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Matias Braccini |
Position
As a fishery scientist, my main objective is to understand the ecological implications of fishing top predators such as sharks. In Australia, I have been involved in Danish-seine selectivity and bycatch reduction studies, in ecological risk assessments of sharks and rays, in shark fishery-independent surveys, in studies on the feeding ecology of sharks, rays and chimaeras, in studies on the movement of sharks and rays, and in elephant fish recreational fishing surveys. In Argentina, I have been involved in a school shark tagging program, in fishery biology studies of sandskates, and in studies of bycatch in trawl fisheries. In Mexico, I have been involved in an ecological risk assessment of Mexican sharks and rays.
During my Post-doc (working with Dr. Steve Martell) at the Fisheries Centre I want to capture the population dynamics of elephant fish in models that account for both the commercial and recreational fishing exploitation in south-eastern Australia. The recreational fishing catch is similar to the total commercial catch but this is not taken into account in the current assessment models, making current model predictions overly optimistic. My research will therefore have a direct management implication in terms of more realistic model predictions.
Selected publications
Braccini, J.M. In press. An abnormal hermaphrodite piked spurdog, Squalus megalops, schooling with mature males. Marine Biodiversity Records 3. Online publication date: October 2009.
Tovar-Avila, J., Izzo, C., Walker, T.I., Braccini, J.M. & R.W. Day. In press. Assessing growth band counts from vertebrae and dorsal-fin spines for ageing sharks: comparison of four methods applied to Heterodontus portusjacksoni. Marine and Freshwater Research.
Braccini, J.M. 2008.Feeding ecology of two high-order predators from south-eastern Australia: the coastal broadnose and the deepwater sharpnose sevengill sharks. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 371: 273–284.
Tovar-Avila, J., Izzo, C., Walker, T.I., Braccini, J.M. & R.W. Day. 2008. Dorsal-fin spine growth of Heterodontus portusjacksoni. A general model that applies to dorsal-fin spines of chondrichthyans? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 65: 74–82.
Braccini, J.M., Gillanders, B.M., Walker, T.I. & J. Tovar-Avila. 2007. Comparison of deterministic growth models fitted to length-at-age data of the piked spurdog (Squalus megalops) in south-eastern Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research, 58: 24–33.
San Martin, M.J., Braccini, J.M., Tamini, L.L., Chiaramonte, G.E. & J.E. Perez. 2007. Temporal and sexual effects in the feeding ecology of the marbled sand skate Psammobatis bergi Marini, 1932. Marine Biology, 151: 505–513.
Braccini, J.M., Hamlett, W.C., Gillanders, B.M. & T.I. Walker. 2007. Embryo development and maternal-embryo nutritional relationships of piked spurdog (Squalus megalops). Marine Biology, 150: 727–737.
Braccini, J.M. 2007. Ecological risk assessment for effects of fishing. Box 19.1 in Chapter 19. ‘Fisheries and their management’ by Haddon, M. In Marine Ecology (Connell, S. D. & B. M. Gillanders, eds). Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Braccini, J.M., Gillanders, B.M. & T.I. Walker. 2006.Hierarchical approach to the assessment of fishing effects on non-target chondrichthyans: case study of Squalus megalops in southeastern Australia. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 63: 2456–2466.
Braccini, J.M., Gillanders, B.M. & T.I. Walker. 2006. Notes on population structure of the piked spurdog (Squalus megalops) in south-eastern Australia. Ciencias Marinas, 32: 705–712.
Braccini, J.M., Gillanders, B.M. & T.I. Walker. 2006. Determining reproductive parameters for population assessments of chondrichthyan species with asynchronous ovulation and parturition: piked spurdog (Squalus megalops) as a case study. Marine and Freshwater Research, 57: 105–119.
Braccini, J.M., Gillanders, B.M. & T.I. Walker. 2006. Total and partial length–length, mass–mass and mass–length relationships for the piked spurdog (Squalus megalops) in south-eastern Australia. Fisheries Research, 78: 385–389.
Other publications
Braccini, J.M., Walker, T.I., Gason, A.D. 2009. GHATF shark survey of population abundance and population size composition for target, byproduct and bycatch species. Final report to Australian Fisheries Management Authority. Project No. R2006/823. February 2009. v + 126 pp. (Fisheries Research Brand: Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia).
Braccini, J.M., Walker, T.I., Conron, S.D. 2008. Evaluation of effects of targeting breeding elephant fish by recreational fishers in Western Port. Final report to Fisheries Revenue Allocation Committee. v + 63 pp. (Fisheries Research Brand: Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia).
Walker, T.I., Stevens, J.D., Braccini, J.M., Daley, R.J., Huveneers, C., Irvine, S.B., Bell, J.D., Tovar- Ávila, J., Trinnie, F.I., Phillips, D.T., Treloar, M.A., Awruck, C.A., Gason, A.S., Salini, J., & W.C. Hamlett. 2008. Rapid assessment of sustainability for ecological risk of shark and other chondrichthyan bycatch species taken in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery. Final report to Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Project No. 2002/033. 354 + v pp. (Fisheries Research Brand: Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia).