me the confidence to know that I can go anywhere in the country and be a fisheries professional.”
Salinger said he would recommend UAPB’s doctoral program to future Ph.D. students.
“My program was small, with only a handful of graduate students at once, and a doctoral advisor with a small lab,” he said. “Most of my classes were small. My instructors recognized me by face and name, were invested in my success, and didn’t just treat me like I was another warm body in a seat paying tuition.”
Salinger is currently a professor of biology in the Department of Mathematics and Science at Southeast Arkansas College in Pine Bluff, with teaching responsibilities in introductory biology classes for both general education and STEM majors.
“In the future, I hope to gain a tenure-track position in fisheries science or a closely related field with both teaching and research responsibilities, but I would also consider doing a postdoctoral fellowship,” he said.
Salinger said the time he spent at UAPB was good for him, from his first day on campus to his last.
“I felt like a part of the Pride as soon as I stepped foot on campus Jan. 9, 2017, and nothing I’ve experienced in the years since has made me feel like I was anything else but a UAPB Golden Lion,” he said.
Debbie Archer is an extension associate – communications at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences.